Post Workshop Extravaganza

After the workshop ended I had about 5 days to kill before heading to China.  Many students stayed in Manali after the workshop and travelled to various places with new friends.  A crew of 4 of us decided to travel together for a few days before heading off in our own direction.  My crew ended up being 2 other students from my class (Gaelle and KP) and Varun (“co-host/organizer” of the last night’s party with me). 

Gaelle is a very pretty, very sweet girl from Paris that currently works for Unicef in Senegal.  She is quite adventurous given her 4 day adventure with 3 other dudes around the Himalayan parts of India and her work with Unicef in Africa (she has been there for over 3 years).  KP is a smart dude from Bombay (yes, Bombay, nobody calls it Mumbai here in India...that I met).  He grew up in India and went to college in the US.  He has a similar story to me in that he spent a number of years in finance and is now mostly free of that life.  KP helped set up a real estate hedge fund in Mumbai and the success of that gives him the flexibility to pursue photography as he wishes.   Although not a professional in practice, he has some amazing pictures.   Varun, what can I say, he is the man.  He grew up in Calcutta and lives in Chennai, also went to college in the US and studied photography in India.  He is a freelance photographer and very resourceful and connected here in India.  Varun was the brains and the organization behind our last few days of travel in India. 

The 2^nd day after the workshop ended (the 1^st day was a relax and recuperation day) we went paragliding.  7 total students from the workshop went along for the ride.  We drove to Rhotang pass, which is 13,100 feet and a 3 hour drive from Manali (much of that time is actually spent waiting in traffic as the roads are small and very inefficient...not to mention packed with big trucks).  The views from up there are amazing with many snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas.  Most of the “tourists” heading up to the pass are Indian.  They get all dressed up in old fur coats, many of them with leopard prints, and take pictures of one another.  Since India is so hot, this is one of their chances to actually wear winter gear and it is quite amusing to them.

We launched on our paragliding trip about 7 kms below Rhotang pass.  We flew for about 40 minutes and landed down in the valley - quite a view from way up in the air.  We were with a group of very experienced paragliders and their leader was once (and maybe still is) the Indian champion for paragliding acrobatics.   Some of us did not “appreciate” the acrobatics as much as others (well, our stomachs didn’t, lets just say that).  Next time, Dramamine before paragliding!

The next day we awoke at 5 am and the 4 of use set out for our trek.  We hired a driver for 3 days and drove to the Parvati Valley.  This is an area famous for its hiking/trekking and we planned on figuring everything out when we got there.  After speaking with the driver and some locals we decided to spend our first afternoon climbing to Khir Ganga (Kheer Ganga, Khirganga, Kheerganga....spelled how you wish).  Khirganga is famous for the weed scene (no this is not a theme for my trip, just coincidence that the remote regions in India which are best for hiking are also known for the weed scene).  We hired 2 porters (I carried all my own stuff, relax, I had more than enough porters for the year while climbing Kili) and hiked through massive pine forests for about 4 hours.  Khirganga is a large opening above the forest and it is a holy place for the locals with some naturally occurring hot springs.  The accommodation is very, very basic.  You can just show up (reservations not required, or even possible) and pay 100 rupees ($2) for a wood/plastic covered shack with a wooden bed, thin (old) mattress.  Honestly, would have been more luxurious to sleep in a tent for the night, but luxury was not the point, this is how they do in Khirganga.

Anyway, Khirganga is beautiful and interesting.  It really is a bunch of hippies that sit around and smoke massive amounts of weed (weed that always gets top awards in Amsterdam’s yearly weed judging festivals).  You are surrounded by towering peaks, some of them snow covered, and you eat basic Indian food and sip Masala Chai morning, noon and night.  We took a dip in the hot springs and just chilled out.  It really was nice hanging with 3 new friends, everyone is relaxed and open minded and willing to just go with the flow.  It was a great way to round off the workshop..and some hiking/adventure was seriously needed after a week of “working” on photos and stories.

We planned to fly back to Delhi after returning from our trek and from there we would all drive down to the Taj Mahal before parting ways.  Well, India is known for flight delays/cancellations and the weather did not help our situation.  If it were the US or Europe, the flights would have been fine.  But budget Indian airlines are not as well equipped (or maybe the pilot was just too high to make it to the airport).  The flight was turned back to Delhi and our plans of a quick return were spoiled.  No worries, right, go with the flow.  We got our refunds and hired a driver for the next 2 days.  Instead of going to Delhi in one 12-hour shot by car, we decided to stop in the state of Punjab, in the city of Chandigarh.  This state is mostly inhabited by Sikhs and is a very patriarchical culture within of India.  The land is very fertile and agriculture is abundant.  We found a very nice country retreat (well, combination of Lonely Planet from Gaelle and contacts from Varun) and it was the perfect place to spend the night.  The place was a very nice compound with a pool (which is quite rare) and good food/drinks.  Punjab is really hot and muggy (actually that is an understatement) and the pool was the perfect way to cool off.

Overall, India has been great.  Lots of new people, lots of new persectives and an interesting country (both in terms of natural and cultural beauty).  I will certainly return to see the rest of the country at some point (winter is best when it is not so hot) and will also keep in touch with my travel buddies for future trips/treks around the world.

dave

The Workshop Comes to a Close

The Foundry Photojournalism workshop ended a few days ago and overall it was a great experience.  We all did a photo essay on a subject in and around Manali.  Many of the photos were impressive and some of the stories were quite interesting.  My story was about a Nepalese farmer, 22 years old, who lives on a 1 acre orchard owned by a local “businessman.”  He stays there 24-7 for the growing season and goes back to Nepal to visit his family at least once a year. It is a very lonely existence, he rarely interacts with others and he spends much of his time tending to the orchard and guarding the property.   (Will post pics of the story on my website if you are interested: www.davidjnicolaphoto.com ).

Other students did stories on Tibetan monks and culture, other India cultures around Manali, local hospitals, etc. Overall many of the students were impressive photographers and photojournalists.   Honestly, after seeing the work of many students during the workshop (as well as their past work and current websites) my photo skills have a LONG way to go.  I need to get some better photos especially if I am going to have a website that people actually look at!  Some people really have a unique perspective and it comes through in their photography.

Meeting everyone was certainly the highlight of the event.  There were 70 or so students with about 10 instructors.  Our instructors were well-known photojournalists that donated their time to come teach the class.  The students were very diverse, from all over the world and had many different levels of experience.   Some were freelance photographers or photojournalists and some were neophytes (i.e. me). 

The last night was supposed to be our big blowout party.  At about 4 pm I found out nothing was organized in terms of alcohol or late night partying. So I decided to take charge as the “Beer Man” and figure it out.  With the help of my new friend, Varun, we were able to make sure the party lasted until 5 am.  We got beer, alcohol, wine, mixers, etc all organized for the various parts of the evening and even were able to make sure the drinks were “mostly” cold (which is tough to do for massive quantities of alcohol in a country were fridges are infrequent and small and ice does not exists…at all!)  The party ended up being a great time and a great way to top off the week.  If my busy schedule of unemployment permits, I will seriously consider returning again next year as they plan on hosting the workshop in Istanbul or Sarajevo.

Haggling over Pennies

It seems ridiculous, but haggling over pennies is a very real part of traveling in the poorest parts of the world. This was mentioned once in a documentary I recently watched; "A Map for Saturday" (documentary produced by friend of some ex Blue Mtn colleagues). In this film the author travels for 360 days or so around the world and while in Thailand he explains how you haggle over even the smallest amounts of money.

I experienced this the other day, before realizing the absurdity of that situation. It was 8:30 pm or so, just finished shooting some photos and had a 15 min walk up a hill back to the hotel. A rickshaw drove down and I grabbed him for the trip up. I asked how much: "30 rupees" - before just saying "yes", I replied "20 rupees" - to which he promptly shook his head "No." Then i realized the ridiculous nature of the situation. 10 rupees is 20-25 cents! Does that even count as a rounding error? Needless to say, i took the 30 rupees ride (which actually was a rip off when compared to our normal 50 rupee rides to town).

One of the points made when we discuss the necessity of haggling for pennies with locals is that this is part the process. Locals will always haggle in order to get to the right level. Tourists, esp westerners, should haggle because the initial price usually starts at 2-3 times the local price (the price at which the good or service will trade). Even though it seems ridiculous to haggle over small amounts of money (by our standards) these "small amounts" are real money to the people. Additionally, it has been argued that foreigners who do not haggle over "small money" are making it more difficult for many of their brethren traveling on a tight budget. If a foreign tourist always trades at 2-3 times the price it will simply set the "white person" price higher than necessary in the future. This seems logical, but there also is a limit to how far one should push people who are very clearly living at much lower living standards. $10 grand per year in these parts of India will give you a relatively comfortable lifestyle.

Apparently, the lesson to be learned from all of this is: haggle with the locals, it is a natural part of the process. Don't feel bad about it...but also have some perspective on the situation. It isn't a big deal for a few extra dollars to go to those struggling to meet what we consider our most basic needs.

Weed, Weed, Weed...Oh So Much Weed!

The picture speaks for itself. There is weed growing all over the place around here. Don't worry Mom, i did not partake and don't plan to (another potential "Locked Up Abroad" situation that is best avoided). Manali is not known for its weed, that is Malana - have not been there yet, but it is apparently an interesting place. "Malana cream" is the famous weed from that place and that is pretty much all they do besides "being spiritual." The people of Malana allow tourists but they are restricted to walking on certain paths outlined throughout the town. Anyone who is not from Malana (even other Indians) are not allowed to touch the people of the town and even if you purchase something at a store you must put the money on the ground and get your change back from the ground. This stems from the town's spirituality where they believe that their God is the greatest and they believe all people from outside Malana as a "lower caste." Pretty intense. We would describe this as "racism" in the US, here in India it is "spirituality." This is all hearsay from the group, but speaks to how interesting Manali is (i know, the names of the towns are hard to keep track of). Manali (where i am staying currently) is a very touristy town and our focus at the workshop is to pick a story and act like a photojournalist. Had no idea what that meant before coming...but what it means for this week is that everyone is very intense and talks only about their "story." Some of the stories people are doing are great and informative, most of them are useless and boring and can never be sold (i am not even going to try). The point is that we "practice" being photojournalists. The one part of practicing photojournalism we are not doing enough of is drinking! People are working too hard, but that is what happens when you actually have to work on having a career, thankfully I am not going to bother with that right now. Photojournalism is very intense and requires days, weeks, months of shooting the same picture, same scenario, etc over and over again. You really need to have a passion for it. Think i realized Day 1 - no thanks. Great skills to have, great way to become a better photographer, but definitely a tough, uber-competitive career path where people struggle to make a living unless they marry someone with money or are the lucky few to become very commercial.

Ok, enough about that. I will update you on India, not on my boring personal adventures to find an alternative career.

More about India:

India is dirty and poor. It has an amazing cultural mix, especially here in the northern parts. There are people from Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, other parts of India as well as plenty of ex-pats from US, Europe, Israel, etc. The scenery is quite beautiful but the landscape suffers the same plight as other areas of beautiful wilderness throughout the rest of the world (especially in the developing world). People need to live and need to use the natural resources to sustain themselves. This puts pressure on the wilderness and wildlife and there is constant conflict. India's approach is similar to that in Africa, command and control from the state combined with local corruption and bribery that eats away at the protection. However, since this is the Himalayas (many parts inhospitable except for the few very strong-willed people) there is a variety of protected land.

One of the main problems with India, even here in the northern parts is garbage. People also use the rivers for disposal. This is probably mostly due to a lack of education about the consequences but also is due to tradition. People in India have viewed rivers as having the potential to carry away sin, evil, problems, etc. Rivers are also very spiritual (which is great, but has bad unintended consequences with respect to garbage). As a result people think they can throw their garbage in the river and it will just go away. Well, technically it does (but that missing the point), but it just exports the problem downstream. Despite the rampant garbage, it is apparently much improved over the last few years than in the past! Wow, that's what i thought as well. In talking to some local guys that run an NGO, they explained that there is a concerted effort by the Manali municipality to educate the local people and stress the importance of allowing the town to pick up the garbage. They also have a recycling center, of which i do not know how impressive or productive it is, but surely it is better than nothing. In all these "problems" there is one underlying theme - lack of education. Better education will improve healthcare, environment, economy and living standards all over the world. That is easy to point out and difficult to actually implement.

Interesting Observation:

India seems much more receptive to foreigners than the places where I traveled in Africa. In some remote regions of Africa they are fascinated with foreigners, but westerners are mainly viewed with hesitancy. People in India seem to be interested in interacting and speaking with westerners. Obviously in both instances westerners are viewed as ATMs that will spend money on all the trinkets sold in the streets, but here in India they are obsessed with taking pictures with a foreigner. This mostly happens to women, especially those with blond hair and fairly pale skin, but it also happened to me one night. Apparently it is a nice novelty to have a white person as the backdrop on your Indian cellphone.

Struggling to come up with more of an update. Honestly, Manali is good for outdoor adventures (something i am really craving after days of "shooting" meaningless stories). But to stay here from more than 2-3 days (without an outdoor adventure) is total overkill. Excited to move on or at least get some hiking/fishing in after the workshop...then off to China.

later

dave

!ncredible !ndia!

Is that too many exclamation points? Whatever it is, incredible is an accurate description. But let's start ya'll out slowly. Arrived in Delhi 2 nights ago, nice hotel, everything perfectly fine. At 9 pm (on arrival) it was still very hot and terribly humid (technically it is monsoon season, but the rains are a bit late). So the next morning I had about 8 hours to kill before the bus trip to Manali northern India in the Himalayas, where the photojournalism workshop would take place).

I decided to walk. Really had no idea where I was going, but why not, had some dinky map from the hotel so decided to try it. There are tons of rickshaws and bikes driving by all day long, some carrying people to work, some aggressively trying to find a customer. A younger rickshaw driver who spoke very good English convinced me to hop in his natural gas powered, yet old school rickshaw. Honestly, i thought he was joking when he said he would take me to town for 20 rupees. It is hard to imagine what people mean when they say that India is cheap, but it is ridiculously cheap. 20 rupees is about 45 cents! (Later that day i bot 2 waters and 3 packets of cookies/crackers for 85 rupees, that is less than 2 bucks!). Anyhow, the kid that picked me up (his name was Ansar) proved to be most helpful and took me to a cell phone place to exchange my Tanzania sim card for an Indian one. That was the most expensive transaction all day, but electronics/cell phone related gear always is in these countries. He then tried to get me to pay him $30 for a full days worth of activities. Showing me the sights around the whole town as well as getting back to the hotel to fetch bags and then off to the bus station by 5 pm. That was a good 7 hours of work. I stopped bargaining when he offered $20 because it feels pointless to argue over a few bucks especially with people that are clearly less well off (understatement of the year). Most people think you could pay $10 for the full day, but still sounds like a good deal. I was able to tour much of Delhi and have him direct me to food stores, places to eat, cell phone stores, etc all for the price of a taxi ride in NYC from my (now old) apartment to the UES!

Well, Delhi is pretty crazy. There are tons of people and there is a ton of traffic. We saw some of the touristy tombs and buildings, etc but also went over to the bazaars in Old Delhi. I was slightly surprised that people in India are less concerned with white westerners walking around. After having been in Africa for 6 week where everyone is waving or scowling at the white person in town, it was nice that most Indians really couldn't care less.

The Indian government is pretty strict about the traffic pollution and most vehicles are required to use CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) which burns much cleaner than regular gasoline or diesel. Having said that, the lack of exhaust leaves your nasal sense wide open for the various smells that pervade Delhi, anything from the food to bad body odor to urine and other nasty human smells.

Overall, Delhi was a nice experience, the people seemed to be rather friendly. After a day full of sensory overload, I headed to the bus stop to meet up with the photojournalism crew. We all piled into an large bus with AC to prepare for the 14 hour trip. Yes, 14 hour bus ride. Well, the bus ride started at least 1-2 hours late tragically prolonging the pain of the trip. It was quite difficult to sleep as the roads outside of the city (on our way to Manali) were quite curvy and the bus driver was not shy about going as fast as he comfortably could around those bends.

Honestly, i thought the driving was bad in Africa, but it is worse here. It is hard to tell whether people just don't care or if they are not educated enough to know what 2 speeding cars colliding can do. The road from Delhi to Manali is a small 2 lane "highway" (which in this case is equivalent to a residential road in the US) and it is packed with lorries (i.e. trucks). These are not the 18 wheelers that we are accustomed to because the roads are too windy to allow them. They are, however, still pretty big (and the drivers aren't terribly forgiving or cautious). The lorrie drivers and our bus driver don't have enough patience to wait for open roads, so they do a bunch of blind curve passing while letting the horn rip. This was mostly effective...except for this morning. Naturally, I couldn't sleep on the bus, too much motion and at about 6 am we were approaching a curve. There were 2 trucks parked on either side of the road. 1 in our lane, another in the other lane (really stupid positioning, but as pointed out previously, people that drive in this country don't think...at all). There was just enough space to fit one car through. The bus driver cautiously approached the space and started to squeeze through. A lorrie driver on the other side decided it wasn't necessary to be cautious and he plowed right into us. Not even a chance to break. Luckily, nobody was hurt...but there was some pretty good damage to the bus. Needless to say, this delayed our already delayed (and very sweaty and uncomfortable) trip even more so. We unloaded everything because the bus driver couldn't get the bus started again with the steering wheel all jammed up against the seat. We eventually chose to get some private trucks for transportation the rest of the way and our 14 hour journey eventually finished in a total of about 20 hours. Quite an ordeal. Honestly, not that stressful since my new state of mind seems to be intense "chill" and relaxation. Obviously the heat was unpleasant and we all needed showers (and never want to repeat the experience) but this is what happens in developing countries, you have to just deal with it.

On a positive note, we did all make it safely to our destination and Manali is a very scenic place at the edge of the Himalayas. The last few hours was spent driving up the river valley (think the Beas river) and the mountains were over 1,000 meters high on either side with virtual straight drops to the river below. There was cultivation all the way up some of these mountain tops, pretty amazing to see. Some people even have baskets and pulley systems suspended over the river in order to get themselves (or goods) from one side to the other. The week here has just started and the jet lag is kicking in. Will check in later if there is any interesting news. Hope all is well.

dave

The Serengeti - A World of Difference

After leaving the relative hardship of Eastern Kenya's dry landscape and decreasing wildlife, I joined an overlanding tour with 23 other people that went from Nairobi to Zanzibar. Our first stop was the Maasai Mara, the famous Kenya Game Reserve that is in the south west part of Kenya and borders the Serengeti in Tanzania. After 2 days there we went to the Serengeti for a few days. These 2 parks comprise about 20,000 square kms and are the focus of most East African wildlife programs we would see on TV in the states. Don't get me wrong, these parks also have their issues with respect to decreasing wildlife and human-wildlife conflicts, but they seem to be in much better shape and the animals are much more abundant. Part of this is due to increased tourist traffic (more money is spent seeing these animals so the community increasingly benefits as a result). Part of the difference is habitat. The Serengeti and Mara (part of the Maasai Steppe ecosystem) have always been more productive habitat give the terrain and relatively abundant rainfall. Over the 3 days we spent in these parks, we saw over 40 lions, many different prides as well as many lion cubs (of various ages) as well as 3 leopards, 2 cheetah and massive amounts of zebra, wildebeest, gazelle, etc. The Serengeti/Mara parks are also famous for the large wildbeest migration that happens twice a year.

These trips were obviously enjoyable and certainly productive from a photo standpoint (the pictures are coming, don't fret, and you will be shocked at how good they are and how close we are to the animals...my 400mm zo0om lens helps a bit). This was also a positive experience after leaving the harsh reality of dead lions near Tsavo National Park. In the Serengeti/Mara ecosystem (slightly smaller than Tsavo) there are 3,000 - 4,000 lions, there are only 200-300 in Tsavo. Again, there are issues and they are the same issues that pervade all of Africa's famous wildlife areas (mostly related to poverty affecting wildlife), but after witnessing the Serengeti, conservation seems achievable.

Additionally, after returning to Tanzania, it seems fairly obvious that Tanzania is in better shape than Kenya. Both are obviously poor, but in the northern pars of Tanzania, where there is more abundant rainfall, people are not struggling quite as much. That, as well as Tanzania's much larger conservation system (39% of Tanz is protected whereas less than 10% of Kenya is), seems to mitigate the pressure on wildlife and help alleviate human-wildlife conflicts. There is still a lot of work to be done and people clearly need more economic and agricultural development. But the wildlife is relatively safe for now.

As for the trip, it is officially over now (i am actually writing this from Zanibar), i have lots of new British friends and we had a blast over the last 12 days. Plenty of wildlife, good times and the occasional night of drinking. It is sad to be leaving Africa and the group (most of whom are continuing on for another 15-20 days) but it will be nice to get home to NYC and see family and friends (also think Mom needs a breather from stressing about about my 6 weeks abroad). Only about 8 days in the states, then i head off again, hope to catch up with everyone while I am back.

Later

The Death of a Lion

Dear all,

Hope everything is well in your lives. Sorry to come back after 2 weeks of silence with such a macabre title. I will get to that later, but wanted to have a catchy title so you read the whole entry!

The last 2 weeks have been spent doing an EarthWatch Institute Project (Lions of Tsavo) on 2 private ranches that are just south of Tsavo East National Park (a very dry park in Southeastern Kenya that is about the size of Connecticut). We were lending a hand in gathering research data on the infamous Tsavo lions that live in and around the park. As in much of Africa, there is much conflict between wildlife and humans and that project intended to gather research to potentially alleviate conflicts and provide for better conservation.

Overall the trip was good. We had 2 Africa guides, 1 Principal Investigator (Alex) and a Safari guide (Simon). We did wildlife drives for 2 weeks on the private ranches which cover about 200,000 acres. We stayed on Rukinga Ranch (80,000 acre private ranch leased to a British man for 99 years that does not allow cattle grazing and is intended for conservation). We also explored Taita Ranch (120,000 acres with better habitat but they allow cattle grazing). We did night and early morning drives and saw tons of wildlife: Lions, Cheetahs (very frequent on the ranches), Jackels, Hyenas (including a rare Striped Hyena), African Wildcats (look like house cats), Servals (another small, rare cat) and Caracals (miniature Cougars that are extremely rare and even rarer to see). There was also tons of antelope, giraffe, elephants, warthogs, birds, etc.

So, for Tsavo NP (an area the size of Connecticut), why do you need to worry about wildlife outside of the park? Isnt that enough land to maintain healthy populations? No, it isnt, not for Lions which require massive territories and constantly move with the rains (Tsavo only gets 12 inches of rain per year, so water is a highly sought after commodity). Therefore, the private land surrounding the ranches are critical for maintaining healthy Lion populations (even though Tsavo is the size of Connecticut, they think only a few hundred lions live there, thats right, hundred!). The existence of wildlife on private ranches brings conflicts with humans, particularly with herdsman. Most people have heard of the Maasai who have been herdsman for thousands of years and they frequently have conflicts with lions, but that relationship has been going on for thousands of years, it is mostly natural by now.

In Tsavo (a very dry landscape) cattle have not been a part of the landscape and as the population grows more cattle are appearing. Taita ranch is home to 10-15 thousand cows and probably has a capacity for 1-5 thousand. So the land is overgrazed, the water holes are empty and the wildlife is stressed. Additionally, even the presence of cows is enough to scare away lions and prevent them from establishing terrirories, this added stress reduces the lion populations both inside and outside the park. In fact, only 2-3 years ago (when Taita ranch had no cows) there were 35-50 lions on the ranches, they now think only 5-10 occupy that habitat.

OK, so what? People need to live and need to graze their animals for food, right? Shouldn't there be a compromise? How can we even ask starving Africans to not graze cattle because Lions are being reduced in number? Well, it isnt that simple. The cattle on the ranches are from Somalis, not Kenyans. Because Somalia and the northern regions of Kenya are in such disarray, the country is being overrun with Somalis. The historical Kenyan tribes (people that already struggle to feed themselves in an unforgiving landscape) are seeing their resources disappear with the abuse of the Somali people that have started to flock into the country. In fact, the cattle on Taita ranch DO NOT feed the people and they DO NOT provide ample employment. A few herdsman make a pittance from some rich Somali man. He (and it always is a he) trucks his cattle in and pays $6 per year to graze that cow! But, the ranchowners dont get paid for the 10-15 thousand cows, only a few of them. Most are there illegally. So in the end, 120,000 acres (plus the cows that consistently venture over to graze on Rukinga) gets ruined to benefit 1-2 rich Somali men who sell their cows to Saudi Arabia (who have the money to buy cows because Americans are addicted to oil). So do the math, Lions (which support a large tourism industry) are being reduced in number so that no local people benefit and a few rich guys benefit (and some Saudis get fatter). Taita ranch used to be run as a safari camp. When that was the case, the safari company paid the owners of the ranche a set price to run safaris on the land. In turn they employed local people as cooks, mechanics, guides, security, rangers, other staff. At that point the Lion population was high. So there is a middle ground, people can get paid to conserve wildlife, they just need to be incented to do it, this is a tough policy in a place like Kenya where corruption is rampant and it is difficult to police the entire country.

So cows are a problem, not a surprise, same thing happens here in the US. But what about the title, "Death of a Lion." During our second week, we found a pair of Lions that were courting and mating. We came back early in the morning (on Taita Ranch) to monitor their behavior. We were following them for 2 hours or so, keeping our distance. They were so preoccupied that we clearly didnt bother them. Then after one of their "intimate" 30 second sessions of mating, there was all this commotion and crashing through the trees and roaring. We first suspected that another male lion had crashed the party causing fighting to start. Nope, then we saw the female seemed to be injured and was lying on the ground pawing at her face. Ok, we supposed they ran into a beehive and had a few stings, nothing life threatening. Then all of a sudden we saw the lioness struggling just like a dog trying to wriggle out of its collar...as if the lion had something around its neck. It did! The worst case scenario, a snare! We had been driving around the area with 2 people that had been studying lions for over 7 years and we didnt even see the snare because it was so well hidden. Before continuing with the Lion's fate, let me give some background on snares. This particular trap was quite an operation. The poachers laid a fence of Acacia thorns (which we humans could hardly see, but the animals can see clearly). They had 5 spaces with wire nooses in the spaces. The animals avoid crashing through the fence and go through the openings where they get the noose around their neck. The wire is tied to a large log which is dragged by the animal and proceeds to choke it to death. These snares are meant for small antelope, not lions, but lions get snagged nonetheless. The snares are set by people who need to supplement their income with "bushmeat." They sell this meat to the butcher in order to buy other supplies. 1 antelope goes for 100 kenyan shillings - about $1.50.

In our particular case the female finally freed the log from the bushes and went down to rest. We took a closer look to see that she had the wire wrapped 4 times around her neck. We called the Kenya Wildlife Service Vet who ensured us he would be by in about 2-3 hours. We all felt good (given the circumstances) and headed back home to meet the vet and bring him back. A lion can exist without food or water for a few days, so we had time. Our guides figured she would not move very far given her stress level. Her male companion was keeping guard, so there is nothing we can do without the vet and his tranquilizer darts.

We returned about 3 hours later to search for the lions. As we approached the spot, there were antelope and birds, too much commotion for lions on the area, not a good sign. Neither lion was where we left them. We searched for about 15 minutes, then finally i spotted her. On her back, completely gone. She had tried to move under a large tree for shade and the log got jammed/ Her reaction to this is to pull as hard as possible (and the brute force of a lion meant she was pulling very hard). This only tightened the noose around her neck and she suffocated to death. This was unbelievable. The guides had encountered lion snares before and have had success calling the vet in to take care of it. Normally there are a few days to work with to fix the problem. Not in this case, she died shortly after we left.

So no only do cattle case problems, but the bushmeat trade does as well. This trade is a product of the utter poverty that exists in African countries. People are trying to get basic supplies and they decimate wildlife in the process. This lioness was killed for $1.50 worth of antelope meat. Her existence (and her offspring) can provide jobs for many people if she were only conserved. The problem is that local people DO NOT benefit from her existence. They do not feel any hard if she is killed so it is worth the option to set the snares. Really quite sad. We need to figure out a way that incents people to conserve wildlife while benefiting from it, if not, we will only see large cats in zoos and museums.