National Geographic

The legal insecticideMarshal (at far right)is readily available inKenya, including at thisshop near Amboseliand Tsavo WestNational Parks. Thesaleswoman, FaithyNdungu, says shewouldn’t knowingly sellMarshal to someonewanting to kill wild-life, but it has shownup on carcasses to baitpredators. The U.S.company that makesMarshal, FMC, says itdoesn’t know of anymisuse of the poisonand is investigating.Two male lions hadbeen killing cattle andgoats for weeks. TheMaasai herdsmen inKenya’s Osewan regionhad seen enough.Solve the problem by Christmas, the Maasaitold the Kenya Wildlife Service in late Decemberlast year, or we’ll solve it for you. “We know howto kill lions,” one young Maasai warrior said inSwahili during a heated community meeting, andhe didn’t mean only the spears that he and hisfellow Maasai carry. He also meant poison, nowa weapon of choice for herders who see lions asthreats to their livelihood rather than the nationalsymbols the wildlife service tries to protect.Kenneth Ole Nashuu, a senior warden withKWS, as people call the wildlife service, decidedthat the best solution was to relocate the lionsfrom Osewan, north of Amboseli National Park,where they’d come in contact with grazing live-stock, to a neighboring national park, TsavoWest. But first they had to be tranquilized.On Christmas Eve night Ole Nashuu and otherrangers were joined by Luke Maamai, from84 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC