The Milgis Trust

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?