In the Mara, lions and cows eat from one plate

By Caroline Chebet | 5yrs ago | 2 min read

Within the greater Mara ecosystem, conservancies are doing the unexpected; integrating cattle and wildlife in one space during the day. And when the sun sets, the cattle are led to predator-proof bomas within the conservancies.

These predator-proof bomas are part of an ambitious project to mitigate the rising cases of human-wildlife conflicts in the area.

“We integrated livestock and wildlife in most of our 14 conservancies as a way of promoting the relationship between the community and the conservancies to ease retaliatory attacks arising from human-wildlife conflicts,” Daniel ole Muli, the regional coordinator of Maasai Mara Wildlife

Conservancies Association, says. The predator-proof bomas, Ole Muli says, have been a success in deterring the big cats who usually fall victim to retaliatory attacks when they prey on livestock.

“We came up with several initiatives to combat the many cases of human-wildlife conflicts within and outside the community conservancies. Most of these initiatives are a collaboration between the conservancies and the communities in bringing down these conflicts,” Ole Muli says.

In the initiative, the conservancies take up cattle from the community, cross-breed with improved varieties and rear them within the conservancy where they are kept in predator-proof bomas.

After a few years, the conservancy releases improved bulls to the community, to help them boost production by enhancing the quality of their herds.

Joseph Ndabaala, a chief in Aitong location in Narok, says apart from predator-proof bomas, locals also employ other initiatives to reduce human-wildlife conflicts.

“The communities around have adopted chilli fences and bees on their fences to bar elephants that stray into nearby farms and destroy crops. Most of them have also adopted lion lights and predator-proof fences,” Ndabaala says.