Area covered

The operation was divided into two parts, Ziwani and the Mtito River Stretch

Participants

James Mbuthia- Team leader David Njoroge – Assistant Team Leader John Malonza - Tracker Julius Mwania – Security Joel Anyim – KWS Jared Otuke - KWS Masaku Mbanga – In camp

Findings

Ziwani / Maktau operation

This operation was aimed at keeping up the pressure due to high snaring levels recorded early on in the month. A total of 186 snares were collected, they were all designed for larger game. Maktau and Kendong area were the main areas covered in snares, also the ranch adjacent to Ziwani had a huge amount of snares on it too. We concentrated most of our patrols along this stretch purely because it was a well-used route for poachers to move in and out of the park. Later on in the month there was a KWS operation that we joined in on and moved deep into the park, we managed to locate a few snaring lines which were deep in the park. This is a new area that we covered and I feel that there is a lot still to be done here.

Mtito River Stretch

Since all the water holes are dry, the animals are concentrated along the river. We patrolled the river stretch and yielded 167 snares targeting the dikdiks and medium sized animals. Only the area around Ngiluni had high snaring levels. Allegedly some poachers were seen moving into the park a few days ago before we started our operation. The operation was timely as we lifted all the snares in 2 days. Two dik diks were released. The rest of the river stretch was safe as it yielded only 15 snares.

Generally we want to give most of our efforts to de-snaring and to the community. People are hungry and the area is very dry, we expect poachers to probably sneak into the park during this time.

In total this months de-snaring operation yielded 368 snares.

The tree-planting project is going very well, the seedlings have been transplanted and are doing very well indeed.

Community Games

Community games are being encouraged since most of the people have very little to do. I have to make sure almost every village is occupied with things to do to reduce snaring. At the moment it seems to be very easy to get information form local people.

Report by James Mbuthia