Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Dear readers,

I have had to partly keep you off from the monotony of bird poisoning in Bunyala to and in part to deal with a larger study area having extended my surveys into a section of a southerly bordering nationally unique Important Bird Area. The area has been renowned to contain 8 of the 9 papyrus and lake Victoria endemic bird species in East Africa. The birds once enjoyed a continuously undisturbed papyrus swamp and most likely a peaceful neighbourhood before the sick culture of poisoning birds using Furadan set in.

An island of papyrus stands on my background; these are poor given the dry soil conditions and the size. The plants are struggling to attain their massive size after having been slashed down then the culprit delayed digging their root systems out.

Bunyala Rice Scheme- you can hardly see its end now, and it keeps growing by the day. Bird poisoning goes on in these areas of the irrigation scheme that flood with water.

Walking around the adjoined local centres, one branded ‘Canteen’ and the other ‘Nyadorera’ in Bunyala, agrobusinesses seem to have a disappointingly trace number of visits by customers. As a matter of fact there is only one specialist agroveterinary shop while the other is a general shop and in the farming section are stocked a couple of pesticides and farm inputs. With the intention of finding whether these stocked Furadan, curious dealers turned us away with a bold ‘NO’ in response to the question we asked, ‘If they had any Furadan’ at the general shop and the agrovet. At the agrovet however, my keen assistant spotted the 200gm packs at a lower side shelf and alerted me. But the shopkeepers are sensitive as far as Furadan is concerned and are quick to show you the way out if you are suspected not to be a poacher since poachers somehow have a way of getting the poison for their work without much ado.

Close toBunyala Rice Scheme is Yala Swamp. We have surveyed several kilometers into the site. No people inhabit the area that we have walked so far. Phew! no poisoning here! Indeed there has been no observed poisoning of birds in the IBA hitherto but it is disturbing that you find bird feathers along the paths especially where the habitat is still boggy. Further, none of the endemic bird species has been sighted so far despite our scanning deep into the few papyrus vegetation stands that await to be cleared because we were informed that they are already marked for farming.

A poor pphoto showing the silhouette of a Swamp Flycatcher still lucky to hold his ground. The undisturbed papyrus endemics like the Papyrus Yellow Warbler and the Papyrus Gonolek are not so lucky

The endemics need these extensive papyrus stands if they are to survive but which unfortunately are no more in this area . These are being impacted on by the locals from upland in Bunyala area.

Yet when we return to the rice scheme on our way back to camp, the killing scenario is the same. Furadan poisoned birds!

Part of a troupe of poachers loaded with their kill; waders in the sack and African open-billed Stocks on the leading poacher’s back

Technorati : Furadan, birds, bunyala, poisoning