Human-Wildlife Conflict
-
Lisbeth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 67599
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Switzerland
- Location: Lugano
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
Having a fence of copper is not exactly very intelligent these days; it is almost an invitation to steal it
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
-
Lisbeth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 67599
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Switzerland
- Location: Lugano
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
BLOODY WILDLIFE CULL AT KZN RESERVE STOPPED AFTER 900 ANIMALS SLAUGHTERED, BUT ELEPHANTS STILL AT RISK
Don Pinnock - 04.06.2023.
Giraffe being skinned. (Photo: Supplied)
A trustee, whose husband was killed by an elephant from Mawana Game Reserve, tried to have 3,600 of its wild animals culled ‘to get some cash flow going’. By the time the cull was stopped nearly 900 animals were dead.
This story is a collaboration based on an in-depth investigation by @LionExpose
On Sunday, May 14, a culling team arrived at Mawana Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal with a permit approved by the KwaZulu-Natal wildlife authority Ezemvelo to kill 500 kudu, 100 giraffe, 1,000 impala, 1,000 blue wildebeest, 200 zebra, 400 blesbuck, 100 warthog, 300 nyala and 50 waterbuck.
The permit had been applied for by Una Coetzee, one of four beneficiaries of the Mawana Family Trust. Her husband, Beyers, was trampled to death by one of Mawana’s elephants in 2020. According to the permit, valid until December 2023, the animals listed could be killed during the hours of darkness, with the aid of artificial light from a vehicle.
Other members of the Trust were not consulted. By the time Marilieze Roelofsz, one the beneficiaries, managed to stop the killing, between 800 and 900 animals were dead, including two giraffes and their young calves.
According to Karel van der Walt, who lives on Mawana, it was a war zone. “People who were visiting the farm at the time to see historical sites were horrified. I didn’t know what to do. Young giraffes and zebras were killed. There are foetuses in the bush. Animals here are now traumatised. It was madness.”
The Mawana Game Reserve. (Photo: Supplied)
Sihle Mkhize of KZN Wildlife said the permit was in order, though it was unusual to cull so many animals at once. It was issued, he said, “given our historical engagement with Mawana Farm and the complex issues that prevail, including frequent escape of elephants to communities adjacent to the farm, ownership issues about the farm, challenges related to the welfare of animals and other issues associated issues thereto”.
He said Ezemvelo it will make a statement about the cull later this week.
Mawana has between 34 and 40 elephants, but they were not on the permit. Una insists she would not have them culled, but says their future is uncertain.
The Manawa elephants have been breaking out of the reserve from around 2016 and have established an annual movement pattern which includes other farms and community land. They could be shot by KZN Wildlife as problem animals as the reserve cannot contain them.
This is a story of family disagreements, intrigue and the dubious raising of funds from foreign donors. In the KZN wildlife scene nothing ever seems to be simple.
The reserve was founded in 2003 by Cornelius Magiel Fourie van der Walt, who stocked the reserve with impressive game and procured elephants from Sabi Sands Game Reserve and Phinda. His aim was for Mawana to become a Big 5 reserve for both tourism and seasonal hunting. Between 2006 and 2016, six big bull elephants were hunted there and another was shot by a neighbour. In January 2017, Cornelius died and the reserve was bequeathed to the Mawana Family Trust. Settlement issues, with Una as executor, have continued for six years, with a further court appearance scheduled for June 7.
Running a reserve is an expensive business and Cornelius, according to Una Coetzee, died with no policies or plans to pay reserve expenses. The cull, says Una, was “to get some cash flow and wind up [her father’s] estate. Some social media has accused me of wanting to cull elephants out of revenge. If I had wanted to do that, I would have done it many years ago. I’m trying to fight for those elephants.”
Bloody wildlife cull at KZN reserve stopped after 900 animals slaughtered, but elephants still at risk
Mawana elephants keep breaking out, placing them at extreme risk. (Photo: Supplied)
Biosphere plan
In 2017 Beyers Coetzee, an architect and Una’s husband, met Grant Fowlds, a conservationist, wildlands developer and author, who had heard about the problems with the elephants. Fowlds involved several friends in an idea to include neighbouring farms along with communities to form a complex conservation project with visions of lodges and conservation corridors. This would provide a safe corridor for the Mawana elephants.
According to Marilieze Roelofsz, Fowlds started using the rich game along with Mawana’s incredibly diverse landscape, its airstrip and game lodge as a base to show potential investors and donors about the idea of a larger biosphere economy. Three of the four Mawana Family Trust’s beneficiaries supported the project.
Owing to Mawana’s elephant problems, the NGO Elephants, Rhino and People (ERP) offered to assist by translocating the elephants to a reserve in Mozambique, but because of the biodiversity reserve plan, the offer was declined. ERP collared two of the elephants to provide satellite tracking and Humane Society International-Africa (HSI/Africa) collared another three. HSI has continued to provide annual contraception for the cows, and new collars when they need replacing.
But the problems with elephants continued. In May 2018, after receiving complaints from various people on the adjoining farm Oudewerf, Ezemvelo served Mawana with a non-compliance order for the keeping of African elephants.
To retain them, the reserve was required to repair its fencing and herd the elephants back to Mawana. If this failed, the Hlonyane, Mkolo Nhlazatshe and Mkholokotho communities and adjacent farms affected by the elephants would have to agree to allow the elephants to roam inside a three-strand electric fence to be erected on the sections that affected those farms affected.
An emergency plan of action, if the elephants got close to these communities, was also stipulated. The only stipulation achieved, however, was monitoring using radio collars.
The culled wildlife sold for meat. (Photo: Supplied)
Tragic outcome
In February 2020 several of the elephants trashed the maize crops of a local farmer Dlemeveni Sithole, on the farm Vreesniet. An urgent plan to guide them away would go tragically wrong.
Beyers Coetzee, together with three local workers and a neighbour’s son, attempted to herd them back using firecrackers and gunshots. The elephants were in dense bush but seemed some way off. However, one of the team said he could smell elephants and warned Coetzee to stop. The men were suddenly ambushed by two bulls which had stayed behind the herd. The men scattered, but Coetzee was trampled to death.
By 2022 Mawana had still not been able to adhere to some of the requirements of the compliance notice for the elephants, including the fencing and electrical strands around community crops. A collared bull was shot by Ezemvelo when it appeared close to a football field and not far from a local spaza shop.
But Mawana’s problems are not just about elephants – they are seemingly also about bad blood between the Van der Walt siblings. They lost the licence to raise funds through hunting because of the fencing issue and urgently needed money to run Mawana and, particularly, repair the fencing. Grant Fowlds’ project had seemed to be the answer. But despite a steady stream of donors using Mawana’s lodge (seemingly for free) no income was forthcoming for the elephants.
In 2020, however, Fowlds and some investors bought land at Zoekmij on the boundaries of Mawana with money that the Van der Walts felt could have been used to solve Mawana’s fencing problem.
Mawana Game Reserve is rich in wildlife. (Photo: Supplied)
Fundraising
According to the siblings, communities and surrounding farmers were approached by Fowlds to sign into a Thaka Valley Communal Wild Conservancy under the proposed Loziba Wildlife Reserve. Those signing would see their farms or portions of donated land handing control of those portions to a company called CWC Africa Projects, which, according to its website, was founded by Grant Fowlds and James Arnott.
Its website says it “urgently required donor funding in order to fund much-needed planning resources to help sustainably develop our targeted landscapes into Communal Wild Conservancies”. Loziba, CWC Africa and another UK-based website called Rewilding Africa, are all pleading for funding from donors and investors, with Fowlds and Arnott listed as “leadership team”.
These websites contain many images of Mawana and its game without mentioning the reserve, though the Loziba website says it needs funding “as soon as possible … We want to remove the elephants and remaining animals from where they are at risk of poaching, neglect, overcrowding and human encroachment. We particularly want to offer our herd of 40-plus elephants and the highly endangered black rhino a safe haven”.
A source at one of the farms affected, who did not wish to be named, said “it’s been a while since [Fowlds and Arnott] got in touch, but the last time they did we were told it’s gonna happen within a month or so. It still hasn’t happened. They made promises which haven’t been delivered; things aren’t good between us”.
Una Coetzee appears to have the same problem. “Grant Fowlds misled me. My husband was the founder of Loziba. He did all the maps, logos etc. When he died, Fowlds took all the intellectual property from us. There were empty promises made that were not kept by him. It was to become a greater reserve, but I don’t see its future at the moment.
The Mawana Game Reserve’s wildlife. (Photo: Supplied)
“Lobiza was the solution for me. As executor, I have to carry the risks, land claims, elephants and the problem of cash flow – I don’t have the money to erect fences for the elephants.”
Fowlds said Una’s approach to him was not unexpected but he was disheartened “because Una and I were very close and now I think she hates me. She’ll say that for five years I’ve been exploiting the elephants and making money to buy all the farms around and using their elephants. I’m trying to create a mega-reserve for rhinos with elephants. We employ 120 people – that’s gonna go south now.
“But I understand the problems. Ezemvelo disallowed hunting and now they’ve got a 10,000 hectare farm with the only income coming from research. Una is solely
responsible for getting things done, not the family. Because Mawana couldn’t get a permit to hunt, Una decided to sell meat for revenue.”
Right now Mawana and its bountiful wildlife are in limbo. Unless its elephants are fenced in to keep them out of surrounding community crops and farms, they could be declared problem animals and shot. If not, it’s possible that Una Coetzee could try for another permit. And as far as the Van der Walt siblings, Johannes, Marilieze and Karel are concerned, Fowlds has or is still raising money off their backs, but they’re not seeing help for the elephants.
Where all this leads is hard to predict. But as you read this, there are elephants whose luck may be beginning to run out. DM
Original article: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article ... erick_news
Don Pinnock - 04.06.2023.
Giraffe being skinned. (Photo: Supplied)
A trustee, whose husband was killed by an elephant from Mawana Game Reserve, tried to have 3,600 of its wild animals culled ‘to get some cash flow going’. By the time the cull was stopped nearly 900 animals were dead.
This story is a collaboration based on an in-depth investigation by @LionExpose
On Sunday, May 14, a culling team arrived at Mawana Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal with a permit approved by the KwaZulu-Natal wildlife authority Ezemvelo to kill 500 kudu, 100 giraffe, 1,000 impala, 1,000 blue wildebeest, 200 zebra, 400 blesbuck, 100 warthog, 300 nyala and 50 waterbuck.
The permit had been applied for by Una Coetzee, one of four beneficiaries of the Mawana Family Trust. Her husband, Beyers, was trampled to death by one of Mawana’s elephants in 2020. According to the permit, valid until December 2023, the animals listed could be killed during the hours of darkness, with the aid of artificial light from a vehicle.
Other members of the Trust were not consulted. By the time Marilieze Roelofsz, one the beneficiaries, managed to stop the killing, between 800 and 900 animals were dead, including two giraffes and their young calves.
According to Karel van der Walt, who lives on Mawana, it was a war zone. “People who were visiting the farm at the time to see historical sites were horrified. I didn’t know what to do. Young giraffes and zebras were killed. There are foetuses in the bush. Animals here are now traumatised. It was madness.”
The Mawana Game Reserve. (Photo: Supplied)
Sihle Mkhize of KZN Wildlife said the permit was in order, though it was unusual to cull so many animals at once. It was issued, he said, “given our historical engagement with Mawana Farm and the complex issues that prevail, including frequent escape of elephants to communities adjacent to the farm, ownership issues about the farm, challenges related to the welfare of animals and other issues associated issues thereto”.
He said Ezemvelo it will make a statement about the cull later this week.
Mawana has between 34 and 40 elephants, but they were not on the permit. Una insists she would not have them culled, but says their future is uncertain.
The Manawa elephants have been breaking out of the reserve from around 2016 and have established an annual movement pattern which includes other farms and community land. They could be shot by KZN Wildlife as problem animals as the reserve cannot contain them.
This is a story of family disagreements, intrigue and the dubious raising of funds from foreign donors. In the KZN wildlife scene nothing ever seems to be simple.
The reserve was founded in 2003 by Cornelius Magiel Fourie van der Walt, who stocked the reserve with impressive game and procured elephants from Sabi Sands Game Reserve and Phinda. His aim was for Mawana to become a Big 5 reserve for both tourism and seasonal hunting. Between 2006 and 2016, six big bull elephants were hunted there and another was shot by a neighbour. In January 2017, Cornelius died and the reserve was bequeathed to the Mawana Family Trust. Settlement issues, with Una as executor, have continued for six years, with a further court appearance scheduled for June 7.
Running a reserve is an expensive business and Cornelius, according to Una Coetzee, died with no policies or plans to pay reserve expenses. The cull, says Una, was “to get some cash flow and wind up [her father’s] estate. Some social media has accused me of wanting to cull elephants out of revenge. If I had wanted to do that, I would have done it many years ago. I’m trying to fight for those elephants.”
Bloody wildlife cull at KZN reserve stopped after 900 animals slaughtered, but elephants still at risk
Mawana elephants keep breaking out, placing them at extreme risk. (Photo: Supplied)
Biosphere plan
In 2017 Beyers Coetzee, an architect and Una’s husband, met Grant Fowlds, a conservationist, wildlands developer and author, who had heard about the problems with the elephants. Fowlds involved several friends in an idea to include neighbouring farms along with communities to form a complex conservation project with visions of lodges and conservation corridors. This would provide a safe corridor for the Mawana elephants.
According to Marilieze Roelofsz, Fowlds started using the rich game along with Mawana’s incredibly diverse landscape, its airstrip and game lodge as a base to show potential investors and donors about the idea of a larger biosphere economy. Three of the four Mawana Family Trust’s beneficiaries supported the project.
Owing to Mawana’s elephant problems, the NGO Elephants, Rhino and People (ERP) offered to assist by translocating the elephants to a reserve in Mozambique, but because of the biodiversity reserve plan, the offer was declined. ERP collared two of the elephants to provide satellite tracking and Humane Society International-Africa (HSI/Africa) collared another three. HSI has continued to provide annual contraception for the cows, and new collars when they need replacing.
But the problems with elephants continued. In May 2018, after receiving complaints from various people on the adjoining farm Oudewerf, Ezemvelo served Mawana with a non-compliance order for the keeping of African elephants.
To retain them, the reserve was required to repair its fencing and herd the elephants back to Mawana. If this failed, the Hlonyane, Mkolo Nhlazatshe and Mkholokotho communities and adjacent farms affected by the elephants would have to agree to allow the elephants to roam inside a three-strand electric fence to be erected on the sections that affected those farms affected.
An emergency plan of action, if the elephants got close to these communities, was also stipulated. The only stipulation achieved, however, was monitoring using radio collars.
The culled wildlife sold for meat. (Photo: Supplied)
Tragic outcome
In February 2020 several of the elephants trashed the maize crops of a local farmer Dlemeveni Sithole, on the farm Vreesniet. An urgent plan to guide them away would go tragically wrong.
Beyers Coetzee, together with three local workers and a neighbour’s son, attempted to herd them back using firecrackers and gunshots. The elephants were in dense bush but seemed some way off. However, one of the team said he could smell elephants and warned Coetzee to stop. The men were suddenly ambushed by two bulls which had stayed behind the herd. The men scattered, but Coetzee was trampled to death.
By 2022 Mawana had still not been able to adhere to some of the requirements of the compliance notice for the elephants, including the fencing and electrical strands around community crops. A collared bull was shot by Ezemvelo when it appeared close to a football field and not far from a local spaza shop.
But Mawana’s problems are not just about elephants – they are seemingly also about bad blood between the Van der Walt siblings. They lost the licence to raise funds through hunting because of the fencing issue and urgently needed money to run Mawana and, particularly, repair the fencing. Grant Fowlds’ project had seemed to be the answer. But despite a steady stream of donors using Mawana’s lodge (seemingly for free) no income was forthcoming for the elephants.
In 2020, however, Fowlds and some investors bought land at Zoekmij on the boundaries of Mawana with money that the Van der Walts felt could have been used to solve Mawana’s fencing problem.
Mawana Game Reserve is rich in wildlife. (Photo: Supplied)
Fundraising
According to the siblings, communities and surrounding farmers were approached by Fowlds to sign into a Thaka Valley Communal Wild Conservancy under the proposed Loziba Wildlife Reserve. Those signing would see their farms or portions of donated land handing control of those portions to a company called CWC Africa Projects, which, according to its website, was founded by Grant Fowlds and James Arnott.
Its website says it “urgently required donor funding in order to fund much-needed planning resources to help sustainably develop our targeted landscapes into Communal Wild Conservancies”. Loziba, CWC Africa and another UK-based website called Rewilding Africa, are all pleading for funding from donors and investors, with Fowlds and Arnott listed as “leadership team”.
These websites contain many images of Mawana and its game without mentioning the reserve, though the Loziba website says it needs funding “as soon as possible … We want to remove the elephants and remaining animals from where they are at risk of poaching, neglect, overcrowding and human encroachment. We particularly want to offer our herd of 40-plus elephants and the highly endangered black rhino a safe haven”.
A source at one of the farms affected, who did not wish to be named, said “it’s been a while since [Fowlds and Arnott] got in touch, but the last time they did we were told it’s gonna happen within a month or so. It still hasn’t happened. They made promises which haven’t been delivered; things aren’t good between us”.
Una Coetzee appears to have the same problem. “Grant Fowlds misled me. My husband was the founder of Loziba. He did all the maps, logos etc. When he died, Fowlds took all the intellectual property from us. There were empty promises made that were not kept by him. It was to become a greater reserve, but I don’t see its future at the moment.
The Mawana Game Reserve’s wildlife. (Photo: Supplied)
“Lobiza was the solution for me. As executor, I have to carry the risks, land claims, elephants and the problem of cash flow – I don’t have the money to erect fences for the elephants.”
Fowlds said Una’s approach to him was not unexpected but he was disheartened “because Una and I were very close and now I think she hates me. She’ll say that for five years I’ve been exploiting the elephants and making money to buy all the farms around and using their elephants. I’m trying to create a mega-reserve for rhinos with elephants. We employ 120 people – that’s gonna go south now.
“But I understand the problems. Ezemvelo disallowed hunting and now they’ve got a 10,000 hectare farm with the only income coming from research. Una is solely
responsible for getting things done, not the family. Because Mawana couldn’t get a permit to hunt, Una decided to sell meat for revenue.”
Right now Mawana and its bountiful wildlife are in limbo. Unless its elephants are fenced in to keep them out of surrounding community crops and farms, they could be declared problem animals and shot. If not, it’s possible that Una Coetzee could try for another permit. And as far as the Van der Walt siblings, Johannes, Marilieze and Karel are concerned, Fowlds has or is still raising money off their backs, but they’re not seeing help for the elephants.
Where all this leads is hard to predict. But as you read this, there are elephants whose luck may be beginning to run out. DM
Original article: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article ... erick_news
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
-
harrys
- Posts: 13985
- Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:37 am
- Country: South Africa
- Location: Warmbaths
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
Whats wrong with this stupid woman 
, she should be flippen skinned alive and left for the preditors to finish her of, hiw barbarick and cruel 
only greed could be behind this 
, she should be flippen skinned alive and left for the preditors to finish her of, hiw barbarick and cruel only greed could be behind this KTP: Twee Rivieren 12 to 13 May
KNP: May be one day again??
KNP: May be one day again??
-
Lisbeth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 67599
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Switzerland
- Location: Lugano
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
‘Local people hold the key to conserving wildlife’ — Ndlelendi Ncube is changing how Zim’s rural communities see nature
Ndlelendi Ncube, director of Tikobane Trust. (Photo: Supplied)
By Julia Evans | 18 Jun 2023
Locals were reluctant when the Tikobane Trust began encouraging them to participate in conservation. Now they’re starting to see its value.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Every weekday when Ndlelendi Ncube was growing up, he walked the 4km to his school in Dete, Zimbabwe and would often see elephants roaming or hear lions roaring in the distance.
Like most people in his community who live across the road from the Hwange National Park, Ncube (now 33) used to be afraid of the surrounding wildlife because of the prevalence of poaching and elephants that destroyed their crops.
But after witnessing lions up close during a safari when he was 24, Ncube saw these animals in a new light. “It’s so amazing to see these animals you were afraid of, and who destroyed your crops, in a relaxing environment,” he said.
Ndlelendi Ncube, director of Tikobane Trust (right) and team inspect the remains of an elephant. (Photo: Supplied)
“There are all these beautiful things these animals bring to us. That’s when I realised that instead of us being scared of these animals or trying to kill these animals, why can’t we find a way that can help [us] to coexist, as we are benefiting from each other?”
In 2015, Ncube left his job as a primary school teacher and started the Tikobane Trust with a group of young people, with the goal of finding solutions for their community to coexist peacefully with the wildlife that surrounds them and actively participate in conservation.
Ncube saw the opportunities that conservation and tourism could provide to his community, which struggles with unemployment.
“I see the opportunities and I know that we local people are capable and our indigenous solutions really are important in conserving our wildlife,” said Ncube.
Although Ncube’s community lives across the road from the Hwange National Park, he said not many people were employed in the wildlife conservation sector, explaining that if you are not already in the sector and don’t know anyone “you are completely shut out”.
And as many of the conservation activities are happening deep in the national park, locals are disconnected. Ncube said that to even visit a park manager you need a 4×4.
Elephants destroy crops
Most people who live in communities around Dete are rural subsistence farmers who grow maize and sorghum. Ncube explained that for many, it’s their only source of livelihood — what they rely on to feed their families or sell for a bit of income.
“What happens is that when the crops are about to be ripe, that is when the elephants come,” said Ncube. Elephants move in herds, sometimes numbering as many as 40, but even one elephant walking through a field can destroy the crops.
“Just one night of elephants invading a field can destroy crops that someone took two or three months to prepare.
Ndlelendi Ncube, director of Tikobane Trust, shows the non-harmful repellent they use in Dete, Zimbabwe, to keep elephants from destroying crops. (Photo: Supplied)
“It is something that is painful for the family,” reflected Ncube. “Not just painful, but it really destroys that livelihood.”
Farmers would call rangers or animal control teams to shoot the elephants, but a week or two later the elephants would be back, destroying more crops.
Tikobane Trust found an indigenous, non-harmful elephant repellent, made up of chilli, ginger, garlic or onion, neem leaves and elephant or cow dung, that they learnt to make from a group of people in Uganda. The repellent can last up to three weeks.
Ncube explained that as elephants have a very strong sense of smell, once the repellent (which hangs by a rope around the crops) is up, they don’t come within 200m of it.
The problem is that the community can’t grow ginger and garlic because they use too much water, and so the trust has to travel 400km to source those ingredients.
They aim to get a borehole installed so the community will have enough water to grow all the ingredients. “Instead of the community waiting for people to come and sponsor them with these ingredients every time, the community is actively involved with contributing towards the making of the repellents,” said Ncube.
Poaching
He believes that local people are the first line of defence when it comes to poaching.
He explained that while many poachers come from outside Dete, the kingpins will entice young local men to be part of the crews. He said it was a sad reality for these youngsters, who get paid $75 (around R1,300) to be part of a crew of about five people during a two-week poaching trip to get elephant tusks.
“Anti-poaching alone will not solve the problem of conservation. We need local people to be involved in the conservation of wildlife. When local people know the value of wildlife, certainly we will not have poaching, we will not have a problem of conservation,” said Ncube.
Changing perceptions
Along with (or perhaps perpetuated by) issues of elephants and poaching, and locals being excluded from conservation initiatives, Ncube said many people in the community don’t care about domestic animals (like donkeys and dogs).
Welfare for domestic animals is how Tikobane Trust introduces a peaceful relationship between animals and the people of Dete in an effort to promote conservation. (Photo: Supplied)
But the Tikobane Trust believes that fostering this relationship is where growing conservation starts.
“The trust started by addressing domestic animal welfare because we believe that for people to care about wildlife they should first take care of domestic animals,” said Ncube.
He recalled that when they first started, people couldn’t understand why they would want to keep alive a sick donkey which could no longer pull a cart, but after a few years of teaching people about the value of animals, attitudes began to change.
Now they get calls from people asking for help, saying that their donkey was injured in a lion attack. One person walked 7km from their house to the trust at night, carrying their six dogs after they ingested poison.
“That was, to us, really a moment to be proud of,” said Ncube. “People are really, really starting to warm up to taking care of their animals, you know, and they start loving them.”
After working with domestic animals, the trust gradually introduced the importance of wildlife conservation and explained what the community could do to forge a peaceful coexistence with the wildlife.
Education and opportunities
A big problem with communities being excluded from the conservation sector is a lack of awareness about how to get into the space and the hurdles to getting qualifications.
Tikobane Trust and the Wild Africa Fund have started a programme to educate young people on conservation, taking them to lodges to give them first-hand experience with the available jobs and the qualifications that are needed. Ncube said that while a few lodges had been welcoming, one of the biggest challenges the trust faced was funding.
Ndlelendi Ncube, director of Tikobane Trust, teaches young people from the rural community of Dete in Zimbabwe about the value of conservation. (Photo: Supplied)
Along with starting a library that has books on conversation, every Friday the trust visits two schools in the area, which have a total of 700 children, teaching them the importance of conservation.
From February to June this year they’ve held 40 meetings with groups of 30 people from the rural community, and they speak to traditional leaders, who can spread their message.
“When we started, I remember we were going with a group of young girls and boys to the national park, and we saw a lot of impala, and I asked them, ‘What do you see in those impala?’ and three-quarters of them said they saw relish.”
The trust has shown those young people the value of wild animals and fostered their relationships with domestic animals, emphasising “that these animals are far more helpful to us when they are alive than when they are dead”, said Ncube.
“When people have that relationship with these animals, they will know that these animals are special, that they should look after them.”
Ncube added that while the Tikobane Trust’s impact may not seem huge now, “I believe that our little actions and steps that we are doing, in the end, will really pay off.” DM
Ndlelendi Ncube, director of Tikobane Trust. (Photo: Supplied)
By Julia Evans | 18 Jun 2023
Locals were reluctant when the Tikobane Trust began encouraging them to participate in conservation. Now they’re starting to see its value.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Every weekday when Ndlelendi Ncube was growing up, he walked the 4km to his school in Dete, Zimbabwe and would often see elephants roaming or hear lions roaring in the distance.
Like most people in his community who live across the road from the Hwange National Park, Ncube (now 33) used to be afraid of the surrounding wildlife because of the prevalence of poaching and elephants that destroyed their crops.
But after witnessing lions up close during a safari when he was 24, Ncube saw these animals in a new light. “It’s so amazing to see these animals you were afraid of, and who destroyed your crops, in a relaxing environment,” he said.
Ndlelendi Ncube, director of Tikobane Trust (right) and team inspect the remains of an elephant. (Photo: Supplied)
“There are all these beautiful things these animals bring to us. That’s when I realised that instead of us being scared of these animals or trying to kill these animals, why can’t we find a way that can help [us] to coexist, as we are benefiting from each other?”
In 2015, Ncube left his job as a primary school teacher and started the Tikobane Trust with a group of young people, with the goal of finding solutions for their community to coexist peacefully with the wildlife that surrounds them and actively participate in conservation.
Ncube saw the opportunities that conservation and tourism could provide to his community, which struggles with unemployment.
“I see the opportunities and I know that we local people are capable and our indigenous solutions really are important in conserving our wildlife,” said Ncube.
Although Ncube’s community lives across the road from the Hwange National Park, he said not many people were employed in the wildlife conservation sector, explaining that if you are not already in the sector and don’t know anyone “you are completely shut out”.
And as many of the conservation activities are happening deep in the national park, locals are disconnected. Ncube said that to even visit a park manager you need a 4×4.
Elephants destroy crops
Most people who live in communities around Dete are rural subsistence farmers who grow maize and sorghum. Ncube explained that for many, it’s their only source of livelihood — what they rely on to feed their families or sell for a bit of income.
“What happens is that when the crops are about to be ripe, that is when the elephants come,” said Ncube. Elephants move in herds, sometimes numbering as many as 40, but even one elephant walking through a field can destroy the crops.
“Just one night of elephants invading a field can destroy crops that someone took two or three months to prepare.
Ndlelendi Ncube, director of Tikobane Trust, shows the non-harmful repellent they use in Dete, Zimbabwe, to keep elephants from destroying crops. (Photo: Supplied)
“It is something that is painful for the family,” reflected Ncube. “Not just painful, but it really destroys that livelihood.”
Farmers would call rangers or animal control teams to shoot the elephants, but a week or two later the elephants would be back, destroying more crops.
Tikobane Trust found an indigenous, non-harmful elephant repellent, made up of chilli, ginger, garlic or onion, neem leaves and elephant or cow dung, that they learnt to make from a group of people in Uganda. The repellent can last up to three weeks.
Ncube explained that as elephants have a very strong sense of smell, once the repellent (which hangs by a rope around the crops) is up, they don’t come within 200m of it.
The problem is that the community can’t grow ginger and garlic because they use too much water, and so the trust has to travel 400km to source those ingredients.
They aim to get a borehole installed so the community will have enough water to grow all the ingredients. “Instead of the community waiting for people to come and sponsor them with these ingredients every time, the community is actively involved with contributing towards the making of the repellents,” said Ncube.
Poaching
He believes that local people are the first line of defence when it comes to poaching.
He explained that while many poachers come from outside Dete, the kingpins will entice young local men to be part of the crews. He said it was a sad reality for these youngsters, who get paid $75 (around R1,300) to be part of a crew of about five people during a two-week poaching trip to get elephant tusks.
“Anti-poaching alone will not solve the problem of conservation. We need local people to be involved in the conservation of wildlife. When local people know the value of wildlife, certainly we will not have poaching, we will not have a problem of conservation,” said Ncube.
Changing perceptions
Along with (or perhaps perpetuated by) issues of elephants and poaching, and locals being excluded from conservation initiatives, Ncube said many people in the community don’t care about domestic animals (like donkeys and dogs).
Welfare for domestic animals is how Tikobane Trust introduces a peaceful relationship between animals and the people of Dete in an effort to promote conservation. (Photo: Supplied)
But the Tikobane Trust believes that fostering this relationship is where growing conservation starts.
“The trust started by addressing domestic animal welfare because we believe that for people to care about wildlife they should first take care of domestic animals,” said Ncube.
He recalled that when they first started, people couldn’t understand why they would want to keep alive a sick donkey which could no longer pull a cart, but after a few years of teaching people about the value of animals, attitudes began to change.
Now they get calls from people asking for help, saying that their donkey was injured in a lion attack. One person walked 7km from their house to the trust at night, carrying their six dogs after they ingested poison.
“That was, to us, really a moment to be proud of,” said Ncube. “People are really, really starting to warm up to taking care of their animals, you know, and they start loving them.”
After working with domestic animals, the trust gradually introduced the importance of wildlife conservation and explained what the community could do to forge a peaceful coexistence with the wildlife.
Education and opportunities
A big problem with communities being excluded from the conservation sector is a lack of awareness about how to get into the space and the hurdles to getting qualifications.
Tikobane Trust and the Wild Africa Fund have started a programme to educate young people on conservation, taking them to lodges to give them first-hand experience with the available jobs and the qualifications that are needed. Ncube said that while a few lodges had been welcoming, one of the biggest challenges the trust faced was funding.
Ndlelendi Ncube, director of Tikobane Trust, teaches young people from the rural community of Dete in Zimbabwe about the value of conservation. (Photo: Supplied)
Along with starting a library that has books on conversation, every Friday the trust visits two schools in the area, which have a total of 700 children, teaching them the importance of conservation.
From February to June this year they’ve held 40 meetings with groups of 30 people from the rural community, and they speak to traditional leaders, who can spread their message.
“When we started, I remember we were going with a group of young girls and boys to the national park, and we saw a lot of impala, and I asked them, ‘What do you see in those impala?’ and three-quarters of them said they saw relish.”
The trust has shown those young people the value of wild animals and fostered their relationships with domestic animals, emphasising “that these animals are far more helpful to us when they are alive than when they are dead”, said Ncube.
“When people have that relationship with these animals, they will know that these animals are special, that they should look after them.”
Ncube added that while the Tikobane Trust’s impact may not seem huge now, “I believe that our little actions and steps that we are doing, in the end, will really pay off.” DM
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
-
Lisbeth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 67599
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Switzerland
- Location: Lugano
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
Keep your distance — how humans are diminishing shorebirds’ breeding success
A white-fronted plover, the oldest on record is 20-years old. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
By Julia Evans | 05 Jul 2023
We might not even notice them, but getting within even 30m of some shorebirds drastically lessens their ability to take their eggs to term.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“We don’t know what our impacts are — if no one’s going to tell us what they are, then we probably will continue in our ignorance,” said conservation scientist Brittany Arendse at the second Plett Marine Science Symposium last week.
Arendse manages the Nature’s Valley Trust (NVT) marine and coastal programme, with a focus on shorebird monitoring, the #ShareTheShores project.
While strolling on the beach you might not even notice them — Arendse likes to call these shorebirds, white-fronted plovers, “masters of concealment” — as they are very well camouflaged against the sand throughout all phases of life, from adults to chicks and even eggs.
“If you weren’t really looking to find these birds, you might not see them at all,” Arendse said, explaining that white-fronted plovers often make their nest in an indent of sand, sometimes near vegetation, covering part of their eggs (typically two) with a bit of sand.
But they are there — and our presence on the beach, even within 30m of them, is seriously affecting their ability to breed.
And with six billion people globally projected to live within 100km of the coast by 2025, and thousands of South Africans flocking to the beach every summer, we’re going to have to learn to coexist with the species that are trying to live along our coastlines.
Brittany Arendse, Manager of the Nature’s Valley Trust Marine and Coastal programme, setting up a closure and signage around the nesting territory of a white-fronted plover in Nature’s Valley. Christina Choang, a past NVT intern to the left. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
White-fronted plover nests are always made in the sand but it can be among vegetation, shelly debris or woody debris. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
A 2012 study on coastal bird communities in the Western Cape found that while species like oystercatchers and Egyptian geese are doing well, there was a 40% decline in small-bodied waders like white-fronted plovers over the 30-year study period.
One part of NVT’s #ShareTheShores programme is protecting beach breeding birds, which initially started as part of Selena Flores’ PhD thesis that she is completing at UCT in collaboration with the NVT, which has found evidence to suggest white-fronted plovers’ ability to breed is under threat from humans’ presence on beaches
While Flores’ research started seven years ago, the project has continued, with NVT setting up a small team to investigate how these birds are responding to disturbances on beaches from Robberg to Nature’s Valley, and what we can learn from these responses.
The initial study that NVT conducted at Robberg Beach, Lookout Beach, Keurbooms Beach and Nature’s Valley found that, like some other shore-breeding plovers around the world, white-fronted plovers have a low breeding success because of human and dog disturbances to incubation.
A white-fronted plover taking refuge in a footprint after a human approached. Chicks often hide in sand indents or vegetation while adults distract potential predators by pretending to be injured. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
Brittany Arendse has her Master of Science (MSc) from the University of Cape Town and manages the Nature’s Valley Trust Marine and Coastal programme. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
What impact do people have on beaches?
From disturbance tests NVT conducted over three breeding seasons, they figured out how close humans/dogs could get to white-fronted plovers before they fled and how long it would take for them to come back.
The interns would observe an incubating bird for a two-hour period three times a day (morning, midday and afternoon) during their breeding period, from August to March.
They’d observe instances when a person, sometimes with a dog, would walk through the bird’s nesting territory and how often the bird would get off its nest (be flushed off), and how close people needed to get to the nest before the birds left their eggs.
Data collected from the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 summer seasons found that over a two-hour period more than 1,000 people went through a nesting territory (their counter only went to 1,000), and 34 and 51 dogs, respectively. The birds were flushed out of their nests 15 and 19 times, respectively.
Arendse said, “This is the level of disturbance that you can expect in peak summer when the beaches are full.”
The NVT also conducted manipulated disturbance trials, where they would wait for a bird to start incubating and then approach the bird from a distance, recording when the bird first noticed them, how far they had to be for the bird to feel threatened enough that it got off its eggs, and once it left the nest how long it took to come back.
They found that on average at about 29-30m approach distance, the bird would get off its eggs and that it would take the bird about 4.5 minutes to return to its nest and continue incubating its eggs, given that the threat had continued past the nesting area.
This is a problem, “because it’s so hot, and the sand is often hotter than the ambient temperature, they actually shade the eggs most of the time during peak heat,” Arendse explained.
“So it’s important for them to stay on those eggs as long as possible, otherwise, the development of the eggs [is compromised].”
Once the eggs reach the 42°C threshold, the embryo will be unviable — and on a hot day, the eggs can reach that temperature within the first five to six minutes of a bird leaving its eggs, and quicker if it’s a really hot day.
So if a bird gets flushed off its nest 15-19 times in a two-hour period, and it takes more than four minutes to get back, it makes it very difficult for them to produce viable offspring.
And the initial results from this study reflect this. Over the first breeding season they monitored 83 nests, which had 35 breeding pairs that laid 152 eggs. Out of the 152 eggs, only 15 made it to fledge — a 9.8% breeding success rate.
“Shorebirds usually nest in a very harsh environment, so you’d expect it to be low anyway,” Arendse said, “but in general, they should experience around 30 to 40% breeding success. So this is extremely low for a species.”
This impact happens with people getting within 30m of the birds. “At this point, you probably haven’t even noticed the birds, your dogs definitely haven’t noticed the birds, Arendse said.
“There is this misconception that [conservationists] are really worried about dogs chasing birds down and eating eggs… but it is more about the birds’ inherent response to disturbance by a four-legged mammalian predator.”
Awareness campaign
Nature's Valley Trust
Ending off the last day of the BirdLife South Africa Flock to Wilderness LAB workshops with an immense appreciation for the work being done throughout the country.
It was great to be able to share a bit of our #SharetheShores programme with both a beach excursion, where 10 White-fronted plovers were showing off their camouflaging skills right in front of us and an informative presentation by Brittany on the ‘Conservation of beach breeding birds in a dynamic urban context’.
There were amazing talks, and we thank BirdLife South Africa for giving us this platform as well as organising such an incredible event.
The NVT launched the #ShareTheShores programme in 2017 to address aspects of concern in the Greater Plettenberg Bay area, one of which was the pressures people and companion animals place on shore-breeding birds like white-fronted plovers.
As Arendse said, we typically aren’t even aware of the impact we are having — especially with a species that is as camouflaged as these plovers.
NVT used community outreach days, social media campaigns and signage that showed where the nesting territory was, and where possible, closed off 60x60m areas where the nests were (with signage ideally 30m from the nests).
Beach management
NVT collaborated with the local community, the Bitou Local Municipality, CapeNature, SANParks and other authorities on beach management possibilities.
“We wanted to be involved in the management as far as we can, because we have that data and feel that it’s important to base your management processes on actual facts and data,” Arendse said.
At the time, the NVT had three breeding seasons worth of data, which gave it information about where most of the birds were nesting and where most of the conflict areas were.
A closed-off 60x60m area that surrounds a white-fronted plover’s nesting territory (30 m away in all directions with the nest in the middle) in Nature’s Valley, Western Cape. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
The tags mark the hotspot breeding areas for this section of beach — red tags mark nests that failed, and green tags mark nests that made it to fledge.
Arendse said the beach management process was long, with the initial zoning of the beaches taking about 18 months, and they were still working with authorities to make the management more efficient.
“The goal was never to save every bird on every beach, because that is not possible. But we wanted to speak to enough people to understand what they needed from the beaches and how we could get a win-win for our birds and our people and our dogs,” Arense said.
Before this project, Plettenberg Bay didn’t have any systems to control dogs on beaches, but from the data collected, the municipality has zoned several beaches (red is where dogs are not allowed, orange is where dogs have to be leashed, and green is where dogs can run free but under the control of their owner).
For example, Keurbooms peninsula is a red zone because it has very big breeding colonies, not just of white-fronter plovers but of other birds including gulls, egrets, spoonbills, ibises and thick-knees.
Results
Arendse took over from Flores in 2017/2018, when they started the awareness campaign and put up rope and signage.
This resulted in the percentage of breeding success in Nature’s Valley doubling (from about 15.4% to 30.6% two breeding seasons later).
Lookout Beach improved from 10% breeding success in 2017/2018 to 14% two breeding seasons later. Despite being a red-zoned beach, it still has many dogs and people visiting.
However, the last breeding season (2022/2023) at Lookout Beach had the highest success at 20.8%.
Arendse acknowledged that along with anthropogenic impacts (caused by humans), breeding success is also affected by natural factors, and due to sea level rise and an increase in storm surges, many nests are lost in flooding events.
“[The white-fronted plover is] also not a very sexy species in terms of status — it’s not critically endangered, it’s not even endangered, it’s only declining,” Arendse reflected at the end of her talk at the symposium to Plett locals and scientists.
“But I think it’s important for us to be proactive in instances like this and not reactive and actually start doing something now before we look back in 30 years’ time and the bird is extinct.” DM
A white-fronted plover, the oldest on record is 20-years old. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
By Julia Evans | 05 Jul 2023
We might not even notice them, but getting within even 30m of some shorebirds drastically lessens their ability to take their eggs to term.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“We don’t know what our impacts are — if no one’s going to tell us what they are, then we probably will continue in our ignorance,” said conservation scientist Brittany Arendse at the second Plett Marine Science Symposium last week.
Arendse manages the Nature’s Valley Trust (NVT) marine and coastal programme, with a focus on shorebird monitoring, the #ShareTheShores project.
While strolling on the beach you might not even notice them — Arendse likes to call these shorebirds, white-fronted plovers, “masters of concealment” — as they are very well camouflaged against the sand throughout all phases of life, from adults to chicks and even eggs.
“If you weren’t really looking to find these birds, you might not see them at all,” Arendse said, explaining that white-fronted plovers often make their nest in an indent of sand, sometimes near vegetation, covering part of their eggs (typically two) with a bit of sand.
But they are there — and our presence on the beach, even within 30m of them, is seriously affecting their ability to breed.
And with six billion people globally projected to live within 100km of the coast by 2025, and thousands of South Africans flocking to the beach every summer, we’re going to have to learn to coexist with the species that are trying to live along our coastlines.
Brittany Arendse, Manager of the Nature’s Valley Trust Marine and Coastal programme, setting up a closure and signage around the nesting territory of a white-fronted plover in Nature’s Valley. Christina Choang, a past NVT intern to the left. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
White-fronted plover nests are always made in the sand but it can be among vegetation, shelly debris or woody debris. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
A 2012 study on coastal bird communities in the Western Cape found that while species like oystercatchers and Egyptian geese are doing well, there was a 40% decline in small-bodied waders like white-fronted plovers over the 30-year study period.
One part of NVT’s #ShareTheShores programme is protecting beach breeding birds, which initially started as part of Selena Flores’ PhD thesis that she is completing at UCT in collaboration with the NVT, which has found evidence to suggest white-fronted plovers’ ability to breed is under threat from humans’ presence on beaches
While Flores’ research started seven years ago, the project has continued, with NVT setting up a small team to investigate how these birds are responding to disturbances on beaches from Robberg to Nature’s Valley, and what we can learn from these responses.
The initial study that NVT conducted at Robberg Beach, Lookout Beach, Keurbooms Beach and Nature’s Valley found that, like some other shore-breeding plovers around the world, white-fronted plovers have a low breeding success because of human and dog disturbances to incubation.
A white-fronted plover taking refuge in a footprint after a human approached. Chicks often hide in sand indents or vegetation while adults distract potential predators by pretending to be injured. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
Brittany Arendse has her Master of Science (MSc) from the University of Cape Town and manages the Nature’s Valley Trust Marine and Coastal programme. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
What impact do people have on beaches?
From disturbance tests NVT conducted over three breeding seasons, they figured out how close humans/dogs could get to white-fronted plovers before they fled and how long it would take for them to come back.
The interns would observe an incubating bird for a two-hour period three times a day (morning, midday and afternoon) during their breeding period, from August to March.
They’d observe instances when a person, sometimes with a dog, would walk through the bird’s nesting territory and how often the bird would get off its nest (be flushed off), and how close people needed to get to the nest before the birds left their eggs.
Data collected from the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 summer seasons found that over a two-hour period more than 1,000 people went through a nesting territory (their counter only went to 1,000), and 34 and 51 dogs, respectively. The birds were flushed out of their nests 15 and 19 times, respectively.
Arendse said, “This is the level of disturbance that you can expect in peak summer when the beaches are full.”
The NVT also conducted manipulated disturbance trials, where they would wait for a bird to start incubating and then approach the bird from a distance, recording when the bird first noticed them, how far they had to be for the bird to feel threatened enough that it got off its eggs, and once it left the nest how long it took to come back.
They found that on average at about 29-30m approach distance, the bird would get off its eggs and that it would take the bird about 4.5 minutes to return to its nest and continue incubating its eggs, given that the threat had continued past the nesting area.
This is a problem, “because it’s so hot, and the sand is often hotter than the ambient temperature, they actually shade the eggs most of the time during peak heat,” Arendse explained.
“So it’s important for them to stay on those eggs as long as possible, otherwise, the development of the eggs [is compromised].”
Once the eggs reach the 42°C threshold, the embryo will be unviable — and on a hot day, the eggs can reach that temperature within the first five to six minutes of a bird leaving its eggs, and quicker if it’s a really hot day.
So if a bird gets flushed off its nest 15-19 times in a two-hour period, and it takes more than four minutes to get back, it makes it very difficult for them to produce viable offspring.
And the initial results from this study reflect this. Over the first breeding season they monitored 83 nests, which had 35 breeding pairs that laid 152 eggs. Out of the 152 eggs, only 15 made it to fledge — a 9.8% breeding success rate.
“Shorebirds usually nest in a very harsh environment, so you’d expect it to be low anyway,” Arendse said, “but in general, they should experience around 30 to 40% breeding success. So this is extremely low for a species.”
This impact happens with people getting within 30m of the birds. “At this point, you probably haven’t even noticed the birds, your dogs definitely haven’t noticed the birds, Arendse said.
“There is this misconception that [conservationists] are really worried about dogs chasing birds down and eating eggs… but it is more about the birds’ inherent response to disturbance by a four-legged mammalian predator.”
Awareness campaign
Nature's Valley Trust
Ending off the last day of the BirdLife South Africa Flock to Wilderness LAB workshops with an immense appreciation for the work being done throughout the country.
It was great to be able to share a bit of our #SharetheShores programme with both a beach excursion, where 10 White-fronted plovers were showing off their camouflaging skills right in front of us and an informative presentation by Brittany on the ‘Conservation of beach breeding birds in a dynamic urban context’.
There were amazing talks, and we thank BirdLife South Africa for giving us this platform as well as organising such an incredible event.
The NVT launched the #ShareTheShores programme in 2017 to address aspects of concern in the Greater Plettenberg Bay area, one of which was the pressures people and companion animals place on shore-breeding birds like white-fronted plovers.
As Arendse said, we typically aren’t even aware of the impact we are having — especially with a species that is as camouflaged as these plovers.
NVT used community outreach days, social media campaigns and signage that showed where the nesting territory was, and where possible, closed off 60x60m areas where the nests were (with signage ideally 30m from the nests).
Beach management
NVT collaborated with the local community, the Bitou Local Municipality, CapeNature, SANParks and other authorities on beach management possibilities.
“We wanted to be involved in the management as far as we can, because we have that data and feel that it’s important to base your management processes on actual facts and data,” Arendse said.
At the time, the NVT had three breeding seasons worth of data, which gave it information about where most of the birds were nesting and where most of the conflict areas were.
A closed-off 60x60m area that surrounds a white-fronted plover’s nesting territory (30 m away in all directions with the nest in the middle) in Nature’s Valley, Western Cape. (Photo: Nature’s Valley Trust)
The tags mark the hotspot breeding areas for this section of beach — red tags mark nests that failed, and green tags mark nests that made it to fledge.
Arendse said the beach management process was long, with the initial zoning of the beaches taking about 18 months, and they were still working with authorities to make the management more efficient.
“The goal was never to save every bird on every beach, because that is not possible. But we wanted to speak to enough people to understand what they needed from the beaches and how we could get a win-win for our birds and our people and our dogs,” Arense said.
Before this project, Plettenberg Bay didn’t have any systems to control dogs on beaches, but from the data collected, the municipality has zoned several beaches (red is where dogs are not allowed, orange is where dogs have to be leashed, and green is where dogs can run free but under the control of their owner).
For example, Keurbooms peninsula is a red zone because it has very big breeding colonies, not just of white-fronter plovers but of other birds including gulls, egrets, spoonbills, ibises and thick-knees.
Results
Arendse took over from Flores in 2017/2018, when they started the awareness campaign and put up rope and signage.
This resulted in the percentage of breeding success in Nature’s Valley doubling (from about 15.4% to 30.6% two breeding seasons later).
Lookout Beach improved from 10% breeding success in 2017/2018 to 14% two breeding seasons later. Despite being a red-zoned beach, it still has many dogs and people visiting.
However, the last breeding season (2022/2023) at Lookout Beach had the highest success at 20.8%.
Arendse acknowledged that along with anthropogenic impacts (caused by humans), breeding success is also affected by natural factors, and due to sea level rise and an increase in storm surges, many nests are lost in flooding events.
“[The white-fronted plover is] also not a very sexy species in terms of status — it’s not critically endangered, it’s not even endangered, it’s only declining,” Arendse reflected at the end of her talk at the symposium to Plett locals and scientists.
“But I think it’s important for us to be proactive in instances like this and not reactive and actually start doing something now before we look back in 30 years’ time and the bird is extinct.” DM
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
-
Lisbeth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 67599
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Switzerland
- Location: Lugano
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
Plea for Transnet to ‘slow down’ after train ploughs into four rhinos at Phongolo
A white rhino lies dead on a railway track in Phongolo Nature Reserve after it was struck by a Transnet train on Friday. At least two rhinos died, a third was seriously injured and a fourth has not been located. (Photo: Supplied)
By Tony Carnie | 20 Aug 2023
Coal and goods trains are leaving a trail of death and suffering in at least two wildlife reserves in northern KwaZulu-Natal as they speed southwards to the port of Richards Bay. Casualties from last Friday alone include two rhinos, a giraffe, a wildebeest and several impalas.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Transnet locomotive slammed into a group of four white rhinos in the Phongolo Nature Reserve on 18 August, killing two and seriously injuring a third. The fourth rhino disappeared and its fate is not known.
On the same day, a wildebeest and several impalas were bowled over in the adjoining Phongola Game Reserve and wildlife managers also had to destroy a giraffe after one of its legs was all but sliced off, apparently by another train.
An impala killed on the track on 18 August 2023. (Photo: Supplied)
This giraffe, thought to have been struck by a train a few days previously, was put down by wildlife managers after one of its legs was all but torn off. (Photo: Supplied)
Now managers of the Phongola private reserve are urging Transnet to ensure that locomotive drivers slow down while passing through the reserve.
Reserve spokesman Kemp Landman said an agreement had been reached with Transnet about 10 years ago that locomotives would slow down to 40km/h to reduce wildlife casualties while travelling through the reserve. That agreement was reached after Transnet trains killed at least four black rhinos and an elephant.
Over recent months, however, Landman said the number of wild animal casualties in the private reserve had increased significantly, apparently because train drivers were no longer abiding by the speed limit along a roughly 20km-long section of track passing through the reserve.
Last week, a staff member who drove his vehicle along a track parallel with a train estimated the locomotive was travelling at least 70 km/h. A video clip recorded last week also suggests some Transnet drivers are not adhering to the agreement.
Reserve staff estimate that up to a dozen trains pass through the reserve daily, several at night.
The track from Mpumalanga to Richards Bay passes through Swaziland via the Phongola area and Hluhluwe.
The railway line from Swaziland crosses the Phongola River before passing through two game reserves and then runs southward roughly parallel to the N2. (Image: Screenshot)
Musa Mntambo, a spokesman for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, confirmed that two white rhinos were killed, a third seriously injured and a fourth was missing after a train struck the animals in Phongolo Nature Reserve early on Friday.
Mntambo said Ezemvelo was investigating the incident and could not comment on whether high speed was a contributing factor.
Photographs suggest that the animals may not have been able to escape from the track quickly because of a steep embankment or the metal railings running parallel to the railway line on both sides of the bridge.
However, Landman has provided Daily Maverick with several photographs of a wide variety of other wild animals killed on the tracks in the adjacent Phongola private game reserve over the past year.
They include several impalas, an antelope species capable of outrunning cheetahs on open ground.
“(On Friday) we had about five or six impalas lying scattered and broken next to the rail track.”
Other recent casualties included eight buffalo, along with giraffe, kudu and wildebeest.
Three impalas lie next to the tracks. One appears to be still alive. (Photo: Supplied)
The carcass of a buffalo. (Photo: Supplied)
A dead wildebeest next to tracks. (Photo: Supplied)
“We believe this unnecessary suffering is an easy thing to solve. The railway track passing through the reserve is about 20km long. We understand that Transnet has a duty to customers to deliver cargo, but this is a game reserve and we are urging Transnet to instruct drivers to slow down along this short section of the route.
Landman said he was not able to comment on suggestions from other sources that Transnet drivers had been under pressure to speed up coal export deliveries to Richards Bay over the past year due to a surge in coal prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Nevertheless, a plethora of road-haul trucks carrying coal from Mpumalanga and elsewhere have caused a traffic nightmare for residents of Richards Bay and for motorists along adjoining sections of the N2 highway over the past year.
Daily Maverick sent questions and requested comment from Transnet on 18 August, but no response had been received at the time of writing.
Dr Heinz Kohrs, a local veterinary surgeon and founder member of the Pongolapoort Biosphere Reserve, said there had been a definite increase in the number of wildlife killed by trains in the reserve over the past two months or so.
“It’s purely due to high speed,” he said. “I can only speculate on whether it’s because Transnet is pushing more trains on that line or whether there is a new contingent of drivers not sticking to the speed limit.
“What I can tell you is that the wildlife carnage stopped immediately after an agreement was reached with Transnet around 2012, that trains would stick to 40 km/h in the reserve to safeguard endangered species such as black rhinos.”
At a broader level, the increasing number of deaths of wildlife due to linear transport networks is gaining attention globally as conservation managers seek solutions to curbing wildlife deaths or allowing animals to move more freely as more transport corridors are fenced off.
A recent study by University of KwaZulu-Natal researcher Cameron Cormac found that at least 137 wild animals were knocked over and killed over a three-month period along the R618. This provincial tar road passes through the centre of the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in KZN.
At least 103 animal deaths were recorded over the same period along the R22 road that passes through the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. These casualties included mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
A few years ago, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), launched a project to reduce wildlife deaths along a railway line running through Balule Nature Reserve in the Greater Kruger National Park.
According to the trust’s website, this railway line extends over 45 km from Hoedspruit to Phalaborwa and posed a significant threat to local wildlife populations.
Since 2011 over 500 fatal wildlife-train collisions had occurred on the railway line, with casualties including black rhinos, elephants, wild dogs, hippos, cheetahs, lions, giraffes and white-backed vultures.
At the inaugural African Conference for Linear Infrastructure and Ecology in 2019, EWT researcher Wendy Collinson noted that several major development projects were planned or under way in several parts of Africa – ranging from power lines, roads and railways to pipelines and ports.
At a recent conservation symposium in Margate, KZN, Collinson said that while these projects benefited commerce, they often had negative impacts on wildlife by crisscrossing the landscape, fragmenting ecosystems, isolating wildlife populations or constraining movement and migration. DM
A white rhino lies dead on a railway track in Phongolo Nature Reserve after it was struck by a Transnet train on Friday. At least two rhinos died, a third was seriously injured and a fourth has not been located. (Photo: Supplied)
By Tony Carnie | 20 Aug 2023
Coal and goods trains are leaving a trail of death and suffering in at least two wildlife reserves in northern KwaZulu-Natal as they speed southwards to the port of Richards Bay. Casualties from last Friday alone include two rhinos, a giraffe, a wildebeest and several impalas.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Transnet locomotive slammed into a group of four white rhinos in the Phongolo Nature Reserve on 18 August, killing two and seriously injuring a third. The fourth rhino disappeared and its fate is not known.
On the same day, a wildebeest and several impalas were bowled over in the adjoining Phongola Game Reserve and wildlife managers also had to destroy a giraffe after one of its legs was all but sliced off, apparently by another train.
An impala killed on the track on 18 August 2023. (Photo: Supplied)
This giraffe, thought to have been struck by a train a few days previously, was put down by wildlife managers after one of its legs was all but torn off. (Photo: Supplied)
Now managers of the Phongola private reserve are urging Transnet to ensure that locomotive drivers slow down while passing through the reserve.
Reserve spokesman Kemp Landman said an agreement had been reached with Transnet about 10 years ago that locomotives would slow down to 40km/h to reduce wildlife casualties while travelling through the reserve. That agreement was reached after Transnet trains killed at least four black rhinos and an elephant.
Over recent months, however, Landman said the number of wild animal casualties in the private reserve had increased significantly, apparently because train drivers were no longer abiding by the speed limit along a roughly 20km-long section of track passing through the reserve.
Last week, a staff member who drove his vehicle along a track parallel with a train estimated the locomotive was travelling at least 70 km/h. A video clip recorded last week also suggests some Transnet drivers are not adhering to the agreement.
Reserve staff estimate that up to a dozen trains pass through the reserve daily, several at night.
The track from Mpumalanga to Richards Bay passes through Swaziland via the Phongola area and Hluhluwe.
The railway line from Swaziland crosses the Phongola River before passing through two game reserves and then runs southward roughly parallel to the N2. (Image: Screenshot)
Musa Mntambo, a spokesman for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, confirmed that two white rhinos were killed, a third seriously injured and a fourth was missing after a train struck the animals in Phongolo Nature Reserve early on Friday.
Mntambo said Ezemvelo was investigating the incident and could not comment on whether high speed was a contributing factor.
Photographs suggest that the animals may not have been able to escape from the track quickly because of a steep embankment or the metal railings running parallel to the railway line on both sides of the bridge.
However, Landman has provided Daily Maverick with several photographs of a wide variety of other wild animals killed on the tracks in the adjacent Phongola private game reserve over the past year.
They include several impalas, an antelope species capable of outrunning cheetahs on open ground.
“(On Friday) we had about five or six impalas lying scattered and broken next to the rail track.”
Other recent casualties included eight buffalo, along with giraffe, kudu and wildebeest.
Three impalas lie next to the tracks. One appears to be still alive. (Photo: Supplied)
The carcass of a buffalo. (Photo: Supplied)
A dead wildebeest next to tracks. (Photo: Supplied)
“We believe this unnecessary suffering is an easy thing to solve. The railway track passing through the reserve is about 20km long. We understand that Transnet has a duty to customers to deliver cargo, but this is a game reserve and we are urging Transnet to instruct drivers to slow down along this short section of the route.
Landman said he was not able to comment on suggestions from other sources that Transnet drivers had been under pressure to speed up coal export deliveries to Richards Bay over the past year due to a surge in coal prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Nevertheless, a plethora of road-haul trucks carrying coal from Mpumalanga and elsewhere have caused a traffic nightmare for residents of Richards Bay and for motorists along adjoining sections of the N2 highway over the past year.
Daily Maverick sent questions and requested comment from Transnet on 18 August, but no response had been received at the time of writing.
Dr Heinz Kohrs, a local veterinary surgeon and founder member of the Pongolapoort Biosphere Reserve, said there had been a definite increase in the number of wildlife killed by trains in the reserve over the past two months or so.
“It’s purely due to high speed,” he said. “I can only speculate on whether it’s because Transnet is pushing more trains on that line or whether there is a new contingent of drivers not sticking to the speed limit.
“What I can tell you is that the wildlife carnage stopped immediately after an agreement was reached with Transnet around 2012, that trains would stick to 40 km/h in the reserve to safeguard endangered species such as black rhinos.”
At a broader level, the increasing number of deaths of wildlife due to linear transport networks is gaining attention globally as conservation managers seek solutions to curbing wildlife deaths or allowing animals to move more freely as more transport corridors are fenced off.
A recent study by University of KwaZulu-Natal researcher Cameron Cormac found that at least 137 wild animals were knocked over and killed over a three-month period along the R618. This provincial tar road passes through the centre of the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in KZN.
At least 103 animal deaths were recorded over the same period along the R22 road that passes through the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. These casualties included mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
A few years ago, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), launched a project to reduce wildlife deaths along a railway line running through Balule Nature Reserve in the Greater Kruger National Park.
According to the trust’s website, this railway line extends over 45 km from Hoedspruit to Phalaborwa and posed a significant threat to local wildlife populations.
Since 2011 over 500 fatal wildlife-train collisions had occurred on the railway line, with casualties including black rhinos, elephants, wild dogs, hippos, cheetahs, lions, giraffes and white-backed vultures.
At the inaugural African Conference for Linear Infrastructure and Ecology in 2019, EWT researcher Wendy Collinson noted that several major development projects were planned or under way in several parts of Africa – ranging from power lines, roads and railways to pipelines and ports.
At a recent conservation symposium in Margate, KZN, Collinson said that while these projects benefited commerce, they often had negative impacts on wildlife by crisscrossing the landscape, fragmenting ecosystems, isolating wildlife populations or constraining movement and migration. DM
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
-
Lisbeth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 67599
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Switzerland
- Location: Lugano
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
ROVING REPORTERS
Lions and rural communities in a life-or-death battle for survival
In the Okavanga Delta lions thrive. There is an abundance of buffalo and other animals to prey upon. But in many other parts of Africa, native habitat loss has tragic consequences both for people and the big cats. (Photo: Hanspeter Baumeler *hyperlink for credit at bottom of copy)
Lion guru Craig Packer reveals how big cats develop a taste for human flesh and why we shouldn’t swallow big game hunters’ wild tales.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sensational tales of Great White Hunters who have killed “man-eating” lions detract from the real experiences of lion attack victims and the reasons why such incidents persist, says world-renowned lion expert, Dr Craig Packer.
In the coastal shrublands of southern Tanzania, villagers face a stark reality: hungry lions deprived of their natural prey. Africa has lost around 90% of lions’ native habitat in the last century to accommodate an expanding human population. This has come at a fatal cost to both humans and lions, says Packer.
Exactly how many people get killed by lions these days — and vice versa — is largely unknown.
Internet searches yield conflicting figures of about a dozen each year. But what is not in doubt is that as human populations expand and lions’ prey dwindle, it is the poorest people — and hungriest lions— that pay the price.
Recently in Kenya, a 60-year-old man nearly died in a struggle with a lioness that was preying on people’s livestock. These often follow a pattern that has been repeated for centuries, says Packer, who is currently revisiting decades of research into human-big cat conflict.
For over 40 years, the American ecologist and award-winning author has studied lions in Africa, from the Serengeti to South Africa and the Maasai Mara. He has seen them at their most playful and their most savage.
Packer’s findings will be presented at the 12th Oppenheimer Research Conference in Midrand, South Africa, in early October.
He will delve into the significant man-eating lion outbreaks in East Africa and South Asia, and draw on similarities with other cases, including the Man-Eaters of Kruger which preyed on Mozambican refugees illegally crossing through Kruger National Park to South Africa.
His presentation will also cover the Man-Eaters of Tsavo, the less well-known Man-Eaters of Sanga who were responsible for the largest known outbreak in Uganda, and the famous man-eating leopards and tigers of Kumaon that were despatched by Jim Corbett in the colonial era in India.
Dr Craig Packer, author of the two recently published books: ‘The Lion: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation of an Iconic Species’ (March 2023) and ‘Lions in the Balance: Man-Eaters, Manes, and Men with Guns’ (2015).
Myths and legends
For over a century, the myth of the “Great White Hunter” has captivated audiences in Europe and North America. Renowned explorers like David Livingstone, while on a mission to eradicate the slave trade and spread Christianity in Africa, spun vivid tales of being attacked by man-eating lions in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Similarly, Colonel John Henry Patterson’s famous book, “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo”, perpetuated the belief that white men were the only saviours for helpless villagers during the rampant outbreak of man-eaters that occurred during the railway construction from Mombasa to Kampala.
But the untold stories of victims, Packer says, are an entirely different narrative.
Colonel John Henry Patterson poses next to the first Tsavo lion he killed during an outbreak of lion attacks on many construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway between March and December 1898. (Photo: courtesy of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois)
Survivors’ stories
In the early 2000s, the Tanzanian government sought Packer’s expertise to investigate a major outbreak of man-eating lions in the districts spanning from Dar es Salaam to the Mozambican border.
Along with two young researchers, the team interviewed hundreds of lion attack survivors and their families.
Their research shed new light on the risks of being attacked by man-eating lions, which had largely been overlooked by the “white heroes” who had been called in to eliminate problem lions during the colonial era.
Forty people were killed in lion attacks in Rufiji, Tanzania, between 2002 and 2004. The billboard on the left states: ‘A man-eating lion has eaten 40 people and injured 7 others.’ The second billboard states that the lion was killed by villagers on 20 April 2004, and buried the next day. According to Dr Craig Packer, while attacks involved a group of lions, villagers believed that one lion, which they called Osama, was responsible. (Photos: Hadas Kushnir)
A lifelong pursuit
Packer’s lifelong study of animal behaviour began in 1972 as an undergraduate field assistant for Jane Goodall at Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Instead of focusing on chimpanzees like Goodall, he studied olive baboons — looking at their family dynamics and social connections.
Packer had intended to come to Africa for just a few months and return to the US for medical school, but he got so enthralled in watching animals and being in Africa, that he stayed.
“I guess I got what they call Le mal d’Afrique — the obsession for Africa,” he jokes.
After completing his doctorate in biology at the University of Sussex, Packer found himself drawn back to Africa, this time to the vast plains of the Serengeti, where he immersed himself in the complex lives of lions for the next four decades.
Initially, he explored questions like, ‘Why do lions live in groups?’ and, ‘Why do they have manes?’ However, a devastating disease epidemic in 1994 claimed one-third of the Serengeti lion population and shifted Packer’s focus to conservation.
“Here was a population of lions in the middle of one of the best protected national parks in Africa. And yet so many of them could die,” Packer says. It turned out to be a disease epidemic that was the result of poverty.
In rural communities near the Serengeti, scarce veterinary services meant domestic dogs were unvaccinated against lethal diseases like rabies and distemper which, in turn, infected local lions.
Packer’s team started working in villages outside the Serengeti, vaccinating people’s dogs, but soon after the disease outbreak had been addressed, a new challenge threatening human and lion populations became too big to ignore – habitat loss and the resulting loss of lions’ natural prey.
Easy pickings
When Packer went to investigate the outbreak of man-eating lions in southern Tanzania, he was shocked to see how vulnerable people were to lion attacks: most victims of the attacks were peasant farmers surviving on a single crop a year.
To safeguard their crops from bushpigs, which had become the primary food source for the remaining lions, farmers slept in their fields, making them easy targets for attacks.
“Once the lions developed a taste for human flesh, they even started raiding villages,” says Packer.
In the early 2000s, farmers in the coastal shrublands of Tanzania started building makeshift huts in their fields so they could protect crops from nocturnal pests. These shelters offered little protection from lions that hunted at night for bushpigs. (Photo: Craig Packer)
In an article titled Rational Fear, published in 2009, Packer recounts some of the horrific cases from his team’s interviews: “Lions dig through thatched roofs and drag elderly people out of bed; they pluck small children from the breasts of their nursing mothers… one woman lost her husband and parents in two separate attacks several months apart.”
In Ruhokwe village in Tanzania, a man describes to researchers how his four-year-old grandson was snatched by a lion from the arms of his grandmother as she lifted the boy out of a bath basin. The boy’s remains were found later. (Photo: Hadas Kushnir)
In revisiting earlier man-eating lion outbreaks in Njombe, Tanzania, Packer challenges claims by the late British game warden, George Rushby, that three generations of lions had killed as many as 1,500 people from 1932 to 1947.
He argues that this is an inflated figure, complicated by the simultaneous murder of hundreds of people by “lion-men” or “spirit lions” – assassins hired to kill enemies and disguise these deaths as lion attacks.
“In some cases, they used metal hooks and curved knives to disembowel the victim to make it look like they had been eaten by lions,” says Packer.
“So, there was a mixture of real lion attacks with a fair number of murders,” says Packer.
Ever-changing relationships
Packers’ research shows that problems with big cats usually result from a loss of prey caused by a diverse range of factors.
He states that while the lion attack outbreak in Tsavo in the late 1890s was triggered by an outbreak of rinderpest that devastated lions’ natural prey, in Njombe agricultural expansion destroyed a lot of the natural habitat, resulting in a sharp decline in the numbers of wild animals for lions to eat, says Packer.
He also draws a parallel with what happened in India following outbreaks of cholera and Spanish flu. During those epidemics, peoples’ bodies were thrown into valleys as there were too many victims to observe the usual rites of cremation.
“The corpses attracted leopards and tigers and inspired the big cats to see people as food,” says Packer.
The relationships people have with lions also vary considerably from region to region.
Retaliatory killings
For example, in the savanna habitats of Kenya and northern Tanzania, lions often face retaliatory killings by Maasai and other pastoral communities in response to livestock losses. This, paired with a culture of young warriors spearing lions to prove their courage, has led lions in these areas to be more fearful of humans and so less likely to become man-eaters than in the subsistence-agricultural areas of southern Tanzania.
In Botswana and Namibia, the hunter-gatherer Khoisan communities also view lions as a helpful way of finding food sources. They have been known to chase off entire prides of feeding lions in order to get freshly killed antelope.
“In my experience with the Khoisan, the attitude towards lions is one of admiration and respect,” says Packer.
Drastic measures
To put an end to the 21st-century outbreak of man-eating lions in southern Tanzania, local people resorted to a drastic measure: poison.
Packer recalls a notable incident from 2004 when an elderly woman disappeared after visiting a long-drop (pit latrine) during the night. Her husband discovered her half-eaten remains and instead of burying her, he laced her corpse with rat poison, successfully eliminating the responsible lion. This method caught on, with other villagers poisoning half-eaten bush pig carcasses and the remains of slaughtered goats.
“Without guns for protection, they felt helpless,” Packer says. “But you can get rat poison from any village shop for just a few cents.”
While this approach stopped the last major outbreak in Tanzania, it isn’t the ideal solution, says Packer.
Besides eliminating an endangered top carnivore, poisoned carcasses are causing massive harm to vulture populations and many other scavengers.
So, finding environmentally friendly alternatives to curb human-wildlife conflict is a key focus of the Lion Center which Packer founded at the University of Minnesota in 1986. It aims to advance new evidence-based approaches to lion conservation that balance the needs of wildlife and human communities.
Packer remains optimistic that lion numbers will remain stable or even increase in the next dozen years as lion conservationists work to protect them.
“We are learning from the success stories as well as the failures.”
In some regions, simple measures like building walls or fences between wildlife and people, as has long been employed in South Africa, have proven effective solutions. But in many East African parks, where wildlife migrates beyond protected areas, barriers are not viable.
Here, the focus has been on preserving the large-scale movements of migratory herbivores, but outside the protected areas, people keep livestock which are easy prey for lions.
“Today, the people who suffer the most from being around lions are those whose livelihoods depend on livestock,” says Packer.
If you keep cattle near wildlife areas, then lions are a threat to your livelihood. And it’s getting worse as pastoralist communities are forced to keep their stock closer and closer to wildlife areas as the rest of the landscape is converted to agriculture – this leads to increased livestock attacks and retaliatory killings of lions, he explains.
Urban encroachment
Urban encroachment on wildlife areas in Kenya is also becoming a problem, says Packer.
Recently, residents of Nairobi recorded CCTV footage of an emaciated lioness walking through a residential area near Nairobi National Park. In nearby Kitengela, a built-up area that was once part of the dispersal corridor for the wildebeest and zebra from Nairobi Park, people witnessed zebras walking along a road through the town.
Many other dispersal corridors in East Africa are being similarly cut off, resulting in greater opportunities for lions to come into contact with pedestrians and pastoralists.
The worst of the “man-eating” outbreaks may well be over as the offending animals will almost certainly be dispatched more quickly than ever before.
“But remember,” Packer cautions, “the problem isn’t with the lions – they are just doing what lions have always done… the problem is with us.” DM
Additional reporting by Fred Kockott.
Rothery is a freelance journalist and Programme Assistant at the Earth Journalism Network. Kockott is the founding director of Roving Reporters. Mokaya is a biodiversity reporter at The Standard Group in Nairobi, Kenya.
In this podcast, Steve Mokaya talks to Dr Craig Packer about his work on lion conservation.
This story forms part of Roving Reporters Game Changers series. It was produced with support from science communication specialists, Jive Media Africa.
*Hyperlink for main photo credit here.
Lions and rural communities in a life-or-death battle for survival
In the Okavanga Delta lions thrive. There is an abundance of buffalo and other animals to prey upon. But in many other parts of Africa, native habitat loss has tragic consequences both for people and the big cats. (Photo: Hanspeter Baumeler *hyperlink for credit at bottom of copy)
Lion guru Craig Packer reveals how big cats develop a taste for human flesh and why we shouldn’t swallow big game hunters’ wild tales.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sensational tales of Great White Hunters who have killed “man-eating” lions detract from the real experiences of lion attack victims and the reasons why such incidents persist, says world-renowned lion expert, Dr Craig Packer.
In the coastal shrublands of southern Tanzania, villagers face a stark reality: hungry lions deprived of their natural prey. Africa has lost around 90% of lions’ native habitat in the last century to accommodate an expanding human population. This has come at a fatal cost to both humans and lions, says Packer.
Exactly how many people get killed by lions these days — and vice versa — is largely unknown.
Internet searches yield conflicting figures of about a dozen each year. But what is not in doubt is that as human populations expand and lions’ prey dwindle, it is the poorest people — and hungriest lions— that pay the price.
Recently in Kenya, a 60-year-old man nearly died in a struggle with a lioness that was preying on people’s livestock. These often follow a pattern that has been repeated for centuries, says Packer, who is currently revisiting decades of research into human-big cat conflict.
For over 40 years, the American ecologist and award-winning author has studied lions in Africa, from the Serengeti to South Africa and the Maasai Mara. He has seen them at their most playful and their most savage.
Packer’s findings will be presented at the 12th Oppenheimer Research Conference in Midrand, South Africa, in early October.
He will delve into the significant man-eating lion outbreaks in East Africa and South Asia, and draw on similarities with other cases, including the Man-Eaters of Kruger which preyed on Mozambican refugees illegally crossing through Kruger National Park to South Africa.
His presentation will also cover the Man-Eaters of Tsavo, the less well-known Man-Eaters of Sanga who were responsible for the largest known outbreak in Uganda, and the famous man-eating leopards and tigers of Kumaon that were despatched by Jim Corbett in the colonial era in India.
Dr Craig Packer, author of the two recently published books: ‘The Lion: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation of an Iconic Species’ (March 2023) and ‘Lions in the Balance: Man-Eaters, Manes, and Men with Guns’ (2015).
Myths and legends
For over a century, the myth of the “Great White Hunter” has captivated audiences in Europe and North America. Renowned explorers like David Livingstone, while on a mission to eradicate the slave trade and spread Christianity in Africa, spun vivid tales of being attacked by man-eating lions in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Similarly, Colonel John Henry Patterson’s famous book, “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo”, perpetuated the belief that white men were the only saviours for helpless villagers during the rampant outbreak of man-eaters that occurred during the railway construction from Mombasa to Kampala.
But the untold stories of victims, Packer says, are an entirely different narrative.
Colonel John Henry Patterson poses next to the first Tsavo lion he killed during an outbreak of lion attacks on many construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway between March and December 1898. (Photo: courtesy of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois)
Survivors’ stories
In the early 2000s, the Tanzanian government sought Packer’s expertise to investigate a major outbreak of man-eating lions in the districts spanning from Dar es Salaam to the Mozambican border.
Along with two young researchers, the team interviewed hundreds of lion attack survivors and their families.
Their research shed new light on the risks of being attacked by man-eating lions, which had largely been overlooked by the “white heroes” who had been called in to eliminate problem lions during the colonial era.
Forty people were killed in lion attacks in Rufiji, Tanzania, between 2002 and 2004. The billboard on the left states: ‘A man-eating lion has eaten 40 people and injured 7 others.’ The second billboard states that the lion was killed by villagers on 20 April 2004, and buried the next day. According to Dr Craig Packer, while attacks involved a group of lions, villagers believed that one lion, which they called Osama, was responsible. (Photos: Hadas Kushnir)
A lifelong pursuit
Packer’s lifelong study of animal behaviour began in 1972 as an undergraduate field assistant for Jane Goodall at Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Instead of focusing on chimpanzees like Goodall, he studied olive baboons — looking at their family dynamics and social connections.
Packer had intended to come to Africa for just a few months and return to the US for medical school, but he got so enthralled in watching animals and being in Africa, that he stayed.
“I guess I got what they call Le mal d’Afrique — the obsession for Africa,” he jokes.
After completing his doctorate in biology at the University of Sussex, Packer found himself drawn back to Africa, this time to the vast plains of the Serengeti, where he immersed himself in the complex lives of lions for the next four decades.
Initially, he explored questions like, ‘Why do lions live in groups?’ and, ‘Why do they have manes?’ However, a devastating disease epidemic in 1994 claimed one-third of the Serengeti lion population and shifted Packer’s focus to conservation.
“Here was a population of lions in the middle of one of the best protected national parks in Africa. And yet so many of them could die,” Packer says. It turned out to be a disease epidemic that was the result of poverty.
In rural communities near the Serengeti, scarce veterinary services meant domestic dogs were unvaccinated against lethal diseases like rabies and distemper which, in turn, infected local lions.
Packer’s team started working in villages outside the Serengeti, vaccinating people’s dogs, but soon after the disease outbreak had been addressed, a new challenge threatening human and lion populations became too big to ignore – habitat loss and the resulting loss of lions’ natural prey.
Easy pickings
When Packer went to investigate the outbreak of man-eating lions in southern Tanzania, he was shocked to see how vulnerable people were to lion attacks: most victims of the attacks were peasant farmers surviving on a single crop a year.
To safeguard their crops from bushpigs, which had become the primary food source for the remaining lions, farmers slept in their fields, making them easy targets for attacks.
“Once the lions developed a taste for human flesh, they even started raiding villages,” says Packer.
In the early 2000s, farmers in the coastal shrublands of Tanzania started building makeshift huts in their fields so they could protect crops from nocturnal pests. These shelters offered little protection from lions that hunted at night for bushpigs. (Photo: Craig Packer)
In an article titled Rational Fear, published in 2009, Packer recounts some of the horrific cases from his team’s interviews: “Lions dig through thatched roofs and drag elderly people out of bed; they pluck small children from the breasts of their nursing mothers… one woman lost her husband and parents in two separate attacks several months apart.”
In Ruhokwe village in Tanzania, a man describes to researchers how his four-year-old grandson was snatched by a lion from the arms of his grandmother as she lifted the boy out of a bath basin. The boy’s remains were found later. (Photo: Hadas Kushnir)
In revisiting earlier man-eating lion outbreaks in Njombe, Tanzania, Packer challenges claims by the late British game warden, George Rushby, that three generations of lions had killed as many as 1,500 people from 1932 to 1947.
He argues that this is an inflated figure, complicated by the simultaneous murder of hundreds of people by “lion-men” or “spirit lions” – assassins hired to kill enemies and disguise these deaths as lion attacks.
“In some cases, they used metal hooks and curved knives to disembowel the victim to make it look like they had been eaten by lions,” says Packer.
“So, there was a mixture of real lion attacks with a fair number of murders,” says Packer.
Ever-changing relationships
Packers’ research shows that problems with big cats usually result from a loss of prey caused by a diverse range of factors.
He states that while the lion attack outbreak in Tsavo in the late 1890s was triggered by an outbreak of rinderpest that devastated lions’ natural prey, in Njombe agricultural expansion destroyed a lot of the natural habitat, resulting in a sharp decline in the numbers of wild animals for lions to eat, says Packer.
He also draws a parallel with what happened in India following outbreaks of cholera and Spanish flu. During those epidemics, peoples’ bodies were thrown into valleys as there were too many victims to observe the usual rites of cremation.
“The corpses attracted leopards and tigers and inspired the big cats to see people as food,” says Packer.
The relationships people have with lions also vary considerably from region to region.
Retaliatory killings
For example, in the savanna habitats of Kenya and northern Tanzania, lions often face retaliatory killings by Maasai and other pastoral communities in response to livestock losses. This, paired with a culture of young warriors spearing lions to prove their courage, has led lions in these areas to be more fearful of humans and so less likely to become man-eaters than in the subsistence-agricultural areas of southern Tanzania.
In Botswana and Namibia, the hunter-gatherer Khoisan communities also view lions as a helpful way of finding food sources. They have been known to chase off entire prides of feeding lions in order to get freshly killed antelope.
“In my experience with the Khoisan, the attitude towards lions is one of admiration and respect,” says Packer.
Drastic measures
To put an end to the 21st-century outbreak of man-eating lions in southern Tanzania, local people resorted to a drastic measure: poison.
Packer recalls a notable incident from 2004 when an elderly woman disappeared after visiting a long-drop (pit latrine) during the night. Her husband discovered her half-eaten remains and instead of burying her, he laced her corpse with rat poison, successfully eliminating the responsible lion. This method caught on, with other villagers poisoning half-eaten bush pig carcasses and the remains of slaughtered goats.
“Without guns for protection, they felt helpless,” Packer says. “But you can get rat poison from any village shop for just a few cents.”
While this approach stopped the last major outbreak in Tanzania, it isn’t the ideal solution, says Packer.
Besides eliminating an endangered top carnivore, poisoned carcasses are causing massive harm to vulture populations and many other scavengers.
So, finding environmentally friendly alternatives to curb human-wildlife conflict is a key focus of the Lion Center which Packer founded at the University of Minnesota in 1986. It aims to advance new evidence-based approaches to lion conservation that balance the needs of wildlife and human communities.
Packer remains optimistic that lion numbers will remain stable or even increase in the next dozen years as lion conservationists work to protect them.
“We are learning from the success stories as well as the failures.”
In some regions, simple measures like building walls or fences between wildlife and people, as has long been employed in South Africa, have proven effective solutions. But in many East African parks, where wildlife migrates beyond protected areas, barriers are not viable.
Here, the focus has been on preserving the large-scale movements of migratory herbivores, but outside the protected areas, people keep livestock which are easy prey for lions.
“Today, the people who suffer the most from being around lions are those whose livelihoods depend on livestock,” says Packer.
If you keep cattle near wildlife areas, then lions are a threat to your livelihood. And it’s getting worse as pastoralist communities are forced to keep their stock closer and closer to wildlife areas as the rest of the landscape is converted to agriculture – this leads to increased livestock attacks and retaliatory killings of lions, he explains.
Urban encroachment
Urban encroachment on wildlife areas in Kenya is also becoming a problem, says Packer.
Recently, residents of Nairobi recorded CCTV footage of an emaciated lioness walking through a residential area near Nairobi National Park. In nearby Kitengela, a built-up area that was once part of the dispersal corridor for the wildebeest and zebra from Nairobi Park, people witnessed zebras walking along a road through the town.
Many other dispersal corridors in East Africa are being similarly cut off, resulting in greater opportunities for lions to come into contact with pedestrians and pastoralists.
The worst of the “man-eating” outbreaks may well be over as the offending animals will almost certainly be dispatched more quickly than ever before.
“But remember,” Packer cautions, “the problem isn’t with the lions – they are just doing what lions have always done… the problem is with us.” DM
Additional reporting by Fred Kockott.
Rothery is a freelance journalist and Programme Assistant at the Earth Journalism Network. Kockott is the founding director of Roving Reporters. Mokaya is a biodiversity reporter at The Standard Group in Nairobi, Kenya.
In this podcast, Steve Mokaya talks to Dr Craig Packer about his work on lion conservation.
This story forms part of Roving Reporters Game Changers series. It was produced with support from science communication specialists, Jive Media Africa.
*Hyperlink for main photo credit here.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
-
Lisbeth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 67599
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Switzerland
- Location: Lugano
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
More Zimbabwean elephants are migrating to Botswana earlier, as water grows more scarce
Elephants at a Zimbabwean watering hole. (File/Getty)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Large numbers of elephants from Zimbabwe's biggest national park are moving to neighbouring Botswana in a search for water, a spokesman said Monday.
"Many animals have and are moving from Hwange National Park into Botswana" Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo told AFP.
Hwange National Park covers an area of more than 14 600 square kilometres and is home to about 50 000 elephants.
"Water bodies have dried up and the animals are in search for water and food," the spokesman said, adding that buffaloes and "all types of animals present in the park" were also migrating in scores.
"I can't quantify how many elephants have moved whether its hundreds or thousands but it has been a lot," he said of the migration which began in August.
"The amount of animals migrating has definitely increased over the years due to the increase in water shortages," Farawo added.
The authority said wildlife migration between Hwange National Park to Botswana is not uncommon, however this year it had come "too early", citing climate change.
The mass movement of wild animals could lead to an increase in conflict between humans and wildlife as they pass through populated areas in Zimbabwe.
"It means more animals are going to invade communities, people competing for water with animals," Farawo warned.
Conflict between humans and wildlife is a significant problem in remote parts of Zimbabwe, caused in part by population growth.
Elephants killed at least 60 people last year, according to government figures.
Zimbabwe has around 100 000 elephants, the second largest population in the world and almost double the capacity of its parks, conservationists say.
Botswana is home to around 130 000, the world's largest elephant population.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has classified southern Africa as a region at risk, facing increased risks of extreme heat and reduced rainfall due to global warming.
Elephants at a Zimbabwean watering hole. (File/Getty)
- Elephants from Zimbabwe are seeking water in Botswana in greater numbers, and earlier than usual.
- "A lot" of animals have been on the move since August.
- Their move through populated areas could mean trouble.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Large numbers of elephants from Zimbabwe's biggest national park are moving to neighbouring Botswana in a search for water, a spokesman said Monday.
"Many animals have and are moving from Hwange National Park into Botswana" Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo told AFP.
Hwange National Park covers an area of more than 14 600 square kilometres and is home to about 50 000 elephants.
"Water bodies have dried up and the animals are in search for water and food," the spokesman said, adding that buffaloes and "all types of animals present in the park" were also migrating in scores.
"I can't quantify how many elephants have moved whether its hundreds or thousands but it has been a lot," he said of the migration which began in August.
"The amount of animals migrating has definitely increased over the years due to the increase in water shortages," Farawo added.
The authority said wildlife migration between Hwange National Park to Botswana is not uncommon, however this year it had come "too early", citing climate change.
The mass movement of wild animals could lead to an increase in conflict between humans and wildlife as they pass through populated areas in Zimbabwe.
"It means more animals are going to invade communities, people competing for water with animals," Farawo warned.
Conflict between humans and wildlife is a significant problem in remote parts of Zimbabwe, caused in part by population growth.
Elephants killed at least 60 people last year, according to government figures.
Zimbabwe has around 100 000 elephants, the second largest population in the world and almost double the capacity of its parks, conservationists say.
Botswana is home to around 130 000, the world's largest elephant population.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has classified southern Africa as a region at risk, facing increased risks of extreme heat and reduced rainfall due to global warming.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
-
Lisbeth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 67599
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Switzerland
- Location: Lugano
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
BABOON MANAGEMENT
Juvenile baboon fatally shot in ‘distressing’ Seaforth incident — SPCA launches urgent investigation
The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has launched an investigation following the fatal shooting of a juvenile baboon in Seaforth, Cape Town, on Tuesday 19 September. (Photo: SPCA / Facebook)
By Tamsin Metelerkamp | 22 Sep 2023
The young baboon, named Shadow, was fatally shot in Seaforth near Simon’s Town, Cape Town, on Tuesday, triggering an investigation by the Cape of Good Hope SPCA. Many activists and experts have warned that continuing without a strategic management plan for some of the Cape Peninsula’s troops is inviting disaster for both baboons and people.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has launched an investigation following the fatal shooting of a juvenile baboon, named Shadow by volunteers, in Seaforth — a suburb of Simon’s Town in Cape Town — on Tuesday, 19 September. A resident of the area has reportedly confessed to shooting three baboons from the Seaforth troop, a small group of about 11 baboons who splintered away from the Smitswinkel Bay troop.
According to the SPCA, the shooter claimed the baboons had entered her residence, ransacking her kitchen, and that she acted in “self-defence” against an attack.
“However, the SPCA challenges this narrative. Contrary to the perpetrator’s claims, baboons are not typically aggressive unless directly threatened,” stated the SPCA.
“This position is further bolstered by a concerning social media post made by the same individual on the Fish Hoek Community Facebook group a day prior to the incident. In the post, she explicitly threatened to shoot any baboons entering her property, leading the SPCA to believe that the act was intentional and premeditated.”
Seaforth Resident Shoots at Baboons, Killing One
“As a result of this incident, a criminal case has been initiated against the perpetrator at the Simon’s Town South African Police Service (SAPS). Charges have been laid in terms of the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962 for animal cruelty and the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000 for the discharge of a firearm in a residential area,” it stated.
The Western Cape SAPS confirmed that Simon’s Town police registered an enquiry for investigation following the shooting incident. However, it did not respond to other questions from Daily Maverick, including whether the shooter was licensed to possess a firearm and if the firearm remained in her possession.
The shooting forms part of a worrying trend where people are acting unlawfully in their use of weapons against local baboons, according to Jenni Trethowan, founder of Baboon Matters. All too often, these violent incidents are not prosecuted.
“People always say they’re so worried [that] it’s only a matter of time before a baboon bites somebody. I will say this to you — I think it’s a matter of time before a human is shot, a person is shot by a random bullet… When there’s high levels of shooting, that’s when things start going wrong,” said Trethowan.
“If residents see something they have to — for the safety of their own families and everybody else — report it, and we need prosecutions.”
Violence against baboons
Tuesday’s shooting comes amid growing concerns about the management of baboon troops on the Cape Peninsula, and the high rate of human-induced injury and death among local baboons.
The SPCA statement on the shooting highlights that the City of Cape Town had abandoned the Seaforth troop.
“(The) City of Cape Town ceased these monitoring activities. This abandonment has led to increased baboon incursions into urban areas, interactions with residents and tourists, and damage to properties. The local community has voiced its anger over the City’s decision, and sadly, the SPCA has observed a concerning increase in injuries and fatalities among the troop members,” the statement said.
A report issued by the Cape of Good Hope SPCA in July 2023 found that of the 22 baboons admitted to SPCA facilities between April 2022 and March 2023, one was dead on arrival, 15 had to be euthanised by the organisation and nine died while receiving care. The majority of the mortalities (72%) were found to have human-induced causes, while only 9% were attributed to natural or unknown causes.
“The Cape of Good Hope SPCA remains concerned about the welfare aspect of chacma baboons on the Cape peninsula… [We] would like to see stricter regulations and penalties being applied and enforced concerning the private, domestic use of air rifles and air-rifle-like weapons (including so-called ‘paintball guns’), that are being widely employed against urban edge wildlife species, with special emphasis on the baboons,” stated the report.
Trethowan pointed out that the latest annual baboon population census, for the period July 2022 to June 2023, indicated a significant drop in the total baboon population. Baboon numbers were shown to have dropped by 37, from 498 to 461, since the previous census year.
The baboon deaths recorded in the latest census stood at 58, the highest they have been since 2018. The number of human-induced deaths stood at 26, the highest it has been since the first recorded data in 2013.
“What it says to me overall is that in the absence of any plan from the authorities, people are getting frustrated and are acting unlawfully, and baboons are being killed,” said Trethowan.
Seaforth resident Ashleigh Olsen is one of a handful of volunteers who, on a daily basis, warns traffic when the small Seaforth troop is on a busy road. “This has been a very sad week for the Seaforth troop and for Simon’s Town as a whole. The shooting of this young and innocent animal has not only left blood on the streets of this town but also on the hands of all those entrusted to protect this very precious part of the world and its biological diversity – most especially, one of our keystone species, the chacma baboon,” she said.
“We are located right by the [Table Mountain National Park] and Unesco World Heritage Site of the Cape Floral Kingdom. The reason people visit here and want to live here is because it is so naturally beautiful. It is also the natural home of the baboons. Yet some people refuse to adapt to living next to this wild area and refuse to take any accountability for the role they play in either conflict or co-existence.
“We are tired of conflict and want co-existence. We cannot keep blaming baboons for unacceptable human behaviour.”
Olsen added that people could not continue to avoid accountability for the massive impact the human population, both local residents and visitors, had on the natural ecosystem.
“We continue to ask authorities to provide key elements that are congruent with our location to the park, such as: proper waste management, law enforcement, signage, information/awareness, traffic control and effective ranger programmes for all of our troops, including the Seaforth troop,” she said.
“We have failed in protecting this young life, but have an opportunity to now protect the rest of this troop and all the other troops of the Cape. It’s time to step up to not only… the name of World Heritage Site, but also to protecting the World Heritage Site and its wildlife. We can do better.”
Olsen expressed hope the case could set an example that “we do not tolerate this violence towards our wildlife. This violence affects both animals and people and we cannot allow it. This was a very young baboon and it was still dependent on its mother, who is now grieving its loss along with the rest of the troop.”
She thanked the Cape of Good Hope SPCA for their “swift action in investigating this case and keeping the public informed”.
The management of baboons on the Cape Peninsula is in the process of being taken over by the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (CPBMJTT), comprising the City of Cape Town, SANParks and CapeNature. The CPBMJTT recently announced its new Baboon Strategic Management Plan would be finalised by the end of September.
In order to smooth the transition to the new plan, the City of Cape Town’s Urban Baboon Programme — run by service provider NCC Environmental Services — has been extended for 18 months beyond its original end date of 30 June this year.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Activists welcome bid to extend Urban Baboon Programme, but red-flag budget and resource problems
Seaforth’s splinter troop
However, there are certain baboon troops along the urban edge that no longer fall under the city’s management plan. The Seaforth troop is one of these, alongside among others the CT2 (Constantia 2) and Plateau Road troops.
According to the CPBMJTT, when the Seaforth troop split from the Smitswinkel troop in 2022, resources needed to be drawn from the NCC’s contingency fund to provide rangers for the new group. While the rangers attempted to move the Seaforth baboons back into the Smitswinkel Bay area, these attempts were unsuccessful. When the contingency funding was exhausted in June 2023, management of the group was withdrawn.
Lorraine Holloway, founder of Baboons of the South, said, “The baboon shooting [on Tuesday] is a tragedy, and it calls for a response from the [CPBMJTT] to provide rangers for this small troop. We have written three letters to the JTT… asking that they address this matter urgently and provide contingency funding for managing this troop.”
Residents have repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of management for the Seaforth troop. Speaking to Daily Maverick before the latest shooting occurred, Holloway said, “I think that my request to the city or to the [CPBM] JTT is [that] you cannot abandon a troop of… baboons in a residential, high foot-traffic tourist area and leave them to their own devices. You’re inviting disaster.
“Tourists are feeding [them]… and they don’t understand about keeping distance from baboons.”
Olsen has also been contacting local tour operators to educate tourists and has been trying to get rangers for the troop. Olsen was one of the first people on the scene after the juvenile baboon was shot.
Olsen pointed out that the effectiveness of rangers was dependent on the quality of their training and work. Where their actions were not well executed, they sometimes drove troops into other urban zones, or caused the baboons to split up.
She added that the rangers’ work was often made more difficult by the proliferation of attractants in the area, namely human food waste.
“A ranger programme would work very well with good field support. It does work with good training… But the big thing is then, what are the baboons coming for? They’re not just coming to hang out; they’re coming for food,” said Olsen.
Any ranger programme therefore needed to be coupled with effective waste management, she continued. Some local residents and groups have already taken steps to tackle the waste problem. Environmental organisation Green Group Simon’s Town has piloted a baboon-proof bin project and connected local business owners to pig farmers who can remove wet waste for use as pig feed.
Olsen also advocated for more signage in Seaforth warning people about how to handle baboon encounters.
The CPBMJTT indicated that it was aware of concerns regarding the Seaforth troop, and was investigating possible interventions. The task team has plans to host a meeting with Simon’s Town residents before the end of October.
“The city has finalised an order for locks to be fitted to refuse bins in areas frequented by baboons. More information about the delivery times and distribution programme will be made available as soon as the bins are available,” stated the CPBMJTT.
“Furthermore, various types of bins suitable for public spaces are being tested, and enforcement of the Urban Waste Management By-law is conducted on an ongoing basis to ensure adequate waste management in areas with shops, restaurants, and businesses.”
However, local residents and baboon activists have expressed dissatisfaction with the CPBMJTT’s progress thus far. Trethowan said, “While the JTT is busy behind closed doors, making their plans, it’s chaos on the ground… We’ve got a crisis happening now. What is the plan for that?” DM
Juvenile baboon fatally shot in ‘distressing’ Seaforth incident — SPCA launches urgent investigation
The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has launched an investigation following the fatal shooting of a juvenile baboon in Seaforth, Cape Town, on Tuesday 19 September. (Photo: SPCA / Facebook)
By Tamsin Metelerkamp | 22 Sep 2023
The young baboon, named Shadow, was fatally shot in Seaforth near Simon’s Town, Cape Town, on Tuesday, triggering an investigation by the Cape of Good Hope SPCA. Many activists and experts have warned that continuing without a strategic management plan for some of the Cape Peninsula’s troops is inviting disaster for both baboons and people.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has launched an investigation following the fatal shooting of a juvenile baboon, named Shadow by volunteers, in Seaforth — a suburb of Simon’s Town in Cape Town — on Tuesday, 19 September. A resident of the area has reportedly confessed to shooting three baboons from the Seaforth troop, a small group of about 11 baboons who splintered away from the Smitswinkel Bay troop.
According to the SPCA, the shooter claimed the baboons had entered her residence, ransacking her kitchen, and that she acted in “self-defence” against an attack.
“However, the SPCA challenges this narrative. Contrary to the perpetrator’s claims, baboons are not typically aggressive unless directly threatened,” stated the SPCA.
“This position is further bolstered by a concerning social media post made by the same individual on the Fish Hoek Community Facebook group a day prior to the incident. In the post, she explicitly threatened to shoot any baboons entering her property, leading the SPCA to believe that the act was intentional and premeditated.”
Seaforth Resident Shoots at Baboons, Killing One
- The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has launched an investigation following a distressing incident on 19 September 2023 in which a Seaforth resident shot at a group of baboons, resulting in the death of a juvenile member of the Seaforth Troop also known as the Smitswinkel Bay splinter troop.
A concerning social media post was made by the same individual on the Fish Hoek Community Facebook group a day prior to the incident. In the post, ...Altro...
“As a result of this incident, a criminal case has been initiated against the perpetrator at the Simon’s Town South African Police Service (SAPS). Charges have been laid in terms of the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962 for animal cruelty and the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000 for the discharge of a firearm in a residential area,” it stated.
The Western Cape SAPS confirmed that Simon’s Town police registered an enquiry for investigation following the shooting incident. However, it did not respond to other questions from Daily Maverick, including whether the shooter was licensed to possess a firearm and if the firearm remained in her possession.
The shooting forms part of a worrying trend where people are acting unlawfully in their use of weapons against local baboons, according to Jenni Trethowan, founder of Baboon Matters. All too often, these violent incidents are not prosecuted.
“People always say they’re so worried [that] it’s only a matter of time before a baboon bites somebody. I will say this to you — I think it’s a matter of time before a human is shot, a person is shot by a random bullet… When there’s high levels of shooting, that’s when things start going wrong,” said Trethowan.
“If residents see something they have to — for the safety of their own families and everybody else — report it, and we need prosecutions.”
Violence against baboons
Tuesday’s shooting comes amid growing concerns about the management of baboon troops on the Cape Peninsula, and the high rate of human-induced injury and death among local baboons.
The SPCA statement on the shooting highlights that the City of Cape Town had abandoned the Seaforth troop.
“(The) City of Cape Town ceased these monitoring activities. This abandonment has led to increased baboon incursions into urban areas, interactions with residents and tourists, and damage to properties. The local community has voiced its anger over the City’s decision, and sadly, the SPCA has observed a concerning increase in injuries and fatalities among the troop members,” the statement said.
A report issued by the Cape of Good Hope SPCA in July 2023 found that of the 22 baboons admitted to SPCA facilities between April 2022 and March 2023, one was dead on arrival, 15 had to be euthanised by the organisation and nine died while receiving care. The majority of the mortalities (72%) were found to have human-induced causes, while only 9% were attributed to natural or unknown causes.
“The Cape of Good Hope SPCA remains concerned about the welfare aspect of chacma baboons on the Cape peninsula… [We] would like to see stricter regulations and penalties being applied and enforced concerning the private, domestic use of air rifles and air-rifle-like weapons (including so-called ‘paintball guns’), that are being widely employed against urban edge wildlife species, with special emphasis on the baboons,” stated the report.
Trethowan pointed out that the latest annual baboon population census, for the period July 2022 to June 2023, indicated a significant drop in the total baboon population. Baboon numbers were shown to have dropped by 37, from 498 to 461, since the previous census year.
The baboon deaths recorded in the latest census stood at 58, the highest they have been since 2018. The number of human-induced deaths stood at 26, the highest it has been since the first recorded data in 2013.
“What it says to me overall is that in the absence of any plan from the authorities, people are getting frustrated and are acting unlawfully, and baboons are being killed,” said Trethowan.
Seaforth resident Ashleigh Olsen is one of a handful of volunteers who, on a daily basis, warns traffic when the small Seaforth troop is on a busy road. “This has been a very sad week for the Seaforth troop and for Simon’s Town as a whole. The shooting of this young and innocent animal has not only left blood on the streets of this town but also on the hands of all those entrusted to protect this very precious part of the world and its biological diversity – most especially, one of our keystone species, the chacma baboon,” she said.
“We are located right by the [Table Mountain National Park] and Unesco World Heritage Site of the Cape Floral Kingdom. The reason people visit here and want to live here is because it is so naturally beautiful. It is also the natural home of the baboons. Yet some people refuse to adapt to living next to this wild area and refuse to take any accountability for the role they play in either conflict or co-existence.
“We are tired of conflict and want co-existence. We cannot keep blaming baboons for unacceptable human behaviour.”
Olsen added that people could not continue to avoid accountability for the massive impact the human population, both local residents and visitors, had on the natural ecosystem.
“We continue to ask authorities to provide key elements that are congruent with our location to the park, such as: proper waste management, law enforcement, signage, information/awareness, traffic control and effective ranger programmes for all of our troops, including the Seaforth troop,” she said.
“We have failed in protecting this young life, but have an opportunity to now protect the rest of this troop and all the other troops of the Cape. It’s time to step up to not only… the name of World Heritage Site, but also to protecting the World Heritage Site and its wildlife. We can do better.”
Olsen expressed hope the case could set an example that “we do not tolerate this violence towards our wildlife. This violence affects both animals and people and we cannot allow it. This was a very young baboon and it was still dependent on its mother, who is now grieving its loss along with the rest of the troop.”
She thanked the Cape of Good Hope SPCA for their “swift action in investigating this case and keeping the public informed”.
The management of baboons on the Cape Peninsula is in the process of being taken over by the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (CPBMJTT), comprising the City of Cape Town, SANParks and CapeNature. The CPBMJTT recently announced its new Baboon Strategic Management Plan would be finalised by the end of September.
In order to smooth the transition to the new plan, the City of Cape Town’s Urban Baboon Programme — run by service provider NCC Environmental Services — has been extended for 18 months beyond its original end date of 30 June this year.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Activists welcome bid to extend Urban Baboon Programme, but red-flag budget and resource problems
Seaforth’s splinter troop
However, there are certain baboon troops along the urban edge that no longer fall under the city’s management plan. The Seaforth troop is one of these, alongside among others the CT2 (Constantia 2) and Plateau Road troops.
According to the CPBMJTT, when the Seaforth troop split from the Smitswinkel troop in 2022, resources needed to be drawn from the NCC’s contingency fund to provide rangers for the new group. While the rangers attempted to move the Seaforth baboons back into the Smitswinkel Bay area, these attempts were unsuccessful. When the contingency funding was exhausted in June 2023, management of the group was withdrawn.
Lorraine Holloway, founder of Baboons of the South, said, “The baboon shooting [on Tuesday] is a tragedy, and it calls for a response from the [CPBMJTT] to provide rangers for this small troop. We have written three letters to the JTT… asking that they address this matter urgently and provide contingency funding for managing this troop.”
Residents have repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of management for the Seaforth troop. Speaking to Daily Maverick before the latest shooting occurred, Holloway said, “I think that my request to the city or to the [CPBM] JTT is [that] you cannot abandon a troop of… baboons in a residential, high foot-traffic tourist area and leave them to their own devices. You’re inviting disaster.
“Tourists are feeding [them]… and they don’t understand about keeping distance from baboons.”
Olsen has also been contacting local tour operators to educate tourists and has been trying to get rangers for the troop. Olsen was one of the first people on the scene after the juvenile baboon was shot.
Olsen pointed out that the effectiveness of rangers was dependent on the quality of their training and work. Where their actions were not well executed, they sometimes drove troops into other urban zones, or caused the baboons to split up.
She added that the rangers’ work was often made more difficult by the proliferation of attractants in the area, namely human food waste.
“A ranger programme would work very well with good field support. It does work with good training… But the big thing is then, what are the baboons coming for? They’re not just coming to hang out; they’re coming for food,” said Olsen.
Any ranger programme therefore needed to be coupled with effective waste management, she continued. Some local residents and groups have already taken steps to tackle the waste problem. Environmental organisation Green Group Simon’s Town has piloted a baboon-proof bin project and connected local business owners to pig farmers who can remove wet waste for use as pig feed.
Olsen also advocated for more signage in Seaforth warning people about how to handle baboon encounters.
The CPBMJTT indicated that it was aware of concerns regarding the Seaforth troop, and was investigating possible interventions. The task team has plans to host a meeting with Simon’s Town residents before the end of October.
“The city has finalised an order for locks to be fitted to refuse bins in areas frequented by baboons. More information about the delivery times and distribution programme will be made available as soon as the bins are available,” stated the CPBMJTT.
“Furthermore, various types of bins suitable for public spaces are being tested, and enforcement of the Urban Waste Management By-law is conducted on an ongoing basis to ensure adequate waste management in areas with shops, restaurants, and businesses.”
However, local residents and baboon activists have expressed dissatisfaction with the CPBMJTT’s progress thus far. Trethowan said, “While the JTT is busy behind closed doors, making their plans, it’s chaos on the ground… We’ve got a crisis happening now. What is the plan for that?” DM
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
-
Richprins
- Committee Member
- Posts: 76119
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 3:52 pm
- Location: NELSPRUIT
- Contact:
Re: Human-Wildlife Conflict
Warning! Elephants from out of the province on the loose in northern KZN
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife puts down five elephants due to danger posed to communities
11 December 2023 - 13:04
Sakhiseni Nxumalo Reporter
Communities residing around Ndumo Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal have been warned about elephants entering the province from neighbouring areas which could pose a significant risk to humans.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife asked communities to remain vigilant and report any sightings of elephants in their area to the authority, without engaging with the animals.
According to Ezemvelo, these elephants traditionally follow a migration route spanning parts of Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa.
Ezemvelo said historically this elephant movement included Tembe Elephant Park (TEP), which did not pose any concerns or risks due to TEP's suitable elephant habitat and perimeter fencing designed to contain elephants.
However, a recent deviation from this pattern involves elephants entering South Africa through the northern boundary of Ndumo Game Reserve, which, unlike TEP, lacks suitable elephant habitat and fencing to confine elephants.
Consequently, elephants move freely through Ndumo, causing damage to property and crops on community land.
Ezemvelo acting CEO Sihle Mkhize said five elephants recently walked out of the southern boundary into community land despite efforts to push them back into Ndumo.
Mkhize said the elephants wandered off 16km south and became an extreme risk to human life. He said they had to be destroyed by Ezemvelo staff in terms of a standing permit issued by the provision of the National Environment Management Biodiversity Act.
“Our monitoring work has observed exponential growth of this movement into Ndumo Game Reserve in the past seven days, which has triggered a need for a concerted effort with partners to resolve the matter speedily.
“To this end, we are working with stakeholders in Mozambique, Mpumalanga and South Africa, including through consultation with local traditional structures to ensure that this matter is resolved and that these elephants are eventually moved out of Ndumo Game Reserve,” said Mkhize.
Given that this migration into Ndumo is a new phenomenon, Mkhize said several steps are being undertaken to manage the situation, including rapid assessment to:
- establish the actual numbers of the population inside the reserve; and
- confirm the factors influencing this diversion from the original migration route to enhance management’s adaptive action.
“Given the fluidity of the situation, there is always the risk that they may rapidly move out of the Ndumo Game Reserve and become a risk to property, crops and human life.”
Elephant-induced human-wildlife conflict is generally increasing in South Africa, he said, with an increase in incidents around protected areas such as Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, Ithala Game Reserve and Kruger National Park. Some have posed a great risk to human wellbeing, such as an escape last year involving Pongola Private Game Reserve elephants which crossed the border between eSwatini and Pongola in South Africa.
Mkhize said this highlights what is a broad South African issue that requires critical discussion to explore all available options in the elephant management toolbox, including sustainable utilisation.
TimesLIVE
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/sout ... thern-kzn/
Please check Needs Attention pre-booking: https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=322&t=596