Sheldrick Trust Aerial Surveillance Unit Report - January 2019

AERIAL SURVEILLANCE UNIT MONTHLY REPORT

JANUARY 2019

AERIAL STATISTICS

HOURS FLOWN

KMS COVERED

AREAS PATROLLED

JANUARY 2019

161

21,376

Tsavo East and West, Chyulu Hills National Park

JANUARY 2019

MONTHLY AERIAL PATROL MAP

MONTHLY AERIAL SUMMARY January was surprisingly quiet for illegal activities. Routine aerial patrols across much of the Park turned up no fresh illegal activities at all. Only one incident of logging was noted in the northern extremity of Tsavo East during a helicopter patrol, which ground teams responded to the following day. The Aerial Unit did however discover a large livestock incursion towards the Northeast side of the Park along the Tiva River.

KWS was swift to act on this incursion and with several flights from both fixed wing aircraft and the helicopter, over the next two weeks all of the livestock was successfully removed from the Park. The fixed wing aircraft were used to locate enclosures where cattle and other livestock was being kept overnight and then KWS rangers visited the enclosures walking in on foot.

Two honey badgers sighted during patrols

This month, the streak of no illegal activities also continued in the Chyulu Hills National Park CHNP. Since the completion of the last phase of the electric fence along the Eastern Boundary of the Park, not a single illegal incident has been observed. From charcoal burning, to logging, woodcarving and livestock incursion, the fence has played a tremendous role in protecting the Park.

As crops neared harvesting in bordering community lands, human-wildlife conflict did increase in January. Our helicopter on one occasion, pushed around 400 elephants away from community farms and into a local wildlife conservancy. To the north of Kibwezi, several cases were also attended to with smaller groups of 7-15 elephants being either pushed away from farms and into adjacent protected areas or through the fence and back into the CHNP. These efforts go a long way to reducing stress on communities and improving their relationship with elephants, which are often viewed as the enemy because of the huge amounts of damage they cause to crops

.

Only one very old sub-adult elephant carcass was discovered in January towards the end of the Yatta Plateau. Both tusks were intact and recovered by the helicopter and submitted to KWS. It is assumed to be a victim of the terrible drought in 2017, which claimed several hundred elephants.

As earlier mentioned, signs of poaching were minimal, with only 2 old harbours being discovered on helicopter patrols by the K9 unit. Two poisoned arrows were recovered from one of the harbours. On the same patrol an extinguished fire left behind by a honey harvester was also sighted.

Highlights in January include multiple wild dog sightings, including one pack on a hunt, a cheetah and 43 rhinos which were seen on just one flight over Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary.

Photographs copyright © 2019 The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust