General
We were very sad to hear that Justice (Rtd) Jonny Havelock had died during the night of the 27th after a long battle with cancer. He was a very valuable Board member for several years and had a distinguished career as a Lawyer and then High Court Judge.
We had 67 mm of rain in September at Serena, some areas of the Triangle had a lot more. This brings our total for the year to nearly 1,000 mm. This was sufficient rain to send most of the wildebeest South, only a few groups remained.
The new Governor for Narok County HE Patrick Ntutu visited the Triangle with a large delegation on the 1st and 2nd. They visited Mara Bridge, Serena, Ngiro-are and Oloololo and had a meeting with a few County leaders at Serena. We have been asked to increase our assistance to the Main Reserve and will look into supplying rations and uniforms for the rangers as a first step.
Dr William Ruto was confirmed as the new President of Kenya by the Supreme Court on the 5th, he was then sworn in on Tuesday 13th of September. Most Kenyans are relieved that the campaigning and elections are over and they can now get on with life.
We held our Board meeting on the 23rd, Governor Ntutu attended with Mr David Muntet from the County. The Audited accounts for the year ending 30th June were approved and will be signed by the Chairman and Mr N Lowis. The Governor asked me to prepare a budget for an increased management role in the Main Reserve, this has been done.
Collaboration Agreement
This month we concentrated on completing work at Mara Bridge, the ranger camp is now fully operational and we have constructed a new toilet block at the Hippo Pool. We have agreed to employ someone to clean and maintain the new toilet block.
We completed a new toilet block for ladies at Ol Kiombo and this should now be ready for use.
We have made canvas covers for the ranger vehicles and new seat covers for all the vehicles in the Main Reserve.
We also made new signs for the Main Reserve and have started installing them, we will have to make 12 more.
We supplied rations for 304 people on the 15th and will continue to supply twice a month. We have a sample of the fabric for uniforms and have given it to the Chief Park Warden for approval, the normal fabric will not be available until December.
The equipment was sent to Narok for audit and has not yet been returned, this is delaying work on the roads.
COVID-19
Covid no longer seems to be a major concern, the positivity rate remains at less than 1% and most places have lifted their restrictions.
Tourism
We had 11,588 non-resident adult visitors in the Triangle during August, still around 80% of the non-residents who visited in August 2019. The real challenge we faced in August was the huge number of non-paying visitors – 9,934 or 52% of our total visitors. This translates to an average of 320 people a day who visited the Triangle, but did not pay us. This is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently if we are to retain the quality that we have strived so hard to achieve.
Staff
Ms Happiness Talash has started on a degree course at the University of Nairobi.
Wildlife
We lost one of our four cheetah cubs on the 20th, there was no visible cause of death, although the stomach was completely empty despite the mother making kills on a daily basis.
Nearly all the wildebeest left in the last half of September and it is unlikely that they will return in any great numbers. Yet again we are witnessing a very poor migration. The wildebeest were only around for two months, when they used to stay until mid-November. Not only that, there were comparatively few crossings, with most of the animals crossing the Mara River in Tanzania.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)/Sheldrick vet treated a lion with multiple spear wounds at Olare Orok, near Talek on the 23rd, before removing snares from an eland and a zebra in the Triangle. The eland had probably been snared on the escarpment and the zebra had a wa Kuria snare, most likely from the Lemai Wedge.
Security
We arrested a total of 31 poachers in September, all of them in the Northern Serengeti. Our patrols recovered 169 wire snares; rescued 10 wildebeest and two zebra; found one zebra, an eland and four wildebeest in snares; and where 25 wildebeest and a hippo have been butchered.
The rangers went on a late patrol on the 31st of August and managed to arrest four people soon after dark as they headed for the Ngiro-are swamp. One of the four would have escaped if it were not for Shakaria, one of our tracker dogs. The following day our patrol found 34 snares, managed to rescue one wildebeest, but found a dead zebra and where three wildebeest had been butchered.
Twenty six wire snares were collected on the 2nd, four wildebeest and a zebra were rescued. The following day the rangers patrolled across the river, towards Tabora B and came across a place where seven wildebeest had been butchered. They set up an ambush and managed to two people.
The patrols continued to collect snares and found 48 on the 6th. Six wildebeest were rescued, as was one zebra. However, three wildebeest were found dead in snares.
Our ranger teams joined up on the 7th and crossed the river towards Serengeti Ndogo and Tabora B. They saw four people hunting with dogs and machetes at noon and managed to arrest three of them. The continued with their patrol and managed to arrest two more people after dark in an area known as Matoro, near Machechwe. They managed to arrest all five before they had killed any animals.
The following day our patrols collected 18 wire snares and then later they met up with the de-snaring teams operating in the Lemai Wedge. For the past few years TANAPA have had these teams operating in the Wedge, their sole purpose is to collect snares and they tend to operate early in the morning. In August they collected 3,300 snares and within the first ten days of September had already found 1,200.
Fourteen snares were recovered on the 13th, one wildebeest was found dead in a snare. The rangers then went on an all-day/night patrol and managed to arrest two people carrying wildebeest meat at 4.00 am on the 14th. They also found 40 cattle grazing in the Lemai Wedge and handed them over to our counterparts at Kinyangaga.
A three day patrol across the River between the 15th and 18th yielded no poachers, though 22 snares were recovered and the rangers found where one zebra had been slaughtered. Two more snares were found on the 19th.
Our rangers saw about 10 poachers butchering a hippo near Lemai, unfortunately they were on the wrong side of the river and all managed to escape. Two snares were recovered during the patrol.
Most of the poacher activity is taking place South of the Mara River and so our rangers went on another two day/one night patrol on the 23rd. They were joined by three rangers from Tabora B and managed to arrest eight people. The rangers found a camp during the day, where seven wildebeest had been slaughtered and butchered. They set up an ambush in that area and managed to arrest five people that night, one of them was only found after Morani, our dog, tracked him. The next morning three more people were caught carrying the meat from four wildebeest. A total of eight snares were recovered during the patrol and a further 19 over the next two days, one wildebeest had been butchered and an eland found dead in a snare.
Our patrols went out for an all-night patrol on the 27th and managed to arrest four people. The Iseiya team crossed the river and managed to catch two people from two groups of poachers totaling at least 14 people – they had already killed four wildebeest when captured. The Nigro-are team caught two others as they were leaving the Lemai Wedge at 5.00 am with a wildebeest they had killed. The patrol saw these poachers much earlier, as they went to check their snares and decided to set an ambush for the return.
Six more poachers were arrested on the 28th, when our teams joined up with a ranger from Kogatende and set up an ambush near Mlima Hotel in the Northern Serengeti. They first saw the six at 6.40 pm and had arrested them all by 8.00, nothing had been killed.
Revenue and Accounts
The Table below is a summary of the Profit and Loss Statement from Deloittes, our Auditors, for the year ending 30th June 2022. As can be seen below, we have managed to change a significant loss in 2021 into a reasonable profit this last year. This is in no small part due to the amazing support we received from Wildlife Protection Solutions (WPS), we cannot thank them enough.
Table 1: Profit and Loss Statement
\Our total revenue for August amounted to Ksh 121,678,406 (at an exchange rate of Ksh 119:1US$), almost as much as we received for the whole of last year in Park Fees. This is slightly less than we received in August 2019 (91.8%) but more than twice our collection in the same month last year. This certainly puts us on the road to recovery and we have already managed to set aside a reasonable reserve, sufficient for the low season and more.
Repairs and maintenance
We made a track near Little Governors into an all-weather road. We started on one on Oloololo Game Ranch but it was too wet and we stopped until it dries out.
We graded sections of the main roads that had become corrugated. The roads are all in excellent condition.
DRL came and upgraded our aerials for the radio system. We installed a new mast at Nigro-are and improved the masts in all other stations.
The front axle on the Tata tipper lorry was bent and had to be straightened in Nairobi.
We overhauled the engine on the Nigro-are Land Rover. This vehicle is earmarked for sale this year.
Report on focus for September
Focus for October 2022
· Maintain buildings in the Triangle;
· Patch roads; and
· Order two new Land Cruisers.
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Plan next quarter’s priorities;
· Purchase uniforms;
· Grade roads;
· Install road signs;
· Provide basic Park Rules and map at the gates;
· Continue with anti-harassment;