New Bonobo Research Center Complete

Construction of the Lomako Conservation Science Center – AWF’s new bonobo research and conservation station in the Congo Heartland – is complete!

Main sign for the Lomako Conservation Science Center.

We’ve come so far for this day: 2 long years of working with local people and the Congolese wildlife authorities (ICCN) to gazette the Lomako-Yokokala Faunal Reserve – the 3,600 sq km protected forest in which LCSC is located. 60 tons of construction material carried 350 km by boat to the site (watch video). 25 hours by wooden pirogue upriver to get there.

The mess building for dining and meeting. Solar panels on the roof supply green electricity.

The Lomako Conservation Science Center (LCSC) is a superb place for scientists and conservationists to examine a rich, undisturbed rainforest in one of the least accessible parts of central Africa. Lomako is also habitat for bonobos – the least known of the great apes. And perhaps – with the proper systems in place – adventurous tourists could come to see Lomako and the bonobos, bringing some much needed revenue to local people.

“The centre will welcome researchers and tourists from all over,” said Valentin Omasombo, who oversees bonobo research at LCSC. The research, he says, “will be used not only to support the ongoing management of the reserve but also to support development for the human populations around this protected area.”

One of the cabins in which researchers and visitors can stay while at LCSC.

The research station lies in a small clearing 2 km from the Lomako River. There are three wood cabins visitors, and showers and flush toilets. The mess building has a screened-in dining area and an open-walled sitting area.

The laboratory and satellite for internet.

A laboratory houses computers, scientific equipment, and other sensitive gear.

Solar panels provide electricity throughout camp and, incredibly, there is satellite internet, enabling researchers to stay connected to the world from this remote section of the DRC.

Local guides have been trained and outfitted to track bonobos and monitor other aspects of tropical forest ecology.

People from the nearby village of Ndele are employed at the camp. Papa Mawa and Joseph keep everyone fed, Depot and Papa National are camp guards, and several workers keep camp maintained and running. Two teams of bonobo trackers, led by Papa Bosco and Papa Mange, go into the forest every day to find bonobos, recording their movements, nest sites, habituating them to human presence, and monitoring other forest species.

If there are any readers out there who work in or have visited tropical research stations – we’d love to hear from you!

Bringing Green Energy to Lomako

I received this photo from Jef Dupain in the Congo Heartland. He says, “We are incorporating green practices into Lomako Center as much as possible. Because the Center is in the middle of the forest, it’s important that we have low impact. Plus it saves cost too. Bringing fuel and batteries and things all the way out here is too expensive. So we’re trying to be creative to find better solutions.”


These solar torches called BoGo Lights are part of that solution. These were donated to AWF through Mark Bent’s SunLight Solar program.

“Their marketing approach is novel,” said Kurt Redenbo, AWF’s Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations. “When a customer purchases one torch they have the chance to designate AWF to receive a free torch. Buy one, give one.”

“Wherever I go, I see people reacting very positively to these solar lights,” said Jef.


The picture includes part of the team heading to the Lomako Conservation Science Center for the opening. From left to right:
Alfred Zola (AWF officer based in Basankusu), Nady Mpiana (consultant for AWF who is helping to prepare for the release of bonobos here in Basankusu), Ghislain Belembo (ICCN-AWF, monitoring large mammals in Lomako Reserve), Guyguy (Guard…very proud on his solar now), Jolie Okako (videojournalist making documentaries on AWF), Cecilia Julve (consultant helping develop “hunting management plan” in south of Lomako Reserve), Gisèle Kabolle (AWF intern working with Cecilia), Theo Way (AWF officer working on civil society strengthening, based in Basankusu).

Getting Ready for the Expedition

The Congo Heartland is buzzing in anticipation of the big opening of the Lomako Conservation Science Center (LCSC).

Solar panels and other equipment arrives in Basankusu.

A plane arrived in Basankusu with 2 tons of equipment, mainly solar panels. The panels will travel by motorized canoe to the forest for installation over next few days. The canoe will travel non-stop for an estimated 40hrs, going all the way up to LCSC, then back to Basankusu to pick up travelers.

Alfred, in the picture, miraculously got the equipment to Basankusu in time… despite irregular flights, changes in flights due to weather conditions, lack of fuel, and DRC having an unexpected public holiday because they won a big soccer (football) match!

We invited the local authorities (Comité de Sécurité) for a presentation on AWF’s work in the Heartland and dinner in the garden of the AWF office in Basankusu.

Touching up the office sign.

Getting the AWF office looking good for our VIPs. Guests include government ministers and other officials, ICCN senior staff, a Reuters journalist, consultants, and partners.

Videojournalist Jolie Okako delicately packs for the expedition to Lomako.

The first canoe leaves town with the first load of guests, on their way to Lomako. Bon voyage! Don’t let the tsetse flies eat you.

Back to Congo

In November I went to the Congo Heartland in the DRC to help plan the opening of the new Lomako Conservation Science Center – an amazing research and conservation lab that is one of a kind: situated in the heart of the rainforest, 25 hours by boat from civilization, connected with satellite internet, and surrounded by the unique biodiversity – bonobos! – of the new Lomako-Yakokala Faunal Reserve.

Now they’re putting the finishing touches on the Center, and I’m going back for the grand opening. I’ll be blogging along the way to tell the story and to bring some much deserved visibility to this new initiative which will have major conservation impact.

The construction of the Lomako Conservation Science Center in November 2008.

The Center earlier this month.

Collaring a Lion

After two long days of searching without success, we finally found the lion. I had been out in Buffalo Springs looking there, while Shivani was in Samburu Reserve. At 6:36 in the morning, Shivani – the AWF Charlotte Fellow – had found a pair of males basking in the dry riverbed of the Ewaso Nyiro. When she finally reached me on the radio around 10:00 I rushed over, approaching from the other side of the river.

Then the waiting began. We sat there watching the two boys through binoculars, baking in our cars. As the day grew longer and hotter, the lions made no sign they were about to leave the shade and cool sand. The Kenya Wildlife Service vet, Dr. Stephen Chege, was driving up from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, about 4 hours away. We had some time to kill.

The two males dozed in the shade while we waited for the KWS vet to arrive.

Shivani knew both male lions – Lguret and Loirish – who moved from an adjacent community conservancy into the reserve last September. Lguret was the one to be collared, because, as Shivani explained, “he was maneless – Loirish appeared to be growing a mane and I didn’t want the collar to bother him if he was growing a mane. But the reason I chose these guys specifically is because of them being community lions and they will move out and wander when it rains and leave the protected confines of reserve. I want to see how, when and where they wander to.”

After 10 hours of waiting, Chege arrived and the operation began. Shivani developed a plan with him and he prepared the dart and cocktail of anesthesia. From my position on the other side of the dry river, I had a great vantage point as Shivani and Chege drove down into the river and crept up to the lazy lions.

Driving down into the dry Ewaso Nyiro to dart the lion.

The lions in the reserve are so accustomed to vehicles that Lguret didn’t even bother to look at the approaching Suzuki. He continued to snooze, with no clue that he was about to have quite a scare.

Seconds after Dr. Chege fired the dart perfectly into his shoulder, Lguret leaped up and wheeled around to see what stung him. You can see the pink plume from the end of the dart.

With precision aim, Chege fired the dart directly into Lguret’s left shoulder. Lguret leaped up and wheeled around to see what bit him, sending poor Loirish fleeing, wondering what on earth was going on.

The two lions raced up the riverbank and into the saltbush. We followed them, still keeping a safe distance until Lguret got visibly drowsy and lay down.

By now, the Samburu rangers and Save The Elephants guys joined us to assist, and they kept a watchful eye on Loirish – who did not want to abandon his fallen comrade – while we slowly approached the unconscious Lguret.

It was a tense moment as Chege decided the lion was deep asleep, and crept out of the vehicle. How do you make sure the lion is asleep and won’t jump up to eat you? You nudge it with your foot, apparently.

The team in action, taking measurements of the sleeping lion.

Everyone snapped into action and for the next one hour worked in unison as if they did this every day. Chege assessed the health of the lion and took blood and tissue samples. Raphael and David affixed the collar around Lguret’s neck, making sure it wasn’t too tight nor too loose. Ranger Mike Lesiil and Jerenimo, an intern, helped wrote down data. Chris made sure the other lion didn’t come back. And at the center of all these men Shivani held court, lifting giant paws and to take measurements, peering at huge canines, and gleaming bits of veterinary skills from Chege.

Shivani Bhalla take measurements.

Dr. Stephen Chege examines the lion's mouth. And all those big teeth.

The lion’s mouth was a particular point of fascination for everyone. It’s like some basic human instinct compelled us to gaze into the very thing that symbolized the possibility of death. And it was so clean.

After the collaring was fitted and the necessary data was collected, we quickly posed for the necessary photos to document this incredible event. There was a giddy energy among us. That same energy that comes after some danger avoided.

The antidote was administered, and Lguret slowly came around. On wobbly legs, he got up and staggered away from us into the bushes, perhaps wondering what was the new thing around his neck and how he got such a mean hangover.

The lion, after waking up, showed off his new research collar, then promptly headed to the bushes to take a nap.

We stayed with him to make sure he was in good condition and not aversely affected by the collar or operation.

The radio-collaring operation was a great success. This is the first time that movement data from a lion in Samburu is being gathered and this information is crucial for lion conservation and the management of the ecosystem. Hopefully, Lguret will move from the reserve into community areas, and we will be able to use this key data to develop solutions to reduce human-lion conflict.

Me and the anesthetized lion.

Why Do People Kill Lions?

In the past two decades, more than half of Africa’s lions have been wiped out. As Bernard Kissui wrote in his lion blog, the remaining populations of the African lion are restricted to small and isolated protected areas, where, despite concerted protection, they are subject to unusually high mortality due to close interactions with an ever increasing human population outside protected areas.

“One of the main threats to lions is from people killing lions after their livestock has been killed,” Shivani Bhalla, who I’m with in the Samburu Heartland, told me. She was trying to put it in perspective for me.

“Think about it. To a pastoralist, his cattle is everything. It’s as valuable to him as your home or your job is to you. If something came in the middle of the night and took all of that from you, wouldn’t you be angry? Wouldn’t you do something about it?

“They are not malicious people. I think if we can reduce the number of livestock killed by lions and prove that living lions can be valuable to them, they’ll stop these revenge-style killings.”

A Tanzanian lion killed in retaliation for killing a cow.

The long-term conservation of Africa’s lions will depend on resolving conflicts with humans. People may be part of the problem, but they’re also essential in the solution.

The First Collared Lion in Samburu

I’m looking for lions. We haven’t found them, or much at all, in this drought that has left Buffalo Springs and Samburu National Reserves parched and dusty. But we need to find them soon.

I got a call from Shivani Bhalla – the Kenyan PhD candidate studying the declining lion population in this region and working with local Samburu communities to mitigate human-lion conflict – and she told me that she was arranging a small team to assist her put her first radio/GPS collars on lions to better track their movements between the reserves and the surrounding community areas.

This would be the first officially collared lion in Samburu. I figured this would be a great opportunity to highlight an AWF Charlotte Fellow in action as well as to bring attention to the serious trouble lions are in, so I drove up to Samburu to document the collaring.

To fit a research collar on a lion, you need to anesthetize it. To do that, Shivani booked the time of Dr. Stephen Chege, a wildlife vet with the Kenya Wildlife Service. You might remember him from the incident of the zebra killing the cheetah.

Chege is one of these characters you look at with a tinge of envy. His week, an average one, looked like this: he had to go treat a wounded Grevy’s zebra on Kalama Conservancy one day, then come do the lion collaring, then dash off to inspect an ill white rhino on Ol Pejeta. You know the reality of his job is not as glamorous as it seems, but you can’t help think “when I grow up I want to be like Chege.”

Dr. Stephen Chege, wildlife vet with KWS.

Before Chege arrives in a couple days, Shivani needs to locate her target lions. She’s a bit on edge since she has a very small window in which to find the lions, get the vet to these lions, and coordinate the other park rangers, wardens, and guys from Save The Elephants who have offered to help with the operation. Unfortunately, the lions aren’t aware of their upcoming appointment with the doctor, so they’re not lying around waiting for us.

We left camp before sunrise in two vehicles to find the lions. We drove deep into the reserves, along with Shivani’s team of Samburu warriors to track the lions.

Soon we found these little guys. Just as the warm light was coming up, we spotted three little brown forms rushing from the road’s edge into the bushes. We cut the engine and waited and eventually the playful cubs began their antics again, tumbling, chasing and swatting at each other.

We didn't find our lions, but we found Nabo's cubs enjoying the sunrise.

These were Nabo’s cubs that we spotted on my last trip here in July. Since these were important cubs – the first to be born in the reserve in nearly three years – it was great to see them now 9 months old, healthy and bigger. Their mother must have been out hunting.

A single sighting like this cub is why I love my job.

Eight hours later, the two vehicles were still driving around, without a sign of the adult lions. While Lekuraiyo, the Samburu tracker, studied the dirt for paw prints, I kept an anxious eye and ear on my car.

Getting here wasn’t easy. AWF has been hit hard by the global financial crisis, so I wanted to keep my trip costs to a minimum and decided to drive myself in “The Tractor,” my old, rickety Land Cruiser. Halfway between Nairobi and Samburu, there was a violent lurch and clang, and I pulled over to find my drive shaft dragging on the ground. I don’t know squat about auto-mechanics, but I knew that couldn’t be good.

I was on the outskirts of a small town, Isiolo, and I was able to call Philip Lenaiyasa from AWF’s Samburu Heartland team, who quickly put me in touch with a friend of his in Isiolo with a backyard garage.

I’m always impressed with Africa’s networks. There I was, stranded on the side of the road in the middle of hot Kenya, wondering how much drinking water I have in my car, and soon enough I had about four people sending help – not to mention the people passing by who asked if I needed a hand.

Four hours later, with a new something called a flench, I was pulling The Tractor into Shivani’s camp.

One of Nabo's three cubs, posing on a fallen tree.