Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 26 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Dear readers,

Time for me to pack up and get to Nairobi for proper medical check up and some good rest. Mwea is pleasant countryside, Mt. Kenya towers in the sky prominently especially in the mornings and evenings for anyone looking around for something such as myself. A vast stretch too and the sun comes down hot and drenching at day time while the night the Malaria vectors come humming closelst itching to inject the deadly plasmodia into your system. It has been Furadan that for many days during the week has dragged me out of bed and got me watching and observing even if it meant sitting at one spot for 8 long hours. But for a few feathers I saw in the remote parts of the rice scheme, a good thing I thought I did not see any signs of bird poison.

What does not look ok is that in prevalent dry conditions, birds would be heavily biased to the wetlands, Mwea has the usual Yellow-billed Storks, Hadada Ibis, Sacred Ibis, Cattle Egret, Intermediate Egret, Black Smith Plover Black-Winged Stilt then the area’s speciality the Yellow-mantled Bishops and the widely distributed Yellow Bishops …and NO DUCKS. One African Fish-Eagle showed up in the skies one day and that was just about it.

I must admit I have been pretty bed-ridden and during the time I kept relying on one local scout’s information. At some point I felt he was demanding a lot of money and when i did not get to give him all of it then I think he would not scout for me. I even felt he would get desparate and stage a poisoning so I just scared him and told him that actually people using the Furadan would be arrested if they were still doing the same and it was known that some scouts who should be informants were known to be also poisoning birds and humans by taking to them the poisoned birds.

I still needed confession from another party of Furadan availability and my target, the irrigation board. I only acknowledged that this is the National Irrigation Board, Mwea Branch. It had other initials that even the person I was to talking to did not know what they stood for. Nonetheless, the board guy told me in whisphers that DUCK poisonig using Furadan still goes on. Rice still in husks is let to soak in Furadan solution and removed and dotted on a raised mound of earth (specifically for purposes of poisoning) in a rice plot. The ducks come to roost but eat the laced rice and drop dead. Like the scout, this board man said the poisoned ducks are sold to drunks and unsuspecting poor homes. I sought to find out where the poachers are still getting tthe Furadan rom when I thought it is withdrawn and he said they buy it still from agrovets. I have made visits to a few agrovets and they do not stock it!

Still housed by the Mwea board is a group called Kirinyaga Wldlife birds conservation group.

Their story is the same. Their recent incident was early morning of 24/06/2009. They found a poacher collecting ducks in a sack. Poisoned by Furadan as usual he said. Well the team was off to showing some tourists where they could shoot ducks for sport hunting. These two killing parties always meet at the duck roosts but for some reason the outlawed is never given away.

Pondering about where Furadan is still coming from, the most recent close up with fairly high resolution leaves me a little puzzled. In a wild, heated up debate with my co-author, Darcy , that we were trying to defend our report (the page Furadan in Kenya)to Juanco and PCPB guys, we picked up one authenticity of the FMC produced and Juanco distributed carbofuran; it would have repetitive diagonal juanco sps in pink and background of label.

This label background looks everything genuine but does not have the pink and diagonal pattern repetition of juanco sps. Counterfeit? Other copy cats? We need a urgent ban on carbofurans!

Tags: furadan, Kenya, Mwea Rice Scheme

3 responses so far

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 23 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Dear readers,

Not quite on my feet to survey beyond my window which does not even give me the rice scheme’s view but I have something to share.

EPA ruled hazardous the use of carbofuran even when used correctly. It has an antidote in case of poisoning. I think it is the most unused antidote on medical shelves given that it kills almost instantly once the lethal dose is attained. Even the lethal doses seem grossly innacurate. In going round and round laboratories to have my samples tested, I met so many sympathisers willing to assist and test but seemed cut off at some point. Some shared with me the facts on humans and carbofuran poisoning. With their permission and without mentioning names:

1. At one particular lab they tested 5 to 8 positive human cases per month which was the highest unnatural cause of death at least in that lab.

2. Many cases of carbofuran-caused deaths were suicide cases and just this year even Juanco lost their own (may he RIP).

3. Children poisoned may be the overwhelming majority.The male lion kills cubs that are not his own so that he fathers and protects his own carrying his genes. In African or may be more specifically Kenyan polygamy some jealous partners (wives) will poison the rival’s young in an attempt to gain dominance or just to settle a small score!

4. A group of other technicians thought that we are advocating against carbofuran using wildlife when indeed it is killing more humans. I said actually we are not medical experts and I thought they had a moral duty to write back to the Medics who refer samples to them to test that carbofuran has turned out frequently as the killer. They should then write to the government asking for its ban. That alone would be good support.

Please keep reading.

Tags: furadan

4 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 22 2009 | By: Martin Odino

I wish to thank our dear readers for your comments and donations hitherto. I am also very sorry for going quiet for almost one week. I assumed that I was fatigued when I came from Bunyala and would handle just alright going to Mwea but I was wrong. just after getting the birds’ test results Mwea Rice Scheme was my stopping point to continue with surveying for Bird Furadan Poisoning. For all those days that has not been possible and I have been on Malaria treatment. I feel better now, a little too weak though but I should update you as from tomorrow, One scout who leads tourists on bird shooting expeditions has informed me that poisoning is on and with mostly Egyptian Geese being poisoned and sold in illicit brew dens.

Will keep you posted.

Tags: Bunyala, Mwea Rice Scheme

3 responses so far

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 18 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Hi readers,

We have results for carbofurn testing from the Government Chemist of the Birds collected from Bunyala in May. 5 out of 6 samples tested positive for carbofuran poisoning.

The samples were collected from Bunyala on the 04/05/2008 and transported frozen overnight to Nairobi. In Nairobi, they coninued to be frozen at the nearest Ornithology lab of the National Museums of Kenya.I submitted them to the KEPHIS labratory on the 08/05/2009 but told the HPLC (recommended modern methodology of testing for carbofuran) facility was not functioning but was being fixed.

I received a letter on 18/05/2009 requiring my confirmation that the samples had been tested at the Veterinary Lab and found free of other pathogens that would be harmful to the technicians handling them at the Analytical Chemistry Lab at KEPHIS. I went to KEPHIS to seek clarification because that is where Pest Control Product’s Board, Agricultural Association of Kenya and FMC together with Juanco had instructed us that we should have our samples analysed before we can blame Furadan for the poisoning of wildlife. I questioned the delay by KEPHIS holding on to the samples when they knew I had to have them checked at veterinary laboratory. They apologized but reminded me everyone was afraid of the Avian Flu and Swine Flu! Avian flu there was reason for concern but I have been involved in the Avian Flu Survellance in Kenya since 2006 and so far we have no incidence reported. I even told them that it would have been witnessed in the chicken in the area, even humans and since nothing of the sort had been seen and all migrants had as good as all flown back north there was no reason for fear. As for Swine Flu????!!!!…. Anyway I knew I could not bypass the lab ethics and just had to do as they commanded. I was upset that even the pesticide regulators, manufacturers and distributors did not mention that Vet lab had to be visited as well. Each of these labs would charge differently for the samples and these justified stakeholders were not going to pay a penny towards this common problem.

I was able to get the samples from KEPHIS on the 25/05/2009 and headed straight for Veterinary Laboratory. I told the officer in charge that I had collected the bird gut samples to be tested for carbofuran poisoning but had been told that I needed verification that the birds’ guts did not pose any health threat to humans. He gave the samples to his junior who came back to ask me what exactly I wanted and that as a matter of fact their facilities were not working. I thought he was the vet and that he knew what relevant procedures were to be applied to test for the security of the tissues! He gave me the other option of travelling back to Bunyala, get the District Veterinary Officer from Busia Town (2 t0 3 hour drive away), pay him per diem and have hm witness the poisoning and rule out any other cause of death before I could deliver the samples to KEPHIS or Vet Lab. He even quickly gave me Busia’s District Veterinary Officer’s contacts. Further, I was given an irrelevant note stating that the Vet Lab was at the moment not of capacity to do any toxicological analysis and requested KEPHIS to go ahead. In the first place they were meant to do Pathological analysis and not toxicological analysis. I was told to try out the various options given to me and I would have a break through. I was lost then ever and a whole day gone without concrete assistance.

I froze the samples overnight at theOrnithology lab at the National Museums of Kenya and delivered them to government first thing the next day, 26/05/2008 and told to check the results after 2 weeks.

Well, the results are now out. I have my field notes of the birds from which we eviscerated the guts.

I had actually formulated my hypothesis of the results to expect. Honestly I expected positive carbofuran results for all the 6 samples (5 guts and 1 bait) but I hypothesized that wounded birds’s gut extracts might not test positive for carbofuran. This is because may be the birds were ambushed by the poachers, knocking them with their clubs before they had eaten substancial amount of bait. well, sample 3 tested positive. I suppose this is because full adult birds have greater resistance for the poison and therefore the bird had consumed quite a bit of the bait but still seemed strong and therefore was clobberedso it does not escape.

Sample 8’s result is the puzzle, being the only sample that tested negative carbofuran testing. I recall its crop was not as full compared to the other birds so may be the contents were not enough to show positivity.

Nonetheless, here’s the certificate for carbofuran poisoning results- analysis.pdf

Tags: Bunyala Poacher, FMC, furadan, Governmnet Chemist, JUANCO, KEPHIS, Natioanl Museums of Kenya, poison

6 responses so far

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 17 2009 | By: Martin Odino

The post Elephants Poisoned With Furadan in Tanzania just makes sense with Kenyan’s providing a vivid Furadan poisoning illustration yet again.

The photograph above shows cabbages picked on elephant trails in a place in Kenya called Mweiga in the neighbourhood of Abardares National Park. A cavity is bored by the farmer(s) into the vegetables and Furadan granules poured into the cavity then set along the trails that the giant mammals pass. Usually the elephants destroy crops in the  in the park or its neighbourhood and the farmers retaliate by putting these cabbages on the elephant paths way into the park before the herbivores reach the shambas (cultivated plots). The elephants then eat the cabbages unaware of the Furadan in the veges and get intoxicated but so does the whole lot of other herbivores from the pack that get to eat the poison laden cabbages.

Tags: Aberdares National Park, furadan

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 15 2009 | By: paula

Dear friends

I have just come back from the Masai Mara where a lion was poisoned on 25th May. The Masai told me that it is not unusual for lions to be poisoned,  indeed they said 5 had been poisoned just 2 months ago!I went to a local agrovet store in Narok town to ask for Furadan but they did not have any. At first the store keeper told me where I could get it but after I pressed him for directions he refused and said in fact there was not anywhere.

I bought some Karate -the pesticide that the Government chemist now says killed the lion and vultures. I opened the packet and found the chemical to be white granules and not pink which the KWS vet described. I’m still not convinced that this was the pesticide used but the agrovet was very suspicious about my motives so I didn’t ask any more questions.

I spent 3 days on community conservancies where the lions are aggressively protected  - we saw 7 lions I couldn’t help watching them as they fed on an elephant carcass, and feel  shiver - the entire pride could have been wiped out if just one nasty person had the will to lace the carcass. Ten hyenas, five jackals and about 50 vultures would go too. It’s just so easy it’s frightening.

Some good news came today in our East African news paper which did a double page spread on Furadan. This weekly newspaper is carried throughout East Africa so we hope that it has an impact. One part of the story quotes the Pest Control Board official as saying that the we are wasting our time and suggests that the government does not have the apetite to ban Furadan or carbofuran.

“However, according to an official of the Kenya Pest Control and Products Board who is not authorised to talk to the press, it is business as usual at the board as “the board is not convinced that the chemical poses any danger to humans and wildlife.”

The conservationists are cheating themselves. Unless a proper legislative act is put in place, the status quo remains,” he told The EastAfrican”.

I hope this person  gets to eat his words very soon!

I’m also pleased to see a story in the Huffington Post by Luke Hunter about FMC, Furadan and lions. The message is the same as we’ve been saying all along, and I would love to talk to Luke about what we know and are seeing here in Kenya.

And then I had some horrible news. I just got a call from a friend Kuki Gallman in Laikipia. She was in hospital recovering after being attacked by bandits who broke her arm. The area she lives in sounds quite volatile but she is dedicated to conservation and always alerts me when any animals are poached. She told me today that she believes that three elephants were poisoned with Furadan which in that area is applied to the maize cobs in the nearby farms. Elephants raid the farms at night and eat the laced cobs, and it takes a week for them to die. Kuki told me that the elephants begin to drool and stumble, and they appear to go blind. After a week of suffering they die. She said she also lost a lion to poisoning, she believes it was killed with Furadan - she says everyone uses it.

The BBC asked me today if the FMC buy back had led to a decline in poisoning incidents. While you can’t get Furadan openly in any of the stores, it clearly has not yet had the effect - we still see birds being poisoned every day in Bunyala. The Furadan is coming from somewhere.

Tags: carbofuran, FMC, furadan, Laikipia, lions, Masai Mara

6 responses so far

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 14 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Hi. I just checked my data so far of birds poisoned from one site (Bunyala) and realized that I have recorded 30 species from 12 different families as victims of Furadan poisoning during the 5 months that I have been collecting data in Bunyala. The number is higher given that I do not have photos for others such as the Dusky Turtle Dove, Spur-winged Goose, Egyptian Goose, Crowned Plover, Yellow-billed Stork and Common Snipe most likely because my camera battery had run out of charge at the time of the incidences.

Where possible, I have used photos of the live birds rather than the poisoned to reduce the horror!

Cranes

Grey-crowned Cranes

Storks & Herons

Abdim’s Storks (Intra-African migrants between East and West Africa)

White Stork (Erope-Africa migrant)

Grey Heron

Black-headed Herons

Hadada Ibis

Sacred Ibis

African Open-billed Stork

Knob-billed Ducks or Comb Ducks

White-faced Whistling Ducks

Raptors

The Yellow-billed Kite-must have eaten a disoriented small wader. Some other bird, may be a black headed heron may have come to peck on the dead kite’s back

Lapwings and Plovers

Spur-winged Plovers

Senegal Plover

(Common) Ringed Plovers

Waders

Wood Sandpiper (A palearctic migrant)

Green Sandpiper (A Palearctic migrant)-You may be wondering how is it different from the wood sandpiper above. Check the scanty barring termitted after about 3 bars then check flanks of the wood sandpiper which extend behind to the abdomen.

(Wood sandpiper for comparison with Green Sandpiper above)

Ruff (A Palearctic migrant)

Black Crake

Game Birds

Harlequin Quail

Doves & Pigeons

Speckled Pigeon

African Mourning Dove

Laughing Dove

Red-eyed Dove

Blue-spotted Wood Dove

Wagtails

Yellow Wagtails (Palearctic migrants)

Pipits & Longclaws

Yellow-throated Longclaw

Grassland Pipit

Bishops and Widowbirds

Southern Red Bishop

Black-winged Bishop

Fan-tailed Widowbird

Weaver Birds

Yellow-backed Weaver

Black-headed or Village Weaver

Jackson’s Golden-backed weaver

Tags: Bunyala, furadan, poisoning

One response so far

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 12 2009 | By: Martin Odino

The rains finally came consistent and heavy from around mid May for 1 week. Bounty seemed the best description of anything dependant on the rains. Of relevance to my project, All African open-billed Storks seemed to have come to congregate in Bunyala. My assistant likened the scene to that of flamingoes. He says he does not reacall seeing the birds in such numbers and doubted my damnation prophecies for the birds for the moment. Many people confirmed this incidence even my host where I camp while out there. It was booming business at last for the poachers using Furadan to get and contaminate the wild bird meat for the locals to eat.

‘Flooding rains of Bunyala’. An approaching storm! The rains fill the plains, inclusive of the rice growing expanse. Note the dark forms at the near bottom foregound of the photo. They are Open-billed Storks.

My assistant showing me how far the flooded section lying ahead of him stretches. We crossed it!

Thousands of these Open-billed Storks got killed and flooded local markets just a few days before I got to Bunyala for June’s Survey. Thanks to my assistant who was on the alert and recorded 4 poisoning stations for 5 days averaging 2 sackfull kills per station per day. I know the sizes of sacks used and how a sack with 18 poisoned storks looks.

There are 18 storks in the sack above.

A sack for comfortable transportation on a bicycle may therefore contain 40 full grown birds. It therefore means 80 full grown birds were poisoned per station per bird. This translates to 320 birds per day and 1600 birds during the 5 days. Much as this figure may seem outrageous, I must sadly add that this is on the lower scale and the number may even be double or more and not at all less. The error comes in where my 2 assistants are overwhelmed while I am away and the poachers also sometimes bait the birds two times a day or even more on a ‘good day’. It shocks me as an ornithologist that while I had earlier reported poisoning of a whole colony of 56 African Open-billed Storks within 5 days, here I am looking at figures suggesting several whole colony loses in one day. The largest flock I ever saw around Bunyala of the birds was 74 birds. 80 is actually a higher figure!

At the moment, the African Open-billed Stork is considered a common species and regarded stable. The situation in Bunyala should send an alarm call for its conservation nonetheless. Poisoning by Furadan is by far the greatest threat to this bird’s regional population I would say, with the species occuring in rice growing areas other than Bunyala where poisoning has also been reported in the largest numbers.

My ecologist’s eye perceives the unusual congreagation of the Open-billed Storks in Bunyala last month as ominous. Organisms move into an area where there are resources. Now, the mad poisoning frenzy of the Open-billed Stork in Bunyala may have just seen a crash of the local population. A few of the birds were seen to soar high up in the sky just before more and yet more of their kind came to join in and settle on the flooded plains to gorge on the snails. Were the soaring individuals signalling for the others to come join them? but why? Had the food suddenly become too much for them?or had they just realized that there were serious problems with finding partners now that the favorable conditions to reproduce had prompted them to bond for mating to bring forth the next generation? So, while the signalling meant well for the other Storks in the neighbouring flocks whose populations may have been stable at least compared to those in Bunyala, it just meant a notch in their numbers as they flew in only to be welcomed by the poisoning poachers.

The African Open-billed Stork: Are poachers pushing this bird to the vulnerable conservation status?

Further while many locals may have hailed the cheap wild bird meat at their markets, little do they understand the ecological role of this bird. The African Open-billed Stork feeds on fresh water snails. I have been able to identify one species that the birds eat in Bunyala and the poachers lace with Furadan before baiting the birds. The species is Pila Ovata.

One of the species of snails that constitute the Stork’s food

There is a corelation between the snail and the Bulinus snails which are vectors for Bilharzia. The two snails seem to occur together. Bilharzia studies around Bunyala date back to lthe ate 1970’s into the 1980’s. Control measures may have brought the disease to a manageble level given declined vigour in its reserach and control in the area. We however seem not to appreciate the natural biological control effected by the Open-billed Storks that may just have been latently checking the situation. Actually, controlling the disease will need monetary input which is beyond the vastly poor Bunyala society. The Stork is sparing them from this expenditure and the best treatment they are getting is being poisoned for food!

The time bomb ticks with every moment that Furadan continues not to be banished from this land. Our lions are down due to this pesticide, a shame that we do not protect our symbol of strength on our court of arms yet again our birds keep dwindling in numbers and humans may just be dying silently. What is worse is the apparent ecological imbalance such as this of bird, disease and man. Biodiversity is at stake!

Tags: Bilharzia, Bunyala, furadan, poachers, poisoning

No responses yet

Category: carbofuran, lions | Date: Jun 11 2009 | By: paula

An angel has set up a petition on Care2 to help get carbofuran banned in Kenya. It includes a letter to the Minister for Tourism in Kenya.  The petition currently has over 14,000 signatures!  

Thank you who ever you are who is helping us silently from out there. We continue to work hard and really appreciate all your support.

From all of us at WildlifeDirect

Tags: carbofuran, care2, FMC, furadan, lions, poisoning, Wildlifedirect

2 responses so far

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 08 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Just when I commenced on this month’s survey, I wrote of continued poisoning in Bunyala just when there should not be, given the withdfrawal of Furadan supply by FMC, the wildlife poisoning critisism associated with Furadan use and the seemingly reduction of furadan use hence availability due to proposed other crop growing in the Bunyala rice scheme. Well, from what I have witnessed recently, it seems this hope is overambitious!

I have wandered far and wide this month away from the rice scheme that in my earlier months of survey was the epicentre of bird poisoning using furadan. Well,much as I think this was far off from the rice scheme area under the irrigation board, we have come to learn in the past few days that we have just been treading on many hactares of ground that come the next rice planting season, which is any day to come this month will to a greater extent be under the irrigation board.

An example of rice growth area expansion. The man against the background of the rising sun is putting up embarkments about his patch of land in readiness for flooding when the irrigation board pumps in water to nourish the paddy.

My fear is that what seem to be scattered pieces of Furadan poisoning evidence as at yesterday may soon turn to be common place.

I was puzzled why pieces of paper seemed to be scattered all over at our remotely located site yesterday. So while we picked them up, we actually noticed they were labels for Furadan; an attempt to conceal the identity of the pesticide?!!! Afterall, the poachers say Furadan is banned but continue to obtain and use it for bird poisoning.

Closeby was the evidence of what the Furadan had been used for; beheaded remains from a few of the poisoned storks!

And a snail bait with the ‘live’poison!

Apparently a sizeable stash of the pesticide lies in the premises of the local irrigation board. As I write, I just confirmed from my assistant if his ‘order’ of furadan will be delivered today from the irrigation scheme. He says he has been told that it will be, but tomorrow by the imposed supplier. With the outgrower expansion imminent, the Furadan stock may just be unleashed in the new development so soon since i understand that the irrigation scheme provides the rice growing necessities at planting time, and Furadan is one of the necessary distributed materials at seedling planting season.

Certainly, with carbofurans still acknowledged in Kenya, danger looms when the pesticide discharged to the farmers will eventually get to the poachers and get to endanger more and more birds, let alone other unmonitored bidiversity inclusive of man that continue to lavish in the menace of the unbanned state of the deadly toxic pesticide.

I photographed the bird above yesterday. It is the Long-tailed Nightjar. A species not recorded of this region and whose being is threathened by not the poison but by the fact that the poison fuels the deeds of poachers who in the stampede of poisoning and chasing after the poisoned birds and clobbering them, end up trampling on its habitat, scaring it to almost nowhere since already the expanding irrigation scheme has pushed them to about the last of the raised ground with thin shrubbery that never gets flooded.

Please keep reading.

Tags: , Bunyala, FMC, furadan, poisoning

4 responses so far