General
The rains were sporadic, light and local throughout November, with some areas hardly getting any at all. The river is very low for this time of year and we can expect virtually no flow in February/March next year, unless there is some substantial and sustained rainfall in December.
The Governor attended part of our Board meeting on the 22nd and was able to address the concerns raised by the Chairman on issues concerning the Management Plan and our relationship with the Main Reserve.
We have received a template for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Serengeti and Mara and hope to work on in before the end of this year.
We received another US$ 50,000 from Wildlife Protection Solutions(WPS) on the 15th , we cannot thank them enough for their continued support.
We held a meeting at the Masai Education Centre on the 23rd to discuss conservation initiatives in the Nyakweri forest and agreed to work with the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association (MMWCA) in developing the proposed Olorien Conservation area.
The Boundaries Commission for Kenya and Tanzania constructed border beacons every 200 meters along the Park boundary – in the past we had a beacon every kilometer. They only seem to be targeting certain areas and will now move to the border near Lakes Magadi and Natron and extend to Namanga.
The warriors (Morans) from five Siria sub-clans joined together to form a large manyatta prior to graduating in late December, this should ease pressure on our lions but there is still a danger in the coming two weeks.
A fuel tanker belonging to Haas Petroleum overturned on the approach to Mara Serena on the 27th, blocking the road and spilling about 2,000 liters of diesel on the road.
Research
We received an abridged version of the Mara River Project’s Annual Report from Dr Amanda Subalusky. For those interested in some interesting but academic papers, I have listed three below.
Kemp, A. C., C. H. Vane, A. W. Kim, C. L. Dutton, A. L. Subalusky, S. K. Kemp, and A. C. Parnell. D. Fecal sterols as a potential tool for conservation paleobiology in East Africa. In press at Biodiversity and Conservation.
Dutton, C. L., A. L. Subalusky, A. Sanchez, S. Estrela, N. Lu, S. K. Hamilton, L. Njoroge, E. J. Rosi, and D. M. Post. 2021. The meta-gut: community coalescence of animal gut and environmental microbiomes. In press at Scientific Reports; published in BioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.06.438626
Frauendorf, T. C., 1A. L. Subalusky, C. L. Dutton, S. Hamilton, F. Masese, D. M. Post, E. J. Rosi, G. Singer. 2021. Animal legacies lost and found in freshwater ecosystems. Environmental Research Letters 16:115011. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2cb0/meta
Collaboration Agreement
We have done some work on the other side:
· We re-surfaced sections of the Keekorok airstrip and then moved on to Ol Kiombo;
· We graded the road between Keekorok and Sekenani Gate;
· We worked on the road between Talek and Ol Kiombo.
We also submitted a short proposal to the Governor on anti-harassment in the Main Reserve
COVID-19
A new variant of the virus, the Omicron variant - first appeared in South Africa and is causing great concern worldwide – it seems to be extremely contagious and no one quite knows whether the vaccines adequately cover it. This has led to most of Europe banning travel to and from Southern Africa and we are not yet sure of the implications for travel to and from East Africa -this could not come at a worse time, just when international travel was picking up and we are heading into the Christmas season.
Kenya has had 254,979 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and 5,334 deaths - less than 0.1% of the global total. Only 28 new cases were confirmed on the 29th November, whereas the global number for the same day was 667,596. A total of 7,063,927 people have been vaccinated in Kenya – 2,709,473 have received their second vaccine – including all our staff on the 30th.
Tourism
We have had a trickle of international visitors throughout most of November. We are already seeing cancellations as a result of the Omicron variant, and yet no one really knows enough about it. In South Africa it doesn’t seem to be filling wards and we can only hope that it will significantly less dangerous than the earlier variants. In the short term we can definitely expect to see a drop in tourists.
Mara Engai are due to open on the 1st December after being closed for over a year and a half.
Staff
The County Staff Promotions Committee sat from the 1st – 3rd at Mara Serena to review security staff applications for promotion. Most of our recommendations were endorsed and staff who have been acting in positions will now have those positions ratified.
We hosted two Annual General Meetings (AGM) for Madison – the pension scheme and for Kentours – the staff savings and loans scheme.
We selected 20 members of staff to go on a training course at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) training base in Manyani. We have paid for the course and are awaiting a start date, probably the 8th January 2022. Some of the rangers will be on a basic training course whilst others will undergo Junior Commanders training.
Wildlife
We still have thousands of zebra and even several herds of wildebeest remained in the Triangle until the 28th, mainly concentrated along the border.
Cases of human-wildlife conflict always escalate when there is a drought and people are competing with wildlife for resources. This month was no exception, two people were killed by elephant in the County – one in the Nyakweri forest on the 7th and another at Narosura on the 17th.
One young elephant was treated by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)/Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT) veterinary team on the 10th – it would appear that the elephant had been caught in a snare and that it had then been attacked by lions. It possibly broke free – severing the trunk – when poachers tried to spear it, as it had a deep spear wound as well as multiple injuries from the lion attack. Sadly the young elephant died on the 16th.
A buffalo had a snare removed on the 17th by the same team.
One giraffe was killed near Partikilat on the escarpment on the 10th, it’s head had been removed. Our rangers set an ambush but no one came in.
Security
A total of 16 people were arrested for poaching and another 43 in the operation to rid the Nyakweri forest of charcoal burners. We recovered 475 snares, rescued one reedbuck, one topi, five wildebeest and eight zebra. Unfortunately we found one lion, a zebra and a wildebeest dead in snares, and where 20 wildebeest had been butchered, as were two zebra, two reedbuck and a bushbuck.
A large multi-sectoral operation to rid the Nyakweri forest of charcoal burners ended on the 7th with the arrest of 43 people, the confiscation of 101 bags of charcoal and the impounding of 11 motor cycles. Numerous axes, spades etc were also confiscated, as was one power saw. We supported the operation with funds for fuel and lunches.
Thirty three snares were collected on the 31st and 1st, seven of them set for giraffe. The rangers joined forces for an ambush on the 1st near Mlima Hotel in the Northern Serengeti. They managed to arrest one person from a group of six. The group had already killed nine wildebeest and were carrying snares, nine spears, machetes and torches, they also had dogs with them. The following night two more people were arrested in the same area, the two had killed two wildebeest with machetes and were carrying out the meat when caught.
Fifty four snares were collected in the Lemai Wedge on the 3rd and 4th, the rangers managed to rescue a reedbuck and then on the 6th they arrested one person who was part of a small group that had killed two reedbuck – a mother and young.
Three snares were recovered on the 8th, one of them had a dead zebra. That night the rangers joined forces with out Tanzanian counterparts and managed to arrest three people from a gang of 11 near Tabora B in the Northern Serengeti. Two more people were arrested the next day in the same area – they had killed a zebra and a wildebeest. The patrol continued until after nightfall and managed to arrest one person at 9.00 pm.
The rangers joined forces again for a two day patrol on the 11th and saw fresh signs of poaching well into the Serengeti but did not manage to see anyone.
Our patrols collected 13 snares on the 15th and 16th, five of them about a kilometer into the Triangle near Maji ya Suyia. The rangers found another 14 snares the next day and ambushed the area, poachers came in very early but managed to evade arrest so another ambush was set up near the Nigro-are swamp and they arrested one person at 3.00 am – as he and his companions returned from Maji ya Bett on the border. They had killed one wildebeest and a zebra.
We continued to see signs of poaching and an ambush set on the 19th came across a group of poachers with six donkeys, obviously going to collect a stash of meat. Sadly all the poachers escaped.
Two hundred and fifty four snares were collected in the Lamai Wedge between the 20th and 23rd, a number of animals were rescued, including: one topi, five wildebeest and seven zebra. One wildebeest was dead in a snare and another seven had been butchered.
Out teams found a total of 32 snares on the 24th, one zebra was rescued and one of the teams found a lion in a snare at Elengata Oltaboi, in the Lemai Wedge. The lion was alive, with his companion nearby, when first found but in trying to escape it hanged itself. The Tanzanians took the carcass away.
The Iseiya rangers managed to arrest two people near Lugga ya Ngiri in the Lemai Wedge at 2.00 pm on the 25th, they were on their way to hunt and had not killed anything. On the same day a combined team of our rangers, the KWS and the Mara Elephant Project (MEP) arrested one person on the escarpment with bushbuck meat. Another person was arrested by the Nigro-are team on the 26th, as he and his companion started hunting, 11 snares were recovered.
Our ranger teams came across 56 snares on the 27th and decoded to ambush the site, one person came in at 9.00 pm and was arrested with another five snares.
Revenue and Accounts
Our management accounts for the period July to October showed a very significant increase in revenue over both last year and the budget (Ksh 84 million against a budget of Ksh 43 million and revenue of Ksh 21 million in 2020). Park fees accounted for 63% of the revenue but we could not have managed without the support from WPS. Our expenditure was 6% above budget at Ksh 52 million and we still have some big items on training and uniforms.
We are very concerned about the new Covid variant and the possible implications on international travel. We will institute further cost-cutting measures as we try and gage the impact.
Repairs and maintenance
We completed murram work on the new section of road at Partikilat, there are still two small concrete drifts to be completed.
We graded and re-shaped the main road between Mara Serena and Mara Bridge.
Grade A completed concrete work on the road up to Partikilat, the steepest sections and drifts are now fully concreted.
We completed the toilet block at Eluai, there is no running water so we constructed two pit latrines and a small room for bathing.
Collaboration agreement
We prepared and submitted a budget for work in the Main Reserve but have not yet received the funding. In the meantime we have repaired two runways and graded key roads.
Report on focus for November
Focus for December
· Receive funds for work in the Main Mara;
· Sign new collaboration agreement;
· Conduct staff appraisals; and
· Complete two short drifts on new road at Partikilat;
Work on Collaboration Agreement – Dependent on Agreement and funding;
o Continue with road works;
§ Keekorok to Olololamutia;
§ Keekorok to Sand River;
§ Talek to Musiara;