Interview with Niels Mogensen

We interviewed Niels Mogensen to get to know more about his work to protect the lions in Kenya:

Q: Why do you think lion is an important species to protect?

N: One reason is that lions bring in money. Tourists down here, comes to Kenya on safari and the most important animal to most of them to see is the lion. So if lions disappeared there would be less money coming in and there by less resources for conservation and local communities.

Secondly , lions act as an umbrella species. This means that if by protecting a lion, a bigger area will be under protection and indirectly many other species.

Q: Have you been involved in any similar projects before?

I was involved before as I conducted my master of science in the Mara where I compared lion behavior inside and outside the Mara reserve.

Q: How long have this project been running?

Nashoibo Conservancy is a bit more then one year old. This lion project started in May last year.

Q: How did you end up working with lions in Africa?

I'm a biologist and when I started to study i had a dream to come to Africa to study wildlife. Social biology has always fascinated me and lions are unique in that matter that they are the only true social big cat. So after my bachelor I got to study what I found the most interesting.

Q: What do you think will happened if the lions don't get the protection they need in Kenya?

Lions will be eliminated outside protected areas and so will only be found in national parks, reserves, conservancies ect. reducing the lion numbers in Kenya to less than 1000 individuals.