are these guys still hunt lions with spears as a manhood ritual?
regards
yes

They kill Lions at every opportunity by any method possible including but not restricted to traditional hunts.

No age or sex restriction though.

i saw a video some time ago and it seemed they had no problem of killing a lion with spear. it was very cool as shepard i understand that they will get rid of lions, but it would be a disaster if they kill all of them

As Shakari quite correctly stated: "by any possible method".....I am not so sure about the
traditional bit!

Preferred method: poison - safest, scratch/bite free and high positive results.

The disaster is looming - without all the fanfare related to the 5+ yrs group of lions.

I would suggest our scientific experts direct more attention towards the Masai and their
traditional poisoning attitudes rather than the trophy hunter.

The bloody Masai are their own worst enemies. Half of Masailand will be a desert in a few years time because of their permitting all the charcoal burning and a few months after they've achieved that, we'll have all the do-gooders rattling collection tins under our noses and asking us to please give money to help the poor starving Masai.


All you gotta do to see their future is take a drive through Mto Wa Mbu to see how the area has changed in the last 10 or 15 years!

The times, they a changin'

some of these traditional belives are root to many eviles. one of these crazy tradions are using tiger and rhino body parts in china for medical purpose even it is scientificaly been proved that these animal parts has no medical effect at all, but still tiger and rhino parts are sold for huge amount of money in asian market. this will end by total extinction of siberian tiger and is a great problem in africa too. a poacher can make enough money for a couple of years of life by killing a rhino and the same for tiger in asia,
it is crazy!!

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
The bloody Masai are their own worst enemies. Half of Masailand will be a desert in a few years time because of their permitting all the charcoal burning

This August our game scout actually arrested some charcoal poachers. he seemed quite concerned they where going to ruin Masailand.

It's supposed to be illegal but as you've probably driven that road, you'll have seen how many charcoal sellers/burners there are...... and it's like that virtually all the way from the SGR and all the way through Masailand.

Once the trees go, the grass goes and the the soil gets washed away and you have a desert that can never be bought back....... and there are already large tracts of land like that now.

steve
sometime a real hard kick in the behind would do much moore good than a million $ of help money of course when people can't realise by themselves that they are destroying their future by their own hands.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
They kill Lions at every opportunity by any method possible including but not restricted to traditional hunts.

No age or sex restriction though.

So how do they tell if the lions are 6 or not?

Brett

Here's a useless piece of info for you........ When hunting Simba, they often take a piece of hard wood sharpened at both ends and about 10 inches long (similar the the wooden part of the spear) or so and hold it in their left hand (assuming they're right handed). Then they wind a piece of that famous tartan material around the hand........ and hold the spear in their other hand.

If the Lion charges, the idea is they push the left hand into the animal's mouth and he bites down on the wood and impales his mouth on the stake.

Brett,

You got me there!

I wonder if in the history of the Masaii that has ever worked.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnHunt:
I wonder if in the history of the Masaii that has ever worked.

Maybe an alternative might be to plunge the arm in as far as it'll go, grab it's tail, pull back sharply and turn the bastard inside out!

steve
in persia similar method was used for hunting tiger and leo and lion, but not with wooden thing . there was a tool like a two headed fork which was held by one hand to put in the mouth of the beast and kill it with a sword hold in the another hand. unlike masaei hunters persian hunter carried chain body armor to protecting their body unfofrtunately this tool was so effectively used that both persian lion and caspian tiger meet extension
for traditional hunting

You would think that the Masai would learn from some of the other tribes that instead of killing the lions they should market them to western hunters as "traditional hunts". They could probably get $100k from someone to go after leo in a loincloth with a spear and the lion would probably win 9 out of ten times so they would get nearly a million $ per lion. Then they could all retire and give up the cattle herding business

Blacktailer,

The problem is they don't want to give up their cattle......... They'd rather give up their kids than their cows and all the while there's a Masai, he'll never stop wanting to kill Lions.

Matters are made 100 times worse by all the God squad and do-gooders that get up there and give the 'poor Masai' things like schools & hospitals etc that they don't want. They look at a Masai and see a poor noble savage that hasn't got a penny and lets his kids run round in rags, so they pour western wealth and good intentions on them.

What they don't realise is the 'poor noble savage' has a mind like a rat trap, knows the value of a dollar exactly and owns umpteen cattle that are worth a bloody fortune...... but why would he even consider selling them to pay for these facilities when the dumbarse white man will provide it all for him FOC.

I like the Masai, but unlike most whites, I don't underestimate 'em.

ADDED

People have been predicting the Masai will have to change or die out for close to 100 years at least...... but neither has happened yet.