Credits: This story and photos are from today's AFP story, "Lion on the loose in Kenyan capital's urban jungle"
By Peter Martell | AFP
When Danish author Karen Blixen penned her
autobiography "Out of Africa", 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-clogged major 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.
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| This notice outside the main entrance of residential houses in Nairobi's Karen suburb |
"There have been no attacks on humans -- only dogs -- 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.
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| Kenya Wildlife Service rangers Juma Baraka (L) and Samuel Induare examine a two-month-old |
Another lioness captured last month later escaped back into the park,
a 117 square kilometre (45 square mile) wilderness where buffalo and
rhino roam just seven kilometres (four miles) from the 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 from the park."
Traps are set out when a big cat is reported but the wily 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," said Mary 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.
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| These two-month-old lion cubs, in quarantine at the Kenya Wildlife Service. |
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 park migrate from the 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 narrower.
"Some can't find their way through, and they get stranded," said
Nicholas Oguge, President of the Ecological Society for Eastern Africa.
"There is an urgent need for an effective land policy...without
establishing formal wildlife corridors, Nairobi National Park will
become like an island, a large contained zoo," added Oguge, a professor
at the University of Nairobi.
The situation has changed dramatically in recent decades. In the
1970s residents used to report roaming herds of wildebeest several
hundred thousand strong. Today, in comparison, there are just a relative
handful of wildebeest left.
Conservationists say wildlife protection is a low priority for city
officials struggling with multiple challenges in a grossly unequal
capital of some 3.5 million people with overstretched basic services and
infrastructure.
In Nairobi, lavish villas rub shoulders with squalid slums and cramped high rise apartments.
"Nairobi National Park is a microcosm of what is happening
elsewhere," said Luke Hunter, president of the wild cat conservation
group Panthera, noting that lions have lost over 80 percent of their
historic lands across Africa.
"In protected areas lions do well... but outside they are getting hammered."
Kenyan wildlife officials and other conservation groups are working
to support the establishment of a wildlife corridor, including mapping
the key routes, but it is no easy matter, said Paul Mbugua, KWS
assistant director.
"It would be good to have corridors in place, but we have a challenge
as all the land to the south of Nairobi is owned by somebody," Mbugua
said.
