De – Snaring Report for July 2006
Wambua Kikwatha - team leader John Mungai Henry Lekochere Adam Abdi Justin Kiminza 2 KWS rangers
During the course of the month we carried out patrols at Kishushe/The park boundary along Tsavo River, Maktau, Lumo community sanctuary, Oza Community Ranches, and Taita Hills.
TOTAL SNARES COLLECTED 156 TOTAL ARRESTS 3
Kishushe Park Boundary and Tsavo River
This is the third consecutive month we have been operating in this area. The team spent a total of 11 days patrolling this area. During the first 7 days we had the Rangers from the Ziwani area patrolling with the team. The teams aim was to aggressively tackle the most problematic areas of the Tsavo River. On our patrols we came across a poached elephant, judging from the carcass we estimate it had been dead for about 2 weeks.
Maktau, Lumo and Oza Community Ranches
Our overall observation of these areas is that snaring had decreased tremendously. However, night poaching has been on the increase which idicates the poachers are changing their tactics. The Ziwani team carried several ambushes with no success in terms of arrests. The poachers are now using tactics which makes them more difficult to track.
At Salt Lick we lifted 28 big snares. Overall there has been a decrease in numbers of snares compared with the high amount of snare lifted during previous patrol of these regions.
Report by Wambua Kikwatha- team leader.