The Milgis Trust

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: 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…

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

Yes we have had the most wonderful crop of fruit along the luggas, the Salvadora Persica, against all odds is fruiting furiously.. Another of natures amazing rescue packets just when things looked really bad… As you walk through the Salvadora, the bird song is deafening, the baboons are all talking, Every one is eating Salvadora fruit!!….Wish I could play the sounds, as I took these two photographs.. The first picture was meant to be of a bird , but it flew away!, so I had to settle with Lentokunye gorging on fruit, while out on a patrol!!…

Salvadora fruit.. It has a very peppery taste to it…

‘Breakfast’ in the Milgis!

Not only have we received this beautiful fruit but also a wind fall of donations, from 3 kind people… I THANK Phillipp, Wanda, and Anna… for being so generous this time… and would like to assure you all again that every donation is so much appreciated.. What can we say but thank you a million….

I am off to do some filming ‘Elephants and Samburu’, and their life together, down on the Milgis for the next two weeks, should be very interesting…..

Finally, I was sleeping under the stars on the last full moon, and woke up in the middle of the night to this wonderful sight.. The planet is Jupiter!! The ring was gone about ten minutes later… This has got to be bringing us good news!

I reckon this is a good sign… FOR LOTS OF RAIN!?

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Lions, Livestock, Milgis lugga, Water holes | Date: Sep 09 2009 | By: admin

 We are trying to raise funds for a very important project

Vaccinating and ensuring the health of just one domestic dog in northern Kenya can help save a family from rabies, help protect their livestock from predators and in doing so prevent the predators from being hunted and killed.

Our aim to run a sustainable yet basic pilot mobile and stationary vaccination unit that will immunize a new class of community guard dogs, which will not only benefit the communities, wildlife and dogs but help balance and conserve the whole ecosystem by helping to resolve the human/wildlife conflict.

Please consider supporting this work.

We are experiencing a terrible drought in Northern Kenya. We are watching in dismay in the North, as the poor people are slowly loosing their stock, to disease and drought, but too proud to admit it.. Its amazing how brave they are.   iI is so difficult to blog with so much hardship around. Sadly our lions are definitely no more, at least the ones in the higher Milgis area, we have no idea how they died, as it is so thick the bush, but no more tracks or sounds. I am very sad about it, but you can’t win as they kept on taking stock every day. We are trying very hard to keep the wells open for the Elephants, so at least every one can have a drink. The poor desert warthogs are the real ones that are suffering. It’s  terrible shame.

Please support the project to vaccinate dogs and keep the project going    

Tags: drought, Helen dufresne, Milgis, Northern Kenya, wildlife, WildlifeDirect

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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…

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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!..

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Category: Milgis lugga, Water holes, elephants | Date: May 13 2009 | By: milgistrust

13 may 2009….Sadly another bad day for elephants, although last night I am extremely pleased to tell you that it poured with rain……EVERY WHERE!!!… .. As the day dawned, beautiful colours, spirits were high, and every one was excited, as the rain was good rain, it had rained all night… but on the radio this morning a report came from the Noongek area, North East Matthews,that there was another dead baby elephant, about one year old.. this is the third one of this age in the last month, I think its just too dry for them and they are struggling to keep up with the big elephants, who are managing to reach the water in most of the wells, but these little ones can’t… We have dug wells for them, up and down the sand luggas, but the big elephants insist on drinking from the deeper ones on the edge, some times angrily dragging the thorns that the scouts have put to try to keep them away… Then at 4 O’Clock an urgent report that another baby elephant is down a well, in the lower Milgis, at a place called Kudup…Why did we get the message so late?… Because after the rain, nobody needed to go to the lugga to give their stock water, as there was water every where, but luckily a passer by happened to hear a strange noise in the direction of the deep well, and went to check it out… Luckily the water in the well was not too deep, but he was concerned as if a flood came it would cover this well… He rushed off to find Lesanju, the nearest scout, who on hearing the news called the base to let us know that he was on his way to check things out.. Base on hearing the news, was very alarmed as he had just heard that there had been torrential rain upstream, and to expect a huge flood…

With the news reaching Elkanto, there was action, every one rushing around grabbing what they may need to spend the night, once again with the hope that the mother would come back… She apparently had tried , in vain, by digging around the sides of the well, to get her young one out…She had done a formidable job, unfortunately the sides were hard, and the well very deep…But Lesanju when he got to the recked scene,was frightened that she may come back while he was waiting for help!!… The 5 man rescue team rushed off, as much as one can rush on these rocky tracks, and were there in an hour an a half… They hauled the baby out, who is fine, rather feisty…. As we speak so to say, they are there…silently waiting for a miracle, and the huge flood has just passed us here at Elkanto, heading East… Hey its GOOD TO SEE WATER, TO HEAR WATER!! Also its good to know that before the days of the Milgis trust, that baby would have been trapped and drowned…

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Category: Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Apr 20 2009 | By: milgistrust

Yes I’m afraid so…Despite having all the scouts that live any where near the luggas, heading down to open up wells for the wildlife every day, we have a new well victim…. Here with the story written by Moses Lesoloyia, Milgis Trust manager.. unfortunately do not have any pictures of the incident, so heres a couple taken in January 2009

The Dam that is now dry with the Rock of Ol Donyo Wuas behind..

On 17^th morning around 8 o clock we received a report from Lesanchu that there is a young elephant in a kisima, [well] down on the lower Elgerei. I contacted Helen with the news, and 5 of us piled into the landrover and headed off down the very slow track to Ndonyo Wuas. We took with us a blanket, ORS,[ rehydrate salts] spades, ropes, water and bottles. The kisima was dug in the now dry dam that the Elephants have been relying on, the bush around the dam is very thick which took us quite a time to cut through, but all the time we could hear the desperate crys of the Elephant struggling to get out of the Kisima… On arrival we assessed the 10 feet well and decided the fastest way to get it out is by throwing a loop round the youngster and to pull it out, the baby was thrashing around so much, making it too dangerous for somebody to go in. We made a loop with the thick rope [after the last big elephant rescue we made sure we had the right equipment] and put it round its chest as it raised its legs to try and come out. We pulled it out and it stood immediately and started chasing people around. Kosma and Lenkulate struggled to catch her but soon managed to calm her down.. We gave her 2 liters of ORS solution and went on giving it normal water the rest of the day. On our way to rescue the baby we had made a decision if she was in good enough shape, that we will try and link the baby with the mother. We ensured that no one touched it. We collected water from the well and stayed with it so that we could pour it on her if we heard the mother coming. Everybody was sure by 5 the mother will be there!!. We sent 3 scouts to try and find any eleys nearby, but with no luck… At one time the baby was urinating so frequently and we got worried that it had a big problem but after consulting Helen we were assured, that hopefully it wasn’t.. By 4 o clock we decided to move away abit from the well to set up our camp, below the Ndonyo Wuas rock and left three guys with the baby near the kisima. The rest of us went up the rock with binoculars to monitor any eleys coming, so that we could alert by radio the guys with the baby to pour the water on it, and dodge it and leave it to make a noise for the mother to come for it. We did this till 6.30 pm and darkness was already falling. We decided to move out of the thick bush because it was abit risky to stay in there as we were expecting all the usual Elephants to come in for water..

The Dam that the Elephants rely on at Ol Donyo Wuas.. South end of Ndotos behind. The dam is dry now and the Samburu have dug wells in the mud, for their livestock.. even though we have dug special wide wells for the Eleys in the main Lugga they insist on coming back to this dry natural dam.. that will fill up when the lugga floods..

2 people stayed on the higher bank of the of the dry dam so as to alert the rest of us if any eleys are coming in, and the rest of the group stayed with the baby in between the rock and the dam.. They stayed away from the baby so that it made a noise for the mother to hear, and were ready with their ‘running shoes’ should she come!!… By 9 we were losing hope and started thinking, maybe the eleys had followed the rain that was now falling on the Matthews range and the mother feared coming back alone. At 10.30 two bulls came in and stood for 5 minutes listening to the baby making a noise, but sadly it wasn’t their problem, so they drunk water from a different kisima and left. By this time every body was struggling to keep off mosquitoes, but we were here to do a serious job, and the advantage was, they helped keep us awake! We didn’t make a fire because we didn’t want to show our presence. We had taken dinner by 5. We stayed on and on till morning with no luck. We truly felt if the mother had come in we would have won the battle. This is something we are going to build on, by liaising with DSWT and try as much as possible to return babies to their mothers. But this time having had no luck, at 6.30 in the mining, we called Helen with the sad news, loaded her on the landy drove the 2 hours to the airstrip. We had given her another 2 liters of ORS solution and later at the airstrip another 2 liters of normal water. Finally the little eley fell asleep at the airstrip. . The Plane arrived to pick her up for her journey to the amazing DSWT orphanage in Nairobi, where Angela will keep us informed… Fingers crossed for the little surviver..All the people involved in the rescue were surprised that the mother didn’t come back, as this is very unusual with eleys and the following opinions were voiced.. .

• The mother feared coming back alone if the group went very far.
• Mother was old and not very strong due to drought
• Mother had previously lost a baby this way had so lost hope of this one too…

Unfortunately we won’t know… But the drought is probably not helping, with the fact that Nomadic people from all around, , especially from the Kaisut Desert, have come into this area, with thousands of camels, cows, goats, and sheep, and they are all trying to survive these hard times… There does seem to be a ” good agreement ” between the people and the wildlife, and every one sticks to it!!.. Wildlife have the use of the Lugga, and all that it gives at night, people by day…

BY the way the genet that was brought in to us about 3 weeks ago, it must gone out with its mother on one of its first nights out, and followed her into the well, but could not get out, is doing very well, and keeping me busy!.. It will be released at Elkanto when its old enough..

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Category: Eco-tourism, Milgis lugga | Date: Apr 19 2009 | By: milgistrust

Sorry every one… The most important photo on Stellas Blog, is the picture of her bedroom at Elkanto, but it did not go on… So I’m trying again…

If it hasn’t come up, I’ll try to describe it for you… Imagine a 360 degrees view from your bed… Remember you are on a hill, 600 hundred feet above the surrounding area…

Elkanto Hill taken from the Parsaloi Lugga.. Matthews behind..

At night… There is no light pollution at all so you can see every star and planet, and any thing else exciting out there in the sky, bright, bright!, right to the horizon… you can sometimes see the north star, and we are only 1 degrees north of the equator! Hey Stella, ‘ You are not meant to sleep well at Elkanto, because you will miss every thing!!..’ Including all those beautiful night creatures that pass your bed on their way to water!.. Yes we have water, pumped by a solar pump… IE when the sun rises, water comes up the hill!! for the animals and birds..

In the morning this is what you wake up to… To the south.. You look down the Laana Nikan Lugga, as it snakes its way about 40 kms down from the Sware plains [ some people call it the Seiya Lugga, because thats what it says on the map!, but actually the Seiya is further up stream flowing out of the Kirisia hills and it becomes the Laana Nikan where it meets the Ngeng flowing out from the southern end of the Matthews!] beyond that sometimes you can see Mt Kenya, 150 Kms away..

Mt Kenya, taken at Dawn through binoculars, from Elkanto!

Going round to the East you have the full range of the Matthews. Then the Milgis Lugga [ this picture] as it meanders off towards the Kaisut desert, when its clear you can see about 100kms, the dramatic rocks of Laisamis, and Losai.. Turning to wards the north the full range of the powerful looking Ndotos, a majestically blue look to them, with the brown rolling hills of Latakwen in the fore ground, turning to the west, again the huge Parsaloi Lugga winding its way from the northern end of the Kirisia hills…. Many people that visit this remote, secluded spot.. Are generally speechless, not because they have walked up the hill!, but because the view in all directions is exquisite!!!

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Forest Fires, Matthews range, Milgis lugga, Ndoto Mountains, Samburu | Date: Apr 03 2009 | By: milgistrust

I gather the fires burning in Kenya one week ago became world news… I have never seen any thing like it… We heard on the news that the Mau forest, and Mt Longonot, where burning and we witnessed the terrible fires on Mt Kenya… Too awful, and then I fly up to the Milgis and this is what we were greeted with… A complete frenzy of fires all over, from the Matthews right across to the Ndotos… This tends to happen at this time of the year, just before the rains..Its some how related to the fact that they think that the smoke makes clouds, and looking at the fire in the Ndotos it looks as though it could be possible! but NO rain to be seen!!

The beginning of a fire down on the Milgis Lugga.. Although it looks ferocious, luckily it burnt out before it did too much damage to the all important Tortilis trees, further up stream..

The same fire gaining momentum… the main trees to be burnt were Tamarix……. not so important as a food tree, although, the goats can feed on it when there is not much else, and the Elephants chew on the roots… The big advantage is the cover for hundreds of different animals… Bush pig, warthogs, civets, caracals, genets, mongooses… etc to name a few

Massive fire on the southern flank of Upe peak, of the Ndotos… Re burning an area that had a desperate fire a few years ago and I showed you the results of in my recent blog on the klipspringer being caught out… I’m afraid I also have to give the very sad news that it died after a month…

On the 25th March we flew up to the Milgis with two women representing VOSS, to hand over the ‘WATER’ to the Latakwen community… It was quite a party and will give you the news in my next Blog… Also present was Stella, who will be introducing herself to you soon! BUT the celebrations were marred by people burning the forests, an embarrassment to all… This led to the following meeting which is yet another attempt at stopping the slow ‘eating’ away of their recourses… You note I say THEIR… Yes these guys are cutting their own throats by burning, and yet they continue???? The Original Samburu fought long and hard to keep these mountains as their land, why are the men of today not respecting their ancestors who saw the value of them… Really what has happened…

As a result below is a report from Moses Lesoloyia… The Milgis Trust Manager..

The meeting took place on 31/3/2009 at Mpelengos. the meeting was attended by elders from Nkare Narok 12, Ngwe entome 23, Latakweny 23, Sererit 3.. Milgis Trust scouts 10, chief 1, councillor 1 and KWS rangers from Latakwen at the beginning..

The meeting was chaired by the councillor from the Ndoto ward who asked elders from each of these areas to talk and say what thoughts they have on the fires and whether they are willing to stop burning or should the burning continue??. Each group talked against burning and all agreed that they are ready to stop burning. the councillor asked the elders to tell what methods and punishments are there traditionally to deal with those who burn the forest. the following methods were mentioned;

1. cursing by elders

2. banishment from the area

3. fining

4. taking their wife away ( even if it is children or women all the blame goes to the man, he should have told them about it.)

5.being refused to graze in other areas.

The councillor asked the elders to decide on which methods to use to stop this menace. The elders agreed that one or more of the methods can be applied together. The elders said that because the people are becoming stubborn they will use cursing and fining. They will put a fine of 5000 and goats for the elders when they meet to discuss the perpetrators. The number of goats depend on the number of elders who meet. …18 men were identified to have burnt the forests and were to bring this money which will be used to pay bursary for school children. The councillor promised to present the issue during their full council meeting and bring councillors from Nkare narok and Nairimirimo. He will inform us of the dates so that we can organise for a meeting and the plan according to the situation by then.

The elders cursed whoever will burn the forests again and the message seems to have gone through as there has not been any fires except for one on Ndoto that evening and one at Ndonyo nasipa yesterday, maybe the message hadn’t reached them yet… We sent two scouts, grants Gazelle and lesser kudu to ndonyo nasipa to find out what happened.

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