Dr. Laurence G. Frank Living With Lions Project Director

Laurence has been a research associate at the University of California, Berkeley since 1984, first as part of the Berkeley Hyena Project and currently in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

He has worked on predators in Kenya for forty years, including twenty years studying the behavioural ecology and endocrinology of the spotted hyena before turning to conservation research.

Alayne Cotterill Project Biologist, LPP

Alayne has worked in wildlife conservation in Africa since 1991. Her primary area of expertise became large carnivore/human conflict after carrying out the first cost benefit analysis for including lions in the growing private wildlife reserves in Southern Africa as part of her MSc. For the 18 years since, she has built extensive experience in African carnivore research in both Southern and East Africa, the last 7 years of which have been as a biologist for the Laikipia Predator Project. Alayne is the recipient of two Panthera Kaplan Graduate Awards and is currently carrying out a D.Phil. with Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, looking at the effects of conflict with people on lion behavioural ecology and demography.

Dr. Leela Hazzah Lion Guardians Director

Leela obtained her PhD and MSc from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research focuses on understanding the predictors and motivations behind lion killing in the Amboseli  ecosystem in Maasailand. She has a Biology degree from Denison University, is fluent in Swahili, and has worked on conservation issues in East Africa for over a decade. Leela has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Fellowship, two Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships, Lawry-Leopold fellowship, a Fellowship from Wings WorldQuest, a Jordan Prize for African Studies, and numerous Panthera Kaplan Graduate Awards.

Read Leela's MSc thesis

Stephanie Dolrenry Conservation Biologist, lead biologist for KLCP

Stephanie is in her last year of PhD studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research focuses on the behavioral ecology of large carnivores, namely lions and spotted hyenas, living in human and livestock-dominated areas. She is interested in the development and implementation of non-invasive and local knowledge-based monitoring techniques to study behaviors and mitigate conflicts of carnivore populations. Stephanie’s research is funded through a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship and a Panthera Kaplan Award. She has a Wildlife Conservation and Management degree from Missouri State University and has spent the past fifteen years as a field biologist in the US, Caribbean, Hawaii and Kenya.

Steven Ekwanga Project Biologist, LPP & KLCP

Steve has been with LWL since its inception and is central to both the LPP and KLCP. He is an accomplished carnivore field biologist, with 13 years of experience in carnivore capture and monitoring. He has pioneered the field of carnivore community conservation in Kenya, and has run community awareness and training programs throughout pastoralist lands in Laikipia, Samburu, Kajiado and Narok Districts. He has developed and carried out programs to train community scouts in carnivore monitoring and conservation for conservancies in other parts of the country, and is Kenya’s foremost indigenous carnivore conservation field practitioner.

Sara Blackburn Project Biologist, MPP

Sara graduated from the University of London with a BSc in Zoology, and is running the Mara Predator Project (MPP). She has created the MPP lion identification database, and designed the Mara Lion ID Database website. She has adapted her identification system for use in both our Laikipia and Amboseli study areas. 

Eric Ole Kesoi Lion Guardians Co-ordinator

Eric, a Maasai from Eselenkei Group Ranch, is fluent in Maa, Swahili and English and trained as a community development worker, working for an NGO in Kajiado, Southern Kenya before joining the project.

He is highly respected by his community and is very influential both within his own group ranch and outside it. Eric is an excellent tracker and has participated in several successful lion hunts in the past. He is now working with the Lion Guardians project to help conserve his local lion population.

Luke Keloi Lion Guardians Co-ordinator

Luke previously worked as a research assistant on Eselenkei, but has recently expanded his role to join Eric as Lion Guardians Coordinator. Luke worked as a community teacher in various schools before pursuing a diploma course, and has also undertaken refresher courses in wildlife management and environmental studies. Luke has previously carried out fieldwork with the International Livestock Research Institute, as well as working in various places across Kenya including Tsavo West, Naivasha, Nairobi, Nanyuki and Samburu. He has great communication skills and is an immense asset to our team.

Lenkai Nkiinti Research Assistant, KLCP

Lenkai is a superb tracker and ex lion hunter with vast knowledge of the bush. His traditional knowledge and love of wildlife is very useful in his role as research assistant, and he has swiftly picked up Swahili so he can communicate with the team. Lenkai also knows all the songs and sounds of wildlife. Often when he goes to the bush to track lions, he returns with snake skins, feathers of birds (whose sounds  he mimics), spines of a hedgehog, or something interesting that he came across. We are pleased and proud to have Lenkai as part of our team. His contribution to our carnivore research is invaluable.

Marc Napao Project Biologist, LPP & MPP

Marc recently graduated from Kenyatta University with a BSc in Environmental Sciences. He was born and brought up around Mpala, Laikipia District, home to the Mpala Research Center and the Laikipia Predator Project. He has been around wildlife and scientists all his life, which has helped nurture a keen passion for conservation. In addition to his BSc degree, he also has a certificate in GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and Remote Sensing. Marc works as a research assistant for the Laikipia Predator Project, and is also establishing an identification database of lions throughout the region. He also assists Sara Blackburn on the Mara Predator Project.