New threat to Kenya's game

2005-06-03 10:06

Tsavo East - On safari in Kenya's Tsavo national park: suddenly small white animals are visible through the telescope. Some species of rare gazelle, perhaps? Drawing nearer, however, they reveal familiar forms: a herd of goats and sheep grazing peacefully beneath the spreading acacias.

A small Masai shepherd boy with a red loincloth jumps into a bush to hide when he sees the safari tourists' car approaching. He knows he is not permitted to graze his herd here. The trouble is outside the park, all food has already been eaten or has dried up.

The herds of the Masai, Somalis and other groups living near the largest of Kenya's national parks are a growing threat to the big game. "Much of the stock has not been vaccinated and can bring in dangerous diseases," according to Robert Muasya, head warden of Tsavo East national park.

Previously, the herdsmen only smuggled their animals into the park during the dry season, but now the unwelcome herds of cattle and goats are a menace all the year round.

Extremely bad poaching over

The days of really bad poaching in Kenya are over. In the 70s and 80s, armed gangs hunted Tsavo elephant and rhino almost to extinction. The huge reserve was home to 48 000 elephants in the mid-60s; by the end of the 80s, this had dwindled to scarcely more than 6 000.

In those days, the African elephant had particularly endangered species status. Herd numbers could only recover once the Kenyan government had cracked down on poachers and the international ivory trade had been banned.

Yet even now, elephant and rhino are still at risk from poachers. The illegal ivory trade is flourishing, and rhinoceros horns are in demand particularly in Asia, where, ground into powder, they are considered an aphrodisiac.

The struggle continues

"The struggle against poaching is hard," complains one game warden. "The poachers are well organised and they are all armed with Kalashnikovs." They cover the dead animals with branches to disguise them from aerial surveillance.

By the time the corpses are discovered, those responsible are long gone. About 14 elephant have been killed in Tsavo since 2003.

In the meantime, a new form of poaching has spread, predominantly preying upon the smaller animals such as gazelles and dik-diks. "At first it was local people setting traps in order to provide meat for their families," explains Muasya.

This has now developed into a widespread trade in so-called "bush meat". Poachers fashion their traps from telephone wire or blind the animals with powerful torches before hacking their legs with machetes.

"Nobody knows how many animals have been killed in this way," says Muasya. However, there is an upward trend. The meat is sold at markets as beef or lamb. "As yet, it isn't a threat to any species, but we will fight the new poachers just as hard as we do the old ones," threatens the head warden of the national park. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA