Ritual killings could drive Kenyan lions to extinction

Nairobi, Kenya


Kenya's famed lion prides could be driven to extinction because ritual killings by tribal warriors are decimating their ranks in and around the country's protected game reserves, wildlife experts warned on Tuesday.

The findings were immediately dismissed by members of the Maasai tribe, which is blamed for most of the deaths among the country's dwindling lion population.

"It appears as if the Maasailand lions are in such serious decline that the entire population may disappear within very few years," the experts warned in a new study.

The study, by the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project and experts from the University of California, squarely accused the Maasai for the loss of the big cats.

"Although the [lion] population seems to be in rapid decline, the number of killings has been increasing annually," it said. "It would appear that people are putting greater effort into lion killing."

Since 1998, at least 195 lions had been killed in and near southern Kenya's Amboseli and Tsavo preserves and the Nairobi National Park, reducing the confirmed number of lions to 2 010, the experts said. Of those, 20 had been killed this year alone and the trend appeared to growing.

The study, entitled Lion Killing in the Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem 2001-2006 and its Implications for Kenya's Lion Population, paints a bleak picture of the animals' future.

"The lions do not have time for Maasai traditions to change," it said.

In addition to traditional warrior rituals, the tribe was also slaying the lions with snares and poison in retaliation for deaths among their livestock, it noted.

But Daniel Ole Osoi, a senior Maasai leader, rejected the study's assertions, saying that ritual killings of lions were a thing of the past.

"Nonsense," he told Agence France-Presse when asked about the study. "Ritual killing of lions no longer exists. We have realised that lions are part of our heritage and they also bring in tourists and money."

But he stressed that the Maasai would react if lions took their cattle.

"We shall continue killing the lions when they attack our livestock and until the government pays us enough compensation [for] every animal mauled by these beasts," Osoi said. -- Sapa-AFP

Wonder if the 'experts" have numbers on lions killed with poison vs. killed with spears.
I don't know if the archeologists/anthropologists who are of the opinion that spear hunters wiped out the large ice-age mammals are correct or not, but I suspect the Masaai are the only folks left with enough balls to continue the tradition.

About 12 years ago in the Ugundu (not Uganda)hunting block in central Tanzania an 18 year old Sikuma boy single handedly killed a single male lion at night 300 yards behind my tent.

I heard the lion let out a roar, my boys then told me what had happened, and the next morning they brought the boy and the lion in with a single spear hole in its shoulder.

Its likely all the nomadic cattle herders kill them one way or another.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Addenda,

Barry Gaynor tells me he has shot 250 problem lions in Kenya and I heard of another guy who has shot more than 350. Huge waste of lions.

Its possible Barry and friend did most of their Kenya lion culling years ago and that now lions are in decline but there is alot of junk science out there and you can't get grants to save lions if they don't need saving. That#s where hand wringers come from. Pop science.

Be fun to round up some Masai with their shields and spears to control problem lions their way.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Ted, can you recall more of the 18yo vs lion episode? Was he alone? Did he purposely stalk the lion or vice-versa? Steve

Dear SGarves155,

It was not a fight and he did not have a shield (now illegal) which is what those who spear lions rely on to keep from getting killed. What happened is this Sikuma boy and some others illegally took some cattle through a game control area on the way to better grazing. That is like trolling for lions.

They camped near us with their cattle because I suppose they though with more people around (camp staff of 22) plus them, that lions might stay away. They did not have a Boma. A lion of perhaps 4 years age jumped on the back of a cow in the dark at about )9 pm and was riding the cow past the boy. The boy ran forward and speared the cat with a spear with a blade of say 2.5 inches wide as it rode past. The lion may not have known he was there. The lion jumped off the far side of the cow ran about thirty yards and died.

It was not a fight Sasha Siemel style but it was very dangerous.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Thanks for the reply. I realize you are correct in your statement about most cattle raisers being lion killers. They have to.

The Times May 30, 2006

Survival of lions threatened by the tribal delinquents who kill for pride
From Rob Crilly in Mbirikani, southern Kenya

MELUBO Ole Ng’ayamie’s name tells a story. It is his lion name and an ever-present reminder of the day when the young Masai proved his worth as a warrior.

A lion had entered his boma — a homestead of thatched huts in a fenced compound — scaring off the goats and sheep.

“When I went to see what was happening I came face to face with the lion,†said the 24-year-old as he slurped milky tea. “So I speared it.â€

The feared predator fled into the bush, a spear embedded in its shoulder. A hunting party of Masai warriors found its body the next day.

They hacked off its tail and mane as trophies and returned home, proudly carrying its paws atop their spears. “We wanted people to know that it was a happy day, that we had got rid of a problem,†he said.

It was also the day when he became Melubo, meaning “satisfiedâ€. From then on he had no problem attracting the interest of women, according to his envious friends sitting outside a neat wooden guesthouse in the heart of Mbirikani Group Ranch, located in an area of Masai-owned territory.

But conservationists are less awestruck and say that Masailand has been engulfed by a bloody cull of its lions.

They have recorded 108 killings since 2001 in 10,000 square kilometres (250,000 acres) between Amboseli and Tsavo, two of Kenya’s most visited national parks.

The study, by the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project, which includes scientists from the University of California, concludes that lions will be wiped out in one of their last remaining strongholds within a few years unless the Masai stop their ritual slaughter.



Seamus Maclennan, one of the report’s authors, said: “Quite simply, there have been too many lions killed in the past year, to the point where this population is almost unsustainable.â€

Only 825 lions are left across a swath of Kenya running along the border with Tanzania. The threatened population includes the lions of the Masai Mara, which star in the BBC’s Big Cat Diary, and the Serengeti. Both are must-see destinations for tens of thousands of tourists and a vital source of foreign income.

Mr Maclennan said that the Masai were to blame, whether for spearing lions as an expression of their warrior status or in retaliation for livestock lost to the predators.

“But there is also what can best be called delinquency, or young Masai men testing the boundaries of the law,†he added. “These are young men with nothing better to do than go out and kill a lion.â€

The nomadic Masai are one of Africa’s best-known tribes. Warriors decked out in beads and red-checked shukas, or cloaks, feature on postcards and glossy books. They roam across East Africa, herding cattle, goats and sheep.

For centuries they have used lion hunts as a way of protecting their livestock and as an expression of their identity.

Now with lion numbers dwindling — down from an estimated 500,000 in 1950 to fewer than 28,000 — and human populations expanding into previously untouched terrain, the practice threatens one of Kenya’s most famous animals.

A handful of warriors have been arrested in recent years but few are ever prosecuted. More often, deals are struck and evidence goes missing in Kenya’s corrupt judicial system, according to the report.

Three of Mr Maclennan’s eight radio-collared lions have been killed, including Doug, the five-year-old speared by Melubo. “When I started this project I knew that the aim was to gather information about the killings and try to find ways of stopping it, so I guess it had to happen sometime,†he said.

This year the killing has accelerated with 20 deaths reported by the end of last month.

Many Masai claim that the warriors only kill problem animals responsible for stealing cattle or goats. Others tell a different story. “People kill a lion and then say it was a problem when it was not,†said Pastor Naruaengop, a Masai elder, as he squatted under an acacia tree. “It’s part of our culture to kill a lion. It makes everyone know that you are a brave man and it means that the women become very interested in you.â€

Sampu Oltaika, his friend, nodded and added that lions were only a pest. “We would be very pleased if there were no lions around here,†he said.

There is something very unsavoury about replacing the relationship the Masai have with lions - hunting them down with spears - with a the preaching of a bunch of western research biologists hoping to be discovered by Animal Planet.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

I agree Ted, the Masai have been doing things this way for thousands of years, how has spear hunting suddenly become so deadly efficient?

While in Ambaseli National Park two weeks ago I did not see any cats, but what I did see right on the park boundary's were plenty of Masai with alot of cattle. Now if I were a Lion I think the cattle would be far easier pray compared with Big Cape Buffalo or fast Wilderbeast only hunreds of meters apart.
Unfortunatly alot of the National Parks are just too small, if only they were surrounded by Safari areas like Manna Pools NP in Zimbabwe is which has huge tracts of wilderness with good populations of game which is suported by trophy hunters $$$.
ozhunter.