I have lots of important news to tell you. My bosses at the Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN) have decided to move me for a short period to Lulimbi park station. This is still in Virunga National Park, about 3 hours by boat across Lake Edward. If you go to this map, and head south/south-west from Ishango you will see it. Right next to Uganda. So why the move? Well the Rangers are short staffed at present in Lulimbi, and need urgent assistance with anti-poaching patrols. My bosses decided I was the most appropriate one for the job. In Lulimbi there is fantastic wildlife as much of it is returning to Congo over the border from Uganda. But poaching is a significant problem too. I have just been sent these 2 photos below which are pretty grim of poached elephants. It was the military who killed them. So we need to reinforce the area and prevent these atrocities. My experience and successes in Ishango will help.
Who will replace me during my absence? Godefroid Wambale, whom you all know. He returned only recently from studying in Tanzania, and will be excellent for my job. Regarding donations, please keep the donations coming. We still need the same funds for the work to go on - the patrols, the salaries for the Rangers, the rations - all of it. The monthly salary of $150 that I used to receive from donations will temporarily go to Godefroid, and he will continue to provide information on this blog. I will try also to provide you with updates from Lulimbi, but there is no internet access there and it is very remote so that is going to be difficult. I cannot reiterate enough how much your support has meant to me over the past year and few months. This has been such an amazing experience. Finally, I would like to thank Nancy from the Alexander Abraham Foundation for the recent $5,000 donation. So so generous. This will make a big difference to anti-poaching patrols in Ishango. Godefroid will provide details of how this money is being spent. Thank you everyone. Atamato.
I last posted about the Museya patrol post construction about 3 weeks ago. Now it is almost done which is very impressive considering how isolated we are. The materials must travel far along bumpy roads. Some materials, for example bricks with holes in for ventilation, have to be flown, brick by brick, from Goma to Beni to then be transported by road for several hours. We are very grateful to the European Union for funding this via WWF.
I would also like to extend a special thanks to The Andrea and Michael Banks Nature Fund. WildlifeDirect has just told me that Andrea and Michael have sent a check for $360 to fund the conservation work at Ishango. This amount is what I am still missing on a monthly basis to reach the $690 monthly target - ie the amount that keeps Ishango going. Thank you Andrea & Michael for this.
Clue: there are 2 involved in this activity.
Yes - you guessed it! And right in front of our patrol post just the other day. Elephants have a gestation period of 22 months - the longest of any land animal (they are of course also the biggest land animal alive today). Elephant calfs weigh about 120 kilos. So I hope we will see one in the not too distant future!
The other day we found a dead serval on the path down to the lake from the patrol post. It had sustained serious injuries to the right eye. For those of you who are not familiar with servals, they are beautiful wild cats with long legs and big ears that live in the savannah. People hunt them for their fur. Servals, like many other animals, have also suffered in recent years from a destruction of habitat.
This photo gives you an idea of the size compared to a man.
We examined the serval and as you can see by the last photo we did an autopsy. We concluded that the serval died from the injuries to the eye that he probably got from fighting with another animal. We do not believe that the serval died as a result of poachers. It was a very sad day for us because there are not enough predators - lions, hyenas etc - in Ishango. And servals are just beautiful, delicate and elegant creatures that we rarely observe here in Ishango.
Here are the latest photos of Museya patrol post - one of the 6 patrol posts (or “pps” as we call them) that are under my responsibility. Samantha blogged last month about the construction that is going on there - it will be transformed from mud huts to brick buildings! The EU is funding this, and the building process is being overseen by William from the French organization Soderu who comes to visit us regularly. He also oversaw the schools in Mutsora, and the other buildings here in Ishango. We are very very excited! As you can see the European Union funds many projects in eastern DR Congo - and we are grateful of each one.
Thank you everyone! Anthony G $15
I often write about the threat of poachers in Ishango - which of course applies to the whole of Virunga National Park. Poaching - after the presence of armed militias - remains the single most important threat to Ishango’s wildlife. We are all working hard to protect the animals that are here - so that they can reproduce and multiply. We also hope that more animals - especially predators - continue to come over the border from Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park. It is ironic that when Uganda was enduring its civil war, the wildlife came to Congo for protection, and Uganda relied on the animals returning to repopulate its parks. Now the situation is reversed. Virunga National Park is not an isolated protected area in Africa - it is part of a vast ecosystem that extends through to Kenya and the Albertine Rift. So it is vitally important to protect its flora and fauna to the best of our ability. Sometimes animals die naturally, or for mysterious reasons. Here are some photos below. One is an antelope that we found not far from Ishango, decomposing. The other is a hippo carcass. There was no evidence of poaching in either case (no snares etc).
I have some sad news. Last week Ranger Kalibumba, 36 years old with 8 children, was shot dead at point blank range with 5 bullets to the chest and abdomen by a member of the Congolese military. He was one of my Rangers at Museya, the patrol post that is being rebuilt at the moment and falls under my command. So what happened? Well it seems that a soldier based in Kavinyonge had a violent argument with his commander, over a suspected case of infidelity. The soldier, attempting to flee, encountered first a doctor on a motorbike, whom he shot and stole his bike. When Ranger Kalibumba attempted to intercept, he was also shot down in a cowardly and brutal fashion. The soldier then went on to kill 2 more women and injured a 3rd - all innocent bystanders. The soldier - who I can only imagine has lost all sense of reason - has yet to be caught. This once again highlights not only how fragile my country is, and how lawless - but how the military should not be in the park.
We held a solemn service for him and his family at the park headquarters in Mutsora.
Hippo snaring is still going on as you know, depressingly enough.
This is Karibu. He is from the Franco pod.
He (or she - I am not sure!) regularly follows the pirogue when we are out on the river. He leaps up into the air and starts chasing us when we are going upstream, which is quite scary because our outboard motor does not go very fast.
This is what the Franco pod usually looks like on a lazy day.
This elephant, funnily enough, actually plays with Karibu. I have not yet been able to identify whether this elephant is male or female, but one thing is certain is that Karibu chases him/her. But now - it seems as if the elephant has gotten wiser, and whenever Karibu approaches, the elephant starts chasing Karibu first!
I will try and get pictures of them together!
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