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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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.

Dear Friends,

We have just heard sad news of the demise of Echo from Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Echo died on the 2nd of May from old age and the drought. I personally met Echo and others in the her family many times in Amboseli – she was easy to identify by her crossed tusks. She was a fierce protector of her family, builting it up from 7 individuals to 40 over the years. She and her family starred of the documentary Echo of the Elephants. If you haven’t seen it then you simply must. It is unforgettable.

Light a candle for Echo.

I can’t believe she is gone. Amboseli will never be the same.

RIP Echo.

Paula
Read more about this on AERP blog and Cynthia Moss blog at http://elephanttrust.org

Article at the following link:

http://elephanttrust.org/node/551

Two men were arrested on the 25th April for carrying 703 kg (1,550 lb) of elephant ivory in southern Kenya. They were traveling by vehicle in Tanzania when they were ambushed by wildlife scouts from the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association. They fled across the Kenyan border, and were caught and arrested by authorities tipped off by the scouts.

This is biggest seizure in recent times in Kenya and the ivory is valued at around 59-60 million Kenyan shillings ($750,000). The men, whose identities have not been released, appeared in a Kajiado court on Monday morning where they plead guilty. The men  face up to a year in jail.

The haul of 33 whole tusks and 57 pieces, weighing over 700kg, is believed to represent over 50 individual elephants.

The Amboseli elephants are not anonymous animals, after more than 40 years of research each elephant is individually known. The field team now fear that “some of the tusks could belong to the splendid bull Ganesh or Echo’s son, Ely, or the impressive long-tusked Theodora from the TD family that has been spending more time in Kimana than Amboseli over the last decade”.

Who killed them and how? One person claims that these elephants could be the victims of Furadan poisoning. This is one of several indicators that ivory trade is on the rise as is elephant poaching in Kenya, Asia and Congo. Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Trust for Elephant have been reporting alarming increases in poaching in the Amboseli ecosystem. We believe that this is all in response to the lifting of the ban on trade in ivory, and the one off sale that took place in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia in November last year.

Harvey Croze of ATE writes that “it appears that our concerns have been vindicated when Cynthia reported in February on increased poaching for ivory in Amboseli. Perhaps now authorities will take seriously the twin threat to Africa’s elephants: the one-off sale of ivory from southern African stockpiles to China, combined with the presence of Chinese roadgangs in the ecosystem”.

It is depressing that these two men face only a year in jail for one of the biggest seizures of ivory in Kenya. Their sentence will hardly dampen the demand or reduce the incentives for many who are greedy for ivory. We have it on good authority (from someone who wishes to remain anonymous), that the ivory was being transported in a vehicle owned by a powerful person. Until these bigger people are brought to justice, the poachers, and small time dealers will continue. The challenge is how to catch and prosecute these powerful, and politically connected big shots.

Four questions for you to think about

Kenya currently holds over 35 tons of ivory in her strong rooms – for some this represents fantastic commercial value, to us they represent death and destruction.

Q1. Do you think it is time we revive the ban on trade in ivory?

Q2. Do you think we should aggressively resume pursuing the perpetrators of this cruel trade?

Q3. Will you help us to raise awareness and demand for better protection for all elephants?

Q4. What should Kenya do with the 35 tons of stockpiled ivory?

Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

For some reason this hasn’t hit the mainstream press, but according to the East African newspaper,  the KWS have given up Amboseli National Park.This story goes back to  2005 when the president in his wisdom gave away the reserve to the local Maasai in what many believe was an attempt to buy support  for constitutional referendum. They accepted the land which overlooks Mt Kilimanjaro, and voted against him anyway.

Local NGO’s Nature Kenyaand Eastern African Environmental Network took the government to court to squash the ministers decision to actually gazette the presidents declaration. The case is still in court. Despite this KWS have apparently given up and the newspaper claim that they have a copy of an agreement to that effect. It seems that the agreement puts KWS in a contracted position to manage the park on behalf of the council who can boot them out if they are not happy.

Why does this matter?

Amboseli is iconic of Kenyas’ wildlife protection and conservation success. It is one of the most important protected areas in Kenya  – and the combined attraction of mountain and elephants generates more revenues than most of the others combined! It is where the elephants and lions have recently been speared. The local council is unlikely to have relevant competence to manage the site and Kenya may lose one of its greatest and most famous wildlife refuges.

It’s not surprising that the locals want the land, KWS has been raking in millions for years, with little to show for its contribution to the local communities. Nevertheless, this decision is likely to see the invasion of the park by pastoralists, the killing of elephant and lions and tourism is unlikely to recover.

I suspect that this is the beginning of something interesting, KWS releasing a stranglehold on parks and reserves especially where communities are ferocious (they are very averse to aggression). They will let go  back down and take on managerial roles only – like the private sector. Can KWS survive this way? I’m curious – it is quite a bloated organization.

I wonder what would happen if we engaged more private sector interest in conservation directly (not just hotels) in Kenya that way Kenyans could invest in wildlife and nature protection and earn dividends.

……perhaps I”m dreaming again.