Pride in Our Prides: Can A Story Save the African Lion?

Rebecca! Thank you so much for honoring your sister through our organization! We appreciate your support and thoughtful post.

Thanks Adriana! We appreciate your support!

Bonnie, Great suggestion! We are working on it! Check back in a few days.

Ranney, Where are you planning to go during your trip? Our camp is in Seronga which is a 7 hour drive each way from Maun (when the ferry is working- :) ). I will be in the field with students in early August, then as the rivers recede we get quite busy. Reply to my private message to discuss. Thank you for your support!

Thanks Cindy! Next Lion story up tomorrow, but I am posting a little story today from Eric's experience to stop a lion hunting party!

Thank you Bonnie! More individual lion updates to follow!

Susan! Thank you so much for your support! I really enjoyed chatting with you at the fundraising dinner earlier this month. Hopefully we will see you out in Botswana sometime soon!

Bonnie, thanks for reaching out and supporting our work. As you know better than most, Eric has put so much into this project- getting it running in the field and helping it grow. This is our first venture into crowdfunding and we are excited to see the response and receive your feedback! Thank you for your interest and continued support!

Hi Barbara! What we are finding is that once people know more about the individual animals in their midst, they do show some pride in them. These are their lions! Though based in biological data collection, much of our work is really an experiment in social sciences. Will tolerance increase (with fewer lions killed) if people know individuals? We believe that this can make a huge difference! Thank you for your support.

Charles, Thanks for the note. Eric helped start the project and he has made tremendous inroads with the community including his blog post about diffusing a lion hunting party that was about to exact retribution for cattle loss. Our program is designed specifically to generate trust between researchers and the community by direct, transparent communication. Eric's efforts likely saved a lion that night! Thanks for following and supporting our project!

Hi Donna! Thank you for your support. So great to hear from you. Most of my time these days is teaching at small college in New England, but I spend between a few weeks to a few months in the field every year. Now, I have an exceptional team that are building the project with me. It is quite amazing to see how it is taking shape and the response we have received so far from the villagers. We expect that there will be challenges, but so things are going quite well. I hope all is well with you!

Mary, Thank you for your support! Eric has helped initiate and establish our program. We appreciate your interest and support in keeping our efforts going. Having seen the area, you know first hand how special it is! Thank you again!

Stuart! Thanks for your support! Also, great working with you on the Leopard Translocation paper- directed by Flo! We are excited to have Flo in the field now- he is already directing his boundless energy towards streamlining our field efforts and systematizing our data analysis! Distribute widely- thanks. I hope you are well! Andrew