Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 12 2009 | By: Martin Odino

The rains finally came consistent and heavy from around mid May for 1 week. Bounty seemed the best description of anything dependant on the rains. Of relevance to my project, All African open-billed Storks seemed to have come to congregate in Bunyala. My assistant likened the scene to that of flamingoes. He says he does not reacall seeing the birds in such numbers and doubted my damnation prophecies for the birds for the moment. Many people confirmed this incidence even my host where I camp while out there. It was booming business at last for the poachers using Furadan to get and contaminate the wild bird meat for the locals to eat.

‘Flooding rains of Bunyala’. An approaching storm! The rains fill the plains, inclusive of the rice growing expanse. Note the dark forms at the near bottom foregound of the photo. They are Open-billed Storks.

My assistant showing me how far the flooded section lying ahead of him stretches. We crossed it!

Thousands of these Open-billed Storks got killed and flooded local markets just a few days before I got to Bunyala for June’s Survey. Thanks to my assistant who was on the alert and recorded 4 poisoning stations for 5 days averaging 2 sackfull kills per station per day. I know the sizes of sacks used and how a sack with 18 poisoned storks looks.

There are 18 storks in the sack above.

A sack for comfortable transportation on a bicycle may therefore contain 40 full grown birds. It therefore means 80 full grown birds were poisoned per station per bird. This translates to 320 birds per day and 1600 birds during the 5 days. Much as this figure may seem outrageous, I must sadly add that this is on the lower scale and the number may even be double or more and not at all less. The error comes in where my 2 assistants are overwhelmed while I am away and the poachers also sometimes bait the birds two times a day or even more on a ‘good day’. It shocks me as an ornithologist that while I had earlier reported poisoning of a whole colony of 56 African Open-billed Storks within 5 days, here I am looking at figures suggesting several whole colony loses in one day. The largest flock I ever saw around Bunyala of the birds was 74 birds. 80 is actually a higher figure!

At the moment, the African Open-billed Stork is considered a common species and regarded stable. The situation in Bunyala should send an alarm call for its conservation nonetheless. Poisoning by Furadan is by far the greatest threat to this bird’s regional population I would say, with the species occuring in rice growing areas other than Bunyala where poisoning has also been reported in the largest numbers.

My ecologist’s eye perceives the unusual congreagation of the Open-billed Storks in Bunyala last month as ominous. Organisms move into an area where there are resources. Now, the mad poisoning frenzy of the Open-billed Stork in Bunyala may have just seen a crash of the local population. A few of the birds were seen to soar high up in the sky just before more and yet more of their kind came to join in and settle on the flooded plains to gorge on the snails. Were the soaring individuals signalling for the others to come join them? but why? Had the food suddenly become too much for them?or had they just realized that there were serious problems with finding partners now that the favorable conditions to reproduce had prompted them to bond for mating to bring forth the next generation? So, while the signalling meant well for the other Storks in the neighbouring flocks whose populations may have been stable at least compared to those in Bunyala, it just meant a notch in their numbers as they flew in only to be welcomed by the poisoning poachers.

The African Open-billed Stork: Are poachers pushing this bird to the vulnerable conservation status?

Further while many locals may have hailed the cheap wild bird meat at their markets, little do they understand the ecological role of this bird. The African Open-billed Stork feeds on fresh water snails. I have been able to identify one species that the birds eat in Bunyala and the poachers lace with Furadan before baiting the birds. The species is Pila Ovata.

One of the species of snails that constitute the Stork’s food

There is a corelation between the snail and the Bulinus snails which are vectors for Bilharzia. The two snails seem to occur together. Bilharzia studies around Bunyala date back to lthe ate 1970’s into the 1980’s. Control measures may have brought the disease to a manageble level given declined vigour in its reserach and control in the area. We however seem not to appreciate the natural biological control effected by the Open-billed Storks that may just have been latently checking the situation. Actually, controlling the disease will need monetary input which is beyond the vastly poor Bunyala society. The Stork is sparing them from this expenditure and the best treatment they are getting is being poisoned for food!

The time bomb ticks with every moment that Furadan continues not to be banished from this land. Our lions are down due to this pesticide, a shame that we do not protect our symbol of strength on our court of arms yet again our birds keep dwindling in numbers and humans may just be dying silently. What is worse is the apparent ecological imbalance such as this of bird, disease and man. Biodiversity is at stake!

Tags: Bilharzia, Bunyala, furadan, poachers, poisoning

No responses yet

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 06 2009 | By: Martin Odino

This morning we saw a couple of birds glide towards the nearby wetland for their early morning meal. I immediately knew it was ominous. The continuous stream of birds to one site would just be a lead for the poachers for a kill at the poaching grounds. I knew that the poachers deprived of a poaching opportunity for a while must have observed the signs earlier than anybody else and were already out laying bait by the wetland or would be doing so soon enough.

I was right. As we scouted around before heading to the direction that the birds had headed to, a familiar poacher passed us heading in that direction. Trotting in his speedy gait were two youngsters-his children, my assistant informed me. Check the photos below. Sorry they are not very clear because the guy and his train were wheezing past and away!

the kid in the reddish shirt is carrying the decoy stork.

The dad offered to shield the stork from us by taking it from the son.

As the poacher approached the wetland and was almost obscure to our sight, some loud voices met him and brought him to a stop. Other poachers had reached the site before him and quickly harshly asked him to vacate the premises and not disrupt the flock of 25 birds that were feeding on the Furadan poison bait. Faced by all this antagonism, the poacher and his budding apprentices turned away and set off hopefully to another promising site for poisoning.

We watched on in awe and wondered whether we should approach the poachers. They seemed really agitated. A few minutes passed by and loud murmurs were carried by the westerly winds in our direction. One poacher swore by the heavens that if my assistant and myself were out to arrest them, then we would have to arrest his father first who introduced him to poaching.

I thought it wise to head to the poachers who were ignorantly misinformed and did not see themselves poisoning others and themselves. 12 big birds were down! but luckily, I was lent an ear and explained that I am doing a study on birds and the poisoning of the birds for human consumption was worrying, given that the pesticide they were using had been banned in other countries where it had been proven harmful even when correctly applied.

Poachers with sacks packed with Furadan poisoned birds; some lying on the ground, and a bucket for carrying bait

The poachers lamented of hard times, but slowly we got to constructive talk including their acknowledgement that Furadan is deadly toxic. It then came up by chance that one had attempted poisoning birds using Mocap, given that Furadan supply was becoming scanty by the day. No luck in killing birds and the poacher described that the ‘new whitish - grey poison was ineffectives oin bird poisning let alone too pungent while mixing it up.

Vegetable farming, they agreed sounded pleasant, but they said we still needed to talk more.

Honestly Ithink things would be better if Furadan supply stopped altogether. The black market supply keeps some of the poachers enmeshed in the rigid mentality of poisoning, otherwise my ideas would be broadly welcome if the choice of poisoning using Furadan was eliminated altogether.

Please keep reading.

Tags: Bunyala, furadan, poachers

No responses yet

Category: carbofuran | Date: Jun 05 2009 | By: Martin Odino

The fourth day into this month’s Bunyala survey and a pleasant ceasefire on bird poisoning seems to be in place. But for a few outlying cases, I have been meeting with poachers that I know, neatly dressed and taking casual strolls around the villages and their poaching fields. For once their crude tools are downed. But they hapilly hopefully proclaim to me, ‘we are waiting for moonless times’, and the old moon should be gone come next week.

We have been wading through such marshy grounds -result of heavy rains-to get to raised grounds where poachers are still poisoning though at greatly reduced intensities at least in the meantime.

Poaching goes on in the fields behind these live protein reserves

Weather and climate specialists know the relation behind rainfall and the lunar cycle. I am informed that the rain falls heavily when there is no moon. To cut it all short, i missed the action, I am told! Birds, especially storks died by the thousands hardly a fortnight ago just before the moon was past its ‘New’ phase.

My assistant confirmed that the skies were filled by the abnormally large flocks of in-flying birds. A catch of two sacks per poacher seemed a reachable target to all the bird killers; women on the other hand got tenders to supply the wild bird meat to the villages and market places. Theirs was to eviscerate the dead birds, slow-roast them and prominently display them on traditional trays made from bamboo to entice buyers as they passed the neighbourhoods enroute to the market places. The neighbouring Sidundo and Nyadorera Markets provided the buying masses of the wild meat that quickly exhausted the meat supplies in minutes before the women made it back to the villages to replenish their supply from the poachers. Booming business it was! In fact this was facilitated by the dropped prices of the birds, 0.75 dollars per piece, down from 1.25 dollars a piece when the meat is prepared to this state.

I just had my lunch break today, during which a discussion on the source of furadan ensued. The poachers tell us that they no longer find the pesticide so easily. They claim to use a middle man who asks for commission on delivery of the poison. A lavishly monetary rewarding chain of transactrion to the middlemen t looks.

But there is also the case of the irrigation board ’s furadan stock getting out to the poachers. my assistant then got hold of my phone to call a senior member at the irrigation board. Alas! Only the key to the store lies between us and the pesticide. The key is with the utmost authority personel but when he sends one of his junior staff members to the store then apparently there are individuals who know how precious the commodity is and sneak out some of it. I strongly believe that the same guys have created the middle link chain with the poachers to cover up their misdeeds and conceal their identity!The guy on phone has reffered us to someone else also in the board who should avail the pesticide to us next Monday. lets see how it goes.

Tags: Bunyala, furadan, poachers

One response so far

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.

Keep reading

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

No responses yet

Category: carbofuran | Date: Apr 18 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Wild Birds are busy chaps, waking up early not just to catch the worm, but to hunt to catch the worm. The worm is in essence a real worm or grain or fish or frog or snail or termite or ant, just to mention but a few. This food gives the birds the energy to go about their lives which other than the feeding, hence growth, also includes breeding, territorial protection/contests and enemy or predator escape. The birds therefore try to budget where they can on their energy use, using it as sparingly as possible where necessary.

Breeding is one of the processes in birds’ lives that demands a lot of energy. Usually it involves displaying at courting, nest-bulding, mating, egg-laying, incubating the eggs, hatching and taking care of the young or hatchlings till they are able to fend for themselves. Birds wil therefore start breeding only when they are at their best in health of which being well-fleshed is a measure. This is only attained during and after a rainy season. The breeding process wil only be succesful if there is food to nourish the breeders and their young. This again is most probable after rains.

At the close of March, Bunyala had experienced modest heavy showers literally characterizing the nights that I was there during my March-April survey. As I continued with my counting of furadan-poisoned dead birds, I realized progressive increase in numbers of birds that were getting ready to breed. In birds, change of plumage is typical at breeding. The birds’ photos below, some already used in other posts illustrate this well. but let’s just take a closer look:

The Wood Sandpiper above was luckily not poisoned by the time I spotted him (or her). He is most likely heading back to northern Europe in the hope of succesful parenting season. he looks good! The indication that he is ready for breeding is the intense spotting on the back graduating to prominent barring on the flanks. A non-breeding bird would be less mottled and lacking the grading to bars on the flanks. I hope he has not been poisoned as I write!

The poisoned Cattle Egret above is likewise in its breeding plumage, ready to breed when the rains rescind. Usually the Cattle Egrets are white plumaged and dark-legged when they are not breeding. This casualty has in addition to the white plumage a wash of orange colour on the head and upper back or mantle(the photo with many poisoned birds). Its upper legs have acquired the orange colour and the lower legs, if not already orange but just scoured by the water and the egret knee-high stalks of the cut rice plants, then they are gradually acquiring it as well (photo with egret only).

These furadan-poisoned Ringed Plovers have the bright colour traits typical at breeding. Check the rich yellow-orange on their legs and bill base. This rich yellow-orange colour is lway duller in non-breeding birds. No doubt they are ready to breed. but they just got killed!

And so I am left sad not so certain of what this means. It is disturbing that the poachers are killing birds that have survived aginst the tough conditions of nature, through the taxing drought and when they are just about to bring forth another generation, they are murdered!

Clearly, food conditions seem to be favouring the birds but the poachers are the ones ruining this good fortune.The eagle above is an immature Black-chested Snake Eagle gradually moulting into adult plumage. Conditions must favour its moulting, more so availability of food because the process is energy demanding. Well, the grasslands of Bunyala especially around the rice scheme are sustained by the irrigation, overflow spillage waters . Snakes must thrive about the irrigation scheme in proximity to the frogs, one of the snakes’ favourite meals. And so the young eagle is moulting into an adult with the high-energy requiring moulting process fueled by the snakes and birds. The moulting is evidenced by shorter central tail feathers. These are new growth feathers with richer colour definition. Progressively, the rest of the outer tail feathers will also drop off and be replaced. Likewise, the flight feathers slightly on the outside from mid wing, on the trailing wing edges look shorter with richer colour definition. These are the innermost of the so called Primary flight feathers. These are very important for a bird’s flight.The moulting will progress outwardly and give the bird a grown look. In time, he should be able to breed. Good luck Eagle!

Many of you might have just brushed aside the birds above as a cosy couple of African Open-billed Storks. Please take a look again at the seemingly shorter bird. The tall, standing bird is no doubt an Open-billed Stork, but theo ther bird is a Hadada Ibis! It is a shock the two hung about each other for so long, foraging together and pacing about together. I could not help thinking this was a case of coupling misfiring! By this I just mean mismatched pairing by mambers of different species. But taking a closer look at the Open-bill, he is quite spotted on the neck with the bill colour not a nice horn colour that would be typical of a full-grown bird. He is therefore a young bird, may be traumatized following the loss of parents most likely to furadan poisoning before he was of age to care for himself. Probably, he is deriving solace from a berieved mother Hadada, left childless, possibly after also losing her young to Furadan poisoning. The Hadada Ibis is shorter and has a bill that is more curved and narrows towards the end. You see this now?

So many of the African Open-billed Storks have been poisoned using Furadan that I am afraid how long the local population will stand. I intend to establish trends of the local population of White-faced Whistling Ducks, otherwise Tree Ducks which at the moment are not directly targeted for poisoning because of their greatly reduced numbers. It is said the ducks local population has been pushed to numbers in single digits in the area by Furadan poisoning. With the reduced numbers, the poachers turned to African Open-billed Storks. It is true, what used to be at least 20 strong flocks as the locals say, during my recent surveys I only see 5 individuals on the average, in a span of more than 10 days!

The pair above look cosy and normal in the sense that both are Open-billed Storks. I can only wish them luck this breeding season.

Please keep reading.

Tags: African Open-billed Stork, Bunyala, furadan, poachers, poisoning

3 responses so far

Category: carbofuran | Date: Apr 06 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Hi. Since February this year (2009) I am focusing my efforts around Bunyala rice growing area in Western Kenya. Judging from my posts, the place is notoriously a Furadan bird poisoning hot spot. I am trying to quantify the threat of Furadan to bird species in this area (a case study for Kenya). This is through counting of bird numbers for every species targeted by the mode of poisoning and the respective numbers that get killed in a transect. At the moment I am aware of two methods of poisoning birds: using Furadan-laced snail baits together with live Open-billed stork(s) decoy(s). This targets only Open-billed Storks. The other method involves lacing termites with Furadan and targets a wider range of birds.

I am also conducting informal interviews with the poachers as well as consumers of the poisoned birds to find  out if there are any indications of illnesses resulting or experienced from consuming the poisoned birds. I intend to do this as a proper questionnaire process during the peak poisoning time. Then I am bound to get more precise responses on what the people are experiencing given they will also be eating plenty of the poisoned wild bird meat.

So my assistants and I are at the moment busy counting the live and dead birds. The whole process involves:

Observing then identifying and counting from a distance especially when the poachers you are dealing with are wary and not so accommodating. The job has to be done regardless!

(Here, I am watching, identifying and counting from a distance).

Or take photos from a distance and then zoom them in to count the dead birds which mostly will be exposed before being kept away in bags.

(A photo from a distance. I estimated the birds to be 7 Sandpipers and 1 Yellow Wagtail).

(Another distant photo. I estimated 4 dead storks in the sack)

Dealing with accommodating poachers is easier and we sit through the entire poisoning process. We are given time to identify the species in hand and count all poisoned individuals once gathered.

(A practice photo of myself identifying a Ruff in hand, taken by my local assistant).

We are then allowed to take photographs.

(A close up of 2  poisoned Ringed Plovers)

 (Poisoned storks and the poison in a container closeby)

Sometimes I even ask questions and get answers. Further, I am able to give my genuine opinion against poisoning which is sometimes criticized especially through the arguments that bird poisoning is their source of livelihood; a source of income to the poachers and source of food to the consumers. The main problem is that both believe that the mode of cooking the poisoned birds detoxicates the meat.

I hope to introduce these people to alternative economic activities when this project comes to an end later this year.  This is a possible venture because water is abundant in the area, and vegetables are under produced mainly due to lack of know-how.  If this water is properly used for vegetable farming and proper agricultural knowledge disseminated, more income should be realized and nutritious vegetables rather than intoxicated meat will be available for local consumption.

Tags: Bunyala, furadan, Kenya, poachers, poisoning, wild bird meat

4 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Yesterday BBC reported on reject on calls for ban on bush meat in central Africa. Frances Seymour, director general of CIFOR - the Centre for International Forestry Research-speaking to the BBC amongst other things warned that “Criminalising the whole issue of bushmeat simply drives it underground.”. He may just have been right especially when I look at the secrecy that surrounds poisoning of wildlife in Kenya.

Killing wildlife in defence against attack on your property/livestock is apparently lawful in Kenya though it is always preferred that you call the local wildlife authority, the Kenya Wildlife Service to come capture the rogue carnivore as it turns out in most cases to come gun down or cage trap the intruder.

This is by no means a justification for wild poisoning of the carnivores and consequently vultures, hyenas and other canids. I was looking at the notes I made on the questionnaires to the bird poachers in Busia and could not stop trying to get a link to the secrecy that characterises Kenyan hunting (partly through poisoning) and Central Africa’s. in trying to understand the poisoning I have modelled the case of poisoning of carnivore and scavengers which is almost wholly not meant for meat trade or other animal parts for trade based on a by the way question that I asked some bird poachers in Busia on what they would do if against their odds they were forced to quit poaching (birds) especially using poison. A few realistic ones said they would have to fall back on what everybody else was doing to sustain their livelihoods. In my reasoning, I cannot stop thinking that the poachers especially in and around the National Parks and Reserves that survived the harsh enforcement against poachers in the late 80’s, early 90’s and reformed for better to be just like their non-poaching native colleagues, turned to livestock keeping and crop farming. While poaching was ‘banned’, fear caught up with everyone which indeed did our country a lot of good by boosting tourism through securing wildlife. But the wildlife conflicts did not end as well as human population growth applying more and more pressure especially on animal reserves thereby prompting the predators to roam to the proximities of man’s holdings to satiate their hunger .And so the situation of wildlife poisoning started appearing ‘boldly’ in the 90’s with easier detections in non-park and reserve regions like western Kenya where spread out birds for purchase for domestic meat consumption obviously betrayed poisoning as a poaching technique. This averted the focus from the reserves and parks where a poisoned animal is highly likely to be cleared out by the alert scavengers. Soon however, scores of vultures would die and this being irregular, it was later to be revealed by autopsy results that they were poisoned. In brief I suppose secrecy embodied in poisoning evolved from the well-meant enforcement against wildlife poaching.

I cannot help pondering if this could be a solution to wildlife poisoning other than for carbofuran which honestly is almost a threat to everything living. I mean, If I must kill wildlife that is a threat to me and what is mine, I should do it but not use a poison which means a policy review to include harsh preconditions such as this kind of killing will only be legal if my physical security is at its best and meets another precondition that outlines how you should reinforce your physical security to accord it secure.

Just thinking aloud so as to involve you. What do you think?

Tags: BBC, Carnivores, Central Africa, CIFOR, Kenya, National Parks, National Reserves, poachers, scavengers, wildlife poisoning

No responses yet