Raised to see lions as his enemy, this warrior now saves them
As a young herder in rural Kenya, Jeneria Lekilelei viewed lions as his enemy.
His Samburu tribe, dependent on livestock for meat, milk and income, showed no mercy in defending their animals or exacting revenge on the predators who killed them.
As the number of lions in Kenya has fallen dramatically, however, many killed in retaliatory attacks, Lekilelei, 31, has emerged as one of their biggest champions.
A decade after starting Warrior Watch, a campaign to build tolerance towards lions in his semi-nomadic community, Lekilelei’s efforts have finally been rewarded. The past 12 months represent the first year in which no lions were killed in revenge attacks.
In November Lekilelei travelled to London to be recognised by Prince William as a finalist in the Tusk Conservation Awards, which were established to celebrate the achievements of people whose work protecting Africa’s natural heritage might otherwise go unnoticed.
‘‘To me lions were just the killers of my camels and cows,’’ he said. ‘‘I could never imagine liking lions and I never imagined that the animals that caused me so much trouble were actually in trouble . . . It has been a long time since those early days. I know lions better than my cows now.’’
The number of African lions, of which there are several subspecies, has fallen to between 20,000 and 30,000, down from an estimated 200,000 a century ago. They have disappeared from more than 90 per cent of their historical geographic range.
Kenya’s lion population is thought to number only 2000 as a result of loss of habitat to farming and development, a drop in the availability of prey and human conflict in rural villages. Only 11 lions were left in the Samburu area in 2010.
Lekilelei, who wears the traditional tribal dress of red cloth wrapped like a skirt, white sash, beaded earrings, bracelets, anklets and necklaces, became aware of the lions’ plight when he took a job tracking the big cats for the biologist Shivani Bhalla 12 years ago.
He spent 18 months scouring the West Gate conservancy, where he grew up, a community-owned group ranch that borders the semi-arid Samburu National Reserve. He soon realised how scarce and skittish the disappearing big cat population was.
‘‘What changed me is knowing how many lions there are left in Kenya,’’ he said. ‘‘I started looking at things from the lions’ perspective, considering the problems they are facing.’’
Two years later he suggested recruiting more Samburu warriors to help to track cats for Bhalla’s organisation, Ewaso Lions, which promotes coexistence between people and wildlife. By 2010 Warrior Watch was born, a 20-strong team of community ambassadors for wildlife, trained in monitoring, data collection and surveillance through a blend of new and old ways: GPS and tracking lions on foot.