Apr 21 2008
How to protect your village against lions.
On Saturday we took the journalist, Emily, to Enkereri Cultural Manyatta up on the escarpment to talk to the local Maasai living there. Over the years, these people have become very dependent on the tourists who visit, while at the same time maintaining their cultural customs.
A traditionally built house in Enkereri
Most of the tourists who visit this manyatta are from different camps and lodges which are situated within and around the Mara Triangle. Since the beginning of the year, with the country in turmoil after the elections, the number of tourists have dramatically declined to the lowest we have see since I started working in the Mara 20 years ago.
The Maasai are also much affected like us and have always appreciated the efforts Mara Conservancy are making to protect wildlife and their cattle from poachers and rustlers respectively. Since we depend very much on gate entry fees from visitors as our only source of revenue to finance all our operations, most of our operations are currently halted, including the cattle compensation scheme.
During this time of the year, we have long rains in this part of the country, and most of the park is too wet for most of the herbivores to live in. This means they have migrated to the Maasai grazing lands where the grass is shorter and palatable. This also means that the lions have followed and are now also living among the local communities.
Since we don’t have the money to compensate for cattle losses, which is happening most days, the men are now strengthening their enclosures.
Maasai men strengthening the village enclosure.
They cut strong branches from the Camphor Bush (Tarchonanthus camphoratus), which dominates the escarpment, in order to stop the lions from entering the manyatta. And also to make it stronger and difficult for cattle rustlers to easily enter.
Entrance into the manyatta.
They make sure that all entrances into the manyatta are narrow and reinforced with extra branches. When it is complete, during the night they will close this gap with an old oil drum, chained to the poles on either side, and then more branches on the inside. If rustlers try to enter by forcing their way through the entrance, the drum will bang against the chains and act as an alarm, warning the villagers of intruders.
The lions also, if they fail to see another point to enter through the enclosure, will try to push their way through this entrance and raise the alarm.
Inside the Manyatta, there are other small enclosures to protect sheep and goats overnight.
The outside of the sheep and goat pens.
They use strong poles arranged in a line, two feet deep into the ground. At the top they fill all the gaps with Acacia branches, which have strong spikes that will act as a deterrent for lions or leopards.
Acacia branches as strong as barbed wire.
They should over these next few days and weeks see a reduction in the number of cattle, goats and sheep, lost to lions or leopards.
We hope that we shall receive donations to compensate for the cattle that has been lost over these past few months since the cattle compensation scheme was stopped in January. Combined, we are seeing cattle losses amounting to $5,000 each month.
Thank you everyone for your kind donations so far.
8 responses so far
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Joseph - Good to hear that the Maasai along the escarpment are strengthening the enclosures and hopefully like you said will cut down of their livestock losses. I wish the ‘tourist’ season would get there quickly for you all. It’s been a very long road for everyone, you, Will, the Rangers. May God bless you and the other guys!
Joseph, it is reassuring to know everything within their means is being done to protect their livestock. I don’t think even a leopard could scale that. But as you pointed out, compensation is needed for their losses. I was thinking just today, that most of us live on land where wildlife once called home, but we have squeezed them out with reckless overdevelopment. It is truly remarkable that the Maasai have chosen to share their land with the resident wildlife and make it work for so long. Please except my donation tonight towards compensation for their lifestock.
I uploaded a pod cast about this village with a conversation with Chief Kipas here http://baraza.wildlifedirect.org/2008/04/04/conversation-with-a-chief/
Am sorry to hear things are really not looking good at the moment. I hope the Independant article today might draw the necessary attention:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/masai-return-to-their-hunting-grounds-as-tourism-collapses-813341.html
Joseph, this is a wonderful account you have given us on the actions being taken to protect livestock. The Independent article is really great too and really drives the point home about how crucial this is.
thank you for your update. good luck to every one and every creatures great and small, knowing that life has gotten so much harder on them all.
Thank you everyone for your comments.Hopefully we`re trying to get the Maasai Elders living along the escarpment to emulate Enkereri cultural manyatta.It is a noble idea for them to strengthen their enclosures and pens,not only because Mara Conservancy is not able to compensate them, but as an assurance of security to their cows and goats.
We`re very thankful for prayers and donations.The independent article is so good and really reflects the happenings here at the Mara Triangle. We`ll print acopy for the elders at Enkereri as we did the Reuters one. For your interest the lion population in the Triangle has since doubled from 40 to 80 individuals since 2001.
[…] I stopped by at Enkereri to give them a print out of the article by Reuters, and despite all the improvements we had seen them make to their bomas on Saturday, a leopard had broken in on Monday evening and killed a […]