29 November 2010

Lion Update

The lion follows have been going well, though a few of the lions have been more difficult to locate as they spend more and more time in the thick bush near the escarpment. We have seen Ren, Stimpy, and Mwanzo much less frequently than we did a couple months ago because the thick bush makes it either impossible to get close to them or if we do get close we can't get a visual on them through the dense vegetation. Thankfully, Esipata, Kereng'ende, and Bolt have been cooperative and we collected a wealth of data in November. The highlights of the month included:
  • finding three giraffe carcasses killed by lions in the span of five days
  • collecting 15 lion fecal samples in one day
  • multiple encounters of 3 new male lions that seem to have settled in the study area
  • finding one of the new males courting one of the uncollared females from the Lengungu pride (Photos 1-3)
  • the next day finding another of the new males with Esipata (Photo 4)
  • tracking Kereng'ende and finding her after she had just killed and eaten a guinea fowl