Born Free

Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Jan 15 2009 | By: bornfree

Happy New Year everyone!!

Well we have had an exciting and busy time this last month. We are proud to announce that we had our first official release of animals that we have rescued and rehabilitated. It was an exciting and emotional day for all concerned.

After a year of planning and co-ordinating with National Parks of Malawi we found a suitable site in Kasungu National Park in central Malawi on Sunday 6th December, the Wildlife Centre rounded up Jack’s troop into their travel boxes.  The transfer up to Kasungu was in fact delayed by 24 hours, it appeared that Jack (the troop’s alpha male) was not so happy about the whole move and refused to come into the holding area where he could be darted and sedated.  He was however eventually darted and boxed up.  After just five hours on the road Jack’s troop was at the release site in Kasungu National Park, a beautiful spot along the river, where Jack and his family were transferred into a temporary holding area where they remained for a week to give them time to settle into their new environment.  The troop was now one step closer to freedom!

Then on Saturday 13th December, a team of us from the Wildlife Centre opened the gates and Jack and his family were released back to the wild. The final step that saw them returned home, free and wild. It was an emotional morning for the team,  watching the baboons take their first steps out of the gates of the holding area, especially for those who had cared for these animals and nursed some of them back to health, it was wonderful to see them free, chasing butterflies and climbing trees.

Our release research team headed up by Andrea will stay up at the park and track and check on the baboons for the next year. Three of the troop have been fitted with radio collars so tracking is easy.

Andrea is coming to town this week and will give us an update on how the baboons are doing….. keep watching this space!!

The release site where the baboons stayed for a week to acclimatise.

Tags: animal release, baboon, bushmeat, Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, Malawi, rehabilitation

3 responses so far

Category: Born Free Kenya | Date: Jan 12 2009 | By: bornfree

In the latter part of 2008, a marked increase in poaching had been seen within the southern part of Taita Ranch and Rukinga Ranch (whose anti-poaching work has been supported by Born Free Foundation), within the corridor between Tsavo East and West in South Eastern Kenya.  This increase indicated that poachers were actually residing in the bush in large numbers and that they were poaching on a large ‘commercial’ scale. 

Therefore, in November 2008, a co-ordinated effort to remove these poachers was put into action.  Rangers and vehicles from Wildlife Works Ltd / Rukinga Ranch, KWS and ANAW carried out an operation, backed up by an aircraft provided by the Kenyan Wildlife Service, to find and arrest the poachers.  Several large and well established charcoaling and poaching camps were identified and raided simultaneously during the operation.  Bicycles and shoes were discarded as the poachers ran to try and escape arrest showing how established the camps had been.

During the raids 11 people were arrested and dozens of carcasses including dik diks, impala and kudu confiscated, several which were found drying in a tree – the meat is sold but the heads are boiled up and eaten by the poachers. Snares, hunting torches, and bangi were also confiscated.  The meat which was confiscated in the raid would have been transported on charcoal lorries to small towns or villages along the Mombasa Road where it would have been sold in small ‘informal butcheries’ and drinking dens.

Some of the largest charcoal kilns ever seen were also found on Kambanga Ranch - literally thousands of trees had been cut in the last months of 2008. 

Rob Dodson of Wildlife Works Ltd. / Rukinga Ranch met with the Directors of Kambanga Ranch directors, showing them the pictures resulting from the raid.  They were quite shocked at the extent of the problem that they have and an offer has been made that should the Ranch Directors be able to pay and equip a couple of rangers, then Wildlife Works will co-ordinate them to work within the network under their management.

Special thanks go to Isaac Maina and his team from ANAW and to the KWS who provided excellent back up to the rangers.

Rob explains to Born Free Foundation the issues that are facing Kenya’s wildlife and environment in the light of the current global economic downturn:

“Last year was a seriously bad year for conservation all over Kenya, for quite a few reasons. The year started badly with chaos and violence after the election fiasco and then continued to get harder as the ’short rains’ failed and the world economic slow-down halted new investment and development funding. It’s been hard enough for people in the ‘developed world’ to make ends meet lately; for people here, it’s been impossible.

With the tourism industry in ruins and food and fuel prices nearly doubled, those people (and there are millions here) who tread the fine line between surviving and not, have had to find a way of subsidising their existence. In an area like Tsavo, the bush is expected to provide, be it from the meat of the animals or charcoal made from the trees; it’s basically a return to our hunting and gathering beginnings as a race of people.

But this dry and fragile environment cannot sustain this sudden onslaught, and left unchecked, the land might well be left barren and shattered, unable to produce food crops and now unable to sustain eco-tourism or other conservation projects. Even in these most difficult of times, it is absolutely essential that we protect our wildlife and natural ecosystems, because they are our future and they are our most precious natural resource. Kenya doesn’t have gold or oil or coal or sands full of diamonds and our unreliable dry equatorial climate will never produce an abundance of food even in a good year. But what we do have is incredible wildlife, this is our natural resource and this we must protect.”

For more information on the projects Born Free Foundation supports, please visit www.bornfree.org.uk.

Tags: bushmeat, charcoal, Kenya, KWS, poaching, Wildlife Works Ltd

2 responses so far

Category: LAGA | Date: Dec 08 2008 | By: bornfree

On Saturday Felix found himself again alone in front of another ape arrest operation, with another chance to save a baby chimp.

Felix had to make all the planning for this operation alone – a very small rural town three hours from Yaounde. He had to discuss plans with the LAGA undercover agent, be shown how to use the recorder and choose a tactic for this sting operation. Our target was to arrest two main dealers in meat of protected species working regularly with several poachers and supplying the big towns, and of course, save a baby one year old chimp. The biggest challenge was fighting corruption – in this small town the state attorney, police, Ministry personnel… and criminals – are all neighbors. This makes the usual bribing attempts much easier. Felix held back the information from the arresting team till the last moment to avoid information leak and was ready to fight any corruption attempt. The two dealers were successfully arrested in the act and the chimp, in a small cardboard box, was rescued. This time he managed to get the baby chimp to vet care on the same day and in the night the chimp arrived safely to CWAF organization.

But Felix stayed behind insuring that the two are behind bars over the weekend until the case is transmitted to court. He knew most chances the dealers will try to bribe their way out. Right after his last verification in the cell at 21:00, as Felix went to his motel satisfied, the Ministry official together with another government official went to the police station to illegally release the two dealers. Felix discovered it only early morning. Following the discovery LAGA put high pressure on the authorities to quickly reverse this act of corruption. And the state attorney responded by notifying the officials for the illegality of their late night maneuvers, and ordered for the re-arrest of the dealers and their stay behind bars for the coming week, till their trial begins. The investigation led to a third dealer beingg arrested over this trafficking affair.

This time Felix returned not only with the achievements of getting 3 dealers behind bars but also knowing he saved a baby chimp.

For more information or to donate, please visit LAGA’s webpage at http://www.laga-enforcement.org/  

Tags: bushmeat, chimpanzee, LAGA, poaching, wildlife trade

2 responses so far

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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