Kenya’s four-month-long Great Wildebeest Migration began this month,
with herds of animals crossing the crocodile-infested Mara River into
Maasai Mara Game Reserve from Tanzania's Serengeti park, and tourists
have begun their own mad rush to the Kenyan bush to take in the
spectacle. This was never just a matter of wildebeests on the move,
because where the wildebeests go, leopards, lions, and hyenas inevitably
follow.
But for mass migration, and for hungry lions, tourists need go no further than Nairobi.
Over the past six months, stray lions from Nairobi National Park, on
the capital city's outskirts, have been venturing into Nairobi's
suburbs, preying on cattle, sheep, and goats. It's a matter of concern
to members of the Maasai community, who live off of herding on the
outskirts of Nairobi, and who are demanding action from the government.
Some Maasai have already begun killing lions to protect their herds and
families.
The human-wildlife conflict -- an almost inevitable factor of life in
Nairobi as human settlement moves ever closer to national parks and
wildlife areas -- peaked in June, when Maasai warriors speared to death
six lions in Ilkeek-Lemedung'i village in Kitengela area on southern
side of the park. The predators had killed 13 goats and sheep, and
mauled one person in an attack, according to members of the community.
Three other lions were killed in December 2011 and January, 2012 near
Nairobi Park. Although killing lions is illegal here and the Kenya
Wildlife Service (KWS) has promised to arrests the killers, no one has
been arrested or charged.
“The killings are regrettable, but this was a reaction of the
community which feels frustrated and threatened. The situation has gone
from bad to worse,” says Sidney Quntai, the chairman of Kenya Coalition
for Wildlife Conservation and Management, a civil society organization.
“It is difficult to sleep peacefully at night, since one has to keep
ears and eyes open. In case of noise one creeps out to see if the
animals are safe,” adds Mr. Quntai.
Located seven kilometers on southern side of Nairobi, and covering 44
miles square, Nairobi National Park is by no means the only park in the
world located near a major metropolis. The Indian city of Mumbai, for
instance, has Sanjay Gandhi National Park, home to leopards who
occasionally prey on the animals of shack-dwellers who live on its
perimeter. But Nairobi's claim of sheltering the “big five” – lions,
leopards, elephants, buffaloes, and rhinos – does help to attract
thousands of local and international tourists.
In a country where tourism makes up 12 percent of gross domestic
product, and 21 percent of its foreign exchange earnings, nobody wants
to do anything that might disrupt that business. But when lions prowl
the suburbs of a capital city, the call for action is inevitable.
At the roots of Nairobi's lion problem are changes made to Kenya's
land-tenure system, which has allowed owners of pastureland around
Nairobi National Park to sell their land. Many of these new property
owners erect fences, which blocks the migratory corridor of antelopes,
wildebeest, and other animals who inhabit southern Kenya and northern
Tanzania. In the past, many of these animals moved from national park to
national park, but as fences have gone up, fewer herding animals can
make the return journey. This leaves lions without food, so the lions
begin to look for other options.
Among the lion's best options are the cattle, sheep, and goats herded
by Maasai tribesmen, who have migrated along that same southern-Kenyan
corridor for centuries. So as the fences go up, blocking the migration
of animals from Nairobi National Park to Tsavo and Amboseli National
Parks further south, it is the domestic herds of the Maasai that become
the lion's favorite prey.
“The land system in use is no longer compatible to the animal
numbers," says Mr. Quntai. "Therefore animals in the park have moved to
graze in the areas where the communities graze their livestock. The big
cats have followed the herbivores. We have seen zebras going to graze
with the livestock and sleeping out with the cattle near the Manyatta
(traditional Maasai homestead).