First, it was Cecil the lion. Now, there’s news that more famous lions have been killed—this time with poison rather than a gun. The victims come from the Marsh Pride, a family of lions living in the Masai Mara National Reserve in southwest Kenya. They were the stars of the long-running and hugely popular BBC […]
Tag: Kenya
Lions Return to Rwanda for First Time Since Genocide’s Aftermath
Jes Gruner was excited when he told me over the phone that the lions had made their first kill. A week after their release into the Akagera National Park in the northeast of Rwanda, the lions took down a waterbuck on the lakeshore and were gorging themselves on the carcass. Gruner, the Park Manager of […]
Video: Netgunning Black Wildebeest From Helicopter
The black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu (Connochaetes gnou) is one of the two closely related wildebeest species. The natural populations of black wildebeest, endemic to the southern part of Africa, were almost completely exterminated in the 19th century, due to their reputation as pests and the value of their hides and meat. However, the species […]
Video: Lion Protector Biologist Helps Big Cats and People Coexist
The fewer than 2,000 lions left in Kenya face many threats, including retaliatory killings by herders who lose livestock to the big cats. National Geographic 2014 Emerging Explorer and conservation biologist Shivani Bhalla started a nonprofit organization, Ewaso Lions, to help herders learn to live with lions – giving the big cats their best chance […]
Photos: slumbering lions win top photo prize
The king of beasts took this year’s top prize in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, which is co-owned by the Natural History Museum (London) and the BBC. The photo, of female lions and their cubs resting on a rock face in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, was taken by Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols, […]
Zebras for the win! Africa’s longest land migration discovered
With food and water scarce in many parts of Africa, many species migrate long-distances in order to survive. A new study published in the journal, Oryx has found a new record-breaker for the continent’s longest tracked terrestrial migration: a huge group of zebras that traveled a total distance of 500 kilometers (300 miles). The journey […]
Elephant deaths rise in Tanzania after shoot-to-kill poachers policy is dropped
Elephant deaths in Tanzania have risen dramatically since the government abandoned a shoot-to-kill policy against poachers, officials admit. Lazaro Nyalandu, the deputy minister of natural resources and tourism, said 60 elephants were “butchered” in November and December, compared with two in October. Soldiers, police, game rangers and forestry officers had been involved in a month-long […]
Mahem in the Mara
During the recent Wild Eye photographic safari that I led to the Mara Triangle in Kenya, we had some very nice sightings of (in my mind) Africa’s most beautiful crane species – the Southern Crowned Crane (or Mahem Crane). This photo was taken as the early morning light burst through the clouds on the horizon […]