Born Free

Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Sep 30 2008 | By: bornfree

Hi there,

It has been a few days since my last blog, things have been rather busy at the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre. We are gearing up to one of our biggest fund raising events at the end of September but more on that closer to the time!

We want to say a big hearty thank you to Game Stores in Blantyre for very kindly donating a chest gas freezer. And not only did they donate the freezer but they even delivered it from Blantyre up to Lilongwe for us as well. THANK YOU GAME!!!

This is something we have been desperate for to store the animals food in. As you can imagine the weather here in Malawi is very warm and food doesn’t last long if its not kept cold, so we are very grateful for this brilliant donation.

We needed to get a gas freezer as we don’t yet have electricity at the Centre….. this will come once the main entrance area and restaurant are built….. just some more items on our ‘to do’ list, but I am glad to report that things are moving along on both of these counts.

If you cannot make it to this fundraising event but would still like to help, please send us a donation using the donate button on this website. Remember every penny helps us to look after the amazing wildlife of Malawi.

Cheers
Tracey Dettmer
Marketing Manager

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Category: Born Free | Date: Sep 19 2008 | By: bornfree

 Thank you so much to Nadia K for donating and putting such lovely comments on the Born Free Ethiopia blog!!  We’ll be back shortly with further blogs on the progress of the Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre you’ll all be pleased to hear!

Don’t forget that you can subscribe to our blog by filling in your email in the right hand column and please do keep checking back for more blogs!!

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: bornfree

Last week we went to Saadani National Park, the only protected area in Tanzania which includes terrestrial and marine wildlife – where bush meets the beach! Our aim was to check the status of conservation activities as well as tourism issues. This area is situated north of Dar es Salaam and is sandwiched between the two historical towns of Bagamoyo and Pangani. The area has lots of wildlife including elephant, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and lion. It is also an important area for nesting green turtles. This year, we have recorded 16 nests on Madete beach, which is protected within the park boundaries. 

During our trip, we visited Maziwe Island to check for turtle nests. This island was once vegetated and there were records of olive ridleys nesting. However, the island is now completely inundated during spring tides and many nests are washed away, due to removal of the vegetation.  While there, we saw the tracks of a large green turtle. However, we didn’t manage to find her eggs. We will now be monitoring the island every neap tide. If we find eggs, they will be moved to the mainland beach for protection.

We also received reports from local fishermen that 3 green turtles and 1 leatherback turtle were found washed up on the beach with injuries to their heads, presumably having been hit by local fishers as they struggled to recover their nets.

Tags: Saadani National Park, Sea Sense, Tanzania, tourism, turtles, Wildlife

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Category: Born Free, Born Free Kenya | Date: Sep 12 2008 | By: bornfree

Hello all! My name is Elsie Kariuki and I coordinate Born Free’s de-snaring and anti-poaching project in Kenya. Kindly follow the link below for a brief introduction of the project

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/born-free-kenya/community-projects/de-snaring-community-project/

And then read on to get a glimpse into a day in the life of the young conservationists who join us to turn their passion into action. Karibu!

There is always talk about the illegal bush meat trade in and outside conservation circles and many of the volunteers come armed with all sorts of information, from their teachers, from those they know working in conservation, from books and materials they read and even the Media.

However, it is not until these young people experience the gruelling 15 kilometre walk through the bush, hour after hour in the oppressive eastern Kenya heat searching for the often elusive snares;

It is not until the find their first live snare and measure the diameter of its noose, its height from the ground and thickness of wire used to establish what animal is targeted, and then remove it knowing that they have at least saved one animal.

Its not until they stand next to the carcass of a zebra and see its wide open eyes already gorged by vultures, or feel its warm body full of life barely an hour ago and feel the despair of the possibility that maybe, just maybe they could have gotten there in time;

It is not until they see bicycle tire tracks or footprints in the dust and feel the frustration of knowing  that the poachers have gotten away yet again, or hear from the herdsmen tending their cattle in the bush that the poachers were spotted taking away bloody sacks ; it is not until they have to remove ticks stuck onto their bodies when they take a well deserved shower at the end of the day; or until they have their evening meal by the fire where they listen and reflect on the day’s experiences, from the novice who’s only just began his journey to the KWS ranger with over 20 years of experience they share tales of triumph and of despair; it is not until have to get up early the next morning, their muscles still aching from the previous day’s activities and brace themselves for another hard day’s work…

It’s only then that they fully realize the severity of the illegal bush meat trade. It is only then that they realize that by volunteering to be part of the de-snaring team, they make a significant contribution towards protecting threatened species, stopping individual animal suffering and keeping Kenya’s wildlife in the wild.

Reader’s Note:
The Born Free Foundation would like to thank the nearly 150 students from 12 different institutions affiliated with Wildlife Clubs of Kenya who have served as volunteers in this project. Their efforts have led to the recovery 1335 snares within a period of 49 project days. 929 of the snares were live, whereas 509 snares had already been ‘successfully’ used by the poachers. They have indeed saved countless wild animals by removing the snares and sometimes rescuing animals trapped in them.

With additional funding from our supporters we hope to continue providing these young enthusiastic students the chance to get actively involved in conservation; to increase their knowledge and most importantly help conserve Kenya’s wildlife.

Donate here at Wildlife Direct stating that you are donating to help the work of Born Free Kenya or visit http://www.bornfree.org.uk/shop/acatalog/Donations.html for the Born Free Kenya special appeal.

Tags: Born Free Kenya, bushmeat, de-snaring, Kenya

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Category: Sea Sense | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: bornfree

Last week we went to Mafia Island, just south of Zanzibar, to check the progress of conservation activities along with tourism affairs. We (me – John Mbugani, together with two field officers and two University students) stopped first on Juani Island (which means island of the sun in the local language), a satellite island that sits on the east side of Mafia. This is probably the most important turtle nesting site in the whole of Tanzania. On just a few small sandy coves, we have already protected a record 136 turtle nests this year, of which 85% have already hatched with thousands of babies making their spectacular way to the sea.

One threat facing green and hawksbill turtles on Juani is predation by monitor lizards. We saw a nest that, moments before we arrived, had been predated by a monitor lizard. 25 hatchlings died as a result.

Another threat is beach litter which acts as a barrier to nesting turtles. We came across huge piles of litter brought by ocean currents far away from Mafia washed up on the eastern side of island. These have been blocking the beaches making it difficult for nesting females to access suitable sites for depositing their eggs and for babies to get to the sea. Many tourists have been put off by the rubbish discouraging them from donating to the project.

While there, we also visited Juani Primary School which has received support from the Born Free Foundation for some years now. Funds have been used to repair classrooms and to construct a new water tank which is on-going. Now the kids and teachers are enjoying an inspiring studying environment and soon they will get fresh water.

More from Mafia soon!

Tags: Sea Sense, Tanzania, turtles

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Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Sep 03 2008 | By: bornfree

Hi this is Tracey again, Marketing Manager for the Wildlife Centre. I have a great story for you this week.

In February this year after a heavy rain storm, I found this tiny spiky ball curled up in my garage. It turned out to be a baby hedgehog, a very young one. I took it down to the Wildlife Centre where the vet looked it over. It was in good shape, if a little cold and very hungry. As it was so small they recommended I take it home and keep it warm. There followed several weeks of hot water bottle changing and LOTS of feeding. For a small creature she sure ate a lot! My gardener even got involved by helping to catch grasshoppers and crickets and other insects to supplement Kissy’s diet. We named her Kissy which is short for ‘kisoni’, the Chichewe word for hedgehog. For several weeks she lived in my laundry room and the vet from the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre paid her regular visits to check up on her.

Eventually, about 6 weeks ago, we decided Kissy was big and strong enough to be released. As I had found her in my garden this is where we released her. She still came back every night for her dinner though!! Then this week she introduced me to her new family, she has had 3 little babies!! They are roughly the same size now as Kissy was when I first found her that wet afternoon in my garage.

So you see it’s not just the large wild animals that the Wildlife Centre helps but the small ones that most people never see – who would have thought that we get hedgehogs in Africa?!?! Without their help and advice I don’t think this story would have had such a wonderful ending.

Please help us to continue helping the wildlife of Malawi. Every donation helps an animal. Just £10 helps us feed a baboon or vervet for a week, or provide medical care and food for a hungry hedgehog!!

Thank you!!

Tags: hedgehog, Lilongwe, Malawi, Wildlife

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