The Milgis Trust

Category: Desert warthog, Grevy's Zebra, Matthews range, Water holes, Wild Dog, elephants | Date: Mar 31 2009 | By: milgistrust

Just wish we had our dam project up and running, but thank goodness this morning there are exciting clouds billowing over the Matthews Range.. Finally we REALLY hope for rain throughout.. All I am getting news of, is wild animals desperately in need of water… Just to mention a few of the problems…. Two young Grevy Zebras died trying to get to water, on the east side of the Ndotos… And many more animals falling into wells, and not being able to get out .. On the lower Milgis a big elephant spent the night battling to get out, which it did luckily as we did not enjoy the thought of having a repeat of the one in September! Elephant in desperate situation is saved…. PHEW!!! I have added some pictures on the blog which you may like to see….. Another very pregnant Elephant that was going down a very steep path having drunk in the Langata Nanyuki to the south of the Ndotos, slipped down the rocks and landed badly, her front legs were under her body, all her weight was on her neck, and she could not get up… She died before the scouts could find help.. A warthog, which died sadly but two wild dogs where pulled out of a well in Nairimirimo, and released I am happy to tell you… Unfortunately we have got no further with our investigations on our wild dog that was tied up for two days, and supposedly taken by KWS?? [See my last blog] I’m afraid the plot is thickening, and please be patient, we are determined to find out what is going on… But have discovered that there is a trade in wild dogs, going to markets where rich people want these beautiful animals as pets!!..Which explains why we have heard of people looking for puppies… Going back to our ‘poor’ dog… It sounds like she was pregnant, somebody who tried to get a job with us a few years ago, with a letter from the KWS, [ who knows how genuine] suggesting we took him on to look after the wild dogs!!, He made the phone call, and refused them to let it go… What we haven’t managed to establish is whether the dog died or was taken… Our scout has been taken on a ‘wild goose chase’ and he will go back to investigate… He was told the dog died, but when he asked to see the body it did not seem to exist!!… Yesterday a young genet cat was found in a well near the base, which was brought in…Its too small to release but we will as soon as its ready to go… LETS HOPE IT POURS WITH RAIN… PLEASE EVERY ONE WAVE YOUR MAGIC WANDS!! We need the rain so badly..

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Category: Wild Dog | Date: Mar 19 2009 | By: milgistrust

For many years I have been told of people looking for hunting/wild dog, puppies, or dogs… The day I went with one of the scouts to look for the hunting dog den with ‘our cheetah’, Lesuuda, he mentioned that a few years ago he had been offered money to find puppies…. I have never managed to find who is it is, and what they are doing with them?… CAN ANY ONE FILL ME IN???? I am extremely disturbed about what happened the other day.. A fully grown hunting dog fell down a well in Nairimirmo, the area in between the Matthews and Kirisia hills… The Samburu people who found it, pulled it out but it had been in the water for quite a time so was not in the fighting form it should have been in… To my surprise that evening I got a message saying that they were still holding it, and what should they do with it… I was so angry… Why keep it?? LET IT GO IMMEDIATELY…. and if it was not able to go to call us, and we would come to pick it up, to try to save its life… BUT They then got a message from somebody??… Not to release it and 36 hours after the dog was pulled out of the well it was still tied up in a manyatta, and I was told KWS was coming to pick it up… Which they did… But when I tried to find out where this dog was taken, I get a blank …SHOCKING… what on earth are they up to….. I really hope that very rare animal is still alive.. I’m worried for it and all the others that have been taken…

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Category: Ndoto Mountains | Date: Mar 17 2009 | By: milgistrust

While we are on the subject off the Ndoto Mountains as per my last Blog, just wanted to put a few pictures for you to appreciated these beautiful mountains…. A mountain of sheer cliffs, and huge massifs of granite rock, full of wildlife, and beautiful forests and rare plants… So few people have been to the top! I hope the pictures show up… Lets try!!

South/East Ndotos looking towards Ngurnit, and Poi in the distance…

The forest above Sererit, on the west side… Its like that on the other side as well!! Imagine the walks through the forest with the views east and west..

Upe peak, framed by the rocks to the south

Aldera rock, South East

Phoenix palms clinging to these cliffs…

Manmanet forest..

Ngurnit..

‘POI’ taken from the North…

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Category: Forest Fires, Ndoto Mountains | Date: Mar 13 2009 | By: milgistrust

Ndoto mountains… You can imagine the scenario… The peaks are around 8000 feet, and with in a very short distance, a few kilometres, the surrounding country is about 3000 feet, they are incredibly steep, very dramatic mountains, you can walk along the ridge from north to south, over the two main peaks, Allimission, and Upe, with a 360 degrees views all round…Its fabulous…But with a good wind you can imagine what happens if a fire [SO SAD that one match can do so much damage..] gets going on the slopes, in the thick brush… Its extremely dangerous, and this Klipspringer, was caught out with NO WHERE to run… The scouts presume there was two, as they are always two?, but this one walks carefully, and stiffly, and has been singed all over, but amazingly is still alive, more than two weeks after the fire!! We decided NOT to try to catch this animal as to take it off the mountain to treat would be impossible, also he had already got through the worst… incredible..

The Blue Mountains…Ndotos…

Whole side of the mountain is burnt

One fire killed all these ceders in a shot, just below Upe, the second highest peak of the Ndoto Mountains and this is only one slope that has suffered this fate… There are many others..

THE BIG QUESTION IS… HOW MANY MORE ANIMALS DON’T GET AWAY… We have a scout crossing the mountains tomorrow.. I hope he has news of our Klipspringer…

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Education | Date: Mar 12 2009 | By: milgistrust

Very exciting news the painter, ‘Nderitu’ that we took on to paint pictures of Animals, trees, scenery, anything he can think of that relates to the work of the Milgis Trust, is BRILLIANT… We are so excited!! He started on the wall of the new nursery school that the TOTO TRUST UK have very kindly donated the money to build at Latakwen.. He has a permanent audience, of warriors, teachers, men, women and children… any one passing by, so hes got plenty of company!

The new Latakwen Nursery school, built by Milgis trust, donated by Toto Trust.. The Ndoto Mountains towering behind..

Nderitus painting!!

Nderitu

We will be having an opening with the community on the 26th march 09… We will hand over the Nursery classroom, and the VOSS drinking water project.. Nderitu at the moment is painting scenes of running water and clear rivers on the ‘Kiosk’ and Tanks, around the center…He then will engage on his next painting on the school, which will be depicting scenes of over grazed lands, cut down trees, thin live stock, no water, compared to well managed land, beautiful shady trees, fat cattle, lots of water!! Should be fun….

Milgis Trusts plan is to send Nderitu, with his conservation messages to all the schools in our coverage, to paint on the school walls… brighten up the life of any one who walks past.. He will be supported by a contingency of scouts to talk in the schools, each one will teach the children all about the animals they represent, and to discuss all the goings on in the area!!…

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Category: Forest, elephants | Date: Mar 09 2009 | By: milgistrust

Anna, Thank you, Thankyou for your kind donation… So appreciated.. And sorry to have disappeared.. I temporarily lost my head, and left my computer, after I was given the news that our little kudu had died… His mother had been killed by hunting dogs, and he arrived very dehydrated, and had a sore stomach, which we just could not get right, and he died after a week.. We are not having much luck at the moment, Here is a picture of the beautiful animal, at the scouts meeting..

Every two months we bring all the scouts back to base, to catch up with all that is going on in their various areas.. This means collectively they cover about 2000 kms by foot to get to the base, and back… If you are interested you can check on our main website on the map… We have 4 scouts on the west side of the Matthews range, 6 in Nairimirimo/Suiyan areas to the west of the Laana Nikan [Seiya] Lugga, between the Matthews and Kirisia hills… 3 between the Matthews and Ndoto Mountains, on the Milgis Lugga, 3 along the east side of the Ndotos, 4 west of the Ndoto mountains, and one on the south end of the Ol Donyo Maras…The base is on the Junction of the Laana Nikan/Parsaloi Luggas where it becomes the Milgis… As you can imagine they pick up quite alot of info on their way to get here, plus what has happened in their areas during the last two months and at the meetings there is generally an awful lot to catch up on… the meeting quite often goes on till the evening… The big news this month is this Sandalwood Scandal!!

For months I have been hearing of the threat!!… And finally on the 10 February the scout from Nairimirmo was tipped off !!. Lorries coming in to the east side of the Kirisia hills, to collect already cut Sandal wood, cut by community members. He went to the place with a home guard [ a police reservist]…He informed the base of the problem…Things became quite dangerous for them as they tried to stop the lorry leaving, they were offered bribes of quite considerable money, but he persevered, and kept in touch with the base station into the night, who in turn managed to raise the alarm by signalling with a torch, to Elkanto.. Finally they got to the KWS station, at Latakwen, who immediately headed off into the black of the night to help… on arrival they took over the lorry, and stayed with it for two days… The outcome is still a mystery to us??!!

Our two scouts in the Suiyan area reported a rush of Elephants back from the Kirisia hills down the Parsaloi Lugga having seen the tracks heading up a few days before… They went to investigate what was up and found a week old dead elephant… but with the tusks still in… Must be Samburu, as they had not cut the tusks out, see my last blog…..There was also signs of human tracks around.. They pulled to see if the tusks would come out, and 1 did.. They hid it well, and we called the KWS from Latakwen.. The next morning they went back to find that poachers had been following their tracks!, and had managed to pull the second tusk out.. Which they duly hid, and then went to try and find the first one… Luckily they did not find it, but our scouts found theirs! The two scouts were able to hand the tusks over to KWS… What we think is the Elephant must have been killed as the herd headed to the hills, but they must have come across more poachers further up, where we have reported poaching going on before, and come back down to relative safety.. These developments, elephant poaching, are VERY worrying and very serious…

We have also investigated what could have happened to the mother of the new born elephant calf that we took to the Sheldrick orphanage on the 15th feb.. Who sadly did not make it, with stomach problems and pneumonia.. There are a few thoughts to what happened to the mother and also why the little one died.. A few herds of Elephants that had come from the south east of the Matthews, were heading for the Ndoto mountains… Two reasons for this… One could have been poachers, and possibly the mother was killed, or too frightened to wait for such a small one..or the fact that the last bit of rain that we had at full moon was in the Ndoto mountains…If this is so why did the baby get left behind.. Our scouts can’t agree.. Some say that she got stuck in an erosion drain, but others say it was not deep enough, and the mother would have got her out…But at this stage her tracks were not around??.. others say that the mother was too young, she could have deserted the calf, before it got the all important colostrum milk… What ever happened sadly the little calf, so young, still pink behind the ears, was two days without its mother, we have found out that it was fed tea, and uji [maizemeal porridge], by the people who first found it… These people were new comers who had come in from the desert for greener pastures and had not got the message about not giving a young elephant any thing and they were only doing their best to feed the baby on what they had … Again every one is extremely sad for this loss… We live and learn and will do a new campaign throughout to explain about Elephants…

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