masai mara
Category: Lion-watching | Date: Aug 28 2008 | By: Seamus
I’m on the move at the moment. Yesterday I was in the Masai Mara. Here is one of the young lions I saw while out with B, A and H. Its been raining here and the animals are all fat and slow.
…and there are some nice trees here too. The escarpment (edge of the reserve) is in the background.
Snuff movie
Category: Lion-watching | Date: Aug 22 2008 | By: Seamus
Whoever thinks that lions (especially cubs) are cute or noble might feel a bit ackward watching this footage. Lions are creatures that survive by killing other animals, and sometimes its not pretty. We had the dubious pleasure watching the slaughter of Wilma the wildebeest by Nemasi and her 3 cubs. We arrived early yesterday morning, and within 5 minutes later these lions made their kill. Being killed by a lion is not something to look forward to, but the most difficult part for Wilma was that the cubs are still acquiring some life skills. They are not very experienced at age 8 months… (check out the one that keeps himself busy with the wildebeest’s nose) So the moral of this story is that if you are going to get yourself killed by a lion, make sure its an experienced one. Please.
Ndelie update
Category: Lion-watching | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: Seamus
Ndelie’s collar has been working well recently, and I’m getting information pretty much every day describing his whereabouts (click hereif you have no idea what I’m talking about). Over the last 48 hours he has moved northwards, and at midnight last night was less than 1km from lion guardian Koikai’s home. We’re going to try to get a radio receiver down to Koikai so that he can track Ndelie for a while.
Technorati : conservation maasailand, lion research, lions
Hyena versus Toyota
Category: Lion-watching | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: Seamus
You’ve got a rope’s end, hyenas and a single location; that’s all you need to make a film. Anyway, watch these young hyenas eating the juicy rope that tied a cow to the back of our car earlier on last night. At least five hyenas made an attempt to stop Nemasi from eating the cow, but didn’t succeed. When we drove off, the smell confused the young hyenas and instead of staying with the meat they followed the car and the rope’s end. It became a real tuck-of-war between our 4×4 and hyena-power, which of course we won.
Maasai getting to grips with Sony
Category: Libby, Uncategorized | Date: Aug 15 2008 | By: Seamus
In the course of my work I meet a great many people. Some have very little experience of digital image technology and enjoy messing around with cameras. This morning as we were moving on from our temporary camp (no luck catching lions) I met three people who expressed some interest in Linda and Louise’s filming equipment. They spent a while exploring its capabilities (courtesy of a rotatable viewfinder) and I showed the old man how to take photographs using my SLR.
Dead cow society, or how to catch a lion
Category: Lion-watching | Date: Aug 13 2008 | By: Seamus
This was Daisy, she used to be a handsome cow in Maasailand. Instead she got herself killed by a lion, perhaps because her owner did not watch her closely enough. To make things worse she was used as a bait to attract even more lions. Although she was not really in shape, dust all-over and slightly sliced up, she still managed to be a star while visiting a Maasai village last night in the back of our truck. She attracked a big audience of very curious villagers: was it a donkey, was it a eland? Nope, it was a cow. At the end of a long ride, today she was finally given back to nature and hopefully she now belongs to the Dead Cow Society.
Non-governmental Organisations and african conservation
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 11 2008 | By: Seamus
Hi all. This is just a small note to draw your attention to an interesting report on the role of NGO’s in african conservation. Click here or find the report in the links on the sidebar of this blog. There is a particularly interesting examination of the issue how to scale-up spending on conservation NGO’s in africa.
Technorati : NGO, africa, conservation
Libby, a guidance through the base-camp
Category: Libby | Date: Aug 11 2008 | By: Seamus
Seamus often received requests to show you how and where he works and lives. Since I am staying with him at the moment, while comforting myself after having worked as a famous director and actress. Regardless my succes, deep down I still am this down-to-earth person, so I’ll guide you through his base-camp near Mount Kilimanjaro.
Ever since I arrived in Kenya I feel like being in Hemmingway’s stories. Gosh, it’s so beautiful up here… I am thinking of adopting a poor, but beautiful, orphan. Madonna and Angelina did that, so why can’t I? I’ll keep you posted on my search for meaning here in the heart of Africa.
Tags: Kilimanjaro, Libby, lion, Lions
The killing time, unwillingly mine (killing moon…)
Category: Lion-watching | Date: Aug 09 2008 | By: Seamus
Good day everyone. I have a few friends visiting me, namely Libby, Linda and Louise. Libby is on holiday, but is in fact a fairly successful, well known film director from Europe. The good news is that I have persuaded these folks to apply some of their filming expertise to this blog, for at least part of August. Sit back, and enjoy. Unfortunately I can’t reveal too much about Libby (she is here under a pseudonym to protect her privacy). But please do keep watching, and tell your friends…
As follows a short message from Libby, Linda and Louise. I took them out with me last night.
Last night we tracked down Nemasi and her 3 cubs. They were playing around, but the shape of their bellies hinted that they might be hungry. Luckily for them there was a sleepy herd of very young oryx just around the corner… Check the footage so far, we’ll keep you posted if serious damage was done.
video: sequel to the standoff
Category: Lion-watching | Date: Aug 07 2008 | By: Seamus
I’ve been on the move for the last few days (Nairobi etc). Here is the follow-up to my last post. It describes the outcome of the events of my 4th of August post. Suffice it to say, the wildebeest had a bad day…
Tags: lions. conservation, maasailand
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