Participants

Patrick Mutuku – Team leader Josphat Ajot Henry Lekochere Stephen M KWS rangers

Areas covered

The areas patrolled were the general area of Ziwani, Jipe, Maktau, Lumo and Kishushe wildlife sanctuary.

Findings

This was a follow up of the July patrols and a total of 616 snares were collected. Apart from Kishush where snaring is for smaller animals, the rest of the areas were covered in snares designed for larger animals. We arrested six poachers and unfortunately three managed to escape, one of the poachers was found with 14 Dikdiks.

Several ambushes were laid on the strategic entry and escape routes and we were successful. Lamping (torch and horn) was again more popular than snaring although we had the full moon this month which meant they were operating later in the night. We also discovered and destroyed several poacher hideouts. We have information that the main markets for the bush meat are Mgange, Taveta, Njukini, Challa, Maktau and the brewing joints. The majority of the meat moves across the border where it is then sold in Tanzania. The July operation was successful because most of the area we had patrolled were found snare free. These poachers keep moving to new areas, the area itself is so large that it is difficult to catch them. We will continue to remove snares, however we feel that operating at night is also important, especially if we want to catch poachers. At Kishushe area there is a point where a lot of discarded tyres are burnt in order to remove the wire to make snares, this is the area where we collected the majority of small snares. In Maktau snaring is happening along side gem stone mining. In this area there is a lot of cattle grazing, logging and charcoal burning. We will keep patrolling this area but next month we will be setting more ambushes.

Report by Patrick Mutuku