Participants

Isaac Maina Mutua Koti Jacob Dadi Samuel Odero Jarisson Ali Zachary lenaola

Findings

This being the dry period we had already anticipated an increase in poaching activities. This is a time of year when the surrounding communities cannot farm and are hungry and so turn towards bush meat for subsistence. We covered the same areas as usual, Ndii and Irima. A total of 415 snares were recovered and a number of animals found in snares, sometimes alive but mainly dead. Altogether we found 3 DikDik and one lesser kudu that had been strangled to death by the snares they had been trapped by. We also found a dead African Wildcat and a rotten diddik that the poacher had obviously forgotten about. There are a large number of tracks going in and out of the park, so obviously there are a few people who are poaching. Sadly the railway lines at Irima are still being used for snares, 155 snares were collected form this area most of them made out of the railway line, this is how the lesser Kudu was killed. The railways have however now given us the go ahead to remove the old wires, something that we will do next month.

We have also started to make “litter picking rods” from the snares that we have recovered, so there is a positive use for them as well. We have donated 400 pieces to a local environmental movement who are involved in environmental cleanliness.

Isaac Maina