desert burner
September 14th, 2009, 05:45 PM
New pride of Nairobi
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/image/view/-/657528/highRes/101113/-/maxw/600/-/yampxf/-/painted+lions.jpg One of the painted lions on Mama Ngina Street. Picture: Anthony Kamau
UNTIL A CENTURY AGO, LIons were a common sight in Nairobi. At that time, “Nyarobe” (the place of cool waters) as the Maasai called it, was a great expanse of open savannah and swamps, where the Maasai brought their cattle to graze.
Lions were only hunted as part of the Maasai moran “graduation” or occasionally when the lions killed their cattle.
Close to a century later, on September 2, another pride of lions — 50 of them — took to town in different shades and hues. The pride, so to speak, was celebrating the epic story of Elsa the lioness, as told by the legendary Joy Adamson in Born Free.
The story of Elsa and the lions captured the hearts of the lead human actors, Bill Tavares and Virginia Mckenna in the film Born Free, which led them to set up the Born Free Foundation to raise awareness about the plight of the big cats and money for their conservation.
This year, the Born Free Foundation celebrated its anniversary with the lion painting project dubbed “Pride of Kenya.” The Pride of Kenya project aims to create awareness about the status of, and to raise funds for the conservation of Kenya’s remaining 2,100 lions.
The lions, painted life-size fibreglass models, were a team work of various artists specialising in different media.
A lion marquette was created by Chris Wilkinson of Wild in Art, and blown up to life size by a Kenyan artist, Gakunju Kaigwa. Twenty-five replicas were created from the mould by Kaigwa and his team, and another 25 were made by a local fibreglass manufacturer, Sai Raj.
Well known and not-so-well known artists were at liberty to paint or model their lions as they wished.
WildlifeDirect, a non-profit conservation organisation based in Kenya that uses the Internet to create awareness about conservation issues and to raise funds for conservation through blogs written by field conservationists, commissioned its own lion.
The eye-catching pink lion statue, nicknamed the Androcles Lion was painted in the pink of the Furadan package. Furadan is a lethal agricultural pesticide that is behind the death of 75 lions in the past four years.
WILDLIFEDIRECT IS callling for all carbofurans — especially Furadan — to be banned in Kenya. The flashy lion is at Yaya Centre, a popular shopping mall in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
Dr Richard Leakey of WildlifeDirect and Kenya’s well known conservationist and anthropologist, was the first to endorse the campaign. Unep director Achim Steiner Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, among others, have been invited to show their support for the push to have Furadan banned in Kenya by inscribing a signed message supporting the ban on the body of the lion.
Kenya’s lion population is declining at an alarming pace due to climate change, habitat destruction and conflict with humans. The Kenya Wildlife Service says that numbers have been declining by an average of 100 animals per year in the past seven years.
From about 30,000 lions in the 1970s, there are just over 2,000 left today. Given the current decline rate, lions will become extinct in Kenya in just two decades. Unfortunately, conflict with communities over land and livestock is the largest threat to the lions and other cats.
“Kenya without wild lions would be a tragedy. If we can make room for animals like elephants and lions — species that require so much undisturbed space — we can also make room for thousands of other, smaller but no less unique creatures as well. In order to do that, we must also make sure there is space for them in our hearts and that is exactly what Pride of Kenya encourages us to do,” said Forestry and Wildlife Minister, Noah Wekesa.
Kenya Data Networks is developing and hosting the website www.prideofkenya.co.ke.
According to KDN chief marketing officer, Vincent Wang’ombe, the firm took up this project to draw attention to issues of conservation, which if they are not quickly resolved will lead to many Kenyans losing their jobs besides the destruction of our natural heritage.
The lions will grace the city till November 6, when they will be auctioned off and the money raised used for lion conservation.
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/-/434746/657314/-/item/0/-/h6vgs4/-/index.html
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/image/view/-/657528/highRes/101113/-/maxw/600/-/yampxf/-/painted+lions.jpg One of the painted lions on Mama Ngina Street. Picture: Anthony Kamau
UNTIL A CENTURY AGO, LIons were a common sight in Nairobi. At that time, “Nyarobe” (the place of cool waters) as the Maasai called it, was a great expanse of open savannah and swamps, where the Maasai brought their cattle to graze.
Lions were only hunted as part of the Maasai moran “graduation” or occasionally when the lions killed their cattle.
Close to a century later, on September 2, another pride of lions — 50 of them — took to town in different shades and hues. The pride, so to speak, was celebrating the epic story of Elsa the lioness, as told by the legendary Joy Adamson in Born Free.
The story of Elsa and the lions captured the hearts of the lead human actors, Bill Tavares and Virginia Mckenna in the film Born Free, which led them to set up the Born Free Foundation to raise awareness about the plight of the big cats and money for their conservation.
This year, the Born Free Foundation celebrated its anniversary with the lion painting project dubbed “Pride of Kenya.” The Pride of Kenya project aims to create awareness about the status of, and to raise funds for the conservation of Kenya’s remaining 2,100 lions.
The lions, painted life-size fibreglass models, were a team work of various artists specialising in different media.
A lion marquette was created by Chris Wilkinson of Wild in Art, and blown up to life size by a Kenyan artist, Gakunju Kaigwa. Twenty-five replicas were created from the mould by Kaigwa and his team, and another 25 were made by a local fibreglass manufacturer, Sai Raj.
Well known and not-so-well known artists were at liberty to paint or model their lions as they wished.
WildlifeDirect, a non-profit conservation organisation based in Kenya that uses the Internet to create awareness about conservation issues and to raise funds for conservation through blogs written by field conservationists, commissioned its own lion.
The eye-catching pink lion statue, nicknamed the Androcles Lion was painted in the pink of the Furadan package. Furadan is a lethal agricultural pesticide that is behind the death of 75 lions in the past four years.
WILDLIFEDIRECT IS callling for all carbofurans — especially Furadan — to be banned in Kenya. The flashy lion is at Yaya Centre, a popular shopping mall in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
Dr Richard Leakey of WildlifeDirect and Kenya’s well known conservationist and anthropologist, was the first to endorse the campaign. Unep director Achim Steiner Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, among others, have been invited to show their support for the push to have Furadan banned in Kenya by inscribing a signed message supporting the ban on the body of the lion.
Kenya’s lion population is declining at an alarming pace due to climate change, habitat destruction and conflict with humans. The Kenya Wildlife Service says that numbers have been declining by an average of 100 animals per year in the past seven years.
From about 30,000 lions in the 1970s, there are just over 2,000 left today. Given the current decline rate, lions will become extinct in Kenya in just two decades. Unfortunately, conflict with communities over land and livestock is the largest threat to the lions and other cats.
“Kenya without wild lions would be a tragedy. If we can make room for animals like elephants and lions — species that require so much undisturbed space — we can also make room for thousands of other, smaller but no less unique creatures as well. In order to do that, we must also make sure there is space for them in our hearts and that is exactly what Pride of Kenya encourages us to do,” said Forestry and Wildlife Minister, Noah Wekesa.
Kenya Data Networks is developing and hosting the website www.prideofkenya.co.ke.
According to KDN chief marketing officer, Vincent Wang’ombe, the firm took up this project to draw attention to issues of conservation, which if they are not quickly resolved will lead to many Kenyans losing their jobs besides the destruction of our natural heritage.
The lions will grace the city till November 6, when they will be auctioned off and the money raised used for lion conservation.
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/-/434746/657314/-/item/0/-/h6vgs4/-/index.html