General
The first half of December was very dry and there were real concerns that the short rains would completely fail. However, the second half of the month was wet, with some heavy storms over the Christmas period. Our total rainfall for the year stood at 1,248 mm (50”). The total was slightly above average but the distribution was different from a normal year, with heavy rain in January and February (usually dry months) and very little in November, a wet month.
A lion killed a herder in the Main Reserve near Oloolaimutia on the 4th, it would appear that he fell asleep whilst herding cattle at night.
The Governor launched a new-look Mara on the 8th when he presented five new Toyota Land Cruisers, 630 new uniforms for all County security staff and was given authority to issue automatic weapons to replace the old Lee Enfield .303s. The new weapons are still to be issued and are being held by the Police.
Mr Mark Jenkins was killed, together with his son Peter, in a plane accident on the Galana/Tsavo boundary on the early morning of December 8th. Mark was a very committed conservationist and had been invited to join the Board to replace Robert Carr-Hartley but sadly was unable to because of his commitments to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT).
We held a Board meeting on the 9th, at which we agreed to invite Mr Nigel Shaw onto the Board to replace the late Jonny Havelock.
I met with the Governor on the 12th to discuss work priorities for the coming months and to review the progress to date. He managed to visit the ranger station at Osero Sopia and was very impressed.
Dr Mark Stanley-Price passed away on the 13th after a long battle with cancer. Mark was a very good friend and one of the founder members of the Mara Conservancy. He will be sorely missed.
The Chief Executive spent a week in India from the 14th as a Jurist on the Habitat Trust. The Trust is privately funded and committed to protection lesser known species and habitats in India.
Collaboration Agreement
We repaired to road to the Research Centre near Sekenani – there was talk that it would be the venue for the launch. In the end the venue was changed to Keekorok. The Chief Park Warden commandeered the grader to work on a private road to a camp. The machine was refuelled with adulterated fuel, damaging the injector system.
We installed a repeater at the County offices in Keekorok and reprogrammed all the radios. We now have a control room there. The repeater will be moved as soon as we get a final agreement from ATC Kenya to install the system on one of their towers above Sopa.
We conducted Phase II of the Audit – of all those camps and Lodges outside the Reserve. The figures stated below are in addition to the 49 facilities inside the Reserve giving us a total of 203 tourist facilities in the Mara ecosystem. From the audit, the location, types of facilities and their bed capacities were determined. “The facilities consisted of: 22 Lodges, 119 Tented Camps, 2Cottages, 3 Balloon Operators, 1 open campsite, 1 operations base, 2 Airstrips, 1 Bed and Breakfast facility and 2 other facilities. 17 lodges had a bed capacity of over 50 beds and the total bed capacity of the identified facilities was 3,976, with Mara Sopa Lodge having the highest bed capacity at 202”. Add this to the 1,878 beds inside the Reserve and we have 5,854 beds in the Mara. Virtually every camp uses the Reserve, especially in the high season giving us a concentration of one bed per 63 acres – six times the number considered as optimal in the Conservancies. It is little wonder that the Reserve is being destroyed.
Table 1: below is a summary of the facilities that have valid permits or have complied with statutory reequirements.
Our staff working at Osero Sopia broke for Christmas on the 18th and a few will resume work there in early January. Most of the work is complete, including: one new toilet/shower block; a new water system; roofing on 17 uni-huts. A new solar system has been installed, with lighting in all houses. We have started on a kitchen/dining area and an office and will construct one more toilet/shower block.
We were asked to stop ticket monitoring by the Park Administrator on the 27th. The reason given was that the Reserve now had sufficient resources. This was not unexpected, a confidential report on ticketing seemed to have leaked and from then on we were sure that an excuse would be found to close the unit. In the meantime we received numerous reports of vehicles inside the Reserve without valid tickets; 10 of the vehicles and occupants were escorted to gates and made to pay Park fees plus a fine; in the case of another 10, an officer intervened and allowed free entry. One of the Seiya drivers was caught on camera saying that they collected Ksh 6,000 in lieu of ticketing – further justification for closing down the unit.
Dogs
We are looking to replace one of our dogs, it is more of an attack dog than a tracker. We are also looking into selling one of our tracker dog which is more suited for non-wildlife area tracking.
Research
The Hyena Project has collared 25 hyena from the South Clan. The collars currently monitor movement but in January they will be remotely switched to provide far more information. The collars are due to be switched off and released remotely at the end of February.
Tourism
The first half of December was quiet but became very busy over the Christmas/New Year period. We expect visitor numbers to drop off in early January.
Staff
Most of our non-essential staff left for Christmas on the 20th and will resume on the 3rd January.
Wildlife
We are most grateful to SWT for their assistance in organizing and transporting a vet to treat 2 elephant on the 17th. The first, a young elephant had a snare around its head. The second, a large bull, had what appeared to be a bullet wound on the lower leg.
We have several sets of small lion cubs and Risasi, the cheetah with three cubs are thriving – the cubs are now seven months old.
Security
Table 2 below is a summary of the arrests made and snares collected in 2022, the right hand columns give a total since the Conservancy started operations in June 2001. Over 95% of the arrests were made in the Serengeti – a testament to the amazing relationship our rangers have developed with their Tanzanian counterparts.
A total of 24 people were arrested in December for poaching, a further five were arrested in a joint operation with the Administration – they were engaged in female circumcision or Genital Mutilation (FGM). We managed to recover 171 wire snares and found a number of animals that had been killed and butchered. These included: six hippo, five zebra, one lion and a buffalo, all of them in the Northern Serengeti.
Two people arrested by the Iseiya team on the 28th were not recorded, they were arrested near Tabora B whilst the rangers were on an extended patrol.
Four snares were recovered on the 1st and then on the 3rd the Nigro-are team arrested one person near Olaro Nyoike in the Lemai Wedge one more person was arrested by the same team the following day near Lugga Mbaya, 15 snares were recovered.
Three snares were recovered on the 5th morning, one with a dead zebra. A further search found 13 more snares spread out in the Limana/Nyakita Pembe area of the Lemai Wedge. A dead lion found in a snare near Elengata ol Tarboi, close to the Kenya/Tanzania border. The rangers set up an ambush near the first snares and managed to arrest two people from a group of six at 11.00 pm.
Our community scouts worked with the rangers to arrest one person for cutting posts along the escarpment on the 7th. That night the rangers set up an ambush and managed to arrest three people between Miungu and the Ngiro-are swamp. They had killed two zebra in snares and were carrying the meat. One of the two was identified as the person who stole a remote camera a few months ago.
The Sub-County Commissioner organized a joint operation to deal with people involved in Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on the 12th. Our rangers were part of the operation that arrested five people at Machangwa.
Our rangers went on a night patrol on the 13th and managed to arrest five people near Ngira as they were hunting with dogs and torches. During the day the patrol came across six hippo carcasses, from animals that had been hunted and killed over a period of several days, they also found where a zebra had been killed.
On the 16th the rangers at Partikilat were informed of a zebra that had been killed in a fence on the escarpment, they went and found that a leg had been taken. They set up an ambush that night and managed to arrest two people as they returned to take more meat.
Four more poachers were arrested on the 17th, when a patrol came across fresh tracks near Daraja Mbili. The dogs followed the trail to an area we call Sampura, where they were arrested before they could kill anything. They were carrying snares and spears and their intention was to set the snares and then hunt for warthog whilst waiting.
Five more people were arrested on the 21st and 22nd . Two of them during the day across the river and the remainder during night ambushes. A total of 130 snares were collected during different operations. Six more snares were recovered on the 26th and 28th, one zebra and one buffalo had been killed and butchered.
Revenue and Accounts
Visitor numbers, and hence revenue, dropped by 50% in November, when compared with October. Although visitors were still down on 2019 (77%), our revenue was nearly the same (91%), largely as a result of the devaluation of the Kenya Shilling, currently changing at 122.5:1US$.
Repairs and Maintenance
We focused on completing the work in the Main Reserve and also in maintaining our roads.
We spent time on upgrading a track on Oloololo Game Ranch by surfacing it with murram.
Report on focus for December
Focus for January 2023
· Receive modern firearms;
· Grade major roads;
· Repair culverts and drifts;
· Meet with Management of & Beyond;
· Attend Greater Serengeti Society meeting at Ngorongoro; and
· Transfer staff on the 15th.
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Meet with senior management team to plan for next quarter;
· Complete work at Osero Sopia;