The Milgis Trust

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: 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

Category: Conservation Awareness, elephants | Date: Aug 26 2009 | By: milgistrust

What happened to all the birds in Europe?? Or were they never there?? .. Is a question I have been asking for the last five weeks!!.. I have just got back from my first holiday abroad for many years.. France, Norway, Spain and Portugal… living the high life, I’m afraid… It has been incredibly good for me, to see how the rest of the world lives, and to know how the people who come on safari live, and where!…We have been completely spoilt, and seen some lovely country.. My first problem was to get a visa… They wanted to know all my personal details, who, how, when and what!, and all I wanted to do was go on holiday!..We are not so used to that in Kenya!.. But I got one and off we went… My next problem was how to turn the tap on in the airport on arrival.. I pushed and pulled every thing I could, until somebody came in and I watched with interest that she put her hands under the tap and out came the water… Actually I thought that the water had run out, like our Kenya taps are doing all too often now!! But thats one thing Europe won’t do as quickly as us out here in Africa…Every where we went there was incredible amounts of trees, enormous rivers, and dams, and still snow on the mountains, feeding these rivers… No snow left on our Mt Kenya.. or very little I’m afraid, but thats because we are busy cutting our trees down, if we are not cutting we are burning them…..But thats another story, that I won’t get into now, over population of people.. In Norway they have over population of trees, if they don’t cut them down, they fear they will become over run !! …. BUT where have the birds gone…now I know why people make comments on safari, about how noisy the birds are! and even more disappointing was how few wild animals we saw… We covered many many miles on ‘remote’ roads, and spent most of our time in isolated places, but saw very little…Except 16 real mountain goats in the Pyrenees!, which our hosts were so chuffed about, but it was that African eye that saw them..! ANYWAY it made me feel proud of our wildlife, and birds, and makes me even more determined to give them a safe haven to live in… My thoughts go back to how we can catch the flood water..

While we have been away I have kept in touch with the Milgis Trusts day to day activities, and apart from a very sad find of another Elephant that had died of multiple wounds from bullets, and spears, but they don’t know where it came from, as its not the normal colour of our Elephants..[ their skin is a different colour, depending on the mud they wallow in, and as its a rocky place our Elephants have less crevices in the soles of their feet.. Our Elephants soles are well worn!] Basically the harsh drought is taking its toll, with the young Elephants, and other wildlife, and of course the live stock, but every one is persevering, hanging in there, and keeping a positive mind for some rain soon.. GOOD RAIN PLEASE!!

3 responses so far

Category: elephants | Date: Jul 21 2009 | By: milgistrust

The report from the ‘Leopard’, the scout that is from the Keno, went like this… A very big Elephant has been killed, after a huge fight, the triumphant keeps on checking to see that his rival is dead’… UNBELIEVABLE!!.. I could not but think… Maybe actually he did not mean to kill him, and wanted him to get up again.!!.. Our scouts went in the Land rover to retrieve the tusks, and to take them to KWS, for safe keeping…. They were pretty big… In the region of 80 pounds each… The tusk of the other elephant had pieced his lung /heart area… This was a totally natural death, and the main reason for showing you this picture is… I feel its fabulous to know that there are still some big tuskers around…AND LONG MAY THEY LAST!!

The size of one of the tusks from the Slain Elephant…

5 responses so far

Category: Water holes, elephants | Date: Jul 13 2009 | By: milgistrust

I am replying to your comment Sheryl, on ’sad and lonesome death.’.as I feel its worth blogging about… …. I wish it was as simple as that… Keep the Elephants from falling into wells!!… Its a huge huge area, and sadly it is desperate times… The Elephants have increased because they are being pushed out of areas to the south, and before the seventies thousands of Elephants roamed this part of Kenya, actually they are returning home….. If only we had the money to employ lots of people to patrol… We so so appreciate your help, and I have told the manager that this money goes towards helping the Elephants, and all our well problems… Now is the time to get the communities involved in helping keep the Ely wells open, and if any one else is feeling generous, we would so appreciate, some financial support, for this project… Two reasons… If the communities benefited more from being nice to the Elephants, then they would try harder… Also I have just received the news below… We don’t want to reverse, the good balance of living together that we feel has been achieved, after this incident….

I have just spoken to the manager and he told me we had a very sad problem yesterday, where an Elephant tossed somebody, so they… The authorities decided they had to shoot the Elephant because he was now a ‘rogue’… Apparently it had killed a camel a few months ago… They stunned him, having shot at him several times, and they thought he was dead, and then for some reason they cut his ears up, and speared him several times…after a bit, and as every one was off guard, he got up again and killed somebody… This elephant is now out there, very badly wounded, and unfortunately dangerous… Now who’s to blame?…

Its very sad, and distressing, as we have tried so hard to tell every one, ‘you don’t hurt/disturb the Elephants they won’t hurt/disturb you, always keep a good eye/ear out for them, and avoid going too close’… And the first person he tossed, who was going about his day, was not harmed, more shaken, and the Elephant removed him from his path, he did not follow him up or any thing… Many times we have watched, as children are out with their stock, when they come across Elephants they watch from a distance, as the stock go through the trees , and they meet them the other side..

MAN MADE INTERFERENCE is an interesting statement actually… Man has to survive out there as well, and have for hundreds of years, in harmony with the wildlife…Actually if it was not for men digging water holes there would be no way the Elephants could survive here once the water goes down past a certain level… Most of the life out there, is share, and share a like… Men and Elephants do very well together, and really help each other out… The Samburu especially can take huge credit for their incredible patience, of living side by side with the wildlife, and have shown many times serious tolerance… But below is a picture showing a well, that the Elephants were using, every day, but the owner decided to cover it up.. Now where do they drink?… Tough times.. And difficult decisions…

Covering this well to me is now a misunderstanding on mans part… Or what??…

No responses yet

Category: Milgis lugga, Water holes, elephants | Date: Jul 10 2009 | By: milgistrust

As the horrors of drought continue, the answer is to fight back….The Milgis Trust scouts have embarked on a major well digging campaign, up and down all the big luggas to ease the Elephants, and other wildlife’s plight to get to water… Also at the same time going on a fact finding mission to find out where all the disused wells are, after an Elephant had fallen into one and was not found until it was too late… They will talk to all the locals about exactly where all the old wells are, so that they can be monitored every day… The pictures and story written my Moses Lesoloyia below is the reason for this decision…..

On the 19^th June 2009 at 3pm a report reached our office that there was an elephant stuck in a water hole in Laana Nikan lugga, it came from a herder who was on a survey mission for pastures for his livestock.. He was also desperate, to find grass for his hungry cattle, so in stead of turning back to bring the report , he gave it to a KWS patrol vehicle, a day later… They picked the man up and brought him to where he thought he saw the Elephant, and searched the whole place but he could not quite remember where it was in the very thick bush along the Lugga.. They then sent a message to Elkanto, and asked us to bring some more people and any one with knowledge of the area…We immediately packed our land rover with water, rope, spades and digging tools and 8 of us, met up with the KWS team and headed back up the Lugga, grinding up in the soft sand… The land cruiser got stuck, but with many people gathering to try to help, they managed to get it out quickly… about 3 km from the Barsaloi and Seiya junction we stop, as the man leading us said he saw the elephant around there. He seemed to be behaving strangely, and we asked him to show us his tracks but there had been many Rendille camels in the area and it was not possible to retrace them, at one point we thought the man was cheating!! He kept on saying I promise you I saw an Elephant in a well, But where is it!… After a brief gathering of thoughts, Ltankian, a local warrior told us that he remembered where a well was when he was a child…We asked him to lead us there and sure enough we found the elephant which we assessed to between 10 and 12 years. The hole was very narrow and the elephant had fallen from the back and the whole body except the head got trapped into the hole. When we arrived she looked ok and used her trunk to scare away anyone going towards her head. We decided to open up the hole all round her back and tried to pull her out by passing the rope below her fore legs.

We pulled her ¾ out and while trying to pass the other end of the rope below her hind legs she was calm and looked sleepy, we passed the rope very easily and when pulling it out someone shocked us all by saying.. “hi ndovu imekufa” [The elephant is dead] no one believed him. We continued pulling but stopped after realising that the elephant is no longer trying to come out and a foul smell filled the area. We found out that the hind legs were rotten and the skin peeled off when touched. It was at this time that we really started to believe that the elephant could be dying. After a few minutes the elephant was dead. Everybody’s spirit went down and all were tired. How, why, what, followed for about 10 minutes as all wondered why it died… This Elephant had been stuck in this well for at least a week or more,,, It breaks my heart…

Disbelief after all that effort, as the Elephant seemed to be dieing..

One of the very strange things about this poor trapped Elephant is why did the hyenas not attack it when it was stuck in the hole, and apparently even ten days after it died it had not been touched…Despite lots of hyena tracks all round.. The people who tried to save this animals life say that they believe that this elephant has to have been cursed… ” tanang’a negol “ …to die in a hidden place…Why?? I can’t understand as my experience with these people is they hate to see suffering, but they say maybe some body in a family was hurt by an Elephant, and they must pay… I must mind my P’s and Q’s!!! ….

I apologise for so many photos not coming up on my blogs… I am trying…

4 responses so far

Category: De-brazza Monkeys, Eco-tourism, Livestock, Matthews range, Water holes, elephants | Date: Jul 08 2009 | By: milgistrust

Why?…. I suppose its because there are more people on the world??….. IE More trying to live off less… In Northern Kenya we can expect a pretty bad drought every ten years, but its worse each time… And this time its no exception… I’ve just come back from another beautiful safari in the Matthews, we climbed to the top, but we could not avoid seeing the people and animals enduring hard times…. And doing more damage just to stay alive… As in the pictures below…

Two valuable trees cut down for hungry livestock to try to keep them alive… But then what will they eat tomorrow?… We have so much work to do on this issue..

During our safari we saw plenty of Elephants, but every time one could not but think … Where is the nearest water?, for this beautiful herd of Elephants… Most of the wells we came across are over 20 feet deep, not even a chance for them, but we found flowing mountain water, thanks to the beautiful forest above on the slopes of the Matthews range, in the Ngare Narok Lugga, where the De Brazza monkeys frequent.. Indeed two herds of Elephants came into drink, at the same time, just behind our camp, plenty of trumpeting went on, which made our little camp with the camels all hobbled abit restless!!..

Huge tree in the Matthews range… Strangler fig, growing up a Newtonia..

Below is a positive note from a geologist who comes out to Kenya a lot… and he seems to be giving us some bright news!

Lets look at the forecasts at the Climate Prediction Centre and the
International Research Institute for Climate and Society. We are
currently moving into an El Nino year, slightly anomalous sea-surface
temperatures in the W Pacific, the El Nino/Southern Oscillation is
coupled with the Indian Ocean Dipole that influences E African
rainfall. They are not yet sure about the strength of the El Nino if
it comes later this year. El Nino means more intense short (oct-nov)
rains for most parts of E Africa. The prediction maps do not show any
difference in the rains from other years except for Oct-November where
there is a 40% probability of heavier rains in this time of the year.
Well, get an umbrella soon!!!

Our Milgis Trust website has been updated, If any of you have got time to read whats going on, it out lines all our plans and goals…

Finally a little note on how Pete is doing!! Hes walking!!… But the Doctor is still working on getting all the dead tissue, killed by the Snakes poison, out of his foot… What a palaver… but hes in good spirits, and looking forward to getting back to the bush…

One response so far

Category: Water holes, elephants | Date: Jun 04 2009 | By: milgistrust

I blogged this news on the 14/5/09… and on the 16/5/09 … The little elephant is safe at DSWT.. We have only managed to get our hands on the photos lately so here with…
The water holes are so vital to the elephants survival, and yet these little guys keep falling in…If you try a clever way so that they can drink but the babies can’t fall in they pull it apart… Or if you cover them up completely they go crazy… This is how Kudup was found… The latest baby Elephant to be rescued.. Actually the main herd was not drinking out of this hole, but this little Ely went round the back, probably playing, and down he went…

The poor mother went crazy, and tried and tried to dig her youngster out, but left the scene… lost and sad..

‘Hey you guys.. what do you want of me… out of my way’!!.. This little Elephant… Found in a place called Kudup was not wanting to be friendly and was fairly keen to go free, but as the story tells, the mother is no where to be seen, and in the night they were visited by many hyenas… So to let her free with out the protection of the herd is futile…

Trying to make friends… She was very strong and feisty to start with…

THANKYOU TO WILDLIFE DIRECT AND TO YOU ALL FOR HELPING US TO GIVE THESE LITTLE ELEPHANTS A WONDERFUL FUTURE!!.. Before they would have perished down these water holes… And many did sadly.. or they may have been pulled out by a kind Samburu, to be let go, only to die from hunger, or to be eaten… Our scouts are working very hard to keep the ‘walk in wells’ open for them, and lots of elephants are using them daily… They are not great at leaving things as they found them!!…

Tomorrow we are setting off on a safari over the Ndoto mountains, starting off with camels, and then porters when it gets too steep for the ’ships of the desert’… Hope to come back with lots of stories!

No responses yet

Category: Desert warthog, Forest Fires, Water holes, elephants | Date: Jun 02 2009 | By: milgistrust

This picture shows things in the good times, plenty of water..

This is the Elephants favourite area, at Ol Donyo Waas.. This special salt water that they come to every day… And lots of cover around.. This is now completely dry, and the well than Nchan was rescued out of is in the middle of where the water is…

and this one shows another elephants favourite drinking spot in not so good times… I gather from the oldest people around that its never been this dry, at this particular spot, in there life time.. It must have been affected by the fires up stream…

And this picture shows just how bad it can get… There are about 200 cat fish, in this stinky mud hole, and each day it gets dryer.. They have their head up to breath… You see them open there mouths, and the air goes in and muddy bubbles come out through there gills… Every two minutes there is a complete frenzy to try to get to the cooler mud below ..Imagine how hot it must get at mid day, in that disgusting smelly mud hole….. yesterday I got a report that they are nearly all dead now… Shame, shame.. nature is cruel…

This beautiful little young animal, the desert warthog is just another victim of these dry times, he was found stuck in the mud, on the Milgis Lugga.. The scout cleaned him up and brought him 15 kms to try to save his little life but he was not lucky… I just wanted to point out the incredible defences he has, at this very young age!! They can draw blood quite substantially with a quick side swipe!…

2 responses so far

Category: Milgis lugga, Water holes, elephants | Date: Jun 01 2009 | By: milgistrust

I think you… YES YOU ALL, are so sweet! Any one who manages to plough through my blog, and to have the time to leave a comment is just so great, THANKYOU……. Sheryl, and Anna especially, but all the others as well… I can see that you spend alot of time thinking and coming up with some brilliant comments… So very appreciated… You have no idea how encouraging it is to receive your thoughts… But even more Thanks to you ‘guys’ actually the latest are girls!!, Wendy, and the two Annas!..We are touched, and VERY GRATEFUL…for you being so generous with your donations… All the funds we get through wildlife direct goes to all the sudden problems that arise… Like rescuing Elephants, and alike..remember the big elephant that was pulled out in September… did you see the photos??. I wish we had more success in finding the mothers of these young ones, but thats how it is, and I gather that Nchan and the latest one called Kudup, are doing well at DSWT..

Unfortunately the pictures of Nchans rescue were too late for DSWT before they put the news on the inter net, the pictures below show what a SURVIVER SHE IS!! …

When her rescuers arrived this was her situation… She had been in this hole for any thing from 6 hours to 15 hours..

Poor little baby… Totally exhausted, and just lay there for quite a while… Just to believe she was out..

Suddenly she realised she was out of her watery ” jail “, She just wants to go, but its no good just letting her go into the bush, with no sign of any Elephants around..

Finally quietened down, in the shade, and taking a drink.. Then to wait for the evening in the hope that the mother will come back…

The next morning.. No Luck unfortunately so she is lifted into the vehicle and taken to the nearest runway, about two hours away… To wait for the aeroplane..

Next Blog will show you Kudups predicament!..

3 responses so far