The Milgis Trust

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: 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: 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??…

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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: 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…

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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!

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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!…

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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: Grevy's Zebra, Samburu, Turkana, Water holes, elephants | Date: May 15 2009 | By: milgistrust

It started at 6 am with the scouts down at Kudup, [please see my last blog] having had an eventful night, but no sign of the youngsters mother, nor of any herds…sadly, but the lugga came down in a massive flood in the night, so luckily the baby was safe and not still in the well….They stayed the night near
the well in the hope the mother would be back but just one old bull came in to drink, he took a long thirst quenching drink at the well, and did not show much sympathy for the little boy, who was calling, and just wanted to go to him, but there were also lots of Hyenas around keen to have a nice tasty baby
elephant!!, and the scouts stayed awake all night… I strait away got on to the phone to tell DSWT, who were ready at any moment to help… I have just received news from Angela, that he arrived in good form, thirsty for milk, and ‘full of nonsense’! The scouts tell me that he was like that for the whole night!!

As we were settling down to a cup of coffee, We had not slept too much either, hoping that the guys would come on the radio with good news!, The dream outcome.. ‘ The mother is here, and the baby is safely back!’ BUT so such luck…one of the scouts in the western slopes of the Ndotos, piped up on the radio, ‘PLEASE I need help, I am being hunted down by a mad man who wants to kill me because I caught him shooting a greater kudu, I have been hiding all night, he went to my manyatta, and luckily I was not there, but he is looking for me… Please send the home guards to help me, call the chief, come quick in the car’… I quickly answered that the car was miles away in a nother direction, carrying an Elephant!, and that he must find some elders, to help, hope fully there will a home guard,or he must run away to safety, and as soon as we can we will send a team of home guards to help, and have a meeting with the elders on what to do next… Later on he came on the radio to tell me he was safe, the elders had come out ‘en mass’ to help!! Yesterday, the 15th, the team went up to the area, had a long meeting and resolved the problem… last news I had was they will be late because the elders had given them a goat to eat!! [ Who are the Home Guards… they are police reserve, its a wonderful way of keeping the peace in these remote areas, certain responsible people are given a training, and a gun, they live amounst the communities an ordinary life, do not have a uniform and they are called up when there are problems like this or attacks like the next report!]

Next to come up was there had been an attack in the early hours of the night, on a Samburu boma with alot of cattle, near the Suiyan Lugga west of the base!.. One person was shot dead, and one wounded, but the owners of the cattle with the home guards managed to fight off the attackers, and save the cattle from being stolen… Unfortunately unrest between the tribes has reared its ugly head again and there has been quite a few skirmishes north of us, between the Samburu and Turkana… Mostly about cattle rustling, but also old quarrels that have not been resolved.. We had an important meeting that was supposed to take place on the 19th may in Baragoi, on the plight of the Grevy Zebra, which of course is always caught up in these skirmishes.. The meeting has been cancelled..

Last but not least their was alot of relieved talk about rain.. alot of excitement, but its the 16th today, and the rain has gone again… At least we had one good flood down the luggas..And the desert is bursting into life.. little bits of greenery popping out of the ground all around us!! Soon lots of flowers! Today we will be an emergency meeting with the scouts responsible for the wells.. We need to think again of what to do about wells… Its a complicated problem..

The Genet is old enough to be released.. which we did a week ago at Elkanto.. He is very happy in his new home, learning the tricks of the wild again… Hes found all the good places to hide, and we see him every night… He looks forward to his food, but slowly he will disappear off into the wild..

No pictures as we are using a satellite phone, but will put some up asap…There are some great ones of the two baby Elephant rescues!..

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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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