Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 23 2008 | By: Seamus

Duct tape and a decent sized panga (machete) are my friends. I never leave home without them. When I’m at home however I have access to more creative solutions. Recently I needed to lay some wiring to Bill’s shack. It had no floor to speak of at the time, nor any place inside that one might refer to as weatherproof. A bit of high temp silicon that was destined for some critical automotive purpose, a lunchbox and the best breaker switch I could find in Nairobi come together for this hack: a water, dust and rodent resistant subterranean cutoff switch for Bill. the lid fits snugly on top.

And in case you weren’t reading when I mentioned where our power comes from, here’s a reminder of what our solar panels looks like. Our office is in the background.

Technorati : DIY electrical stuff, darwin award nominees, lions, research, solar power

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 19 2008 | By: Seamus

While I spend most of my waking hours on lion-related matters, I do have contact with people working in other conservation fields and on other species. Today I was forwarded an email that indicates you can receive a cuddly plush snow leopard toy if you donate. And according to the website you can “shop to save Snow Leopards”. The marketing of wildlife conservation and funding for research is an interesting beast indeed.

Technorati : conservation, lions, research, snow leopards, wildlife

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 18 2008 | By: Seamus

Some friends of mine expressed some interest in a machine, powered only by magnets arranged just so, that can turn indefinitely, and produce free power. Being african, of course I am always interested in technology that is a)cheap and b)ecologically friendly. I promptly looked it up, and spent entirely too long trying to figure out where the science stops and the dreaming begins.There is what looks to be a well-written critique of the machine and the concept here, with some amusing historical asides. And there is the museum of unworkable devices, wherein lies the discussion of basement tinkerers, discovery of x-rays and my jargon of the week award: “anti-serendipity”.

Speaking of backyard tinkerers. Here is one chap's contribution to the magentic motor body of thinking. Like most good scientists he appears to be quite bad at film-making.

A private company named Steorn seems to be in the middle of things, web-wise. I can’t help but notice that their demonstration in 2007 flopped, and they have been quiet since.And here is an idea worth exploring, that could potentially provide free transportation amongst other things. Although at a cost to animal welfare it seems.


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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 19 2008 | By: Seamus

I’ve just arrived home after some extensive travelling. Our lion-tracking site has just been updated, and Ndelie’s avoidance of an area in the centre of his range is quite striking. If you activate the “boma markers”, then press “play” you can see how he avoids the boma at the base of one of the hills.

Technorati : GIS, lion conservation, lion research, lions

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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.

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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

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 02 2008 | By: Seamus

People all over the world respond with strong emotion to the losing of an animal. Just like Maasai who develop strong bonds with their livestock, westerners (it seems) are passionate about their cats. See for yourself here.

Whilethe catnapping story is a farce beyond belief, it brings out a thread: the use of animals to define people’s social or political relationships. This south Florida woman wanted her dog back, so she abducted someone’s cat. Similarly here in east africa wildlife has been either killed outright, or threatened, to elicit a reaction from the powers that be. A few years ago when the lions of Nairobi National park were massacred it was said that the perpetrators wanted to attract attention to their discontent with widllife, rather than target specific problem animals. There was a great deal of polarisation in how the killings were interpreted as you can imagine. The end result seems to be that there has been more attention paid to people’s losses to wildlife. And there is some form of consolation for losses to wildlife.

Technorati : cats, conservation, lions, looney americans

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 28 2008 | By: Seamus

If you have a moment, do have a look at William’s post (the Mara triangle blog) on the recent BBC story that covered the poisoning of several lions. It makes for some thought-provoking material. I’ve posted a few comments there. What do you think?

Technorati : BBC, kenya, lions, media

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