Spotted Eagle Owls in multiple dangers
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 07 2008 | By: Martin
I read that the Barn Owls are so named because they moved from wild, originally purely woodland habitats to traditional English grain stores otherwise barns. the farmers conveniently left openings at the top of the barns so that Barn Owls would land before using the opening to get into the barn. Inside the barn, biological control went on with the owl feeding on destructive grain-eating mice and rats. I bet this form of control by far superceded the use of rodenticides which in many cases have just ended up killing the rodents’ predators-raptors including owls- up the chain Man and owl therefore had a cordial relationship otherwise precisely refered to as mutualism. This is beautiful especially because in many parts of the world especially Africa, owls are ominous and will be killed on sight.Those were better days!
The Spotted Eagle Owl, named an ‘eagle’ because of the gigantic size is one of the widespread and frequent owls but is now threathened with rodenticide poisoning. In South Africa, a decline from ringing 20 individuals to none or 1 is not a good sign at all as far as Owl survival is concerned. Yet this is due to rodent poisoning during which when the poisoned rodents are eaten by the owls, the owls die from secondary poisoning.
Below is a Spotted Eagle photographed in remote semi arid Rift Valley Province. I travelled from Nairobi to go see this resident owl, a 4-hour drive away. Not a very common subject.
Tags: poisoning, Rodenticides, South Africa, Spotted Eagle Owl
Worrying situation of the China Milk Poisoning
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 03 2008 | By: Martin
Hi,
Just how extensive is the damage caused by the China melanine-laced milk poisoning?In a recent development, Filipino olympians seemingly have to take tests according to the Phillipine delegation.Probably all olympians should be tested regardless of whether they directly drank the milk or not, including our Kenyan athletes dominated by a tribe renowned for its great passion for milk and milk products. Surely, the intoxication could also have occured as a result of eating sweets, candy or any other foodstuff that was prepared from the contaminated milk.
Panic stricken chines parents with their babies in hospitals
How about the animals particularly the China zoos? It has been reported that two young orangoutans, two adult gorillas and a lion cub have been diagnosed with kidney stones.The pandas are untouched until now because according to an official at the world’s most famous panda reserve, the Wolong Nature Reserve, the baby pandas there are not fed on milk made from formula. This is a relief especially after I had written that there had been no poisoning news on pandas! But who knows what is yet to come up and be revealed especially because milk is used to boost nutrition in the animals in the zoos. That is why the affected include 2 adult gorillas, way grown beyond the suckling age!
Testing a lion cub for kidney stones due to milk posioning .
Tags: China, gorilla, Intoxication, melanine, milk, Orangoutan, panda, poisoning, Wolong Nature Reserve, zoos
Call for your support
Category: Pesticides, carbofuran | Date: Sep 06 2008 | By: Martin
Hi all,
This year (2008) began with a vexing outrage of poisoning incidences in Kenya, leading to the Wildlife Poisoning meeting organized by Wildlife Direct at the end of April, 2008. The landmark outcome of the meeting was the formation of a Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force.
The Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force having met for the first time last month agreed on a number of issues that are slowly gaining momentum of implimenntation. Generally, it emerged from our Task Force meeting and from the responses (from relevant stakeholders including government departments) to our complains (including Dr. Richard Leakey’s call for ban of carbofuran) about carbofuran’s significance in Kenya’s wildlife mortality that there is need for intensive information data collection(already significantly done) and toxicological analytical proof results implicating carbofuran.
The Task Force team is constituted of a multi-conservation and regulation organizations member merger whose contribution to the course of the stop wildlife poisoning campaign is highly time-restricted. Therefore, while their expertise is crucial, it can only be applicable in an intermittent manner. We therefore agreed that we would employ the services of students to collect data and animal carcass samples known/suspeccted to have died from poisoning under supervision by myself with technical consultation and advice from the Task Force who will also surely be out there whenever they can to ensure satisfactory outcome of our poisoning data gathering that will give stronger back up evidence for Carbofuran poisoning in Kenya. The same will also apply for the legal issues as concerns pesticides regulation on distribution and use. In summary, please see the table, anti-wildlife-poisoning-campaign-budget.pdf.
Your contributions are most welcome. Please kindly support us in the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Campaign.
Thanks for reading our blog and please keep checking it out.
Tags: , carbofuran, Dr. Richard Leakey, Kenya, poisoning, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force, Wildlife Direct
Four Buzzards Killed in Ireland
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 30 2008 | By: Martin
Yesterday I put up a post on investigations on raptor poisoning in Scotland following outrageous poisoning cases in Dumfries and Galloway. In Ireland, other investigations are now on for suspected poisoned buzzards found on Monday in Drumbanagher area near Poyntzpass.
At this rate, I feel the United Kingdom leads in the madness of poisoning of raptors. On the other hand, it is comforting to know that the law enforces (Police) are on standby and at service against such anti-conservation gestures.
Tags: buzzards, Ireland, poisoning, United Kingdom
Poisoning for Ivory
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 17 2008 | By: Martin
Apparently poisonig has become the stylish technique of depressing our wildlife and all for the wrong reasons.
With the poisoned tip of a metal arrow piercing her right leg, a pregnant elephant stumbles miles through the African bush towards her death.
After two days of agony she falls to the red earth, while her killers, following on bicycles and carrying butchering knives, wait for the end to come.
In the darkness of a Kenyan night, the four poachers watch as she first loses her unborn calf in a spontaneous miscarriage provoked by the poison in her body.
An hour later, after the 35-year- old elephant dies, they move in - hacking off her face to steal the two precious ivory tusks which will make them rich for years.
Soon, they hope, the tusks will have been smuggled out of Africa and be on their way to a factory in Beijing, to be carved into jewellery and chopsticks.
Just a few weeks ago, though, these poachers were caught. James Ekiru, the head ranger at Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary (which is in sight of Mount Kilimanjaro and two hours’ drive from the port of Mombassa), says: ‘We followed their tracks, and 24 hours after they killed this mother elephant, we found them with the tusks lying on the ground.
‘They were starting to butcher her meat - cutting it into kilo pieces. We arrested two of them, but two more got away. They were local men.
‘We suspect the elephant was killed “to order”, and that her tusks would have been smuggled to China.
Read it all in Massacre of the giants: Once hunted to near extinction, Africas elephants slowly pulled back from the brink
Tags: Kenya Wildlife Service, poisoning, Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary
The poisoner to undo the Poisoning
Category: carbofuran | Date: Aug 14 2008 | By: Martin
Hi,
“In these woods, I am the master!”
Hunting or is it poaching which may involve weapons or poisoning is by far a mastery of skill rather than a crude means of survival as is mostly perceived.
I have had a couple chances during which I have talked to a poacher/hunter/poisoner by mingling in a way to suggest I am interested in apprenticeship in the same. In the end I have been amazed at how much they know about wildlife, weapons and poisons than many of us. This includes:
1. They know that poisons are lethal: Unlike what we know, the people who poison wildlife for food in significant cases don’t eat poisoned game themselves. They sell it and in many cases will buy meat or chicken for consumption. They will select the wildfowl that is not dead and slaughter it for consumption at their homes. Wild birds that remain alive are the least intoxicated and only end up being taken away because their appendages are broken to prevent them from flying during the state when they are disoriented by the poison. By the time they regain stability their ability to escape is impaired by their crippled state.
2. Poachers know where and how to get their quarry: Bird hunters know the ideal habitats to get which birds. They are the wild ornithologists who do not need a sophisticated sound playback system to get the attention of secretive birds. The only Flufftail (a kind of bird) I ever seen was in western Kenya and I was able to see it with the aid of a hunter who mimicked the bird’s call. He disclosed that that is how he got to get the birds where he laid poisoned bait.
3. They know the difficult/impossible quarry: Bird poachers know that game birds are difficult to catch. One told me that for business i.e. if you want birds to sell, game birds, the likes of guineafowls, francolins and quails are difficult to poison despite their congregating behaviour being ideal for poisoning. Instead, they use nooses and these require the patient or small scale vendor. At a trapping site in Busia, Kenya, the egrets are ignored since these will least likely succumb to a small dose of carbofuran; this will not be so economical to the poacher who wants to use a little of the chemical to get a bountiful catch. Still, egrets due to seemingly requiring a higher dosage of the poison will fly away even while intoxicated hence most likely will benefit a poacher or customer at a further locality who has not done any investment on the chemical and the actual baiting process. Most poachers on the other hand describe ducks generally as ‘dim’ and these settle to eating poisoned bait ‘without a second thought’, to use one poacher’s words.
4. The poachers also know which species are dwindling in numbers: Again, through consistent monitoring by these crude scientists parallel to their unpermitted cropping of wild birds without orders from the wildlife managers shows they are up to date with the trends and have their own red data lists out there. These red listings however mean nothing to them and they will continue with their indiscriminate hunting/poisoning methods to push to extinction the species whose numbers in those localities are struggling against the hunting pressures. Two bird poachers disclosed that the last they ever saw vultures must have been in the eighties. Our bird guide-books still bear maps showing these areas to be areas that vultures range. Men in their late Twenty’s admit having seen such birds during their childhood. The generation in their teens know nothing that looks like a vulture in their lifetime. If it is hunting that has driven the scavengers from these areas or even pushed the local populations to extirpation nobody knows. But they know the ducks, and notably the White-faced Tree ducks and Wattled starlings are dwindling steadily in the area because of poisoning.
So here we are confronting experts in what they have perfected in. By the way they also know if you are enquiring about poisoning and animals in the area then you are from the Kenya Wildlife Service, the local organization that values animals more than humans and will arrest you. So they will avoid talking to you or run away or they will just be given asylum by their own who will say nothing to you!
“The cover is good. I had better stay under cover till that KWS spy gets nothing and leaves my area!”
We need their own to change their own. But this requires incentive to the reformed to keep an eye, educate and create confidence for dialogue with the conservationists. If you can, please contribute towards a fund for one such person I know we see if there is some impact.
Tags: carbofuran, Egret, Flufftail, KWS, Poacher, poisoning, Vulture, Wattled Starling, White-faced Tree Duck
Poisoning News: Quite good and….still bad
Category: Masai Mara, Uncategorized, carbofuran, lions | Date: Aug 06 2008 | By: Martin
MWEA, SAMBURU, KANO PLAINS, MARA FINDINGS
Hi all. I have been back in the office for 3 days having just toured some of the areas where there has been documentation of carbofuran poisoning. All seems well at the gaze with the full spectacle of the wild animals and birds feeding, playing and even in the act that will culminate in breeding. But is all really well? Indeed it is good news of no poisoning for some places and still bad news of poisoning for others. Nonetheless, for the good news I managed a smile on the last day or is it night of the trip.
Yesterday I received a call alert (‘flash’) from an unfamiliar number. I flashed back but no return flash to signify any urgency. I ignored the number but while I scrolled through my call log to make another call this morning, I stumbled on the number that I was flashed with yesterday. It then struck my mind that I had noted down some numbers during the field trip. I checked my field note book and there I stumbled on it! It belonged to a certain guy in Mwea who I had approached and faked that I needed bird meat. We had then fixed a meeting for early this month. We agreed that he would alert me when he was ready and that he would link me with a bird meat vendor who poisoned the birds. You would not suspect that such a deal can take place in such a place especially given that everybody else seemed busy planting rice.
In the neighbourhood of Kisumu town, in Kano plains, some kilometres past the site that was Ahero Rice Scheme, there is an out grower scheme where locals are growing rice on individual rice plots. During a short stop over, I observed a lot of birds flocked in the place and a couple of farmers were out working in their plots. I talked to one old woman to know if the birds were not a problem at harvest time. She said they were indeed but her grandchildren would chase them away by wails and beating of metal cans. I then asked her if she thought killing of some of the birds would be a solution but she said she did not think it was necessary adding that in any case, birds were being poisoned for meat. I then confirmed that after all, there is poisoning in the area. For a while there was on-going bird poisoning in Ahero Rice Scheme but with the stalling of the operations of the rice scheme, bird congregations have reduced and Furadan supply for use in the irrigation scheme also cut, bringing a cessation in the poisoning frenzy.
Samburu NR seemed all tranquil, with the expected heat dominating the local climatic conditions and emphasizing ‘this is Samburu’. For three days I roamed the reserve with my friend and spotted many carnivores and scavengers. We got to see six lionesses in total but were disturbed that we had spotted no lions absolutely during the three whole-day drives around the national reserve. In fear that poisoning might have taken the lives of quite many of these I ended up talking to an expert in the area who advised me to relax and that the kings of the jungle were around, not always in company of their ‘wives’ and there were strategic localities where these could be found. I was glad the place was safe for the time despite earlier recorded incidences of carnivore poisoning in the area, though she added that she was in the process of getting to find out more about poisoning in the area.
Masai Mara also turned out looking good. I even passed by the Mara Conservancy incognito. The area has had the most recently documented cases of poisoning-this year, 2008. With hippos and lions as the reported victims, both seemed to do just fine. It was captivating witnessing lion/lionesses feasting, playing and in the act of breeding in one encounter.
The lioness below took advantage and got “the lion’s share!”
while the lion paid attention to his queen in an imminently heated up act that would bring forth another generation!
The vultures on the other hand looked good sprawled on the grass, not dead but waiting for thermals.
While others did not mind the flies after an unpoisoned meal.
Generally the presence of the Gnu on the first of their biannual migration to and from (Tanzania for this case) Kenya and Tanzania enhanced the bountifulness of wildlife in the Mara. Isn’t this beautiful?
Keep reading our Wildlife Direct’s blog for the latest in the wildlife poisoning scene.
Tags: Kano Plains, Masai Mara, Mwea Rice Scheme, poisoning, Samburu National Reserve, Wildlife Direct
The Ethics of Wildlife Poisoning
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 04 2008 | By: Martin
Hi, I will base this write up on actual observations in poisoning scenes that I have witnessed.
A lot of people who kill and/or eat poisoned wildlife/birds have a number of justifications that sometimes leave one in a difficult position in trying to understand and deal with the problem of wildlife poisoning. Some will tell you that the land in their localities does not yield sufficient crop any more and that only birds can complement their staple carbohydrate uptake. Wildlife/bird poisoning therefore turns out an occupation and source of income for some and a cheap food source for the others. Still, others go on to state that wildlife and birds are created for man’s utility. In other words, man is the master.
It is however a painful realization when you come to learn about the forms of humiliation, trauma and cruelty that is triggered by poisoning. I saw my relative poison puppies using a rodenticide because they were just too many. She did this repeatedly every time the dog gave birth. It was absurd. It would be better if she told me that she was doing so because the pups were too many for her to feed, or because there was nobody to give the pups out to. Even before the puppies died and were still wreathing in pain, she took them and dumped them in a pit toilet. I watched in awe not knowing what to do. What a master this one is even if we are the masters over animals.
Two years ago, I also witnessed 2 dead Zebras on the shores of Lk. Bogoria, one of Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes. The game ranger who was accompanying us said there was possibility of the Zebras having died from thrusts of poisoned spears. The full grown Zebra had two deep slits on its hind quarters where apparently the killer had thrust his spear. The young Zebra had a deep slit on its abdomen side. There was a noxious foul smell from the two corpses. The ranger had been there about twelve hours earlier and the killings had not taken place. Likely, these were the acts of poachers. But why kill if you will not consume?
The most disturbing poisoning memories I have however are those of birds. I have witnessed birds baited by poisoned food materials, captured and enslaved to be used for the success of man’s desires, in this case maximize on the bounty of baited birds. These birds are always kept under conditions of depression, always tethered to a peg either inside or outside the house, ferried to and fro inside and outside the house as it pleases the captor. The manner of bird handling itself elicits a chill to an observer where the bird is held dangling, by the wings. Still, the bird’s primaries (longer, outermost flight feathers) will never grow to full size since the captors will always pluck them out so that the birds may not at any one time be able to fly away and rescue themselves from slavery. The captors then use them as Judas for other birds where the birds call out to others to lure them to a poisoned meal. Sooner or later the birds flock the foraging ground which is actually a set up and the food is laced in poison. The poison used in this case was carbofuran (Furadan 5G) and In a matter of time the birds started wobbling in gait, falling down and panting while others collapsed to their death in a short time. Not moved by the miserable sight of disorientation and death, the poachers then stepped in the death arena armed with sticks, sacks and basins. Small birds that had not died had their wings broken while the bigger birds had their legs battered by the sticks, leaving a site of hopping birds with broken legs and some lying mute on the ground only imaginably shedding tears of pain. Some of the big birds whose aggression did not succumb to this pain had their necks twisted around. In brief poisoning in this case facilitates treachery and gross cruelty.
But what is the orthodox reason behind poisoning? Crudely necessary, though sensible, poisoning should be directed to an organism that has caused nuisance to a point of extremity that there is need for it to be killed and be done away with, NOT EATEN. Thus, poisoning can be deemed ethical. I have been to three bird poisoning sites and none of the poachers in these sites poison birds since they are a nuisance. They do it so that the birds can be sold as food to humans and those who buy the birds do so to eat them, knowing full well that the birds have poisoned. Many people have forgotten about the ethics of poisoning. Please help remind them.
Tags: carbofuran, poisoning, Wildlife, Zebra
In the face of poisoning
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 24 2008 | By: Martin
HI. I am so sorry for being ‘off’. I hooked a hike. I am in Sopa Lodge in Samburu National Reserve for the night as I type. See the photo below. Sorry for the poor quality: Power was running low and the photo was taken in the night at around 22.15hrs. yet the lighting conditions of my simple room were not the best. The place has neither cell phone nor internet connection but I will post this out tomorrow once I am somewhere there is accessibility to network within the park.
A friend invited me on a bird survey/guiding tour. I thought it worthwhile to accompany him because I noticed his circuit included places where wildlife poisoning is known to occur. While the circuit begins from Nairobi, it covers areas of Thika town outskirts, Mwea, Samburu, Baringo, Kakamega, Kisumu Masai Mara and then back to Nairobi. I have been to some of these places and I thought it wise to get to observe for poisoning and interview one or two people.
Having come through Mwea Rice Scheme, I was able to talk to two people. The first directed me to a second party who i made a ‘false’ appointment with to get poisoned ducks from early next month. We even exchanged contacts and he is eagerly waiting for the time to reach and I will be his guest. He told me he does not poison birds himself but there are specialists who poison the birds using Furadan and when the time came he would link me up with them. It is a pity that poisoning is shielded so that it goes on behind the scenes. This makes detection very hard and therefore this situation may run out of hand if it does not receive immediate attention. Here I was standing right in the face of poisoning while all seemed so well when in fact it is otherwise. In addition he told me the National Irrigation Board carries out aerial sprays against vermin birds when the crop is maturing and almost ready for harvest. Unfortunately, their exercise is indiscriminate. He told me that this year, the exercise will be on about November. The young man further pointed out that these poisonings are executed mostly at roosting sites and birds die en masse. He said that nobody collects the birds, more so smaller species. Large species collected, mostly ducks are taken for consumption. He mentioned three species that he knew were falling victim of aerial sprays: Egrets, Herons and Ducks. At the time I joined my friend and he expressed disappointment that he had not been able to locate one species known to occur here amongst its other known few, restricted ranges. Honestly I could not help wondering quietly if the poisonings were not contributing to the scarcity of the bird species(Yellow-crowned Bishop).
More will be on your way as we get to the sites
Here’s me posting, after I got to Safaricom network (at Viewpoint, in Samburu Game Reserve) area 30hrs later.
Carbofuran Weekend Quiz
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 11 2008 | By: Martin
Hi. I am trying to pick out every possible poisoning area in Kenya without spending a lot of time figuring out which of the many are likely. Going to each is obviously absurd. There is great urgency to quickly expose and get to work-create awareness and monitor on all areas where wildlife poisoning is going on. I am therefore devising a formula to help Wildlife Defect’s Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force save on time and get quickly to a likely poisoning site. Based on this criterion, I will come up with a map showing exhaustively all the possible local wildlife poisoning hotspots.
For the past few months (hardly 1 year) I have been out begging people to tell me if they are poisoning (biased to carbofuran) animals in their areas. A tough thing for any human being to do; confessing to a wrong doing. It makes this job ridiculous for those of us in it. Nonetheless, some results have been forthcoming. In the process, I have been able to establish some relationships in factors which upon interacting, then most likely there is wildlife poisoning in the area. The sites where I visited are Kisii, Nairobi, Machakos, Naivasha, Kajiado, Isiolo, Maralal and Busia. In all these sites, poisoning was reported, though of various degrees. These were factors pointing to poisoning in an area:
1. Farming activities (F) – Preferably this should be mixed farming. This was the case in all the sites.
2. Focus of carbofuran use (FC)-Usually an area of large scale commercial crop farming will lead to a centralized grande supply of the pesticide chemical. This was observed in Naivasha and Busia; commercial flower farming and commercial rice growing respectively.
3. Conflict or ‘Misplaced’ Crisis [fatal] (C) - Misplaced implies unusual in this case. Conflict is almost entirely only human-wildlife conflict. Crisis may be hunger (resulting from persistent crop failure due to poor farming methods or failure of rainfall). Vermin infestation may also be classified as crisis with reported victims being domestic carnivores turned rogue (in Kisii where a dog had rabies and Kajiado where a veterinarian poisoned rabied dogs), rodents (‘rat kill’ around Nairobi-in Kikuyu-and controlling squirrel’s in planting fields in Machakos) and unusual vermin such as cases of dogs breaking and feeding on soft maize crop; Warthogs feeding on crops and making burrows in planted fields. I do not include insect pests as misplaced crisis because this is the ONLY case that accords proper use of the chemical.
4. Remoteness (R)-If a site is away from a major carbofuran distributing town or focus of carbofuran use (FC), it is very likely that the pesticide is little known e.g. in Isiolo and Maralal.
The formular is therefore:
F+FC+C-R = Poisoning in the area
Or simplified,
F+C=Poisoning in the area
FC+C =Poisoning in the area
The following quiz will just help me test the accurateness of my formulae above. Please attempt it: Each equation has an answer from one of these: poisoning, no poisoning or impossible.
NB: If a factor does not appear in the equation, it means the factor is not experienced.
F+R=
FC+R=
C+FC+F=
Tags: , carbofuran, poisoning, Stop Wildlife Poisoning Task Force, Wildlife Direct
-
100% of your donation, minus a small bank fee, will go to your intended purpose.
Donations made here are safe.
-
Donations Received
- Sep 6th Sarah O. USD5.00
- Jun 16th Wanda H. USD20.00
-
Subscribe to the Stop Wildlife Poisoning feed.