General
October was the driest month of the year, we had intermittent showers at the beginning but then it became very hot and dry.
Abercrombie & Kent, through their Foundation have been providing LifeStraw filters to the Schools in the area and have also agreed to provide that at the gates. We received one filter for Oloololo on the 28th.
I met the Governor briefly on the 29th to discuss progress on our Collaboration Agreement. This was after he held a meeting with all the sector Wardens and community leaders from around the Reserve.
Collaboration Agreement
We held a planning meeting for the next quarter on the 8th and followed it up with a site visit to Osero Sopia to plan for an upgrade to the ranger station there. The priorities for the next quarter will be to upgrade Osero Sopia, purchase uniforms and establish a radio network.
Continue to purchase rations and have placed an order for 630 uniforms after agreeing on a payment plan with Manchester Uniforms.
The new ranger station at Mara Bridge is now fully operational, as is the toilet block at Hippo Pools.
We repaired the cylinder head on the Sekenani generator and also repaired the windmill at Sand River.
The road equipment was taken to Narok for Audit and only returned on the 28th. This has severely hampered our ability to work on the roads and airstrips in the Main Reserve.
We deployed a Suzuki Jeep at Olare Orok, it should have been at Musiara to help in ticket monitoring and anti-harassment. We now have three Marutis operating in the Main Reserve and plan on deploying a Land Cruiser in November.
We installed solar power at the office in Keekorok and purchased all the lighting requirements for Osero Sopia.
We have approval to install a repeater above Mara Sopa and will hopefully install it in November, we have ordered more mobile radios and already have seven hand-held radios ready for deployment.
Research
The Hyena Research Program has started collaring the South Clan and hope to place collars on 29 adult hyena. These collars are very sophisticated and will be able to record sound, body movements and the normal GPS location. They will be removed remotely in mid to late February.
We met with Claire Okell and her team who are studying pangolins, with a particular interest in the Giant Pangolins on the escarpment. We discussed training one of our dogs to identify pangolin holes through their scent as a means of finding them. Claire intends to put trackers on the pangolins to determine their movement and behavior.
Tourism
Visitor numbers have dropped off considerably but some of the camps and lodges are still busy and most are projecting an excellent 2023.
Staff
Ranger Kironkai had a hip replacement at Tenwek Hospital, it was injured after an accident whilst working two years ago.
The staff held their Annual General Meetings for the Kentours Savings Cooperative and also for the Madison Pension Scheme on the 18th.
The Senior Warden and Administrator went to the Kenya Forest Service training school – the Forest Law Enforcement Academy (FOLEA) in Londiani and discussed the potential for training our rangers. We have since written a formal letter requesting to have rangers and officers trained there.
Wildlife
Most of the wildebeest had moved off in September, leaving a few herds on the burnt area and in the wetter areas towards Nigro-are. The majority of these animals then moved off by mid-October, leaving a small population on the burn near Ol Donyo Olpaek on the border. We still have a healthy population of zebra and it will be interesting to see how many remain once the rains set in.
The Kenya Wildlife Service/Sheldrick veterinarian treated a giraffe with a wire snare around its leg on the 16th, he also treated an elephant with a septic foot on the same day. This is the fifth time this elephant has been treated.
Predator sightings continue to be excellent and few visitors leave without seeing lion, leopard and cheetah. However, we were unable to locate Risasi, the cheetah with cubs from the 28th, for the first time in over three months.
Security
We managed to arrest 59 people for poaching in October, all of them in Tanzania and most of them South of the Mara River, in. the Northern Serengeti. This is a record number of poachers arrested in a single month – Congratulations to everyone involved. Rangers collected 198 wire snares; found where at least 58 wildebeest had been killed and butchered and also found where one waterbuck, an eland and a warthog had been killed. Four wildebeest, a zebra and a topi were rescued and two wildebeest were found dead in snares.
Our patrols across the River were finding poachers on a daily basis and we had arrested 24 people within the first week. Five people were arrested at Matoro on the 1st during a day patrol. They had already killed two wildebeest, two others were dead in snares and one was rescued.
Our teams set an ambush at Serengeti Ndogo on the 2nd and managed to arrest four people from a group of nine who were on their way to hunt, nothing was killed. The following day four more people were arrested in the same area as they were hunting, they had already killed two wildebeest.
A patrol around Bologonja on the 4th yielded nothing and so the rangers patrolled Binamu and managed to arrest four people in their camp on the 5th. They had killed three wildebeest and stolen another carcass from lions – 17 snares were recovered. Morani, one of our dogs, was responsible for one of the arrests, the poacher had hidden himself in a pool of water and would definitely have escaped without Morani. During the patrol one of the rangers was attacked by a buffalo, the buffalo was shot and killed.
A night ambush on the 6th resulted in the arrest of three people as they hunted, they had already killed two wildebeest. Our angers recovered 40 snares. The next morning four more people were caught as they hunted – one of them hid up a tree and would not have been found without Shakaria – our dog from Nigro-are.
Our teams went towards Tabora B on the 9th evening and saw four people at 1.00 am, as they started to hunt. The rangers managed to arrest 2 by 2.00 am and handed them over to TANAPA, no animals had been killed.
Seventeen snares were recovered on the 10th, one wildebeest had been butchered. The following evening the teams went on an ambush at Vichwa Mia Tatu (so named because the rangers once found a huge cache of skulls, estimated at 300, from poached wildebeest) in the Lemai Wedge and managed to arrest two people at 11.00 pm – they had 16 wire snares.
Twenty three snares were recovered on the 12th on a routine patrol in the Lemai Wedge. That evening the rangers set an ambush near Mlima Hotel, just across the river and managed to arrest one person, from a group of three, he was carrying a wildebeest carcass. Five people were seen early the next morning hinting with dogs but evaded arrest.
Five snares were found on the 14th, one wildebeest and a topi were rescued. Thirteen more snares were recovered the next day and the Nigro-are team managed to arrest one person who was hunting alone.
Bothe teams went on an extended patrol well into the Serengeti on the 16th, they left very early in the morning and had managed to arrest four people by 10.00 am near Matoro. They were arrested whilst chasing wildebeest and had already killed one.
On the 17th they returned to the same general area and arrested one person early near Binamu, four more people were arrested later the same day and taken to Tabora B. The rangers continued with their patrol and managed to arrest three more people by 7.00 am on the 18th. The patrol found where at least 28 wildebeest, one waterbuck and one eland had been killed and butchered. They also found one wildebeest and a topi dead in snares and recovered 15 snares.
The rangers crossed the river for a late patrol on the 21st and set up an ambush at Ngira. They saw three people and managed to arrest one person at 9.00 pm. They continued to ambush the area until 3.00 am but saw no other movement.
A combined patrol set up an ambush at Serengeti Ndogo on the 22nd and managed to arrest one person, he had already killed a warthog when arrested.
Twelve snares were recovered on the 23rd and then the rangers went on a three day patrol around Binamu in the Northern Serengeti from the 24thuntil the 26th. They managed to arrest two people – one on the first night and the other on the 25th. They found where 11 wildebeest had been killed and butchered.
Two more people were arrested on the 27th and 28th. In the first instance the Nigro-are rangers caught one person as he and his companion were setting snares near Olaro Nyioke in the Lemai Wedge. The nest day 15 snares were collected near Maji ya Bett, near the Kenya/Tanzania border – one wildebeest was rescued. That night the rangers set an ambush near Mlima Hotel, just across the Mara River and managed to arrest one, of five people. They found a snare and rescued a zebra.
We collected 21 snares and rescued a wildebeest during a routine patrol on the 30th. Later, the Tanzanians requested assistance after receiving reports of poachers chasing wildebeest into a tourist camp. The Iseiya team went on an all-night ambush near Serengeti Ndogo in the Northern Serengeti and managed to arrest 10 people; four of them at 2.00 am and then another six early in the morning. The six were part of a gang of seven who were hunting with dogs and machetes – they had killed seven wildebeest by the time they were caught. One of the young men had only been arrested a month ago – on the 29th November. The Ngiro-are team also arrested one person with three snares in the Lemai Wedge.
Revenue and Accounts
Our management accounts for the first quarter show that revenue well exceeded our expectations (Ksh 143,899,409 against budget of Ksh 80,660,399) but we managed to keep expenditure to budget. This may change slightly as we have now reinstituted bonuses that were stopped in 2020.
Table 1: Cash flow for the first quarter July through September
Repairs and maintenance
We worked on a road to the escarpment and then patched up the track all along the escarpment. This track provides excellent game viewing but was disused because the numerous small streams coming down the escarpment had become impassable.
We graded the road along the river and patched sections of the main roads between Oloololo and Mara Bridge.
We have repaired the housing at Nigro-are and will now replace twoold ferro-asbestos roofs with corrugated iron.
We have dug a new pit latrine at Purungat for the Ranger station and will complete construction in early November.
We have agreed to grade and murram a short section of road to a school near Kirindon – we will start in November and it should take less than a week.
Report on focus for October
Focus for November 2022
· Complete maintenance work at Nigro-are;
· Complete latrine at Purungat; and
· Complete road to school at Kirindon.
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Work on the Ol Kiombo airstrip;
· Order solar pump for Talek Gate;
· Start construction at Osero Sopia;
· Install signs;
· Install repeater above Sopa;
· Prepare budget for Talek – Sekenani road;