What happened to Jangili?

When we spoke about Jangili in April, he had been recently collared and was beginning to recover his condition. When we originally found him, he was a desperately skinny, lion close to starvation, who was terrorising a camel boma.

Jangili's capture went extremely well with the support of KWS and one of our partners Mpala Ranch. Since we fitted his GPS collar we have been carefully monitoring his movements and working with local livestock owners to make sure he stops his livestock killing behaviour. We recently caught up with Jangili in person and discovered that he is now part of a two lion coalition (a coalition is a group of males who live together) and looking back to his full strength.

Jangili tends to prefer spending his time on Ngorare ranch with occasional short visits to Northern Segera, and has been successfully killing wild prey. We recently caught up with Jangili in person and discovered that he was part of a two lion coalition (a group of males who live together). Coalitions are normally made up of lions that are brothers, and often half-brothers and cousins. They usually have their beginnings when these males are all still cubs, living in their natal pride. Jangili’s coalition partner has since been named Zion by David Hanegraaf, one of our Laikipia partners on Ngorare ranch.

Jangili Zion

Jangili and Zion have been very well behaved with no known livestock conflicts reported. They have both been seen eating wild prey including zebra, buffalo and oryx. Zion is a much larger lion but Jangili seems to be the dominant male in this coalition. They were first spotted together by Sean Outram (one of our Laikipia partners based on Sosian) who noticed recent wounds and suggested that there must have been a feisty scrap. We will never know if the two males were fighting another male or having a disagreement between themselves. Luckily it did not seem to be anything serious, just a few scratches.

Last week the GPS collar data showed that Jangili had suddenly stopped moving and we were all very worried. Thomas Mojong, our Conservation & Research officer, rushed over to check on him. Due to his history, we tend to worry that he may have been involved in a human-wildlife conflict incident when his collar data shows him to be stationary. After a few hours, Thomas messaged us to say that Jangili was alone on a buffalo kill.

“I have checked Jangili and he is still at Ngorare, all alone. He has made a kill of an adult buffalo and he is enjoying the meat. Jangili has vultures as neighbours for a while”

The fact that Jangili was able to bring down an adult buffalo is very encouraging as it suggests that Jangili is back to his full prime. Having vultures in the landscape is also extremely important as they are a good indication of low conflict, low poisoning in the area and a healthier ecosystem. To find out more about our Coexistence Co-op and the work we do in partnership with the Peregrine Fund, click here.