Saturday Magazine
On the trail of lions
The riverbeds are parched, starved of water. The sand on them is still warm, although the day has become cooler.
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We’re walking in one of the luggas that leads into the Ewaso Nyiro. Some of the herders have dug deep enough to strike water for their livestock in the dry beds riverbeds.
The troughs are cordoned off with a fence of sharp acacia branches to keep the wild animals away.
A bend in the dry river opens to a magnificent cache of gigantic rocks, natural sculptures in the wild. As we move in, the rock hyraxes scamper away and watch until we leave.
Like them, we climb onto the natural openings of the rocks, enjoying the cool air and the natural vistas so vast, open and beautiful.
We could keep walking, only that night is about to fall and we must make our way back to camp before we bump into hyenas, lions or elephants.
West Gate, adjoining Samburu National Reserve, is a new frontier for Shivani Bhalla, a young scientist starting the first research programme on lions in the Samburu ecosystem.
Her base camp is on the community land set aside recently by the clan as a wildlife conservancy (Ngutuk Engiron Group Ranch).
Everyone’s excited because for years nobody had seen lions outside the protected areas of Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba. The only sightings were rare glimpses of a disappearing lion’s tail or ear, but never the whole animal.
“Lions outside protected areas behave completely different from lions in protected areas,” explains Shivani. “Inside the parks, they are habituated. Outside, they are nervous. They hide. You won’t see them even when they are there.”
I believe her. A few years ago, we went looking for lions on a private ranch in Laikipia.
The radio kept picking signals of the lion within a few metres of the car but we could not see it through the grass. The cat kept slinking away and when we did finally spot it, it was a wary lioness, with a frightened look in her eyes.
Outside the protected areas, the cats have to use every skill for survival, which means evading humans. The lioness gave one final glimpse and slunk off further into the thickets – not at all like the lions of the Maasai Mara , which pose for photo shoots.
Early next morning even before the sun is up, we wake up to track lions accompanied by Risila Lelengu, the lion tracker, and Raphael Lekuraiyo of the conservancy.
The sun comes out in a few minutes as if in a hurry to start the day, flaming hot and vivid in the eastern sky. The mountains of the north begin to materialise in the light and the sky turns into that beautiful blue of the drylands.
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Please fact-check. This is not the first lion research project in the Samburu Ecosystem. Prof Tina Ramme directs The Samburu Lion Project under permits issued by KWS with Kenyan NGO status (since 2004). Discovery Channel and Animal Planet filmed the successful program. Its The Centre for Lion Research and Conservation works closely with all local conservancies. In fact, Ms Bhalla asked permission from the Lion Conservation Fund, project sponsor, to work temporarily with the Westgate community to complete her thesis, with agreement of collaboration. It's a shame such a promising young biologist fails to make note of that ommission.
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