Stop Wildlife Poisoning

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