Typical Week of Class: Lion Conservation, Talking with Poachers & Playing with Fire
Lion Conservation
The other day we had the most interesting lecture that I’ve ever been a part of on lion conservation. The center director of the SFS Center for Wildlife Management Studies, Dr. Kissui, has been running a lion conservation project in Tarangire National Park, called the Tarangire Lion Research Initiative, since 2003. I was shocked to find out that there is only an estimated 35,000 lions left in Africa and Tanzania is home to about 20,000 of them. That means that I am living and studying conservation in the country that is home to over 50% of the lions left in the world, when only 30-50 years ago, there used to be over 100,000 roaming the continent.
There is not one single cause that is responsible for the declines in lion populations, but different problems in different areas of Tanzania. For example, in Serengeti, the lions are mostly affected by the great migration of wildebeest. Once a year they migrate from the Serengeti plains and head north to Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya, just above Serengeti. Since lion prides have established territories they don’t migrate with their primary source of prey, but remain in their territories and have significantly reduced food sources. In southern Tanzania there is the Selous Game Reserve, an area the size of Switzerland, where trophy hunting is regulated. However, hunting is not regulated enough and the lion populations are subjected to overhunting. Illegal poaching also plays a role.
A more surprising reason for the lion declines in Tarangire National Park is human-wildlife conflict. The park has about 200 lions and is relatively small. Most of the park boundaries are surrounded by human settlements, especially by Maasai pastoralists raising livestock. Lion, leopards, and hyenas frequently hunt the livestock, and the local law is that if wildlife is threatening you or your property, you have right to take action against that animal. As a result, retaliatory killings from the Maasai are not uncommon. The study found that lions are actually more susceptible to these killings over the other predators because they will defend a carcass and not run away. Unfortunately, a lion’s bravery is what is often leading it to its death. They also tend to be more selective to cattle. Their ranges also expand in the wet season to outside the park boundaries, meaning they are unknowingly more vulnerable.
The attitude of the people is “an eye for an eye”, where it doesn’t really matter if they get the exact lion that killed their livestock. They will kill any lion they can find, which sadly includes cubs. They tend to hunt the lions down with spears or with poison. The director’s study has documented 226 lion killings from 2004/2011 near Tarangire, meaning that the annual mortality rate is at an alarming 18%. The study has been working with the community to try and prevent the predation of livestock in the first place. Some projects include the building of “predator proof” fencing where livestock can be kept at night. Non-profit organizations are involved with helping people mitigate the cost of building the fences since most people don’t have the means to participate. Another method being used is the employment of “lion guardians” where people who were previously doing the retaliatory killings will keep an eye out for the presence of lions and warn the other pastoralists to move their livestock. They will also help retrieve livestock that has accidentally been separated from the herd. Thus, in order to protect the lions of Tarangire, they must find a way to stop the lions from preying on the livestock.
My professor has been running the study for so long that they can almost identify each and every lion individually. They have multiple radio-collared lions that they monitor and collect data from year round. They have a research camp set up in the park and we may be lucky enough to go see the camp when we go on expedition to Tarangire next week!
Talking with Poachers
This may sound really strange to most of you, but our second travelling lecture was to Mto wa Mbu to sit down with two local poachers and talk to them about their illegal bush meat hunting activities. Sounds sort of counterintuitive to conservation doesn’t it? When they first told us in class that we were going to have a casual meeting with some illegal hunters, I was very confused. Aren’t I here to make sure people stop poaching, not having casual conversation with them about their illegal activity (that nobody seems concerned about reporting)? One other student even asked: “Shouldn’t we tell someone?”
Some background about bush meat hunting and people’s perspective on it might be helpful. Bush meat is considered any meat that comes from wildlife and poaching incudes all illegal hunting, capture, or killing of wildlife for any use. This also includes the ivory trade. Local people tend to prefer bush meat over livestock meat for many reasons. I never stopped to think that most of these people belong to tribes where their ancestors were hunter/gatherers. Thus, the use of bush meat today stems from a long line of tradition. Many prefer the taste because of the natural saltiness. People also use other parts of the animal for cultural and medicinal reasons. For example, some people believe that giraffe meat can cure HIV, eating great ape meat gives you strength, and feathers and hides are used for traditional ceremonies.
In Tanzania there are national parks, game reserves, and game controlled areas, as well as other forms of conserved land. The game reserves are designated for “regulated” trophy hunting by foreign travellers. I say “regulated” because even though there are clear procedures for managing hunting, lots of overhunting still occurs. The wildlife division typically monitors the game controlled areas and this is where local hunting is regulated. Tanzanians can get hunting permits to hunt bush meat (for only certain species) in these areas; however, the permit is contingent on owning a gun. In Tanzania it is a very difficult process to get a hold of a gun and then go through the process of having it licensed. This is a large part of the reason why Tanzanians will go the illegal hunting route. Other reasons why illegal bush meat hunting is spiraling out of control is the lack of law enforcement and park management staff/rangers to crack down on the problem. Also, significant increases in the population and human development lead to an increased demand for meat and easier methods of accessing the parks/moving the illegal material around the country. I would also like to note that as of this year and next year, all local permit hunting has been suspended because the numbers of wildlife are at concerning low points.
Talking with the poachers turned out to be a really interesting experience that gave me a new perspective. I have quickly realized since being here that the best way to get people to stop doing something that is harmful to wildlife is to sit down and really listen to why people do it in the first place. It’s not like the people around here hunt wildlife because they feel it’s their mission in life. People do the things that they do because they often are left with no choice or have traditions that they were raised on. For example, the hunters we spoke to illegally hunt bush meat because they can’t afford permits or guns. Also, agriculture is an unreliable source of income for many people, and is often not enough to support their families. As a result, these hunters hunt bush meat and sell it within the community as a supplemental income to help keep them afloat. They claimed that if they had another alternative to hunting, they would take it. Bush meat is also in high demand because if you hunt it yourself, its free food for your family, and you can purchase it for cheaper than livestock meat. If we can find a way to help these people find other sources of income, and educate them about the drastic impacts of overhunting bush meat, we will make drastic progress in helping sustain the wildlife. If you can reduce the problems faced by the people in sustainable ways, then you have unlocked the key for conserving natural resources, biodiversity, and limiting stress on the environment.
I should probably explain how we talked to these poachers in public without there being law enforcement involved. Most people in rural communities know who does bush meat hunting illegally and nobody says anything. Its sort of a “mum’s the word” approach because most people in the community don’t necessarily see the problems with poaching and most benefit from the hunting. As long as they avoid rangers and law enforcement while hunting or selling the meat, they most likely won’t be caught.
By talking with the poachers we learned that they go out and hunt all night around Mto wa Mbu about 2/3 times a week in the dry season, where in the wet season they are busy with their crops. Thankfully, they never hunt within the Lake Manyara National Park boundaries. However, they will usually take 2-3 animals a night. They prefer Thompson’s gazelle, impala, wildebeest, zebra and dik-dik. When they hunt they bring horns and bright flashlights to startle the animals. With zebra, they will chase a herd on one of their motorbikes towards another strategically placed hunter. Eventually, once the zebras are tired they turn around and go back to where they came from. When they do this they will cut zebras down with a machete. Using machetes is how they kill all of the animals they hunt, which really bothers me. They will also set traps and come back later to check on them. They told us of their avoidance of hunting buffalo for they are extremely dangerous to hunt in the moment, as well as dangerously intelligent. Three years ago in Mto wa mbu, a hunter caught a buffalo in one of his traps. The buffalo had managed to escape the trap but sat there and waited for the hunter to come back. The buffalo ended up killing the hunter, and low and behold wildlife management euthanized the buffalo. Kind of infuriating how that worked out right?
When asked if they were emotionally affected by hunting any of the animals, they said that they have a difficult time with some species over others. They don’t typically hunt giraffe because it is often too much meat for them to carry out. However, they said giraffe and eland make sounds when hunted that to them sounds as if the animal is crying, making them want to stop. This really spoke to me as it reminded me of what I witnessed at the goat slaughter only a few days before.
Once they have finished hunting, they only take the meat with them, cut up into chunks of about 1 kg. They then sell the chunks of meat to a middle-man who then sells them in the community. The middle-man makes about 20% of the profit, where the hunters keep the remaining. Price doesn’t change among the different species and it usually sells for 3,000 shillings/kg, which is about $1.50. Apparently increased enforcement on the illegal bush meat trade has resulted in the arrests of most of the middle-men. These poachers themselves have never been caught. If they were to be caught they would be taken to Arusha and tried in court. The case can last up to three years and if you plead innocent but are found guilty, you will most likely pay a huge fine and serve 1/1.5 years in prison. If plead guilty, you pay the fine and go home. However, the poachers said that is not uncommon at all for the judges to accept bribes and your case to disappear completely. The hunters claimed this happened a lot under the previous president’s administration. The current president has cracked down on this corruption a lot.
The last fascinating part of our meeting that I will share is when we asked them about their opinion on the ivory trade and poaching elephants. Apparently they are adamantly against it! This came as a big surprise to me because I associate both kinds of illegal activity as one in the same. I find them to be both horrible activities that are drastically effecting the wildlife populations. Of course I find elephant poaching to be slightly more awful, but it certainly doesn’t excuse what these two men are doing. I found it oddly ironic that they find such a problem with elephant poaching, but not with the work they do. They fear for the extinction of elephants and other trophy animals and they are critical of the government’s efforts to extinguish the ivory trade. I did find it comforting that these two men have an appreciation for wildlife. When I think about it, it is really no different than people back in the states that love wildlife but hunting is their favorite hobby. There isn’t as big of a social stigma when people back home pay for their permits to hunt. It’s not that much different here except that the people here are forced to do it illegally because they mean to use the animals for meat and they do it so that their families don’t starve. Thus, I can appreciate that they have valid reasons for what they do and I really can’t hate them for it. If anything, it makes me dislike hunters more back in the states that don’t hunt to use the whole animal but just to hang it on their wall. That being said, something does need to be done because there is too much illegal hunting going on, so there is no controlled regulation, leading to alarming declines in some of the world’s most cherished species. I would definitely say that this topic has fascinated me the most since I have been here, and I hope that this wasn’t our last exposure to the issue.
Playing with Fire
The last exciting part of our week was a pretty short lecture, but fun nonetheless. Our wildlife ecology professor had lecture outside in the middle of camp, where he talked to us about the use of fires to control the habitats around here. In some cases, grasslands can get overgrown by bushland, limiting the habitats of species dependent on grassland. Also, if there is a lot of grass death in an area, burning it allows the grassland to bounce back and be much more productive. I didn’t realize that fire was used often around here to actually help maintain functional habitats. We learned about the differences between setting a head fire (with the wind) or a back fire (against the wind). Head fires are used for mainly burning grasslands because they burn faster but less efficiently. For more heavily wooded areas, backfires burn much slower but will burn completely. So, of course, just being told this information wasn’t enough so our professor had us setting various piles of grass and leaves in the middle of camp on fire. I can confidently say that the visual definitely helped enhance my learning experience and was not just seen as an excuse to keep warm on a chilly morning or for other students to let out their inner pyro for a little while.
I hoped you enjoyed reading all this information as much as I loved learning about it. I am a little behind on blogging so stay tuned for another post on some of the other things I have been up to in the last couple weeks that aren’t class related!
