Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project

Category: Lion-watching | Date: Aug 04 2008 | By: Seamus

I watched a fascinating interaction between Nemasi the lion and an injured / lame wildebeest last night. Nemasi was lying in the grass metres away from the wildebeest, watching it, and occassionally trying to circle around it. The wildebeest presented its horns every time she advanced, and over the course of about an hour, walked backwards a few hundred metres to attempt to rejoin its herd. We left at that point, so as to minimise our interference in her hunting. At dawn this morning we went back to the area to track her. We found her out on the plains, on her way back to the thickets to hide up for the day. After that sighting we continued and looked for a carcass. Here is some shaky, badly coloured footage of Nemasi and two of the cubs (she still has three). I will post more footage, of what we found later in the morning… watch this space.

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Category: General | Date: Aug 01 2008 | By: Seamus

Today has been busy. about the most interesting thing was picking up a rotting hyaena carcass. Not sure whether this last statement speaks to my disinterest in tedious project admin, or my keen interest in recording carnivore mortality here

There really isn't much in the area that gives any clues as to how this animal died. I've frozen a few samples so that the lab in Nairobi can run toxicology on them. I should get the results back around the end of August.

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