Mara Naboisho Lion Project

Over the last three months, 12 lions have been killed in the peripheries of Naboisho conservancy in the Maasai Mara. These are usually retaliatory killings as a result of livestock losses. Lions are increasingly targeted because they live in areas which, as a consequence of climate change, habitat fragmentation and competition between livestock and grazers, have less natural prey. They therefore develop the tendency to hunt livestock, resulting in human-lion conflict.

The Mara-Naboisho project, headed up by biologist Niels Mogensen, seeks to prevent human-wildlife conflict through the accumulation of detailed research focusing on lion demography, behavior and spatial dynamics. This will result in detailed data which will achieve effective management in the protection of lions.

The project aims to conserve lions outside the conservancy by monitoring and mapping pride ranges in addition to documenting conflict and educating the local community on how to conserve their natural habitats and improve their livestock enclosures. The project also seeks to conserve lion populations within Naboisho conservancy by monitoring and analysing the prides that utilise the conservancy.