Archive for the ‘Human/Wildlife Conflict’ Category
Last week I reported on the death of a hippo at Kasindi Port on the Lake Edward. However there are some hippos that fare better there, like the one known by local fisherman as “Jackson.”
Jackson Jackson is a solitary male who for the 8 last years has made his home in and around Kasindi. From time to time he gets out of the water and walks through the village to go forage for short grasses. He doesn’t attack the people, and thankfully the villagers ignore him too.
Jackson uses the same beach that fisherman use to get their boats in and out of the water. It is really so amazing to see a wild animal live peacefully side by side with humans. If only it was always the case… You can see the lake behind me and Jackson
Even the chickens aren’t afraid of him!
A female hippo was found dead at Kasindi, on the edge of Lake Edward, East from Ishango right on the border with Uganda. We had been told by locals and the local army that it had died of natural causes.
However, when we went to investigate, we discovered that the hippo had clearly been shot- you can see the one of the bullet injuries in the picture below.
We think that someone shot the hippo and reported it, hoping that we would say that it would be OK to carve up the hippo for meat. However, the inspector stood firm and did not allow anyone to eat the hippo. It may seem like a waste of food in a country where many people are malnourished, but we felt that it would send the wrong message if we allowed the hippo to be eaten.
The Ruwenzori area has so much potential and there is plenty of food for these primates. Everywhere you go there is ripe fruits which are a source of food for chimps, as you can see this tree loaded with ripe fruits.
Food for chimps
They like to stay around and eat their fill. They enjoy to drink the content of these particular fruits mostly as nowadays we are facing a rain season in this particular area, so chimps are harvesting, Near these trees overloaded with ripe fruit you will found many nests.
Another tree loaded with fruits, this constitutes one of the vivid evidences showing that there is availability of food in the area
During the dry season generally there is scarcity of food in the mountainous area. Chimps then move to the villagers’ farms in a fragmented group of 3 or 4 to raid bananas or local brew from villagers. This can create human wildlife conflict. Dry season here is going to take place in February up to 15th of March.
So many illegal activities are taking place in the area of the Ruwenzori mountains, as we realise it in my previous post. During my recent field visit in the area it was impossible to cover all the Ruwenzori area - it is120km long I have been only Mwenda area under control of O.A.N as sample, where we encountered so many illegal activities - activities which are not compatible with conservation because they disturb the habitat and the chimpanzees themselves inside their natural environment. That’s why it has been so difficult for my team to see and to meet these great apes, but so many evidences have been observed in the field such as Nest of chimpanzees.
As you know chimpanzees build nests in which they spend their night or when taking rest during the day time.
This is the environment in which chimps live. The two white houses you see on this picture are a ranger post and an entrance gate for people who climb the mountain. Note the pristine forest. Please we are not allowed to leave this beautiful and unique ecosystem with a lot of potentiality under threat. We tracked chimpanzees for about 5 hours. We were tired, sweating and hungry with our legs unable to carry us any further. At some point we had to use our hands to prevent us rolling down hill.
It is not easy to track down chimpanzees, in a mountainous area. You should have to behave like a chimps, to follow their tracks. I do not know if you are getting the clear picture of the situation. Imagine what its look like in a mountainous area with steep hills. It was difficult to meet with chimps!
More than twenty nest of chimpanzee were seen in the sampled area, but if we investigate in deep really i believe we must found many nest. As I said the chimps have been frustrated. This particular area has been used for more than 20 years since 1986 for military operational purposes conducted by the Ugandan army when they were tracking A.D.F /NALU rebels who are hostile to the actual Ugandan regime. Once upon a time they were taking refuge in this chimpanzee habitat- poaching, timber harvesting, land clearing and the like, so when human beings approach they run away and take refuge in patches of a riverine forest found in an inaccessible gorge. It is a kind of defense mechanism that they have developed in order to survive from different threats of different kinds.
As you can realise on this picture, the team working with me in the monitoring department. Observe the picture carefully, some of them are wearing sandals. Also the monitoring team should be putting on clothes which blend with the environment, the best one is green color, because the whitish or reddish one scare the animals. So on this visit we only saw foot prints. Nests were observed, which is a good indicator showing that really they are in the area.
I will post more about the availability of food and the vocal communication of chimpanzees in a few days!
The Ruwenzori mountain chimpanzees are facing a lot of threats, because so many illegal activities are taking place in the area,and you should know that people face considerable challenges that are triggered by poverty,political instability so in order to satisfy their basic day to day needs, people don’t have other alternatives,most of the people do get their daily bread using hand hoe farming activities,burning agriculture, so imagine what can be their life standard, some people with bad will in order to make quick money they prefer to conduct illegals activities which are not so friendly to the environment,during my preliminary field survey in the area the following illegal activities were identified: -logging activities
-illegal and unplanned fire caused by burning agriculture
-Poaching activities both with guns and dogs,snare
-Deforestation -Timber harvesting During my visit in the area one of the local chief whom i found full involved in timber harvesting activities told me that, some months back he was an activist in the O.A.N association, then after he did not get any benefit from protecting chimpanzees in Mwenda that why in order to survive , he has been oblige to leave the association and to start logging and harvesting timber in the area,unfortunately different activities which are taking place in the area are not compatible with the conservation of fauna and Flora. |
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