Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: May 13 2009 | By: Martin Odino

When rice is harvested, the lush irrigation waterered wetlands that are the Bunyala rice fields lose their plush conditions that draw numerous birds in the area. During such times, the water birds that visit the site to gorge on aquatic life forms therefore gradually thin out as they depart to other sites that can meet their food requirements. For a moment, the bird diversity in the rice scheme lapses to almost none, may be only leaving behind grassland birds alone, the likes of cisticolas and pipits.

In my March-May survey, I have watched the Bunyala rice field wetland get dehydrated with the closure of irrigation waterways water supply. Focused on African Open-billed Storks which rank amongst the top if not the topmost of the poisoned birds, and which rely on the water from which they derive their snail food, I noticed their dwindling flock numbers. Usually poachers target whole flocks especially incoming, less suspecting, new flocks which will quickly come down where stork decoys are set with bait around them and start gobbling down the noxious food bait.

In my most recent survey, only one flock of 56 African Open-billed Storks had been around for much of the first week. During the time, I witnessed its cruel decapitation to none by the poisoning poachers. They competed for poisoning its members, laying bait at nearly any other conner of the field and the flock seemed to always land where there was bait, of course with the appropriate herding by the poachers. In the end, I counted and recorded 53 poisoned birds of the flock. I might have missed the poisoning of the last 3 or may be they took off having noticed the disappearence of their coleagues.

Shrinking Stork flock numbers due to drying up of irrigation water after harvesting hence declined snail food.

For the few days that followed, I quietly rejoiced as the poachers came to scout for a new flock but always ended riding away at the realization that there were no birds of their choice for them to poison.

Closing shop?The poachers riding away. The larger sack hanging on the shoulder of the poacher on the carrier seat has bait while the two smaller sacks are emaciated, traumatized decoy storks each for either of the poachers.

The poacher on the bicycle ‘gyr’ in action on a good day.

I was wrong to expect at least a temporary ceasation of bird poisoning due to the prevalent little bird food availability at the irrigation scheme. Bird poisoning in Bunyala goes beyond the rice scheme. Historically, furadan availed to the farmers to use in their rice plots sparked the bird poisoning frenzy, with congreagating birds in the rice scheme being an easy target.

This would however not always be the case, especially following the burning of chaff from threshing the rice (done manually through beating with sticks to separate grain from stalk). Where the threshing is done, there is grain that remains behind and seedeaters come to feast on it. It is such opportunities that the poachers then take advantage of and scatter poison bait amongst the grain left behind at threshing, killing enmass the unsuspecting seedeaters. Coupled with halted irrigation, the irrigation scheme remains almost deserted by the birds.

Burning chaff and stalks after threshing the grain.

I chose to survey another site and so while traversing the fields to another outgrowers site, I noticed patches of scraped off grass in the field. My assisitant explained that these were used for laying bait targetting plovers, which are very hard birds to target and somehow need obvious laying out of bait.

So, another family, actually two species of grassland plovers joined the list of poisoned birds. These are the Senegal Plover and Spur-winged Plover.

A Spur-winged Plover

A Senegal Plover

I reckon the poachers were still in business afterall and had not temporarily closed shop as I had thought. A boy then came by and added that other birds would come to the bait points when the fierce plovers were a little far and also meet their death. They include the Wattled Plovers, Pipits and Longclaws.

But with bird poisoning business slowed down , I had the opportunity to talk to some of the poachers. I even showed them some of the birds that were in my guide book but due to man’s introgression, they had become very rare or even extirpated and their only reminder were the photos in the guide book. Amongst man’s selfish activities I told them I was sorry but their insane poisoning fell in this category. Perusing through the guide book pages, they noticed two birds that they acknowledged they are no longer as abundant and that they had been a favorite poisoning target at some point in time passed. These were Grey Crowned Cranes and the White-faced Whistling Ducks.

Poachers ‘learning something’

I hope this poachers scratching of his head at my mention of their wild poisoning as one of the activities pushing birds to their disappearence meant genuine remorse, or he was hiding from the camera.

Head-scratching poacher on a fruitful day.

The not so common White-faced Tree Ducks; victims of poisoning?

Grey-crowned cranes. Also victims of past poisoning? It is the only pair I kept seeing during my 11 days out there.

How extensive this practice is I may not even correctly establish given the time and resources but one thing I am sure is that it is intensive and almost leaves no bird species as a target. I have gone as close to the nearby dead end demarcation of Bunyala area which is Lake Victoria 10 km away and the activity extends that far. I am talking of a focus of poisoning extending about 10 km radius and almost certainly extending beyond with furadan poisoning of fish taking over offshore in Lake Victoria may be into Uganda…and Tanzania!

Lord save us!

Unmistakably, Furadan 5G.

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Tags: bird, Bunyala, fish, furadan, Llake Victoria, poachers, poisoning

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Sep 09 2008 | By: Martin Odino

All our posts have been centered on large animals, illustrating carbofuran poisoning in lions, hyenas and vultures. The explanation behind this lies in effective exposure to the chemical pesticide.Their mode of feeding-carnivorous and scavenging -therefore accords these organisms the highest vulnerability. This just proves that ingestion or swallowing is the most effective way of getting the toxic substance into a living organisms body system. Further, fish have also been reported to have been killed through Furadan poisoning, other birds (non-vulturine), wildebeests, warthogs, crocodiles, just to mention those.

Clearly, out of the 8 divisions (technically and more precisely reffered to as phyla, these are sponges, worms, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) of the members of the Animal Kingdom, it is not just fish,mammals,birds and reptiles that are suffering but also the other mentioned in brackets but sponges. Only the sponges can be said at a lower risk given that they are oceanic rather than part of inland biodiversty. The large volume of the oceanic waters in which they are found also confers them some safety since it would require more carbofuran than can be produced on earth at the present time to get the waters concentrated eneough to destroy the sponges. This post will therefore focus on alleged or reported highly suspected carbofuran poisoning cases for smaller or inconspicuous or ignored animals.

Insects and their likes, which constitute the division (phylum) Arthropoda-the largest animal group constituting 95% of the animals- in as much as pesticides are designed to kill them, I would say, have been ignored. I believe no organism is too abundant not to be destroyed altogether or be driven to extinction. In one of the posts in another of wildlife direct’s blogs, there were lions reported to have died from Furadan poisoning. Shockingly but also reported nonetheless was that flies that came to get tit bits of the fouled carcasses also died on their meal. Well, I have also been able to get reports that Honey bees have died of Furadan poisoning in Naivasha and Kitui, Kenya. Honey bees not only make a highly nutritious and medicinal substance, honey ,but they are also very important in pollination of our rops and other plants. In Naivasha, Kenya, Furadan is used to kill termites and is proclaimed even more effective than the pesticides intended to kill termites. In Busia, Bunyala, the Leech was a feared worm by the paddy field workers and the blood sucker would stick on one’s upper legs and suck blood till one used a knife to cut it off. Though a worm, it falls in a different category and it poses no threat to rice or any other crop. Presently, the farmers have noted the worm has declined and not as common as it used to be in the paddy fields. A few cannot stop thinking that  Furadan may be behind the decline in the leech numbers.

If I recall clearly, carbofuran is branded a nematicide. But what has been witnessed is an indiscriminate mortality situation cutting across the entire animal kingdom. Carbofuran leaves a lot to be desired as far as its pesticidal role is concerned. It is a chemical pesticide that leaves many questions unanswwered such as if it can cause secondary poisoning and the scope of the broad spectrum of living things that it can wipe out. There is great need for more intensive testing of the effects of the pesticide and if at all it has to remain in use as a pesticide, it should prove its ‘innocence’ and subsequently may be win again the confidence of wildlife conservationists.

Tags: amphibians, animal kingdom, arthropoda, Birds, bodiversity, carbofuran, fish, fishtoxic, honey bees, hyenas, insects, lions, mammals, reptiles, sponges, Tanzania, termitesKenya, vultures, Wildlife Direct, wildlife poisoning, worms

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