Editor’s Note: Brian Johnson, a graduate of McNeese State University and his wife Kitty reside in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
where he is a security management professional. After a 20-year
career in the US Army, Brian and Kitty now devote their time to improving the welfare of animals and assisting with various conservation initiatives.
By Brian N. Johnson
Special to the American Press
Photos Special to the American Press
My wife, Kitty, and I are again in Africa, this time working on a big cat conservation project in the Naboisha Conservancy in southern Kenya. After a bone jarring five hour drive from Nairobi in a van seemingly held together with wire, we arrived at our bush camp. Our camp, home for several weeks, was remote and lacked basic amenities but no worries … we were back in the African bush we love so much. My wife and I shared a sparse but comfortable tent with two cots. The common area was a cement building that served as a communal dining hall, work center and kitchen run by a local Masai named Daniel.
Camp toilets were “long drop” and the showers were simple pipes hanging from the ceiling with no lighting. When you showered, you brought your flashlight to thoroughly inspect the stall because cobras, puff adders and the deadly green and black mamba were indigenous to the area. A cold shower after a hot day of working could quickly go downhill if you met one of these guys. Fortunately we had no encounters with snakes, at least not in the shower or the toilet.
However, one night out in the conservancy, we ran across a magnificent black banded spitting cobra — a beautiful animal. The purpose of our project was to monitor and collect data on lions, leopards, cheetah and elephants in the conservancy. The conservancy lands are owned by Masai tribal members who collectively share in the proceeds derived from tourists who visit and safari lodges located in the conservancy. A Masai’s life revolves around his cattle and they are more important to him than money. This attachment to cattle is rooted in their mythology.
To the Masai, all cattle on Earth belong to them, given to the tribe by their God Enkai which illustrates why cattle theft is still common and not considered a crime by older Masai. The Masai believe the cattle are theirs so they have no hesitation in taking back what was given to them by God. This belief presents a particular problem to the conservancy’s managers who allow the Masai to graze their cattle on conservancy lands. The management must have accurate movement data on lions to schedule grazing times and locations. As you can imagine, it is a serious event when a lion kills a Masai’s cow. It is a very big deal.
PROJECT GOALS
The project also supports research and conservation efforts of such groups as the
Mara Cheetah Project and Elephant Voices, two organizations that conduct cheetah and elephant research. We spent a significant part of our time conducting counts of animals in 1 kilometer sectors of….
This article was published in American Press Life on Sunday, June 7, 2015.
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Naboisho – Big Cats Article
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