Lions on the loose innairobi
CONSERVATIONISTSWARN OF CLOSER INTERACTION BETWEEN WILDLIFE AND HUMANS IF THE CITY’S DEVELOPMENT IS NOT MANAGED
When Danish author Karen Blixen penned her autobiography she wrote of the fierce leopards and lions that prowled the coffee estate she farmed at the foot of Kenya’s Ngong hills.
Today, that farm is a leafy upmarket suburb of the rapidly growing capital Nairobi, swallowed up by breakneck urbanisation that has turned a century-old colonial railway yard into a traffic-cloggedmajor city.
But the sharp toothed big cats have remained, finding themselves under growing pressure as one of Africa’s fastest growing cities creeps onto ancient migration routes and hunting grounds.
“There have been no attacks onhumans— onlydogs— but as the encroachment increases the probability of attacks grows,” said Francis Gakuya, chief vet for Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), as captured lion cubs growled in the background.
Pacing in a cage at the KWS headquarters in Nairobi, four orphaned cubs hiss and snarl at vets taking care of them — then give a surprisingly powerful roar for a two-month-old baby already the size of a small dog.
Wildlife rangers were forced to shoot dead the cubs’ mother after it was spotted in Nairobi’s Karen suburb and it charged before it could be darted. The cubs are now being looked after. But it is not the only recent case.
Conservationists warn of the growing likelihood of closer interaction between wildlife and humans if development is not managed in a sustainable manner.
nother lioness captured last month later escaped back into the park, a 117 sq km wilderness where buffalo and rhino roam just 7kmfromthe bustling high-rise city centre.
Wildlife officials have issued warnings to residents near the park to call them “should they see another lion in their area as it is possible more than one lion had strayed fromthe park”.
Baited cages
Traps are set out when a big cat is reported but thewily lions have so far avoided the baited cages — sparking concern in residents, fearful at night when guard dogs howl that a lion could be hunting in the back yard.
“Lions can hide invisible in the long grass so it’s frightening they could be around waiting to pounce,” saidMary Okello, who lives close to where recent lions were caught.
Visit the park and one is rewarded by the bizarre sight of long-necked giraffes running through wide plains of yellow grass with the gleaming skyscrapers of Nairobi’s business district rising in the distance.
Although fenced in on the city side — some bars even have terraces where one can view animals over a cold drink — the park is open-sided elsewhere else to allow the annual wildlife migration in search of grazing.
Zebra and wildebeest in the parkmigrate fromthe protected Nairobi national park through informal wildlife corridors, areas where pastoralist herders graze their cattle. But Kenya’s population is quickly growing.
The land is under threat from increasing urbanisation and more intensive agriculture, and the routes used by migrating herds in search of fresh grass — and the carnivores that follow for fresh meat — are growing