The month of August saw the introduction of a new mobile anti-poaching team established by the DSWT in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service.  This new team, known as the Yatta Unit, is totally mobile and can be deployed to anywhere in Kenya which is most in need of anti-poaching support. Currently the team is based in Meru National Park after a request from the KWS to assist in dealing with a dramatic increase in poaching in the area. As might be expected this new team had a busy month, with the arrest of 8 poachers, all carrying poisoned arrows totalling 55. They also collected 111 snares and confiscated an additional 152 snares which the poachers were yet to set-up in the bush, making a total of 263 snares.

In Tsavo the teams were also faced with a sharp increase in poaching as the landscape continues to dry out and wildlife is forced to congregate into smaller and smaller areas. A combination of this and the increased visibility of elephants at publicly viewed waterholes also meant a large number of veterinary cases  were attended to by the DSWT’s Mobile Veterinary and Sky Vet Units assisted by the anti-poaching ground teams.  The majority of arrests were for charcoal burning; however six ivory poachers and eight bush meat poachers were also captured and arrested in Tsavo throughout the course of the month.  You can read the full report from the units below: