http://www.zoocrew.eu/conservation.php?mode=archive&id=7Amboseli National Park, Kenya
In Kenya, conflicts between animals and people are also a big issue. Here, the Leo Foundation is involved in a collaboration project with Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) around Amboseli National Park. The Park is completely surrounded by Masai, a community of warriors.
To become a man, it is tradition amongst the Masai to spear a lion. And, as in the Cameroonian study lions are killed in retaliation of attacking livestock. Thus, lions that appear near Masai settlements are killed more quickly than in Cameroon.
As lions are a huge tourist attraction, Kenyan government tries to keep lions to their assigned but restricted areas and lion populations up to the mark. Because if local people keep killing lions, the government looses a significant source of income.
With support of the Leo Foundation five lions have been GPS/radio-collared in Amboseli National Park between July 2007 and August 2008. We saw that the animals left the Park in November and December in 2007 and 2008. During this time, the researchers got reports of conflicts from the local people. The collars have an SMS function which enables researchers to alert local Masai that lions are in their vicinity. This tool is directly beneficial for Masai during ongoing research and provides researchers with a way of informing local people about lions in their awareness campaigns.