In this series of blog posts, we want to give you an in depth and personal look at some of the work of our Simba Scouts that work in the field, tracking and protecting the lions of Kuku Group Ranch.
HOW DAVID ENDED UP PULLING AN ALL-NIGHTER IN ORDER TO HELP PERSUADE A GROUP OF YOUNG WARRIORS TO NOT FORM A LION HUNT THE NEXT MORNING:
Our Maasai warrior and Simba Scouts Co-ordinator, David Kanai shares his experience of the most recent sleepless night he had in trying to calm a very angry group of young maasai warriors from forming a lion hunt in retaliation for a killed bull on Sunday May 21st:
“It was around midnight when I got a call from one of the community members in Iltilal village. They were looking for help because a pride of 9 lions came close to the boma, which caused the cattle to become scared and run out of the boma. All of a sudden, the pride chased after 3 bulls and had managed to kill one close to the lava. We managed to save the other 2 bulls and bring them back to the boma. I decided to stay with the Morans (young Maasai Warriors) to slaughter the killed bull and had assisted them to transport the meat on my motorbike from the bush to the boma. this made them very happy and created time for me to sit with them to try and change their mind of hunting the lion the following morning. While I was sitting there with the group of Morans that were very clearly upset and saddened by their lose, I chose to stay to make sure to talk to them and ease their minds about the lost bull. I told them that yes the lions caused a problem but I spoke to them about how we all must share this land together. I didn’t sleep the entire night as to make sure they did not retaliate at any point. I left in the morning with the solid agreement from the Morans that they will not hunt the lion at any point in time moving forward.”
Below are photos of David and his motorbike, which still had blood markings from the killed bull of that evening:
