Kenya to burn its entire stockpile of Ivory

Kenya’s wildlife authority has vowed to destroy the east African country’s vast ivory stockpile which is nine times more than the largest pile torched so far.

In March, Kenyan President set fire to 15 tons of Ivory, the largest amount ever burned at once in Africa.

The remaining stockpile of ivory weighs 137 tonnes and would dwarf that.

Veteran conservationist Richard Leakey, who is once again boss of the government’s Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), said the ivory would be destroyed in the year ahead.

“I am absolutely sure” it will be destroyed, Leakey told reporters, promising “quite a dramatic event”, without giving further details.

The average weight of a pair of elephant tusks is approximately 36kg, so the stockpile represents about 3,820 dead elephants

The ivory includes tusks seized from poachers, and also any that has been recovered from animals that died a natural death.

I have visited the burning site in Nairobi National Park and seen the huge pits of charred and broken ivory pieces, grey or sometimes still white in colour. It was an emotional place to stand and contemplate the sheer numbers of gentle giants that they represent, and the shame and embarrassment of being a member of the human race. We are worse than animals, as we are endowed with the brains to know better.

Rhino poaching in Namibia

The carcasses of another two black rhinos that had been killed for their horns were found in the south-western part of Etosha National Park early last week.

One of the animals was a cow that had been dehorned by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism
in May. It was nevertheless killed by poachers who then removed the remaining stumps of the
animal's horns. It had a calf, which was missing as of Friday.

The other rhino had not been dehorned, and it was found on Tuesday minus its horns.

Namibia has so far this year lost at least 79 rhinos to poaching.

Twenty-five rhinos were poached in Namibia last year,  four were poached in 2013, two in 2012, and only one in 2011.

What is even more upsetting is that Namibia holds a large number of Black rhinos which are critically endangered with numbers World wide of only around 4000 individuals.

So much for the notion that hunting in Namibia is aiding conservation and stopping poaching.

Corruption and elephant poaching in Zimbabwe

Rory Young works for Chengeta Wildlife, a non-profit organisation that was registered in the
United States last year to support the efforts of Zimbabwe wildlife conservationists.

He believes that his anti-poaching training operations in the Kariba area were about to make
real headway when he was suddenly summoned to report to the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO).

A few days after the encounter with the secret service, he had left Zimbabwe for good and the
country's loss had become Malawi's gain.

"When I protested that I had been given a two-year residence permit in order to train anti-
poaching personnel, that I was training police with the authority of police headquarters and
with the permission of the appropriate authority for the area, I was told to shut up, that they
were above the police, and that even if I had done nothing wrong, they would find a reason to
arrest me and throw away the key unless I stayed away from the area and did no training in
Zimbabwe." he said.

Young said that the CIO wanted him and other conservationists far away from Matusadona and
Nyaminyami National Parks.

Many conservationists think that rogue members of the country's security forces have a hand in
the resurgent cases of cyanide elephant poaching that has seen more than 60 elephants killed
for their ivory in Hwange alone.

While the actual killing may be done by some of the desperate locals suffering from extreme 
poverty, it very unlikely that the illegal export of such quantities could be facilitated without the knowledge and involvement of corrupt senior officials of government agencies.

Is this the end of canned lion hunting?

 A motion has been passed at the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA) AGM that disassociates PHASA with the captive-bred lion industry until such a time that the industry can convince PHASA and the IUCN that the practice is beneficial to lion conservation. (Which will be never)

Canned lion breeders and supporters were outvoted 147 to 103.

European Parliament members recently were showed the film 'Blood Lions'. As a consequence of this, the UK government has decided to meet next week for a full debate on the conservation status of lions, including the role played by all forms of trophy hunting.

Well done Ian Michler, who made the documentary. The man is a wildlife hero. Let's leave lions in peace and hope they multiply.

Some facts about hunting Lions in Zimbabwe with reference to the killing of Cecil

From an interview with lion researcher Brent Stapelkamp who worked with Cecil in Hwange.

First, there was no hunting quota on lions this year in the Gwaai area. The minimum age of lion
that can be hunted is six years. Last year in 2014 only one lion out of the five shot in the
area was above the age of six. One of those lions was just 2 years old. So this year, the hunters were penalised, and the quota was removed from the landowners. Cecil was supposed to be 100% safe because there was no lion hunting allowed this year.

Second, the Zimbabwe law says that if you’re hunting a lion you must have a parks ranger with
you. There was no parks ranger present.

Third, the hunter shot Cecil with a compound bow. The law says you must have a special permit
for that, as well as ranger present on a bow hunt.

Fourth, the hunt permit was bought on a quota swap, which is illegal. The hunting operator
bought the permit from an area elsewhere in the country, which had no lions. Then he came to
the area next to Hwange and hunted Cecil with an illegal permit.

Fifth, there were no hunt return forms, no tax invoice, and no one in an official position in
parks knew they were hunting – all of which is illegal.

- See more at: http://africageographic.com/blog/aftermath-cecil-interview-lion-researcher-
brent-stapelkamp/#sthash.Cq6s5RmI.dpuf


Does anyone honestly believe that Walter Palmer didn't know any of this when he arranged to 
shoot Cecil by baiting him with a carcass in a private area right next to the reserve? 

Given that the story goes that the other pride male - Jericho - fed from the carcass first, but
the hunters didn't try for him, it would suggest that they knew exactly what they were doing and which lion they wanted to kill. Could they have failed to notice his collar? No, Cecil's demise was well planned and badly executed. Eleven hours between being shot and dying is a long time to be in pain.

So why did the Government of Zimbabwe drop the call for the extradition of Palmer? Because they don't want to lose the flow of dollars from foreign hunters. Stuff the legality.

Meanwhile the strongest and genetically the best equipped to survive lions continue to be 
killed, thus ensuring the that the genes from the weaker and less fit lions get passed on. And
there is the fallout from killing a pride male where another male will move in and kill all the 
cubs left by the previous incumbent. 

And then the hunters can put another bait out at a later date and kill him too.

It's complete lunacy.

Some good news about rhinos

Zimbabwe appears to be winning the battle to save its  rhino population against  poachers as the number killed has gone down significantly from 60 animals in 2013 to six in the past 15 months.

Figures released by wildlife organisations  to mark the World Rhino Day, show that
rhino poaching is on the decline after the government and conservation experts adopted a raft
of measures including stiff prison terms for convicted poachers.

Dehorning the rhinos and satellite tracking has also helped curb poaching, in the process
boosting the country's tourism.

In the late 1980s, Zimbabwe had a rhino population of about 2,000 but the numbers have crashed
to around 760.

The International Rhino Foundation, which has been working with a local conservation trust, the
Lowveld Rhino Trust (LRT), said the decrease in rhino poaching can be attributed to anti-
poaching efforts, tracking and monitoring.

Many rhinos have also been moved from high-risk areas in Hwange and the Zambezi Valley
to safer areas in the Lowveld and private conservancies while local communities have also
cooperated in building support for rhino conservation.

Over the last three to four years, the rhino population has been growing annually between five
and 10 percent, which is great news for the species future in Zimbabwe.

Cyanide Poisoning of elephants in Zimbabwe

A Zimbabwe parks official says that 22 more elephants have been killed by cyanide poisoning in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park.

This brings the number of elephants poisoned by poachers in October in this southern Africa country to 62. In early October, the parks reported three incidents in which 40 elephants were killed by cyanide poisoning. Three were killed in the Kariba area because they ate oranges laced with cyanide. The rest were killed in Hwange National Park

In 2013, more than 200 elephants died from cyanide poisoning in Hwange. Cyanide is an indiscriminate killer as, if added to a waterhole it will kill anything that drinks there. It has killed a large number of game animals and birds - and will even kill vultures if they feed off the carcasses.

Cyanide is widely used in Zimbabwe's mining industry and is easy to obtain.

Elephant poaching on the increase in Kruger

At least 19 elephants have been killed in Kruger National Park since January, and 12 of those were killed in September and October.

This is compared to only two elephant deaths in the KNP in 2014.

The first elephant poaching incident in 10 years occurred in the Pafuri section of the park in May last year.

It's coming - now that East Africa has been decimated the poachers are moving to where there 
are bigger herds left.

"Queen of Ivory" arrested in Tanzania

A Chinese woman who has been dubbed "The Queen of Ivory" has been arrested in Tanzania

She was amongst a number of high level Chinese ivory traffickers who have been arrested. The woman, named Yang Fen Glan, has been observed by a wildlife trafficking unit from Tanzania's National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit for more than a year before the arrests were made.

She is thought to be the head of a network which trafficked a huge amount of ivory going back at least as far as 2006. She has confessed to many crimes and could face 20-30 years in jail.

Hopefully she will provide information leading to the arrest of other major traffickers and corrupt government officials.

Let's not let corruption and bribery screw this one up.

Zimbabwe: More elephants killed by cyanide poisoning

11 elephants have died as a result of another cyanide poisoning incident in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.

Also a number of vultures have died after feeding offthecarcasses. Possibly other scavengers have died as well.

Whether the tusks have been removed or not by poachers has not been made public as yet.

Last month three elephants died in Kariba after eating cyanide laced oranges.