Human-lion conflict issues are widespread across Africa. With a lack of available prey and suitable habitat for lions, they are being forced to live in close proximity with people. As such, lions have become a safety hazard to rural communities through the killing of livestock and/or injuring or killing people. Farming communities without other methods to generate an income can be devastated by the economic effects of predation. An attack can destroy a family’s livelihood in one night. Routinely destroyed in retaliation, this vulnerable species is on the losing side of an intensifying conflict with people.

As lions prey on enclosed livestock, the design of kraals (enclosures) is key to preventing attacks. Lions penetrate a variety of wall types and can scale inadequately built structures. However, at a cost in excess of £1,000 each, installing predator-proof kraals is not financially viable.
ALERT is carrying out a program to prevent attacks on livestock, based on an innovative solution invented by an 11 year-old Kenyan boy, Richard Turere. To protect his family’s kraal from lion attacks at night, he took a handful of torches, a car battery and a small solar panel and created a flashing light system around the kraal perimeter. Knowing that lions are naturally wary of people, he designed the lights to flash in sequence, giving the impression of someone patrolling the enclosure with a torch. The family suffered no further lion attacks.