Matt_from_England

Reports Terilyn Lemaire in her wildlife direct blog - <b>http://wildlifedirect.org/maraconservation/?p=36</b>

A sad piece of news indeed and unfortunately highlighting the conflict of human vs predators outside of the buffer zones.

Matt

OnlyMeOirish

Oh God Matt, thats absolutely terrible news. I think that we saw two of those three brothers in The Mara last July. At least, our guide told us that the two males we saw had a brother who was not there at the time. They had beautiful manes and he said they were around 5 or 6 years old. They were sunning themselves in the Oloololo area when we saw them.
What sad news and in such a short time after honeys demise.

Imelda

divewop

That just totally sucks! I'm sorry I can't be more diplomatic but it does.

I know the Maasai need to protect their stock but killing all three for one goat is ruthless. And not only did they kill the lions, they poisoned them. Pretty horrific way to die.

And another thing some Maasai do is when a lion does kill a cow or goat, they will poison the carcass so anyone else that feeds off it will die too. Meaning others in the pride, jackals, hyenas and whoever else who might feed on the remains.

And it is also a known fact that sometimes some Maasai will purposely overreact to situations like the above just because they can.

Lovely way to co-exist isn't it?
It's very frustrating and like I said in another thread, if something isn't done soon, these big cats are destined only to live in parks, reserves, sanctuaries and zoos. What a shame!

PredatorBiologist

Rough few weeks in the Mara area! I hope better days are ahead.

Unfortunately this kind of thing happens in every area of the world that there is livestock and predators. Thus far it seems like compensation for losses as the Mara Conservancy is doing is the best solution to remove the killing of predators but there will continue to be those ranchers/herders that will not be satisfied with that, its difficult to operate the compensation programs in all areas (like this one), or disputes arise. In the USA the ranchers seem to always claim that the most prized/valuable stud animal is the one that was killed and thus a premium should be paid. It's also common that the examiner in the field cannot be certain of the cause of death, often complicated because even in a natural death predators often come to scavenge. Thus sometimes claims are denied and if they weren't lots of fruad would occur but you will never convice the rancher that the predator didn't do the deed.

Without a serious change in cultural mores most large carnivores will certainly be confined to islands of habitat that make up parks and protected reserves only, we are already close to that being the case all over. Predators that have the adaptability and evolutionary advantages will continue to spread in the absence of the Apex species that are often a key to keep the smaller predators in check.

Calo

There has been an age old battle for predator control since the dawn of time. Although I think Kenya and Tanzania are trying to deal with the issue by offering compensation to the Maasai for loss of livestock, it must be quite a struggle even in terms of outreach....making it known that this kind of compensation is even available. Difficult situation indeed.

HariS

Yep, agree with PB. Here in India, with the booming population-villages and people keep trespassing into the wild habitat and causes more and more friction between man and animal.....

Even the elephant migratory corridor has been tampered with buildings etc etc., with the real estate boom and rapid globalization......lots of friction between elephants and humans (only 45 minutes from my town) here in South India......

Hari

HariS

Forgot to add this....a huge metropolis like Bombay (now Mumbai) has spread out further and further that the extreme suburbs spread out to the periphery of a wilderness areas. Consequently lots of children have fallen prey to leopards (loss of their natural habitat has resulted in loss of natural prey)....yet, as predicted the leopards are the ones that end up killed......

Hari

For better information, the National Geography crew made a documentary called,&quot;Leopards of Bollywood&quot;

divewop

Then I guess this article pretty much sums it up:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17605186/

Rosenose

This is not unique to any particular part of the world. I live in Sacramento, the capital of California, and a metropolitan area of over 1 million people. As housing and commercial buildings are built in the surrounding foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains (Lake Tahoe), mountain lion habitat is destroyed. About every other year, a female mountain lion (likely with cubs) kills a human. The &quot;Fish &amp; Game&quot; government people go out and kill every mountain lion they can find and check the contents of their digestive systems so that the state government can report to the worried public that the &quot;killer&quot; mountain lion has been killed. We have the same problem with bears, although less human deaths.

divewop

Right, so let's just keep killing all the animals until the only ones left are in zoos (and aquariums). Lest we forget, the same thing is happening in our oceans.
And with all the issues of over-population, it looks as if we're not too far from having an animal free society and world.

I don't mean to sound full of doom and gloom but with only a handful of people dedicating their lives to preserving wildlife and the wilderness, I just don't know if it will be enough. I, for one, hope that it is and pray that something is done sooner than later.

I've just ordered a book called &quot;Monster of God&quot; by David Quammen (a renowned naturalist) who talks about alpha predators being 'squeezed' out.
It will be an interesting read, to say the least.

Rosenose

Well, I will sound negative. I have taken my daughter SCUBA diving since she was 10 [and old enough to be certified] because I do not think that the coral reefs as I have known them will exist, even fractionally, for much longer. I have taken her to Kenya (twice)and Rwanda for much the same reason [see the wildlife in the open while she still can]. The key factor is human &quot;over population,&quot; and none of us can do anything about that.

tuskerdave

hi,not active here that much these days.
but when i started to see this thread i called my masai driver in kenya. told him about it. he didnt know but was going to mara soon and will find out whats happened.
so today sat march 31st i talked to him again and asked him about it among other things. he went last week to that area and he said he got the story.
he was told the lions were outside the park attacking people and killed a boy.
he did mention cow/goat but i didnt get it all.
so he says you know when they kill a person they have no choice but to go kill the lion. they killed 2 lions he said-the other ran off to tanz side.
this is what he was told.
thanks, david

atravelynn

Interesting report, David. Thank you for taking the time to share it in this unfortunate situation.

tuskerdave

hi lynn thanks
david