Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 22 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Apologies for my absentism which made it impossible for me to post any stories. I was out in Amboseli National Park which looked all tranquil and safe. Jumbos are big and dominant.

Back in Nairobi, I have received a number of poisoning incidences but are sketches of the real stories. I blame inadequate expertise and the complexity of the killing method(poisoning). Few people if at all any, can suspect poisoning, itself a phantom killing method that can only be positively implicated after complex laboratory procedures.
My supervisor in my Furadan surveys emailed me sometime back that she had heard of a Crowned Eagle killed through Furadan poisoning on 13/10/2008. Her assisitant had collected it at their owl reserch centre in rural central Kenya in Nyeri district. Her efforts to get in touch with the asistant were futile therefore it was not possible for her to get the carcass for testing and photographs for the post. Nonetheless, this is not the first time to get information on poisoning by Furadan from the area. A Mackinder’s Eagle Owl died from the same in the area after eating dying mousebirds that were poisoned with Furadan by farmers near Mweiga, Nyeri District. Though I would challenge that mousebirds are too small a prey for the Crowned Eagle, in some way the chemical may have gotten to be ingested by the raptor.
I also got an update on 14/10/2008 of fish poisoning using thiodan or endosulfan in Tanzania. 6 galons of the chemical were poured into River Kilombero about 13 kms from the Udzungwa Mountain National Park and villagers in the neighbourhood cautioned against using the water for domestic purposes by the fishermen. Supposedly, scores of schools of fish floated to their death only to be collected downstream by the fishermen. A commendable job I would say to warn the locals not to use the contaminated water, but all that is annulled when it is still the fishermen that have contaminated the water. Still, it is the human race that eats the indiscriminately harvested fish. Just a silly mental justification captured in the old adage,’Out of sight, out of mind’. The fishermen cannot bear the sight of the villagers suffering under their noses, but if anyone else suffers downstream from using the water or from eating the intoxicated fish carcases, it is none of their business.
Yesterday I talked to a friend, Evans, who has been studying the effects of bush meat trade on wildlife, now compiling his reports. As we settled down on discussing our campaigns,their similarities emerged, myself against poisoning, himself aginst snares in particular. In either case, these techniques are indiscreminate or to put it plainly, they are wasteful. A pastoralist using furadan to bait the lion that attacked and ate one of his cattle will in the process not even kill the culprit lion which is compeled by its full stomach to retire to a bush and sleep. This lion may even go for two days without eating. The victims of the infuriated pastoralist’s poisoning therefore end up being feeble innocent carnivores and scavengers that will come to eat of the left overs of the lion’s kill. Evans says the snares also target every other beast, intended or unintended. Idealy, the snares are meant for wild herbivores but this is not always the case. A sad case, he narrated was when a wire snare intended for a wild ungulate caught a hyena by the neck, cutting through its oesophagus. While the poor animal managed to cut herself lose, her wish to be a survivor of bush meat snares never came true. Evans states how he witnessed her at a zebra carcass trying to eat but the food came out through the gush in the neck! The hyena eventually died after a tough struggle of excruciating pain. I can feel the pain as I write. In the case of the wildbeests, his study in the Mara revealed a decline in wildebeest numbers from 160,000 to just about 40,000 at the moment. This has occured in just a few decades in our time! Clearly, the marveled at wonder of the world might just not survive as long as the others given the status quo of merciless wildlife killings.I think in every respect humanity has turned beastly to wildlife.

Tags: Amboseli National Park, Crowned Eagle, furadan, hyena, Kenya, Mackinder's Eagle Owl, Poiosning, Tanzania, Thiodan, Udzungwa Mountains National Reserve

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 13 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Biodiversity is faltering the world over as BBC reveals that current trends imply that world governments will fail to meet their agreed targets of curbing biodiversity loss by 2010.

Habitat loss, hunting,pollution and the grande global warming phenomenon have all come down heavily to crush biodiversity to the edge of the limit of survival. These forces are more or less operating in a worldwide scale and should only in a most fair and responsible way be handled by all the states of the world.

But poisoning seems to have a special place especially as far as wiping out birds species is concerned. As I read  National Geographic Channel’s article, Birds in “Big Trouble”Due to Drugs, Fishing,more, I could not stop feeling that poisons must be a nightmare threat capable of wiping out whole species in short time with very minimal room for the reversal of the situation. The article reiterated the catastrophic decimation of the white-rumped asian vultures due to Diclofenac poisoning by up to 99.9% of their original since 1990’s. The whole story can be read in the article Many Asian Vultures Close to Extinction.

Poisoning, which may result from pollution is operating in many regions in the world in remote locations in a most quiet way. I am however concerned by the poisoning of birds particularly in Kenya. While many tend to overlook the killing of birds because they are many, then I must say we are wrong because the kiling is mostly indiscriminate cutting across the flock species as well as the small numbered non-congregating species.

In a walk across the neighbourhood of Bunyala Rice Scheme a while ago,a young man was so determineed to show me a beautiful species that always perched on the cows like Ox-peckers but to his disappointment he could not sight it. I spotted a handful Wattled Starlings on a nearby tree in non-breeding plumage but he vehemently refused that those were not the birds. We went on to ask an elderly man grazing his cattle if he knew and had seen the birds and to his shocking surprise he confided that in a split of time it appeared the birds had vanished. We came to a poisoning site and stumbled on the carcass of a mature male wattled starling in breeding plumage concealed in a grass tuft. This was a poisoning site. From a distance I could see children and young men walking into homes with small hand-washing basins.I could not see any pool wher they may have been washing or drawing water, but why not use buckets to carry the water back to their homes? The young man I was with told me that actually the basins contained the purchased spoils of furadan poisoning which were none other than birds. He said the basins used would actually be much bigger during the peak hunting season during rice planting because the numbers poisoned would also be bigger. It then struck my mind that one conservationist and scout in Mwea Rice Scheme reported that in the 1990’s, poisoned birds quantifiable in pick ups were being ferried away from the rice scheme to unknown markets. What is common to these two sites (Bunyala and Mwea) is that in both cases, it has been reported that Tree Ducks, otherwise Whistling Ducks are almost not to be observed and most probably is because they have suffered heavy mortalities from poisoning.

This was not all. I witnessed one cyclist carrying abour 10 storks in a sack tied on his bicycle rear with  their large bills protruding beyond the sack, which gave them away. We are not just talking of poisoning of a few birds but what I would refer to as birds concentrated in habitats with food abundance thereby drawing as many of their kind as possible, yet the poisoners also give it the best of their poisoning techniques and poisons to catch the most of them-basins, sacks and pick ups of poisoned birds.

As we walked back from the poisoning site, I could not help feeling that the grsslands were more deserted by grassland birds than they should be, given the thickness of the grass density I observed. Deserted or poisoned? Likely, the latter is the justification.

Tags: BBC, biodiversity, Birds, Bunyala Rice Scheme, diclofenac, drug, ducks, Mwea Rice Scheme, National Geographic Channel, poisoniing, Wattled Starling, white-rumped vultures

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 09 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Hi,

Today’s post will in a simple way acknowledge animals!

In the African culture, bounty of species is a blessing. I pluralize species in the sense that the more the heads of cattle and variety of livestock; the more the wives and offspring tagged to a man’s name; the greater the bounty of crop yield from a man’s farm; amongst many other sorts of bountiful assortments especially alive, implying plants and animals, the more a man was regarded blessed by the sacred forces. I believe for sure that congregations of wildlife were and are still acknowledged by a majority of our people. I have picked on a few of the animals photograph on one of my safari’s in Kenya. in many respects, you will realize they are so similar to humans or else what we thought we understand of them, in many cases we get it all wrong. And now on to the animals:

A number of animals migrate, traversing territories of land,water and air for better seasonal conditions. Winter must be settling in temperate lands and we in the tropics are expecting human visitors from those lands. But coming along will be non-human visitors about the same time and for more or less the same physiological reasons. I am talking about migrating birds.Below is a photograph of Wildbeests that cross the Mara-Serengeti expanse every year.

The NubianWoodpecker below ‘knock knocks’ on woody stems. In many occasions, big enough burrows are seen about where the birds will be seen to knock hard. Well, the large holes are the result of prolonged enlargement and sometimes the woodpeckers even have had no role in their enlargement. Usually in the normal feeding of the bird, it will tap hard on the trunk to disrupt the insects underneath which then come to the surface and the bird eats them. The harder the knock, the greater the disruption and the more the emergent insects to satisfy the woodpecker.

Now, Eagles have a characteristic medium or long prominent tail which justifies their hunting nature and facilitates manouverability while hunting a dodging prey. But more important their tails enable them to balance their bodies. The eagle below is a young Bateleur. Other than changing to darker plumage with red on back,tail,face and feet, the proportions will remain more or less the same. The long wings exceeding the tail tip are the center of interest here. This bird is a powerful glider but seems to struggle to balance, more or less as if staggering, the explanation is in the short tail. It is also more of a scavenger rather than a hunter. Again, the short tail limits its hunting proficiency.

The Red-headed Weaver defies the conventional Yellow colouration of our weaver but a weaver nonetheless by virtue that it ‘weaves’ its nest.

I did not know that lionesses have four teats. May be this is new to you too.

The natural beauty above is worth carrying of heavy photography gadgets like the one below.

But if we should lose them, then we will find ourselves getting photos of the un-natural beauty as below. This bird is not an eagle!

Tags: animals, Bateleur, Kenya, Lion, Mara, Nubian Woodpecker, Red-headed Weaver, Serengeti, wildbeests

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 07 2008 | By: Martin Odino

I read that the Barn Owls are so named because they moved from wild, originally purely woodland habitats to traditional English grain stores otherwise barns. the farmers conveniently left openings at the top of the barns so that Barn Owls would land before using the opening to get into the barn. Inside the barn, biological control went on with the owl feeding on destructive grain-eating mice and rats. I bet this form of control by far superceded the use of rodenticides which in many cases have just ended up killing the rodents’ predators-raptors including owls- up the chain Man and owl therefore had a cordial relationship otherwise precisely refered to as mutualism. This is beautiful especially because in many parts of the world especially Africa, owls are ominous and will be killed on sight.Those were better days!

The Spotted Eagle Owl, named an ‘eagle’ because of the gigantic size is one of the widespread and frequent owls but is now threathened with rodenticide poisoning. In South Africa, a decline from ringing 20 individuals to none or 1 is not a good sign at all as far as Owl survival is concerned. Yet this is due to rodent poisoning during which when the poisoned rodents are eaten by the owls, the owls die from secondary poisoning.

Below is a Spotted Eagle photographed in remote semi arid Rift Valley Province. I travelled from Nairobi to go see this resident owl, a 4-hour drive away. Not a very common subject.

Tags: poisoning, Rodenticides, South Africa, Spotted Eagle Owl

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Category: Pesticides, carbofuran | Date: Oct 05 2008 | By: Martin Odino

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Apologies if this post’s heading is troubling; I could not find any better title. I also wish to humbly inform my dear readers that I must leave certain organization’s names out so that this does not turn personal. I was not comfortable when somebody that matters in one pesticide organization told me, ‘welcome! I have heard about you and I am glad I have seen you’.

I went through a turbulent end of the week! I literally spent the Friday and Saturday struggling in my limited ways together with one remarkable conservationist heading the Kenyan office of a renowned international conservation organization, trying to get the details of recent Furadan poisoning of fish in Tanzania. I am still optimistic that I will get some details and hopefully, photos sent my way across the border (from Tanzania) of the poisoning ordeal. I should then surely avail the story on the stopwildlifepoisoning blog. At the moment, I only know that 6 gallons of liquid Furadan were poured in Kilombero River to kill fish with the fishermen warning the villagers not to use the river water for domestic purposes. This happened sometime last week.

I spent the weekend combing papers and articles on carbofuran especially Furadan 5G, the grossly alleged threat to Kenya’s wildlife. I must get certain facts right to be able to tackle the various troubling facets that challenge this stop wildlife poisoning campaign, in particular the campaign against Furadan pesticide as the poison. These have been manifested in my interactions especially with the people dealing with pesticides before it gets to the users.

It is now apparent that the discussion about Furadan is not a discussion but a sad war. It has become tough for me to get any relevant information from the pesticides fellows. It starts with word games where we have been repeatedly warned that we should talk of Furadan poisoning and not Carbofuran poisoning despite the active ingredient being carbofuran. I was recently advised for my knowledge that carbofuran is not sent nor sold in Kenya, but as far as I know, it is sold and sent to Kenya in the Furadan preparation. Nonetheless, I am going to stick to Furadan poisoning to save myself from the inconvenience of being interrupted and getting confused from the flow of my conversation that I should not mention carbofuran poisoning but Furadan poisoning. That is not the end of the war, I am disappointed when I am directed to a website where I cannot find information especially concerning a follow up on a Furadan alleged case of poisoning (Mara lion poisoning). Either the information is not there absolutely, or it is hidden behind the locks of a registration fee that is required for anyone to have full success of the information on the website. I wonder why positive counter allegation evidence to an issue that sparked terror and implicated a great need to mend holes in the pesticide regulation /manufacture fraternity would be kept hidden from the public. Many questions therefore arise as to the credibility of the findings of the follow up which was summarised as ‘there was no connection between the dead animals and carbofuran’ in the Mara.

I have also been trying to find out the carbofuran products that may have been or are still of concern in other places in the world in trying to establish if I can link it up to the Kenyan scenario. Based on a report in late 1990’s-crop-profile-of-rice-in-california.pdf- I stumbled on a profile description of Furadan 5G, the exact carbofuran product that may cost Kenya its wildlife and probably aggravate the neurotic disorders of its citizens. Various aspects of Furadan 5G are highlighted including its safety. According to the report, carbofuran was on the Food Quality Protection Act list 1 of insecticides scheduled to have their tolerances reassessed by August 1999. As a carbamate, the report revealed that the reassessment of carbofuran may result in the elimination of some uses. The product seems to have been praised for its minimal effects on non-target arthropods and fish. This is not what we are experiencing in Kenya, or are we dealing with a compound pseudo-labelled Furadan 5G when the reality is that it is a higher concentrate carbofuran product? Our Furadan 5G product even has one of the hazard labels cautioning on harm on fish. It does not make sense when it is generally stated in a communication to me that Furadan 5G is generally less toxic than the active ingredient carbofuran by 20-40 times. Fish were poisoned last week in Tanzania and birds, also fish are still being poisoned in Kenya using Furadan 5G. These have ended up and will continue ending up in East African peoples’ digestive systems, the actual effects on their health of which need the medical personnel to unveil.

I also gathered from an International POPs Elimination Project report of 2005– that spelt doom due to the hazardous state attributed to many chemical stockpiles including poor storage of which Desert Locust Control (DLCO) East Africa was sited. DLCO particularly struck me because it was reported that they had switched from mostly organchlorines which were banned due to persistence, environmental effects and bioconcentration in fatty tissues, but switched to amongst others carbamates carbaryl and propoxur. These are less hazardous to the environment but more acutely hazardous to human and animal health. When these poisons are injected into the air, they will not only just bring down the insects (starting with locusts) but also birds (directly or indirectly) and what of the humans that get in contact with the poisons or even those that might eat the birds killed in the exercise?

The poisoning saga in Kenya is terrifying, especially when the true knowledge of the deadly implications of the pesticides being used to kill vermin and wild animals is sat on squarely by the relevant authorities so that for some reason the public does not get to it. This looks bad especially when the whole situation appears to take full advantage of public ignorance and employing otherwise deadly chemicals that qualify to be termed poisonous. Sometimes, sharing the knowledge on these chemicals is worthwhile and may enhance livelihood security.

Tags: carbamates, furadan, Kenya, Kilombero, Pesticides, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Campaign, Tanzania, Wildlife

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 03 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Hi,

Just how extensive is the damage caused by the China melanine-laced milk poisoning?In a recent development, Filipino olympians seemingly have to take tests according to the Phillipine delegation.Probably all olympians should be tested regardless of whether they directly drank the milk or not, including our Kenyan athletes dominated by a tribe renowned for its great passion for milk and milk products. Surely, the intoxication could also have occured as a result of eating sweets, candy or any other foodstuff that was prepared from the contaminated milk.

Panic stricken chines parents with their babies in hospitals

How about the animals particularly the China zoos? It has been reported that two young orangoutans, two adult gorillas and a lion cub have been diagnosed with kidney stones.The pandas are untouched until now because according to an official at the world’s most famous panda reserve, the Wolong Nature Reserve, the baby pandas there are not fed on milk made from formula. This is a relief especially after I had written that there had been no poisoning news on pandas! But who knows what is yet to come up and be revealed especially because milk is used to boost nutrition in the animals in the zoos. That is why the affected include 2 adult gorillas, way grown beyond the suckling age!

Testing a lion cub for kidney stones due to milk posioning .

Tags: China, gorilla, Intoxication, melanine, milk, Orangoutan, panda, poisoning, Wolong Nature Reserve, zoos

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Oct 01 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Melamine-contaminated milk poisoning in China as we now know did not begin with the epidemic of kidney stones in human kids that reached us just a couple of weeks ago. Gorilla babies, orangoutans and a lion cub have followed suit. Many more animals that rely on the mammary gland effusion must have fallen victim as well. I have not heard of the baby Pandas which should be also in China’s zoos, thanks God! Hopefully this is not being kept from the world. Such a trend assumed by the melamine poisoning only evokes fear and abomination!

The real reason that the poisoning reality was suppressed as is highlighted is that so that the privilege of hosting the Olympic Games would not be taken away. China seems to have been wrestling to conceal a violent turbulence of intoxicants for a while. This year’s Olympic games host managed to ‘contain’ the problem of atmospheric pollution that had also threatened its being the games’ host and now the melamine catastrophe that was apparently successfully contained in the secretive bag but which has raptured open letting loose the reality as scores of Kidney Stones diseased humans and wildlife alike. What is worse is that much of the entire world may have already had a taste of the harmful intoxicants.

The temptation to conceal an evil because it will ruin an imminent fortune is high but in most cases turns out more harmful than useful. China has seen a ban on many of its exports by many of its largest importers of its products and even the fortune acquired during the Olympics may cancel out with the loses on imports and the health investment towards the threatened human and wildlife residents.

Statements against our revelations on Furadan wildlife poisoning such as, “when you proclaim before the whole world that Kenya’s wildlife in parks is threatened by Furadan is putting the tourism industry at risk and portraying a bad image of our country” are very common amongst the guys that should be in the fore front in addressing the problem of Furadan poisoning to our wildlife. For some reason, they would rather have the wildlife fetch revenue, despite the ongoing depopulation of the animals in the background. At WildlifeDirect, through the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force, we are trying to take measures that will stop the country from the possible disgrace of losing our wildlife particularly carnivores and birds, and even humans to Furadan. We are washing our torn, dirty linen while asking for its washing and mending rather than to have the world laugh at us. We are still asking for your support. This month and next month are particularly crucial in the sense that they are likely to be characterised by marked poisoning incidences especially in rice-growing areas, being the start of the planting season. Our financial resources are still low yet we want to begin awareness as a vital bird/wildlife poisoning pace reducing tool during our surveys as we seek a long-term solution to Furadan poisoning. In an earlier post, I put up our 1 year, $20000 budget. I believe through your support we can curb this imminent carnivore/scavenger loss that could lead to banning by our greatest importers of our commodity (tourism) in their market. Yet in this case, the wildlife loss may be irreversible!

Thank you very much those of you who have been supporting this Stop Wildlife Poisoning Campaign. Please keep reading our blog for the latest poisoning news.

Tags: China, furadan, gorilla, intoxicant, Lion, melamine, Orangoutan, poison, pollution, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Campaign, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force, Wildlife Direct

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