The Milgis Trust

Category: Cheetahs | Date: Jan 31 2009 | By: milgistrust

Its shocking news to all of us and I’m afraid I am having a hard time telling you all, this bit of news, because it was the happiest young animal, and his beautiful little life was cut short by a snake…. We never left him alone, there was somebody always with it… He/she, we never worked it out!, but had many discussions about it!,was playing in the grass below the mess and ‘booum’ he met this snake, we have absolutely no idea what kind of snake but it had a lot of poison in those fangs… The little cub was dead in ten minutes bleeding from his foot, and nose…. It was very quick… What I presume happened is.. when the cheetah got hurt, he used to get very very angry and go for what ever hurt it, so I think he was bitten more than once… WE ARE ALL VERY VERY SAD.. That cub had a character larger than an elephant, the bravery of a lion, the vocabulary to beat any human… The only time it was silent was when it was sleeping!… Even the warriors [See picture below] had come round to thinking … This is a very special animal… and kept on asking me… Is this a dog or a cat!??.. Remember in my original blog about the arrival of this cub, I was warned not to leave it in the care of the warriors!!… But in the end they even had a way of calling it and it would come running from where ever.. He went with them every where… Oh well… What this little cheetah can say.. is it did alot in its short sweet life… amongst other things survived an attack by dogs, a ride on a motor bike, a little high speed ‘flight’ off a cliff, about 15 feet high, he did hurt his leg, but it didn’t stop him…. And for sure who ever had the pleasure of meeting him was charmed!!…

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Category: Forest Fires, Ndoto Mountains, Samburu | Date: Jan 22 2009 | By: milgistrust

Unfortunately the rain last week was very disappointing…After that incredible show of dust from the desert….. There was light rain for a couple of days in the mountains… Slightly more in the Ndoto’s which was good news as they needed it more, and there was a fire up on the slopes so hopefully that was doused… We had a little drizzle, in the plains.. thats all… So much for not cleaning the dust off all the surfaces!!!… The sky became crystal clear again…But the wind is unusually cold.. We have been told that the Samburu fortune teller from Mt Nyiru, who reads the planets and stars says that it is going to rain at new moon… The cloud build up for today and yesterday makes us all feel that me may be right… I heard an interesting story to day from a man we met on safari, that this same person who has predicted this rain, read into that wonderful sight of the moon between the two planets, Jupiter and Venus, back nearly 2 months ago… I will put a picture on the blog when I can, but he sees it as peace between the Samburu and Turkana??… That would be wonderful!!

Other news…We have received a report down in the lower Milgis, that there is a wounded Elephant that killed a cow… Two scouts have left this morning to investigate..Cheetah cub doing very well indeed…

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Category: Cheetahs, Conservation Awareness, Education, Leopards, Lions, Livestock, Northern Frontier District, Samburu | Date: Jan 19 2009 | By: milgistrust

Its a difficult one when you tell the nomadic people… Do not kill the predators…. For them, if there was no predators life would be so much simpler!!… They could just send the goats/cows off and round them up when they are ready! They would not need to make such good bomas [thorn fences] around their homes, in fact life would be a lot easier with out them…They wouldn’t get into the perpetual trouble they get into because they have to cut trees down to make a decent fence!… OF COURSE THIS IS NOT EVEN A THINKABLE OPTION!!… SO ..What is the solution??!! Imagine a world with out the king of the jungle, cheetahs, leopards, Hyenas… and all the other unbelievably beautiful carnivores on this earth… We at Elkanto are experiencing the incredibleness of these animals with our cheetah… He never ceases to amaze all of us… Its a tough little critter… VERY clever, so aware, tough as nails… Despite its sweet ‘look’ !! Luckily the Samburu have to have lions, because they CANNOT have a ceremony with out a piece of lion skin!… Also If there was no predators then there would too much competition with the stock for grass, with the herbivores… And finally if there was no predators who would get rid of the rotting carcases… So really the answer is to find ways of living with them!!… Dogs and Live fences being two answers…??

A dog that is well looked after is one of the best answers.. Their acute sense of smell, and hearing can pick up predators from far, and warn the manyatta… Or when the stock are out grazing/browsing the dogs can warn the Shepperd’s when there is trouble up front…Every manyatta has a dog, or many, but most of them are desperately thin, worms and being erratically fed is the reason.. Samburu have this terrible fear of rabies, and this is why this poor dog was killed.. story below.. Also when there is a batch of puppies, the females are almost always left to die, only because they later will produce puppies…

Yesterday a Samburu man, somebody I know well, came to see me with his 4 year old daughter… She had a little scratch on her side, from his dog… She had picked up the after birth of a goat to give to him and he had snatched it off her, and scratched her on her side.. The father immediately killed the dog..bludgeoned him to death… His favourite dog… So sad and so stupid… Because now who is going to look after the manyatta??

So we would like to do a “get the dogs in better shape campaign” to help the people live with the predators… This would mean castrating and spaying dogs, worming and giving rabies injections… And giving a little’pep’ talk on how to look after them…To as many dogs in the area… It would be an ongoing thing as its vast… Is any vet out there ready to gain some pretty exciting experience!! .. It won’t be dogs only you treat!!.. Any thing from an Elephant to a squirrel!! , Camel to a goat! as well… We also need to find a way to fund it …..ANY IDEAS?

5 responses so far

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

Yesterday evening was quite exciting…A wild evening!!

Not so typical of Elgerei, the Samburu name for the Milgis Lugga, a place full of dramatic surprises. At about 5.30 pm looking to wards the east there seemed to be a very strange brown look to the sky, and soon it became clear it was a very strong wind coming in from the Kaisut desert, bringing with it the most incredible amount of dust… It came slowly but surely up the Milgis lugga, and spread out to wards the Matthews and Ndotos.. The sight was amazing, beautiful colours, and suddenly we are all most in the dark!..

The dust was so thick we’ve all got sore throats today!!… In the morning there was a thin coat of dust on all the surfaces, which the Samburu told me not to clean as its bad luck… If I leave it, it will rain!… Well… they are not wrong… because today has turned into a cold after noon, with rain all around!!… FANTASTIC NEWS… The full moon did it!…. There is alot of warriors wandering around singing at the top of their voices… true joy ringing through the hills at the sight of rain!!

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Category: Milgis lugga, Northern Frontier District, Samburu | Date: Jan 11 2009 | By: milgistrust

Yes and its something that we noticed on our last few safaris… The various projects in the area, to bring water out of the mountains is my biggest concern… Not because it causes mini deserts so much, but the fact that every time the water in the mountain rivers doesn’t get to where the beginning of the pipe is, the projects , with out asking ‘WHY’, just go and buy more piping to take the water from further up… All most every scout in his report told us that WATER is very short… What are we going to do about it… Its of great concern to the Milgis Trust..

We were also graced at the scouts meeting by two gentlemen that came all the way over from America from the Shikar Safari Club International Foundation, who last year very kindly supported the employment of ten new scouts and to move the radio to higher ground… Both have helped our ground operations immensely.. I told the scouts that Chuck Lathrop, and Jon Mellen, came all the way to Kenya to be with us for five days only to support the Milgis Trust aims!…They both listened to all the scouts reports, and spoke of how impressed they are, it was nice to hear of the improvement of wildlife counts, the reports of new animals in the areas, etc. Jon gave full verbal support to the scouts and Pete and I for undertaking such a huge project..Chuck was in this area in the 1960s.. He remembered his first view of the Seiya Lugga!!… There was two Rhinos sleeping under a tree, a heard of Oryx, grazing to one side… A heard of Elephants came down to drink, and there was Grevy Zebra all around…He said it was a paradise!.. He would like to help us return this area to its former glory, but not with out the consent of the people who live here… THE SAMBURU.. ”This work the Milgis trust is doing is ‘right up my street’.. Its a true wilderness ” … He went on to tell the scouts… ” I am passionate about making it work with SSCIF support, and will do all he can!!”

The ‘lions’ let us down last night!.. This morning we woke up to the news that a lion had killed two camels??

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Category: Cheetahs, Grevy's Zebra, Matthews range, Ndoto Mountains | Date: Jan 07 2009 | By: milgistrust

All the very best to you all for the new year!… I do apologise for disappearing off the face of the earth… We have been busy over Christmas and new year with camel safaris, and the computer battery went flat after a couple of days!, and I forgot to take the charging lead..Oh well it was good to have a holiday!, from the blogging, it takes alot out of me, to write a good one!! …But don’t worry the scouts have been busy, and Pete and I have been able to meet up with quite a few of them and to check on their areas… We did alot of walking in the magnificent Ndoto mountains where sadly the November rains were not good, which will put a strain again on the wildlife..Unfortunately the worst to suffer will be the Grevy Zebra, that rely on the water, on the east side…..We have alerted the scouts to try to make sure the water available to these animals that walk so far to have a drink.. In the last week there have been a few signs that it may rain in the next few days… maybe at full moon?? lets hope.. Today we were in Ngurnit, and it was pretty cloudy.. Other wise, thank goodness the Matthews Range has had good rains, most of the rivers are flowing still…

On arrival at Elkanto, we were delighted find the young Cheetah in tremendous form, and it recognised me strait away as I walked in… It is doing very well indeed, its grown quite alot, and is very playful…Very aware, talkative, has a big vocabulary, and quite ferocious for his size!!… He looks even more like the ever fierce Honey badger…He is complexly free, but seems to like human company, and the dogs tip toe around him!.. At least hes stopped calling and searching for his mother, which was quite heart rendering…

This was a picture taken on the 23rd December

I was told that I should be careful not to leave him in the hands of the Samburu Warriors as they may kill it… But I certainly am not worried now, they all love it, are fascinated by him, and can’t keep away!!

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