Diary of a Primatologist: ranger

Showing posts with label ranger. Show all posts

Monday, 27 October 2014

Gorillas, Rebels & Heroes; that's Virunga!

I recently went along to the beautiful Hackney Picture House to finally see Virunga:The Movie. I have been wanting to see this documentary for months and finally got my chance, I was not disappointed.

Source - http://now-here-this.timeout.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/HackneyPicturehouse_RG058.jpg

Taken from the movie promo:

"VIRUNGA IS THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF A GROUP OF BRAVE PEOPLE RISKING THEIR LIVES TO BUILD A BETTER FUTURE IN A PART OF AFRICA THE WORLD'S FORGOTTEN AND A GRIPPING EXPOSE OF THE REALITIES OF LIFE IN THE CONGO.”

All I can say is that it lived up to its expectations and I have not been on an emotional roller coaster like that for a long time. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire film and the cinematography is simply stunning. As you walk with the ranger patrols in the Virunga National Park and hear gun shots and bombs going off you really feel like you are there. Seeing Andre taking care of the orphaned gorillas and refusing to leave them on the cusp of rebels coming in almost brought me to tears. Finally, seeing Emmanuel de Merode (Chief Warden of Virunga National Park) saying "I will be the last one to leave" and addressing all the rangers in the morning was incredible. What these guys do, putting their lives literally on the line, to protect their country and its laws is fantastic and truly heroic.

Check out the trailer and feel your emotions connecting with the work they do. Then book to go and see it here - http://virungamovie.com/Screenings; you will not regret it.

Virunga - Official Trailer 2014 from Grain Media on Vimeo.

After the film I knew we were going to have a Q & A with the producer, but when Andrea and Emmanuel popped up on screen as well I was shaking. After seeing the film and then talking to them was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life; I even got to ask a question.

Speaking with producers, Andre & Emmanuel via Skype

Here is a list of things you can do to help if you can't make a screening - http://virungamovie.com/#takeaction

Thank you for reading and I hope you will spread the word about what is going on in Virunga and about the brave men and women that fight to save it everyday.

Disclaimer:

"The views and opinions expressed in the Diary of a Primatologist blog are purely my own and are not in any way linked to any organisations I may represent or work with unless otherwise stated. All photos are my own unless otherwise stated and a source will be provided where other photos are used; if they are yours and you would like them taken down then please just ask. The author retains full copyright for all content and photos and written permission is required before their use. The owner of the site is not liable for any content accessed through links posted."

Thursday, 14 August 2014

The Rare Sable of Shimba

I recently went to a talk hosted by the Shimba Support Group (SSG) on the Sable Antelope (Sable) of Shimba Hills National Reserve (SHNR). There are only 60 Sables left (increasing from 56 in 2012) and they all reside in the Shimba area; therefore at high risk of exctintion.

On arriving this out of place sofa was very comfortable

The talk was held at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) office in Diani in what appeared to be an outside storage area. I met up with Shazaad (chair of SSG) and examined the interesting drawings on the wall; including a house, Barrack Obama, what appeared to be Wayne Rooney and fittingly a Sable. We then took our seats (some chairs were better than others) and waited for the talk to being.

KWS support the SSG and it was held at their office in Diani

Meeting up with the SSG Chair, Shazaad

Nope I did not choose this chair

Sable drawing on the wall

Shazad opened the talk and was talking about how there is “to little emphasis on the Sable and that more is put on the big animals like the Elephant, Lion and Rhino. If we are not careful the Sable could be lost forever and that would be a big blow for Kenya in the fight for wildlife conservation”.

The main talk was then underway and was delivered by two SSG committee members Ayesha and Esme as well as Nathan from KWS, who as an active ranger within SHNR. It began with basic facts about the Sable like:

There are five subspecies of the Sable and Kenya has the Roosevelt Sable (Hippotragus niger roosevelti).
Classed as endangered in Kenya, but the IUCN has it as least concern because it lumps it together with the other sub species, except the critically endangerd Giant Sable.
Males are black in colour with the females & young a chestnut brown.
Male & female both have horns reaching 81-165cm & 61-102cm respectively
Typical in herds of 20-25 with a dominant bull, cows, sub adult females and young bulls usually below 24 months.
The young bulls group together in bachelor herds until they reach 4 or 5 to look for their own group.
One dominant female will lead the herd and will usually be the oldest, healthiest & darkest in colour.

Then they moved on to the threats facing the Sable in Shimba, the main ones being:

Inbreeding, Poor Habitat, Malnutrition (apparently the soil is lacking in calcium & phosphate), poaching, farming including livestock grazing.

And the main challenges:

Security, monitoring, diversifying the population of the Sable.

Some good news is that the new wildlife act that was introduced this year to Kenya now classes the Sable as an endangered species. This means the penalties for poaching them is similar to elephants with a fine of 1 million KES; we will wait to see how effective this is in being implemented.

This talk was followed by one from Dadley Tsiganyiu Deputy/Community Warden of SHNR. He repeated some information, but concentrated more on how we must include the local community in any action to protect the Sable going forward. They are the ones who will truly decide if this species survives or is lost from Kenya forever. Problems like logging, charcoal burning, firewood collection and farming can all be made more sustainable. If more education is put into these communities and their local skills, like wood carving, are used effectively they can become a resource; not a problem. The big challenges are poverty, illiteracy, misinformation and that they see benefits as short term materialistic items, rather than long term conservation.

There were a lot of questions asked towards the Warden and some underlining anger as to why they are not aggressively marketing SHNR, as well as the dwindling wildlife numbers like the Giraffe and Elephants. Shazaad made a point that in previous years when it was marketed a lot more the visitor rate (therefore income generation) went up greatly. This provides local jobs and vital income to support the staff and communities within the park.

The Warden did say that unfortunately the “conservation in Kenya is more political and that is the main problem”; I don’t know a country that doesn’t have that problem.

From left to right, Dadley, Nathan, Esme, Ayesha, Shazaad.

One thing that is clear is that there is a long way to go and we must all work together and include everyone is the Sable is to be saved.

The new KWS Sable strategy can be viewed HERE.

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Meeting the Mountain Gorillas, Part 2: Standing next to a Silverback

Today, greeted with a fantastic sky FULL of stars, soon to be replaced with the sun trying to push its way through the thick mist; my dream was going to become reality. I kept saying to myself this is what Dian Fossey would have experienced every morning. At 8am we arrived at the briefing hut to meet Stephen (our head ranger) who would eventually be leading us to the Bitukura gorilla group. This group is made up of 13 individuals including four silverbacks, adult females, juveniles and a 13 month old baby. Did you know that when a male reaches 14 years old he will start to develop a silverback, it is not just the dominant male that has it.

Sunrise in Bwindi

Head ranger Stephen

We were then told the rules such as no eating/drinking/smoking within 200m of the gorillas, the young get curious and may come close but don’t try to touch them, the silverback is always watching, to make sure we stay 7 metres away and my personal favourite was if we are charged to stay still and crouch down (better said then done I think).

A demonstration of the 7 metre distance rule

After the briefing we had a few moments to read more about where we were and the gorillas in general. It was fantastic to see they had scratched over the original total number of 700 and replaced it with 880. The mountain gorillas are the only species of great ape that are increasing in number; Chimpanzees, Bonobos, Orangutans and the other species of Gorilla are all declining. Then Stephen uttered the words I had been waiting 20 years for someone to say, “Let’s go and see the gorillas”.

Just in case we didn't see the real gorillas

After a quick drive we arrived at the path into the forest, but we had to wait, Stephen was in radio contact with the rangers who would tell us when to leave so the gorillas would be in a good position and we were not walking for hours. The call came in and we were off! We started going downhill and very soon there were tall, thick ferns around us, visions of seeing Dian Fossey, Ian Redmond and David Attenborough in such a surrounding suddenly popped into my mind and I was overcome with excitement. Except for the odd bird call and the rangers using their radios it was eerily quiet as we walked. After about 10 minutes the thick ferns had turned into tall trees and we were going down a steeper hill. They had used the forest elephant’s paths to construct the ways through; I can see why it is called the Impenetrable Forest. Every now and again one of the rangers would make a whooping call and wait to hear a response to know which direction to travel in. After walking for 1 hour and navigating a very steep hill we come across two new rangers, and then I realised that we must be nearby the gorillas. All of a sudden I hear some branches break and leaves rustle and a baby gorilla climbs up a small tree almost like saying “Hi there”.

OK, here we go

The rangers with the gorillas

The beautiful baby gorilla that greeted us

I just love this guy

This baby knows how to enjoy life

At first I could not quite believe I was actually starring at a baby gorilla, it was so cute and fluffy and didn't seem to have a care in the world. I grabbed my camera, dropped my bag and started snapping. As we got closer the rangers cut away the foliage nearby so we could have a clearer view in; there was the mother. If you thought gorillas were big it is nothing like when you are here standing next to them. As we got closer to the mother she welcomed us with a very loud fart that didn't seem to bother her; all that lovely plant fiber she is eating. I then heard a rustle and crack to my immediate left….. GRUNT…… it was an adult male silverback and he was massive. I was currently standing 2 metres away from this guy, his head was 4 times bigger than mine and his fingers were so thick and big. I felt so vulnerable and helpless if he decided to charge; luckily I had been told to stay still and crouch if that did happen. We followed their movements through the forest for the next 15 minutes, and then we saw some juveniles climbing bigger trees and another silverback. I had gorillas all around me and it just felt surreal; I would love to do this full time.

The mother watches her baby while we are close

A juvenile climbs a tree for a nap

The silverback reveals himself, and he is big

I was getting worried that I wouldn't get any good pictures and then (as if they heard me) we suddenly found ourselves out of the dark, dense forest and in a small clearing. There in front of me was a youngster playing on a fallen tree, to the side the silverback was sitting and a female foraging and eating; it was perfect. Watching them go about their daily business was so interesting and there was something so familiar with the way they used their hands and facial expressions. The frequent grunts from the silverback kept reminding me not only that he was he there, but how insignificant I was in size and power. The rangers would often do grunts of their own, mimicking the gorillas sound to reassure them where we were. Also, these grunts are done from the beginning of the habituation process and act as a signal for saying it is me and you like me; we come in peace.

Juvenile playing

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Proof I was really there

Before I knew it I heard the words I was dreading “time is up guys”, that was the fastest hour of my life. As we started heading back (all up hill) we went past the alpha silverback who was lying down on his stomach, resting with his eyes shut. This proves how effective and successful this habituation and ecotourism project is; they are very comfortable with us around. Off we went, back to reality after having the most amazing experience of my life.

Very happy after that experience

Silverback lying down for a nap, whilst we are all around

The rangers planned the trek so well we were back at the briefing station by 12pm with the whole afternoon to see what else Bwindi had to offer. I visited the local village and went on a nature walk with a staff member from the lodge. The scenery was so fascinating and it was deafly quiet, pleasant, with only the occasional farmer working, child playing or bird tweeting to break the silence.

Group shot with the rangers

Stephen presenting me with my gorilla certificate

Gorilla drawing in local village

Local village where I purchased some small gorilla carvings

The stunning landscape

Imagine farming crops up that

Woman farming her crops with baby tied to her back

On returning to the lodge the local kids were getting ready to sing and dance for us in their matching yellow t-shirts bearing the words “GorillaChildren”. They ranged from 3-13 and gave us the most incredible experience that would have put most theatre productions in the West End of London to shame. Within their first song they welcomed us to Bwindi and thanked us for investing in their community (I learnt 20+% of the permit money goes to community development and pays for schools/hospitals and salaries of teachers). Nothing could top the hour I spent with the gorillas but this came close, near the end they even invited me up to dance with them (how could I refuse); they put me to shame with their moves though. After saying goodbye to them I was left to enjoy the evening camp fire reminiscing on the events of the day with my final night in the mountains.

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Showing the kids the photos I took

Uganda is a beautiful country with lovely people and amazing wildlife and is well worth a visit. They have many national parks that I would love to come back to and see for myself.

I would like to thank Agaba of A&A Gorilla Tours Ltd and especially our guide Paul for the fantastic job they did. Everything about the trip was well done and you could see they really love what they do and care about the work. The places we stayed in were lovely and have a particular link to the local communities; plus the staff were really friendly. Paul was so knowledgeable, suddenly stopping and pointing out a bird, or describing the landscape so it made more sense; or even telling us to sniff the air (we were passing through a region that was famous for growing onions and yes you could smell it in the air). I personally could not recommend them highly enough and if you are even contemplating the thought of seeing the gorillas use these guys; do mention my name if you do.

Standing with our excellent guide Pau

You can see all my photos of my time in Kenya on my Flickr page here -http://bit.ly/1dpb3gd

Or on my facebook page here - www.facebook.com/diaryofaprimatologist