Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project

Have you ever thought of visiting africa? Have you pondered following an african lion? Would you like to learn more about the meeting of the tried and tested old style of tracking (tyre-tread sandals, a sword and sharp eyes) and the new tools of wildlife research (GPS collars linked to the internet via a satellite phone)?

I have good news for you. Today from the comfort of your armchair you can now visit a small part of maasailand via an online map and follow one of our study lions. This is thanks to a new lion-tracking website that our volunteer Mike has built for us. It accepts downloads from Ndelie’s GPS collar and translatesthe data into a google map API. Simply put, the website will show you where Ndelie the lion has been. Please visit the site, either from the link in this post, or by clicking on the icon in the sidebar. Mike and I would like to hear your thoughts / comments / ululations / condemnations. Also… please pass on the link to the tracking site if you think it looks interesting. And, well, perhaps there are some well-off folks out there who will pick up an envelope at the back of the church, if they like what they see.

This is mentioned on the site, but just to re-iterate: the data presented here is not real-time, mostly due to the fact that we have tried to optimise the power consumption of the collar (it takes a great deal of battery power to send the data through the satphone). You will see a delay of a few days sometimes. There is also the possibility that the collar will stop transmitting altogether for periods of time. Its extremely difficult to design housings for sensitive electronic equipment for lions, that can go the distance (so to speak). Thank you Robert and the team at Vectronic-aerospace for donating the collar, and Mike and Samira for volunteering weeks of their time to build the site.

This is not Ndelie, but if you click on this guy’s nose he will lead you to the tracking site…. enjoy!

Technorati : lion conservation, lions, maasailand, technology, tracking

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This morning we found some of the collared lions, specifically Nemasi (hiding on a hill somewhere) and Kasaiyo. Kasaiyo was with some of his pride, and we caught a glimpse of them.

Here is what we had to drive through to get to them. Every tree is covered in very antisocial thorns, and highly agressive ants that drop onto animals / people / vehicles that brush the trees. And bite.

Here is one of the youngsters. I might be able to use this photo for my ID files later, as you can see the whisker spots quite clearly.

This is a short post. More later….

Technorati : acacia trees, hot panting cats, lions, more thorns, thorns

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Actually I don’t have a pipe, and I don’t wear slippers. I was more or less at home with one of my cats.

I went out last night to drop two of the Lion Guardians 20km south of here, with some tracking equipment. We had a look at Nemasi on the way there. The cubs were around, but just on the edge of spotlight range. Here’s a photo of Nemasi. for those readers who are new to this blog, she has three cubs, born around the beginning of this year. She’s the lion featured in the banner of this blog.

It looks as if she’s still suckling the cubs. Lion cubs will take milk until about 6 months of age.

Trying to take photographs of a moving lion using a hand-held 150mm lens at 1/10 with a Lion Guardian holding the spotlight doesn’t lend itself to high quality images. Nevertheless I’ve cropped out the teats. You can see the brown marks around them indicating they are being used.

Technorati : lion biology, lion photographs, lions

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If you are wondering what the bizarre title of this post is about, have a look at the discussion section of my last post (on the 29th). I think the outcome of the discussion was that indviduals will tend to contribute towards conservation that they feel a personal connection with, whereas non-governmental organisations have a responsibility to invest in conservation that is somewhat more strategic.

I somehow found the time yesterday to get out and radio-track, through some landcruiser-destroying thorn scrub. Below is a photo of one of our collared lions, Kasaiyo. If it seems as if there were a lot of thorn trees hindering my access to him, then its because there were… this is not an unusual occurence around here. There are another two lions in this photo. I can’t see them either.

Technorati : conservation, lions, more thorn trees, thorn trees

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A few people have asked about the striking on young lions. This is a minute long video in which I mentioned the spots on young cubs. I’m not sure what the evolutionary advantage is to young lions having spots. It might be that as they get older their ideal camofluage would be tawny, rather than mottled. Perhaps because they would hunt more in open savanna as they get older, rather than hiding in thick bush, as cubs do.

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Tags: lion cubs, lion video, lion-research, Lions, video

 For a change I thought I might introduce some humour into how I represent my work. The following is just me rambling to the camera while watching some sleeping lions. Disclaimers: I don't ever find lions boring, and… don’t take me seriously. Always go to far-away places to do things that you are passionate about, that might not seem all that sensible at the time.

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Tags: lion video, lion-research, Lions, video, wildlife

 Hi all, here is a short clip of some radio-tracking. De Niro was back at the trailer so I’m afraid its just Ernest and me.

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Tags: Lions, maasailand, radio-tracking, research, video

Here are a few observations from yesterday.

One of the younger cubs from Nempakai’s pride. Clearly a very satisfying stretch.

I’d never really thought about this before, but it occurred to me yesterday while I was sitting with them that lions have an interesting way of wrinkling their noses when they yawn. I think that its a way of keeping their whiskers out of their faces. The lion below is one of the adult females in the pride. Its a kind of grimace, and looks a little bit silly. Not ferocious really.

Just as the sun was about to dip below the horizon the pride started to wake up. My camera shutter caught the attention of one of the older cubs.

Technorati : conservation, lion behaviour, lions, research, wildlife

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As much as I don’t tend to think of animals in human emotional terms, I find it quite easy to imagine people as particular animals. I do think these photos represent how I feel this morning. Kind of shaggy and a litte tired.

(for the record) pics were taken of an Amboseli un-collared male, while I was with my some colleagues from Leiden University

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Here’s a photo I took recently of two members of Nempakai’s pride. This pride was mentioned in Antony’s post on on the Lion Guardian blog, on the 19th of April. I thought I might point out some interesting features. 

The “handsome spots” are a feature of younger lions. They lose these spots as they grow older, and become more tawny.

 The noses of cubs are almost completely pink for at least the  first year. They become progressively more black as the lion gets older. In Tanzania it was found that lions generally had completely black noses by the age of about 6 years.

This was a short (and sweet?) post today. More tomorrow….Thanks

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Tags: 1301, 1303, 327, 330