KENYA-ANIMALS-CONSERVATION-MAASAI

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY FRANCOIS AUSSEILL A lion cub and its mother, the second and third generations of a pride that started with a meagre number a decade prior, but now starting to thrive, walk and sit on September 11, 2016, at the Selenkay community conservancy, where some of the indigineous Maasai "Morans" (warriors) have foregone their ancestral role as lion-hunters to instead protect the big cat under a conservation scheme named "Lion Guardians". Coupling age-old Maasai know-how with contemporary science, co-founder of the scheme Stephanie Dolrenry inventories, photographs and studies the behaviour of the lions that are now returning to the 3,684 square kilometres (1,040 square miles) under surveillance by the project. In a previous life, the Massai men would have killed the animals as part of a rite known as "olamayio" which is traditionally seen as the highest act of courage, winning prestige and praise for the hunter. The scheme's work boosted the Morans' status within their community while their almost daily contact with the lions maintained their traditional aura. / AFP / TONY KARUMBA (Photo credit should read TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)