General
We had rain from the 3rd to the 15th, with some quite heavy storms along the escarpment and towards Oloololo Gate. The remainder of the month was very sunny and dry, until the 30th, when we had a heavy downpour and hailstorm. Surprisingly, the wildebeest did not return in the expected numbers, or as far North as we would have thought once it dried out.
The Government launched phase one of the Angama international airport on the 10th, the first phase will be to lengthen the existing runway by 160 meters, widen it by six meters and resurface the whole runway. The Immigration Post will be used as administrative offices for the duration, estimated to take 8-10 months.
Deloitte have virtually completed the Annual Audit and the first draft was received on the 31st. We expect that we will be able to present the accounts at the next Board meeting on the 24th September.
Our negotiations with Nairobi West Hospital for a Covid testing unit in the Mara never amounted to anything. The person we were dealing with failed to attend meetings, taking calls or even answering text messages.
The Chief Executive assisted the Governor in preparing a draft proposal and budget for funding capital improvement and development in the Reserve. Upgrading all the buildings and infrastructure could well cost in the region of US$ 20 million.
Collaboration Agreement
We managed to achieve a fair amount in the Main Reserve, especially at Musiara and on the road to Double Crossing. We have finally sorted out the problem on the County grader, it was a leaking valve on the common rail. However the grader is very sensitive to fuel quality and the fuel provided in cans from Sekenani is either adulterated, or dirty.
COVID-19
The positivity rate hovers at just over 10%. Kenya has now recorded 4,710 deaths attributable to Covid-19; 234,952 people have tested positive from 2,363,524 tests. More vaccines have arrived in the country and there is a drive to vaccinate as many people as possible.
Tourism
There has been a definite upswing in tourists in the past two months, the majority of them being Americans. We have seen a few from Europe and fewer from India and China. Misbehavior at crossings continues to be a major problem, especially in the Main Reserve, where crossings were disrupted time after time. In the Triangle we were seeing a large number of visitors from the Main Reserve and the Conservancies coming to view the crossings on our side, mainly to avoid the chaos across the river.
Dogs
We returned two of the puppies on the 6th and remain with five. Four of the five are doing very well in training and they should all turn into good working dogs.
Sopia, one of our dogs was sent for treatment in Nairobi on the 13th. She had Trypanosomiasis, despite receiving a prophylactic two weeks before. She has now been treated with another drug, Samorin. Both the disease and the drugs can cause severe liver damage and Sopia will have to be on a special diet for the foreseeable future.
Staff
The Ministry of Health vaccinated 70 of our staff on the 28th. Many of the rangers had already been vaccinated, the remainder will be vaccinated in early September.
Wildlife
The rain in the first half of the month had most of the wildebeest head back into Tanzania and within days we only had a few scattered herds remaining. It dried out in the latter half of the month and the herds started returning, concentrating in a band a few kilometers wide along the border. There were daily crossings from the Main Reserve around the third week, but the animals immediately moved towards Tanzania. Certainly this migration has to rank amongst the worst in recent times, in terms of numbers and time spent in the Mara. This matches the recent trend, in which the migration has been spending an average of 35 days less per year in the Mara. I don’t think that anyone understands the underlying causes – maybe increased rainfall, maybe improved security in the Northern Serengeti, maybe over-tourism. Research has shown that the wildebeest are spending less time in heavily developed tourist areas around Seronera and Talek and certainly the chaos and disruptions at crossings have a huge impact on the wildebeest.
The large male from the Kishanga pride was injured in a fight with a lion, or possibly a buffalo, some ribs were broken and had pierced his lung. Dr Limo tried to treat him but he died on the 19th whilst being treated. This pride seems to have split since their pride male died.
We have a leopard with two cubs along the Maji Machafu lugga, word is out and we are trying to ensure that she and the cubs are not harassed. We have at least one ostrich nest, one is clearly visible and again we are trying to ensure that the parents are not driven off the nest by curious visitors.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) have just released their report on the National Wildlife Census. We will study the results and compare them with previous counts to see the trends – certainly elephant and rhino seem to be on the increase.
Security
A total of 39 people were arrested for poaching by our teams in August, all of them in the Northern Serengeti. We continued to collect snares, mainly in the Lemai Wedge and managed to find and collect 708 snares. Unfortunately we found where 49 wildebeest and two zebra had been butchered; and 14 with one zebra that had died in snares. However, the rangers did manage to rescue 29 wildebeest. It is very interesting, the snares are shorter, set much lower and aimed more at legs, rather than at neck level, as they were in the past. They are definitely more difficult to see and set more widely apart than in the past.
Six people were arrested in two different operations on the 1st. The Iseiya rangers were collecting snares along the escarpment when they heard their counterparts from Nigro-are chasing poachers near Lugga ya Ngiri. They joined forces and managed to arrest all three – one of them was only found because of our tracker dog – Morani. A total of 56 snares were collected, 10 of them from the poachers themselves. An interesting point was that they were communicating with someone by mobile phone, two were recovered. The poachers explained that they have observation posts along the escarpment, manned by people with powerful binoculars. They are then told when the coast is clear, when an animal is caught in a snare, or whether their snares have been found by our ranger teams. One of the poachers appeared to be talking to a dealer, someone who buys and sells the meat. On the same evening, between 7-8 pm, our Nigro-are team managed to arrest three more people who were carrying zebra meat, they had six snares.
Twenty one snares were collected on the 5th and four wildebeest rescued. The next day the rangers went on an all-night patrol and saw nearly 20 people entering the Lemai Wedge at 4.00 am. Four approached the ambush site and two were arrested – both young boys of 12 and 14. They were setting 11 snares when arrested. That evening one more person was arrested as he set five snares at Lugga ya Ngiri and another was caught near Lemai as he tried to ambush animals with his bow and poisoned arrows.
Fifty more snares were collected on the 7th and 8th, one animal was found dead in a snare.
The Nigro-are rangers patrolled across the Mara River on the 8th and managed to arrest one person at Serengeti Ndogo at 6.30 in the evening, he then told the patrol that their camp was nearby and one more person was arrested in camp. They both then said that there were others who had gone to check their snares and three more people were caught by 8.00 pm – Morani, one of our dogs assisted in the arrest on one person. Five snares were collected and five wildebeest had been butchered
One person was arrested for poaching by the Nigro-are team on the 9th near Nyakita Tone in the Lemai Wedge, his companion escaped. They were setting snares and 12 were recovered. The Iseiya rangers collected 56 on the same day, rescued one wildebeest and found where three had been butchered.
A total of 82 snares were collected by our ranger teams on the 11th; 28 by Iseiya near Lemai and Lugga ya Ngiri and 54 by the Nigro-are team near Nyatita Tone. A total of nine wildebeest and one zebra had been butchered, four wildebeest were rescued and a further four were dead in snares.
The Iseiya rangers crossed over to Serengeti Ndogo on the evening of the 12th and managed to arrest six people – all of them between 16-21 years old - in two different operations. In the first, eight people were seen coming into the Park to hunt with machetes and three of them were arrested at around 6.00 pm. A little after dark another group of 13 came in to hunt and three more were arrested. All the arrests were made before any animals were killed.
The Iseiya rangers collected 56 wire snares on the 13th and then left at 4.00 am the following morning to set up an all-day ambush. Three people were seen entering the Lemai Wedge but they left before the rangers could get to them. The Ngiro-are rangers collected 88 snares, rescued two wildebeest, found three dead in snares and where three had been butchered. The Iseiya team recovered two snares, rescued one wildebeest and found one dead in a snare.
Two snares were recovered on the 15th .
The Iseiya rangers went on a three day patrol from the 16th and managed to arrest five poachers in the 17th. The operated just across the Mara River and were joined by their counterparts from Kogatende and Lobo. In the first instance, they managed to arrest two people who were hunting with machetes between Ngira and Mlima Hotel. That evening they managed to arrest three more people who were hunting with snares; 31 were recovered and a total of nine wildebeest had been butchered. The Nigro-are rangers also had a success on the night of the 16/17th, when they arrested two people, one of the people would not have been arrested without the use of Morani, our tracker dog. The rangers had found 63 snares during the day and ambushed them, six wildebeest were rescued.
Seventy two snares were collected on the 19th and 20th during routine patrols in the Lemai Wedge, around Lempise and Kokamange. Five wildebeest were rescued and two had been butchered.
One person was arrested by the Nigro-are rangers during a late patrol on the 21st, as he came in to check his snares. That day our patrols had found and collected 32 snares, rescued two wildebeest, found two dead in snares and where a further two had been butchered. Two days later our patrols found where another three had been butchered.
The Iseiya team managed to arrest four people on the evening of the 24th . Several groups, maybe totaling 20 people, started entering the northern Serengeti just before dark. The four were arrested as they tried to kill wildebeest with machetes, one animal was killed before the people were caught. On the same day the Nigro-are team collected 17 snares and found where two wildebeest had been butchered.
The following day the rangers returned to look for two items that were lost when apprehending the poachers. They found one of the items but saw two people approaching with wildebeest meat whilst they were searching. Our rangers managed to arrest one person.
Six snares were recovered on the 28th, one animal had been butchered and another was found dead in a snare. The next day our rangers picked up two rangers from Kogatende and set up an ambush in an area called Mbali Mbali – people started entering the Park as soon as it was dark in groups of up to half a dozen, one person was arrested but not before three wildebeest had been killed by slashing them across the spine.
Forty two snares were recovered on the 30th, four wildebeest were rescued; two plus a zebra were dead and we found where five had been butchered. Three more people were arrested at Mbali Mbali just after dark, when our two teams went on a late patrol.
Revenue and Accounts
July was the first month since February 2020 in which our share of revenue matched our budgeted expenditure but was still only 39.8% of our 2019 revenue. Our July management accounts showed a very significant improvement in our share of Park Fees on 2020 – Ksh 17,117,236 this year, against Ksh 2,112,947 in the previous year. We managed to keep expenditure slightly below budget. August should be even better than July but we fully expect revenue to drop off in September. We are now cautiously optimistic that we have sufficient reserves to see us through to the end of 2021. However, we will almost certainly run out of funds in the low season – March to June next year.
Repairs and maintenance
We graded from Serena to the Baghdad pan on the 4th and then opened up drains later in the month.
Our major project this month was to make a new road up the escarpment, starting on the 9th. The top section required the use of heavy equipment and we used Grade “A” to work on that section. This road is now motorable, though very steep in one section; the steep section will require concreting and this should be done in September.
Our water supply at Oloololo virtually dried up and necessitated a complete overhaul. This meant that we had to dig a very substantial trench to the eye of the spring, clean it out and then rebuild the whole catchment. A big job that is now almost complete. This is just a temporary solution, the spring seems to be drying up, and the long-term solution will be to drill a borehole – the survey has already been done.
Both our large Flir cameras are not working, one with a cable problem, the other with a worn gear. So far we have been unable to get either working.
We overhauled the engine of the Nigro-are Land Rover.
Collaboration agreement
· We installed lights in four houses at Zacharia;
· We replaced the water tank at Musiara, replaced some corroded pipes and serviced the windmill;
· We re-aligned the uni-huts at Musiara and cemented the floors;
· We repaired sections of the road from Musiara to Double Crossing;
· We fitted a new cylinder head on one of the vehicles at Sekenani;
· We repaired and serviced the grader.
Report on focus for August
Focus for September 2021
Hold Board meeting on 24th;
Complete concrete work on road up the escarpment;
Complete work on Oloololo water supply;
Get quotations for a borehole at Oloololo;
Try and get both Flir Cameras working;
Work on Collaboration Agreement
– funds permitting;
o Service all windmills;
o Renovate one house at Musiara;
o Grade sections of the main roads; and
o Maintain vehicles and equipment.