Project period 4th-26th of February

Isaac Maina. Mutua Koti Jacob Dadi. Sammy Odero. Phillip Kipkorir 2 K.W.S Rangers

Findings

A total of 416 were found this month altogether.

We started at Kariokor, which lies between the park fence and Voi town on the way to Irima, where 14 snares were recovered. Some targeted birds (guinea fowl) while the rest were designed for dikdiks. Unlike in the past when barriers were made and dogs used to chase the animals towards the snares, there were no barriers and the snaring activity has gone down in this area.

Ndii and Irima which has always been a target area showed a promising decline in the snaring level. Only two snares were found in Irima while Ndii yielded a total of 37 snares all of which were small targeting dikdiks. Outside the park on the community side, Manga area (immediate neighbor to Tsavo East western boundary and Tsavo West south eastern boundary) 37 snares were recovered. Next focal area was Sagalla ranch, we revisited areas that we had previously patrolled and found nothing out of the ordinary. However new areas yielded 90 snares. A bow and 4 arrows were recovered from poachers who unfortunately ran away into very thick thorny acacia. Neighbouring Sagalla ranch is Kajire group ranch, which neighbour’s community on the other side. The pattern of snaring here is the use of prolonged barriers running up to a hundred metres. Most of the snares found were small sized and considerable number (23) targeted birds. Two Guinea fowl were found snared a few metres from each other. A total of 416 snares were recovered in this area altogether. Mariwenyi area was the last area we patrolled. Two lesser kudu were found snared. One was still looped on the snare while the other had been skinned and slaughtered by the poachers. Amazingly only 29 snares out of 222 snares recovered targeted big and medium sized animals. A total of 824 snares were recovered consisting of 49 big and medium sized snares, 31 bird snares and the rest were designed for smaller mammals. Two guinea fowl and two lesser kudus were found while a bow and 4 arrows were recovered. No arrests were made. On a community note the de-snaring team distributed some planting seedlings to two schools, Mwambiti and Kajire secondary schools. The seedling consisted of Mwarubaini tree, Casia siemen, palm trees and a few Melia volkensii. Compiled by Isaac Maina.