Through the Big Cats Initiative (BCI), the Great Plains Foundation supports a diverse portfolio of grantees working on the frontlines of conservation for big cats in the wild. BCI not only funds established efforts but also invests in emerging, locally led organisations, strengthening community-based conservation, fostering innovation, and scaling solutions that promote human-wildlife coexistence. One such organisation is C4, Coexistence for Cats, Cattle and Communities, a Kenyan-based nonprofit dedicated to the conservation of big cats.
Lions, once widespread, have fallen dramatically in numbers, with ‘one’ of the greatest threats today being conflict with rural communities, where livestock losses often lead to retaliatory killings.
Through the Great Plains Big Cat Initiative, a programme dedicated to securing the future of Africa’s lions, leopards, and cheetahs, support is directed to organisations like C4: Coexistence for Cats, Cattle, and Communities. Operating in collaboration with institutions in Laikipia, Kenya, C4 focuses on socio-ecological research to promote long-term coexistence between lions and local communities. Their work combines field research, innovative technology, and education to understand the root causes of human-lion conflict and develop practical solutions, ranging from safeguarding livestock to enhancing local livelihoods, thereby enabling both people and lions to thrive.
The Big Cats Initiative has supported C4’s work with lions in Kenya since 2023, including support for vehicle fuel and maintenance, livestock ear tags and smartphones and data in support of C4’s cross-disciplinary and cultural relevant approach to human-lion coexistence. C4’s lion collaring and livestock-tagging initiatives have reduced livestock loss and lion killings and empowered pastoralist communities with new tools and insights including data-driven herding practices informed by GPS tracking of lions and livestock.
Great Plains speaks with Lucrecia Aguilar, a coexistence scientist, carnivore ecologist, and environmental activist, who was awarded a Great Plains Big Cats Initiative Grant for her research into individuality and identity in human-lion dynamics, aimed at promoting socioecological coexistence in Laikipia, Kenya.
Conservation Impact
What has been the most meaningful conservation success you’ve seen since the project began?
One of the most direct conservation successes from the project so far has been seeing data from lion collars and livestock ear tags used to inform herding practices to prevent human-lion conflicts (especially livestock depredation) before they occur. Just as meaningful is supporting the project’s next generation of Kenyan conservationists/scientists like Alfred Kibungei, Sam Kiuna, Elizabeth Lelenguya. Their involvement ensures this work will have long lasting impact and success.
How has your approach helped reduce conflict between communities and big cats?
Our cutting-edge research is designed to address immediate challenges while building a deeper, long-term understanding of human–lion dynamics. Lion collars provide real-time location data, helping prevent livestock losses and retaliatory killings. GPS-enabled ‘livestock ear tags’ have been equally invaluable for all C4’s work — not only do they track herds and guide grazing plans, but they’ve also helped recover lost animals (more on this further in the blog).
The smartphones we deploy to community members serve a dual purpose: they collect critical data on how people and lions share the landscape, and they remain with participants after the study, offering lasting value to families involved.
Community Engagement
What role do local people play in the success of your project?
Our work would be impossible without the support of local community leadership, members who agree to participate in our work, and people who join the C4 team, as well as those working at collaborating institutions like Lion Landscapes and Mpala Research Centre. After years of community meetings and detailed informed consent gathering, many community members graciously allow us to tag and track their livestock, record their landscape use patterns, and ask them questions about living with lions. Elizabeth Lelenguya, Nelson Karkuli, Mercy Lopan, and James Apopong — all field assistants on the C4 project come from the very communities where we work. Alfred Kibungei, an MPH student contributing to the project, is also from Laikipia.
Can you share a story of someone in the community whose life was positively impacted?
Last year, a woman with fewer than ten livestock lost her entire herd. Because one of her animals was tagged, we were able to locate and return them — a small but life-changing success for her family.
Technology & Innovation
What recent or new tools or methods has your team introduced, and what have you learned from them?
We’ve introduced GPS-enabled, solar-powered ‘livestock ear tags’ that allow livestock herds to be tracked via satellite. These tags inform both wildlife conservation and livestock management.
We also use lion collars with ‘remote drop-off mechanisms’, which allow us to remotely activate the collar to ‘drop off’ the lion’s neck without having to anesthetize the lion to remove the collar.
Another cutting-edge tool we use is ‘e-DNA analyses’ from lion scat samples, this is a method used for tracking locations safely using smartphones, aircraft-based LiDAR remote sensing, and collaring more than one lion per group for individual analyses.
What lessons could other conservationists learn from the technology you’re using?
As conservation scientists, we need to think about integrating tools from different disciplines; for example, we can use biologging methods from both animal movement ecology (e.g., collars) and human mobility science (e.g., smartphones) to glean new insights into human-wildlife dynamics.
- Satellite GPS livestock ear tags are an effective way of tracking livestock herds in relation to wildlife and are much cheaper than many other methods like collars.
- Kobo Toolbox is a great digital tool for collecting data, such as for our social surveys, in the field and is efficient and accurate.
Education & Capacity Building
What impact has training, and education had on the long-term success of your efforts?
Education is hugely important to the C4 project. Most of our team are students, and our studies continually enhance our work. Watching people like Elizabeth Lelenguya who began knowing little about lions, conservation, or technology, has grown into a skilled field assistant- managing community surveys and phone deployments, which has been incredibly rewarding. Her journey reflects how training strengthens both individuals and the long-term impact of our work.
How are you building local leadership and capacity in your region?
The C4 project supports local team members by funding studies, sharing data, and running workshops in scientific communication and field methods. Alfred Kibungei (MPH student at Mount Kenya University), Elizabeth Lelenguya (lead field assistant), Nelson Karkuli (field assistant), Mercy Lopan (field assistant), James Apopong (field assistant), and Sam Kiuna (former field assistant). Additionally, I have organized and facilitated multiple science communication workshops for students at Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia, Kenya.
What advice would you give to the next generation of ‘big cat’ conservationists?
Champion diversity and wellbeing – in wildlife, communities, and conservation itself, this is critical to sustainable, long-term coexistence among big cats and humans. Promote them through your work. As an individual, being healthy, happy, and hopeful is the first step in contributing to big cat conservation.
The Bigger Picture
Why is protecting big cats critical to protecting broader ecosystems?
Big cats: from lions to tigers to jaguars, serve as both ecological and cultural keystone species. They help to hold complex socioecological systems together. Without them, important ecological functions start failing, meaningful cultural icons disappear, and the intrinsic value inherent in every living being is lost.
What gives you hope for the future of big cats (specific to the species)?
Lions themselves give me hope for the future – their grit, familial care, and damn will to survive. They’re living with everything they’ve got; we just need to support them.
If you could share a message with the world on ‘World Lion Day’, what would it be?
The world isn’t split into humanity and nature. We all, lions and humans alike, live on this earth together. We must think about more than just surviving an environmental crisis through separation. Instead, let’s work toward a future where we thrive together in coexistence.
