Participants

Kasau Lerat – Team Leader Patrick Mutuku – Ass Team Leader Adan Abdi – Car guard Julius Mumo – Cook Jamal Rashid – KWS ranger Evans Matinyet – KWS ranger

SNARES COLLECTED 990

This month we managed to lift a total of 990 snares, 337 of which were constructed from heavy-duty wire, designed for larger animals and the rest were made for smaller mammals and birds. We also managed to release several animals that had been trapped in snares and sadly found several animals that had been killed in snares. Added to that we were successful enough to arrest 3 out of six poachers, the other three managed to escape. It is apparent that up stream there is very little sign of wildlife, several years ago the area would have been filled with all sorts of mammals, this highlights the importance of the de-snaring operations. The poachers will follow the game and so they have moved up to the edge of the Yatta where they have been setting large amounts of snares. Snaring levels increase if we move upstream form Tsavo safari camp and decreases down river form the camp. There are a large number of hideouts in the area which have obviously been used for a long time now, we found evidence of animal bone, charcoal burning and recent footprints that indicate the hideouts are still very much in use. We tracked and almost caught some people who were illegally cutting trees and burning charcoal in the park. It seems that the majority of poachers and charcoal burners are from areas such as Kasaala, Kivati, Kanziku and Mutomo. They have moved to the nearby communities to gain easy access in and out of the park. We need to implement a community program in the near future, as de-snaring alone will not be enough to stop the community from poaching.

Report by Kasau lerat