Category: Donations | Date: Apr 14 2008 | By: William

I’ve just been informed by WildlifeDirect that there is an issue with paypal which currently makes it not possible to give an online donation.

Please, if you want to make a donation and you don’t want to keep checking to see if the system is back up, email me at wdeed@wildlifedirect.org and I will email you as soon as things are working properly.

We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 13 2008 | By: Kimojino

Something went wrong with the website for a while there, but now we’re back.

We will give you an update later on today on what’s been happening in the Mara Triangle as we’re not guaranteed enough electricity now to write a post - we will have to wait until the power comes back on this evening.

Good luck to our fellow Kenyans and our fellow Maasai in today’s London Marathon. We wish you all the best.

William tells me to wish his sister good luck also; good luck Sarah!

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Category: Donations, In the News | Date: Apr 11 2008 | By: William

Open Donations:

Allison S. - $50; Anon - $25; Anon - $100; Anon - $200; Carol C. - $50; Carol T. - $100; Cheesemans’ Ecological Safaris - $1,000; Cornelius D. - $100; Cynthia N. - $100; Dominique S. - $50; Dorothy D. - $25; Eileen C. - $40; Howard H. - $150; Judith B. - $50; Judy B. - $100; Laurel R. - $75; Lisa R. - $20; Mary K. - $50; Megumi Y. - $30; Paula B. - $20; Paula M.- $100; Phyllis S. - $100; Robert M. - $25; Sheryl B. - $25; Stephanie M. - $100; William C. - $5,000; William M. - $100; World Wildlife Photos - $200;
Monthly Donations:

Kumiko Y. - $20; Miho H. - $100

Total for 1 - 7th April: $8,105

Please, if you have made a donation and you don’t see it on the list, get in touch: wdeed at wildlifedirect dot org

Thank you to Cheesemans’ Ecological Safaris who have sponsored ranger Joseph Ntiwuas, and also to William C., who heard of the Mara Triangle through Cheesemans’ and has donated $5,000; $2,000 of which is being used to sponsor rangers Johnson Leyian and Wilson Kamai.

Wilson Kamai in front of poached hippo meat on Wednesday.

Thank you also to every one of you who has donated. We are very worried about this month and so if you have any ideas or contacts who you think could help, please get in touch: wdeed at wildlifedirect dot org

A great big thank you to Dan, Robert and Radu for their article, and also the post that Dan did on Reuters blogs. Thank you also to anyone who may have read the article and has now come to the site for the first time, your interest is very welcome and please leave a comment if you have any questions or want to find out anything more about the Conservancy.

I’ve also just five minutes ago received the good news that our 12th ranger, Patrick Ngilai, is now fully sponsored. I will update the Sponsor a Ranger page shortly to show this.

Rangers from Ngiro-are and Serena Patrol Posts

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Category: Poachers, Sponsor a Ranger | Date: Apr 09 2008 | By: Kimojino

This morning I went out on my routine patrol, and when I was driving along the track taking me to the border I noticed some footprints in the dirt. I stopped the car, alighted, and checked closely to discover the footprints of five different men.

I called back to the main station at Serena, and reported the same to the patrol team. They came straight away and I showed them the footprints.

Rangers coming back from today’s patrol.

They started tracking the footprints at 9am, and followed the trail for 13, 14 kilometres over the border into Serengeti. At around 1pm, the rangers found dried hippo meat hidden in a drainage line. They immediately searched the surrounding area and fortunately managed to find and arrest three of the poachers. They were unable to find the location of the other two poachers.

The three poachers, and the dried hippo meat.

The poachers had come in from Tanzania, through the Mara Triangle to the Narok side, and had camped there for no less than seven good days. They had killed a hippo, dried the meat, and were today heading back to their village.

This brings the total number of poachers arrested this month of April to five. Well done to the Serena and Ngiro-are patrol teams!

Ngiro-are and Serena Patrol Teams.

I would also like to thank all of those who have contributed through this blog, and to those individuals and organisations who have sponsored a ranger; it is your support that has kept our men motivated during this time of uncertainty.

A successful day. More photos at flickr.

Please, if you can, help put out the word that we urgently need to find sponsorship for 34 more of our rangers.

Asante sana.

12 responses so far

Category: Cattle Compensation, In the News | Date: Apr 07 2008 | By: William

Kimojino has gone to Kisii Town today, and so I thought it probably best if I updated you all on the meeting with the Maasai elders last Thursday, when we went up with the guys from Reuters.

Beginning of meeting.

I’m afraid I don’t speak any Maa, but it seemed to me that this meeting went a lot better than the one on Tuesday. There have been less cattle killed here than where we were before, and also the Reuters crew may have helped, but the meeting to me seemed far more calmer and I didn’t have a stick waved at me this time, not even once.

Kimojino translated most of the meeting for me and for Reuters; the elders said that they did understand that there was no money right now to compensate for cattle killed by lions and leopards, but that they were still suffering losses in cattle which they could not afford.

Kimojino talks to elders after the meeting.

Although they may have lost less cattle than the other village we met with, this particular village used to be frequently visited by tourists who would come for a cultural visit, and so they have also seen great losses of income in this way since the collapse of tourism in January.

After the meeting we took the team from Reuters to the village we visited on Tuesday, to interview the Mzee who had lost the most cattle.

Ben Nechalla translates interview between Mzee and Reuters

The elders seemed a lot happier to see us this time, especially as we had come with Reuters. They said that they now see that the Mara Conservancy are doing what they can to help, and are grateful for the interest shown by outsiders.

Reuters film elders.

The following day, on Friday, I took Reuters to visit the rangers at Ngiro-are outpost, where we went with rangers on patrol; this is the patrol post that is on the border of Tanzania and is where there is a high concentration of poachers, it is also where cattle rustlers pass on the way to and from Tanzania, and you can see bullet holes in the main gate where once rustlers tried to stop rangers from leaving the compound.

Sargent Olarikoni being interviewed

The story will cover all angles of our plight and the wide reaching affects of the post-election violence in Kenya, which we have experienced here and around Mara Triangle. Tourists are not expected to come back for at least two months and, as you all know, we are dependent on a percentage of park entrance fees to manage the Triangle, and are using this blog as a way to raise funds for critical park operations.

This month we are also looking for the money to pay the salaries of rangers, and so we hope that very soon more people from around the world will be able to offer their support - Reuters have said that the piece, both in television and in print, should be out some time this week.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you from all of us here, to Dan, Radu and Robert for taking the time to come and cover the story, it was truly a pleasure to have you here.

Thank you also to all our supporters, we wouldn’t have made it this far without you.

8 responses so far