I am visiting the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique to better understand how the Houston Zoo can assist with the conservation of lions in the park.

It is June 10th, and we have headed back out to the Inselberg Lipumbulu , the mid size of the three we have climbed, to find a signal for the lions we have not seen. There is quit a bit of roaring around us at night and it could be a new male across the river moving in or the females Flavia and Fatima behind us who have been moving about lately. We picked up a distant signal on James again as well as Akomwana but that was all. Akomwana and her cub had moved between 6-7 miles since yesterday and we were hoping she had caught up with her sister, who is not collared, so we headed in her direction.

Let me start by saying that Land Rovers are the equivalent of a tank without the turret. The one thing private foundations, grants and awards rarely cover are vehicles and salaries. Without vehicles and salaries how can you even have a project? This 1997 Land Rover went places you would not think possible, nearly vertical drives into and out of riverbeds, through acacia thorn scrub brush habitat, over elephant made pothole covered grasslands and 45 minutes later we reached a strong signal point where she was most likely resting among boulders with her cub. We got a GPS point, but no visual but in this landscape seeing her once this week was lucky enough. If anyone is interested in helping fund a new “used” Land Rover, give me a call, the project cannot grow with only one field vehicle capable of following lions and visiting villages.

Work continues on the layout of the environmental center housing for the workers Niassa Lion Project are bringing in from the community for construction. There was a visit to the village by one of the staff to advise a villager on better goat-corral construction now that one of his goats was taken by a leopard. Now that the NLP camp has been up and running for over a month, everyone is becoming very busy on top of tracking lions.

Tomorrow we will spend some time back at environmental education center and see what else the Houston Zoo can do to help from funding salaries and bush meat surveys to equipment for lion tracking and educational materials for the new center.

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