Baraza

Category: Amazing facts | Date: Dec 04 2008 | By: baraza

I can’t believe it, only two years old, and the cute polar bear that captured everyones heart is suddenly being made a persona non grata. According to Berlin Zoo Knut is no longer cute and therefore no longer welcome. That’s the sad reality of Zoos in some places!

The Britney Spears of zoos? Is she really THAT huggable?

I’m especially upset because  I met Knut in Berlin just after the book Knut by Craig Hatkoff and his daugters Juliana and Isabella was published. They were my co authors on Owen and Mzee the extraordinary story  about the baby hippo tsunami orphan who adopted a giant tortoise as his ‘mom’ as well as the story of an orphaned baby gorilla Looking for Miza.

Apparently Knut’s second birthday is not to be celebrated tomorrow, the 5th of December by the zoo, causing thousands of fans to protest. Knut’s fame was unprecedented and although every zoo probably wishes for a Knut, an Owen and Mzee, or a dog that adopts white tiger cubs, the Berlin Zoo claims to be tired of the massive public adoration of Knut…..and unbelievable to most, they plan to send him to another zoo. So much for zoos caring about their animals and being responsible towards these extraordinary animals etc.

Poor Knut, it was bad enough to be born in a Zoo, then his mother abandoned him, and then he lost his keeper Thomas Dorflien who died in September. Now he’s to be shipped of to another Zoo - perhaps it’s time for another book Knut II: the cruel abandonment!

For more photos check out this website here and this video on You tube

Tags: Berlin Zoo, Knut, orphaned, polar bear

11 responses so far

Category: Amazing facts | Date: Dec 01 2008 | By: baraza

It has happened again and nobody knows why. Conservationists are mourning the deaths of over 150 pilot whales that  beached themselves in Tasmania, many of them were injured after being battered against rocks. Thirty were shepherded back to the sea by rescuers. It is thought that they became stranded on their annual migration to and from arctic waters. I was especially touched to hear that stranded whales were calling to those whales still out at sea.Scientists and rescuers think that this was a warning to their friends and family.

For amazing but sad photos of this incident check out the gallery here here and news stories on VOA here and CBS News here. Bloggers are also reporting the incident but only one blogger, on Live Science has proposed an explanation

He says “The Deafwhale Society is doubtful that these 11 animals are safe and sound. The whales are moving with the current that normally flows from west to east in the Bass Strait. We predict two outcomes: (1) The earthquake-injured whales will end up in the bellies of hungry sharks, and (2) if the sharks don’t culled them, there is a good chance they will strand again somewhere near Flinder’s or Cape Barren Islands. If they get passed the shallow water between Flinder’s and Cape Barren, they will likely be washed out into the Tasman Sea.

The SEAQUAKE SOLUTION (http://deafwhale.com) developed by the Deafwhale Society indicates that most whale mass strandings are caused by undersea earthquakes. More specifically, the stranding on 20 November 2008 on Anthony’s Beach near Stanley was caused by the event listed below:

Source: US Geological Service
FILE CREATED: Sun Nov 23 05:21:55 2008
Circle Search Earthquakes= 1
Circle Center Point Latitude: 45.000S Longitude: 100.000E
Radius: 1000.000 km
Catalog Used: PDE
Data Selection: Preliminary Data Only

CAT YEAR MO DA ORIG TIME LAT LONG DEPTH MAGNITUDE
PDE-Q 2008 10 25   223507.93 45.22S  97.05E 10 km 5.1 mbGS

Local time at the epicenter was 6:35 am on 26 October 2008. The depth of focus of the 5.1 magnitude earthquake was restrained by the computer at less than 10 km.

In general, the seafloor danced rapidly during the earthquake, pushing and pulling at the water in a fashion to generate excessive changes in the hydrostatic pressure surrounding the area where the pod of pilot whales were feeding. The quick fluctuations in pressure caused the volume of air inside the head sinuses of the whales to increase and decrease rapidly in response to the changing pressure resulting in a barotraumatic injury in the membranes that surround these sinuses.

The whales use these sinuses to generate echonavigation signals and to read the returning echo, thus an injury of this nature would not only disrupt diving and feeding but also disable echonavigation. A pod of earthquake-injured pilot whales would surface but not be able to dive again, nor be able to generate or determine direction of their navigating signals.

The vibration from the earthquake would be like a dinner bell to any nearby sharks.

The pod would huddle together to fight off shark attack. The sharks would take the most seriously injured. The rest would stay huddled swimming off in an unknown direction in an attempt to move away from the sharks.

Any swimming action by the pod would turn their streamline bodies downstream in the path of least resistance. Surface currents from the epicenter, known as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, flow from the west to the east and would direct the wounded pod A

An interesting theory but I’m not 100% convinced. Nobody can prove that there were sharks in the area.  I don’t doubt that a quake could simply confuse the sharks…. but this does not explain why these whales seem to beach themselves frequently on the Tasmania shores.

According to the CBS News  article only one week ago rescuers saved another 11 pilot whales among more than 60 stranded on a beach in northwestern Tasmania, which is an island.

I wonder if anyone has investigated whether these previous strandings were also linked to sea quakes.

It’s Worlds AIDS day, stay safe.

Tags: Pilot whales, sharks, Tasmania, whale stranding

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Category: Amazing facts | Date: Nov 26 2008 | By: baraza

When E.O. Wilson said it was  the little things that made the world go round I didn’t really take any notice. But I’ve just discovered that on in every 3 bites of food was pollinated by an insect. That is a fantastic statistic, it means that our very survival depends on them.

As an ecologist I’ve always found insects interesting but it’s so hard to study them, first there are just too many of the darned things, some are anti social and sting and bite, many are too small to see, and some give us nasty diseases. But most of all it’s damn hard to get any books or educational materials on them - compared say to elephants, birds or plants.

Then I met Dino Martins and I suddenly got answers to everything I’d always been curious about, and instantly fell in love with insects.

If you don’t know him already, Dino writes the amazing

Dudu diaries blog about insects, and if his effect on me was profound, it was nothing compared to how he’s changing peoples perceptions all around Kenya. He’s back from Harvard University (where he’s doing his PhD) for a couple of weeks. We had lunch yesterday and he  told me about how he stopped a group of farmers from killing carpenter bees that were visiting a passion fruit farm in western Kenya. Thinking that these large bees were damaging the flowers the farmers went about crushing them and their nests, believing that they were saving their precious crop. After demonstrating that these bees were essential for pollination and production of the passion fruit crop, Dino was able to convince the farmers that they were actually damaging their crop by killing the bees and persuaded them not only to stop killing the bees, but to implement practices that would enhance the bee population and therefore secure a good fruit set of this important cash crop.

At another location he responded to farmers whose eggplant crop had failed for several years. Looking at the fields he noticed that no pollinators were present during the flowering season, and was able to advise the farmers to stop using pesticides which was killing the pollinators. The next year no pesticides were used, pollinators returned and a bumper crop was harvested. In both examples the solutions might sound obvious to anyone who knows about pollination services, but for rural communities education and information are rare. Misinformation and decisions based on ignorance abound which can at best fail to take advantage of natures free service, and at worse destroy these services.

Dino is now working on a new project to use insects as a way of protecting forests. By working with, and involving farming communities and school children, Dino and Nature Kenya (one of Kenya’s most active conservation organizations) aim to save a myriad of endemic and endangered species of plants and animals in rare and vulnerable tropical forest patches located in a sea of humanity. The survival of these forests will depend on their value in the eyes of communities that surround them. He plans to demonstrate the link between agricultural production and healthy pollinator populations that are forest dependent.

For example, he’ has found a native stingless bee that pollinates vanilla, an extremely valuable cash crop that, believe it or not, is pollinated by hand everywhere in the world because of lack of pollinators! Imagine the cost savings just because of the presence of one little stingless bee…

What I really love about his proposed project is that it is simple, is community owned and will be led and monitored by a leading conservation organization that is a key training ground for young conservationists in Kenya. The project will do visual activities and involve local communities and children, they will plant pollinator gardens on school grounds and monitor the pollinators that visit. In this way  communities will gather data about the presence, diversity and abundance of pollinators as well as crop production - they be able to demonstrate the link between the species and abundance and fruit production. For example did you know that strawberries will not form properly if there are too few pollinators? Neither will papayas. I didn’t know any of this before yesterday!

Having this information should enable communities to make management decisions locally and to gather information, document the local knowledge and share it. And Guess what? They will be able to share that information on the internet through the WildlifeDirect blogs as well as a new site that is a wiki resource on all the species of the world. Anyone anywhere can now contribute to and learn about all the creatures on earth through an amazing project that E. O. Wilson is involved with called the Encyclopaedia of Life at this website here

http://www.eol.org/

“The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an ambitious project to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth.” The plan is to have a page for every single species!

Tags: Dino Martins, dudu diaries, E.O. Wilson, Insects

One response so far

Category: Amazing facts | Date: Apr 30 2008 | By: admin

In a world of Information, Communications and Technology overdrive, it is very rare that a unique concept can survive for very long without being adopted, or adapted, replicated or cloned and in some cases corrupted. This imaginary space that so many of us have learnt to exist within and become incapable of living without has like everything else the ability to create and destroy. The embodiment of opposites is one of the oldest concepts known to humankind. Shiva is one such deity worshipped by millions in India and elsewhere as destroyer and benefactor. Despite him being considered a God, I can’t imagine anything more human.

In the same space, there is a thin and transparent line between what is real and what is not. Phantasmagoria - a concept invented in the 18th Century to project images on to a wall using a lantern which give you the illusion of a non-existent reality.

“The TV screen makes you feel small…no life at all…”

Picture this:

This is not a shark…

It’s a shark in captivity (for somebody’s pleasure).

And Picture this:

This is not a snake…

It’s a snake in captivity (for somebody’s survival).

And finally picture this:

These are not gorillas…

They are dead gorillas (for…)

FOR WHAT?

We are blasted with images like this all the time. Starving children, bombed villages, dead wildlife, dead people. In Kenya, we have recently become very complacent about the latter compliments of our politicians.

And then there are the living (or once were living) creatures behind those pictures, behind that image that is splashed across your screen. There is life there - tucked away in the matrix of atoms that blasts our sensories. This is the space which the blogger inhabits and the space which I truly believe WildlifeDirect is manifested itself through the vision of Emmanuel de Merode and Richard Leakey.

There are 72 million blogs and more coming each minute that passes by. Just about each one of those little cubicles below has a humanbeing reaching out to connect to some other living creature. We stumble upon one another and stumble upon something we care about and reach out in any way we can to touch that particular thing we care about.

What do you see below?

Yes, there’s a giraffe in the background and the silouette of a person in front. That is the person on the other end of the keyboard desperately trying to upload their blog before the electricity goes or crossing their legs in anxiety hoping the connection does not drop before the post is uploaded. These are the people that the vision of WildlifeDirect is built upon - rangers who get beaten, stoned, and often murdered. It’s in the line of duty - so nothing to be too sensationalist about but there is something just below the surface that deserves a mention; these are also people that have had shadows cast upon them by a brand just like so many in the west to have lost their identity to the corporate cogwheel of capitalism.

I bid you farewell from this particular word document editor but happy and proud to know that I am now also one of those 72 million bloggers…

Tags: , 710, 726, 747, 792

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Category: Amazing facts | Date: Apr 01 2008 | By: admin

Dear friends, we have been listed as finalists in the Stockholm Challenge. The Challenge targets ICT for Development projects  globally and is an effort to search for excellent examples of information and communication technologies that show convincing benefits to people and communities, wide impact and proofs of future sustainability.

You can read our project description here.

The prize includes a week in Kista, a town north of Stockholm from 19th - 22nd May. We have to find money to make it for this event so I will have to think about how to do this, but for now we are soooo excited about this. Any ideas on who we could approach would be much appreciated.

Please keep all your fingers and toes crossed for us
Paula

6 responses so far

Category: Amazing facts | Date: Mar 26 2008 | By: admin

I just read this on BBC online and just had to share it.

“Bruno was the first bear to be spotted in the wild in Germany for 170 years but was finally shot dead in June 2006″.

So… the first bear to be spotted in 3 human generations is FINALLY shot dead. What the hell? I thought I was reading rubbish, it’s not April Fools yet is it?….It gets better…

“Museum director Michael Apel said it was “unfortunate Bruno was shot” but it was a chance to attract people who otherwise would not come.”

UNFORTUNATE? THIS IS THE FIRST BEAR IN 170 YEARS SHOT DEAD TO ATTRACT PEOPLE???

It gets even better

The bear is displayed being disturbed by people while stealing honey from bee hives to show his potential danger.

“I think he looks very lively,” Mr Apel told the BBC News website as the finishing touches were put to the display at the Museum of Man and Nature.

The first bear in 170 years is shot dead STUFFED and put on display to attract people, … and NOW HE LOOKS ……LIVELY!!!???

Taxidermist Dieter Schoen, who spent 1,400 hours stuffing the bear, said the display was “supposed to show Bruno neither as beast nor teddy bear”.

1400 hours to stuff a bear… what an important piece of information!

“Bruno had been part of an Italian programme to bring bears back to the Alps but he ventured into Austria and Germany.

The two-year-old bear captured the imagination, inspiring a hunting game on the internet’.

It sounds to me like this bear was doomed from the start. He obviously didn’t read the signs, was an illegal immigrant and he rubbed the Germans up the wrong way creating political friction in this volatile region (this story reads like the Congo)… and damn it this guy was a thief too….read this ….

“But he began roaming close to villages and once appeared outside a police station at a lakeside resort. He upset farmers, breaking into bee hives and eating 30 sheep, four rabbits and a guinea pig.”

So he had to die according to the authorities, but at least we learned a few things ….Apels words of wisdom are “….we should inform the general public about the management problems. If you want bears to return, you have to consider how to remove him from areas where people live” hmm…. I wonder why we didn’t consider this earlier, before we spent 1 Million Euros. Yes folks, Bruno was part of an EU-funded €1 million conservation project in Italy. How many mountain gorillas could you save with that money in Africa?

For more about Bruno go here

Is it just me or does this story really stink? Makes me so mad. Has anyone out there heard anything more idiotic recently? I’m ashamed to be a conservationist with people like these running around and throwing 1 million Euros down the potty.

“Meanwhile, Bruno’s brother JJ2 is at large in the Italian Alps. Bruno’s mother - who is blamed for his savage behaviour - has another three cubs.” Who the heck writes this stuff for BBC?

Tags: 122, 703, 704, 706, 712

16 responses so far

Category: Amazing facts | Date: Mar 24 2008 | By: admin

It is my last day in Washington DC and time to update you all. Here it all is in pictures.

Directors and friends met for two days and discussed WildlifeDirect progress at Stony Brook University in Long Island at the Turkana Basin Institute. We worked throughout lunch to get the business finished.

Easter Monday is not a holiday in DC though you’d never know from the festival atmosphere. This dog was decorated for Easter and brought out with the hundreds of spectators to see the elephants paraded through the streets.

Ten elephants and tens of horses, cars and circus performers paraded down the streets of the capital. The police were out in force, keeping the public from getting too close, and especially those pesky PETA people and others who are protesting the use of elephants in circuses.

The elephants dutifuly walked in single file, stopped when instructed, rolled their trunks on demand and the crowd got their photo opportunities on a lovely sunny but chilly day. I found this quote here and wish that everyone could read it

“The idea that it is funny to see wild animals coerced into acting like clumsy humans, or thrilling to see powerful beasts reduced to cringing cowards by a whipcracking trainer is primitive and medieval. It stems from the old idea that we are superior to other species and have the right to hold dominion over them.”

—Dr. Desmond Morris, anthropologist, animal behaviorist, author

Seeing elephants in Washington DC is so amazing, they look so calm, so graceful, …. one could easily forget the suffering that these animals have endured in their training. These particular elephants belong to the the famous, or should I say infamous Ringling Brothers. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Animal Welfare Institute — have taken the Ringling Brothers to court arguing that circus life is inherently cruel to the elephants. The case has been going since 2000 and the result, if in favour of elephants will be a watershed for them.

As I watched in awe with the others on the street, little red packages were thrown at me by clowns and scantily clad circus girls ….. they were clowns noses. On the red nose was written ‘Ringling bro’s the greatest show in the world’ . I wondered what the elephants thought about their lives in chains entertaining people across America. Its more like the ‘greatest shame in the world”

The day ended as every day should, relaxed and in lovely company. I met up with some of our most avid readers on the gorilla blog and discovered to my great pleasure that their friendship was started on WildlifeDirect. Now I know even more about the power of community building on the internet. Thank you Lisa, Sheryl and Christine for a lovely evening.

Tags: 23, 6, 785, 796

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Category: Amazing facts | Date: Mar 11 2008 | By: admin

Have you ever had an Owen and Mzee moment? You don’t know what I’m talking about do you?

Yesterday I heard that pygmy hippos have been rediscovered in Liberia. It caught my attention which surprised me because I was only half listening to the BBC that day – the story is covered here, here and on this blog called reasons to be hopeful. The interviewer asked the scientist to describe pygmy hippos and as he talked of it’s diminutive size and perfect hippo shape, a feeling over came me, I wasn’t alone in feeling a massive maternal pang for Owen. Owen you ask?

This is a short walk down memory lane. On the 26th of December in 2004 a baby hippo was orphaned in Malindi when the Indian Ocean Tsunami separated him from his family. The waves had somehow carried him away and he was found five kilometers from the river mouth where his family lived. We rescued him exhausted and sunburned after four days in the sea. He was wild and angry after the local villagers and tourists on the beach rescued him.

We couldn’t return him to the river, it was impossible to know which family he was from, he would almost certainly be killed. So we put him in the back of my covered pick-up truck and I brought him to Haller Park , a restored limestone quarry in Mombasa that I was managing at the time. Though I doubted he’d survive, before I drove off from Malindi, I asked the rescuers, mostly local fishermen, for a name. They unanimously chose ‘Owen’ after Owen Saubion, a tall, blonde, awkward hippy of a guy who was volunteering with the Kenya Wildlife Service. He was the only rescuer who dared to rugby tackle the hippo at a critical moment.

Immediately we released Owen in Haller Park he met a grumpy old giant tortoise called Mzee (whose name literally means’ old man’ in Swahili). What developed next was the most celebrated animal oddity of decades. These pictures illustrate just how close they were.

They spent most of their time snuggled together

When Owen wanted to move he would shove Mzee and mouth his back foot, but when the old tortoise wanted to move, he would push Owen and nip his tail

Stephen Tuei is the animal keeper at Haller Park, he’s worth his weight in gold

Desmond Tutu got a copy for his birthday from Craig Hatkoff, our partner in this project. It was Craigs 6 year old daughter Isabella who came up with the idea of doing a book to explain a relationship that she was asking a lot of questions about. The photographs in the book were taken by Peter Greste, a BBC correspondent.

If you don’t know the story you have to read the book, visit the website and watch the documentary film and read the Owen and Mzee blog which is still maintained but sadly is no longer the voice of Stephen Tuei, the animal keeper at Haller Park .

Owen and Mzee are not together any more because we introduced Owen with Cleo, an handsome female hippo who was in need of a friend. Masumi and I spent a lot of time with Owen and Mzee who became Kenyan celebrities when the book Owen and Mzee: the True story of a Remarkable Friendship became a best seller eventually being translated into 17 languages including Swahili and Braille. We also produced a sequel, Owen and Mzee: the Language of Friendship and various board books for children and plushies. We even made a film that is freely down loadable from their own website Owen and Mzee

Well, I’m not stopping there. I thought that the friendship was extraordinary, but there is still a huge mystery that I’m hoping one day to solve.

We wanted to celebrate the success of the book with Owen Saubion and tried to contact him from information he gave us.  Failing that we asked people he knew, nobody had an email address, phone number or address! In fact, we have never been able to find a shred of evidence that he existed yet many people knew him.

One of the other rescuers recalled that the hippo was going crazy as hundreds of people chased him through the inter-tidal pools and coral outcrops to catch him. But he claims that as soon as Owen touched him the hippo instantly calmed down. Another observer noted that he had asked Owen what he was doing in Kenya and he responded, ‘I’m here to help someone find himself’.

I get goosebumps every time I recall my meeting with Owen. He begged us not to use his name but the fishermen were shouting ‘Owen, Owen, Owen’…I had to accept that this was their wish, the name for the rescued hippo would be Owen.

Owen once even visited the hippo at Haller Park a few weeks later to witness the amazing friendship that had caught global headlines, and we took photos of Owen with Owen…but now going back nobody can find a single photograph of this mysterious fellow Owen Saubion! Wierd.

Even though Owen and Mzee are no longer together, I’d still like to find the namesake, are there any private investigators out there? The really wonderful thing about the story is that it has touched and inspired so many children in Africa and America. If you haven’t seen them already check out the hipposodes created by two young American boys

Here are some Owen and Mzee moments that I wanted to share…..

Snake befriends a hamster that was supposed to be lunch

Lion adopting a baby oryx 6 times!Polar bear befriends a husky

Tiger adopts piglets Turns out to be a very cruel tourism attraction!

And other amazing stories are on a blog called Dig your own Grave here

The wonderful thing about Owen and Mzee is that their story has inspired a series of childrens books with real life lessons. We will be telling you more about these projects soon.

Tags: 725, 742, 764, 778, 782

9 responses so far

Category: Amazing facts, Mara Triangle | Date: Mar 04 2008 | By: admin

I am back at home, close to Nairobi. It’s going to be a late morning to work as my son is not well. I don’t mind the delay, my house in one of the most spectacular spots over looking the Great Rift Valley. My view is awesome, I get to birdwatch with a cup of tea in my hand or just spend hours gazing all the way into Tanzania across smokey mountains.

As lovely as it is here, I do feel a dull heaviness, I’m missing something deeply. The truth is that my heart is still in the Mara. I can’t believe how deeply I have fallen in love with that spectacular place, the people, the wilderness.

So here are my ten top secrets to why I love the Mara

1.The beauty is breathtaking. Can you imagine dressing like this every single day?

2.If you are not naturally beautiful, you can spend the entire day in the spa and blame the mud mask for your bad smell.

3. You can be fat, short, stubby, naked and still be proud… it’s not only about the big cats you know (anyone know who this friendly animal is?)

4. Adorable Asuka aka Mara vet– Her stories will make you laugh and cry, you can’t help but love her (she is the first field person that I have ever met who can get away with wearing cute outfits in the African bush).

5. I adore the small guys - don’t you wish you could just hug them?

6. Siesta’s over looking the world. The Masai live on the escarpment overlooking the Mara - it is a view to die for every morning.

7. Food….the buffet is to kill for. We saw five different predators on our first day!

8. No one minds your spots. One can get ridiculously close to these cheetahs who have world fame in the BBC’s Big Cat Diary

9. Tanning weather all year round. I thought this guy was sick and drew attention to Simon who had a good laugh at my ignorance.

10. You can reserve the worlds best viewing points. Leopards are so secretive that sightings are usually the no. 1 wish of every visitor. Seeing this spectacular chap at close range in full daylight was like dying and going to heaven. Leopards are so lazy that they just sit there ….actually, he slept through most of our encounter and looked up when we started the engine to leave….I snapped this shot just before he closed his eyes and curled up like a kitty, covering his face with a paw. Others were not so lucky. An american family we met had spent days looking for leopard and when they finally did spot one, the kids exclaimed with such excitement (naturally) that it terrified the leopard which took off before they could get a single photo. You can imagine their sweet but sour feelings….I felt a bit guilty showing them this photo.

I actually took all those photographs, recorded podcasts, and video plus so much more in three days. It felt like a dream….you know what it’s like when you first fall in love? Euphoric yes? You feel like you’re the only one feeling it….

Then I met an Austrian lady who so infatuated with the Mara that she leaves her home in England and lives for six months at a time at a lodge in the Masai Mara each year – and she has been doing this for years! There’s no competition, her love for the mara far exceeds mine. I feel pathetic, how can I compete with my three days? My last trip to Mara was 3 years ago! I feel like a little like a mistress - stealing a few moments with the Mara from time to time!

I have to remind myself that I was in the Mara Triangle for work not play, to learn more about the crisis that Kimojino is blogging about, and find new ways to help him and the Mara Conservancy secure the Mara Triangle for the longterm. It’s unthinkable that we could lose the Mara because of a collapse in tourism brought on by politics of a few egocentric individuals who would like to be called ‘leaders’. As Kenyans and global citizens, we all can help the Mara survive the crisis - I hope my pictures and podcasts convince you. Book your flight today … or make a donation on the Mara blog to secure this precious heritage for your next visit.

Tags: 119, 248, 6, 707, 746, 766, 768

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Category: Amazing facts, Mara Triangle, Podcasts | Date: Mar 04 2008 | By: admin

Last week I spent three days in the Masai Mara and went on patrol with the rangers of the Mara Conservancy to catch 7 alleged hippo poachers that were believed to be in the area. While on patrol we had a few ‘adventures’ and dramatic though amusing incidents. Though I wasn’t there, the five poachers were finally caught two days later with a dead hippo which Kimojino reported here.

This podcast and these photos document an extraordinary and rare incident that I’ve never heard of before and nobody that I know has ever observed a warthog killing a full grown lion! Listen to this new post here

The incident took place during a break in the middle of the patrol – we broke off to investigate a report of an injured lioness and what we found was almost too amazing to be true.

A ten year old lioness, killed by a warthog. She looked pregnant. That’s the broken off warthog tooth. Can you see the tiny wound in her neck? Surgical! Only after we turned her over did we notice the pool of blood beneath her.

The brave Masai rangers couldn’t resist getting a few photos with the slain lioness

Here’s the proud lion slayer in a hole just a meter from the dead lioness. Impressive teeth no?

Being the coward I am I wouldn’t put my head in it’s hole (thank God!) but stuck my camera in and took into one but 2 photos with the flash. She or he didn’t budge a millimeter despite all the noise and flash… we were convinced she/he was dead. Can you see the missing tusk?

Here is the deadly tusk - source of much exclamation and awe.

Though I’m very sorry for the lioness I cant help wondering what the heck she was doing? Putting her head into a warthogs hole??? Everyone knows that the first law of African savanna bush, don’t ever EVER stand in front of a warthogs hole. Now you know why.

I hope you enjoy the podcast

Tags: 323, 766, 768, 801

16 responses so far