Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 30 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Yesterday I put up a post on investigations on raptor poisoning in Scotland following outrageous poisoning cases in Dumfries and Galloway. In Ireland, other investigations are now on for suspected poisoned buzzards found on Monday in Drumbanagher area near Poyntzpass.

At this rate, I feel the United Kingdom leads in the madness of poisoning of raptors. On the other hand, it is comforting to know that the law enforces (Police) are on standby and at service against such anti-conservation gestures.

Tags: buzzards, Ireland, poisoning, United Kingdom

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 30 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Hi all,

In Kenya, some infuriated pastoralists have been known to set out poisoned bait to nab the culprits that killed their stock. It is however a crude technique since nobody herds the lions (other carnivores) towards the poisoned bait so that in the end the real culprit is the one condemnmed to death when he feeds on the fouled food. More oftenly, other innocent victims fall victims of the poisoning as well.

Farmers in “America’s Salad Bowl” are turning into hunters _ stalking wild pigs, rabbits and deer _ to keep E. coli and other harmful bacteria out of their fields. It’s part of an intense effort to prevent another disaster like the 2006 spinach contamination that killed three people, sickened 200 and cost the industry $80 million in lost sales. Spinach grower Bob Martin has even poisoned ponds with copper sulfate to kill frogs that might get caught in harvesting machinery or carry salmonella on their webbed feet.

It is a sad affair especially because the exact source of the contamination was never discovered, but scientists suspected cattle, feral pigs, or other wildlife may have spread the E. coli by defecating near crops.

We are not just talking of killing wildlife or amphibians. Native trees and plants are being uprooted as well and fences being erected to make the land inhospitable to wildlife. It is an entire ecosystem destruction. Couldnt the analysts and experts find out the real reason behind the vegetable poisoning? must it be that one (actually several) be destroyed to save another? May be these organisms being destroyed are not responsible for the contamination.

Tags: amphibians, Carnivores, cattle, copper sulfate, E.coli, ecosystem, feral pigs, frogs, Kenya, lions, pastoralists, poison, Wildlife

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 29 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Chris Rollie, RSPB Scotland’s area manager for Dumfries and Galloway, said: “When great efforts are being made to attract visitors to rural areas, the negative message of an illegally poisoned countryside is the last thing we need, while the effect on wildlife is appalling.”

Dumfries and Galoway is notorious and recently this year, four buzzards were found poisoned and baits recovered from the area.

And so the police, the government and RSPB aare at task with investigations given the outrageous raptor poisoning cases tha thave led to calls by a charity for crackdown on bird poisoning.

The charity’s investigations staff received a total of 229 reports of possible persecution incidents in 2007 in Scotland, 16 of which were from the Dumfries and Galloway area.

Tags: bird poisoning, buzzards, Dumfries and Galoway, raptors, RSPB, Scotland

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 28 2008 | By: Martin Odino

At Wildlife Direct in Nairobi, I sit at a place that overlooks a modern neighbourhood and I have a bird’s eye view of birds soaring/flying above the houses: swifts, pigeons and raptors dominate the show.

At Wildlife Direct offices, located on the srventh floor in Nairobi,I sit at a location where I overlook a modern housing system. I have a great bird’s eye view of things and can bear witness to the diverse birds that I see soaring/hunting over the quarters inhabited by humans. Swifts, Black Kitesand Pigeons dominate the show.

I live in a neighbourhood where nothing is short of modern living: beautiful houses with at least a car packed outside every house. On weekends when I am staying within the confines of my small compound, I only need to sit at the doorstep and I will see a Black Kite perched on an electricity pole, eating the remains of a piece of fried chicken that was left by a well-fed child, disposed in the bin in the backyard but somehow the Kite, given its sharp eye sight got it. Augur Buzzards also emit their repeated nasal “nhwaa!nhwaa!…” as they hunt around away from their otherwise normal hunting grounds-open fields with mole excavations. These guys are mole hunters. Well, there is a small open field closeby, so this partly justifies their presence but occasionally they swoop downwards and pick up something;definately food remnant. A walk around the perimeter wall,what I wouold describe as the estate’s backyard, Marabou Storks, Sacred Ibises and Cattle Egrets almost always post sentry at about any one given time along a polluted stream at a dump-site(now cleared but the posting sentry culture still continues).

The main highway through Nairobi otherwise Mombsa road heading eastward has become a breeding site for ciconiformes-the family of storks, herons and egrets. Heronries (mixed congregations of the ciconiformes) occur on most Acacia trees, clustering at the different separated tree groves that border the highway.

The whole point here is not how Kenyan birds have become urbanized but that they have dived into the stresses of the city especially into the stresses of pollution-noise, smoke, food from refuse dumps, whereas water in some cases is sewage water. To a greater part therefore, these stresses are of intoxication form.

Statistics show an increase in respiratory illnesses in humans in most cities around the world and Nairobi is not an exception, majorly because of the intoxicants from vehicle and industrial carbon gases. Talking of exhaust and industrial fumes, the birds in the city ‘look dirty’ in particular the smaller birds and in particular the House Sparrow that ventures close into proximities of the fumes-emitting vehicles and industrial premises, even nesting on some of these buildings. To a keen observer, the white-coloured egrets on Mombasa road are only naturally,clean looking and white as their counterparts out of town when they moult then the clean moult is subjected to the smoke and dust and quickly becomes brown or even blackish. I can only wonder how the inside of their bodies is? what of their lungs? and what of their livers that have to struggle detoxicating their blood? I know there is serious intoxication going on in these creatures despite their quest for the town-bound movement being satiated.

Tags: Black Kite, carbon gases, Egrets, Herons, House Sparrows, Intoxication, Nairobi, Sacred Ibises, Storks, Swifts, Wildlife Direct

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 25 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) is one of Kenya’s local agricultural produce improvement institutions. Several centres of its kind are located in various parts of the republic. The KARI, Katumani station is an outstanding of these centers, not by virtue of having come up with the fast maturing maize breed, Katumani, after which the centre is named but also by being in the ideal environment where such development can be conceived, tested and proved as sufficiently a success. The 3-month maturing corn breed was thus ‘developed’ in the same tough-dry, with irregular rains semi-arid land-environment where it would satiate the local peoples hunger.

Last weekend I visited the KARI Katumani quarantine station where I spent much of the weekend birding and filling my lungs with fresher rural area air. Apparently city pollution and the cold in Nairobi were not doing good to my respiratory system.

So, this is what I saw while scouting for birds:

Take a closer look at one of the bottles in the lady’s hands. Whatdo you think is the substance in them?Hint: this is an agricultural premise.

Now take another look at the crop, the top of which is the maturing grain. This is definately millet but something else seems to have been yielded of the crop and looks khaki in colour and paper-like.

Well it is paper. Can you guess what for?My first guess was so that birds do not feed on the crop. Well, that is wrong! It is to prevent cross pollination since these are thoroughbreeds with certain ideal properties so any pollination from neighbouring farms will dilute the ideal property, but still, I believe secondarily this also accords some protection to the crop from the birds.

The real control against the pest birds feeding on the crop however is from the lady, (and many others who were shy to face the camera) in the field who use the bottles in which are pebbles and persistent shaking as well as action of the sun has scoured them to look white, so if you guessed that the bottles had milk in them then you were wrong!Sorry for my wrong hint!

Even better is the attitude of the ladies who vent out noise to scare away the stubborn birds-Red-billed Queleas, widowbirds and numerous other voracious seedeaters. They say this is their source of income. They also argued that if chemical spraying was applied in which case KARI is an institution that can easily afford that heinous venture, thendefinately the effects of thechemicals would be felt by humans even long after the crop has matured.

The message is short, clear and noble: No poisonous sprays for safe food crop and meintenance of our jobs!

Tags: KARI, poisonous sprays, Red-billed Queleas, Seedeaters, Widowbirds

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 24 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Hi all,

We are now struggling with pushing on with the implimentation of the outcomes of the just convened meeting of the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force at Wildlife Direct, Nairobi, Kenya . We still hope Richard Leakey’s call for ban of carbofuran will yield a reasonable response from the government. Meanwhile we are trying to make headways with a review of all that concerns carbofuran which is essentially our mission. Hopefully, we will garner enough of more of the necessary evidence (of course in addition to what we already have) against carbofuran to get everybody’s attention and only justifiably lay to rest the chemical that clearly is dangerously outliving its time. I say enough of more necessary evidence because we hope it will not be deemed insufficient. I just do not know when the evidence will be sufficient to the local and international custodians of this chemical and many others. What it means is that the chemical continues to act out there both in its good ways (limited since even proper use is harmful; EPA will agree with me) and limitless lethal toxic ways. I hope when the information is enough, our wildlife populations will still stand at handsome figures though. I hope this will not be when almost, if not every organism, including humans, when tested they will positively have carbofuran in their systems (A sad case for Alaska where pollutants are just in almost every living thing which is what I have stumbled on, thinking that I would read something far from toxic chemicals).

The wild supply and haphazard distribution of the pesticide Carbofuran will therefore continue facilitating poisoning of wildlife, birds, fish and who knows even of human poisoning whose facts lie locked in the confines of lack of data and documentation. Such is the desperate need of heed at which we stand.

After ‘a break’ from head aching matters of carbofuran, today I ventured into the current affairs of the fate of our planet and read of the goings on in the U.S.

Based on a conference held in July 17-20 the15th Protecting Mother Earth conference - organized by Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) where there were more than 600 attendants, mostly from indigenous nations of the United States and Canada, but also from as far as Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, and Europe Came together. Generally, they talked of global problems, challenges and solutions. They discussed energy and climate change as it affects indigenous peoples. Stories were told of health damage and ecological destruction brought about by oil refineries, coal power plants, gold mining, and nuclear military activity.

I think the whole issue of energy and climate change just infers global warming. Indeed this is documented of the conference of Minnesota’s new proposed 1600-mile oil pipeline extension which opponents say would contribute significantly to global warming for the way oil is extracted from the tar sands, which is extremely energy intensive. Tar sand oil extraction requires stripping all the trees and vegetation, scooping up and steaming the sands. Potential oil spills on Minnesota’s wetlands is also a concern. IEN states that very few of these projects are assessed for their social and cultural costs or their cumulative environmental and health impacts, which would cause fragmentation of the boreal forest, disruption to indigenous cultural life-ways and production of greenhouse gases.

Here we go again, global warming directly linked to a toxin-highly acknowledged energetic fluid-oil- which will intoxicate wildlife, fish, birds and humans during its extraction, distribution and use for man’s energy requirements.

Shawna Larson, Ahtna Athabascan and Supiaq, Aleut/Eskimo from Alaska, working with the Alaska Community Action on Toxics said that heavy metals and highly toxic persistent organic pollutants, such as DDT, PCBs, and dioxins, some already banned and rarely used in the Arctic are found in very high levels in native people and wildlife in Alaska. These pollutants used somewhere else are transported by wind, water currents and migratory species and concentrate in large quantities in the Artic. Alaskan indigenous people according to their cultural traditions feed on local fish and wildlife, which are considered to be the most contaminated in the world.

At this point, I think we should refresh our minds on the contaminants of Alaska.

For the whole story, read Talking about the future of Mother Earth.

Tags: Alaska, Canada, carbofuran, DDT, EPA, global warming, Indigenous Environmental Network, Kenya, PCB, Protecting Mother Earth, Richard Leakey, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force, United States, Widlife Direct

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 20 2008 | By: Claudia Hodkinson

During our meeting yesterday Angela from WWF told us about the problem of pesticide dumping in Africa constitutes one of the most serious environmental crimes that she is working on. The implications for Wildlife are enormous. Africa it seems, is Europe’s most popular dumping ground for radioactive waste and toxic chemicals. Although the European Union agreed in 1988 to implement a ban that prohibits the export of hazardous wastes from developed countries to the developing world, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand refused to sign up. There’s big money in dumping and this breeds corruption.  It is claimed that each month more than 500 container loads, of 400,000 dead computers, arrive in Nigeria to be processed. The problem of waste dumping hit me in the gut when I realized how it affects individual people. You may have heard about the dumping of petroleum products in the Ivory coast 2 years ago by a Dutch firm.

In August 2006 a local company hastily fly-tipped truckload after truckload of chemical waste at around 15 locations around the city. The United Nations says the dumping of the 500m tonnes of waste led to at least 16 deaths and more than 100,000 other victims needing medical treatment.

The legal case against Trafigura, the Dutch multi national shipper company that dumped the residue, was dropped in an out of court settlement in early 2007 when they agreed to pay the Ivorian government around $200m (£100m) in one of the largest ever payments of its kind. This money was to pay for the clean up and for compensation to the victims who each received approximately 500$

The waste, which contained a mixture of gasoline, water, caustic washings and the poisonous gas hydrogen sulfide, was unloaded in Abidjan from the vessel Probo Koala on August 19 2006 and then dumped in open air sites throughout the densely populated city. According to this news article Abidjan may lose up to 1,000 more people as a result of the toxic dump which is emitting choking fumes. Local authorities claim that over 70 people have so far died from inhaling the fumes; most of them children and the aged. Figures from the World Health Organization indicate that 135,000 people have sought medical treatment for various ailments arising from the toxic dump. The Ivorian Health ministry puts the figure at 131,113. A thousand deaths will mean plucking out one fifth of the population of Akouedo, one of the worst affected communities. It is believed that this is a conservative estimate, the casualties are likely to be much greater.

To me it’s obvious that Trafigura accepts responsibility for the crisis although they claim ‘officially’ that the payment is not an admission of liability but that it was ‘made out of sympathy for Ivorian people, and it also disputes whether the chemical slops were the cause of the large number of medical cases’.

The multinational, which specialises in trading oil and metals, undertook to identify and clean up any sites which could still contain toxic waste linked to its shipment. The deal is good for everyone except the people of Africa. the Ivory coast cannot pursue Trafigura of any further charges, and the two French executives of Trafigura, Claude Dauphin and Jean-Pierre Valentini, were released and never charged. The Ivory Coast government agreed not to pursue Trafigura for any further compensation as part of the deal.

The bad guys include officials who endorsed the dumping and Ivory Coast’s prime minister responded by dissolving his 32-member cabinet as a result.  Understandably the public are still angry and they set fire to the home of the Abidjan port director and attacked the country’s transport minister.

That was the 18th August 2006. Well, it’s two years later and guess what? The money has been paid and the waste is still there and people are still dying.

While Trafigura cannot be charged in Ivory coast the world is not standing back. This week an Amsterdam court will start hearing evidence relating to the Probo Koala waste scandal. This case is about the Probo Koala and does not affect the dump in the Ivory coast but their handling in Amsterdam. It now emerges that Trafigura, chartered a vessel, which at first attempted to have the waste processed in Amsterdam, but the company it contracted for this rejected the cargo because of its odour. Trafigura later ordered the Probo Koala to set sail for Ivory Coast where a local company registered only a few days earlier had promised to do the job.

Meanwhile British lawyers have mounted the largest class action yet lodged in the UK courts for up to 30,000 Africans allegedly poisoned by this toxic waste dump. This action is being brought against Trafigura, a London-based multinational, over the dumping in 2006 of 400 tonnes of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast.

According to Times online Martyn Day, senior partner with Leigh Day & Co stated “That we can bring a case with 30,000 claimants from a far-off land to trial within three years of the events shows that in England we have a system for group claims that is second-to-none in the world in holding multinationals to account for their actions,”

The law firm was brought in by Greenpeace, which in turn was asked to help by the Ivorean Government. Until 2006 Day was chairman of Greenpeace UK and is still on the executive of the Greenpeace Trust. By bringing the claims under the ‘no win, no fee’ scheme Greenpeace we can develop a treasure chest to help to finance large cases like this.

So you’d think like Trafigura has learned a lesson right? Wrong!

According to Afrol News on 24th June this year a vessel from the shipping company Trafigura, “High Land”, landed in the Nigerian port of Lagos where it was observed off loading allegedly dangerous and poor gasoline, aimed at West African consumers. The vessels previously stopped in Tema, Ghana, where it may also have loaded off bad gasoline.
Trafigura is the world’s third largest independent oil trader. According to their own figures, last year’s turnover amounted to US$ 51 billion. The company so far has denied any wrongdoings and claims to operate by strict ethical guidelines.

This article explains that “The Basel Convention was adopted in 1989 largely due to African outrage over dumping incidents and schemes such as the infamous Koko beach dumping in Nigeria in 1987. The original Basel Convention which demanded controls on such exports however was seen by most countries as being far too weak to control the toxic waste trade which can involve great profits and potential therefore for corruption. Thus in 1995 the Convention Parties decided to create the Basel Ban Amendment – a total prohibition on all forms of toxic waste exports from OECD/EU countries to the rest of the world.

This amendment however, while implemented by the European Union, has not yet entered into global force and ironically many of the countries that are currently having their workers and environmental health severely impacted by hazardous waste have failed as yet to ratify it. These countries include, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, and Cote D’Ivoire. Some countries like the United States, Canada, Australia and South Korea have openly opposed the global ban. Worst of all the US, the nation that produces the most hazardous waste per capita, has failed to ratify the original Basel Convention let alone the Basel Ban Amendment”.

Tags: Africa, Martyn Day, Poisoning wildlife, Probo Koala, Toxic waste dumping, Trafigura

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: Claudia Hodkinson

Hi Everyone, this is Paula. We sat in a meeting today with members of the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force to discuss progress, or should I dare say ‘lack of progress’???

The Agricultural Association  of Kenya is the only government agency that has responded  to our letters calling for a ban on Carbofuran in Kenya. But it’s not the response we really wanted - they are basically denying that there is any proof that carbofuran is dangerous, and that the poisoning of wildlife is an issue of “misuse” not dangers due to “proper use” … read ‘it’s not our fault’.  They want us to address wildlife pest control issues with the Kenya Wildlife Service.

We’ve been trying to reach the Kenya  Wildilfe Service who initially told us that they would press for a ban on carbofuran but seem to have since gone totally mum.  In fact I’ve recently seen evidence to show that KWS has hired the company that imports and distributes Carbofuran for its construction work. Another suggestion of conflict of interest amongst stakeholders and regulators in this sorry story.

Remember we toled you a couple of weeks ago about a KWS meeting with FMC  (the producers of Carbofuran) well, we are being told that we cannot get access to the meeting minutes as it was a ‘closed door meeting!’. Why do they need to be so secretive?

So where does this leave us? Well, I don’t know about the others in the team, but I’m REALLY ANGRY!!!

The news coming out of USA about the ban on carbofuran is a bit more hopeful - some press say Carbofuran residues have been banned but they have only announced an intention to ban it.

The EPA have changed tact from cancelling carbofuran’s registration, a regulatory path that determines whether a product  can be sold in the United States, because of the hazards it poses to workers who apply it as well as to birds and other wildlife. This ban on residues essentially is revoking the regulations that allow carbofuran residues in food. I.e it would affect local production as well as imported goods. I think it’s a brilliant strategy and we applaud the EPA.

But I don’t understand where the manufacturer FMC gets off. Rather than addressing the concerns, they have been fighting the move in federal court, arguing that the agency must prove that the chemical represents a public danger. I wonder what staff of FMC think and feel - they must know how dangerous and damaging Carbofuran is. Imagine selling your soul for a salary! If I worked for them I would resign. FMC is the first pesticide manufacturer in 20 years to resist cancellation of a registered pesticide! FMC spokesman James Fitzwater said his company will push to keep selling the product. He sounds like a really nice guy.

Friends we have work to do.

The EPA’s July 30th tolerance revocation proposal is subject to a 60-day comment period.  So far there has been much praise for the strong stand taken by the EPA but the American corn growers have indicated that the ban goes too far and are hoping for a limited use of the pesticide to protect corn  I hope that the comments being received are all in support of the ban. In Australia a big user of Carbofuran, farmers see the EPA decision as a sign of things to come. We have our fingers crossed for Africa too. We need to help get carbofuran banned in USA in order for it to have a ripple effect in other nations that supply USA - like my beloved Kenya.

Here is the full document from the EPA website. Please submit your comments to the revocation proposal.

Tolerance Revocation

Tolerance Revocation Proposal

• Carbofuran; Proposed Tolerance Revocations

Public comments on EPA’s carbofuran tolerance revocation proposal are due to EPA by September 29, 2008 - July 31, 2008 FR Notice. How to submit comments.

Due to considerable risks associated with carbofuran in food and drinking water, EPA is revoking the regulations that allow carbofuran residues in food. Because dietary exposures to infants and children are of particular concern, the Agency is moving to revoke carbofuran tolerances first, before cancelling carbofuran registrations. This approach provides the most direct and timely means to realize protection of children from dietary risks. It also allows multiple stakeholders an additional opportunity to comment.

Even though carbofuran is used on a small percentage of the U.S. food supply and therefore the likelihood of exposure through food is low, EPA has identified risks that do not meet our rigorous food safety standards. The Agency is taking the necessary steps to address these risks to ensure we have the safest food supply possible. The U.S. has a safe and abundant food supply, and children and others should continue to eat a variety of foods, as recommended by the federal government and nutritional experts.

In a Federal Register notice published on July 31, 2008, EPA is proposing to revoke all U.S. carbofuran tolerances. The Agency specifically is requesting comment on whether any individual carbofuran tolerances, or group of tolerances, meet the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act safety standard. It is possible that one or more individual carbofuran tolerances could be maintained, if information is provided to demonstrate that the tolerance(s) would be safe.

Revoking carbofuran tolerances is part of a broader series of Agency actions to cancel all uses of carbofuran in the United States due to human dietary, occupational, and ecological risks of concern. The cancellation process requires the development of several documents, including this proposed tolerance revocation. After moving to revoke carbofuran tolerances, EPA subsequently plans to publish a Notice of Intent to Cancel all carbofuran registrations.

EPA establishes tolerances for pesticides that may be found on foods, and can also revoke tolerances to better safeguard public health and the environment. The Agency must modify or revoke any tolerance that it determines is unsafe, that is, that does not meet the safety standard of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA). The Agency is proposing to revoke all tolerances for carbofuran because exposure through food and drinking water does not meet the FFDCA section 408 (b)(2) safety standard. For further information on this process, see Revoking Pesticide Tolerances.

How to Submit Comments

July 31, 2008, FR Notice - Comments will be accepted on EPA’s carbofuran tolerance revocation proposal until September 29, 2008. All comments should be identified by Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0162.

Publicly available docket materials are available either in the electronic docket at Regulations.gov, or in hard copy at the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) Regulatory Public Docket.

Comments may be submitted by one of the following methods:

• Regulations.gov Open the docket and find the docket item for the July 30, 2008, Federal Register Notice proposing revocation of carbofuran tolerances. In the far right column titled Add Comments, select the yellow balloon icon and follow on-screen directions. This icon will only be functional during the comment period.
• Mail To: Office of Pesticide Programs Regulatory Public Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001.
• Hand delivery - During normal hours of operation, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays, deliver comments to OPP Regulatory Public Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, Rm. S-4400, One Potomac Yard (South Building), 2777 S. Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202.

Please do not e-mail or fax your comments. For questions or assistance, contact the OPP Regulatory Public Docket at (703) 305-5805.

Tags: Carbofuran ban, carbofuran revocation proposal, EPA, furadan, wildlife poisoning

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 17 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Apparently poisonig has become the stylish technique of depressing our wildlife and all for the wrong reasons.

With the poisoned tip of a metal arrow piercing her right leg, a pregnant elephant stumbles miles through the African bush towards her death.

After two days of agony she falls to the red earth, while her killers, following on bicycles and carrying butchering knives, wait for the end to come.

In the darkness of a Kenyan night, the four poachers watch as she first loses her unborn calf in a spontaneous miscarriage provoked by the poison in her body.

An hour later, after the 35-year- old elephant dies, they move in - hacking off her face to steal the two precious ivory tusks which will make them rich for years.

Soon, they hope, the tusks will have been smuggled out of Africa and be on their way to a factory in Beijing, to be carved into jewellery and chopsticks.

Just a few weeks ago, though, these poachers were caught. James Ekiru, the head ranger at Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary (which is in sight of Mount Kilimanjaro and two hours’ drive from the port of Mombassa), says: ‘We followed their tracks, and 24 hours after they killed this mother elephant, we found them with the tusks lying on the ground.

‘They were starting to butcher her meat - cutting it into kilo pieces. We arrested two of them, but two more got away. They were local men.

‘We suspect the elephant was killed “to order”, and that her tusks would have been smuggled to China.

Read it all in Massacre of the giants: Once hunted to near extinction, Africas elephants slowly pulled back from the brink

Tags: Kenya Wildlife Service, poisoning, Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Aug 14 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Hi,

“In these woods, I am the master!”

Hunting or is it poaching which may involve weapons or poisoning is by far a mastery of skill rather than a crude means of survival as is mostly perceived.

I have had a couple chances during which I have talked to a poacher/hunter/poisoner by mingling in a way to suggest I am interested in apprenticeship in the same. In the end I have been amazed at how much they know about wildlife, weapons and poisons than many of us. This includes:

1. They know that poisons are lethal: Unlike what we know, the people who poison wildlife for food in significant cases don’t eat poisoned game themselves. They sell it and in many cases will buy meat or chicken for consumption. They will select the wildfowl that is not dead and slaughter it for consumption at their homes. Wild birds that remain alive are the least intoxicated and only end up being taken away because their appendages are broken to prevent them from flying during the state when they are disoriented by the poison. By the time they regain stability their ability to escape is impaired by their crippled state.

2. Poachers know where and how to get their quarry: Bird hunters know the ideal habitats to get which birds. They are the wild ornithologists who do not need a sophisticated sound playback system to get the attention of secretive birds. The only Flufftail (a kind of bird) I ever seen was in western Kenya and I was able to see it with the aid of a hunter who mimicked the bird’s call. He disclosed that that is how he got to get the birds where he laid poisoned bait.

3. They know the difficult/impossible quarry: Bird poachers know that game birds are difficult to catch. One told me that for business i.e. if you want birds to sell, game birds, the likes of guineafowls, francolins and quails are difficult to poison despite their congregating behaviour being ideal for poisoning. Instead, they use nooses and these require the patient or small scale vendor. At a trapping site in Busia, Kenya, the egrets are ignored since these will least likely succumb to a small dose of carbofuran; this will not be so economical to the poacher who wants to use a little of the chemical to get a bountiful catch. Still, egrets due to seemingly requiring a higher dosage of the poison will fly away even while intoxicated hence most likely will benefit a poacher or customer at a further locality who has not done any investment on the chemical and the actual baiting process. Most poachers on the other hand describe ducks generally as ‘dim’ and these settle to eating poisoned bait ‘without a second thought’, to use one poacher’s words.

4. The poachers also know which species are dwindling in numbers: Again, through consistent monitoring by these crude scientists parallel to their unpermitted cropping of wild birds without orders from the wildlife managers shows they are up to date with the trends and have their own red data lists out there. These red listings however mean nothing to them and they will continue with their indiscriminate hunting/poisoning methods to push to extinction the species whose numbers in those localities are struggling against the hunting pressures. Two bird poachers disclosed that the last they ever saw vultures must have been in the eighties. Our bird guide-books still bear maps showing these areas to be areas that vultures range. Men in their late Twenty’s admit having seen such birds during their childhood. The generation in their teens know nothing that looks like a vulture in their lifetime. If it is hunting that has driven the scavengers from these areas or even pushed the local populations to extirpation nobody knows. But they know the ducks, and notably the White-faced Tree ducks and Wattled starlings are dwindling steadily in the area because of poisoning.

So here we are confronting experts in what they have perfected in. By the way they also know if you are enquiring about poisoning and animals in the area then you are from the Kenya Wildlife Service, the local organization that values animals more than humans and will arrest you. So they will avoid talking to you or run away or they will just be given asylum by their own who will say nothing to you!

“The cover is good. I had better stay under cover till that KWS spy gets nothing and leaves my area!”

We need their own to change their own. But this requires incentive to the reformed to keep an eye, educate and create confidence for dialogue with the conservationists. If you can, please contribute towards a fund for one such person I know we see if there is some impact.

Tags: carbofuran, Egret, Flufftail, KWS, Poacher, poisoning, Vulture, Wattled Starling, White-faced Tree Duck

2 responses so far