The Milgis Trust

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 23 2009 | By: milgistrust

When I first started bloging a year and a half ago, I asked this question….. does a striped hyena, make a noise like a camel in distress? but never got an answer!? Not much known about these beautiful/extraordinary animals? or maybe my blog is not reaching out to the right people?. Is what I have been asking my self!.. But Last night, we watched in absolute dismay as two male Striped hyena fought to the death, completely silent the fight was, all we saw to start with was dust, and two animals battling it out, the loser which was much bigger, kept on trying to run away, but the winner just kept coming, and he had one intention… To kill his rival, which he did savagely, with no distractions , in the end he had him on his back, and he was shaking him like a rag doll… We were utterly amazed at the silence of the fight, not a sound from both sides… The triumphant one left the other for dead, or almost, he lay there, but he wasn’t there in the morning… took off back in the direction that the fight had started, about a kilometre away..

Soon after this extraordinary noise, the same one that we have heard twice before, absolutely like a camel in trouble, rang across the country side… We rushed back to check it out unfortunately we had a weak torch, so could not see too much, and we thought that the fight was continuing, but we realised it was very different behaviour, and it seemed that the female, if it was indeed a female! was putting up quite a fight as well!… But all most like fisti-cuffs, not serious stuff… They then disappeared out of site and sound… We heard nothing more…

3 responses so far

Category: Conservation Awareness, Milgis lugga, Northern Frontier District | Date: Oct 21 2009 | By: milgistrust

With your support the Milgis Trust would love to own night camera traps to capture the nocturnal activities of the wildlife within the busy Milgis ecosystem. Each and every morning the Milgis team identifies countless tracks and spoors of highly timid creatures of the night such as the Lion, Aardvark, African Wild Cat, Porcupine, Civet, Ratel and Leopard as well as numerous other mammals, reptiles, insects and birds that dwell within this land. The Aardvark above all is an important animal for the Samburu - one sighting of this incredibly shy creature means you are blessed with luck for life.

But without the necessary equipment sightings are seldom recorded. To collect, record and share such physical information on these nocturnal animals would support the awareness and understanding of the Milgis Trust’s work whilst encouraging communities to continue in their conservation efforts and aid the Trust’s scouts in providing further security for the wildlife where it is needed most.

I n d o n a t i n g o n e n i g h t c a m e r a t r a p the Milgis Trust can implement an unobtrusive and sustainable surveillance unit, collecting much needed data to help substantiate the amazing successes the Trust is receiving in the increase in wildlife species and numbers to the area, not to mention the unidentified species we believe to exist within the Trust’s habitats.

1 Night Camera Trap Uk £ 199 only!

*As part of the donation the Milgis Trust would be proud to issue you with regular prints or digital copies of the very best photos that your donated camera has captured*

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 19 2009 | By: milgistrust

Its an extraordinary phenomena.. the transition from drought to floods, soon after I wrote my last blog about the clouds disappearing into thin air!!, they were busy building up out there in the desert!, it poured again with rain in the Karisias, Matthews, and Ndoto Mountains, and every where between, and the massive kilometre wide Luggas, have been roaring with flooded waters, doing their jobs correctly, in draining the area… Its incredible to see the transition, when they are dry they are huge ‘roads’, all day every day there are people, cows, camels goats, elephants, baboons, guinea fowl, etc etc using the huge sandy river bed to walk on, now these huge sandy highways have turned into roaring, raging, dangerous flood water, we all know how dangerous that can be!!.. But every one here knows that one keeps well away from them… If you happen to be on the other side of one of these luggas visiting a friend, when the rain starts, well you’ll have to ‘over stay’ your welcome now as you have no other choice!.. You won’t have to worry about your family at home, as the neighbour will surely be checking out on them.. Thats how the Samburu are! The two pictures below were taken in the same spot, different angle … From highway to flooded river!

Lugga Highway!

Lugga flooded!

I am not up at the Milgis at the moment, but on the radio this morning I asked how things were going!.. I was told … shhhhh don’t even talk… We are ALL so happy, we are all so relieved, We are all silent… SPEECHLESS, just sitting back watching the rain, the water, THE ‘LIFE’ COMING BACK TO THIS BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY!!… What a lovely way to put it!…

One response so far

Category: Northern Frontier District, Samburu, elephants | Date: Oct 14 2009 | By: milgistrust

Unbelievable!!… One day it was cloudy all over and raining , next day.. 11 October, not a cloud in the sky, for as far as the eye can see, but it is very very clear, which is a good sign, so we think that it will be back just after the new moon… We quite often call this first rain the grass rains, and then the main rains should follow… We had 8 mm on the 9th October, and 15 mm on the 10th, at the Milgis Base… So this is ‘not to sniff at’ and the whole place is beginning to burst into green, and with in a few days the flowers will start popping out… The Seiya Lugga is still flowing, so the news is still good from Northern Kenya!!…..

Picture of Mt Kenya, taken on a clear day from Elkanto… 110 Kms away.. Very unusual to see this far!, and so clear…

I’d like to think as I write this, that there are several baby elephants lolling around in the water that is still flowing… They don’t get this luxury too often, so lets hope they are all having fun!! What do you think Mark!!… Shall we whip back out there to catch it on film!!..

Thanks for all the wonderful positive comments, all of you, and for the good wishes for the brave Samburu people, who have lost so much during this drought, and with the rains arriving will lose more, sadly…Thats how it goes, I’m afraid.. BUT…They are good recoverer’s from disasters, and will be generous with each other, to get them selves back on the road…

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 10 2009 | By: milgistrust

YES, IT POURED WITH RAIN YESTERDAY!!!!!…Every where within the Milgis Ecosystem….. Relief… RELief….. RELIEF!!!! All the Luggas have come down in full flood … Every one has a smile on their face!… PHEW.. is all I can say, at this stage… The pressure that was building higher and higher is OFF… In a flash.. I am lost for words!!. Below is the Milgis Lugga..

. From this 9/10/09

To this!!! 10/10/09

6 responses so far

Category: Milgis lugga, Water holes, elephants | Date: Oct 09 2009 | By: milgistrust

I have been told several times by people who used to come to the Milgis Lugga, in the old days , that in their opinion the place is finished… meaning there is no hope for the place… The wild life has been shot out, the place is over grazed… Well I don’t think the BBC will say that, and I think that it is the work of the Milgis scouts that is making the difference…… The story is how Elephants and Humans need each other to survive, and it is part of the Human Planet story… I can’t wait to tell you all, when it is going to be on air… Who said there was no Elephants in the Milgis… We have lots of proof!… Our filming for the last couple of weeks has been brilliant… Absolutely beautiful scenes, in the moon light, of Elephants, coming in thirsty, and tired, even sometimes going into a run as they get closer to the water… Young ones being left behind, as they are to too weary to run… On arrival one would expect a bun fight over the water… But no way.. the scenes around the wells have been completely orderly with peaceful groups or lone bulls, taking there time.. If they are lucky to find a well that is not too deep to reach the water, they all stand around, and wait, each one gets his turn..Its just such a beautiful sight.. Even more amazing is when they have to dig for water, they dig abit with their foot, and then they put their trunk into the deepest part, and draw and throw the sand out, just a hole big enough to fit their trunk in, then when they get to water, they wait for sometimes 40/50 seconds, while the water sifts through the sand, and their trunk fills up…Not only Elephants and humans helping each other but every animal in the area, then comes in to drink from the hole the Elephants have left…

Elephants Drinking hole…

The Elephants, and therefore the rest of the wildlife, are doing very well considering the drought, our scouts are working extremely hard to keep the wells open, we are really trying… but today we have sad news… 4 elephants have been found dead.. One is up in the Matthews mountains and has been speared, it has a calf of about two years old.. which is still there, its an impossible place to get to and its a sad scene, another one has been found here on the upper Milgis, it is a youngster, that didn’t make it.. The other two is a mother and calf, down in the lower Milgis..The local communities around heard a little tiny calf calling and calling, so eventually they braved it and went into the thick bush to find the mother was dieing, and had fallen onto her new born calf.. They were too scared to get close and eventually both died…

But on a positive note, considering how harsh this drought is becoming, most of the Elephants are surviving, pretty well… And there is alot of heavy cloud around today… So we hope for lots of good news tomorrow morning…

4 responses so far