Baraza

Amboseli is famed for the spectacular views of Mt Kilimanjaro and the elephant population made famous by Cynthia Moss, Joyce Poole and the Amboseli Elephant Project.

Amboseli was severely affected by the Kenyan drought, and even though it is now officially over, this is no paradise for wildlife.

It is extremely hot and dusty and there is hardly any grazing. According to local scientists, over 95% of the wildebeest and nearly all the zebras and other wildlife perished from starvation in the drought. In addition the drought took 50 – 80% of the Maasai cattle herds. Predators lost their prey base, and lions, already critically endangered in Kenya also faced starvation so they turned to killing the few remaining cattle and other Maasai livestock.

According to the Maasai on the ground, in a normal year five cattle are killed by lions, currently lions attack five times per week!

To avert the situation the Kenya Wildlife Service mounted the largest wildlife operation in Africa, to translocate 7000 zebras and wildebeest to the park to provide food for the lions and no doubt, to restore the touristic attraction to Amboseli.

We witnessed day 20 of the operation – the goal was to capture 50 zebras in a dawn operation. Everything started at 5.30am.

The Kenya Wildlife Service helicopter rounds up zebras and drives them into a cleverly hidden funnel

Once inside, the funnel is closed with curtains behind the zebras

The zebras are completely confused but not panicked. They settle down until the chute and trucks are in place.

Rangers make noise banging the floor and sides of funnel with sticks to move zebras into the chute.

Zebras run from funnel into the chute and directly into the waiting truck

KWS rangers and veterinarians count the individuals and make sure all is going according to plan

49 zebras are captured. Zebras are compartmentalized in the truck in groups of 10

Six hours adn 300 km later the first zebra truck arrives in Amboseli

The container is opened and zebra makes first tentative steps out

then race for FREEDOM!

The last foal looked a little lost at first

But quickly followed the others running to the elephants in the swamp – causing a minor panic by the pachyderms!

The next day the zebras had figured out where the grass and water was. Of 49 captured 48 survived the first day. One individual ran directly into the swamp and the jaws of waiting hyenas. Its carcass was rescued and taken to a hungry lion pride wtih 6 cubs.

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According to a report in one of Kenya’s business newspapers, there is a strong likelihood of a fallout between Kenya and Tanzania in light of the two neighbours’ opposing ivory trade proposals sent to CITES ahead of the 15th Conference of Parties (CoP15) to be held in Doha, Quatar this coming March.

While Kenya has submitted a proposal for a total ban on ivory trade, Tanzania “is pushing for a new trading window to allow it to sell its ivory stockpile to fund conservation measures”, said the Business Daily newspaper. Kenyan wildlife officials see this as betrayal by their neighbours with whom they share ecosystems such as Amboseli (Kilimanjaro) and Masai Mara (Serengeti). Kenya believes that Tanzania’s proposal to move their elephants from Appendix I to Appendix II in the CITES rankings, thus allowing them to carry out a one off trade stockpiled ivory, will increase poaching in the named ecosystems.

Tanzania and Zambia are both pushing for an opportunity to sell 89,848 Kilograms and 21,692 kilograms of stockpiled ivory respectively. Zambia also wants to sell raw hides. This is confirmation that CITES ruling that allowed four southern Africa nations (Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and Botswana) after the 14th CITES meeting in 2008 was bound to set a bad precedent.

Allowing Tanzania and Zambia to sell their ivory will signal other African states to ask CITES for permission to sell their legally held ivory stockpiles too. Thus setting the pattern of bad decisions into a spiral. The result will no doubt be a rise in demand and consequently an upsurge in poaching – possibly to the 1970s and 1980s levels that saw the population of elephants in Kenya cut down from 168,000 in 1969 to just 16,000 in 1989.

Kenyan officials have vowed to fight these proposals to the last man. Rallying behind Kenya in the fight to block the Tanzania/Zambia proposal are various African states including Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. It would be untold victory for elephants should the pro-trade proposals are voted out and a total ban in all ivory trade is imposed.

So to CITES – and to our Tanzanian neighbours – don’t condemn Africa’s elephants to extinction over a few million dollars worth of ivory.

Dear all,

We are indebted to Scott Ward for this guest post who wrote from Amboseli National Park with spectacular photographs he took there. Scott raises some tough questions. Read more about Scott Ward below.

Photo Scott Ward

As I drove into Amboseli National Park from across the long dry lakebed, I was immediately taken aback by the large number of carcasses that were dotted everywhere.  In some places it seemed as though a bomb went off and destroyed every living creation within a large area.  It seemed as though a great battle took place with no one winning.  Among the dead an inordinate amount of hyenas plundered the dead and decaying.  Of course, to me, the saddest thing was to see the giant decomposing bodies of elephants.  If elephants lived as short of lives as mice, bred like rabbits, and were abundant, I might be able to relegate their death to just a mere cycle of nature.  But I think it is more than that.  When one sees a wild elephant up close and experiences the wisdom of long years in her life and the power within her massive body one quickly realizes that we are sharing our planet with a truly wondrous creation.  The death of one of these magnificent creatures somehow diminishes our Earth.

Amboseli drought photo from http://www.elephanttrust.org

                But in the midst of the macabre dance of the hyena, there is life and green.  Rain has returned to Amboseli – maybe not in the abundance that was hoped for, but arrived nonetheless.  As I drove through the park it was wonderful to see elephants playing in the chest deep water as if celebrating themselves the return of the rains.  Cape buffalo once again have mud to wallow in.  Zebra and wildebeest are slowly returning.  Three beautiful lion cubs were feasting on a freshly caught warthog.  The Rains have returned and hope springs to life again, yet the drought has taken its toll and causes me to wonder what’s next.

Photo Scott Ward

                As I sat around the pool at our lodge, I began to contemplate that probably this swimming pool was filled with water while animals perished just a short distance away.  The freshly manicured grass was definitely kept watered through the long drought, while on the other side of the fence the grass literally dried to dust.  Tourists enjoyed a whole host of drinks and foods while the animals struggled for a drop of water or a morsel of food.  As these thoughts rolled around in my mind, I began to ask myself, “Why can’t we help?”  According to leading scientists, global warming is our fault.  Others say that we should not interfere – that we should take a hands-off approach to wildlife conservation.  Many people just don’t care either way what happens, because they have their own life to worry about.  But they did not see the casualties.

Photo Scott Ward

                I certainly don’t know all the answers, but it did impress upon me the necessity to continue my support of conservation efforts.  The lives of these incredible creatures are too precious to simply let them slide into eternity without a fight.

Scott Ward

 About Scott Ward:   My family and I are missionaries in Northern Tanzania near Moshi.  I am also an amateur photographer trying to take steps into a larger arena with my photography.  I currently have a number of images in the online gallery called Art for Conservation (http://www.artforconservation.org/artists/scottward). It is here that I have been supporting the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust with sales from my photographs on this site.  We live right next to Mkomazi National Park and have visited with Tony and Lucy Fitzjohn who run the conservation effort there. My personal portfolio website is http://www.sbward.com.  I have my sepia-toned images for sale and on display at the web address listed above.  I also have some color photographs of African wildlife at http://useatripod.imagekind.com.