Archive for the ‘Virunga’ Category
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.
This is Emmanuel at WildlifeDirect. We just received some quite disturbing news from Norbert Mushenzi, a senior warden in Virunga, that two infant lowland gorillas were found by a MONUC patrol near Kanyabayonga, just outside the park, near the southern shores of Lake Edward. The infants were transferred to the park station at Mutsora this morning, where they are being looked after by Godefroid Wambale, who is the officer in charge. The younger one, who weighs about 10 kgs apparently, is in fairly good condition, but very young and vulnerable. The older one, about 20kgs, has been quite badly wounded by a machete to the shoulder and to the arm. We will be trying to get Dr. Jacques of MGVP up to Mutsora to stabilise their condition.
These gorillas probably come from the area to the west of the park, where to lowland forest starts, possibly from the Tayna Reserve. Eastern lowland gorillas are very similar to Mountain Gorillas, but live at lower altitudes. They are more abundant than the mountain gorillas, but have been badly affected by the war, and they have probably been decimated over the past 15 years. We don’t know that much about them because they live in very remote and insecure parts of Congo.
Unfortunately, there were no arrests when the MONUC patrol seized the infants from the poachers. The rangers are following up at the moment to see if they can secure the arrests and press charges.
Godefroid will try to update you on his blog over the next few days.
This is Samantha. When I left Ishango recently from Beni I managed to take a few shots from the plane as I flew over Atamato’s patrol post.
This is the Semliki River, running out of Lake Edward. The village you can see is Kavinyonge, just a stones throw from Ishango and the nearest village. I just missed Ishango in the photo (the plane was moving a lot!), it is just on the other side of the river, so bottom left corner of the photo.
This is Kavinyonge again, and in the distance, further along the shore, you can see Muramba. This is the illegal settlement where the Mai Mai live. They left a letter once for Atamato after Rangers had seized one of their fishing boats. They are a big threat to the park and all the wildlife. For a map click here.
And this is now on the southern shores of Lake Edward. This whole area used to be full of hippos - you could see hundreds upon hundreds of them. In the inlet you can see a settlement, this is Vitshumbi. It is around here that the massacre took place last year by the Mai Mai.
And a close up of Vitshumbi.
And finally, nothing to do with the lake, but this is a refugee camp just outside of Goma. The war has caused thousands upon thousands of displaced people. Samantha
This is Samantha. We did a Q&A with Atamato. Here is what he said:
1. Why did you become a Ranger? Because I wanted to protect nature. My father was a Ranger too, so I lived most of my life in Garamba National Park in the north near Sudan. I always wanted to be like my father.
This job is what I have done most of my life, and I would not have it any other way.
2. Would you like your two sons to become Rangers? I want both of them not only to be Rangers but researchers as well. I want them to achieve more than me. My father was a Ranger; I became a Ranger and Chief Ranger/Conservationist, and I want my kids to obtain more knowledge than myself.
3. How do you view the security situation in Ishango at the moment? Now it looks a bit quiet, but I know I have to keep my eyes wide open. Of course it is getting better than before, but you can never trust on 100% stability. There can always be new threats.
4. Is there any news on the pregnant hippo? No news. I will let you know when there is and I hope she is pregnant!
5. Is there any further information regarding the chemicals you suspected of being used in poaching? Who is doing it?
It is a Congolese man from Kasaka who is responsible I think. He is connected to a business man from Butembo. He is not regular or permanent in the park. We are still organizing patrols to catch him, but we haven’t succeeded yet. We need to get proof too. I’ve tried to get more information on his actions from local people. We are still awaiting data. The patrol is already on the ground for this.
Paula had suggested in one of her comments that the chemical is Furadan. We are still investigating this.
6. What other patrols have been done? Or what other patrols are planned? I’ve got more than 5 patrols on the go now. We’ve got patrols that spend the night in the field, and then we’ve got the reconnaissance patrols (just for the day). Of this kind of day patrol we do over 10 a month. This is totally 100% thanks to donations. We are getting rations, salaries, fuel and other support.
I am also helping Kasindi Port patrol post by giving them fuel. They patrol from there to Ishango.
We are covering a big area.
7. What is the situation with the Mai Mai in Muramba? Are they still there? The Mai Mai rebels are still in Muramba, about 10km as the crow flies from Ishango. You can see a map here. There are local people supporting them. I’ve told Director Mushenzi and written my report. I think it is a pending issue and it is a decision that has to be taken from the top. But it is a delicate issue, and we need support to be able to move the Mai Mai from the area.
These people are not educated at all and can always create problems.
According to the government they want to integrate the Mai Mai with the Congolese army. If this works I think it would be a great idea.
These eggs caught my attention the other day. The nest was just on the ground not far from the patrol post, made of old grass. It is the first time I have seen 4 eggs of this kind together, usually it is just 2.
The eggs seemed quite exposed.
The eggs are those of a Caspian Plover. This bird helps us, during the night and the day, by making a noise if they see something strange. These birds help our security. In Ishango, and my country in general, having help with security is a good thing. Remember we still have the Mai Mai not far away, even though at the moment they are calm.
Taken from a distance with zoom, so a little blurred.
I am going to try and find out if it is 1 or 2 birds nesting.
I also wanted to share a photo of a crocodile. This is a young crocodile trying to climb the hill on the bank of the Semliki River. Recently we recorded 10 crocodiles just below the patrol post in the river, and you often see the crocs basking in the sun with the hippos. This picture was taken from the boat, so I was not scared!
According to radio operator Okapi, more than 40 young people were taken from their village last Friday by the FDLR (Force Democratique pour la liberation de Rwanda) at Nyakakoma, on the Southern shores of Lake Edward. Reports from the local population say that only 48 hours after FARDC soldiers of the mixed brigade Bravo had left Nyakakoma, the FDLR invaded their village. At first they declared they were in the village to protect the population, but then hours later they started to disarm the police force, the naval force as well as the ICCN guards of Virunga National Park, as well as plundering the village, houses and shops. Household goods, clothes, kitchen utensils, money and mobile phones of the population were carried away. The forty youths were used to carry the goods, and then released in the surroundings of Nyamilima, in the national park of Virunga, among various stations occupied by the FDLR. Once the youths reached Nyamilima, MONUC then escorted them until Nyakakoma this Monday morning.
We received our first delivery of patrol rations in Ishango this Sunday.
All of these rations have been purchased with the donations received through this blog, and so this has only being made possible by your help.
Included in these rations was all the food needed for the guards here to go out on patrols until the end of August, as well as the fuel for our boat and the motorbike.
Also at the end of this month, the guards here in Ishango will be receiving their first ‘primes’ through WildlifeDirect. This is a supplement to the government salary received by the guards, which stands at $5 a month, and again this supplement is only possible thanks to the donations received through this blog. Sincerely, thank you everyone, from all here at Ishango. Longer and frequent patrols of the area will be starting straight away.
I have been stuck in Mutsora for these last two days while Benoit, the new mechanic for ICCN, fixes my bike. The bike has not worked properly for many many months and would lose too much power when going uphill. Before now, we just had to work with what we had, but with a mechanic we can now start to expect more from our vehicles. This extra time here has given me a chance to catch up on the blogs of my colleagues and follow the tragic news from down South in Bukima. I also see that it is now official; Paulin will be working here in the North for a while, with Mushenzi going down to the South. I have worked with Mushenzi for many years and have confidence that he will do a good job. There is much change going on in every area of Virunga and as reported before, there is a newborn in the Franco pod of hippos and we have decided to go with David’s suggestion of calling her Imani, which means Faith in Swahili. To celebrate the naming of this infant, I want to share with you a song by Franco, called Fariya.
It is a love song that was very popular in the 1980s, and is still very well known today. I think the lyrics work well with the newborn and its mother: “You know Mama, you are very beautiful and with a good heart. I love you very much, my darling, I follow all your movements. I can not sleep because I think of you, you are beautiful like a mermaid.” Well, maybe a hippopotamus is not beautiful like a mermaid, but they are definitely a part of what makes Ishango beautiful.
There are more or less 25 individuals now in the Franco Pod, which is much more than the 4 or 5 individuals we used to see here in 2002. There may have been more around then in the pod, but not much more, as during the war Ishango was occupied by the military and so there was no control over this part of Virunga. Anyone could come in to the park and put their fishing nets wherever they wanted to, or poach the hippos without repercussion. We were finally able to move back in to Ishango in 2002, but had to live side by side with the military who did not leave until they were thrown out in 2003. It was a difficult few months and we faced many humiliations, but we couldn’t let all of the wildlife disappear from Ishango. And I know that today my brothers in the other parts of Virunga feel the same. We will never give up.
A few days ago, Ann put a comment on the post about the collapse of the hippo populations in Virunga, asking about the elephants. I’m afraid almost every large mammal population in Virunga has collapsed over the past three decades apart from the Uganda Kob and the Mountain Gorillas. Kob have not been hunted as badly because they are small and difficult to shoot. Mountain gorillas have been protected. My colleague Paulin Ngobobo is working with the mountain gorillas, and his efforts have played a big part in getting the mountain gorillas through the war.
This is what has happened to many of the big savanna mammals in Virunga:
This is why:
(this photo was taken by a colleague of mine working for WWF about two years ago)
When people talk about endangered species in Africa, they often think about elephants, rhinos and gorillas. Hippos are often forgotten. This is a mistake, because hippos are now amongst the most threatened of Africa’s large mammals, because they are so easy to shoot and people eat the meat. According to the international conservation organisation IUCN, there are only about 125,000 to 150,000 hippos left in the wild.
This is an extract from the IUCN redlist of vulnerable and endangered species. The hippo was added to the redlist last year mainly because of the killing of all the hippos on Lake Edward.
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