Born Free

Category: Born Free | Date: Jul 31 2008 | By: bornfree

A remarkable video documenting a reunion between a lion named Christian and two men who had cared for him early in his life has been making the rounds on the internet and in the media and I wanted to share some additional information about this story because it is very personal to me and central to the being of Born Free Foundation as an organisation.

This lion used to live in my garden.

Christian was bought from Harrods pet store in London and came, via a furniture shop and my garden in England, to live in Africa (Kora in Kenya), where he was returned to the wild by the world-famous George Adamson.

My late dad (Bill) filmed this great adventure.

The film is extraordinary and exemplifies the spirit that underpins Born Free - every individual matters. Even way back in the 1970’s, this was our way of giving Christian a shot at freedom.

This is part of the Born Free legacy. If it wasn’t for Born Free, the film, my dad and mum (Born Free’s founder, Virginia McKenna) would never have met Ace and John (the two young men in the clip) who would never have brought Christian from London to my garden. My dad, Bill, would never have negotiated with the Kenyan government for Christian’s return to Africa. We would never have had this memorable and inspiring story - and Christian would never have had his freedom (see image below © Bill Travers).

Today, the Born Free Foundation (and Born Free USA in the States) carry on the spirit of Born Free - helping wild animals in need, fighting injustice, cruelty and neglect and working to change animals’ lives for good.

You can purchase the film, Christian: The Lion at World’s End from Born Free at http://www.bornfree.org.uk/shop/acatalog/Videos_and_DVDs.html and you can become part of the Born Free family by joining as a member.  I also have my own blog on our Born Free website which you can view at http://www.bornfree.org.uk/blog/.

To watch the clip of Christian that has wowed the world, visit: http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/big-cats/about/christian-the-lion/

You can also Subscribe to Born Free Wildlife Direct blog by Email

Thank you.  Do share this story and film clip with your friends.

Will Travers
CEO
Born Free Foundation

P.S. Born Free does not advocate the keeping of any wild animal as a ‘pet’. Christian’s story was from another era and was unique. Today we must do all we can to ‘keep wildlife in the wild’.

John Rendall is based in the UK and still supports wildlife conservation both with Born Free and with the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust. Ace now lives in Australia.

Christian lived the life of a free, successful lion, in and around the Kora area until he was seen no more. It was assumed by George Adamson that he had crossed over the Tana River and out of the Reserve.

Tags: Born Free, Born Free Foundation, Christian, lion, Will Travers

7 responses so far

Category: LAGA | Date: Jul 29 2008 | By: bornfree

The other week I attended the CITES Standing Committee meeting where international law governing trade in endangered species was being negotiated. It is a political battle field protecting wildlife against strong trade interests. For me it is a fight between values and dollars.  LAGA has been very active in this UN convention for the last 5 years.

Horline, our head of legal unit, was supposed to represent us and work mainly on great apes issues and ask the parties to the convention to take stricter measures against Egypt for its inability to do anything against extensive illegal trade in chimpanzees and gorillas.  However, at the last moment, Horline as a Cameroonian was refused a visa to Swistzerland and I had to fill in for her with two days notice.

LAGA managed to stir up a debate through initiating a side event screening the film The Cairo Connection by Karl Amman (http://karlammann.com/pasa-cairo-connection.php) working with other partners within the Species Survival Network (www.ssn.org).  We did our best to show the Egyptian diplomat that lack of action will not be tolerated.

It is estimated that illegal dealers well known to us, but enjoying government protection, traffic around 25 baby chimps each year. The Jane Goodall Institute estimates that for each baby chimp discovered 9 other chimps were killed in the process, as the chimpanzees live in families who protect each other when attacked by poachers.

After visiting Eunice and Cynthia, LAGA family members in the UK for studying, I continued to Israel.

I am in Israel right now, doing some work writing the story of LAGA so it can be published as a book.

The LAGA family is managing on its own.

The operation tackling lion skin dealers had a great deterring impact as Vincent and his media department got it broadcast in radio and TV and ran the story in many of Cameroon’s newspapers.

The LAGA investigations team and of course the wider family is always in need of funds for its work - it costs us about US$200 per month to fund an investigator.  For these investigators to proficiently undertake their roles they also need excellent communication tools spending time on the telephone and on the Internet, all of which LAGA must fundraise to cover.  If you would like to donate, you can do so here on Wildlife Direct.

We had an attempt for an operation against an ivory dealer that didn’t succeed as the dealer got suspicious at the last moment. Trapping some of the more sophisticated dealers requires a lot of  patience, sometimes getting back to the same targets after a few months of cooling period.

This weekend was a difficult one for our family as Horline lost her grandmother, that was very close to her, Emeline lost her great grandmother and Anna’s father reached a critical condition.

We hope this week turns to be better.

Ofir

PS

something that came yesterday -

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/radioprogrammes/earthbeat/080726-cameroon-gorillas

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Jul 28 2008 | By: bornfree

This week we are in the office in Dar updating our turtle nest and mortality databases and entering data from the gillnet bycatch survey into the computer for analysis. The end of the nesting season is coming up and only 3 new nests were recorded along the 65 km long stretch of beach south of Dar. In Mafia Island, the main nesting area in Tanzania, we are still recording about 30 nests a month which is great.

Despite a recent awareness campaign to stop illegal dynamite fishing, which destroys corals, fish stocks and poses a real danger to fishers, dynamiting continues. Only last week we saw 4 blasts just off an important turtle nesting beach. Limited enforcement is a major factor in its continued practice and a great disappointment to those of us trying to protect the marine environment. We set up a dynamite fishing monitoring network two years ago and are now looking at the number of blasts recorded over time to see whether the recent campaign has had any positive impact. I hope the results will be encouraging.

Next week we are spending a few days on a small protected turtle nesting island just off Dar es Salaam called Sinda to do some training with the rangers there as well as members of a local NGO group called Kigamboni Youth Group.

Thanks, Catharine

4 responses so far

Category: Sea Sense | Date: Jul 24 2008 | By: bornfree

Hi there, John here - 

On 15th July we trained 7 staff from 2 lodges on the coast south of Dar es Salaam. Both hotels share a small sandy beach where we get about 40 green turtle nests a year and where we have set up turtle tourism. During the training, we (me and Dot the Sea Sense Administrator) told them about the different turtle species and basic turtle biology and life history, what to do if a turtle nests on their beach, how to protect turtle nests and what to do when the nest hatches. We focused on guidelines on hatching viewing so as to avoid people stepping on and handling baby turtles as they make their way to the sea.

Following the training, we spent about 4 hours with the hotel staff, university students and local villagers digging a wire fence around the turtle nest area to stop predation by honey badgers and monitor lizards. About a third of nests are destroyed by these animals every year and we are trying a variety of different ways to try and stop them. Honey badgers are particularly bad because they have incredibly strong claws and can burrow their way through most things. I hope the wire works. I’m sure that this, together with extra vigilance provided by the hotels will reduce the number of nests lost each year.

Today we tried to have a meeting with the village (Amani Gomvu) to find out who slaughtered a nesting turtle a week ago. This is the first turtle that has been killed on the south coast since we started working there in 2004 and is a real blow to our efforts and our relationship with the local community. Unfortunately most of the village leaders were absent and those we did speak to said the people who killed the turtle were from another village! I hope we will succeed to get all the local communities in the area together next week.

We are also going to conduct some questionnaire interviews to find out more about the uses of turtle products (meat, oil, shells etc) and whether anyone who has eaten turtle meat has ever been ill. I think the results will be extremely interesting.

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Category: Born Free, Born Free Ethiopia | Date: Jul 22 2008 | By: bornfree

On Thursday 17 July, I drove with two helpers to Awash National Park.

One of the helpers was Bereket, the newly appointed Born Free construction supervisor, and the other was Rea Tschopp, a veterinarian who had helped Born Free remove the chain from the Dolo lion (see my earlier blog here).

We set off at 6am for the 4 ½  hour journey east from Addis. First, through the conjested Debre Zeit, then on through Nazret and into the hills. Recent rain has transformed the countryside. Dusty brown turned into lush green. Incredible to think there is such a drought to the west and east. Everywhere farmers were ploughing with their ancient wooden ploughshares pulled by oxen. The journey from Addis took. As we approached Awash we had to wait for some Afar pastoralists and their hundreds of camels to cross the road.

Our mission was to repair and strengthen the lion enclosure at the Awash headquarters, where the Dolo lion is temporarily being kept until the new Born Free Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre is built. Wild lions in the park had stretched and weakened the mesh. Sadly, Dolo can never be released back into the wild, so it is important his enclosure is secure.

At the Park headquarters, I asked that the Park staff could stay out of sight, and especially Kole the Dolo lion carer, because Dolo associates him with food and gets very excited whenever he is around.

It’s always important when working with wild animals to carefully plan the procedure in advance. Quiet at all times. No sudden movements. Always work together on the same side of the enclosure so lion never feels ‘surrounded’. First, clear the thorn bush that had been put around the enclosure to prevent wild lions from getting too close. Second, slowly bring the 25 metre roll of mesh to the side of the enclosure and see how lion reacts. Third, leave the roll of mesh close to the enclosure on the sunniest side of cage and back off for five minutes so the lion can come up and check it out and we can monitor how agitated the lion is.

If Dolo became agitated Rea would need to blow dart the cat with tranquillizer so that we could complete the repair work safely and without the lion becoming stressed. Rea hoped the tranquillizer would not be necessary as the lion had spent all its life with humans close by.

Bereket and I cleared the thorn bushes that surrounded the site while Dolo lay watching us. When we carried the mesh close to the enclosure Dolo came over to check it out, then walked to the shadiest side of enclosure and lay down with his head facing away from us.
Since Dolo was obviously not bothered at all by our presence, the tranquillizer was thankfully not necessary. Rea sat on lion watch duty to warn us if Dolo started to come up to where we were working, since we had to have fingers and hands right against the wire as we stitched the new mesh in place.

Bereket and I lifted the 2 metre wide roll till it was vertical and gently lent it against the existing mesh wall. Dolo waved a fly from his face and yawned. We gently started to unroll the mesh around the side of the enclosure stitching the mesh to the uprights and the existing mesh at frequent intervals. Dolo fell into a deep sleep.

Rea cut the stitching wire into lengths and Bereket and I continued to unravel the mesh roll around the enclosure stitching as we went. The entire repair job took two hours and Dolo slept for 1 ¾ hours!

We could not believe how laid back the cat was.

Needless to say, when the goat carcass was brought out, Dolo was wide awake…

We loaded up our tools and I drove the 5 hour drive back trying to keep smiling as bus after bus came around blind corners overtaking overladen lorries… …Ethiopian driving really is something!

If anyone wants to help pay for the care of this lion, he costs £10 (US$20) per day to keep.

And, if you’d like to help Born Free raise funds for the new Centre please donate here at Wildlife Direct or via www.bornfree.org.uk.

More news in a few days,

James

Tags: Born Free, Dolo, ethiopia, Wildlife Rescue Centre

5 responses so far

Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Jul 21 2008 | By: bornfree

At the Wildlife Centre we work hand in hand with other similar concerns overseas, one of which is AAP, a monkey rescue centre in Almere, Netherlands. We have repatriated quite a few baboons and monkeys from them, which will happily live out their days at the LLWC (Lilongwe Wildlife Centre). So to ensure we can offer the primates the best possible care, our primate carer Wyson White, is taking part in an exchange programme.

He is off to the Netherlands to receive 3 weeks intensive training at the AAP facility and we have one of their workers here with us in Malawi, Jasper, learning how we do things and the type of care needed at our facility. Take off day for Wyson is July 24th and this is his first trip to Europe.

 Good luck and bon voyage Wyson!

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Category: Born Free | Date: Jul 16 2008 | By: bornfree

Dear Friends  

I was wondering about this today… why?

Well let’s imagine that the EU - including the UK - recognised that an increasingly rare fish species - found only in EU waters - was subject to high levels of illegal trade. Let’s imagine too that the EU felt that the best way to protect this species was to prevent all further trade. It might be anticipated that other countries, such as all the African countries (none of which had this fish species) would support the EU in its effort to prevent the fish from becoming extinct. That’s what you’d do right? Support the EU in its effort to prevent further decline. It’s polite, respectful and appropriate.

Now imagine that those same African countries decided that they did not want any further trade in ivory to be legalised. That they wanted their elephants to benefit from maximum protection and that to do so, trade in ivory with a fabulously wealthy state known to be a major illegal ivory trade destination would have to be shelved. Wouldn’t you expect the EU to show respect and support Africa in their endeavours?

WRONG

The EU has no elephants but continually acts as if it does and consistently ignores the views of the many (majority) of African elephant Range States who want no more trade. Why? I don’t know. With power comes responsibility and, frankly, that’s in very short supply here in Geneva.

Oh, and by the way, after yesterday’s high-risk vote approving the inclusion of China as an ivory stockpile trader, two female Chinese nationals were intercepted at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, caught in the act of smuggling nearly 40 pieces of ivory out of the country.

It’s endless and it’s going to get worse - and the CITES Standing Committee has just, in my view, made things a whole lot worse.

Blogging off

Will

Please visit http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/elephants/ for more information on the work Born Free undertakes with elephants

3 responses so far

Category: Born Free | Date: Jul 15 2008 | By: bornfree

BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER - THE ILLEGAL TRADE IN IVORY AND ELEPHANT POACHING

It’s crunch time for elephants (again!)

The decision by the Standing Committee of CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species) to approve China as a ‘trading partner’ for over 100 tonnes of stockpiled ivory from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe has left many conservationists and wildlife managers stunned and appalled.

“Unbelievable, naïve and deadly.” states Will Travers CEO of the Born Free Foundation, a member of the Species Survival Network. “It was bad enough when Japan was approved as a trading partner more than a year ago but approving China is, in my view, like pouring petrol on an open fire.”

The reasons why China should not have been approved are numerous:

• The lack of comprehensive internal law enforcement and trade controls
• The steady stream of illegal ivory shipments destined for China.
• The increasing involvement of Chinese nationals based in Africa in ivory trafficking
• The continued high levels of elephant poaching (estimated to be running at between 20,000 and 25,000 animals a year)
• The rising price of ivory (poached Sumatran ivory tusks have reportedly increased in value by 300% since 2005)
• The fragile nature of most African elephant populations (only half a dozen or so African countries have robust and significant elephant herds out of a total of 36 countries that are home to the species)

“Now, in addition to all these challenges and threats, we are faced with the prospect of China and Japan bidding against each other for the ivory stockpiles, driving up the price and heightening still further the incentive to poach and smuggle ivory” said Mr Travers, speaking from Geneva where the Standing Committee of CITES is convened.

Born Free and the SSN have comprehensive records relating to massive and entrenched levels of elephant poaching over the last 10 years. Together with other conservation groups, Born Free has consistently argued against any relaxation in the original ivory trade ban approved by CITES in 1989 following a decade when Africa’s elephant population fell by more than 50% from 1.3 million to 600,000. Today, elephant numbers are estimated to hover at around 475,000 – 500,000. Asian elephant numbers stand at a precarious 30,000-40,000

The role of the United Kingdom and the EU has been subjected to significant criticism throughout this process.

“Overwhelmingly the UK public are opposed to any ivory trade but the UK government has steadfastly refused to take a principled lead on this issue, using the notion of EU unity as an excuse for lack of independent action. The UK has also continued to state that it supports sustainable utilisation of wildlife species, including the killing of species such as elephants.” commented Shelley Waterland, International Trade Specialist with Born Free. “Quite clearly, today’s decision will encourage poachers, traders and traffickers and may well sound the final death knell for small, vulnerable elephant populations in West and Central African countries.”

It will also be shocking to many conservationists to learn that the decision to approve China as a trading partner was supported by WWF amongst others.

The illegal black market in ‘white gold’ seems set to cause parts of Africa to run red with elephant blood once more.

For some elephants E may well be for Extinction.

To help West African countries fight increasing and existing poaching and increase protection in the poorest African elephant Range States please consider donating to Born Free Foundation through Wildlife Direct or at www.bornfree.org.uk

Tags: Born Free, China, CITES, ivory, Standing Committee, Will Travers

2 responses so far

Category: Born Free | Date: Jul 14 2008 | By: bornfree

Geneva - 14th July 2008 – 57th Standing Committee to CITES*

Will Travers, Born Free Foundation’s CEO is present at the 57th CITES Standing Committee and will be blogging each day.

Once more elephants are top of the bill:  will China get to bid for 110 tonnes of ivory?

A highly critical report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a member of the Species Survival Network (SSN) (www.ssn.org) indicates that any move to approve ivory trade with China is dangerously premature.

• Ivory sales continue apace in Chinese shops
• Illegal shipments are being sent to China
• Chinese nationals based in Africa are implicated in illegal activities involving ivory
• The whereabouts of over 100 tonnes of ivory from the Chinese stockpile that allegedly went missing in the decade up to 2002 remain unknown.
• Such surveys that have taken place looking at the effectiveness of domestic law enforcement measures in China appear to be limited in nature. 

Born Free Foundation (BFF) and SSN member organisations remain deeply concerned about the current situation which could see a bidding war break out between Japan (already an approved trading partner) and China (seeking approval) that could drive up the price of ivory, increase the incentive to trade and quite possibly accelerate poaching which would in all likelihood hit the most vulnerable elephant populations hardest.

The elephant debate and decision is set to take place on Tuesday 15th July during the afternoon session.  Right now, I fear the wrong decision will be made: bureaucrats with little experience of what can actually happen on the ground, little understanding of the poaching phenomenon and little appreciation of the enormous challenges faced by elephant conservation authorities across much of Africa and throughout Asia and who are unelected and unrepresentative, will make the fateful decision.

May it be a wise one.

For many millions of people around the world are watching and elephants’ lives depend on it.

Blogging off,

Will

*Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

4 responses so far

Category: Sea Sense | Date: Jul 14 2008 | By: bornfree

Hi, I’m John Mbugani, the Education Officer at Sea Sense.  Last week I got back from a 10 day trip to the Rufiji Delta, the last stronghold of the extremely rare and elusive dugong, or sea cow. The delta is amazing with small channels bordered by mangrove trees and so many birds! On the sea side, there are vast areas of seagrasses and long stretches of sandy beaches some of which are turtle nesting sites.

The reason we (me and a group of fishers and experts from other parts of Tanzania) were there was to try and make sure dugong protection and conservation is included in the management plans of recently initiated community “Beach Management Units”. These BMUs are basically groups of local fishers who want to start managing their own marine and coastal resources.

We visited 8 villages to help them think about what issues they have in their village and to draft up a management plan. Some of the problems they face are illegal fishing (dynamiting in particular), use of their fishing grounds by non-resident fishermen and destruction of the seagrasses and fishing grounds by industrial prawn trawlers.

It was a very interesting process and I’m happy to say that conservation of both dugongs and turtles were raised by 6 out of 8 villages and have been included in their plans for resource management.

In a few weeks time we will return to help them start to implement their plans.

Soon I am off to the coast south of Dar es Salaam to conduct some training with hotel staff and do an interview survey. I will be accompanied by the Sea Sense Administrator, Dot Ndunguru and 4 students from the University of Dar es Salaam.

Tags: dugong, illegal fishing, Rufiji Delta, Sea Sense

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