Archive for the ‘Elephants’ Category
I am sorry I haven’t posted for a while, but the security situation around Lulimbi has made it difficult to for me to travel to access the internet. Two weeks ago 3 people were killed by rebels on the road between here and Ishasha. However, I am starting to appreciate the incredible amount of wildlife here in Lulimbi- last week a herd of about fifty elephants came past the Ranger Station.
The Herd
The rangers’ houses in the background
I would also like to acknowledge the Andrea & Michael Banks Nature Fund, who have committed to donate $150 a month towards our conservation work at Lulimbi. THANK YOU!
I have lots of important news to tell you. My bosses at the Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN) have decided to move me for a short period to Lulimbi park station. This is still in Virunga National Park, about 3 hours by boat across Lake Edward. If you go to this map, and head south/south-west from Ishango you will see it. Right next to Uganda. So why the move? Well the Rangers are short staffed at present in Lulimbi, and need urgent assistance with anti-poaching patrols. My bosses decided I was the most appropriate one for the job. In Lulimbi there is fantastic wildlife as much of it is returning to Congo over the border from Uganda. But poaching is a significant problem too. I have just been sent these 2 photos below which are pretty grim of poached elephants. It was the military who killed them. So we need to reinforce the area and prevent these atrocities. My experience and successes in Ishango will help.
Who will replace me during my absence? Godefroid Wambale, whom you all know. He returned only recently from studying in Tanzania, and will be excellent for my job. Regarding donations, please keep the donations coming. We still need the same funds for the work to go on - the patrols, the salaries for the Rangers, the rations - all of it. The monthly salary of $150 that I used to receive from donations will temporarily go to Godefroid, and he will continue to provide information on this blog. I will try also to provide you with updates from Lulimbi, but there is no internet access there and it is very remote so that is going to be difficult. I cannot reiterate enough how much your support has meant to me over the past year and few months. This has been such an amazing experience. Finally, I would like to thank Nancy from the Alexander Abraham Foundation for the recent $5,000 donation. So so generous. This will make a big difference to anti-poaching patrols in Ishango. Godefroid will provide details of how this money is being spent. Thank you everyone. Atamato.
Clue: there are 2 involved in this activity.
Yes - you guessed it! And right in front of our patrol post just the other day. Elephants have a gestation period of 22 months - the longest of any land animal (they are of course also the biggest land animal alive today). Elephant calfs weigh about 120 kilos. So I hope we will see one in the not too distant future!
This is Karibu. He is from the Franco pod.
He (or she - I am not sure!) regularly follows the pirogue when we are out on the river. He leaps up into the air and starts chasing us when we are going upstream, which is quite scary because our outboard motor does not go very fast.
This is what the Franco pod usually looks like on a lazy day.
This elephant, funnily enough, actually plays with Karibu. I have not yet been able to identify whether this elephant is male or female, but one thing is certain is that Karibu chases him/her. But now - it seems as if the elephant has gotten wiser, and whenever Karibu approaches, the elephant starts chasing Karibu first!
I will try and get pictures of them together!
I wanted to share these photos with you. They are not from Ishango but from Kahuzi Biega National Park, south of Virunga National Park. This is where the Grauer’s Gorillas live, with elephants, antelope and other animals.
Paulin, a Ranger, stands next to elephant skulls - a shocking sight.
And elephant teeth.
In the background are the same elephant skulls, and in the fore you can see gorilla skulls.
Antelope skull.
Grauer’s Gorilla skull.
And the elephant leg bones - next to Paulin’s legs.
Of course all these skulls and bones have been collected over an extended period of time. But it just goes to show the devastating effect of poaching on our country’s resources. Kahuzi Biega National Park is less known that Virunga - but is equally important in the conservation of some of the world’s most precious creatures.
After writing about the elephant suffering and dying in the torturous trap last month, today I am going to write about some happy elephant sightings that have happened recently, basically involving live elephants as opposed to dead ones.
In this photo there are 7 elephants - but we actually saw about 20! This is one of the highest number of elephants we have ever seen together in Ishango, a sure sign that the animals are starting to return from Uganda & Queen Elizabeth Park.
There were just at the edge of the Semliki River and did not seem particularly scared.
This elephant was standing to one side. You can see it has a broken tusk, the opposite of Vita, the elephant called War. Vita’s left tusk is broken, whereas this elephant has part of the right tusk broken off. I am not sure how this elephant sustained this injury.
And this is a solitary elephant that likes to move around an area called Senga, about 10km from Ishango patrol post.
My Rangers took this photo the other day. They made a quick run for it afterwards! You can never be too close to an elephant…
Last week I blogged about the elephant killed by a “jaw trap“. And I showed you a picture of the tusks that we removed from the rotting corpse.
Elephant tusks.
They are hollow.
Now you can compare an elephant tusk with the canine tooth of a hippo. Remember the hippo tooth also contains ivory, which is one of the reason for the hippos massacres in 2006.
Notice the hippo tooth, on the left, has fissures going down the side.
In my hand. The elephant was not fully grown as you can see by the size of the tusks.
I thought this comparison was very interesting.
I have some sad news. We found the rotting corpse of an elephant in the park. The Rangers came across it when they were out on a 5-day patrol.
The elephant had been dead probably 1-2 weeks. Decomposition and discoloration of the skin was well underway.
The worst part is how the elephant died. We all know that traps and snares are a cruel way to kill wildlife. Often the wrong animals get caught - we hear how gorillas in the wild sometimes are missing a hand because they got caught in a snare intended for an antelope.
Often the very poachers who laid the snares fail to return to the scene quickly enough, and so the animal suffers a slow, solitary and painful death. And by the time the poacher gets there, the meat is no good anyway. So a total waste of a life.
In this case the elephant was caught by what we call a “jaw trap”.
The “jaw trap” is the one on the left - in several sizes. Here there is also other equipment and traps we have collected in the park recently - 49 metal necklaces for snaring antelope and waterbuck (far right), machetes to cut wood, hoes to cultivate illegally.
The elephant was caught in one of these “jaw traps”. The trap is opened and when the animal walks in the center the metal jaws slam shut. The trap itself is usually tied to a tree so that the animal cannot get away, even if it were able to move with a heavy metal object attached to its wounded leg.
If you look back at the photo you can actually see that the elephant’s leg was almost cut in two with the “jaw trap”. And that is certainly where decomposition started first.
The actual foot of the elephant is separated from the rest of the leg. You can also see the maggots.
This was a very sad day for all of us. The elephant could have taken up to 2 weeks to die.
When the Rangers first saw the dead elephant, there were many other elephants standing around the body. It was only when the decomposition started that the elephants left. They had finished mourning. And the Rangers were able to approach.
Then we took out the ivory tusks, and brought them to the station. We do not want poachers to get them.
The tusks will be kept by ICCN and used as evidence if and when we find the culprits.
We are still in mourning.
Atamato
This video was taken recently on the Semliki River near the patrol post. It was actually when Dipesh from WildlifeDirect was visiting and he wrote about this on the Baraza blog. As you can see because of past poaching elephants are still wary of humans, but I love it when we come this close to the elephants. It really is an enormous privilege.
Thanks also for donations for 1st 2 weeks of December: Eric W $200, Clare M $25, Pirjo $20, Anna S $50, Karnum S $50, Cherish W $40.
Take a look at my recent elephant videos. It is so wonderful to watch them and we love it when they come and visit us.
|
|
