Conservation Program Update - Wildlife and Habitat Monitoring

The Conservation Team was hard at work for the month of December. Shared below is a series of updates from our continued various initiatives and efforts.

The Simba Scouts have started regularly monitoring the newly collared lions. The VHF function of all the collars is working well! Furthermore, the Scouts covered large distances on their patrols on Kuku Group Ranch. The minimum walking distance is 150 km per Simba Scout per month.

Map showing the movement of the 3 collared lions in December 2013. Yellow = Namunyak (young female);
Orange = Ormawoi (young male); Green = Lorpolosi (older male). All lions spend more of their time
moving around on Kuku Ground Ranch. Namunyak moved around Mkau area in the Chyulu Hills.
Ormawoi moved around lake Olpakai and spent a lot of time in between Olorika and Olbili.
Lorpolosi moved around Oltiasika, but his collar stopped transmitting data since the 7th of December.
This technical problem is being followed up with the suppliers. 

MWCT Rangers found old elephant tusks during a security patrol in Kuku in a dry riverbed. The tusks were heavily degraded and estimated to be more than 5 years old. The tusks were most likely buried by poachers in the past, as there were no signs of an elephant carcass apart from the tusks.

Old elephant tusks that were discovered by MWCT Rangers during a security patrol

MWCT Rangers found a young abandoned zebra while on patrol. The zebra was in healthy condition and so it was decided to leave it in the filed so that it can hopefully reunite with its' family. Survival rates of orphan zebras in captivity are very low, hence the decision to leave it in the wild.

The young abandoned zebra found by MWCT Rangers

Community Ranger News

Time for another Conservation Program update from the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust!  This week we'd like to share our pride at some of the recent accomplishments of our Community Rangers team and their recent activities.  It's been a great few months for the Ranger program and we're excited for all the great work they've been doing.

Head Ranger Muterian Ntanin leads his fellow commanders on parade at Manyani.

First a big congratulations to our Head Ranger, Operations Commander Muterian Ntanin.  Muterian recently completed his Company Commanders Training Course at the Kenya Wildlife Services Law Enforcement Academy in Manyani.  It's an honor just to be selected to participate in the training course, but Muterian not only did that but finished #3 in a class of 28 trainees.  The skills and leadership training he received at Manyani are invaluable, and his accomplishments and leadership have already inspired the rest of our Rangers to work hard and continue to improve.

A unit of MWCT Community Rangers standing proud at attention.

Our Rangers have also been increasing their patrol distances and making arrests more frequently, both of which are instrumental in deterring illegal activity around the area.  Our Rangers recently rescued an elephant from poachers and arrested three of them; later in the week they arrested four more poachers for illegally killing animals for sale as bush meat.  These arrested poachers are turned over to the Kenya Wildlife Services authorities, where they will face jail sentences and fine that were recently made much stiffer by the Kenyan parliament.  

The Gordon family from Chicago visited the Trust and brought vital supply donations.

Finally, we want to stress again the importance of MWCT's relationship with tourism partner Campi ya Kanzi to helping our programs grow and succeed.  Recently the Gordon family, tourists on holiday at Campi ya Kanzi, brought with them assorted supplies to donate to our Rangers, including two pairs of binoculars and a camera.  These donations are essential to the program's success; other needed items include GPS units, backpacks, water bottles, and rechargeable batteries.

An Inspiring Elephant Story

Hello from the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust Headquarters in the bush!  We have a few recent stories about animals on the ranch and MWCT's Conservation Program, including this great news.  In mid-July we had an experience which was incredibly inspiring and heartening, and which showed that the Maasai community has really bought into our conservation efforts.  

Elephants crossing a road on Kuku Group Ranch in front of a Campi ya Kanzi safari car. 

The story begins on a slightly sad note, which is that one of the older wild elephants on the ranch took ill and died.  In one sense this is sad, but on the other hand it means it was able to live a long, full life and die of natural causes - an admirable fate for any large African mammal in these trying times of poaching.  The elephant was noticed by two young Maasai boys herding cattle; they alerted their fathers that an elephant had died.

MWCT's Community Rangers holding the ivory tusks after careful removal.

On receiving this news, the fathers came straight to MWCT Headquarters and notified our Conservation Coordinators of the death.  This was particularly wonderful, as the fathers could just as easily have gone to harvest the ivory and sell it to poachers for a substantial fee.  Upon hearing about the elephant, we dispatched several of our Community Rangers to remove the tusks and give them to Kenya Wildlife Services as required by law, so as to keep the ivory away from poachers and off the black market that has fueled so many elephant kills in recent decades. 

MWCT Assistant Commander Narua gives one of the boys two shukas a reward for his help.

In return for their commendable actions, we held a ceremony at the local school in which we honored the actions of the shepherd boys and their fathers in front of their peers.  One of the boys, a student, received a full new school uniform, and the other received two new shukas to wear around the village and while herding.  Our Head Ranger Muterian also spoke with the other students about how important their tips can be, as most schoolchildren act as herders and roam the bush during weekends and school holidays.

MWCT Head Ranger Muterian speaks to students on the importance of conservation and MWCT.

It was truly a moving occasion to see the Maasai community take such pride in doing the right thing to conserve their natural resources and biodiversity, especially when it would have been so easy to sell the information to poachers.  Events like these show that MWCT is truly making a difference in the lives of the Maasai and making substantial progress in helping locals to view their animals and land as valuable treasures.