The Lionesses: Kenyan all-female conservation ranger unit patrols amid COVID-19

Purity Amleset Lakara, 24 (right) and other female wildlife rangers from "Team Lioness" patrol in Amboseli national park. On the sweeping plains at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro a group of female wildlife rangers known as "Team Lionesses" is making history in Kenya's Amboseli National Park and defying patriarchal norms by guarding wildlife and patrolling against poachers instead of doing household chores.

Purity disembarks from a patrol pickup truck at Risa camp, where they stay due to the COVID-19, within the Olgulului conservancy in Amboseli. The "Team Lionesses" recruits are drawn from the Maasai community who live around the park.

Sharon Karaine (right), another ranger, said the day she was chosen to enter the team was the best day of her life. "It's rare for a woman in our community to be a ranger. With us being the first women rangers we are changing the taboo and men and our dads respect us. We have fought for the rights of girls in our community," the 20-year-old said.

Members of Team Lioness, an all-female Kenyan ranger unit, collect firewood while patrolling at Risa camp. When Kenya confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus in March, the unit was already out on patrol in the bush, and chose to stay away from their families in the bush for four months rather than risk coming in and getting infected and leaving the animals vulnerable to poaching.

A member of Team Lionesses uses binoculars during a patrol as they stay at Risa camp. "A few weeks ago during our patrol we came across people slaughtering a giraffe," Lakara said as she brushed down her boots in the dying rays of the sun.

Members of Team Lionesses take GPS coordinates for mapping during a patrol. The women, who patrol unarmed, captured the two men armed with bows and arrows and handed them over to rangers from the government-run Kenya Wildlife Service.

On another occasion, the patrol was ambushed by a buffalo - whose sharp horns can cause deadly injuries - and scattered, with one Lioness forced to scramble up a tree. | Above: Members of Team Lionesses patrol in their pickup truck.

The unit of eight women - one from each of the local clans - patrols the Olgulului community conservancy conservation area, 150,000 acres of land shared by wildlife and human beings.

It is funded by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which helped form the unit in 2017 to encourage more women to take part in conservation.

The fund says they managed to stop almost all poaching in the area last year. Sometimes the women are accompanied by male rangers, and sometimes they go by themselves. | Above: An elephant walks near a patrol vehicle of Team Lionesses, at the Amboseli National park.

As the women patrol, their bonds are clear - they chat and joke on the long walks in between visits to residents, who they ask whether predators are bothering cattle or if any strangers are moving through the area.

Members of Team Lionesses meet community members to sensitise them against poaching as they stay at Risa camp.

Members of Team Lionesses take a break under a tree as they stay at Risa camp.

Members of Team Lionesses line up at Risa camp.

Members of Team Lionesses patrol as they stay at Risa camp, within Olgulului conservancy in Amboseli.

Sharon Karaine, member of Team Lionesses, is welcomed by Maasai women in traditional costumes as she arrives home from the Risa camp.