Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project

Category: General | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: Seamus

I have been thinking quite a bit recently about how mobile communication technology can interface with the management of wildlife, problem animal control etc. We are heavily dependent on mobile phones, but it is interesting to think for a minute about how africans are customising mobile techology to suit their needs, rather than take off-the-shelf tech solutions. Martin and Sophie for instance are grabbing GSM components and with the addition of a GPS and a pinch of this and that, are manufacturing state-of the-art wildlife GPS collars (South Africans are African too by the way - and so are Egyptians). Check out some links on Ethan Zuckerman’s blog (My Heart’s in Accra) for more food for thought on this subject. Thanks Nomad for the heads-up.

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Category: General | Date: Sep 14 2008 | By: Seamus

I’ve been looking into taking field data entry into a digital format. While doing a bit of background research into what other conservation researchers are doing in africa I came across this news story at allafrica.com , which sums up quite neatly the benefits of recording data digitally in the field. If you can ignore the very irritating banner and sidebar adds, its an interesting story.

As the story points out, hardware that is capable of meeting the needs of field research is fairly ubitquitous now. The tricky part is getting hold of, or developing the right software for the job. Cyertracker has been around for about 10 years now, and has been very successful (its also free).

This is the level of technology that we’re at now… there is something to be said for teaching previously non-literate people how to use paper data entry forms. My observation is that many of the Lion Guardians appreciate knowing how to handle a pen and paper (Olubi on the right, teaching GPS use)

There are of course advantages to going the paperless route as well. Here is an example of someone in southern africa using a cybertracker (from their website).

Technorati : cybertracker, gps, lion guardians, lions, pda, software for conservation, sunday morning ramblings

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Category: General | Date: Sep 13 2008 | By: Seamus

Admittedly aeroplanes and lions have very little in common, but well, this is a blog. I haven’t had any objections to diversions of late, so perhaps I will continue along this vein.

An Antonov is a mighty bi-winged, tail-dragging beast. I found one quietly decaying at the edge of Kijipwa airstrip, Kenya. A relic of times long gone when aviation fuel was cheap, and Uncle Sam hated Russia, while freedom fighters across Africa embraced the Russians and communism.

The hull. Repainted many times in a valiant attempt to combat corrosion and time.

cockpit and port-window

i rather suspect this bird might never fly again. The wings are indisposed, for want of a better word.

Inside view of cockpit. Most of the labelling is in Russian.

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Category: General | Date: Sep 11 2008 | By: Seamus

My guess is that most of you have clicked on the Custrmaps icon on the side of this blog. it never ceases to amaze me that there are people from all over the place that have clicked on this blog. It would be pleasing if I could get more readers from africa, but I think generally people are limited by internet connectivity in their respective countries on this continent. I think the big dot above Egoli is Crys, occasionally checking up on me. The huge dot in southern kenya is no doubt Antony reading this blog. The distribution of readers in Europe doesn’t really surprise me, and India is kind of a surprise. Do people there like african lions, or are they just avid internet surfers?

Most of all, I would like to know who the visitor is on the extreme north-east of the map, the dot on the top-right hand side…. how does someone all the way up there take an interest in our activities all the way down here? I showed the map to a colleague and she didn’t seem as excited as I was… and responded with “well its the world-wide-web, innit?”

Technorati : geography, hits

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Category: General | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: Seamus

This is not a fact-heavy post today. Just a mention of the fact that lions grow rapidly in the first year of their lives, a little like humans. And while we’re on the subject of youngsters, I hear Ozma is almost three months old (June 21st?). Having a leo for a mother should stand her in good stead. The more astute amongst you will note that the pic below is not Ozma. This is one of Nempaka’s youngsters, less than 1 year old, and clearly still growing into his / her ears.

Technorati : growth, humans, lions, shoutouts

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Category: General, Kenya through a windscreen | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: Seamus

Excuse the departure from lion-centric posts of late. I’m not at home right now.

Courtesy of a borrowed C-150, here’s a few snapshots of where I was yesterday.

Technorati : C150, Kenya coastline, aviation, light aviation

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Category: Kenya through a windscreen | Date: Sep 05 2008 | By: Seamus

… first of all don’t spend any money maintaining a main national highway. For a decade or two. Then add unexepected diversions and police road blocks (aka spikes across the road). Bob’s your uncle, journeys from A to B become much more exciting. The Mombasa-Nairobi highway is a two-lane highway for the most part but the innovative folks in the picture below have created a few extra lanes.

I’ve been travelling quite a bit over the last few weeks (poor excuse for sporadic blog posts). I’m slightly north of Mombasa at this time.

Technorati : dust and danger, kenya, road travel, traffic

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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.

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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.

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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

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