The Milgis Trust

Category: Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Jun 29 2008 | By: milgistrust

Every time we see a gathering of Elephants milling around and looking slightly nervous, at the junction of the Laana Nikan and Parsaloi Luggas and then when it gets dark, a big push to the east far down the Milgis Lugga, it usually rains after 1 or 2 days!!..A huge flood ensures, and they have water in their favorite feeding areas down in the lower Milgis [Elgerei]… ..Those Eleys always know…??? On the 24th June, the gathering happend, but no rain.?? Incredibly this time the Elephants are wrong,..But not only the elephants are wrong, yesterday I saw something white down on the hill side that isn’t usually there… It was some lilies [crinum macowanii] in FULL flower as well..But there is NO SIGN OF RAIN.. ,, .. How on earth did nature do it!!.. In January this year Pete and I walked past the tell tale signs of rain… Ipomoeas [ cicatricosa] in flower in the desert, but we didn’t really take any notice as we had a plan!! that was to meet Ben the helicopter pilot in 3 days time on the top of the Ndotos, and the weather was fabulous!!..Its a serious climb so we needed 3 days to be ready!!.. We ignored all the signs and got absolutely flooded out !!.. Even the ipomoea were flowering last week… But not a cloud in the sky!!…

Lilies on Elkanto Hill..

Elephants gathering below Milgis Base

News this morning..at the base. 4 female lesser kudu with 2 ‘brand new’ young!! beautiful animals…

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 26 2008 | By: milgistrust

Firstly I would like to apologise to any one who may have sent comments, unfortunatley I am not able to answer them while I’m using the satphone as each time I go on the internet it costs too much ..Just to keep the blogs going is resonable, but once I start trying to look up any thing else it takes too long… SO APOLOGIES..Its not because I’m not interrested…Next week I will be in a place where I can use a different system and get back to you..If you would like to get in touch sooner please go to www.milgistrustkenya.com

Last week there was a report in one specific area, west of base..Lashimi, Lesoit and Nadoto of alot of deaths..5 wild cats, 3 bat eared foxes, 4 dikdik, 1 jackal,.. and for several months reports of Lesser Kudu, and Dikdiks further down on the Milgis and towards Ngurnit.. dieing very suddenly with the only symptom being swollen and pussy eyes and diarrhoea.. Also two young elephants have been reported in Nongeek area..in the last month… KWS have been short of fuel, the lack of tourism in Kenya really bitting, so we lent [hopefully!] them 270 litres, so that they can keep on top of things…

SAD NEWS…When I’m in the bush, I don’t need a gun, I need a dog!! He tells me well in advance whats ahead!! Last night was one of those rare occasions that I slept in the bush with out a dog, on my bed… Why? because my ‘ best friend’ for the last six years [the dog in the picture] died of cancer..We ‘picked’ that dog off the street with the most horrendous wounds to his back end, they were full of maggots,[which probably saved his life!], and the KSPCA [kenya society for prevention of cruelty], said that he deserved to live, so after 3 months with the vet.. he came back to me… Since that day we have only been apart for probably ten days, and that was when I had to go to town…He has been invaluable.. warning me of many dangers… The last one being a huge spitting cobra, on my way to bed!!.. So sad as we understood each other so well.. He never let me out of his site.. SHAME….

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Category: Milgis lugga, Samburu, elephants | Date: Jun 17 2008 | By: milgistrust

Arthur Henry Newmann, the hunter, spent abit of time hunting in the Seiya, Parsaloi and Migis Luggas at the end of the 19th century… In fact he camped below Elkanto hill..There was an huge amount of wildlife in this area… Newmann shot an incredible amount, especially Elephant and Rhino..In fact many hunters had good times here, it was a hunters paradise, dramatically exciting country, and plenty of game, and many a good trophy was found, thoughout the 20th century up to 1979, when the hunting ban was enforced in Kenya.. At one time there was a suggestion that the area should be made into a huge national park, but because of ‘other interrests’ presumably hunting, it never happend and Tsavo national park was formed..

At the same time there was a terrible slaughter of wildlife taking place by poachers.. mainly elephants, rhinos and leopards… Every one that was able joined the ‘band wagon’, killing with what ever they had, spears, arrows and guns,the later mainly from somalia, and selling the ivory, rhino horn and skins to tradesmen, that built special roads to creep out with their bounty….. Whats worse when the hunting ban was enfoced the poaching took ‘off like wild fire’, seemingly unchecked??… Basically the elephant and rhino population were totally wiped out of Mts Nyiru and Kulal, and very badly fragmented in the Ndotos and what was left escaped to the relatively safe haven of the Matthews, [and south] although on my first camel safari in 1989, on the east side of the Matthews, I came across the slaughter of a whole familly of 20 elephants.. TERRIBLE TO WITNESS… At this time there was about 20 Rhinos left in the Matthews Range forest, but sadly they went one by one.. and as I said before the last wild rhino in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya, was shot in the year 2000, in the Keno valley.. During the ’90s there was alot of guns flooding into this area, and almost every thing that was left was ’splatted’… sometimes just for target practise…The big cats were poisoned mercilessly..

If only I had been mature enough, wise enough, whatever to have started the Milgis Trust when I saw those first dead elephants… But I didn’t, so the demise of the game has gone further ‘down the road’..The forest fires have burn’t wildly, it just seemed that the people were ‘hellbent’ on destroying their homeland??….What on earth got into their minds??.. And yet the response to conserve it all now has been so positive?!!

The rest of the story has been told in my previous blogs…. and now maybe you can understand why we are so excited at the progress in 4 years..yesterday there was a report of an Eland in the Suiyan….I heard somebody else, one of the other scouts, today say, hes going to see for himself!!! Elephants were seen for the first time for many years above Lesirikan, North west Ndotos!.. May their return to the northern mountains be safe!…

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Category: Turkana, elephants | Date: Jun 11 2008 | By: milgistrust

This morning we went for a flight to look at an area south/east of Mt Kulal.. We had been told that there were giraffe in this incredibly dry area… and YES there are… We could not believe our eyes… We saw two groups of 9 and 7 in a place called Elbaa Malisiteti ..These giraffe obviously do not drink regularly as there is no water any where.. Also we saw plenty of gerenuk, grants gazelle, ostrich, and abit further to the west at Lago 5 grevey Zebra.. We know that these Greveys are drinking north of South Horr, walking up to 40 kms to get there and back every two days..In May 07 crossing the Horr valley, on our way walking to Turkana we counted 23 fresh tracks going into Anderi Lugga for water.. Considering there are only about 2000 of these magestic, gracious zebras left in the world, alot living in these these very dry areas, and water being the biggest threat to their survival, the Milgis Trust is embarking on a serious campaign to fix old dams that have broken, build new dams, or even pan dams throughout these dry areas.. From this area right down to east of the Ndotos… Not only would it enhance the survival of the Greveys, it would also help the Elephants on their return to these ‘Islands in the Desert’..[see blog 7th june] Also the nomadic people would benefit in a big way.. ..

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Category: Samburu, elephants | Date: Jun 07 2008 | By: milgistrust

We ‘The Milgis Trust’ will know that we are winning!

WHEN (1) We feel it is safe enough to reintroduce the rhino to this part of northern frontier!! [note my previous blog..]

WHEN (2) We see the first elephants ’set foot’ back on the holy mountain of the Samburu.. Mt Nyiru and we’ve achieved our goal when they can walk again safely on Mt Kulal!!

We can only do this with ‘your’ support… And who ever ‘anonymously’ gave us $50 .. We greatly appreciate your encouragement!! Thanks very much…We joined wildlife direct for two main reasons…(1) To let the world know that there is this very special region in Northern Kenya, that is very unspoilt and has huge potential, in that it can give wildlife a stable and safe environment, and this I say because of the positive response we have already had in the last 3 years, as I mentioned in my first blog!….The way forward is to really involve the local people in every aspect of conserving their ‘back garden..’ I’ve given my life to make it work..I don’t want to be paid for our hard work… I just want to know that ideas, and attitudes have changed, not only of the local people but of Kenyans in general!! And we need as much help, suggestions, or even critisism.. so that we can get it right!! (2) The other reason of course is to try and get financial Help…

Basically in this area.. flora and fauna, lets say has been neglected… Before nobody really noticed if an elephant or rhino was shot,( for that matter any animal) or a huge fire had just burn’t 100 acres of indigenous forest in the Matthews??…At the moment we are on the slopes of Mt Nyiru, for two weeks, and we have put a camp up for some geologists who are working in the Suguta Valley..There is very little wildlife left here, but every one and his wife wants the money for this camp!!..Two days ago we found a klipspringer that has been killed and eaten..There have been huge fires throughout the Selayan valley.. THIS HAS BEEN NOTICED!!.. Tourists that come to Kenya want to see wildlife, actually if there was wildlife here I would double the camping fee paid to the communities!!.. Given half a chance wildlife comes back very quickly… LETS DO IT!!!!..

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Category: elephants | Date: Jun 04 2008 | By: milgistrust

I’m sorry to say that we have not managed to post any pictures yet with our blogs, but hope to sort this out soon… But just to wet your appetite we have renewed our camel safari web site www.wildfrontierskenya.com which has some wonderful pictures of the Milgis area. Also will give you more of an understanding of the work we do up there, and of how it all works..Of course there are alot of pictures of camels but as you will see on our milgis Trust Logo, [a drawing of a camel, embracing an Elephant] some of our most important work is to encourage the Samburu, Rendille, and Turkana people that it is possible to live with wildlife, and to explain to them the value of these animals that live on their doorstep..They don’t realise what is happening in the rest of the world!! They are under the impression that the rest of the world is as beautiful, spacious, remote, and with wildlife as it is here!!.. in my next blog I am going to give you what I understand has happend to the wildlife, in just the last hundred years in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya… But what I hear from the Samburu is in the ‘old days’ one saw rhino every day.. In fact they remember it was a daily event to be chased by one.. The last rhino in this region was shot in the Keno valley, south Ndotos in 2000.. another reason the Milgis Trust was initiated..

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 01 2008 | By: milgistrust

On the 26th may 8 pm, every one at the Milgis Trust base was treated to a very unusual noise… It sounded like a camel in distress… So much so that the samburu warriors rushed down into the bush below the hill to find the camel, they thought it was being killed by one of those famous Milgis Lions!!, mentioned in my last post!.. They nervously searched all round, but could not find anything, so sat on the side of the hill and listened.. The second time it called they realised that it was not quite a camel!!.. The next morning the only tracks around were striped Hyena.. They have a den on the next hill which we have been watching for about 4 months but not heard a sound!!.. There seems to be two quite small young, one older one and the mother.. Initially they were so shy, but beginning to show themselves quite alot now.. Both Spotted and striped Hyena are quite plentifull in this area, but again are extremely shy.. We hardly ever see them on safari, so are delighted to beable to watch this familly with our binoculars!!, some times coming out to suckle and play quite early..

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