A night without a lion’s roar is an incomplete night

A night without a lion’s roar is an incomplete night. It means something is missing.

When I see a lion, I see a symbol of courage and as the Maasai we believe, that courage is instilled in us.

Lions have since time immemorial lived with the Maasai and shared the same resources. They have always lived together. Now all we need to do is manage how this living together is done.

In the past, we’ve seen a massive decline in the number of lions. The problem is the sub-adults because they tend to wander. These kind of movements bring them into conflict with communities. We’ve had situations where lions have killed our livestock. We’ve had neighbours who went after lions. We try to work with communities to prevent any retaliatory attacks by doing things like, better Bomas and creating awareness on better herding practices for livestock.

Now people understand why we should conserve lions. There is hope for the Lion in the Mara. We cannot say we’ve achieved a stable population, but we are heading there.

My job also involves visiting primary schools to teach them about the conservation of lions, cheetahs and conserving our environment. They are the leaders of tomorrow. That creates a sustainable future for lions.

Being able to see lions in their habitats, peaceful, is a beautiful thing to me. My hope for the future is that we are able to coexist — people and lions in harmony.” Michael Kaelo

When the video was filmed in 2016 Michael Kaelo was the Chief Community Officer for Mara Lion Project. He still works with communities at the Mara Predator Conservation Programme as a Community and Public Relations Officer

WWF-Kenya supports Lion conservation throughout the greater Mara Ecosystem by working with partners and communities to mitigate human-lion conflict, retaliatory killings as well as reduce habitat loss and decline in prey species.