Here are the latest photos of Museya patrol post - one of the 6 patrol posts (or “pps” as we call them) that are under my responsibility. Samantha blogged last month about the construction that is going on there - it will be transformed from mud huts to brick buildings! The EU is funding this, and the building process is being overseen by William from the French organization Soderu who comes to visit us regularly. He also oversaw the schools in Mutsora, and the other buildings here in Ishango. We are very very excited! As you can see the European Union funds many projects in eastern DR Congo - and we are grateful of each one.
Thank you everyone! Anthony G $15
I often write about the threat of poachers in Ishango - which of course applies to the whole of Virunga National Park. Poaching - after the presence of armed militias - remains the single most important threat to Ishango’s wildlife. We are all working hard to protect the animals that are here - so that they can reproduce and multiply. We also hope that more animals - especially predators - continue to come over the border from Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park. It is ironic that when Uganda was enduring its civil war, the wildlife came to Congo for protection, and Uganda relied on the animals returning to repopulate its parks. Now the situation is reversed. Virunga National Park is not an isolated protected area in Africa - it is part of a vast ecosystem that extends through to Kenya and the Albertine Rift. So it is vitally important to protect its flora and fauna to the best of our ability. Sometimes animals die naturally, or for mysterious reasons. Here are some photos below. One is an antelope that we found not far from Ishango, decomposing. The other is a hippo carcass. There was no evidence of poaching in either case (no snares etc).
I have some sad news. Last week Ranger Kalibumba, 36 years old with 8 children, was shot dead at point blank range with 5 bullets to the chest and abdomen by a member of the Congolese military. He was one of my Rangers at Museya, the patrol post that is being rebuilt at the moment and falls under my command. So what happened? Well it seems that a soldier based in Kavinyonge had a violent argument with his commander, over a suspected case of infidelity. The soldier, attempting to flee, encountered first a doctor on a motorbike, whom he shot and stole his bike. When Ranger Kalibumba attempted to intercept, he was also shot down in a cowardly and brutal fashion. The soldier then went on to kill 2 more women and injured a 3rd - all innocent bystanders. The soldier - who I can only imagine has lost all sense of reason - has yet to be caught. This once again highlights not only how fragile my country is, and how lawless - but how the military should not be in the park.
We held a solemn service for him and his family at the park headquarters in Mutsora.
Hippo snaring is still going on as you know, depressingly enough.
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.
Recently there was a lot of rain in Ishango and flooding. This is how I think this terrapin found its way far from the Semliki River, near a hippo pod.
I examined it before releasing it in a better place. It was actually a she - you can tell by the shape of the shell underneath. A female has a flat shell and a male has a curved shell. Here is a video I took too!
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…
This is Samantha. I recently visited the illegal fishing village of Kavinyonge. Illegal because it is in Virunga National Park. And it has about 20,000 inhabitants.
I took this aerial photo a couple of months ago. Some of you may remember. Kavinyonge is the settlement you can see and Ishango is at the mouth of the Semliki River.
We set off in the boat from Ishango. It takes about half an hour. Atamato is there in the grey t-shirt.
This is what it looks like when you get there. Blissfully quiet. And with a definite smell of fish about it. Really just a little paradise on the edge of Lake Edward.
And then people come out of the woodwork. Kids are clearly not used to out-of-towners like me.
So they all crowded around, utterly curious to see the “muzungu”.
We were going to Museya. That is where a patrol post is being rehabilitated and I wanted to take a look. It’s about 10 minutes away on a bike. We had to get gas first.
By this point all the kids were overflowing with curiosity!
And although they don’t get many visitors, they definitely knew the deal with digital photography. They all wanted to see their picture after I had taken it.
So this is the old patrol post. It is one of 6 overseen by Atamato and has up to 6 Rangers based there.
And to the right you can see the new construction. It will be very smart when it’s done and much more waterproof.
Some Rangers sleep in the tents there that were donated through this blog. These are behind the new construction.
And then we drove back down the main road of the town. The blue plastic bag was covering the wing mirrors of the motorbike I was on, for some reason. There isn’t actually much traffic there so I wasn’t too worried.
And then when we got back to the lake edge more kids had arrived. They had literally come to see me. They all looked healthy children on whole, as compared to so many you see here who are suffering from malnutrition.
This little guy on the right was the most daring of them all!
We got a warm goodbye.
And so headed back to the tranquility of Ishango’s hippos. Bliss.
Samantha
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