Last chance to see the Nairobi park lions?
 Wild African lions roam free within ten minutes drive of the center of
Nairobi, Kenya. This is Nairobi National Park, a haven for wild animals covering
40 square miles to the South West of the city. The park is unique. Where else in
the world would you find lions, rhinos, leopards, zebras and buffalo wandering
in their natural habitat within full view of skyscrapers? Founded in 1946, the
dream was to create a space which would remain untouched by the inevitable
spread of civilization. But the dream is under threat.
The park still hosts rhinos, cheetahs, herbivores and a few lions, but their
numbers have fallen to dangerously low levels. The park can accommodate up to 36
lions but at the time of writing there are nine left including just one adult
breeding male, "Red". They are living on borrowed time.
The August 3rd 2003 game count had the following figures: Buffalo - 56, Eland
- 37, Grant - 12, Tommy - 0, Giraffe - 81, Kongoni - 114, Waterbuck - 12,
Wildebeest - 0, Impala - 103, Zebra - 15, Ostrich - 82. This is a far cry from
the park's heyday of the seventies and eighties.
What happened at Nairobi National Park?
The park was created from what was known then as the Nairobi Commonage. A few
Somali families living within the area were given alternative venues and ample
time to move. It was the first of Kenya's National Parks and a showcase for the
rest, paving the way for the tourist industry which then became the country's
top export. The park was well known for its short distance to the city, its
teeming herds of game and its lions.
The area to the south of the park was gazetted as a National Reserve to allow
some natural movement of the animals into and out of the park. This was either
forgotten or rescinded in the rush for residential land, which has encroached on
the area to such an extent that free movement of game is hardly possible or
acceptable.
Over the past twenty years the park controllers did little or nothing to
arrest the decline. In the early days the park's grassland would be burned on a
regular basis. New shoots would attract particularly zebra and wildebeest. Today
there are no wildebeest.
Lions in trouble
 With dwindling numbers of game, predators will stray outside the park to find
enough to eat. Tempted by domestic stock, these lions ultimately lead to a
human-wildlife conflict in which the wildlife will lose. In the past four years,
more than 40 Nairobi Park lions have been killed to the south of the park. And
it is here to the south of the park where the lions are facing their toughest
opposition.
In May 2003 another eight of Nairobi's magnificent lions were been brutally
speared to death, their claws, teeth, manes and tails taken as trophies,
probably for sale. The perpetrators are not hiding their identity. They come
from a group of Maasai who live to the south of the park. They have publicly
sworn to kill all the remaining lions in the park and then begin on the Eland.
In the past the lion-human conflict had centred on cattle, the lions only
being killed in retaliation for an attack on stock. What is different with the
recent spate of killings is the declared intent to eradicate
and take trophies. Is this simply just attention seeking, or money or both?
Establishing the boundaries
The Park was fenced on three sides in the 1960s and 1980s and it was assumed
that the southern boundary would remain open or agricultural, allowing some
migration. The opposite has happened. It has become more residential; shops,
quarries, a university. The riverine woodland diminishes daily and most rivers are dry for some of the year. The park was unique in being on
the edge of the city but it is now virtually within the city, yet the animals
are still free to wander about.
If the lions were restricted to the park, the killings would be stopped is
the logical solution. Only a fence would prevent the sort of human-animal
conflict which has lead to this crisis. A fence would allow the parks eco-system
to redevelop and with proper management and control, could see the park thrive
again.
But its not that simple. For a start, there is the cost. To fence the
southern boundary of the park, a rough estimate is half a million USD and to
renovate the rest to restrict leopards and primates as well, would be another
million USD.
The second issue is what conservationist Ian Cowie described as
"frenzied apathy" within the park controlling authority, the Kenya
Wildlife Services, with "conflicting interests and objectives within the
same office".
Is there any hope
Ian Cowie has been at the forefront of efforts to spearhead urgent action to
remedy the state of the Nairobi National park. In May 2002 a letter requesting
action was submitted and signed by more than 600 interested parties, including
many Maasai from Kitengela. The Chairman of the board responded this year
promising both urgent steps and that the next board meeting would decide on
options including fencing.
According to Cowie there is a glimmer of hope. The nine lions in the park are now
being fed on a regular basis, though it is uncertain whether this would work in
the long term or short term basis. Cats will be cats and the lions despite
feeding are still straying.
It can only be hoped that the situation will
improve, that the controllers and anyone with a desire to see these animals
saved and the Nairobi National Park thrive again, will appraoch the crisis with
a sense of immediacy it warrants. Who knows, perhaps the park could again be home to a thriving
population of lions, with at the very least 2000 each of zebra and wildebeest, and
not the nine lions, fifteen zebra and zero wildebeest it is home to now.
Tour operators still occasionally bring groups to the Park. The average entry
fees for a minivan of tourists are between 100 and 200 USD. Quite steep for a
park with little to see.
More information
Article sourced from documents written by Ian Cowie. Please contact Ian Cowie
at iac@kenyaweb.com. Phone: 0722744158 and
0733 942444. Images from Ian Cowie.
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