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Lion Landscapes CEOs Amy and Alayne recently visited Mark Adlington's exhibition at the John Martin Gallery London and were blown away by his evocative paintings. “Lion”, showing until the 28th of May, is the result of a three-year project by artist Mark Adlington to study wild lions in six different habitats across Africa. Every painting stimulates stories and intimate details from the many cumulative hours spent in the presence of lions, from the way they twitch their tails in different moods to bending their front paws inwards just before placing them on the ground. The magnificent exhibition is being held in collaboration with Pride Lion Conservation Alliance, with 10% of all proceeds from any sales directly supporting Pride and Lion Landscapes. If you cannot visit in person, we strongly recommend a visit to the online viewing room, to soak up some of Lion's essence. Read on to explore more through our exclusive interview with the artist. Lion Landscapes CEO's Amy and Alayne visiting ‘Lion’. Q. You have captured the essence of the lion really well (and that is coming from lion behavioural ecologists). Is it spending time with the animals themselves that allows you to do that? Where did you do your field research? Mark: Firstly thank you - really the best compliment I could receive! I have (reluctantly) used animals in wildlife parks in the past where necessary, but with this project, I made a decision from the beginning that I only wanted to draw wild lions. The captive lions in northern zoos had an overweight shaggy feel that failed to inspire me. I was lucky enough to make six separate trips to Kenya and Namibia, helped enormously by conservationists in both countries who have since become friends. Every place that I visited brought different lions, different landscapes, different light and different conditions - which is interestingly apparent in the finished paintings. In some places (Etosha) for example, you can only observe from the road, but then you also have the luxury of driving yourself and therefore putting in 12 hour days where necessary. In other places, I could watch them at night, or on foot. For me spending time with the animals was totally essential. I can honestly say that I learned something new from every single encounter - though this does leave you with a horrible awareness of just how much you don’t know! "For me, spending time with the (wild) animals was totally essential." - Mark Adlington Q. Were there any particularly powerful moments during your field research (or afterwards) that really influenced your paintings that you would like to share with us? Mark: As a painter it can often be strangely abstract visual things that really hit you - the surprising beauty of a carcass in the evening light, the pink curl of a lion’s tongue when grooming, or the way the myriad khakis of grasses blend into a lion’s coat. I once watched a small pride coming across a tortoise and using it as a football for half an hour. The big Male cuffed it about a couple of times then gave up, but the lioness was hugely athletic and knocked it about for far longer as if to try and teach her only cub, who then tried to emulate her before sitting on the tortoise for a long time before losing interest. I often found that subadults, particularly young males, just on the verge of being kicked out of the pride, were the most interested in me, as if looking for distraction while sitting out the long day and waiting for their free meal to arrive with their mother. Cubs playing are obviously endlessly entertaining and charming to watch, though that also gave me enormous respect and admiration for the wisdom and patience of their mothers. I only ever witnessed one successful hunt, in the Mara but have also seen how opportunistic lions can be, stealing an impala from hyaenas, and freezing, grandmother's footsteps style when stray game presents itself. Q. What was the most difficult and wonderful thing about painting lions (as opposed to other species)? Mark: I suppose the most frustrating aspect of the research element in this project was the famous 16-20 hours of sleep that lions can luxuriate in. To watch the golden hour casting magic over the landscape hoping that the lions will become active, only to see them begin to move the second the sun has truly disappeared. On the plus side, the powerfully fluid muscularity of wild lions meant that any simple action - sitting up, grooming, rolling over - presented me with an inspiring subject. And while the hypnotic charisma of their inscrutable stare is irresistible, three of my favourite paintings in the show, show lions turning away forcing the viewer to focus on the amazing structure of their bodies. The shapes of a lion, lion lines as I thought of them, are subtle and specific and more elusive than more eccentrically designed mammals like rhinos or elephants, and in the case of male lions, a lot of the structure is hidden in that famous hairdo. As someone who has always suffered from back issues, the incredible flexibility of a lion’s spine was a great inspiration through the amazing variety of poses they can adopt. Q. What made you decide to do a whole exhibition on lions? Mark: I have always tended to work with shamanistic intensity on one species at a time, but clearly tackling what must be the most iconic species in the world takes a bit of guts! I found the millennia of lion images from around the world rather overwhelming, but the more I got into the project, the more fascinating it became to see where even heraldic or highly stylised lions in art originated. I even began to understand that the numerous myths (Androcles/ Saint Jerome) could well have had their origins in real stories when I saw how relatively quickly wild lions that were not threatened became used to me over even a period of weeks. My ambition was to produce artwork which had observation and experience of wild lions as its absolute starting point but went beyond the normal confines of “safari art” in its execution. Q. What made you want to support Pride? "I knew I was watching and drawing lions in places that had come perilously close to losing them altogether in the recent past" - Mark Adlington Mark: I had first-hand knowledge of two of the organisations within the Pride umbrella, as I worked in the Chyulu hills and at Loisaba where Lion Guardians and Lion Landscapes have had such success in making it possible for people to live and work alongside lions with the minimal possible friction. And knew that I was watching and drawing lions in places that had come perilously close to losing them altogether in the recent past. I then heard about the Tusk Conservation lecture in London’s Royal Geographical society and went along. The talk given by Dr. Amy Dickman and Dr. Alayne Cotteril was hugely inspiring. Quite aside from the wealth of experience and pragmatic imaginative, multi-faceted conservation action, I found the whole concept of sharing experience, successes, failures, and even funding across borders and organisations obvious and ground breaking in equal measure. I am based in central London for much of the year, where I struggle (no really!) with pigeons and grey squirrels. We are asking local communities in African countries to live alongside lions. This is not an easy ask but if anyone can find a solution which provides a realistic future for these magnificent and most charismatic cats, I feel the Pride Lion Conservation Alliance can. It was a no brainer. Ten percent of the proceeds from any sales goes to supporting the Pride Lion Conservation Alliance.

Directly Linking Wildlife Presence with Community Benefits Living alongside large carnivores can be a scary and costly reality; imagine if your garden foxes were replaced with Africa’s top predators. Lions can sometimes attack both humans and the livestock they rely on, which can lead to the retaliatory killing of endangered species. Our programmes, including anti-poisoning training and boma reinforcement, have significantly reduced this potential conflict. However, people will never want to keep wildlife around just because the risks have been reduced. For long-term conservation - and for the welfare of local communities - it is vital that wildlife becomes a true asset to the people who live alongside it. This is why our conservation approach has three main pillars: Stop the Loss, Reduce the Cost, and Unlock the Value of living with lions and other large carnivores. ​ How do we Unlock the Value? Community Camera Trapping One way of unlocking the value of lions and other carnivores is our innovative Community Camera Trapping (CCT) programme. This directly links the presence of wildlife on village land to tangible community benefits. Villagers monitor their own wildlife populations through camera traps, and villages with more wildlife receive the most additional benefits. The initiative first started in Ruaha, as part of our joint-CEO Dr. Amy Dickman’s Ruaha Carnivore Project (RCP). Instead of researchers setting out camera-traps on village land, local villagers were trained and employed to do it. Two CCT officers from each village are equipped with camera-traps, bikes and GPS units. The CCT officers are selected by the village themselves and thus know the best areas for wildlife on village land. Every image of a wild animal captured generates a certain number of points, depending on the likely conflict risk and endangerment of the species. A lion generates 15,000 points and an endangered African wild dog is the most valuable at 20,000 points. Villages then compete against each other in groups of four on a quarterly basis to see who can generate the most points. All villages receive some benefits, but the winning gains ~US$2000 worth of additional community benefits, with the second third and fourth receiving $1500, $1000 and $500 respectively. The villages are grouped based on criteria such as proximity to the national park boundary and abundance of wildlife so each village has a chance to win within their group. At the end of the quarter, villagers all get together to celebrate and benefits are distributed. The images are shown to all villagers so they can see the wildlife that has been photographed on their land which ensures they understand the connection between the benefits and the presence of wildlife. Recent CCT captures in Idodi, Tanzania: Collared Lion 30,000 points (base 15,000 x 2 because of the collar). Leopard 15,000 points. Who decides on the benefits? It is vital that any community benefit initiatives actually address the needs and wants of the relevant people, and that people recognise that it is the wildlife (rather than the project) which is generating these benefits. To determine the best benefit initiatives, RCP had the villagers vote at community meetings, and they selected three top priorities: Better education for their children Better access to improved healthcare Access to good quality veterinary medicines However, these needs are constantly changing and we frequently hold meetings with villages to understand how we can improve. We recently received feedback that the youth felt neglected. Young men in our RCP work area are often a "forgotten" group and can easily get involved in an illicit activity such as poaching. In order to engage and support them we have modified our Community Camera Trap agreement and now include a special fund for the youth. The first purchase for nearly every village youth group was football related! We look forward to continuing to engage the youth across our landscape. Youth in Tanzania with new football equipment supported by the RCP CCT programme. Expanding Out: CCT Pilot in Lower Luangwa Given the success of the CCT in Ruaha, the programme is currently being piloted in another of Lion Landscapes’ study areas: Lower Luangwa, Zambia. Large areas of the Luangwa Valley are part of Lion Carbon. Participant villages in this pilot include the Chalubilo Village Complex & January Village Complex. The camera trap scheme will award communities with direct benefits (in the form of items purchased for households or community projects), based on the amount and type of wildlife recorded on camera traps placed within community managed areas. This should provide a very clear and visual link between wildlife presence in the village area and community benefits. As in Ruaha, Vulnerable species will earn communities more points, enabling the targeting of High Conservation Value species for both wildlife monitoring and community engagement purposes. Benefit funds are mostly spent on agriculture/food security (hoes, maize seed), health care (maternity, neonatal) and education (student stationery). The CCT has captured some incredible wildlife so far, including servals, wild dogs and elephants! Serval on the CCT, generating 5000 points. Three African Wild Dogs at 20,000 points each, providing 60,000 points for Luangwa! Elephant on the CCT, earning 15,000 points for Luangwa. Elephants offer a large number of points because they are costly to live alongside, damaging crops. Young Herders checking out the Community Camera Trap in the January Village Complex, Luangwa. Future Plans CCT has been highly successful, directly engaging and training local people in wildlife monitoring on their land, whilst providing an extremely clear link between wildlife presence and the provision of local benefits. In Ruaha, whole villages have imposed community bans on lion and elephant hunting which both used to be rewarded. This is a huge transition and demonstrates that communities can change quickly if they see a reason to do so. Ultimately, Lion Landscapes has goals to expand this CCT programme further across Tanzania, the Luangwa and Luano Valleys and implement it in Laikipia, Kenya. Lion Landscapes. Stop the Loss. Reduce the Cost. Unlock the Value.

Happy Earth Day! Today we celebrate positive climate action to protect our Earth. Lion Landscapes has recently committed to being 100% Climate Positive using Lion Carbon, an innovative carbon offsetting model developed by BioCarbon Partners (BCP) in partnership with Lion Landscapes. Since our announcement, we have received lots of questions about how the Lion Carbon REDD+ model works and thought that Earth Day would be a great time to answer your queries! Q: What does REDD+ mean? A: REDD stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. It is a UN Climate Change mitigation strategy, based on the principle that carbon will be locked up in protected forests instead of being released into the atmosphere. Currently, deforestation alone is responsible for up to 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. The additional “+” in REDD+ is added for the conservation of existing forest carbon stocks, sustainable forest management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Q: Is offsetting really the solution to Climate Change? A: Offsetting provides a mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the most cost-effective and economically efficient manner. Offsetting therefore plays a vital role in combating climate change, but if done in isolation is definitely not the solution. Before offsetting is considered, initial emissions must be reduced as much as possible to then offset those remaining unavoidable emissions. Q: How do you make sure all communities are fully involved in forest selection? A: Reducing deforestation can never be successfully or fairly achieved if communities are not leading the decision making themselves. In the Lion Carbon model, planning and implementation of forest management is all community led through Community Resource Boards. Teams are built internally from within local communities to protect and monitor their own forests, with support from BCP, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, and Lion Landscapes. As expected, engaging all communities has been no easy feat, involving a long process run by BCP starting in 2012. BCP follows internationally recognised standards of obtaining “Free, Prior, and Informed Consent” in order to work with communities to protect forests through 30-year agreements. In this case, BCP not only ensures that communities understand and agree to a REDD+ forest protection project, but that they are front and central to the development and implementation of that project. BCP CEO Dr Hassan Sachedina has recorded a podcast that you can listen to for more information on this story. Q: How are the offsets ‘Certified’? A: Like all of BCP’s offsets, all Lion Carbon offsets are verified by The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). VCS is the world’s most highly regarded and recognised independent authority on verified carbon projects. BCP is rated the most impactful REDD+ developer in the world, as the first to receive five consecutive verifications and Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Triple Gold status for exceptional community impacts. These standards also verify that our carbon offsets are real, rigorously and scientifically measured, and benefit local communities, forests, and biodiversity. Q: How are the offsets monitored? A: The Forest Monitoring Team is a select group of 4 from the local community who have been trained to collect data on biomass, illegal logging, wildlife and soils on the ground. They work with the Community Scouts and the Carbon Accounting team using GPS technology and satellite imagery to identify areas affected by deforestation and encroachment. They also use a smartphone application (spatial monitoring and reporting tool - SMART) to collect forest carbon data and to record and track wildlife sightings of key species such as lions, ground hornbills and wild dogs, and any illegal activity encountered. This contributes to our wider biodiversity monitoring efforts in the area, which monitors the trends in number and distribution of wildlife species in REDD+ forests. An estimated 512 million trees are monitored. Q: How is revenue invested back in the community? A: Revenue from the sale of all BCP's carbon offsets is invested back into communities in multiple ways. Revenue helps to build local capacity to protect and sustainably manage natural resources. This ensures communities have access to these essential natural resources for years to come, and helps secure a future for other wildlife related income such as tourism. Income from carbon also creates a more prosperous future through directly supporting sustainable livelihoods and enterprises, and improved access to social services such as education, healthcare and clean water. Revenue is also given as direct payments; since 2020-2021, direct benefits of over $4 million have been paid to over 220,000 households. Q: BCP sells different types of offsets, how is Lion Carbon different? A: Lion Carbon is a premium offset. When you purchase Lion Carbon, additional revenue is invested into conservation activities that monitor, protect and regenerate lions and other wildlife species. REDD+ income is based on the conservation of trees. Although the habitat protection this provides is enough to ensure the survival of many species living in these forests, additional conservation activities are needed to ensure the survival of many others. Lion is the perfect umbrella species for this additional conservation work because they face a wide range of threats, loss of habitat being just one. Healthy lion populations indicate other major threats to wildlife, such as poaching and conflict with people over loss of livestock and life, which have also been successfully addressed. This is why our goal is to ensure REDD+ forests can support lions as well as wider biodiversity and people. There are 3 pillars of community-based activities that ensure a future for wildlife in REDD+ forests: Security - Protect existing wildlife biodiversity through anti-poaching activities Regeneration - Increase wildlife biodiversity through active reintroductions Monitoring - To inform the adaptive management of all wildlife conservation efforts Offsetting with Lion Carbon therefore means you are protecting not just our planet and supporting local Zambian communities, but also directly protecting threatened or endangered wildlife. There is a clear link between protecting forests through Lion Carbon, working with communities, and the increase of wildlife; 2020 was a year of zero encroachment for the REDD + Project in Lower Zambezi! A total of over 1 million hectares of forest have been protected from 2020-2021. Two lions on Camera Trap in the forest of Luangwa, Zambia. Zambia has one of the largest wild lion populations and the Luangwa Valley Ecosystem is a lion stronghold. Q: Is Lion Carbon just for businesses? A: We encourage businesses and organisations like us to offset using Lion Carbon. Individuals can also offset using Lion Carbon themselves. Q: How can I offset using Lion Carbon as an individual? What is your expected price per credit? Lion Landscapes Volunteer Joni Oberbosch offsets her personal emissions using Lion Carbon, here is how: "We have invested in solar panels and other emission-reductions, but I can't get my footprint down to zero. I first calculated my footprint using an online calculator, doubled the amount because I want to be 100% climate positive and then subscribed to buy offsets on BCPs website. BCP follows up with an email and I then asked through email to upgrade to Lion Carbon. Lion Carbon will be available to purchase directly on BCP's new website soon." "I'm offsetting 4 tonnes per month for USD50." Do a ton of good this Earth Day by supporting this initiative and offsetting your emissions using Lion Carbon!

Laikipia is home to a diversity of incredible wildlife species. The Lion Rangers and Researchers of Laikipia are always taking excellent shots of the local wildlife they spot on their field patrols. Here, you can view a selection of our favourites. East African Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) Laikipia's Innovative Photographers: The Laikipia Lion Rangers The Laikipia Lion Rangers patrol over a total of 111,250 hectares of Kenya's prime Lion Landscape, helping protect community livelihoods for those sharing the landscape with nearly 300 wild lions.⁠ On their patrols, the Lion Rangers and Lion Landscapes Researchers have bumped into an incredible array of wildlife, capturing some great sightings. Incredibly, the Rangers don't often have cameras, so they use their mobile phones and binoculars to get these incredible close-up wildlife shots surrounded by a black rim. The African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana). The largest terrestrial mammal. Waterside Spots by Thomas Mojong, Terrapin turtles and Nile crocodile. Leucistic "blonde" Zebra by Thomas Mojong. This zebra has less black melanin pigmentation than the other normal zebras. Two Defassa waterbuck (Left) and Female Greater Kudu (Right) by Lion Ranger Boniface Lowoi, on Loisaba Conservancy. Oxpecker and Wattled Starling sitting on White Rhino at Lewa Conservancy, by Thomas Mojong. Lioness hiding in the undergrowth at Mugie Conservancy, by Elaine. Lion with zebra kill at Loisaba Conservancy. Lions and Ecosystems Although our conservation work focuses on lions and other large carnivores, their presence will protect and maintain healthy ecosystem functioning. All species are important to ensure the health of an ecosystem but lions are particularly important as apex predators, meaning their decline or removal would lead to ecosystem collapse. If large carnivores disappeared, herd populations would boom and grazers would eat the grass, transforming the savanna as we know it. A Lion Landscape is a landscape that supports a viable population of wild lions, or any other pinnacle carnivore species. To do this it must also support healthy wild prey populations, healthy habitat, and benefit local people. ⁠Our lion conservation and research work focuses on how local communities, their livestock and lions can co-exist in these lion landscapes.⁠ ⁠ By supporting us at Lion Landscapes, you are supporting the maintenance of healthy and biodiverse landscapes. Be sure to follow us and be the first to see any new spots!

“Our house is on fire.” Those were the words of climate activist Greta Thunberg in 2019, imploring all of us to do far more to address the existential threat posed by climate change. Her powerful words underlined the urgency of action and made many of us wonder what we could do to build a better future. In 2020, the Living Planet Report provided more grim warnings, this time around biodiversity loss. It revealed that on average, vertebrate population sizes had crashed by over two-thirds since 1970 – a staggering decline within many of our lifetimes. The primary driver was destruction and conversion of natural habitat. This mirrors what we see for lions: their numbers have nearly halved in 20 years, restricted to increasingly small and fragmented populations, with habitat loss the most important threat. To address the intertwined threats of climate change and biodiversity loss we need to safeguard natural habitat, which stores carbon, supports incredible biodiversity, and ultimately underpins the health of our global society. Natural resources are particularly important for the world’s most vulnerable people, who could sustainably use them as a way out of poverty. But currently economic incentives, at both the local and global level, tend to reward habitat destruction rather than protection. This must change. The scale of the challenge can seem overwhelming, but it is up to us to change the future. Firstly, we must reduce over-consumption. On our part, we have focused on being energy efficient, cutting charcoal use (a local driver of habitat destruction) and limiting our flights. Our field camps are very low impact, usually off-grid and powered by solar panels. Reduction is the first step towards limiting our environmental impact, but we must go further. We are therefore thrilled to announce that we have now gone 100% ‘climate positive’, using the groundbreaking ‘Lion Carbon’ model to offset double our carbon emissions annually. Lion Carbon is an innovative premium carbon offset that simultaneously addresses climate change, landscape-level biodiversity conservation and local empowerment. It has been developed with BioCarbon Partners (BCP), one of Africa’s leading forest carbon offset developers, based on their REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) approach. BCP works in partnership with the Zambian Government and local communities to conserve forests under 30-year agreements. The value of carbon secured in those forests is calculated using the highest Verified Carbon Standards, and sold to companies and organisations who want to offset their own emissions. This is generating a new and highly valuable income stream for sustainable development and forest conservation, which is particularly important since COVID-19 revealed the fragility of relying on external users such as tourists. BCP’s gold-standard carbon offsetting has already had impressive results. It has protected over half a billion trees across a million hectares of community forest, and is reducing emissions equivalent to 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. That is the same as removing around 290,000 cars from the road a year. In 2020-2021, BCP’s REDD+ programmes generated over US$4 million in direct payments to 12 chiefdoms for the protection of wildlife habitat, improving the lives of over a quarter of a million people. This makes BCP’s REDD+ projects the biggest in the world in terms of community beneficiaries. Providing fresh water, community benefits and sustainable conservation agriculture techniques. Photo credit: BioCarbon Partners But carbon offsets could conceivably lead to ‘empty forests’, with incentives to secure carbon but not biodiversity. To address this, wildlife conservation is a key component of the Lion Carbon model, with BCP working closely with government departments, local communities and Lion Landscapes to monitor, conserve and help regenerate wildlife in the community forests, with a particular focus on lions as flagship species. Lion Carbon activities are helping safeguard a vast biodiversity corridor in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley, connecting Four Key Landscapes for Conservation and regenerating wildlife populations in some of the most important lion range left on the planet. Additionally, a small percentage of the revenue from Lion Carbon helps fund our wider work to conserve lions in key landscapes across Africa. Investing in Lion Carbon means that people and organisations can offset their carbon, helping limit climate change, secure lions and other biodiversity, and generate a reliable income stream for local people. But rather than just ask others to invest in Lion Carbon, we decided that we should lead by example and do it ourselves. We are therefore exited that as of this International Day of Forests, Lion Landscapes is now 100% ‘climate positive’, using Lion Carbon to offset double our annual carbon emissions. We are the first conservation organisation to do so, but hope we will be the first of many. The 2020 Living Planet Report highlighted that ‘World leaders must take urgent action to protect and restore nature as the foundation for a healthy society and a thriving economy.’ We agree, but such action should not be restricted world leaders. Every one of us, including individuals, grassroots organisations, large NGOs and businesses, can and should take urgent action. Lion Landscapes’ role in the development of Lion Carbon, and our move to ‘100% climate positivity’, are important steps towards our vision of fighting climate change by helping to build vast healthy ecosystems with thriving human communities and biodiversity, including the African lion. Climate change is a global problem that requires individual action. Every person reading has the power to do a ton of good for our planet and each other. If you are thinking of offsetting your own Carbon footprint, consider using Lion Carbon for our planet and wildlife. Happy International Day of Forests! Lion Carbon Funding The Lion Carbon conservation activities have so far been supported by The Darwin Initiative, University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, the Lion Recovery Fund and National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative. Revenue from the sale of Premium Lion Carbon offsets will gradually decrease dependency on donor funds and make these wildlife conservation activities sustainable.

Are you Crazy for Cubs? Read on to learn more about their behaviour, how collaring for coexistence supports them and finally, our brand new Kids for Cubs clothing! Growing up in a lion pride Lion Cubs are some of the cutest residents we know, but how much do you know about their lives, growing up from tiny fur balls into the healthy subadults we see roaming the field? Well, let’s start at the very beginning! Following a gestation period of around four months, a pregnant lioness will leave her pride and retreat into a thick impenetrable habitat to give birth. Here, she keeps her vulnerable cubs safely hidden for up to six weeks before they are introduced to the rest of the pride. Newborn Lion hiding in the bushes, by Antonia Leckie. Lion cubs are born with blue eyes that slowly turn to amber. Upon arrival, other lactating females in a pride are very welcoming to newcomers; they will suckle each other's cubs regularly for the first 6-7 months, showing no favouritism for their own offspring. This generosity may seem strange, but as lionesses in the pride are highly related, each female enhances the survival of her own genes by helping to raise her relative's offspring. This communal suckling behaviour has therefore been selected over time as it increases the chance that an individual lions’ genes will be passed on to the next generation. Related adult females within a pride tend to give birth at similar times, with adults synchronising their fertility cycles so that they can all raise their young together. Mothers can therefore rely on one another to suckle and protect the young. Predation is a big threat to vulnerable newborns, but there is safety in numbers; there are so many cubs a predator can eat at one time! Even still, over half of African lion cubs don’t make it past their first year. When young male lions take over a pride, they will challenge another male for control and kill all the cubs, bringing the females into estrus again and maintaining the synchronisation. Whilst growing up in the protection of the maternal pride, lion cubs spend most of their day playing, wrestling and stalking each other through the landscape. Although it may sound like fun and games, this play is vital to help them develop the hunting skills that they will need later in life to support themselves and their future pride. As they grow bigger and stronger, these skills are further developed through joining their mother for hunting trips. Lion cubs wrestling under the protection of their maternal pride. This behaviour is vital to allow the effective development of hunting skills. As cubs age into adolescents, females tend to stay in their natal range, only leaving the pride if there is a short supply of food. In contrast, once subadult males reach around 3 years, they will spend more and more time away from their maternal pride, eventually leaving to find territories of their own. These males will have a much better chance of survival if they can stick together in groups called coalitions during this difficult dispersal period when they will have to avoid areas where they are not wanted by people, and territorial male lions wherever lions are still tolerated. Lion cubs with their mothers, by Chege Amos at Loisaba. Related adult females within a pride tend to give birth at similar times. Collaring for coexistence Livestock raised across Laikipia can occasionally become an easy prey target for wild lions on the hunt for food; if they gain entrance to traditional bomas they can predate on large numbers. Collaring for Coexistence is one of the pillars of the Coexistence coop programme, that Lion Landscapes run together with The Peregrine Fund to help halt the decline of lion populations. We deploy and manage specialized lion GPS collars that send us hourly locations for the lions; in each monitored pride one adult lioness is collared, and one adult male in each male coalition. Access to this lion movement data is given to livestock owners via a user-friendly app developed by Save The Elephants Kenya that maps the lion locations on google earth. Even if livestock owners don’t have the same technology as all of us, almost all of them have access to smartphones and a cell network. The information on lion locations can provide livestock owners with a warning if an individual is nearby, allowing them enough time to scare the individual away and keep their livestock safe. Scaring the lions away with much noise and disturbance is necessary to teach the lions that this area is best avoided in future. Reducing livestock depredation in this way minimises potential retaliatory poisoning events, supporting lion populations to reproduce and stay alive to care for their cubs. Lioness Labai, collared in 2018 with her 6-month-old cub. 2 years ago, Labai was sadly lost in a snare for bushmeat. Losing a lion in a snare is thankfully a rare event in Laikipia due to collective efforts of landowners, managers and conservation organisations but Labai's death highlights the importance of continued anti-poaching efforts in the area. Collared lioness Dawn’s cubs at Sosian Lodge. Kids for Cubs - Shop for your own little cubs and support real-life conservation Here at Lion Landscapes, we are excited to announce the launch of our new shop shipping to the UK and Europe, where supporters can buy a range of organic and sustainable products for their own little cubs! The perfect birthday present or baby shower gift for any nature and animal lover in the making. All proceeds from every sale go straight to our conservation programmes in the field, supporting real-life conservation efforts to help to save vulnerable African lions whilst protecting community livelihoods in Africa. And you don’t need to be jealous of your little ones for too long... adult products are also on the way, along with a US shop! Organic Baby Contrasting Bodysuit made from 100% organic cotton. Organic Baby and Kids T-shirts Lion Landscapes accessories, perfect for any little adventurer! We remain extremely grateful to The Nature Conservancy, Tusk Trust, Will’s Africa Fund, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and our many crowd donors for supporting the work we do, enabling us to better monitor and protect the lion populations of Laikipia.

Discover how to stand up for lions, join our community, interact with our work, and tell the world! With just a few clicks, you can make a big difference to the lives of African lions and those living beside them. Today, African lions are classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, with only 20.000 lions left in the wild, more than half of these wild lions remaining live in unprotected rangelands, shared with people and livestock. We work to protect all those people and wildlife living in lion landscapes, and our dedicated team of scientists, field biologists, researchers, rangers, and team in the field do an inspiring job. But to continue with this work we're dependent on your support! There are numerous ways you can help us, including those at no cost to you, so we thought we’d put them all in one place! Please read on to learn how you can support our programmes and help us save wild lions and promote coexistence. Shop Our Brand New Kids for Cubs Merchandise Bring African wildlife into your life by shopping products from our sustainable Lion Landscapes range in our brand new shop. We're now introducing the "Kids for Cubs" line for little humans. The perfect birthday present or baby shower gift for any nature and animal lover in the making! Every purchase promotes human-wildlife coexistence, supporting real-life conservation efforts by Lion Landscapes, helping to save vulnerable African lions whilst protecting community livelihoods in Africa. Look good, feel good! Shopping online in the UK: Amazon Smile and PayPal Giving It’s never been easier to support us when you shop online in the UK. For all our supporters who use amazon.co.uk, please use Smile.amazon.co.uk next time you shop and select Lion Landscapes as the charity of your choice. Every eligible purchase you make will result in a donation of 0.5% of the net purchase price to Lion Landscapes at no extra cost to you! It’s just as easy to support us when you pay with PayPal. Simply visit our Paypal page, scroll down and click to 'set as favourite charity' (above donation amounts) to turn the heart red. Once we are your favourite charity you can click to donate £1 when you checkout with @PayPal. Be a Lion Hero and set up your own fundraiser Have a birthday coming up, or just fancy running a race with purpose? Be a lion hero and create a Lion Landscapes Facebook fundraiser for your next athletic event or special occasion and raise money to support our conservation efforts. For the tech-savvy... Visit WildCards to “Buy” Jangili or Narok Lion Landscapes has partnered with WildCards to release two cards: Narok, our oldest monitored lioness and collared lion, and Jangili. At Wildcards, you can become the guardian of various animals, earn badges and rewards, and help support conservation on a global scale. Why do you need to be tech-savvy for this? Well, you have to pay with cryptocurrency! Narok Jangili Donate Directly By donating directly to Lion Landscapes, you are providing vital funds that are 100% used to support on the ground conservation projects. You can support our Collaring for Coexistence Programme with The Peregrine Fund at our donate page. Despite the Covid-19 restrictions, we do our utmost to help local communities in Laikipia co-exist with large carnivores. This video explains how we have adapted our programs to do so. Sign up to Befriend A Ranger As the pandemic continues to decimate conservation funds generated through the tourism industry, we are joining forces with the Ruaha Carnivore Project and BioCarbon Partners to raise funds for rangers across these programmes. Together, these heroes protect over 1 million hectares of prime lion landscape. For less than £1 a week, you can sign up to Befriend a Ranger and support these men and women protecting Livelihoods, Lions and Landscapes. Your donations can help provide vital kit, vehicle maintenance, ranger meals and even fund tracking patrols! Plus, you will receive a certificate and regular updates from your friends in the field. Buy Specific Essential Items for Lion Rangers Visit our amazon wishlist to buy essential field items. All these items, from backpacks to binoculars, help our field teams to continue protecting lions and local livelihoods. At checkout, choose the displayed Gift Registry Address of Lion Landscapes and we’ll make sure the products get to the field as soon as possible. Please include your email address on the gift slip so that we can thank you! Lion Ranger using his bottle, hat and backpack in the field. Tell the world! You can raise awareness of the problems lions are facing by sharing our research with your family and friends. Join the conversation, comment your thoughts and questions. Save, like and share our posts and invite your friends on social media to like us too. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn This easy to do action is incredibly important to help us reach more people and raise awareness. Sharing is caring! And Keep Exploring! Keep learning about lions and stay up to date with our research and programmes by browsing our website and social media pages. Last but not least, join our community and sign up to our newsletter! Thank you for your continuous support. If you have any questions about one of these ways to support us, don’t hesitate to contact us at info@lionlandscapes.org.

My name is Mary Burak and I am a PhD candidate at Yale University. I am an interdisciplinary scientist studying ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. I work in collaboration with Lion Landscapes to study lion connectivity across Laikipia, Kenya. I have always been fascinated by the trade-offs between wildlife conservation and land development, as well as human-wildlife conflict that can arise from this. How can these trade-offs be optimized to ensure the best outcome for both humans and wildlife? I view landscapes as checkerboards, and coexistence as the arrangement of different human and wildlife pieces in space. In my research, I use spatial and genetic data to understand where and how much lions are connected within Laikipia. We are specifically evaluating how landscape features – everything from water availability to human activity – helps, hinders, or has no effect on lion connectivity. The spatial data that I use includes collaring data as well as visual and spoor sightings reported by the Laikipia Lion Rangers in SMART. Genetic data for research is provided by the lion scat, collected by myself and numerous collaborators over the last two years. Perhaps some of you reading this have seen me on a Laikipia conservancy driving around in my tiny green Suzuki and carrying my trusty red bucket filled with rubber gloves and specimen tubes! Properties in Laikipia have been extremely kind in allowing me to sample for lion scat, and many individuals have helped me along the way. There have been many days spent circling and re-circling the collection area, filled with the smell of rotting carcasses and of course the smell of the scat! I’ve sampled opportunistically (morning drives looking for fresh scat on the roads) but most successfully at prey kill sites. Large buffalo or zebra kills can be easy to see, and I have been fortunate enough to collect anywhere from 5 to 12 different samples from each kill site! I’m happy to report that scat collection was completed prior to the impacts of COVID-19. I currently have more than 200 lion scat samples collected across 8+ Laikipia properties. For insurance, some of these scats are repeats from the same individual. Nevertheless, we are excitedly awaiting genetic results because this will be a large ecosystem-wide sample size! All of this spatial and genetic data helps to paint a picture of where lion connectivity corridors exist, the rate at which they are used, and the landscape features that most affect these corridors. In the end, this will help us to infer which situations can promote human-lion coexistence or ways in which we can proactively mitigate conflict. As you may have guessed, COVID-19 has unfortunately delayed this project. DNA analysis has been postponed as laboratories temporarily close, equipment deliveries are delayed, and offices significantly limit their number of occupants. I am currently working remotely from my home in the U.S. but am still progressing with research regarding Laikipia lions each day. I am currently assisting Lion Landscapes in their spatial analysis of lion collar data. The data will offer a spatial perspective to lion connectivity – an advantageous prefix to our genetic connectivity results. In the end, the spatial and genetic data provides both short-term (i.e., day-to-day) and long-term (i.e., over generations of lions) information which will paint a fuller picture of a coexistence landscape. In a strange twist of fate, this era of working from home has afforded me the opportunity to re-focus on the analytical tools I am using for my research. I have been able to learn about newer, cutting-edge statistical approaches. I have begun translating these statistical approaches into computer code, and am excitedly mapping out future analyses and continued applications of our data. Mainly, I am focusing on coding predictive models that can use our current lion data to predict future lion population and movement dynamics under different landscape scenarios. Thankfully, adjusted laboratory protocols are now being solidified and I optimistically hope to resume DNA analyses in 2021. While genetic analysis is normally a very prolonged process, I never quite imaged it taking this long thanks to COVID-19! As always, a big ‘thank you’ to everyone that is helping this project in any way, in any year that it has been carried out. While I had hoped there would have been some preliminary genetic results by now, I look forward to getting back into the laboratory and I can’t wait to share the results as soon as possible! Mary presenting her research at Pathways Conference in Limuru, Kenya, February 2020

Why do we identify lions? Identifying lions allows us to build an ID database so everyone can recognise the wild individuals in the field. Recognising individuals helps us understand: Where and how far they roam / how they disperse The degree of connectivity between groups Where conflict may occur All of this information can be used to better understand lion behaviour and manage potential conflict, working with multiple stake-holders to help develop successful conservation initiatives. How do we identify lions? There are a variety of features we use to help us ID lions, ranging from whisker spots to ear tears, scars or missing teeth and tail tips. As new lions are being born, and acquiring new distinctive features throughout their lives (e.g. ear tears, scars or missing teeth or tail tips), we need to constantly keep our database updated. There is however, one unique feature that doesn’t change throughout a lion’s life. Whisker Spots: The Lion Fingerprint! Did you know that the whisker spots of a lion are as unique as the human fingerprint? They are one of the only characteristics that don’t change throughout a lions life, which makes them ideal for identifying individuals as long as we have clear photos for the left and right side - check out the example below! Traditionally, the whisker spots are classified manually by counting the number and recording the position. Lion Ranger Wilson Sambaine, took this picture of this Borana female lion. For the left side, she has eight spots on her second line, and two on the top. These two ‘reference spots’ lie between spot 3 and 4, and 4 and 5. Along with clear photos of her other side (right), this unique patterning allows us to successfully ID this female if we come across her again in the field. If the whisker spot photos aren’t completely clear, we can use other features to support our identification, like the ears, nose, eyes, teeth and even scars!⁠ Left Side Reference Whisker Spots of Borana Female . Reference spot 1 lies in between spot 3 and 4. Reference spot 2 lies in between spot 4 and 5. Along with clear photos of the right side, this unique patterning allows us to successfully ID this female if we come across her again in the field. Lion Landscapes ID catalogues Once we have clear photographs of lion features, we can add individuals to our running catalogue. This can be used by Rangers and Researchers to quickly identify lions in the field from their facial structure, whisker spots, and any distinguishing features on their ears, nose and eyes. See the example catalogue pages for Bradymark, a female lion residing on @boranaconservancy, below! ID Catalogue for Bradymark, a female lion on Borana. Whisker spots, along with other distinguishing features, are collected to create an ID sheet for each lion. The Lion Identification Network of Collaborators (LINC) Lion Landscapes is part of a community of conservationists, that currently span Kenya and Northern Tanzania, in using LINC to upload and share our Lion ID’s. LINC is an open source platform that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help identify recorded lions if they are uploaded to the system. This app uses facial and whisker recognition algorithms to allow users to compare photographs of unknown lions to an expansive database of individuals, helping to identify lions who move beyond an organisation's study areas. Since its launch in 2015, over 450 individual lions have been identified on LINC. You can help If you are visiting Laikipia, you can always contribute to our conservation efforts by sharing your photos of the lions you have seen on your safari. Follow the attached guidelines on how to take your photographs. If you have visited Laikipia in the past and have photographs of lions, we are still very interested to receive these images, even if they aren’t taken according to these guidelines. Please contact us at info@lionlandscapes if you have photos to share and we’ll invite you to a web folder where you can upload the files. Your sightings will be added to the LINC system, and LINC’s AI recognition tool will identify each individual that you’ve seen. By doing this, you will be contributing to the long-term dataset on the lions in this ecosystem, and helping to inform actions to protect them. Volunteer and help from home! Our small volunteer network has been vital in helping us build ID databases for Laikipia’s lions. We are always on the lookout for new volunteers to help us with lion ID by cropping key features from survey images. If you are interested, please contact us for more information. Hear from one of our volunteers Menina below: “My name is Menina and I have been IDing lions for Lion Landscapes for the last 10 months. The ID process comes with great amusement and reward. With each crop I take and every ID that I make, I get to know the unique personalities of Laikipia’s lions. It’s a really inspiring job that makes my day, everyday! The identification of lions is such a critical part of our conservation program and knowing that I am contributing to saving a species that I have got to know and love is a totally unparalleled feeling. If you are interested in conservation or helping to save a species, I cannot urge you enough to get in contact with Lion Landscapes - you won’t regret it!” If you would like to keep up to date on the lion research & conservation efforts of the Coexistence Co-op in Laikipia, please subscribe to the Lion Landscapes newsletter.

We are always on the lookout for new ways of funding our conservation efforts, especially in the economically difficult times created by covid-19. Lion Landscapes was recently approached by Wildcards, “an unconventional strategy that is able to harness funding for conservation while simultaneously providing entertainment and dare we say, fun. Gamification and conservation are an unusual marriage, but with cryptocurrency acting as their glue, they attract new audiences and offer a new way of funding conservation agencies who are making a real impact around the world.” Wildcards is a technological platform which aims to connect global conservation organisations to the technology world of users. Social, gamified and transparent giving are all advantages of the new platform. Quite simply Wildcards is a trading platform for cards where users can become the guardian of various cool animals, earn badges and rewards, rank on leaderboards, and help support conservation on a global scale. Every wildcard represents an animal, with funds generated from this wildcard flowing toward the conservation organisation representing and protecting that animal. Wildcards can easily be bought by anyone at any time. Whenever someone buys a wildcard, they are immediately required to set a selling price. Therefore, the wildcard can at any time be bought for that selling price, and is ‘always for sale’. The interesting economic dynamic is that the owner of the wildcard pays a percentage based fee on the selling price they set. Each wildcard is accompanied by that animal’s history and contains interesting facts about the animal. Our first wildcard is Narok, our oldest monitored lioness. Felix and Jangili are soon to follow! Transparency is at the core of Wildcards. At any point in time, anyone can instantly verify the movements of funds. Moreover, no one can cheat the mechanism and the flow of funds, because Wildcards uses blockchain technology. The beauty of blockchain is that it’s a decentralised database that’s distributed and duplicated on multiple computers at the same time, allowing interaction without the need for involving counterparties such as banks. As new records — known as “blocks” — are added, the blockchain grows. Each block contains links to the preceding blocks and has timestamps, thereby forming a chain. As funds are in the form of Ether, a cryptocurrency, there are no international transaction fees when people from abroad donate to your agency. 1 Ether is currently worth US $452.90. Instead of contributing to one big global fund, Wildcards is able to split its global giving to many small funds that each make a big difference on regional and local levels. Wildcards make sure that smaller conservationists aren’t left behind while globalisation and new technologies continue to change the world to favour large organisations. If you want to know more about Wildcards, you can read their blog here. As traditional fundraising events are cancelled and private donors experience donor fatigue, we are all anxious about what the future holds. We are particularly worried about the people who live in lion landscapes, as lack of tourism reduces local incomes and their ability to financially tolerate livestock losses to lions reduces significantly. Conservation organisations worldwide need to start looking for alternative funding and different approaches, to which Wildcard offers a great new opportunity. How can I get involved? Visit Wildcards, buy a Lion Landscapes wildcard, and start contributing towards Lion conservation.

Thomas Mojong - Conservation and Research Officer "The challenge was such a great event. It was the first time I have ever done something like this in my life as a Lion Ranger. I felt happy to be a part of the Laikipia Lion Ranger team, and that I managed myself to run with my bag of 22kg and finish the race. The challenge was not easy, but the feeling that my efforts have been rewarded made me enjoy it. It was important for my work because I was able to organise all the Lion Rangers from the different ranches across Laikipia to participate in this challenge. I enjoyed coming together with the Lion Rangers and joining them in every challenge." Boniface Lowoi - Loisaba Lion Rangers "I am Boniface Lowoi, head Lion Ranger in Laikipia. On behalf of the Lion Rangers at Loisaba Conservancy, I want to take this opportunity to thank all our colleagues, our employers and the whole Tusk team that sat down and came up with the incredible idea of a Wildlife Ranger Challenge. This showed the teamwork of all the Rangers across the world, and that we are together as one." What the challenge was The Wildlife Ranger Challenge was an incredible initiative coordinated by TUSK, where 50+ Ranger Teams across Africa came together to complete a series of challenges to raise funds for their vital on-the-ground conservation work. In the series of mini-challenges, the Rangers completed the maximum number of push-ups, sit-ups and burpees in 2 minutes, to then test their knowledge in the Ranger Quiz! Finally, on October 3rd, the Laikipia Lion Rangers joined over 50 Ranger teams in running a half-marathon, carrying their typical 22kg rucksack. We are so proud that this race was won by The Loisaba Lion Rangers in a fantastic time of just 2 hours 21 minutes! How much we have raised We have been blown away by everyone’s continued support. After an intensive two months, we are so happy to announce we have raised nearly £8,000, thanks to the incredibly generous Scheinberg Relief Fund who matched all donations made through our JustGiving Page. They did this by: 1) donating 25% directly to our project, which means that we reached our goal of £5,000 pounds to help provide the salaries, equipment, and support for the Lion Rangers so they can continue their vital conservation work,  and by 2) donating another 75% to go to those wildlife ranger projects in Africa that need it mosts. This means another donation of £2,900! We are so grateful to every single one of our 89 supporters and to TUSK for making this all possible. Another huge thank you goes to @Larawildlife for raising awareness of our campaign and stepping up to walk alongside the Rangers on October 3rd from the UK, carrying a 25kg rucksack. What this money is going towards Your support is appreciated now more than ever. COVID-19 has created a perfect storm for human-carnivore conflict in Laikipia. A lack of employment and food security in vulnerable communities has reduced human resilience to livestock predation losses. At the same time, a complete stop to tourism and event related funding has reduced the resources available for Laikipia's Lion Rangers to respond. The £5000 raised from this campaign will go directly to the Laikipia ranches and conservancies to fund the salaries and equipment of the Lion Rangers. The Laikipia Lion Rangers are a partnership between Lion Landscapes and Laikipia Ranches and Conservancies. These Lion Rangers are specially trained and equipped to track lion movements, help local livestock owners protect their livestock from lions and other large carnivores, and so facilitate coexistence between local people and all large carnivores. With this support, the Laikipia Lion Rangers can continue to protect local livelihoods and wild lions, ensuring Laikipia remains a Lion Landscape - supporting people and lions - for future generations. To keep up to date on our partnership work in lion conservation and research in Africa, subscribe to our newsletter. If you want to continue to support us in our mission to protect wild lions and community livelihoods in Laikipia, you can set up regular donations here.

Meet The Laikipia Lion Rangers The Laikipia Lion Rangers are a partnership project between Lion Landscapes and Laikipia ranches and conservancies. Vital to our conservation success, these heroes on the ground are specially trained and equipped to help save wild lions by protecting livestock from attacks by lions and other predators, and stopping the retaliatory killing of lions, particularly using poisonous pesticides. Lion Rangers are also trained to collect important monitoring data, helping to constantly evaluate conservation efforts. Eight Lion Ranger units currently protect lions and livestock across 8 different wildlife ranches and conservancies, and neighbouring pastoral communities. The Wildlife Ranger Challenge Sadly, in this time of conservation recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Ranger jobs across Africa are at risk. To raise funds, Ranger teams spanning the African continent are joining forces in the Wildlife Ranger Challenges coordinated by Tusk to bring thousands of their counterparts back to the field. The Laikipia Lion Rangers team has been busy completing various challenges, all with the goal of training for the big 21k run on the 3rd of October. On this date, they will run 21 km across Laikipia, carrying a backpack of 25kg, tracking their route on Strava. The times of the first 4 Rangers will be averaged and sent to the Wildlife Ranger Challenge to see where the Lion Rangers team ranks amongst the 50 different ranger teams that are taking part all over Africa. In the build-up to the half-marathon on the 3rd of October, the Rangers will be competing in the 4 mini-challenges every Monday which all contribute towards their training. Our record holder for the first challenge, the 2-minute push-up, was Rianto from Borana Conservancy who managed 52 in 2-minutes! The winner of the second challenge, the 2 minute Sit-Up Challenge, was won by Boniface from Loisaba Conservancy, who impressed everybody with 87 sit-ups! We have finished two of the challenges, but see the Agenda below to find out when the rest of the challenges are taking place. Challenges over the next few weeks: Monday 14 September: Training Activity: 2 minute Burpees Monday 21 September: Mental Activity: Ranger Quiz Sunday 3 October: Race Day! A message from our Teamleader, Boniface from Loisaba Conservancy “I love doing the work I do as a Lion Ranger, as it protects the wildlife and protects their rights” How can you support us? Donate, run, share! Please support our rangers from wherever you are in the world by taking part in the following: Donate: Save wild lions and sponsor the Lion Rangers by donating through our just giving page. Help us reach our goal of £5,000. Every donation you give us will be matched by Tusk. Run With Rangers: On October 3rd lace up your shoes and walk or run in solidarity with hundreds of African Rangers over 5, 10 or 21km run. Register here. If you have donated to Lion Landscapes, then please wear yellow to show your solidarity with the Lion Rangers. Don’t forget to tag us in your race updates! Share: Please share our message on social media and tag us. Help bring Rangers back to the field so they can help protect our wildlife for future generations!