Over 100 snares collected from Ngiro-are Swamp
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 02:07PM 
Kimojino took this photo yesterday by Ngiro-are swamp.
In the past four days, Ngiro-are and Iseiya teams have collected more than 100 snares from the Ngiro-are swamp area which is just on the Tanzanian/Kenyan border.
It is just 4.5 km from the swamp to our Outpost at Ngiro-are and poaching activity has been high in this area due to the migration which has been passing through this past week and are still there in great numbers. Poachers also favour the place because it is very close to their villages, however it is very difficult for us to make arrests because it is also very close to the escarpment. We find that the poachers will come down in the middle of the night, set their snares, and then watch our rangers movements from the top of the escarpment.
Ranger Cheruiyot releases a wildebeest from a snare.
They must have seen the other day when Kimojino and his team collected 74 snares yesterday from the swamp, and so did not return to their snares today. This means that when we patrolled this morning we found two wildebeest already dead in their snares, and another three which we were able to rescue. We collected eight snares in total today.
This wildebeest did not survive the night.
Because it is so difficult to make arrests in this area, we must do our best to patrol as regularly as we can, especially with the migration still in the area.
Naitoi took this photo yesterday of a young female elephant who has recently lost the end of her trunk in a snare. She kept rubbing her trunk in the water to sooth the cut.
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Reader Comments (10)
Breaks my heart to see the ellie and especially that poor zebra. I think this is the zebra we saw the third week of Sept? We reported it, but of course it's very hard to track the animals down sometime. Is someone going to put this poor thing out of its misery? What a slow and agonizing death for so many animals over there. Damn snares!
Is there any hope for the young elephant? Can it feed or drink with that trunk? These snares are horrendous and such a widespread problem in Africa.
This is absolutely heartbreaking......the quantity of snares being laid is relentless to say the least. Every week I am doing the lottery in the vein hope I could just wave the 'magic wand'! until that day (which is highly unlikley to come!) I agree that donations are the absolute key to support the rangers.
Can that elephant be treated or euthanased, it looks to be in terrible pain. That is just horrible!!
And the elephant - can it still smell?? I imagine its whole use of trunk is gone, will anyone be attending to him??
I am outraged.
Sorry meant to firstly say can the zebra be treated or euthansed..
I hear from Kimojino that the zebra was very alert to the presence of the rangers and kept running away. Sadly Dana this is probably another zebra to the one your saw.
Although now at a slight disadvantage the elephant will survive. It is likely she will go to the Salt Lick and bathe the wound there.
My heart breaks if i see pictures like this.
Will the DSWT vet be called to euthanase the zebra, or do you prefer to only call the vet for "bigger ticket" animals, i.e. the big five? Also, if the zebra is now shy of vehicles, as Kimojino's comments to you seem to suggest (or is it only shy of people on foot?), would darting the animal present a problem?
Incidentally, I am really curious to know how bad the snaring problem is on the other side of the Mara, i.e. over in the Narok County Council part. They are not as transparent as you are in the Conservancy, and so, for us outsiders, very little, if any, information is available. What can you tell us?
more rangers and vet care are needed now; but what the demand for bush meat? if there is no or little demand, would any one bother to poach? has any research done on the villagers like do they know they are making illegal transaction with this bush meat trade? what about the punishment for poachers? and what about the situation of the poachers are in like are they employed? under paid ? or just plain old greedy? are the nearby villagers benefited from the wildlife directly or indirectly in any way? i think the consumption of bush meat might decline if the villagers receive are benefited from the well being of having wildlife around. and the men might rather do something else if their lives are busy with their jobs, families and fun times with other men instead of poaching.
Since this day the rangers have been looking for the zebra but have not been able to locate it again. It is highly likely that the zebra has now died.
It is not our place to comment on how things are on the Narok side.