Maasailand Preservation Trust

Well, first and foremost I would like to apologize for the long silence from the Maasailand Preservation Trust blog. There has been so much happening lately, from 2010-2011. First of all there was a rhino poacher arrested in of the most guarded rhino habitat.

Snares that were to be used to poach rhinos in chyuluNP

This guy must have guts, because how he got there is still a mystery.  He led a team of Kenya Wildlife service personnel to his home and assortments of poaching tools were discovered, poisoned arrows, snares and quivers. He is also leading the same team towards the arrest of one animal trophy dealer in the area.

Secondly, four ivory poachers were cornered into a trap by one of our intelligent scout; Sergeant Sakimba. Apparently, the ivory traders contacted the sergeant while he was on off duty to get them any ivory he could lay his hands on at a good price (Kshs. 3000 approximately 40 USD).  This of course took a while to organize for transportation of ivory within Kenya Wildlife Service custody and prepare them  an ambush.  This was so successful that the four buyers were arrested on the eve of New Year. They had a cool Kshs. 150, 000, (2000USD) supposedly to purchase ivory.  The sad thing is these guys, were released on fine of Kshs. 5000(66 USD) just like that.

This is just one of the many cases where poachers are set free by the Kenyan courts alluding to lack of evidence whilst there is much available.

On very, very sad note, we happened to have lost two lions across the border (Tanzania) from poisoning. The first l incident which is lioness was poisoned on 2^nd of January 2011 after killing a cow inside a boma at Kitenden area on the Tanzanian side. This was reported on the 5^th of January by scouts working for AWF in Tanzania.  On 19^th of January; another report came in that four lions were poisoned still on the Tanzania soil. After comprehensive investigation we found out that it was one male lion. The team comprises of Kenya Wildlife Service rangers. From the carcass, it was evident that, the culprit were not just after retaliation for their stock but also after the lion claws and teeth. These parts were missing. This could be another trade for lion parts coming up.

Evidence of some missing parts, skin, teeth and claws.

In the last case of the lion poisoning there was clear evidence (and actually you can see furadan granules in the picture below) of poisoning targeting other species.

Furadan granules on this lion carcass

Your donations are highly needed to save these magnificent animals from extinction.

In the last few weeks, I have been walking and driving with the community game scouts mobile team unit that patrols around settlement to avert conflict. This is most critical after one person was killed by an elephant while cycling home on Wednesday. The community of Olbili went on rampage and killed two elephants in retaliation. Kenya Wildlife Service were in time but the community could not even listen to anybody.  This is the second person to be killed by an elephant in this area in two months.

After these two incidents the game scouts have had to keep vigilant watch in this area to avoid further conflict.  Later in the week, I had to visit one of our sister projects Olgulului Consolation Scheme that works just like the Predator Compensation Scheme in Olgulului ranch. This is still a new project and has been in existence for the last two years. It was commissioned in 2008.

Mean while, I think I need to take  some few days off. I am suffering with a severe cold, persistent coughs that really hurts and I don’t want to spread it in the whole office, I will go take some bush herbs with goat soup and get better.

Last night, 8 poachers were arrested by our game scouts with a grant gazelle meat on the south part of the ranch. Our game scouts braved the chilly and cold night to set an ambush after an informer from the area informed them of the poachers who have been secretly killing game meat for trade.

With the help of Kenya wildlife service, they managed to arrest all the eight culprit with one motorbike that was being used to transport the game meat to a market in Tanzania which is less than an hour drive.  One of the game scouts got injured on the arm as they tried to disarm the poacher. They were in possession of machetes, bow and arrow knives, snares and three spotlights. To help the game scout with rations while on patrols please donate here. I will be monitoring the process of court to see what happens with these paochers. This is one of my jobs with MPT.

One of the most difficult jobs’s that Maasailand Preservation Trust game scout  is to curb illegal wildlife hunting.  Such operations are weary and risky. Most of the poachers are armed with poisoned arrows and machetes, with a sole aim of killing wildlife for commercial and domestic use. Over the years, this has taken a new dimension due to complicated change of poachers hunting tactics. In our observation, we have noted that the poachers have started using the moon phases to hunt, but they don’t take into account that our scouts are vigilant day and night.

In the last two years the informer program was introduced.  These are guys who move around collecting information and relying it to our game scouts who then set an ambush of the culprit with the help of Kenya wildlife Service.

Some of these scenes are horrifying to see like this one taken where three two gazelles and a kudu were found on transit for sale.   By donating to the Maasailand preservation Trust, such scenes will be stopped and save our wildlife.

The Mbirikani Community Game Scouts (MCGS) just returned from a successful operation in Kiboko. Here is a brief blog about what they encountered. This exercise was part of the joint anti-poaching and de-snaring effort we undertake in partnership with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Kiboko, a predominantly Wakamba settlement is just off the main Nairobi-Mombasa road and the ecological balance there is under serious threat from game meat poaching. As one of the major poaching hotspots in the area we regulary send our mobile unit out on patrol to Kiboko. This is just one of the areas that our far-reaching game scouts range to in the 1.5 million acres of the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem they cover.

The operation was very successful and several arrests were made and a large amount of poaching equipment confiscated. Below is a picture of the first arrest made where two men were caught illegally harvesting timber from the rapidly diminishing forests along the seasonal Kiboko River.

The big bust came the following day with the arrest of 5 game meat poachers. The arrest came about after a night time ambush was laid. Alongside these men 7 bicycles, 40 snares, 11 poisoned arrows, 4 machetes and a variety of other equipment was confiscated and handed over to the state. Sadly these poachers had already been at work and a huge quantity of game meat was recovered. Below is a picture and you will have to accept our apologies for posting it, but we feel the brutal reality of the bushmeat trade must be seen.

Game meat poaching and habitat destruction have markedly increased over the last year as a repercussion of the drought the area has suffered. So far this year the MCGS have arrested over 460 poachers as well as confiscating and collecting equipment including 2 motorcars, 6 motorbikes, 15 bicycles, 50 axes, 19 saws, 114 machetes and over 700 snares.

All those who were apprehended have been handed over to the Kenya Police and the Kenya Wildlife Service for prosecution. We hope the examples made of these men will act as a deterrent for others.

Please stay posted for more information.

The MPT Team

Our dog unit was born in 2006 when two bloodhounds were donated to us by Tusk Trust. They have since become a key part of the Mbirikani Community Game Scouts program and added greatly to the program’s success. For more information on the MCGS please have a look at the MCGS’s introductory blog. The Bloodhounds quickly proved what a fantastic conservation tool they are and continue to do so again and again.

Bloodhounds track by following a the trail of scent which is given off as the skin cells we constantly shed decompose. Each person’s scent is different and the dogs rely on this and the strength of the scent to identify the route taken. The ease of this varies with climate, most notably moisture. Our dogs track in the most arid of terrains of any Kenyan unit and this makes their noses ever the more sensitive.

Bloodhounds were historically bred in France where they were used for tracking game across vast areas of land as part of a hunt. As time moved on and parcels of land became smaller and smaller they were moved on to tracking poachers. Recently they were brought to the African Continent where they proved their worth by tracking over large distances. In comparisons to solely human teams they are almost incomparable. They can cover an area of ground that would take a human team a several hours in a fraction of the time and can even track over open ground where there are little or no visible signs. This has made them a fantastic anti-poaching tool as well as acting as a great deterrent once the community is aware of their presence.

Our dog unit, Delta Mobile, is one of only a handful in Kenya. The team travels far and wide to help out in a variety of situations. Though their primary goal is to combat Rhino poaching, recent operations have involved tracking game-meat poachers, livestock and property thieves and even children lost in the bush. The unit is made up of three handlers, two highly skilled Bloodhounds and one companion dog. Delta Mobile is always on standby and is called to the scene to combat any issues where tracking is required. They can operate at such speeds that they often catch up with fleeing poachers!

Below is an introduction to the members of Delta Mobile:

Bosco is a first generation Kenyan Bloodhound bred on Ol Jogi Ranch in Laikipia. He was donated to MPT in 2006 alongside his sister, Judy. They were both trained in part in Laikipia and in part by Patrick Stanton at the Ride Kenya stables. Bosco is now three and a half years old and trains 6 days a week. Bosco is an extremely successful tracker, following trails as much as 24 hours old. We are very proud of him as he currently operates above a 95% success rate. He has a great character and lives to sniff!

Drastic is a slightly older Bloodhound Foxhound cross. He was recently donated to us by Fieldready Bloodhounds in the UK. We are all very happy to have him here and he is really settling into his new surrounds well. He is currently under a strict training routine getting him ready to work alongside his new friend Bosco.

Maureen is what we call here a “shenzi” or what you may call a mutt! She was a street dog in Nairobi and was rescued by the KSPCA, where we found her. She was brought in as a companion for Bosco when his sister, Judy, died of Trypps in April. She is a very excitable young dog and is really happy with her new life. Probably because we learned that for the first month she was being fed the same sized portions as Bosco, despite being a quarter of the weight!

The bloodhounds would be unable to function without support from their handlers, to whom a great deal of credit goes. A tracker dog relies heavily on a handler who understands the dynamics of not just scent, but tracking too. This is essential in guiding and controlling the dog whilst they operate at high speeds through thick bush. Three of our Community Game Scouts have been specially trained as handlers. They are Mutinda, Marsaria and Kilitia. Marsaria and Kilitia are both local Maasai warriors from the Mbirikani Group Ranch, where as Mutinda is an ex-Wakamba poacher who was arrested by our MCGS in 2002. After proving that he had changed his ways Mutinda joined the MCGS where his knowledge and experience prove invaluable to Delta Mobile and the MCGS.

If you are lucky enough to come visit us, the team will gladly take you out for training and you can see if you can outwit them. But for now stay posted for more news from Delta Mobile!

We would also like to take this chance to thank Pirjo I for a very much appreciated donation. Asante sana!

The MPT Team

When the Maasailand Preservation Trust began back in 1991 it employed just six Community Game Scouts as its first members of staff. Trained, uniformed, equipped and able to respond to any threat to people or wildlife, there are now five operational Mbirikani Game Scout Units, containing many dozens of men. These men are nearly exclusively all local residents of the Group Ranch, ready at a moment

We will continue to post our introductory blogs over the next few weeks but we also want to keep you updated on the latest news from MPT. Here is a little update for you on how the drought is affecting us here:

As you will have heard from blogs such as the recent one by our neighbours the Lion Guardians, Kenya is currently in the depths of the worst drought it has seen in several decades if not longer. Here in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem the last two rains have completely failed and the pressure this has put on the ecosystem is taking its toll on both wildlife and people. Below is a recent aerial photograph of an elephant herd we were called into check on. A mother an calf were reported in a very poor condition and our Community Game Scouts responded. The calf was so weak that in the end the CGS had to help him to his feet. Thankfully this story ended well with the mother finding water at a near by watercourse and being able to produce enough milk. The next morning we flew in to check that they had made it back to their herd. But for evidence of just how bad this drought is just look how little grass there is!

Normally at this time of year there should be a good few inches of grass when all that is left is the completely dehydrated clumps you find. These unsurprisingly offer practically no sustenance for grazers, wild or domestic. Below is another aerial picture, this time of two Maasai herders and their shoats.

This lack of grazing has put an added pressure on the ecosystem had a marked increase on the mortality rates of many species. Most notable are the large grazers such as bufallo, zebra, eland and wildebeest whose carcassases are so numerous that we fear we are looking at a >50% mortality (death) rate in the hardest his species. Below is a picture of Warthog drinking from one of our waterholes, just look how dry the background is!

The drought has also made other threats such as bush fires a very worrying presense. There have been several of these recently and as part of our CGS duty they have been out fighting them. Below are some pictures of a recent fire fighting excercise.

This time footprints were found at the sight of the start of the fire.