The Milgis Trust

Category: Conservation Awareness, Desert warthog, Livestock, Northern Frontier District, Overgrazing | Date: Nov 19 2009 | By: milgistrust

Hi every one, sorry to have disappeared! Just back from a beautiful camel safari through the green hills of the Northern Frontier District!!… Its beautiful up there, we’ve had to cross flooded luggas, and slip and slide through mud, and best of all just watch the grass grow, and watching all the animals gain strength, and even to run away…

Crossing the Seiya Lugga.. Nov 09.. Camels know too well how dangerous it can be, as they can fall into pockets of air under the sand and sink in up to their heads, in water

Green grass… You probably wonder why I took this picture but its an unusual site in the N.F.D… Its incredible!! I took too many pictures of green grass..I’ll only bore you with one!!

..Desert warthogs, taken early Oct. 09,with a very simple camera, surviving on the only grass available, which is like thorns, very dry and hard, too weak to bother to run away… now you won’t see them for dust… The wildlife has suffered very badly, but if it hadn’t.t been for the Milgis Trust scouts many more would have perished, through lack of water..

Compared to the rest of Kenya so far, we have been very lucky with rain, although it is very patchy… But in the last year hundreds and thousands of trees have been cut down, and uncountable livestock has died… We came across people that have lost almost every thing they own… Its hard, but they now need to think why…. Too many people trying to live off too little, brings disaster… Are the pastoral people going to change their principals!??? As you know one of the most important mission of the Milgis Trust is to ‘conserve the peoples way of life’ in this magical country… But one thing has to change and that is the amount of stock that can live off this semi desert land… Actually, as I say, Nature has done the job, this time but its caused a lot of suffering…

Just for fun… 1st Picture taken 9 th October 09 showing tree chopped down for a hungry goat …. 2nd Pic taken end October… Same area!!

The Manager, with the area scouts are at the moment out to do a massive awareness campaign, not so much to tell the people but to see if they have learnt something… In the managers words… ‘In general the response from all the people we talk to is indicating that the last drought has opened the eyes of many in terms of the numbers of livestock we keep and the destruction of the environment. Many report that they went all the way to Marti and eventually came back to the Milgis lugga, [where people do not cut trees any more!] which rescued their animals. LOTS TO DO!!…

No responses yet

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 23 2009 | By: milgistrust

When I first started bloging a year and a half ago, I asked this question….. does a striped hyena, make a noise like a camel in distress? but never got an answer!? Not much known about these beautiful/extraordinary animals? or maybe my blog is not reaching out to the right people?. Is what I have been asking my self!.. But Last night, we watched in absolute dismay as two male Striped hyena fought to the death, completely silent the fight was, all we saw to start with was dust, and two animals battling it out, the loser which was much bigger, kept on trying to run away, but the winner just kept coming, and he had one intention… To kill his rival, which he did savagely, with no distractions , in the end he had him on his back, and he was shaking him like a rag doll… We were utterly amazed at the silence of the fight, not a sound from both sides… The triumphant one left the other for dead, or almost, he lay there, but he wasn’t there in the morning… took off back in the direction that the fight had started, about a kilometre away..

Soon after this extraordinary noise, the same one that we have heard twice before, absolutely like a camel in trouble, rang across the country side… We rushed back to check it out unfortunately we had a weak torch, so could not see too much, and we thought that the fight was continuing, but we realised it was very different behaviour, and it seemed that the female, if it was indeed a female! was putting up quite a fight as well!… But all most like fisti-cuffs, not serious stuff… They then disappeared out of site and sound… We heard nothing more…

3 responses so far

Category: Conservation Awareness, Milgis lugga, Northern Frontier District | Date: Oct 21 2009 | By: milgistrust

With your support the Milgis Trust would love to own night camera traps to capture the nocturnal activities of the wildlife within the busy Milgis ecosystem. Each and every morning the Milgis team identifies countless tracks and spoors of highly timid creatures of the night such as the Lion, Aardvark, African Wild Cat, Porcupine, Civet, Ratel and Leopard as well as numerous other mammals, reptiles, insects and birds that dwell within this land. The Aardvark above all is an important animal for the Samburu - one sighting of this incredibly shy creature means you are blessed with luck for life.

But without the necessary equipment sightings are seldom recorded. To collect, record and share such physical information on these nocturnal animals would support the awareness and understanding of the Milgis Trust’s work whilst encouraging communities to continue in their conservation efforts and aid the Trust’s scouts in providing further security for the wildlife where it is needed most.

I n d o n a t i n g o n e n i g h t c a m e r a t r a p the Milgis Trust can implement an unobtrusive and sustainable surveillance unit, collecting much needed data to help substantiate the amazing successes the Trust is receiving in the increase in wildlife species and numbers to the area, not to mention the unidentified species we believe to exist within the Trust’s habitats.

1 Night Camera Trap Uk £ 199 only!

*As part of the donation the Milgis Trust would be proud to issue you with regular prints or digital copies of the very best photos that your donated camera has captured*

No responses yet

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 19 2009 | By: milgistrust

Its an extraordinary phenomena.. the transition from drought to floods, soon after I wrote my last blog about the clouds disappearing into thin air!!, they were busy building up out there in the desert!, it poured again with rain in the Karisias, Matthews, and Ndoto Mountains, and every where between, and the massive kilometre wide Luggas, have been roaring with flooded waters, doing their jobs correctly, in draining the area… Its incredible to see the transition, when they are dry they are huge ‘roads’, all day every day there are people, cows, camels goats, elephants, baboons, guinea fowl, etc etc using the huge sandy river bed to walk on, now these huge sandy highways have turned into roaring, raging, dangerous flood water, we all know how dangerous that can be!!.. But every one here knows that one keeps well away from them… If you happen to be on the other side of one of these luggas visiting a friend, when the rain starts, well you’ll have to ‘over stay’ your welcome now as you have no other choice!.. You won’t have to worry about your family at home, as the neighbour will surely be checking out on them.. Thats how the Samburu are! The two pictures below were taken in the same spot, different angle … From highway to flooded river!

Lugga Highway!

Lugga flooded!

I am not up at the Milgis at the moment, but on the radio this morning I asked how things were going!.. I was told … shhhhh don’t even talk… We are ALL so happy, we are all so relieved, We are all silent… SPEECHLESS, just sitting back watching the rain, the water, THE ‘LIFE’ COMING BACK TO THIS BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY!!… What a lovely way to put it!…

One response so far

Category: Northern Frontier District, Samburu, elephants | Date: Oct 14 2009 | By: milgistrust

Unbelievable!!… One day it was cloudy all over and raining , next day.. 11 October, not a cloud in the sky, for as far as the eye can see, but it is very very clear, which is a good sign, so we think that it will be back just after the new moon… We quite often call this first rain the grass rains, and then the main rains should follow… We had 8 mm on the 9th October, and 15 mm on the 10th, at the Milgis Base… So this is ‘not to sniff at’ and the whole place is beginning to burst into green, and with in a few days the flowers will start popping out… The Seiya Lugga is still flowing, so the news is still good from Northern Kenya!!…..

Picture of Mt Kenya, taken on a clear day from Elkanto… 110 Kms away.. Very unusual to see this far!, and so clear…

I’d like to think as I write this, that there are several baby elephants lolling around in the water that is still flowing… They don’t get this luxury too often, so lets hope they are all having fun!! What do you think Mark!!… Shall we whip back out there to catch it on film!!..

Thanks for all the wonderful positive comments, all of you, and for the good wishes for the brave Samburu people, who have lost so much during this drought, and with the rains arriving will lose more, sadly…Thats how it goes, I’m afraid.. BUT…They are good recoverer’s from disasters, and will be generous with each other, to get them selves back on the road…

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 10 2009 | By: milgistrust

YES, IT POURED WITH RAIN YESTERDAY!!!!!…Every where within the Milgis Ecosystem….. Relief… RELief….. RELIEF!!!! All the Luggas have come down in full flood … Every one has a smile on their face!… PHEW.. is all I can say, at this stage… The pressure that was building higher and higher is OFF… In a flash.. I am lost for words!!. Below is the Milgis Lugga..

. From this 9/10/09

To this!!! 10/10/09

6 responses so far

Category: Milgis lugga, Water holes, elephants | Date: Oct 09 2009 | By: milgistrust

I have been told several times by people who used to come to the Milgis Lugga, in the old days , that in their opinion the place is finished… meaning there is no hope for the place… The wild life has been shot out, the place is over grazed… Well I don’t think the BBC will say that, and I think that it is the work of the Milgis scouts that is making the difference…… The story is how Elephants and Humans need each other to survive, and it is part of the Human Planet story… I can’t wait to tell you all, when it is going to be on air… Who said there was no Elephants in the Milgis… We have lots of proof!… Our filming for the last couple of weeks has been brilliant… Absolutely beautiful scenes, in the moon light, of Elephants, coming in thirsty, and tired, even sometimes going into a run as they get closer to the water… Young ones being left behind, as they are to too weary to run… On arrival one would expect a bun fight over the water… But no way.. the scenes around the wells have been completely orderly with peaceful groups or lone bulls, taking there time.. If they are lucky to find a well that is not too deep to reach the water, they all stand around, and wait, each one gets his turn..Its just such a beautiful sight.. Even more amazing is when they have to dig for water, they dig abit with their foot, and then they put their trunk into the deepest part, and draw and throw the sand out, just a hole big enough to fit their trunk in, then when they get to water, they wait for sometimes 40/50 seconds, while the water sifts through the sand, and their trunk fills up…Not only Elephants and humans helping each other but every animal in the area, then comes in to drink from the hole the Elephants have left…

Elephants Drinking hole…

The Elephants, and therefore the rest of the wildlife, are doing very well considering the drought, our scouts are working extremely hard to keep the wells open, we are really trying… but today we have sad news… 4 elephants have been found dead.. One is up in the Matthews mountains and has been speared, it has a calf of about two years old.. which is still there, its an impossible place to get to and its a sad scene, another one has been found here on the upper Milgis, it is a youngster, that didn’t make it.. The other two is a mother and calf, down in the lower Milgis..The local communities around heard a little tiny calf calling and calling, so eventually they braved it and went into the thick bush to find the mother was dieing, and had fallen onto her new born calf.. They were too scared to get close and eventually both died…

But on a positive note, considering how harsh this drought is becoming, most of the Elephants are surviving, pretty well… And there is alot of heavy cloud around today… So we hope for lots of good news tomorrow morning…

4 responses so far

Category: Milgis lugga, Northern Frontier District | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: milgistrust

Yes we have had the most wonderful crop of fruit along the luggas, the Salvadora Persica, against all odds is fruiting furiously.. Another of natures amazing rescue packets just when things looked really bad… As you walk through the Salvadora, the bird song is deafening, the baboons are all talking, Every one is eating Salvadora fruit!!….Wish I could play the sounds, as I took these two photographs.. The first picture was meant to be of a bird , but it flew away!, so I had to settle with Lentokunye gorging on fruit, while out on a patrol!!…

Salvadora fruit.. It has a very peppery taste to it…

‘Breakfast’ in the Milgis!

Not only have we received this beautiful fruit but also a wind fall of donations, from 3 kind people… I THANK Phillipp, Wanda, and Anna… for being so generous this time… and would like to assure you all again that every donation is so much appreciated.. What can we say but thank you a million….

I am off to do some filming ‘Elephants and Samburu’, and their life together, down on the Milgis for the next two weeks, should be very interesting…..

Finally, I was sleeping under the stars on the last full moon, and woke up in the middle of the night to this wonderful sight.. The planet is Jupiter!! The ring was gone about ten minutes later… This has got to be bringing us good news!

I reckon this is a good sign… FOR LOTS OF RAIN!?

2 responses so far

Category: Conservation Awareness, Education, Health, Overgrazing, Rendille, Samburu, Turkana | Date: Sep 15 2009 | By: milgistrust

Milgis Trust

Vet Unit, northern Kenya

In a place as remote as the Ndoto Mountains and Matthews Range of northern Kenya where do the people turn when their animal is in trouble?

Our conservation veterinary unit will not only offer desperately needed veterinary services to the livestock of the incredibly remote Samburu, Rendille and Turkana nomadic tribes, but will campaign without fail to improve quality rather than quantity of livestock in the hope of reducing the degradation of the land, the struggle for water and therefore the presence of human/wildlife conflict.

On top of this, because it is such a inaccessible area, with approval from the veterinary department of the KWS we will give first aid care to the young or sick wild animals, that we find abandoned…Either to nurture them back to being fit enough to return to the wild with the least trauma, or to arrange for them to go to further care.. Just this year we have had several animals brought in that needed help.. [The Greater Kudu calf, mother killed by hunting dogs, baby warthog, found stuck in the mud were perfect examples, of animals that may have survived if they had had vet care ]

This project will be life changing for the people, and their valuable livestock and the entire ecosystem of over 4,000 sq kms that the Milgis Trust team works tirelessly to conserve.

Very young greater kudu… his stomach lining was bleeding having been picked up after his mother was killed, by wild dog, and fed from dirty bottles…

This Vet Unit will practise standard veterinary care and help to coordinate referrals and transportation for wildlife to other wildlife care/veterinary units in emergency situations. It will be a permanent presence at the MT headquarters with a full-time qualified vet charging a small fee for services for community livestock. There would not be any thing like the amount of lose of stock this year if the animals were healthy before the drought begun.. It will also be a conservation campaigning unit that will offer advice and guidance on how to improve quality rather than quantity of livestock, as well as livestock marketing and work to combat land degradation, human/wildlife conflict and drought crisis.

Common scene every day…

The Milgis Vet Unit’s 4 objective S’s & how we can accomplish those objectives:

SPEED of response to emergency calls

(Patrolling scouts, vet on call, communication devices, vehicle)

SKILL of a trained field vet in handling calls and campaigning

(Permanent trained field vet located at MT HQ)

SAFETY of the animal whilst in our care

(Trained staff helpers, quality equipment, medical supplies, feed and resources)

SUSTAINABILITY of the aftercare of the animal its accommodation and its safe release

(Permanent veterinary building and enclosure, continuous collaboration and support from conservancies in the area)

METHODOLOGY:

1) Construction of Vet Unit building and enclosure at Milgis Trust HQ

· Building 1. Vets accommodation on site.

· Building 2. Veterinary surgery, feed store, medical store & equipment store

· Enclosure. 2 x Fenced Pens and 2 x Covered pens

2) Purchase of Vet Vehicle

3) Purchase of supplies

· Medical equipment

· Medicines and supplies

· Animal feed

· Transport resources and petrol

4) Hiring permanent government qualified field vet

· Interviewed by KWS and Milgis Trust

5) Set-up an efficient communication rapid-response radio system

· Connect Milgis Trust scouts, Mini Vet Unit & KWS

6) Create an Emergency fund & backup support

· Air transport backup if needed to DSWT or other in Nairobi

7) Create Community awareness and fee list for veterinary services for community livestock

· Communities would pay a fee to have their livestock treated

· Regular and continual livestock campaigns to reduce quantity of stock and raise quality

· Health checks and rabies vaccinations of domestic dogs

One response so far

Category: Conservation Awareness, Desert warthog, Livestock, Samburu | Date: Sep 11 2009 | By: milgistrust

Paula, thank you for putting my last blog on!… Weldone you!…You are right!.. After our disappointment of not getting the money, after weeks of work!, for a Rabies programme, and then the proposal was declined.!

!..Because this dog is starving and thirsty, people tend to think it has rabies, so will throw stones at it… In stead of helping it… Right now there are thousands of dogs in this same trouble..

Paula wrote me a note saying keep positive and keep those blogs flowing…The following is what I wrote back to Paula!.. I am sorry about my lack of blogs, I find it so hard when I really know the reason for all this suffering is abit beyond every one who reads thems’ help… natural cycle of weather event, although the over population of the land is not helping, but its not our readers fault!…BUT I suppose I have to remember that the readers are not enduring a drought, so they may feel more positive… Although they are experiencing their own kind of drought in the financial world!…

Talking about Droughts… We’ve seen them before, as I’ve mentioned in a earlier blog in July, they come in about ten year cycles here, and and its upon us again, but this time it seems the noose around our necks has got alot tighter than last… But maybe the reason is there are so many more people living off this semi desert land… Actually a land of plenty if the balance is right… I’ve said it once and I’m saying it again… Why aren’t we doing something about the overpopulation of our world, why is it a subject that people are scared to talk about, what do they call it? P.C.?!! But in the meantime we are going to strangle our selves, the suffering is going to be so severe, its too frightening to think of… why can’t we see it coming.??.. The suffering is already awful, you guys in America, Europe, the rest of the world must feel so helpless, in situations like these as all the blogs from Kenya are along the same lines, but sometimes maybe we need to help ourselves, when it comes to ‘THE FUTURE of this beautiful land its people and its wildlife’… Also this is the reason the Milgis Trust was started, and your support is invaluable….. We are trying!

At the last scout meeting at the end of the month of course every scout had sad stories of how animals are not coping well, as I said, funnily enough the desert warthog is suffering the most of all the animals… Many reports of them coming in to look for help from the humans, one Samburu guy reported a family of four that literally moved in with his herd of goats, ate and drank with them, but even these four have diminished to one…. Several reports of the Baboons and Monkeys dieing, but more of disease, obviously not helped by the dry times, any one have any ideas on what is killing the monkeys, in Northern Kenya.. But there is somebody out there in the dust, that is doing well!!… The predators are having a field day… They don’t know which animal to eat first…

We went for a walk to Latakwen, a small village north of the base of the Milgis Trust, and all the way there we came across dead and dieing animals, Samburu livestock that could not keep up with the herd, so have been deserted, but even worse on our way back we came across the carcasses of around 50 goats and sheep all strewn around a deserted manyatta, all perished from disease, lack of water, and food.. We were told the people left with 3 animals….. This is where our proposal for the new vet unit, with which we will be working with the people on ‘quality rather than quantity of live stock’ and this will include the Rabies programme, mentioned in the last Blog..

2 responses so far