Baraza

Category: Kenya, Lions, Mara Triangle, big cats, furadan | Date: Jun 09 2009 | By: paula

Dear Friends

I hope you won’t be offended when I show these photos which are so shocking and sad that they will make you cry, then demand an immediate response from FMC and the Kenya Government for hesitating over the ban on Furadan and carbofuran.

Dead lion cub estimated to be only 8 months old. He was in a pride of 6 that fed on the poisoned carcass.  Nobody knows what happened to the others.

Stomach contents of dead lion cub contained parts of the cow (this is it’s tongue) that was laced with a pinkish poison suspected to be Furadan - a carbofuran based pesticide that was widely available in Kenya until the recent buy back by FMC. It is still available in some stores.

36 vultures of several species are known to have died in this poisoning incident. Others may have flown of and died elsewhere.

Two people were responsible for this act, and according to KWS one has been arrested, the other fled across the border into Tanzania.
“County council rangers revealed that prior to poisoning; lions had attacked and killed four (4) cattle from larger herd of cattle that were grazing in the reserve at night. The owners of the cattle were seen slaughtering and transporting the meat of the killed cattle on a bicycle. It was therefore suspected that they carried all the meat and finally poisoned one of the bovine carcasses intentionally to kill lions and other wildlife which had attacked their herd. It was their way of retaliating for the loss of their cattle”.

In conclusion KWS state that

“This is the second time when the lions have suffered from poisoning in Mara, in April, 2008, a pride of 6 male lion got poisoned from yet unidentified source near Mara Serena lodge along Mara river, two of the lions died at the scene while the rest disappeared with clinical signs of paralysis and incoordination gait and were presumed dead. This was likely to be an incidental poisoning after the lions fed on a hippo carcass that apparently died after grazing on a vegetable farm sprayed with a pesticide, due to indirect exposure and less concentration of the chemical on the hippo carcass, the severity of the symptoms in lions was mild and death only occurred after 2 – 3 days.

The poisoning this month was acute and very severe, presented with an instant death soon after feeding on the carcass. This was an intentional poisoning as opposed to the previous one, and involved deaths of several vultures already confirmed and examined. Previous poisoning was confirmed at the Government chemist as carbamates (Carbofuran) which is sold in Kenya as Furadan.

It is very likely that the same Carbofuran (Furadan) chemical has been used to poison animals again this time. The laboratory results will confirm this”.

Tags: carbofuran, FMC, furadan, Kenya, KWS, Lion, Masai Mara, poison, wildlifedirect