Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 24 2008 | By: Martin

Hi,

I am just heading back to Nairobi from a place called Machakos, about 70km from Nairobi. One of Kenya’s 60 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) is found here and is known as Machakos IBA. I have a personal interest in this area; I have been monitoring a Wahlberg’s Eagle pair in the area for the last 3 years which comes in around August of every year and leaves by April of the next year. Wahlberg’s Eagle is an intra-African migrant raptor and also the smallest of the dark Eagles otherwise called Aquila eagles.

I have watched a number of wild animals in this area, especially in a local agricultural Institute center (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute-KARI) where I made reference to in an earlier post, ‘no poisoning here’. Bordering this area is the Athi-Kapiti plains with its wildlife ranches such as Hopkraft’s Ranch. It is in these plains that the worst of the recently vulture poisoning incidences took place and 187 of the species succumbed to poisoning in 2004. For a while I felt the research institute had every reason to boast a fairly intact habitat relative to the surrounding almost absolute natural habitat depleted neighbourhood. For another reason, I have seen vultures and other raptors pass over this area and sighed, “mmhh they must be confident the chances of coming across baited carcass in this area is minimum compared to the neighbouring Athi plains”.

Fairly intact vegetation on KARI.

The view from mid photo into background is cleared, settled and cultivated land.

It is in this research centre that the Wahlberg’s Eagles found a safe confine where to put up a nest and renovate it year in year out before laying their egg or two utmost. Naturally, only one young survives in case they were two hatchlings because of the phenomenon called canism which essentially is the killing of the weaker hatchling by the stronger. Canism is well explained in one post in Simon Thomsett’s blog. Unfortunately, for the last two years I have monitored the eagles, their nesting has always been a failure especially because intruders somehow always cut down the tree where the Eagles nest. I even went on to request for the large, high canopied trees to be closely monitored by the institute’s farm management which seem to be this small eagle’s favourite. However, today, in my morning scouting around the institute’s premises, I still realized this is on-going, though the tree that the eagles last put up their nest is still intact.

The eagles‘ nesting tree is the tallest in the photo.

Tree stump of recently felled tree

The birds literally left for their southerly bound journey (to Angola most probably where they spend their time when they are not around) without nesting, probably because of human disturbance or the time for their departure had just reached. Normally, they would be renovating the nest at about this time (September- October). Last breeding season, the tree on which they were nesting and were actually incubating in November 2007 was cut down. They ended up staying much longer and after identifying another tree, constructed a nest then left.

(Check the nests in the photo taken from the underside of the canopy. The one on the left was left. The one to the right might be the active one though dominant at the moment)

I was hopeful I would get them in their nest today especially when I heard a loud domestic chicken, chick-like quick squeals which I have heard them make while courting and nest-building but it was not them. I walked around avoiding disturbing them in case they were in the nest but actually they were not even in sight. I went back up the river valley and saw one individual airborne. At least they are around but may be this once safer haven no longer has hope for them especially after no nesting successes for the last 2 breeding seasons.

There is still evidence small game though. Dik diks, mongooses and hares are typical. Below are the crepuscular hare’s pellets/droppings, fresh from early morning deposition I would suppose.

I have observed a whole lot of variety of migrating birds stop over to replenish their energy packs before proceeding on south or north. These include the Pallid Harriers, Montagu’s Harriers, Black Storks, Red-backed Shrikes, Red-tailed Shrikes, Barn Swallows, Common House Martins just to mention but a few. All these roost and forage on the research institute’s grounds, but the whole lot of optimum conditions seem to be collapsing. Besides the human encroachment on the habitat, even the wetland has dried up! I never saw this wetland dry up completely even during the driest of the months. Global warming I would suppose. As a result, skulking coloured rock lizards on the rocky river bed are nowhere (I only saw one) whereas the once flowing river only has only a few pools of stagnated water. I wonder how the frogs are doing!

Dried up mud and surrounding rocky river bed where the river flowed out of the wetland

Drying up reeds

Remnant water pools

Generally, this wildlife haven just looks like it is going down.

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Tags: eagle, frogs, global warming, habitat, lizards, migrants, raptors, Wahlberg’s Eagle, wetland, Wildlife

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 01 2008 | By: Martin

Amphibian herpetologists (reptile and amphibian experts) know better that amphibians and frogs in particular are almost perfectly reliable indicators of the pollution status of a water body.

The nuisance croaking at the river in the evening or at the start of the rainy season is therefore an indicator that the river is not badly polluted or at least ‘clean’ because frogs are surviving there afterall.Taking a look at BBC news’ Science and Nature page today, the top story is: Experts Poised for rare frog hunt.

We all acknowledge the tough phase that frogs are going through espacially those occuring where the deadly chytrid fungus is sparing almost none of this division’s/phylum’s members. The fungus known to thrive on the frog’s skin impedes skin breathing, therby literally clogging the gaseous exchanging membrane. I believe it is this same reason that makes the leaping guys sensitive to polluted waters beyond a certain threshold limit. They must literally feel they are being chocked in polluted waters!

But I wonder what might be significant endangers of these amhibious beings. The last update of the gobal status of amphibians, otherwise, Gobal Amphibian Assessment was in 2006 and habitat loss tops the list of endangers of the frogs while pollution is second. That means pollution is also a top endanger. Looking at the habitat preference/choice by frogs, flowing water masses are their second most preferred, whereas this is the second most threatened habitat. Indeed in these man has been notorious to wrongly perceive flowing rivers/streams as the best place to empty his effluent as it wil be washed away. That means the frogs’ habitat preference makes them vulnerable to the second most threatening agents in effect in the flowing water habitat which almost absolutely are pollution and global warming, itself a result of pollution.

The loss of the members of this group of organisms would be devastating, starting from simple loss of an indicator of water purity in traditional Africa and may be elsewhere as well, to only expert-known complex imbalances in the ecosystem of which the frog is a part.

Toads are also frogs, but never vice versa. Looking at the cane toad above, frogs are vital, yet they too are at war with toxins in the surroundings.

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Tags: amphibians, BBC, frogs, global warming, Gobal Amphibian Assessment, Pollurion, Toads

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 24 2008 | By: Martin

Hi all,

We are now struggling with pushing on with the implimentation of the outcomes of the just convened meeting of the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force at Wildlife Direct, Nairobi, Kenya . We still hope Richard Leakey’s call for ban of carbofuran will yield a reasonable response from the government. Meanwhile we are trying to make headways with a review of all that concerns carbofuran which is essentially our mission. Hopefully, we will garner enough of more of the necessary evidence (of course in addition to what we already have) against carbofuran to get everybody’s attention and only justifiably lay to rest the chemical that clearly is dangerously outliving its time. I say enough of more necessary evidence because we hope it will not be deemed insufficient. I just do not know when the evidence will be sufficient to the local and international custodians of this chemical and many others. What it means is that the chemical continues to act out there both in its good ways (limited since even proper use is harmful; EPA will agree with me) and limitless lethal toxic ways. I hope when the information is enough, our wildlife populations will still stand at handsome figures though. I hope this will not be when almost, if not every organism, including humans, when tested they will positively have carbofuran in their systems (A sad case for Alaska where pollutants are just in almost every living thing which is what I have stumbled on, thinking that I would read something far from toxic chemicals).

The wild supply and haphazard distribution of the pesticide Carbofuran will therefore continue facilitating poisoning of wildlife, birds, fish and who knows even of human poisoning whose facts lie locked in the confines of lack of data and documentation. Such is the desperate need of heed at which we stand.

After ‘a break’ from head aching matters of carbofuran, today I ventured into the current affairs of the fate of our planet and read of the goings on in the U.S.

Based on a conference held in July 17-20 the15th Protecting Mother Earth conference - organized by Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) where there were more than 600 attendants, mostly from indigenous nations of the United States and Canada, but also from as far as Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, and Europe Came together. Generally, they talked of global problems, challenges and solutions. They discussed energy and climate change as it affects indigenous peoples. Stories were told of health damage and ecological destruction brought about by oil refineries, coal power plants, gold mining, and nuclear military activity.

I think the whole issue of energy and climate change just infers global warming. Indeed this is documented of the conference of Minnesota’s new proposed 1600-mile oil pipeline extension which opponents say would contribute significantly to global warming for the way oil is extracted from the tar sands, which is extremely energy intensive. Tar sand oil extraction requires stripping all the trees and vegetation, scooping up and steaming the sands. Potential oil spills on Minnesota’s wetlands is also a concern. IEN states that very few of these projects are assessed for their social and cultural costs or their cumulative environmental and health impacts, which would cause fragmentation of the boreal forest, disruption to indigenous cultural life-ways and production of greenhouse gases.

Here we go again, global warming directly linked to a toxin-highly acknowledged energetic fluid-oil- which will intoxicate wildlife, fish, birds and humans during its extraction, distribution and use for man’s energy requirements.

Shawna Larson, Ahtna Athabascan and Supiaq, Aleut/Eskimo from Alaska, working with the Alaska Community Action on Toxics said that heavy metals and highly toxic persistent organic pollutants, such as DDT, PCBs, and dioxins, some already banned and rarely used in the Arctic are found in very high levels in native people and wildlife in Alaska. These pollutants used somewhere else are transported by wind, water currents and migratory species and concentrate in large quantities in the Artic. Alaskan indigenous people according to their cultural traditions feed on local fish and wildlife, which are considered to be the most contaminated in the world.

At this point, I think we should refresh our minds on the contaminants of Alaska.

For the whole story, read Talking about the future of Mother Earth.

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Tags: Alaska, Canada, carbofuran, DDT, EPA, global warming, Indigenous Environmental Network, Kenya, PCB, Protecting Mother Earth, Richard Leakey, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force, United States, Widlife Direct

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