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| A young female documented by team 2007-5 on Rukinga Ranch, courtesy of Wildlife Works (photo © B. D. Patterson). |
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| Most of our lion sightings are at night and made with spot-lights. However, drives in late afternoon and morning provide great photo opportunities for lions and other wildlife (photo by Marijke McGeer, 2007-5). |
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| Courting lions near Pika Pika ignore volunteers from 2007-9 in November (photo © B. D. Patterson). |
The Tsavo lion project was headed by Bruce Patterson (Field Museum), Samuel Kasiki (Kenya Wildlife Service) and Alex Mwazo (now of Kenyatta University). We sought to understand the ecology and behavior of lions in southeastern Kenya, the land of maneless males and legendary man-eaters. We wanted to know why these lions look and behave differently from lions elsewhere and understand how to mediate their conflicts with people. This work was done in collaboration with Roland Kays (New York State Museum), Jean Dubach (Brookfield Zoo), Mike Briggs (APCRO), Andy Dosmann (University of Chicago), and Tina Ramme (Lion Conservation Fund).
The project was based on the Taita-Rukinga Conservancy and supported by our respective institutions, the Earthwatch Institute, the National Geographic Society, and Wildlife Works. To see the animals we looked at, click here (all pictures taken on the conservancy) and to see some of the data that we collected on them, click here (maps generated using Cybertracker). To see pictures of the some of the animals seen on our last trip (September 2009), click here .
The efforts and insights of many volunteers have contributed importantly to the project's successes. Since 2002, we've hosted more than 60 different field teams. They eventually contained 542 volunteers hailing from 40 nations on 6 continents. The teams have been led by Samuel Kasiki, Alex Mwazo , Roland Kays, Andy Dosmann, Natasha Godard, and Bruce Patterson. A breakdown of this effort thru 2006 by year, team, PI, and volunteer country-of-origin, can be found here (pdf file; 23 kb). Kathy Evans, Nicola Clarke, Dan Patterson, Valerie Sebestyen, Carol Carpenter, Darren Fox, Barb Harney, Ann Kooi, Vera Groschopp, Sheri Perera, Kathy Richards, Mary Ellen Rowe, and Andy Tutchings have each participated in two or more lion teams, and deserve special recognition here.
In 2009, we fielded 8 teams. Since August 2008, our camp has been on Rukinga Ranch, on the edge of " Camp Tsavo", which is managed by Camps International.
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| The regional context of the Taita-Rukinga Conservancy in East Africa's protected areas. |
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| Team 2007-9 spot-lights a new group of lions at Matopene waterhole. |
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