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: Conservation Awareness, Forest, Grevy's Zebra, Samburu, Wild Dog, elephants | Date: Feb 20 2009 | By: milgistrust

Uh oh, Luca you are going to be busy!!…You cut these trees down in Samburuland, now you have to pay back the traditional way! Its one goat per tree and and a cleansing ceremony, in which … you need to slaughter the goat/sheep, mix the stomach contents, with the fat and pour the contents round each tree… Then you have be smeared in fat, and this can only be done by somebody who is ‘unclean’ … [Unclean meaning somebody who may have killed somebody, or has no home, a straggler lets say… In Kitchen Swahili we would call it a ‘tangatangera’…We have been delving further into the archives of the old traditional ways of conservation and its fascinating… WHERE AND WHY IS IT GOING WRONG?? … The Milgis Trust is going to try and ‘travel back down this old road’ and bring these strong rules back..

1… As I said above if you cut the branches off a tree, or cut it down you have to be cleansed, Moses Lesoloyia, our manager saw it in Baragoi area when he was a child… Woe betide you if you cut a tree that has been used for a big meeting, or special ceremony… Its just not done!

2… You can not kill an animal unless you intend to eat it… This is why the Zebras have survived in Samburu areas, as they will not eat any horse like animal..

3… If you hack the tusks out of a dead elephant, you will NEVER be able to go to a traditional Samburu ceremony again… You have to wait for the Elephant to rot, and you pull them out.. When the two Elephants died near the Milgis base in may, when the KWS [ kenya wildlife service ] arrived to check on the situation, and to take the tusks, they had to go back to base to find somebody of a different tribe to cut the tusks out, as the three men who came happened to be Samburu!! They could not risk leaving them on the elephant just in case a poacher or person looking for tusks to sell on, took them..

4.. If you kill a black animal you are unclean… IE if you kill a wild dog, then your children can not wear the traditional black skin during the circumcision time.. Also If somebody in your family kills an ostrich, then forever the children can not wear ostrich feathers in their head band after being circumcised..

The traditional black skin worn after the circumcision ceremony, and the ostrich feathers, LABARTAC, in the head band… possibly the guy on the left, comes from a family that killed an ostrich!! The Lesoloyia family can not wear these feathers because someone way back they don’t even know who, killed an ostrich…

This is a strange one!… If a grey animal comes into your boma/enclosure round your house.. This is a bad omen!… this includes dikdik, hare,warthog,elephant,rhino.. and any others.. They have to slaughter a goat… mix the blood, stomach contents, and fat together, and pour this mixture around the perimeter, and the elders will bless the boma… If you are knocked down by any of these grey animals you will be smeared with this same mixture, and again this has to be done by an unclean/hopeless person!! [literally translated] ie he is not going to lose any more by touching this concoction!!

We have a scout meeting at the end of tis month and will be talking about these traditions, and how we can bring them back… If you haven’t read the blog 21/12/08 it has lots more!!

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