Baraza

Category: Emergencies | Date: Jan 24 2008 | By: admin

Almost two years ago now, in one of the most beautiful parts of Kenya, Laikipia district, a group of biologists were sitting in the middle of the savanna grassland listening to each others presentations about research we would do had we an unlimited supply of money. Mine was not as outrageous as most of the others but I do see why it could have been important now. I wanted to conduct a nation wide investigation into the apparent loss of vultures in all the national parks. I had no factual backing to this ‘loss of vultures’, it was just something that had almost slapped me in the face when I went on a safari. Where had all the vultures gone? As a child I remember seeing countless numbers of all species of vultures, circling the skies, perched on trees with such sinister looks but at that age I was influenced by the evil vultures from the Disney movie of Robin Hood.

This is me with the long hair and orange top, giving my ‘vulture presentation’ and some of my fellow conservation biologists

The point I am trying to make here is that I found my answer to a question I silently pondered over for many years. Another threat to remaining African Wildlife: Poisoning!

It might not be the only reason to affect vulture populations but it certainly is a tangible and severe threat.

So what exactly happens? It’s mostly people that live near wildlife that are setting deliberate traps of poisoned carcasses to deter predators and keep them away from their land and livestock. Unfortunately poisoning causes vast numbers of deaths to most of the top predators and birds of prey alike, being the indiscriminate killer that it is. The poison accumulates in the tissues of whatever feeds on it thus making birds of prey vulnerable to secondary poisoning. There have already been reports from some of our blogs about this problem. Simon Thomsett had written a post about it last year, Lion guardians reported the loss of two of their lions and the Northern Rangelands Trust as well.

I recently read an article about the worst case of poisoning in years in Namibia where 25 birds of prey had been killed by feeding on the carcass of a poisoned dog. The dog had fed on poisoned bait and died. The targets of the baiting were jackals. This shows how indiscriminate the poisoning can be. It’s not a method just restricted to Kenya but occurs all over Africa and elsewhere in the world.

In Uganda, Queen Elizabeth National Park 80% of the hyenas have been poisoned and the at least 15 lions and this information is from June last year.

In a study conduced by one of our bloggers Seamus Maclennan in the Tsavo-Amboselli region in Kenya states that over 108 lions may have been killed in the region either through Masaai cultural act or poisoning.

Are there solutions? Someone like Seamus (Lion Guardians) or Sam Maina (The Water Hole) may be in a better position to tell you the answer but the immediate thought would be to educate people about the effects of the poisoning but how many animals will fall victim in the meantime…it’s a long term solution and those take a long time to see results. More immediate solutions would be to pass laws to ban chemicals such a carbofuran commonly used for the poisoning. For such action we need to get the message out.

If something is not done at this stage it may lead to the extinction of some of our birds of prey in the immediate future.

I had to use Sam’s photos from the Water Hole blog as I’m not out in the field but it is where I want to be.

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Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Nov 27 2007 | By: admin

Paula here … in the office enjoying an ant free experience (which Ephrem, Dipesh and others could kill for right now).

Today I was sent a very disturbing story that I’d like to share. Actually the entire week has been disturbing already, and it’s only Tuesday! I’ll start with the story…

Dino of Dudu Diary sent me link to an extraordinary story – it reminded me that as much as we love and try to preserve our different cultures, it can get you into legal problems. Take this story by Tom Hays for example … it’s about a lady of Liberian decent who has been importing monkeys meat and bones (among other things) into USA – it seems that she has been doing it for many many years. I shudder to think about how many monkeys have died for the cultural and religious purposes of the African diaspora in USA and Europe. You can read it here

How could you even think about eating someone who tickles you?

I love the fact that she may get 5 years for this offense (If laws were like this in Africa we might not be losing so much wildlife) .. .but I can’t help wondering about the justice system. She’s currently serving a 2 year sentence for trying to run over a woman who she suspected of sleeping with her husband. 2 years for attempted murder, 5 for importing monkey meat….Hmmm……

Is it me, or is there something odd about this?

Talking of cars and running over things, I have another bit of bad news is about Masumi and Will who are doing a safari at the coast – helping our existing and new bloggers. Dipesh and others have described the roads (or lack of) in Congo where road traffic is dangerous … but then we don’t have to go far….

We have our own home grown flying coffins….Kenyan matatus (read over-loaded public transport system driven usually by a mad man who may or may not be intoxicated). Will was driven off the road by a crazy matatu driver who was overtaking another crazy matatu driver and basically hogging the entire road.

To save his life he pulled off the road and ate a sign board…. this minor accident could have been deadly… (well, the car is pretty messed up and may consider itself to be in Intensive Care) but there were no human injuries. The matatu drivers drove on - ignoring Will - though many other people came to his rescue.

Dealing with the police has been a major headache but it’s all sorted now (call it an education). I’m sure we will give a full update of this safari complete photos once Will and Masumi catch their breath.

It’s only 2 pm but Juliet of the Northern Rangelands Trust has also just reminded us that eating monkeys is not the only wildlife problem … we have an enormous amount of work ahead of us if we are to tackle the poisoning of predators which may be one of the biggest challenges that these animals face in Africa today. We will be letting you know about this new campaign quite soon. The pictures may shock you so for now I’ll leave you with a happy one…

We should learn from our cousins and play more!

The sun is shining outside, monkeys are playing and there is never a dull moment in this office….. I had a good chuckle at Dipesh’s expense today… his computer has died due to a virus called Kibaki. He’s a very quiet guy so you may not know that Mr. Mwai Emilio Kibaki is our current president, but he is fighting vigorously for re-election which is an extremely dirty business that will be held in less than a month. He’s doing an Obama on us and has a website (WOW!!!) but sadly for him it is infecting anyone who dares visit it…… Why weren’t the ministers this innovative and effective when in office?

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