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Dog Unit (10-6-10) #1 from Mara Vet on Vimeo.

The patrol team went on their daily chores of patrol when they went to a former hideout camp for poachers in a bush alogn the Mara River specifically a place commonly known as “Kisumu Ndogo”.  The rangers entered into the thicket siliently and after about 30 minutes three rangers headed to the former poacher camp and found out that the poachers were at their world having killed a hippo plus some warthogs and they were busy drying up the meat.

The rangers eventually dashed to arrest but managed to arrest one poacher on the spot and chased two for some distance when other rangers involved in the patrol arrived and arrested other two that were being chased.  The rest disapeared and could not be traced hen the dog ws deployed on one of the trails and after about 1.5 hours of tracking, Morani went straight into a poachers who burried himself under grass along the river.  An arrest was made and the dog was praised.  Four arrested poachers were taken to Kivuko ranger ost, who would have to take the suspect to court.

Shadrack Sabaya –Canine Unit Leader

The patrol team from Ngiro-are left at 8:00AM for patrol along Mara River.  They saw poachers who were fishing on the other side of the river.  On seeing the rangers, the poachers sneaked into a thicket and left their belongings including fishing nets and follwed a stream up on the other side of the river towards Machewechewe.

Immediately both the handlers and the other rangers carried the dog across the Mara River and started Morani right on the fresh trail.  The dog had a very high drive hence moved very fast and after tracking for about 3 km, he found the poachers hiding in the tall grass and 3 poachers were arrested.  Poachers were taken to Tarime by the Tranzanian rangers and fined.

Shadrack Sabaya –Canine Unit Leader

On arriving to the scene at 4:30AM, the handlers and the rangers held a brief interview with the management of ******* camp where the incident occurred.

Having gathered significant information, the handlers started the dog on the track at 5:30AM about 20 meters away from the affected tent.

Morani had a high drive despite the fact that the trail was old.  The dog moved about 100 meters when we picked a camera pouch.  On further moving, about 300 meters, we picked a bag with cloths, passports but the money that was there was taken. 

The dog kept on track for about 5 km to the road when he refused to continue.  We therefore concluded that the subject could have boarded a vehicle.  The failure to arrest was attributed to long hours before tracking hence the culprit could have boarded a vehicle (incident happened at 10:00PM Dec 23 and the report came in at 2:00AM Dec. 24, the tracking began at 5:30AM)

Shadrack Sabaya –Canine Unit Leader

Both Memusi and Morani are well acclimatized with the new environment and they are now more of Ngiro-are than of Colorado.

In the month of September, Morani fell ill and was taken to Nairobi for veterinary check-up and treatment. Since then, he registered a remarkable improvement and works better and with a lot of drive than ever before. On the other hand, Memusi is more resistant and his health trend has been exceptionally good. The handlers monitor closely for the health progress of the dogs. This actually includes amount of food eaten by each dog at a time, body temperature of each dog and the excretion rate.
 
On the side of performance and exercises, the canine team does believe in practice for improvement and perfection. It then goes without mention that we involve the dogs and the handlers into rigorous tracking exercises. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are our scheduled days for the exercises. Any other day particularly when we arrest poachers serves as a perfect opportunity for us to train. We are proud to say this is making a difference!
 
In a nutshell, the dog unit is fairing on well and it’s our sincere hope that it will do even better. We acknowledge a fact that “it takes time to succeed because success is merely a natural reward of taking time to do something”.

Sabaya Shadrack.
October 31st, 2009

We were fortunate enough to have John and Linda back in the Mara Triangle for the last two weeks.  They came back to give a follow-up training for Morani and Memusi, especially night ambush deployment.  Morani was having problem with barking at the animals and poachers at night, thus giving out the location of the ambushing rangers.  Thanks to John and Linda, we now fixed this issue.

The handlers got a report of a theft incident at the above mentioned camp.  The team was immediately dispatched to the scene.  On reaching there and after a brief interrogation the team learnt that the incident took place the previous night at about 7:00PM.  The tent where the theft was carried out from was number ****.  Among the people interviewed by the team included the very room steward who identified himself as *******.  The camp manager and his assistant was also present. 

Having gathered crucial information on the matter, Morani was deployed and after a little while it picked up a track that crossed the fence towards the airstrip of ******* Lodge.

At about half a kilometer run, the dog made a circle and subsequently headed towards a nearby thicket.  Right at the circled area, was a foot print that was seen by the handlers who also played a role on visual trackers.

On the other sie of the thicket, the replica of the previous footprint was once again seen.  This further confirmed the direction followed by the suspect.  This was around a village “manyatta” and sudently the trail was cut short by an enourmous contamination by a large herd of cattle emanating from the same village.

Observation/Conclusion:

-From the above narration, it can be said that the wrong doer sneaked into the compound from outside or at least left the compound via the fence as detected by the canine.

-The scene was also less contaminated since the dog was able to pick up the scent that lasted for about 12 hours.

Recommendation:

-It can be suggested that the presumed entrance into the tent be guarded even the more.

-The canine team should also be notified of the incident immediately. (Note: the earlier the better)

Shadrack Sabaya –Canine Unit Leader