Nairobi, May 14 (Swara) – Members of a community adjacent to the Amboseli National Park killed six lions in retaliation after the big cats killed 11 of their goats over the weekend, bringing to 10 the number of lions killed by livestock herders in the Amboseli ecosystem during the past one week, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) reported.

The human-wildlife incident occurred early on May 13 in the Mbirikani-Amboseli area of the Kajiado south sub-county, KWS said in a press release, adding that the agency’s top management officials had met representatives from the local Maasai community to discuss the problem of human-wildlife conflict in the area.

“During the meeting, the KWS officials [discussed] ways to address the current conflict which resulted in the killing of six lions. The lions killed eleven goats and one dog,” according to the press release. “Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident as over the last week, four other lions have been killed resulting in ten lions killed in the Amboseli ecosystem.”

The KWS officials, including Board of Trustees Chairman Walter Raria Koipaton and Acting Director-General Erustus Kanga, engaged with the community in an effort to find lasting solutions to the conflict while protecting both people and wildlife.

“The discussions centred on exploring ways to minimize the risk of human-wildlife conflict, including developing early warning systems to alert communities of the presence of wildlife in their vicinity,” according to KWS.

“The discussions further centred on the wider scope of exploring human-wildlife conflict in the context of community livelihoods and benefit sharing towards a harmonious coexistence in the open community and wildlife landscapes,” the agency added.