Tumaren

Wilddogs coming out of our ears!

tumaren — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:28:49 +0000

30 Wilddog at Tumaren yesterday drinking water about our river camp! I sent the pictures to the Laikipia Wilddog Project with two close ups of 2 of their collared animals. Kayna from the LWP was able to confirm the identity of both dogs based on markings, one of which was the alpha male. This particular pack also is one that typically spends more time north of here and it was informative for Kayna to know that they sometimes also frequent our area. Now she says that when she cant get a signal during their tracking flights that they will remember to cover our area as well to see if they are in our neck of the woods. Such incredible animals.

This is the alpha male:

Leopard and Elephant pay respects to dead cow

tumaren — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:30:10 +0000

A Leopard and an Elephant came to the carcass of a cow that succumbed to the drought the other night. (the date on our camera is off - this was only a week or so past). Cheers, Jamie

Are The Chinese Fueling Kenya’s Poaching Problem?

tumaren — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:05:38 +0000

When I first heard suggestions that Chinese Road and infrastructure workers were behind a great deal of the recent wave of ivory and bush meat poaching in the country i was skeptical. It sounded like a simple racist jab at some hard working people. And yet the story is everywhere. I even heard a story about KWS officers who found a whole crocodile in a Chinese Road worker freezer last week. This story like many could not be verified but what can verified is beginning to leak slowly to the press. Here is a short list of stories i picked up from a simple google search:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/kenya/090326/elephant-poaching-problem-kenya?page=0,0

http://www.africanconservation.org/content/view/1502/406/

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/530146/-/item/1/-/1moinv/-/index.html

http://www.bushdrums.com/news/index.php?shownews=2129%20-%2031k

http://www.elephanttrust.org/node/541

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2009-02/2009-02-27-voa30.cfm?CFID=212460694&CFTOKEN=86145237&jsessionid=8830bb86c5ff2a67b7154242786e02728400

Another Poached Rhino in Laikipia

tumaren — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:59:19 +0000

Here is the sad story of another poached Rhino. This pressure will never ease until more effort is spent addressing the underlining cause, the unbelievable market value for the horn. We in Kenyan conservation spend so much money breeding Rhinos but i question whether it would be money better spent instituting stiffer sentences, laws and education in those places where Rhino horn is being purchased by the end user.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/-/1070/603874/-/7j85h8/-/

Can you know a Leopard by its spots?

tumaren — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:40:06 +0000

I was having a look at some of our past cameratrap pictures and looking closer at the Leopard images in order to see if i could identify the individuals. I reckoned at first that the first two cats were the same and the third was a second cat. The size of the first two males looks about the same and i suppose that is why i assumed they were the same. The third looked more juvenile, not yet with all the fat around his upper body, neck and head. Anyway, have a look at these three cats and tell me your opinion:

Here is the first one. notice the sort of spiral around one central rousette three quarters down his left back end.

Now compare that same area to this cat caughtabout 2kms away. he is about the same size but that funny rousette does not appear on this animals rear end.

Now, here is the third animals left rear. he appeared significantly smaller than the previsous two cats in the other images we got of him.

Two Poachers Caught

tumaren — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:52:09 +0000

Tumaren’s Rangers have caught 2 more Poachers hunting Impalas with snares on our property. These particular men have been selling us honey for many years. Because the honey gathering was helping the local community there presence on Tumaren was tolerated and the honey collected was purchased by Kerry. Kerry then would filter and sell the honey in Nairobi allowing the local community to sell to a much larger market. Not only have we paid these men many hundreds of dollars for their honey but we have also spoken to them about other employment as their brother is the new Councilor for the Ol Motiok community to our north. We were told that these men had to pay 10,000 shillings about the equivalent of 130 US dollars. This kind of punishment is sadly pathetic but it will hopefully scare them back off our conservation area. Should they try snaring again on Tumaren they will supposedly (hopefully) face a much steeper charge.

Geologist Wanted

tumaren — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:29:24 +0000

Here are a series of Rocks that I photographed on a recent trip down the Ewaso Nyiro River. I would appreciate any ideas anyone might have about any of these structures as well as some clue as to how they were formed. I know that our area has experienced a great deal of interesting geologic activity associated with the the movement and spread of the rift valley but i dont know enough about it. Thanks for any ideas. Cheers, James

Dam for Wildlife but still no rain

tumaren — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:14:38 +0000

Here is an image of the dam we built here on Tumaren for our wildlife. It remains dry despite April being what should be the rainiest month of the year. We can only hope that May makes up for the lack of rain this month.

Leopard Photographed Looking For Easter Bunny

tumaren — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:27:30 +0000

We got this big boy last night out on the road. you can see the setting moonlight in the background. We think he is the same mail we got in our cameratrap at an Impala Kill earlier in the year. Fortunately, he did not find the Easter Bunny who did visit us with chocholate this morning.

Crocodile Slaughter on Ewaso Nyiro River

tumaren — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:56:19 +0000

My concerns for the crocs in the Ewaso were confirmed the other day when Kerry and I passed a camp downstream at an area called Ntodo. We found 2 dead crocs that were hunted down while they hid pathetically in the last remaining hiding places on the river. A local Samburu that we spoke with said that they had killed 8 in the immediate area, most of whom had hidden under the fig treen in the photograph below. you can see in the images of the tree where they had cut the roots to access the crocs hiding underneath. the last image in of one of the crocs dead and still in his hiding place. all very sad and we can only hope that enough small crocs survive till the river starts flowing again. The worst part of this water disaster is that it has all been man-made. This is what happens when there is no water management, an excess of corruption and no enforcement of existing laws.