The Carnivore Chronicle

We drive across a red dirt road in Maasailand, eyes scanning the landscape for signs of wildlife as the dark clouds close in behind us. As we pull up the side of a low hill, we approach a small building constructed with stone and a thatch roof that was not visible from the road until we were practically upon it. From the front seat Laly jokingly exclaims “Look, someone has built a boma here!” Buddy laughs. The boma is his creation, built as an office for Laly. It just so happens that this is no ordinary boma.

Bomas are traditional low huts constructed by the Maasai tribe as living quarters. They are constructed from sticks topped with layers of branches and then plastered with a mix of mud and manure. Women traditionally construct the boma themselves, using what is available to them, in accordance with tradition. They have a low flat roof of the same materials and often lack windows, with smoke, light and air sneaking in and out from the spiral entry. The wife sleeps in here with the kids and the smaller animals and cooks with charcoal as well. I had the opportunity to enter one, and it was not an experience that I am eager to repeat. But Laly and Buddy have taken this local building concept and modified it to fit their needs. Their boma has a high ceiling with a layer of tin for rainwater collection under the insulating layers of thatch, which also prevents the shining tin from being visible from the hills across the way. It also has glass windows for light and ventilation and linear sides, creating a more functional space. Their boma is constructed with stones extracted from the surrounding hills that are laid by a local mason using a mortar composed largely of the earth from abandoned termite mounds, which have a distinct adhesive quality from the saliva of termites. Some other bomas, which will be used as staff and visiting student housing, are actually built by the Maasai women of the village, but with the same modifications of waterproofing, windows, a door, and higher ceilings under thatch roofing.

Laly Lichtenfeld and Buddy Trout are the directors of the nonprofit called the People & Pedators Fund, which deals with growth and conservation issues that arise between communities bordering wildlife areas and the animals who inhabit those areas. They are currently building a field center in Maasailand near Tarangire National Park in northern Tanzania, and work closely with the Maasai villages of the region, particularly their neighbors in Loibor Serrit. The center will serve as the PPF Headquarters, an educational center for village programs, research facility for Tanzanian students and home for Laly and Buddy. PPF also has conservation and education programs below the Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania.

The dedication Laly and Buddy have to the local community, the wildlife population and sustainable principles is inspiring. They asked me to come out to give some assistance on the design for their new buildings and to generate some renderings of the future buildings that they could present to friends and donors. Buddy—trained in carpentry supplemented with some hands on building experience—has been working with local stone masons, builders and even some Maasai women to create durable structures inspired by local architecture and using local materials, though enhanced with technological and physical advances. I was in awe of the way that he thinks and works, planning everything in his head and creating almost no drawings, but still communicating and executing very successful buildings. We had some wonderful discussions on design, rainwater collection, alternative energy, local materials and I was able to leave them with their requested drawings. I look forward to returning some day to see the buildings complete and witness the impact they will have on the local communities.

Erin Alexandra Feeney - Student in Sustainable Architecture

Hi, all!  We are back in Arusha after just over a week of very exciting and ground-breaking work. Dr. Seth Wilson, a post-doctoral researcher at Yale University, came to visit the People & Predators Fund in the bush after meeting up with Laly in South Africa at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology. Dr. Wilson brought with him a new computer for Buddy and state-of-the-art GIS mapping software that he helped us to acquire via a grant from the ESRI Conservation Program. The ArcGIS software is a highly advanced tool for mapping a region and recording, organizing, and analyzing data spatially. It will be a key tool for looking at the information generated by our Livestock Predation Program in the north; in southern Tanzania, it will help facilitate the mapping of potential wildlife management areas that PPF is helping villages to establish.

When looking at a region using GIS, the landscape is recorded in specific detail.  This is done in various different ways, depending on which attributes are best for representing a three-dimensional landscape on a two-dimensional screen. Anything from recording the topography of the area to using land-satellite photographs can be incorporated. Once this is done, information about specific areas on the map is recorded.  For example, vegetation, habitat, and water points can be mapped spatially.

Buddy is already churning away with the software. He has made several maps that will be helpful in explaining concepts about wildlife movement to villagers in Loibor Serrit. When Buddy is interested in something, he passionately immerses himself in learning all there is to know about the topic. When we took Dr. Wilson into Tarangire National Park for a brief safari, Buddy and he continued discussions about possible options for cartography, statistical analyses, etc. as though they hadn’t left the office.  Laly joked at lunch that day that Seth and Buddy should whip out the laptop for a quick tutorial while we were eating at the lodge. It has been an intense, exhausting, but rewarding week filled with time-restricted GIS lessons juggled with routine business around camp such as going on water runs and continuing work on grant applications.

Even with this tight schedule, we managed to see and do some amazing things.  One evening we went on a surprise hike to an unknown destination with Saitoti, our livestock predation coordinator. Two hours later, just as the sun was setting, we ended up at Saitoti’s father’s boma. Saitoti’s half brother, Kichwa, was married that day, and we stayed in the evening for part of the wedding ceremony. The celebration was filled with guttural singing, vigorous dancing, smoky chai, sweet sweat smelling of cloves, and many, many family members crowded in a room the size of three pool tables to drink spiced sour milk and to observe the nuptial bed covered in the skin of a cow. Standing outside underneath the pulsing stars listening to undulating voices and bodies was an experience that I probably never again will be a part of, but certainly never will forget.

Rebecca Lieb – PPF Intern

Much has happened since we last updated the PPF blog. Several weeks ago, park officials came to Loibor Serrit to re-demarcate the boundary of Tarangire National Park. When the village government learned that the park was planning to resurvey its boundary with GPS units, the chairman of the village, Raphael, called on PPF’s help and expertise. Historically, local attitudes toward TANAPA (The Tanzania National Parks Authority) have been characterized by distrust and the fear that the park would attempt to expand its boundaries into village lands. Therefore, re-demarcation of the boundary was perceived tenuously; it could either be a step toward more cooperative relations between the national park and the village, or it could solidify negative sentiments even further.

We drove out to demarcate the boundary on Monday morning, June 25th. The team was made up of national park representatives, government surveyors, Loibor Serrit village officials, village members and PPF staff. We brought along PPF’s GPS unit to cross-check the points that TANAPA surveyed. Trust between TANAPA and the villagers built as it became clear that our GPS units agreed. And, a sense of overwhelming joy was in the air as the park gave back land—in some cases pushing the boundary into the park by almost a kilometer. Back at Noloholo, PPF’s field center, many curious village members visited over the following days, wanting to know the results of our work.

We were honored that the village members of Loibor Serrit came to us and requested that we accompany them in redrawing the boundary with TANAPA. Afterwards, Raphael, the village chairman remarked, “Without the help of PPF, I don’t think people here would have trusted the process.“ We are glad to have been a part of this historical day, returning the park to its original boundaries, and building better relationships between the villages that lie on the Tarangire National Park boundary and TANAPA.

Saturday, June 16^th, 2007

We arrived in camp on Thursday in the afternoon, set up, and had time to make a water run. By the time the group had left for the village, it was six o’clock, and I decided that I would stay back and wait to see if my father could reach me via spotty cell phone coverage recently improved by the phone signal booster that Buddy had put in. At around 8:15, convinced that the connection would not work, I retreated to my tent and was in the process of unzipping the door when the call came through. I managed to have a three minute conversation standing on top of the chair I am sitting in right now, holding the cell phone as high as possible while using the speakerphone.

Buddy and Laly had been out of the bush for the last week. Buddy had left several workers with the task of creating two firebreaks to protect camp from fires during the dry season. The work was supposed to take three to six days, but the workers ended up staying for twelve days and did not follow Buddy’s instructions. They burned a large patch of grass very close to camp instead of cutting it. Not only did burning the grass endanger the safety of the camp, it posed other problems, as well. People have used preventative burning for years as a technique to cut down the size of wildfires, but one can only wonder what the burning has done to change the ecological composition of the area. As Laly morbidly jested yesterday evening at the campfire using the same saccharine, cooing voice with which she talks to her two Great Danes, “I feel sorry for the animals who can’t escape. They must be crispy.” When my family visited Katavi last summer, the park had burned huge patches of land, as well. We would drive through the vast planes of charred black earth and occasionally see the bleached-white shell of a tortoise who had met his untimely end in the fire. But it is not just what is killed in the fire that poses significance; it is just as important what does survive the burning. When we went yesterday to look at the progress made on digging a shallow well, we walked along the road and then down part of the workers’ improvised firebreak. While the fire had burned one type of grass, it left another plant unharmed. The result of one plant surviving the fires and another not means that over time (and who knows how much time) the composition of the ecosystem may change so that there is much more of this fire-resistant brush.

Yesterday, Friday, we went into town for two more water runs. On the second water run, Laly, Buddy, Suruni, and I went into town with a container full of diesel for the women’s empowerment initiative that Laly and Buddy helped start. They have been bringing diesel to the village women to sell at town prices, excluding transportation costs. The women who buy it save a lot of money, allowing the mill to make more of a profit. In the future, they would like to help the women sell their own jewelry line to bring in more money and further empower them.

Rebecca Lieb, PPF Intern

The rainy season has been particularly difficult this year, with possible El Nino conditions. At times, the earth has simply collapsed beneath us, as in the case below when the rear tire of our car fell into a sunken termite mound. At other times, we simply end up stuck in the mud - again, and again, and again. Scroll down and see!

Well, I guess the bottom line of this message is twofold:  Nature rules and Noloholo is true to its name!

I recently arrived in Tanzania for the ground-breaking of PPF’s new field base camp, Noloholo. Getting out there from Arusha was quite an experience as well as a challenge due to the continuing rains. The “short rains” of Nov./Dec. are here in full force for the first time in about 7 years  –  which of course is a superb blessing after a prolonged period of drought. When I visited last year at this time, it was very dry, dusty, not much was in bloom and water was the main focus of daily life. What a change. Everything is exotically lush and blooming, water is abundant, roads and rivers overflowing, the cows and goats are fatter and, most important, people generally seem much happier as the struggle for sufficient water has been alleviated.

However, too much of anything can also create problems.  There is concern that the rains will not end soon and that in fact El Nino conditions may be building. There is much flooding at the moment which makes traveling about, planting crops, etc. very difficult  –  even taking a walk isn’t necessarily an option. Thus, our trip out to the bush was by no means a fait accompli, but Buddy and Laly were certain we would make it  –  eventually! The Simanjiro Plains between Arusha and Noloholo contain ditches, gullies, sudden raw gaping cracks in the land AND extensive patches of “black cotton” soil which oozes and sucks vehicles in up to 3 or 4 feet –  even tractors!  We got stuck about 8 times and only emerged due to Buddy’s very skillful maneuvering and the help of a group of young Maasai. We were lucky to make camp by sundown.

The land donated by the Maasai of Loibor Serrit village for our field base is a superb site  –  a hill rising above acacia woodlands and plains with a 360 degree view. Sunrise and sunset  –  perfect for sundowners as I discovered!  The initial ground plan has been roughly laid out, temporary tents erected for sleeping, eating/meeting and cooking, shower and toilet in place with construction of the kitchen targeted as building #1.  Until a borehole is dug, water is being hauled in a huge drum from a nearby stream. A Chain saw, bags of cement, tools of all types at the ready and everyone eager to start the actual building. But, as I said, Nature rules and the on and off rains meant very slow progress that first week. What was accomplished was the assembling of building supplies between storms  –  large, long  trunks of dead trees (a special type of hardwood) scattered over the plains which had been previously selected, bundles of straight poles for roof frames, masses of grass to dry out (?) for roofs  –  all products of the surrounding environment  –  and free (except for the labor of cutting them and getting them up to camp). Gravel and sand from the streambeds had to be put on temporary hold. All is ready for a break in the weather  –  with that hope, we leave again in a few days.

My first days in Noloholo were very special  –  to be part of  the initial phase of this project which promises to be most impressive and effective down the road, to share Laly’s and Buddy’s vision and ideas on the ground and to actually experience the site’s potential.  That first night, I went to sleep hearing lions in the distance and later the rain on my tent. I chuckled thinking that Noloholo was certainly living up to its name  –  place of water, usually a blessed designation in the African bush!

— Rosalie Ballantine, PPF Board Member

Having recently returned from the bush, I am happy to say that it looks like the short rains are actually going to happen this year! This is wonderful news for Tanzania. We are recovering from several consecutive, very dry years and could really use the rain.

The trip to Loibor Serrit was very successful, albeit a typical African adventure plagued with vehicle problems. Our trusty Land Rover “Jezy” (short for Jezebel) was up to her old tricks again. She broke down twice even before getting to the village. Luckily, the first break down happened in town, before departure and delaying us a day. I was not so lucky the second time. I was in the bush on the way to camp, and my three and half hour trip became eight. Fortunately, we were able to find and sort out the cracked fuel line that was sucking air into the system without too much headache.

Once mobile again, Saruni Mosses (see “meet the team” on our web site) and I set out to GPS all the recent livestock predation occurrences in the village. I am happy to report that the lion attacks that were plaguing the village in June through August (resulting in the unfortunate spearing of a young male and female lion) had virtually stopped. We only had a couple of minor incidences in September and October. Life in rural Africa always seems to have a twist though. Just as it seemed the lions were taking a break, the elephants moved in and took up residence along the small stream that runs through the village. They could be found all most every evening from 5:30 pm onwards standing around the little hand pump that supplies the local villagers with all their water, obviously making life very difficult for everyone. During the day, they dispersed into the thicker brush up and down the stream to feed mainly on acacia bark. During such times, one always has to be on the lookout when walking around the village. Unfortunately, one poor villager forgot. He came walking around a bush one day to find himself face to face with a lone bull. True to form, it charged and hit him with its trunk, sending him flying 50 feet over a ditch and very luckily into a thicket. This not only broke his fall but allowed him to crawl away without being seen by the angry elephant who stormed off through the bush. Fortunately, the man only sustained minor injuries.

I managed to count 35 elephants in the herd when walking back to the village after Jezy decided to blow her clutch approximately 35 km (22 miles) from camp. After getting a tractor to tow us back to camp, all we could do is wait for the mechanic, Zack, to bring spare parts from town and fit a new clutch. This is a procedure complicated enough in town. Out in the field, it requires a tricky combination of jacks and several people working together in order to remove and replace the entire gearbox and clutch housing. I’d like to thank Charlie for all the help he provided - not only in the use of his vehicle to get the mechanics out there but also the diesel and time that helped make all this possible.

Not having a vehicle did provide lots of time to design our new field camp. If all goes to plan, we will be breaking ground on the JBB memorial field camp in December. During the time in the bush, Helena Grant (see “Interns, Research Students and Volunteers” on our web site) and I also held meetings with the teachers of the local school to go over and get feedback on our new conservation booklet that will be launched at the beginning of the new school year in January.

So despite some technical setbacks, we had a very productive trip that reminded all of us that no matter how hard you try to plan things in Africa, she always has some tricks up her sleeve to throw at you!

-Charles

We were very pleased to see that my article, Hope for Tanzania’s Lions (also included in the last blog) was published by the Arusha Times.

I am now preparing to leave for the states this evening. Check back soon for an update on our latest bush trip!

— Laly

Since returning from our remote, month-long trip to southern Tanzania with Catherine, Charles and I have been playing catch-up in the office and with current events. Thanks to PPF volunteer, Helena Grant, we were made aware of an article on the status of lion’s in Tanzania that appeared in the Sunday edition of the Arusha Times entitled, “King of the Jungle in Jeopardy” (www.arushatimes.co.tz/features_10.htm).

I was disappointed with the sensational nature of the article. So, I submitted a letter to the editor today, attempting to clarify some of the statements made in the article. I am copying my letter below. Let’s see if the Arusha Times is willing to publish it!

Hope for Tanzania’s Lions!

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to an article that appeared in the Arusha Times last week: “King of the jungle in jeopardy.” I would like to thank the author and your newspaper for bringing lion conservation to the public’s attention in Tanzania!

I would also like to help clarify some of the information provided, particularly regarding the status of lions in and around Tarangire National Park. My comments are based on a study I conducted between 2002 and 2005 on the Tarangire lions and their relationships with the sport hunting, photographic tourism and Maasai communities, published as a Ph.D. dissertation at Yale University in the U.S. in 2005.

Determining the number of lions in any ecosystem is tricky business. The article notes that a 2003-2005 study reported that “there were only 201 lions at the park.” I think most lion scientists would agree that determining the exact number of lions in most ecosystems is virtually impossible. You just can’t count every individual. Realistically, we don’t actually know how many lions are in Tarangire National Park. In fact, some of these lions leave the park in the wet season, following their prey toward the Simanjiro plains. While I am reluctant to give numbers, my estimates of densities in three different areas in and outside of the park suggest that there are roughly between 450 and 625 lions moving within the entire Tarangire ecosystem (12,000 km²).

In terms of lions killed outside the park by local villagers, it should be clarified that at least four lions are killed yearly in each village (not monthly as was reported), resulting in nearly 50 to 60 deaths per year in the 12 villages. And in fact, the numbers may be slightly higher. However, this information should be put in perspective. How do local lion killings effect the overall lion population? While indeed a problem, my data show that Maasai killing of lions outside the eastern boundary of Tarangire National Park is only responsible for 6.4% to 8.8% of overall annual lion mortality. Because lions reproduce quickly and have large litters, they can support mortality rates of up to 20-30%, though the lower the better. It is also unlikely that local killing of lions is having a destabilizing effect on the large lion population of Serengeti National Park, though all northern zone parks were reported to be threatened. In truth, Maasai tolerance of lions, in the face of constant livestock predation, is an important part of the reason why lions are still found outside of northern Tanzania’s national parks! Meanwhile, habitat loss and declining prey populations are taking their toll on available lion range and numbers.

Finally, I was disturbed that licensed hunters (presumably sport hunters?) were regarded in the same light as poachers, “danc[ing] to the tune, as they anticipate their next massacre.” To the contrary, I found that sport hunters have an important respect and admiration for lions. And, it should be noted that the incredible mass of land set aside for sport hunting in Tanzania is critical for protecting important lion habitat from conversion to other land uses. For example, when analyzing the effect of hunting on lions outside Tarangire National Park, I found that areas exclusively set aside for sport hunting supported higher densities of lions than those that included local villages.

The article did highlight some of the important issues facing lions in Tanzania – poaching (particularly of prey populations), environmental degradation and change, habitat loss, and yes, in some cases, the combined effects of licensed hunting and local retaliation against livestock predators. These are all issues that need to be addressed. But rather than sensationalizing the information, it would have been helpful to provide this material in a context that also gives some hope. Tanzania is home to nearly half of all of Africa’s remaining lions. If we can find lasting solutions to lion conservation in Tanzania, we will not only safeguard a significant population of lions, but we will also provide the rest of the continent with an important model. That would certainly be something the public could be proud of!

Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld

Executive Director, People & Predators Fund
Member of the African Lion Working Group

Dr. Lichtenfeld’s full report is available on the publications page of the People & Predators Fund’s website (www.people-predators.org).

Our final week in southern Tanzania was filled with village meetings to learn more about local conflicts with lions, particularly in terms of attacks on people. We were given an important overview of the conflict by district wildlife officials in Tunduru. Mr. Eberhard Halla, a community development officer, then accompanied us on visits to local village communities to get an on-the-ground perspective of the types and causes of the problems.

We were very impressed by the turnout at the village meetings. In some cases, we sat with more than 400 village members, hearing directly from them about their grievances with lions and other wild animals. It was at times very sad to listen to, particularly when attacks on humans were described, though we are thankful to the people for being so open and forthright with us.

According to the villagers, lion attacks on people and livestock occur most often during the rainy season, right around harvest time when people are out guarding their farms from crop-raiding animals. At this time, the grass is also long, and it becomes much easier for a stealthy lion to sneak up on someone and attack him or her. One particularly recurrent comment that alarmed us was that many people and NGO’s apparently visited the villages to talk and learn about various issues, but they rarely heard from them again. We are now working on follow-up letters to all the villages we met with to outline our next steps clearly to them. In these letters, we’ll also include pictures of our meetings, generously provided by Catherine once she has had the time to print them!

Our final night in the Selous-Niassa ecosystem was spent on the Ruvuma river, which forms the border between Tanzania and Mozambique. We fell asleep to the grunts of hippos coming from a pool just around the bend. Then, we began the long drive back to Arusha, where we were happily greeted by Nandi and Scooby, our two great danes!

— Laly