Category: An Urgent Appeal, Poachers | Date: Mar 25 2008 | By: William

I’ve just got back from a morning patrol with some of the rangers here at Serena Station.

Ranger Jackson Semeiyoi

It’s a very tiring four hours of walking across the blazing plains from thicket to thicket in search of signs left by poachers, which then hopefully leads to the poachers themselves.

We came across this camp which rangers had found near the beginning of the month, and was when Kimojino sent this rather unusual sms to twitter.

Rangers were actually in the same thicket the day before but had to quickly leave the area because a very large herd of elephant were acting in a strange manner, and they were worried that they might charge.

Going back the next day they found the above poachers’ camp with food stuffs, cooking utensils, torches and blankets. It’s very unusual for poachers to leave behind their belongings, and so rangers believe that they must have been forced to flee by the elephants.

Ranger John Ntoika and Sargent Alfonse Saris, with elephants in the background.

Although a funny story, it can also be quite frustrating. The rangers are passionate about protecting the wildlife in the Mara, and they are only happy if they have actually stopped the poachers by catching them. Every day, rangers from each station go out and patrol the Mara, but with so much land to cover and many thickets to search poachers are not always so easy to find.

It is incredible however the signs that they spot. For example, they were able to tell from looking at this grass that someone had passed through it in the last couple of days.

And a few metres away their suspicions were confirmed when they found this.

Don’t see it? Take a closer look.

It’s a toothpick. And from the colour of the wood they could tell that it had been made just two days ago. The rangers are good, very good, but unfortunately so are the poachers. Camps are normally very well hidden, not like the one pictured above, and for a poacher to leave a toothpick lying around, rangers were certain that they had already made their kill and were on their way home - a poacher would not have left such a sign for rangers to pick up on if he was on his way into the park.

Luckily we probably have the best rangers in Kenya. And since June 2001, rangers have managed to arrest 1,013 poachers. I won’t publicly compare this figure with the rest of Kenya, as we want to stay on good terms with other wildlife services, but you should know that this is an extremely good result.

And so back to the title of this post. As followers of this blog know, we now only have one week of funding left for the Mara Conservancy. We do have an incredible long list of things that now need to be paid for, but one of our top priorities is to keep these rangers paid; they all have responsibilities they need to keep, school fees to pay and mouths to feed.

You will see that at the top of this blog we now have a Sponsor a Ranger campaign, and thanks to one kind person who wishes to remain anonymous, we already have ranger Daniel Tunai sponsored for the next two months. For full details of the campaign, please visit this page, however I know it’s quite a lot of money to ask from just one individual so what I’m actually looking for now is your ideas.

Rangers this morning.

Now I have only 10 minutes of electricity, but once the power comes back on this evening I’m going to look for as many email contacts as possible for lodges and hotels in Kenya, and see if they are interested in sponsoring a ranger for the next two months.

In return they will get publicity and a banner on this blog, and with traffic to this blog increasing daily, as it has done for the whole of the WildlifeDirect website - I think they are up to about 60,000 hits a month - the sponsorship campaign could work very well for both sides. We also have 3 major international broadcasters who have all in the last week expressed interest in covering our story, so now would be a great time for people/organisations to be involved.

So that’s the plan so far, but who else do you think I should contact? And more importantly, do you have any contact details - especially for those involved in the Kenyan tourist industry?

Let me know: wdeed at wildlifedirect dot org

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Category: Cattle Compensation, Leopards | Date: Mar 23 2008 | By: William

I’ve just spoken to Wilson Naitoi, who reported the attempt by a local Masai to kill a lion a couple of weeks ago. This is what he told me had happened yesterday:

“I was up on the escarpment on patrol, when I received a phone call from a Masai who had my number. He said ‘Please, come right away, there are some Masai who are trying to kill a leopard.’ And so I went down to where they were, and saw that a group of men had surrounded a bush, and they were throwing stones into the bushes. There were other men standing around the bushes with their spears, ready to kill the leopard once it tried to make its leave.

“I went together with the warden from Oloololo Gate, and we tried to convince them to stop. “No, don’t kill, don’t kill the leopard,” we said. And they said, “No, we have to kill the leopard, he has already killed our goat and our sheep, and there is no one to pay.” We told them that they mustn’t kill, as we are still looking for the money, and they said “No, how do we know ? If you have the money then you must pay for our goat.”

“It took the warden some time to convince them not to kill the leopard, and he said to them that we should go back to the village to finish the talk there. We were forced to carry one of the dead goats with our car, back to Kipas village. The other goat that had been killed was taken by the leopard.

“When we were in the village we spoke again. We told them that we are looking for donors who will help pay for the goats killed. “Please don’t kill this leopard ” we said, “it is the only one that we have in the area. You cannot kill him.”

“Eventually the old men came round and they agreed that the men will not go back to kill the leopard. They said, “Once we are paid, then we don’t kill the leopard.”

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 22 2008 | By: William

Last night Kimojino received news that his brother had been shot and then sadly died. He left for home this morning, and will be away for the next week.

Our deepest condolences to Kimojino and his family.

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Category: Donations | Date: Mar 18 2008 | By: William

An enormous thank you to everyone who has donated, here is the report we have received of the donations that have come through for the first two weeks of March:

March 1 - 7

Single Donations

Agnes K. - $100; Amaranta G. - $50; Anna S. - $20; Beth G. - $40; Bobbie B. - $150; Carol Y. - $50; Charles C. - $250; Cheryl T. - $200; Colleen - $100; Dana J. - $250; Danielle D. - $20; Dorothy D. - $25; Elizabeth K. - $50; Elizabeth W. - $25; Emma H. -$10; Fiona R. -$40; George - $40; Gideon R. - $5; Heidi N. - $40; Jeanne V. - $50; John F. - $50; Kate N. - $30; Kit C. - $50; Markus - $20; Mary B. - $25; Michaela B. - $15; Michelle A. -$25; Nathalie - $50; Neil - $100; Olivia M. - $10; Patricia M. - $100; Paula - $20; Paula B. - $15; Richard - $100; Richenda G. - $60; Seth - $20; Sharla S. - $30; Sheryl B. - $25; Susan A. - $50; Tammy A. - $100; Theresa S. - $500 + $150; Tony - $10

Monthly Donations

Kumiko Y. - $20; Miho K. - $100; Theresa S. - $25

Total: $3,215

March 8 -14

Single Donations

Anon - $10; Alan L. - $20; Andrew S. - $300; Anthony J. - $40; Antonio C. - $100; B C Scott; $50; Ben G. - $10; Betsy K. - $50; Bibi E. - $100; Brenda G. - $72; Catherine B. - $100; Consuelo V. - $100; Dana R. - $50; David T. - $100; DeWayne H. - $50; Dorothy B. - $20; Douglas G. - $25; Erik F. - $100; Francine L. - $15; Frank Van K. - $50; Gabor K. - $50; Gary J. - $50; Gerard F. - $50; Hakim A. - $25; Jacquelin S. - $75; Janice B. - $50; Jerry H. - $500; Julie L. - $25; Karen M. - $20; Marni K. - $25; Michelle - $20; Paula B. - $20; Pirjo I - $100; Richard E. - $100; Sandra J. - $50; Sharon S. - $100; Simon M. L. - $50; Theresa S. $25 + $50; Vitra G. - $100

Monthly Donations

Deborah - $50; Eric - $15;

Total: $2,912

Grand Total for March 1 - 14: $6,127

We have also been receiving donations through the Facebook Cause, which amounts to $535 and brings the total to $6,662.

Thank you again to everyone. We are still a long way off our target of $50,000 a month to maintain critical park operations, so please tell everyone you know and you can email me for an email to forward to all your friends: wdeed at wildlifedirect dot org.

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Category: Donations | Date: Mar 17 2008 | By: William

Hello to all

Here is a list of the donations received through Richard Leakey’s blog, who launched the Mara Triangle campaign at the end of January:

January (28 - 31st):

Joan W. - $50; Leanee R. - $50; Paula B. -$50; Samiullah K. - $200; Stuart H. - $100; Theresa H. - $250; Sherri S. - $100; Kathy S. - $30; Joyce P. - $100; Danitza V. - $10; Muriel T. $50; Wanda H. - $25; Ryuji - $100

Total: $1,115

February

Dee R. - $100; Masuo N. - $100; Mina Y. - $30; Beth S. - $50; Pliney D. - $20 ; Carmen E. - $30; Ryuki S. - $500; Colleen P. - $100; Amy M. - $10; Heather S. - $100

Total: $1,040

1 - 7 March

Judy B. - $100

Total: $100

Grand Total: $2,255

Thank you everyone for your support, up until February we have received now $6,650.80.

I will soon find out the amount we have received for the first half of March, and then post this up first thing tomorrow. As you all know, we’re very far off our $50,000 a month target, but we’ve got to keep on trying.

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