“When a lion roars, to the Maasai it is the lion saying, ‘this is my land. This is my land.”
A night without a lion’s roar is an incomplete night. It means something is missing.
When I see a lion, I see a symbol of courage and as the Maasai we believe, that courage is instilled in us.
Lions have since time immemorial lived with the Maasai’s and shared the same resources. They have always lived together. Now all we need to do is manage how this living together is done.
In the years past we’ve seen a massive decline in the number of lions. The problem is actually the sub adults because they tend to wander. This kind of movements bring them in conflict with communities. We’ve had situations where lions have killed our livestock. We’ve had neighbors who went after lions. We try to work with communities to prevent any retaliatory attacks by doing things like, better Bomas and creating awareness on better herding practices for livestock.
Now people understand why we should conserve lions. There is hope for the Lion in the Mara. We cannot say we’ve achieved a stable population, but we are heading there.
My job also involves going to visit primary schools to teach them about conservation of lions, cheetahs and conserving our environment. They are the leaders of tomorrow. That creates a sustainable future for lions.
Being able to see lions in their habitats, peaceful, is a beautiful thing to me. My hope for the future is that we are able to coexist — people and lions in harmony.” Michael Kaelo
When the video was filmed in 2016 Michael Kaelo was the Chief Community Officer for Mara Lion Project. He still works with communities at the Mara Predator Conservation Programme as a Community and Public Relations Officer
WWF-Kenya supports Lion conservation throughout the greater Mara Ecosystem by working with partners and communities to mitigate human-lion conflict, retaliatory killings as well as reduce habitat loss and decline in prey species.
