Participants

Patrick Mutuku Alex Macharia Henry Lekochere John Mungai Julius Mtamu Gerald Maghanga 2 KWS rangers

Area Covered

The areas patrolled this month included the general area in and around Ziwani, Muhoho farm, Murka, Mbuyuni, the railway lines, Kishushe ranch, Ladhis, Mukulu, the general area behind Manyani prison and Manyani field training school as well as along the pipe line and into Wanjara hills.

TOTAL SNARES COLLECTED 241

Findings

This month we did a follow up, visiting the same areas that had been visited last month, in addition to some new areas such as the general area around Manyani prison and field training school grounds. Snares were lifted from all the areas that we visited and a lot of carcasses were found especially at Muhoho farm.

Our operations began on a sad note due to the fact that during the first week that we were out on our patrols we came across two dead elephants that had been killed outside the parks boundary by poachers. One of the elephants had been killed at an area in Jipe called Njoro.

The second elephant was killed at Muhoho farm which is located in the Ziwani area, where we also found 12 dead birds and one dead zebra. We were able to arrest a bird poacher while in this region.

We then went on to help the KWS personnel in finding the tusks, which had already been removed from the dead elephants, by their killers. With the help of some informers we were able to recover the tusks from the elephant found at Muhoho farm. The death of these elephants could be attributed to the human wildlife conflict although we are unable to rule out poaching as a reason for their death. Behind the Manyani prison and KWS training field we came across a lot of illegal human activities including charcoal burning

cattle grazing, snaring, logging and timber sawing. While in this area we also came across 5 dead dikdiks and were thankfully able to arrest 3 poachers. Another dead Dikdik was also discovered in the Wanjara hills.

Due to the fact that this is the dry season, we have witnessed an increase in both snaring and poaching. It has been noticed that the poachers are now moving away from the park boundary to the center of the park and the ranches as they know that in these areas it is harder it is harder for us to track and find them.

A total of 241 snares were found and lifted this month and 4 poachers were arrested

and will consequently be prosecuted. Unfortunately another 6 poachers were able to evade arrest and escape.

Report by Patrick Mutuku