Learning from the Maasai in Kenya

There has been a steady decline in lions throughout Africa, and Kenya is no different.

While there are many reasons for this decline, Alistair Bath says one factor is the Maasai cultural practice of killing a lion with a spear to become a man—upon killing a lion, the man takes the name of a lion and is recognized within his society as a brave leader.

“Thus, to achieve lion conservation, it requires working with the Maasai in this area,” says Bath.

Bath works with a conservation team lead by Leela Hazzah to hire lion killers and have them become lion guardians.

“A successful lion killer has demonstrated many of the characteristics needed to effectively be a lion guardian,” says Bath. “He has demonstrated he can get close to a lion, thus able to identify lions, track lions, be strong enough within his community to be a leader, and able to control others from killing lions by sharing the benefits of lions.”

Bath says he sets out for a day in the field working with Maasai men as a team, “not armed with guns or spears, but with a GPS, and the indigenous knowledge that if a lion charges us, we are to stand our ground.”

It isn’t long into their morning walks before they find lion tracks, which they follow until they see the lion or know where it is.

“We have taught the Maasai warriors to read and write, and so they stop and record the time and GPS location of where the lions are. Then, they call the shepherds from their community to advise where it is safe to graze cattle that day, and where they should not take their cattle.”

Bath says in this way they still fulfill their duties as a Maasai warrior for their village, and get paid a salary for their duties, something which also makes them attractive to the women of the village.

“Our lion guardians are very proud of what they do, sometimes standing on the Jeep to use telemetry to find the lions, even when we know there are none in that immediate area, but we see there are some women watching and thus perhaps an opportunity to impress.”

Bath says he has seen that people are now naming the lions. In the past several years of the Lion Guardians project, retaliatory killings have decreased to almost zero from previously well over 150.

“Lion conservation, like conservation of any wildlife, is about working with people to find solutions, understanding tolerance, and building opportunities for coexistence.”