The Triad: Lion Conservation, Communities and Coexistence With the help of supporters, the Born Free Foundation, an international wildlife charity, is working with local communities to protect threatened wild animals, including lions, in Meru Conservation Area, Kenya. In 2014, Born Free launched a major conservation programme to protect and monitor lions in Meru Conservation Area. Pride of Meru aims to safeguard the lions’ future by protecting ecologically viable populations, as well as their prey and their habitat, through an enhanced human-carnivore ‘coexistence model’ – helping people and lions to live together without conflict. Born Free’s team works hard to monitor and understand the lions and driving along Meru National Park roads taking photographs of individuals encountered. They focus on the head of each lion, because Born Free uses whisker spot patterns for identification. Every lion has a distinct, unique pattern of whisker spots, rather like human fingerprints.
22 | NDEGE NEWS |DECEMBER 2023 - FEBRUARY 2024
Other identifying features are noted, including any nose scars or broken teeth, as well as each lion’s size and colour. Born Free maintains a comprehensive database of lions, updating whenever new individuals are identified. Based on available data, Born Free approximates Meru National Park’s 870km2 is currently home to between 70-90 lions. Routine lion monitoring also helps the team understand the lions’ social structures, their ‘demographic status’ (the characteristics of the population), ranging patterns, prey preferences and availability, as well as any interactions between lions and humans, and the challenges the lions face. This information helps shape Born Free’s conservation work for these apex carnivores. Lions are iconic. However, these magnificent predators can become injured when hunting – buffaloes use their horns to defend themselves, while giraffes have a powerful and potentially
deadly kick. As every individual lion is precious to the population and to us, Born Free’s team responds to any incidences of sick or injured lions, contacting the resident Kenya Wildlife Service vet to administer suitable treatment. Over the years, Born Free’s Pride of Meru team has also helped rescue several lions from deadly wire snares, set illegally to trap wild animals for meat. Recent rescues include Cheri, a young lioness in a large family of Meru lions known as Elsa’s Pride, who was found with an injury on her head in July 2023. This was probably the result of a skirmish with another lion. Then in September 2023, another lioness Chebby – from the Bisanadi Pride and mother to a pair of three-months old cubs – was found with an injury on her lower jaw, probably due to a kick from a buffalo. Thankfully, she and Cheri were both successfully treated in the field and the Born Free team is following up on their recovery. To
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