Animal Poaching News - No Animal Poaching

No Animal Poaching

Poaching - The Cheetahs of the Serengeti Face Extinction

11/16/2013

Source: Theecologist.org

By Verity Largo

Poaching is no longer about one man and a bow and arrow: it is a huge business, akin to international networks, sprawling across continents. From baby cheetahs, 'medicinal' rhino horn to carved elephant tusks, poaching is identified as a major threat to global stability, the environment.

"Most days I'm bouncing around on bad roads for hours, I've lost count of the punctures." Helen O'Neill lifts out her two rocks that are wedging the back wheels stationary, plops them in the car, takes out the jack, and fixes on the newly punctured tyre to the tailgate of the jeep.

Helen's morning commute must rank as one of the most splendid in the world. At 6.20am, after a quick boiled kettle wash in a bowl, a coffee, she drives off into the 2200 sq km area of the North Serengeti that she surveys, as part of the Cheetah Project.

We're out looking for cheetahs with the Serengeti Cheetah Project. The main remit is to compile basic information about their habits and movements, across a long period of time. We've been driving for four hours, past numerous delighted tourists ogling bucking wilderbeest, startled zebra, colobus monkey, hartebeest, dik diks, oryx, rindebuck, lions and even a leopard.

The cheetah project works in collaboration with Serengeti National Parks, and Tanzanian Wildlife Research institute, the most famous, and oldest cheetah project in the world. Helen isn't comfortable commenting on poaching.

The conservation world in East Africa is highly political, and people must tread carefully: their visas and ability to keep working in a focussed area rest on not being too critical of East African governments. The tourist industry needs live elephants, not slaughtered carcasses that are funding arms to bomb shopping malls.

Poaching is literally the elephant in the room. It's everywhere and massively on the rise. Al Jazeera says sixty elephants a day are killed in Tanzania. Recently the East African Wildlife Society commented:

"The data collected over the last 24 months shows a massive escalation in the rate of illegal killing of elephants. The situation is now so bad that by most measures it can be considered out of control and certainly beyond the limits of what elephant populations can sustain." More....

Poachers Snare Kills Baby Elephant

11/1/2013

Source: Coastweek.com

A baby elephant of approximately 2 years old was recently found dead at a private game sanctuary.

Upon close examination, the cause of death was clearly from a poachers snare that had completely cut off the baby’s trunk as the poor animal probably attempted to free it self in an attempt to rejoin its mother.

It is impossible to imagine the amount of pain and suffering this baby went through over the last few days, slowly succumbing to starvation, infection and heavy blood loss.

Residents of villages surrounding many national parks and reserves have increasingly turn-ed to bush meat poaching with snares that they leave behind concealed among bushes to trap game meat.

As these poachers attempt to catch Dik-Dik, Warthog and the like, unfortunately these traps are unforgiving and will literally capture anything that gets caught in it, with most victims being the juvenile of wildlife such as Cheetahs, Lions and as shown here elephants.

Organizations such as Care For The Wild and the Kenya Wildlife Service tirelessly conduct de-snaring operations regularly to rid the parks of these death traps and can even collect over 200 snares a day.

Poachers however secretly return to replace the lost snares and the vicious cycle continues.

Members of the public are encouraged to contact the nearest KWS or Police stations with assurance of full confidentiality to help track the illegal bush meat poachers and stop the needless killing of our wild animals.

Poaching: Can Government Investigate Itself?

10/6/2013

Source: Ippmedia.com

While the government, in collaboration with other stakeholders, is waging war against poaching an investigation conducted in Arusha Region recently, especially in Longido District, shows that wildlife officials are likely to be key facilitators of the crime.

Roughly between five and ten jumbos are killed in the Lake Natron Game Controlled Area in Longido district, Arusha Region, everyday according to an investigation by this reporter.

The recent escalation of jumbo killing results from collusion between poachers and district officials, even wildlife officers expected to be custodians of the national heritage, sources said.

However, The Guardian on Sunday could not independently verify some of the claims.

However, Longido residents say wildlife officials in the district have illegally granted hunting licenses to individuals, allowing them to poach during the night.

Though hunting licenses are granted at the ministry’s headquarters only by the Director of Wildlife Division, holders of the same have been using them to shoot animals at will.

It was reliably learnt that there are cases of legitimate holders of tourist hunting licenses giving the documents to other individuals to enter the game reserves and other protected areas to kill animals.

In Lake Natron area residents told this paper that they often tipped off wildlife officers on the poaching acts but the latter took no measures to stop the illegal activity.

Engarnaibor village resident in the district Lameck Ole Moent claimed they have been giving tip offs to one wildlife officer (name withheld) on poaching but failed to do anything about it. The said they suspected him of being an accomplice in the illegal business. More....

Poachers Shamed in Web Campaign (Kenya)

9/19/2013

Source: Spaceforgiants.org

By Jerome Starkey

Campaigners in Kenya opened a new front in the war on poaching yesterday, with a website dedicated to naming and shaming the culprits behind the slaughter of Africa's wild animals.

Kenyans United Against Poaching (Kuapo) launched PoachersExposed.com <http://PoachersExposed.com> to publish the names and photographs of convicted poachers, smugglers and buyers who are fuelling an illegal market that US officials fear is the fourth largest in the world.

"Your name is going to be there, in front of everyone, whether you poach an elephant or a dik-dik [small antelope\," said Salisha Chandra, the coordinator of Kuapo. "And it's not just the person who shoots the bullets, but the middlemen and the person who buys it at the other end as well."

More than 40 per cent of Kenyans have access to the internet, mostly through their mobile phones, according to government statistics, making the country one of the most cyber-savvy in Africa.

The PoachersExposed website will also collate details on courts, magistrates and prosecutors to see which ones get the best results and whether any are being suspiciously lenient.

The only case listed last night was that of a Kenyan man caught hunting a warthog, a first-time offender, who was sentenced to four years in prison. It was an unusually severe sentence in a country where ivory smugglers - including a former US colonel - are let off with fines of [pounds sterling\ 225 for carrying thousands of pounds worth of tusks. "There are so many arrests, but there is so little follow-up. This is a way of making sure the poaching story doesn't die," Ms Chandra said. More....

Bush-Meat Trade Threat to Tourism, Official Says

8/12/2013

Source: Standardmedia.co.ke

By Renson Mnyamwezi

Some wildlife species are facing extinction due to widespread subsistence poaching in the Tsavo Conservation Area (TCA) in Taita-Taveta County.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has expressed fear that the on-going bush meat trade in local ranches was adversely affecting tourism and needs to be addressed.

TCA Assistant Director Robert Obrein said the animals targeted by the illegal hunters included warthogs, zebras, impala and dik dik among other small game in the region.

He noted that a recent resource inventory carried out in nine ranches by KWS show declining numbers of the animals in the area.

In some of the ranches, the survey shows that such wildlife species had completely been wiped out by the poachers.

Resource Inventory

“We are still waiting for funds to carry out another resource inventory in the 20 remaining ranches. The exercise will help us determine the number of remaining wildlife in the ranches worst hit by poaching activities,” he said.

The conservation body had conducted a feasibility study to map out resources that are of conservation importance in the region. More....

Bush-Meat Trade Threat to Tourism, Official Says

8/11/2013

Source: Standardmedia.co.ke

By Renson Mnyamwezi

Some wildlife species are facing extinction due to widespread subsistence poaching in the Tsavo Conservation Area (TCA) in Taita-Taveta County.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has expressed fear that the on-going bush meat trade in local ranches was adversely affecting tourism and needs to be addressed.

TCA Assistant Director Robert Obrein said the animals targeted by the illegal hunters included warthogs, zebras, impala and dik dik among other small game in the region.

He noted that a recent resource inventory carried out on nine ranches by KWS show declining numbers of the animals in the area.

In some of the ranches, the survey shows that such wildlife species had completely been wiped out by the poachers.

Resource Inventory

“We are still waiting for funds to carry out another resource inventory in the 20 remaining ranches. The exercise will help us determine the number of remaining wildlife in the ranches worst hit by poaching activities,” he said.

The conservation body had conducted a feasibility study to map out resources that are of conservation importance in the region. More....

KWS Arrest Suspected Poacher with Game Meat

5/15/2013

Source: The-star.co.ke

By Stephen Astariko

Kenya Wildlife Service warders in Ijara district, Garissa county yesterday arrested a poacher with 129 kg of illegal meat at Haji Mohamed. According to Garissa county warden Cleophas Mailu , the poacher only identified as Ali had killed a dik dik and an impala.

“This man has been a poacher for quite some time. Poaching is an offense and anybody found doing so faces stiff penalties,” said Mailu on phone.

The KWS boss said the poachers are taking advantage of the wildlife animals that in the area and the fact that the place is a transit route to Coast and Somalia. He appealed to the locals to desist from poaching. The poacher will be charged at a Hola court tomorrow.

Working to Save the Mystery Antelope That's Little Bigger Than a Pet Cat (photos)

4/25/2013

Source: Monagabay.com

By Lacey Avery

Little is known about the silver dik-dik (Madoqua piacentinii) population that roams the dense coastal bushlands of eastern Africa, but experts are working to learn more about the mysterious species.

Weighing little more than a domestic cat, the small antelopes are found in a long, narrow coastal strip spreading across 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Somalia's capital of Mogadishu north to the port town of Hobyo. This coastal strip is known as the Hobyo Grassland and Shrubland eco-region, according to the WWF.

The eco-region features white and orange sand dunes and endemic species of birds, mammals and reptiles, but political instability has left this area largely unexplored by scientists. Of the four recognized dik-dik species scientists understand silver dik-diks the least.

"We know very little about the actual silver dik-dik distribution in the Horn of Africa," Giovanni G. Bellani told mongabay.com. As a natural scientist, Bellani studies the zoology and biodiversity of tropical ecosystems, particularly in Africa. "We do not know its ecology, its behavior or its biology."

Initially thought to be the same species as the Salt's dik-dik (Madoqua saltiana), silver dik-diks were classified as a separate species in 1978 based on its consistently smaller size, uniform silvery coat color and the length of the upper tooth row.

Bellani and other scientists are analyzing the physical characteristics of silver dik-diks to further distinguish them from the look-alike Salt's dik-dik species. The team looked at the differences in coat color and size by examining original photos, skins from the Museum of Zoology and Natural History (La Specola) in Italy, and specimens from the Faraggiana-Ferrandi Museum of Natural History collection, also located in Italy. Bellani published a report of this analysis in the Gnusletter, the bi-annual journal of the IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group (ASG).

All dik-diks have large dark eyes ringed by white hair, and a thick tuft of hair sticks up between the short horns of the males. The group found several distinctive features among silver dik-diks, including size. Silver dik-diks are consistently smaller than the other species, with smaller ears and a less distinct white circle around the eyes. In addition, silver dik-dik individual hairs are black at the tip, followed by a creamy-colored band, then dark brown tinged with red. These alternating bands of light and dark color never exceed 5 millimeters (0.2 inches), but the alternating bands of Salt's dik-diks often exceed this length, according to the report.

"I hope a detailed DNA analysis and comparison of the silver dik-diks and Salt's dik-dik will be done to better understand their genetic relationship," Bellani said. More....

Down to the Wire: Kenyan Art Project Turns Poachers into Conservationists

2/21/2012

Source: Humanesociety.org

By Karen E. Lange

Josphat Ngonyo carries within him a transforming moment: the day the dik-dik looked him in the eye. Ngonyo had just released the little antelope from a snare set by a poacher in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park. The dik-dik looked back, and in the animal’s big, doe-like eyes Ngonyo sensed the words “thank you.”

The memory inspired Ngonyo as he established the Africa Network for Animal Welfare, which among many efforts sends out teams to remove snares from the wild. (Humane Society International, The HSUS’s global arm, advises ANAW and helped it obtain funding for the work.) Ngonyo invites volunteers on the trips because he wants others to have the experience he did: “When you see an animal suffering and relieved from the pain, you’re never left the same.”

In 2006, he launched a project through which former poachers turn the snares into animal sculptures (pictured above). The work pays three men $200 a month; Ngonyo hopes it may one day be completely self-sustaining, plus fund the desnaring teams and wildlife rescues. For now, ANAW is looking for ways to market the wire animals, which sell for $40 to $65 on the organization’s website and at the Waatha Cultural Center, another income-generating project.

What’s important, Ngonyo says, is to give those living around Tsavo a means of surviving. For as much as he remembers the dik-dik’s gratitude, Ngonyo cannot forget the history of his own people: In 1948, the Waatha (commonly spelled Waata), who hunted elephants with poison-tipped arrows, were evicted from Tsavo, told that they could no longer kill wildlife, and settled on land too dry to farm.

Today, desperate people poach dik-diks even though they get just $2 each for the meat. Until they have a way to support themselves, Ngonyo says, poachers will put up wires as fast as ANAW teams can take them down.