Tracking the g-coy pride in meru
TRACKING THE G-COY PRIDE IN MERU
BORN FREE KENYA’S FIELD TEAM IN MERU NATIONAL PARK HAS BEEN TRACKING SIX PRIDES OF LIONS FOR TWO YEARS – ELSA’S, SANCTUARY, MULIKA, NAIROBI GIRLS, BISANADI AND G-COY. G-COY IS A PRIDE OF ONE ADULT FEMALE AND FOUR SUB-ADULTS AND HAS BEEN TRACKED SINCE OCTOBER 2016. SPOTTING LIONS IN THE WILD IS NOT EASY AND VERY UNPREDICTABLE. HERE, THE TEAM RECOUNTS A RECENT TRACKING EXPEDITION…
Three days in a row late last month found us combing the dense bush of Meru National Park in search of lions. Together with colleagues and our Co-Founder and Trustee, Virginia McKenna OBE, we had tried to track them the previous week for hours on end without success. We did not see a lion al all despite splitting the team into three and relentlessly driving through their territories. Thankfully, everyone understood that it’s the way of the wild – nothing is predictable except perhaps the rising and setting of the sun.
On the morning of 23rd May, we found four individuals from the G-Coy pride around Mulika Lodge, which is in the north of the park about five kilometres from the main entrance, and observed them for an hour. Later that afternoon we returned to the same area and found one individual from the G-Coy pride. We knew the others couldn’t be too far away and could be resting in the dense undergrowth. Hours later, as dusk checked in and with no hope of sighting the full pride again, we called it a day.
The following morning, determined to find the pride again, we tracked their footprints from the Mulika Lodge area for about five kilometres east along Mulika River but then lost them near Leopard Rock. We noted that the spoors had more than four lions, with one big male among them. However, we did not see the pride or any other lions on our way back to our living quarters.
On the 25th, as the glorious red-yellow sun began taking over the darkness that had ruled the skies, we drove towards the location coordinates we had received – one of the females is satellite-tagged. The coordinates showed the female was not too far from where we had lost the footprints the previous day. Just before we got to the last transmission point, we bumped into nine lions sprawled on the road – Nairobi Girls and G-Coy prides together! They had teamed up the previous night and had made a kill – a large buffalo whose remains had been left for the scavengers to clear. Finding the two prides together clearly explained the numerous spoors we had seen the previous day. Having had their fill, they were doing what they do best – slumbering, lolling and rolling.
Two hours later, as the sun became too hot, they got up one by one and each pride moved in separate directions towards the shade.
It is intriguing to observe how different prides and individuals interact and why, and we hope that the data we collect will help all involved in the protection of these amazing but threatened species in their natural habitats for generations to come.