Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Aug 04 2009 | By: Martin Odino

“No you cannot afford this bird.” ranted the ‘poacher’, clearly getting irritated.

“I will pay double the amount it would cost a dead bird,” I made my bidding.

“KSh.5000!”,the poacher stated his quotation, sounding not at all amused.

A newly captured open-billed stork soon to become a decoy. Ksh.5000 bob is its mimimal value!

This was the conversation I had with one poacher while trying to evaluate the cost of aquiring then probably rehabiliate and set free all captive African Open-billed Storks. The birds are kept under restraint in homesteads for use to lure others during poisoning for wild bird meat.

My interviews with virtually all poachers in Bunyala reveal that none really aquired those birds without an already captured individual. The history of how the first captives were caught seems diffuse to most poachers; all say that a decoy is made of a bird that is least intoxicated and survives poisoning but requires a decoy to lure it and get it to feeding on Furadan-laced bait.

I asked the poacher how he had come up with the Ksh5000 (US$65) and the following constituted the justification:

Realized value of sold poisoned birds due to the decoy:

Having captured and used decoy luring technique to capture birds for a while, the poacher said he had the highest daily sales of birds attributed to one decoy stork at Ksh.5000. On the average this translates to 100 birds each sold at a minimum price of Ksh.50. The minimum cost of Ksh. 50 per bird is typical of high season of bird kill. His bird was therefore worth at least Ksh. 5000.

Cost of Furadan

As a ‘professional’ bird poacher, the poacher said he uses about 10 of the 200gm packs of Furadan, each costing Ksh150 (about 2 dollars). This costs Ksh 1500 (20 dollars). Furadan poison and the decoy are an inseparable Open-billed Stork poisoning unit. He insisted that this should actually be added to the Ksh.5000 figure.

Cost of a photo

The poacher then added that I had to take his photo with the bird which according to him I could sell to tourists at a lucrative value. I would have to pay him Ksh. 5000 for this. I kept my camera where he could see it so that he could see it so that he would not claim I had taken a sneak photo of him.

It is so insane! The cumulative cost stands at a staggering US$150 per bird. There are about 20 pairs of African open-billed Stork captives. Their “buy back”would amount to US$6000! This is a whole project!!!!!.

Banning Furadan and enforcing the regulation will mean keeping the poacher and the poison apart. While no trials so far are working as well as Furadan in bird poisoning in Bunyala, the habit of capturing (and poisoning) storks will decline since one unit of the decoy luring poisoning technique will be lacking.

Furadan 5G, the deadly poisonous pesticide.

Please keep reading.

Technorati : Bunyala, Furadan, Poacher, Poison

Tags: Bunyala, furadan, Poacher, poison