Items by Naiguran

Mara Triangle

• Will the Rhino still be around in a few years time?

  Posted: November 6, 2008, 3:28 pm by Naiguran

  On Sunday the Iseiya Team went out on patrol around Sand River, on the Tanzanian side, and came across four rhinos very close to each other. I managed to take a photo of the female rhino and her young, which is only a few weeks old.

  Mother and calf in the distance.

  It's quite unusual to see the rhino in this area and I think that maybe they have moved this way because of all the activity around Look Out Hill.

  The two run away from our patrol vehicle.

  With all the activity and development I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years time all the rhinos will leave the Narok side of the Mara.

• Iseyia Rangers stop poachers from chasing Wildebeest into snares

  Posted: October 23, 2008, 4:33 pm by Naiguran

  Last night we went out to the Kaserani Myugu area in Serengeti and came across a group of seven poachers who had just set their snares in the area.

  Rather than waiting for the next day to see what their snares caught, the poachers were instead attempting to herd and chase the wildebeest towards the snares they had set.

  When we arrived we found them chasing the wildebeest and so we also gave pursuit. The poachers were already spread out when we arrived and we were only able to make one arrest.

  Rangers arrested one poacher.

  Last night we also saw a lot of torches along the top of the escarpment, between 20-25 different spotlights, and it seemed that most of them were heading towards the park.

  We returned to the area this morning and recovered five snares, sadly one wildebeest was caught.

  Oloololo Team also went out yesterday and patrolled the Mpata area towards Kirindon whereby they arrested one person for destroying the forest.

  Thank you everyone for your support so far, please help us by spreading the word further and telling all your friends.

   

   

  Today there is a long line of wildebeest from the escarpment making their way to Purungat (Mara Bridge).

• Over 100 snares collected from Ngiro-are Swamp

  Posted: October 21, 2008, 3:07 pm by Naiguran

  Kimojino took this photo yesterday by Ngiro-are swamp.

  In the past four days, Ngiro-are and Iseyia teams have collected more than 100 snares from the Ngiro-are swamp area which is just on the Tanzanian/Kenyan border.

  It is just 4.5 km from the swamp to our Outpost at Ngiro-are and poaching activity has been high in this area due to the migration which has been passing through this past week and are still there in great numbers. Poachers also favour the place because it is very close to their villages, however it is very difficult for us to make arrests because it is also very close to the escarpment. We find that the poachers will come down in the middle of the night, set their snares, and then watch our rangers movements from the top of the escarpment.

  Ranger Cheruiyot releases a wildebeest from a snare.

  They must have seen the other day when Kimojino and his team collected 74 snares yesterday from the swamp, and so did not return to their snares today. This means that when we patrolled this morning we found two wildebeest already dead in their snares, and another three which we were able to rescue. We collected eight snares in total today.

  This wildebeest did not survive the night.

  Because it is so difficult to make arrests in this area, we must do our best to patrol as regularly as we can, especially with the migration still in the area.

  Naitoi took this photo yesterday of a young female elephant who has recently lost the end of her trunk in a snare. She kept rubbing her trunk in the water to sooth the cut.

  Please donate if you can, or click on the button below which will help you spread the message to all your friends and takes absolutely no time at all but will help tremendously with spreading the word. Thank you.

   

   

   

• Area found with extremely high poaching activity - your support is urgently needed to help fund our patrols

  Posted: October 20, 2008, 8:33 pm by Naiguran

  On the 17th our Iseyia team joined Tanzanian rangers from Taborabi and Kifuku (TANAPA) on a three day patrol in a remote area of Serengeti where there are very few tracks, no roads, and nearly never any tourists. We travelled for almost 200 kilometres past the Tanzanian border, first to the Eastern part of Serengeti and then drove our way South past the Grumeti River.

  On the very first day we came across a poachers camp recently vacated and found more than 20 wildebeest and zebra carcasses.

  Poachers put wood on top of the carcasses to conceal them from vultures.

  We set fire to the carcassses and the animal skins and continued with our patrol. Nearby we saw the tracks of donkeys which poachers had been using to carry much meat from this site to their home villages.

  On the night of the 17th we came across a young man who we found carrying bush meat on a bicycle. He was not a poacher as such, but had instead come into the park to visit a poachers camp to buy meat to trade at his village. We were now starting to realise that poaching is completely out of control in this area.

  This man was found cycling alone through Serengeti.

  The next day our hearts sank when we came across another vacated poachers camps with more than 50 carcasses in the area.

  The meat was laid out to dry under the tree and also on the branches.

  From the amount of animals killed we can estimate that the poachers were camped here for a good two weeks, and we could see from the tracks that they had carried the meat back to their villages using donkeys.

  
  

  At eight o'clock in the evening we came across a group of eight poachers who were coming into the park with 63 snares. Unfortunately we only managed to arrest one of the poachers. There were many many elephants in the area and we were sad to see that poachers here had dug many pit traps, which is a hole of six feet deep with spikes in the hole that stand up vertically, the pit is then covered with a layer of sticks and grass.

  The next morning we managed to arrest one more poacher bringing the total to three, although we now know that in this area many different and large groups of poachers operate almost freely. In total we collected 89 snares and found evidence of more than 70 animals killed.

  The number of tourists keeps dropping with each day and we desperately need your support to help continue with our patrols. Please, donate what you can through our website, and tell everybody who you think will be interested in supporting this important work.

  It is now even easier to tell friends by email, twitter, facebook, or even through your blog just by clicking on the button below - you just need to put in your username and password and all the rest is taken care of, even the message. Please give it a go and help spread the word.

   

   

   

• Yesterday's patrol brought many obstacles, but team still managed to make two arrests.

  Posted: October 10, 2008, 11:08 am by Naiguran

  The Iseyia patrol team teamed up with Ngiro-Are and Tanapa rangers to patrol areas of Limana, Nyakitapembe and the island along Mara River in Serengeti.

  No  poaching signs were seen in places first patrolled, but as they were approaching island a very big group of poachers ever seen woke up from their hidings at the other side of the river and started to run back, heading to their village. Nothing could rangers do since the river is full, hence difficult to cross. They therefore decided to go to Kokatende to find a bridge, which they did so successfully and went to the scene, tracked the poachers and managed to arrest two. This activity caused our rangers the whole of the day, up until 9pm.

  Thank you everyone for your donations so far. If you are pleased with our work we appreciate you making a donation towards our anti-poaching efforts. Thank you.
  

• Many snares collected today, night ambush now planned

  Posted: October 8, 2008, 2:08 pm by Naiguran

  We have come back from our morning patrol and collected 23 wire snares in the Maji ya Bett area, Serengeti. The snares were put up yesterday so we expect that some of the men will return tonight to check on the snares and therefore we will be going out on a joint night ambush this evening with the Ngiro-are team.

  On our way back from patrol I saw this young elephant who has lost most of its trunk in a snare.

  It is not uncommon to see an elephant with the tip of his trunk missing from a snare, but you can see that this young female has lost quite a long length making it difficult to feed and water. If you look at her back you can see that her condition is not ideal.

  We do now need your support again to help fund our anti-poaching and de-snaring patrols. Please, if you can, make a donation or pass on messages of our work to all your friends so that they may consider donating. Thank you.
  

• Snare removed but wound is deep.

  Posted: September 30, 2008, 9:22 pm by Naiguran

  After calling him last night, Dr Dominic Mijele was here in the early morning to treat the young lioness with the snare caught around his chest.

  It took more than an hour and a half to locate the lioness even though she was only a few hundred yards from where we had seen her kill the zebra yesterday. She had hidden herself well in some long grass and made no movement at all no matter how close we passed while searching.
  

  She was found before noon and put to sleep with a dart.
  

  Wire cutters were used to remove the snare, and then it was possible to see how much damage had been done. 

  In places the cut was as deep as an inch and a half.
  

  Dominic cleaned the wound and treated the lioness with the whole procedure taking little more than half an hour.
  

  Thank you to Dr Dominic and to KWS for their prompt response. We will be closely monitoring the lioness and giving updates on the blog.
  

  
  

• Lion with snare found - Vet on his way

  Posted: September 30, 2008, 10:27 am by Naiguran

  The other day we reported on a young lion who had been seen with a snare caught around his chest. Late yesterday afternoon while out on patrol we saw the lion again down by the Tanzanian border.
  

  Yesterday we watched the young lion who was able to catch and kill a zebra, which had recently lost a leg in a snare.

  
  

  We have called the vet and he is already on his way. We will update later on today.
  

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes