Meet the People

Over the next few months I would like to bring you a few blogs about the many people that work to make Snapshot Serengeti possible. Without them there would be no data for us to pour over but what exactly do they do and who are they?

Dr Michael Anderson is currently in the Serengeti collecting data and checking up on how the various projects that make up Snapshot Serengeti are getting along. As part of the projects commitment to engaging with the local community Michael has begun a National Geographic funded intern program. Its aim is to give young locals valuable training and research experience in the fields of ecology and conservation.

The first student to be taken up on the program is Roimen Lelya Olekisay. He is a Maasai from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. His story highlights why the intern program is a vital part of both the scientific and conservation work we do. Many local people see wild animals as a threat to their own domestic stock as well as themselves and retaliatory killings are common. Living alongside wildlife is not easy. Without the good will of the local people it is very hard to change their attitudes to the work we do and the animals themselves.

Roimen grew up on the Western slope of the Ngorongoro crater, his family, like many Maasai are herders. As a young boy he roamed all over the Ngorongoro protected area (NPA) with the family livestock. The Maasai are permitted to live in the NPA where they can graze livestock but are not allowed to cultivate the land. Roimen spent two years away at secondary school before returning to the family to continue herding. This is a familiar story for many Maasai. The importance of livestock is paramount and many boys do not complete schooling.

As a young warrior, like many his age, Roimen speared and killed at least three lion. Tradition dictates that young Maasai warriors must kill a lion to become a man. He would have maybe carried on killing lions whenever he perceived a threat to his family’s livestock but he met up with Ingela Jannsen’s group Kope Lion Project in 2013 who work in the area trying to mitigate lion/human conflict. He helped fit a radio collar to a lion and this interaction with the king of beasts up close transformed him from a lion hunter to a lion protector. He became one of Ingela’s lion scouts (more about Ingela and the Kope Lion Project in next week’s blog) recording predator-livestock attacks in the conservation area and working to prevent lion conflicts and hunts. His enormous enthusiasm for lions and their research makes him a perfect candidate to further his scientific skills. This is someone with a natural ease and interest in the wildlife around him and its preservation.

In his new role as the first intern for the National Geographic-Serengeti National park program Roimen will be tracking lions and setting up a camera-trap network that hopes to dissuade human-lion conflicts and generally learning all the scientific skills associated with this work. He has just started and will be with us for six months, hopefully we can catch up with his progress in a few months.

Roimen setting a camera-trap

Ingela showing Roimen how to use call up equipment

Roimen in the NPA

Photo’s curtsey of Ingela Jannsen and KopeLion project