By David Western

Surveys conducted across sections of the pastoral Maasai of Kenya show a wide variety of values for wildlife, ranging from utility and medicinal uses to environmental indicators, commerce, and tourism. Attitudes toward wildlife are highly variable, depending on perceived threats and uses. Large carnivores and herbivores pose the greatest threats to people, livestock, and crops, but also have many positive values. Attitudes vary with gender, age, education, and land holding, but most of all with the source of livelihood and location, which bears on relative abundance of useful and threatening species.

Traditional pastoral practices and cultural views that accommodated coexistence between livestock and wildlife are dwindling and being replaced by new values and sensibilities as pastoral practices give way to new livelihoods, lifestyles, and aspirations. Human-wildlife conflict has grown with the transition from mobile pastoralism to sedentary livelihoods. Unless the new values offset the loss of traditional values, wildlife will continue to decline. New wildlife-based livelihoods show that continued coexistence is possible despite the changes underway.
Full article available at  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-019-0065-8

By David (Jonah) Western

October 6, 2026

Last week saw the worst fires in years envelop Kilimanjaro.

By David (Jonah) Western

September 25, 2026

The extensive flooding in March of 2026 caused the closure of the Amboseli airstrip.

By Victor N. Mose

September 23, 2026

Herders from Amboseli, who are members of a community visited JKUAT.

Variability and Change in Maasai Views of Wildlife and the Implications for Conservation

Authored by : David Western
Posted on April 1, 2019

Surveys conducted across sections of the pastoral Maasai of Kenya show a wide variety of values for wildlife, ranging from utility and medicinal uses to environmental indicators, commerce, and tourism. Attitudes toward wildlife are highly variable, depending on perceived threats and uses. Large carnivores and herbivores pose the greatest threats to people, livestock, and crops, but also have many positive values. Attitudes vary with gender, age, education, and land holding, but most of all with the source of livelihood and location, which bears on relative abundance of useful and threatening species.

Traditional pastoral practices and cultural views that accommodated coexistence between livestock and wildlife are dwindling and being replaced by new values and sensibilities as pastoral practices give way to new livelihoods, lifestyles, and aspirations. Human-wildlife conflict has grown with the transition from mobile pastoralism to sedentary livelihoods. Unless the new values offset the loss of traditional values, wildlife will continue to decline. New wildlife-based livelihoods show that continued coexistence is possible despite the changes underway.
Full article available at  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-019-0065-8

By David Western

Surveys conducted across sections of the pastoral Maasai of Kenya show a wide variety of values for wildlife, ranging from utility and medicinal uses to environmental indicators, commerce, and tourism. Attitudes toward wildlife are highly variable, depending on perceived threats and uses. Large carnivores and herbivores pose the greatest threats to people, livestock, and crops, but also have many positive values. Attitudes vary with gender, age, education, and land holding, but most of all with the source of livelihood and location, which bears on relative abundance of useful and threatening species.

Traditional pastoral practices and cultural views that accommodated coexistence between livestock and wildlife are dwindling and being replaced by new values and sensibilities as pastoral practices give way to new livelihoods, lifestyles, and aspirations. Human-wildlife conflict has grown with the transition from mobile pastoralism to sedentary livelihoods. Unless the new values offset the loss of traditional values, wildlife will continue to decline. New wildlife-based livelihoods show that continued coexistence is possible despite the changes underway.
Full article available at  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-019-0065-8

By David (Jonah) Western

October 6, 2026

Last week saw the worst fires in years envelop Kilimanjaro.

By David (Jonah) Western

September 25, 2026

The extensive flooding in March of 2026 caused the closure of the Amboseli airstrip.

By Victor N. Mose

September 23, 2026

Herders from Amboseli, who are members of a community visited JKUAT.

Posted on April 1, 2019

By David Western

Surveys conducted across sections of the pastoral Maasai of Kenya show a wide variety of values for wildlife, ranging from utility and medicinal uses to environmental indicators, commerce, and tourism. Attitudes toward wildlife are highly variable, depending on perceived threats and uses. Large carnivores and herbivores pose the greatest threats to people, livestock, and crops, but also have many positive values. Attitudes vary with gender, age, education, and land holding, but most of all with the source of livelihood and location, which bears on relative abundance of useful and threatening species.

Traditional pastoral practices and cultural views that accommodated coexistence between livestock and wildlife are dwindling and being replaced by new values and sensibilities as pastoral practices give way to new livelihoods, lifestyles, and aspirations. Human-wildlife conflict has grown with the transition from mobile pastoralism to sedentary livelihoods. Unless the new values offset the loss of traditional values, wildlife will continue to decline. New wildlife-based livelihoods show that continued coexistence is possible despite the changes underway.
Full article available at  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-019-0065-8

Recent Posts

By David (Jonah) Western

October 16, 2026

Six decades on from studying the ecology of Amboseli, I wrote in We Alone. How Humans Have Conquered the Planet.

By David (Jonah) Western

October 6, 2026

Last week saw the worst fires in years envelop Kilimanjaro.

By David (Jonah) Western

September 25, 2026

The extensive flooding in March of 2026 caused the closure of the Amboseli airstrip.

By Victor N. Mose

September 23, 2026

Herders from Amboseli, who are members of a community visited JKUAT.

By Jonah Western

August 17, 2026

The deaths of two more elephants in the Amboseli area last week bring the total to 19, further fueling speculation

By Victor N. Mose

August 10, 2026

Amboseli Conservation Program (ACP) statisticians this week took Bayesian inference back 1 million years.

By Dr. David Jonah Western

August 5, 2026

Sixteen elephants have died in Amboseli in just a few weeks, alarming conservationists and the Maasai community

By David Western, Victor N. Mose*, David Maitumo, Winfridah Kemunto, Sakimba Kimiti, Immaculate Ombongi, Samuel Lekanaiya, Paul Kasaine and Sunte Kimiti

July 31, 2026

The latest Amboseli Ecosystem Outlook Report combines perspectives from local herders and livestock traders

By Victor N. Mose

July 22, 2026

Fireworks displaying EU–Kenya relations rocked the skyline in Loresho at Shamba Café, lighting up the evening sky

By Victor N. Mose

May 22, 2026

Herders in Amboseli gathered under the shade of an acacia tree for a parliamentary style debate on co-production.

Contact Us

Amboseli Conservation Program
P.O Box 15289-00509 or 62844-00200
Nairobi, Kenya.

Tel/Fax: +254 20 891360 / 891751
Email: acc@acc.or.ke