Follow Marnus and his team as they strive to protect the lions
Walking for Lions is the voice for all the lions in Africa, raising awareness about the sufferings they endure, and how to prevent them, in order to save the species from their foreseeable dim future.
Lights up Botswana
The team attempts to achieve this in a variety of ways. One project recently initiated is Lights up Botswana, which involves creating ‘lion lights’. The causes of many lion deaths are as a result of farmers’ retaliation from losing their livestock to lions. Placing LED lights that switch on randomly at night, giving the impression of movement, deters the lions and decreases the chances of losing livestock to them, therefore decreasing the number of lions killed.
Walking for Lions, having observed the success of these lights, created a similar idea incorporating the use of solar motion detection. These lights are powered by the sun and only activate once the sun has set, therefore requiring very little human interference, enough to deter lions away from livestock. The teams’ goal is to assist as many farmers as possible, installing the solar motion detection lights in order to deflect the lions from cattle and livestock.
This is where donations are vital to the continuation of such a project, as funding the solar lights is very costly. Sponsoring Walking for Lights enables the team to provide farmers’ with this tool, keeping both their livestock and the lions safe from harm.
Education
Aside from this project, the team also endeavor to educate as many people as possible as to the dangers Lions are facing. They stray from informing people of general information regarding Lions, and instead focus on statistics, problems and solutions. Walking for Lions tries to explain why Lions are dying and what we can do to try and stop it from happening.
“Education is one thing, but to empower local communities with knowledge regarding how to counter act Lion issues or any other predator is what will make a difference. One cannot blame the locals for their actions against predators when they do not receive support, understanding and commitment.”
Until next week…
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