Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 09 2008 | By: Martin

Hi,

Today’s post will in a simple way acknowledge animals!

In the African culture, bounty of species is a blessing. I pluralize species in the sense that the more the heads of cattle and variety of livestock; the more the wives and offspring tagged to a man’s name; the greater the bounty of crop yield from a man’s farm; amongst many other sorts of bountiful assortments especially alive, implying plants and animals, the more a man was regarded blessed by the sacred forces. I believe for sure that congregations of wildlife were and are still acknowledged by a majority of our people. I have picked on a few of the animals photograph on one of my safari’s in Kenya. in many respects, you will realize they are so similar to humans or else what we thought we understand of them, in many cases we get it all wrong. And now on to the animals:

A number of animals migrate, traversing territories of land,water and air for better seasonal conditions. Winter must be settling in temperate lands and we in the tropics are expecting human visitors from those lands. But coming along will be non-human visitors about the same time and for more or less the same physiological reasons. I am talking about migrating birds.Below is a photograph of Wildbeests that cross the Mara-Serengeti expanse every year.

The NubianWoodpecker below ‘knock knocks’ on woody stems. In many occasions, big enough burrows are seen about where the birds will be seen to knock hard. Well, the large holes are the result of prolonged enlargement and sometimes the woodpeckers even have had no role in their enlargement. Usually in the normal feeding of the bird, it will tap hard on the trunk to disrupt the insects underneath which then come to the surface and the bird eats them. The harder the knock, the greater the disruption and the more the emergent insects to satisfy the woodpecker.

Now, Eagles have a characteristic medium or long prominent tail which justifies their hunting nature and facilitates manouverability while hunting a dodging prey. But more important their tails enable them to balance their bodies. The eagle below is a young Bateleur. Other than changing to darker plumage with red on back,tail,face and feet, the proportions will remain more or less the same. The long wings exceeding the tail tip are the center of interest here. This bird is a powerful glider but seems to struggle to balance, more or less as if staggering, the explanation is in the short tail. It is also more of a scavenger rather than a hunter. Again, the short tail limits its hunting proficiency.

The Red-headed Weaver defies the conventional Yellow colouration of our weaver but a weaver nonetheless by virtue that it ‘weaves’ its nest.

I did not know that lionesses have four teats. May be this is new to you too.

The natural beauty above is worth carrying of heavy photography gadgets like the one below.

But if we should lose them, then we will find ourselves getting photos of the un-natural beauty as below. This bird is not an eagle!

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Tags: animals, Bateleur, Kenya, Lion, Mara, Nubian Woodpecker, Red-headed Weaver, Serengeti, wildbeests

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Aug 13 2008 | By: Martin

As I took a random look at one of our local dailies today, the Standard newspaper, I was struck by the headline Tourists troop to Mara for ‘The Seventh Wonder’. With the memories of my two weeks in the Mara during my last visit there just two weeks ago still fresh, I could not help read the write up to see what people will decipher of it.

What I think is that to just a reader, it will look an interesting, tourist inviting piece;  a tourist who has never seen this Serengeti-Mara migration,so called 7th wonder may be tempted to check to see if there is still chance to make it to the Mara given the migration happens in intermittent waves for much of July into August year in year out; still, the Kenyan government’s adrenaline levels must be at utmost peak levels with its pulse of excitement driving it to hysterical frenzy since econoomic recovery seems imminent especially after the many misfortunes that have befallen our country dealing it repeated blows to our economic success. I feel the urge in the government, ‘as a father’, to  give a pat on the back to its child organ, the ministry of tourism and utter sell!sell!sell! Indeed the close to 550,000 tourists that have visited the area in the last 3 years is a good deal but it can be better given the harsh economic times we are trudging through.

Fine, we are the gifted custodians of the 7th wonder of the world. Conservationists must feel it is time to take time out when wildlife abundance is hailed for the moment in the Mara; while those of us locked in the unending nightmare of wildlife poisoning could also do the same. But can we? the memories of the lion (and hippo) poisoning linger fresh as these only happened months ago in the area. Kipchumba Kemei, the publisher of the article must happily and rightly proclaim (in normal circunstances) ” Their presence has increased the concentration  of crocodiles, lions and hyenas along the river bank….” , may be as an animal concentration watch point  to the tourists?or that the animals are bountiful?

Looking at the list of the animals that congregate on the Sand and Mara rivers during the Gnu/Zebra migration,-crocodiles, lions, hyens (and the migrating animals themselves)- all are known and reported to have been killed by Carbofuran (Furadan) in Kenya. So what the tourists are enjoying seeing to the stop wildlife team is the sample of animals that carbofuran will effectively take down. Well, this is what I also wish the importers, distributos and licencers of carbofuran in Kenya are reading between the lines. Seventh wonder of the world my foot! just brings memories of a congregation of animals amassed for carbofuran to bring down!

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Tags: carbofuran, Crocodile, Gnu, hyena, Kenya, Lion, Mara, Serenget-Mara migration, the Standard newspaper, Zebra

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