The Milgis Trust

Category: Livestock, Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Oct 30 2008 | By: milgistrust

This morning I could see Mount Kenya from the Milgis, Crystal clear,110 nautical miles away!!. What a pleasure..Its a good sign, it means the rains are still around even though there is a lull at the moment… Quite lucky for me as yesterday one of my camels sunk into the sand in the Parsaloi Lugga, up to his neck!!…Lucky it was a camel!,[not an elephant] and luckily theres a scouts meeting this weekend, so we had plenty of people to help…!!..It took a team of 19 men about 4 hours of hard digging to get him out… What happens is when the Luggas, come down in full flood, after a few days, the surface water is no more but you have water, flowing under the sand..Then you have areas where water is stagnant in pools, that when you had the flood, the water had been swirling, some how you get pockets of air trapped under the sand, and when some unsuspecting animal comes down to drink, it sinks straight in up to his neck, the air bubbles out and the sand ‘grabs’ round the animals legs and it can’t move…When you try to dig them out, the water makes it all most impossible to dig the 5/6 feet so that the camel can move… Its an unbelievable situation…A camel is so tall, and at the end of those long legs is a big foot, so adding to the problem… What amazes me, is that elephants, do not seem to get them selves into these situations… Can they feel that there is a problem ahead… Probably!!.. Many years ago on Manda Island an Elephant had managed to get him self on the wrong side of an underground water tank, something panicked it, and he wanted to run across the tank to get away, luckily he felt it was there, slammed on the brakes just before, [ it left good skid marks] and went back the way he had come from, which was quite complicated, as he had been browsing, not really concentrating in amongst the houses, and now he was in a hurry!!..

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Education | Date: Oct 28 2008 | By: milgistrust

The two pictures below were taken in April 06, [I hope they show up] and we’ve been looking for the funds to do something about the Latakwen Nursery school since then!! Last week we got the news that we now have the money to build them a decent, colourful nursery school…TOTO TRUST UK…Thank you very very much for the support… We are also very excited as we have found a man who is a brilliant artist, and is going to paint animals and trees all over the walls, if this is successful, he will then do the same on all the walls of the Milgis school… Actually we could give him the job to do the same throughout the area… Its quite an exciting prospect… The schools in the area always look so drab…

The Current Latakwen Nursery school..

Inside the Latakwen Nursery school… Children sit on the floor…

Once again we will re-iterate the point to all the residents in Latakwen that the reason Milgis Trust are making the effort to find the funds and to build a school for them is because… In the last few years, following several intense awareness campaigns about the fact that Wildlife is theirs, the habitat is for all to live in.. It is ‘our’ duty to look after it all… The results are fantastic… Again well done to all the people of Latakwen location for responding… NOW the wildlife is giving you a school!!!…

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Category: elephants | Date: Oct 27 2008 | By: milgistrust

After the rescue of Lesanju in October 2006 and the terrible things that the Samburu children did to her ears, ‘The Milgis Trust’ decided to name each scout after an animal… so that they could learn all about their respective animal, and then on their travels throughout, while on patrol, to teach every one that they meet, and any one that would listen, especially at all the schools, more about the animals… The reason why is these children cut her ears, was to mark her, when they saw her further down in life..They would recognise her… Little did they know that after she had been given cows milk, and that treatment to her ears, she did not have many hours to live… BUT thanks once again to DSWT , after a big battle, she lived… Her ear was so infected, and parts of it kept on dieing, and of course the stomach problems… But heres a picture of her below!!!

.. Lesanju two years after her rescue from the Milgis… Note how damaged her ear is…remember the elephant need their ears for cooling…

On the 12 September, when Lentokunye, ‘our elephant’ heard that there was a baby elephant in trouble, he ran many miles to take charge of the situation… No cows milk allowed, don’t do any thing until I get there… He fell in love with this little elephant, he tried to sleep with him under the same blanket!, but he would not keep still!, so they spent the night wondering around together…He was heart broken when the helicopter arrived to take him away… Little parsaloi died of pneumonia, on the 21st October.. He was just over two month old… Its taken me until today to get used to the idea… And I will be seeing Lentokunye, on the 29th… I know he will cry… Its not much that will bring tears to a Samburus eye, but having worked with this incredibly dedicated man… I know he’s going to take this to be VERY, VERY sad news…

Once again I apologise for the lack of pictures… I try and try, and only half of them go… lets hope this one shows up…

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Category: Milgis lugga | Date: Oct 23 2008 | By: milgistrust

At long last the news we have been waiting for, for too long… Thunder, lightning, driving rain, AND luggas in full flood.!!!.. Milgis Lugga when its dry…Flat, wide,windy, sandy highway

Milgis in Full Flood.. Raging torrent of muddy water.. impossible to cross!!

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

Chuck Lathrop, from the U.S. came back to the Milgis in Febuary 07, this time not to hunt, but to go on a camel safari, and to remember those fun days back in the 60s.. He immediately noticed what had changed, and picked up on what The Milgis Trust was trying to do… He was determined that he wanted to see Shikar Safari club International Foundation [ SSCIF] support the trusts work and of course the area… After a great safari walking through his old haunts, he returned home with a mission… The first barrier he came across was that some of the members of SSCIF did not like the idea of supporting a project in a country that did not allow hunting… But Chuck and others persevered, with abit of encouragement from me with a letter in which I said… ‘Considering this area was a favourite hunting ground, and many a hunter had wonderful times here, and went home with very good trophies.. It would be fabulous if the foundation would consider supporting our project.. It would mean alot to me’… And they did….Huge financial support for 3 years.. We are eternally gratefull… First and foremost was to increase our scouts from 14 to 24, so as to beable to cover some of the areas further north, in preparation for the Elephants return.[ explained below] also..Milgis Trust goals… 7/6/08.. Secondly to move the radio room to higher ground, so as to get better coverage… It has helped our work immensely…Having the ten extra scouts gave us a real boost..All the scouts report in to base 3 times a day, with any interesting reports, animals seen, any wounded animals, or problems.. and generally give news of their area, and attend any meetings, to spread the word, go to schools to give talks…Check on fires, catch the perpetrators, bring them to the elders, follow up on trees cut down, teach people how to prune.. and so on.. All this is reported at the base… and recorded..

Why is the return of the Elephant important in the north… First after the complete destruction of the elephant population north of the Milgis see my blog over 100 years… and a short history… We never want that to happen again.. And its wonderful to know that there are still elephants that remember these areas, and want to go back… Our job is to give them safe passage and welcome them home!!… Also pressures from Laikipia area, and south, on the Elephants is growing every day… The human population increasing every day…Fences are being erected through out, and the elephant needs space… Not boundaries… Actually if you think of it theres not many places that can offer what we can offer them… This is why I feel chuck felt very strongly about supporting us!! Thanks once again to Chuck, and all the members of the SSCI…

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Category: Samburu, Turkana | Date: Oct 15 2008 | By: milgistrust

Comment from Maina.. wildlife direct..

‘I am very alarmed about the Grevy Zebra poaching. What can be done? How can the rest of the world help? It is quite scary given how rare this equine is. We really have to act fast. Tell readers how they can help’.

Maina, How can the rest of the world help…Stop selling guns and ammunition to Africa!…and send some condoms!! Yes it is scary… I feel the only way forward is dialogue… We have to get the Turkana on board, get the message deep into the tribe, get them to understand the urgency of this problem… The Turkana eat every thing, there is hardly a wild animal living in Turkanaland.. With human populations in the Dry Northern Frontier District still growing, guns all over the place, its hard for any animal to survive… and unfortunately these extremely rare and quite the most beautiful equines, happen to live in quite a turbulent place.. The Samburu are revolted at the thought of eating Zebra, the Turkana eat them for breakfast!… With the Samburu/Turkana fighting ‘talking’ is difficult.. Today on the radio I got a message that Lesuuda, one of our Home Guard scouts, who is one of our bravest, who was on his way to the north of the Ol Donyo Mara hills, again no mans land, to investigate a dramatic report, that over the last few months many Zebras, actually the amount was 28??, had been shot, I hope this is not true.. Lesuuda reported this morning that he was going to abort the trip, because there is alot of panic in the area and people are moving their stock…He doesn’t want to get mixed up in the tribal fighting.. We will find out later…The Grevy’s are abit in the same position as the Gorillas in the Congo..

I will get our manager who has alot of experience with ‘talking’/ getting people together, and is quite respected in the area, to really come up with a plan… KWS have been very quiet… We are reporting incidences every day almost and they do nothing… They are short of money, no fuel, and he rangers are not motivated

.. Typical Grevy zebra country..This picture was taken may 07, North of the Ndoto Mountains… Wish it was as cloudy as that now..!!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 14 2008 | By: milgistrust

But today I feel much better…40 comments have come winging in, on Blogs that I wrote back in June to yesterdays… I am delighted that somebody… LOTS OF YOU are listening… The encouragement is brilliant… Thank you ALL of you and all the people in the wildlife Direct office for helping me out…The support from your office is never ending.. [Our problem is every day we are on the move so I do all my emailing and blogging with a little Thuraya satelite phone, so checking on the site is difficult, and expensive.. its time I got Thuraya to give me free air time, in aid of conservation!!.] Any one that sent questions on various topics I will answer them in the near future…But one of the last comments… Yes the Grevy, not Grevey!,sorry I think I have been spelling it wrong, is being poached and its a very difficult situation because of the tribal fighting, keeps going back wards and forwards over quite a substantial area, and because the Samburu do not kill Grevys, they tend to settle in to safety, start trusting people, and then suddenly the Turkana move into this area, and the Grevy becomes an easy meal… Also of course the Grevys follow the rain like every one else with their stock so tend to get shot if they are in amounst Turkana… Our scouts have been shot at or threatened a few times…As I say its a grave situation, and very difficult to get on top of…And our managers comment is true…If we don’t get the Turkana to understand the situation en mass, we are going to say ‘good bye’ to the Grevys in the Elbarta plains… One of the most well known grevy areas…

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Category: Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Oct 13 2008 | By: milgistrust

Just to let you all know that the elephant that was dragged out of the waterhole [ Blog 6.10.08 ] has been seen twice since by Lesambaua..It is back with his herd and relaxed…

The news this morning is wonderful.. The whole region has had a good dowsing of rain… This is such a relief as the rain on the 5th October did not continue, and this is when we started seeing all these fires… The worst one was in the Ndoto Mountains… Over a hundred acres of bush and forest was burn’t… The biggest worry being that the fire followed up one of the luggas that houses the few De-Brazza monkeys that live in these steep mountains… Seems that the fire was started by a hunter gatherer extracting honey, and he probably left the fire burning… Our scouts are following up on this..

A Grevey Zebra, fell into a water hole in the Guasi Lugga, and sadly before the scouts were able to rescue it, a big flood came down, and it drowned…..There are two reports this morning of grevey Zebras limping, one in the Sulabei area, west of the Suiyan… Two Milgis scouts have gone with two Ambassadors from the Grevey Zebra Trust to see why.. The other in Chagwai… It is in a herd of seven, and is not letting any one near it… At least it can move fast!

News from the lower Milgis [Elgerei] is that four lesser Kudu have been found dead… This is the area that had good rains on the 4th October [ blog 5.10.08].. There has been a virus killing goats in the area, so sadly I think this is hitting the Kudu… What a shame as the beautiful lesser kudu has made an incredible come back in the last few years…

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 12 2008 | By: milgistrust

I just keep seeing it over and over again..All I know is that I can’t help but keep thinking that ‘How can people with such pure good tribal beliefs and rules, possibly let them selves get into such an extraordinary problem’… Can’t they see for them selves what the over grazing situation is doing to their land, can’t they see what happens when you burn the forest…Unbelievable irreversible errosion…, terrible 12 feet gullies, large areas with no top soil left, large areas in the mountains that used to be forest, reduced to bear rock… I keep on telling myself maybe its the modern world that we live in that is not helping, nobody is willing to help them selves, because they wait for help from others??…WHY??? Were they doing this 100 years ago?? The other day some women came to ask me for help, because they were were hungry, and their goats are thin, but just a kilometre away was a huge forest fire… I told them I’m sorry I can’t help you if you can’t help yourselves..[ ‘My motto’ you have to be cruel to be kind’ ] I know its either one of your husbands, or sons that has lit the fire… this fire is burning all the trees that saved the day by producing so many seed pods..[ Thanks to Nature, 10/8/08] Its time for the women to gather that ‘inner strength’ and get on top of the problem..

On my last safari we came across many many trees that have been cut down to feed their hungry goats, with absolutely no thought of tomorrow… I saw a film the other day… It was called ‘the tree of life’.. It was about a guy cutting down a tree, in a beautiful forest… The sounds of the cutting disturbed every one around, the animals ran away,and the people just listened, but nobody did any thing… When the tree fell down, the man was so exhausted he collapsed in a heap… When he opened his eyes he found that he was in a desert with nothing… Nothing at all.. When he was trying to find his way out he came across a sapling growing in the desert… He sheltered it with his loin cloth, so as to help it grow… WHY DO WE WAIT UNTIL WE GET TO THIS STAGE BEFORE WE DO ANY THING…I would love to get my hands on that film and show every one in northern Frontier District!

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Category: Turkana | Date: Oct 11 2008 | By: milgistrust

Only 20 years ago when we used to commute between Baragoi and the Milgis across the Elbarta plains, I remember seeing lots of herds of Grevey Zebra… As children we didn’t even know how rare they were… Every time you drove to Turkana they seemed common. They were all over the place….. It was only ten years ago when It started dawning on us that they were being decimated..We raised the alarm… Nobody seemed to be in a position to help… What we are now seeing and hearing ref. the slaughter of these majestic zebras today has been going on unabated, mainly because of the dangers… Tribal fighting… There is only about 2000 left in the world of this special animal… Moses Lesaloyias words at the end of the meeting between the Turkana and the people [ previous blog], who are concerned for the safety, are true…and thats what we need to work on..

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