Human-Wildlife Conflict

[Richprins]

Security guard killed by an elephant in Phalaborwa

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Saturday 8 June 2019 - 8:33am

Forensic pathologist are on the scene after a security guard was killed by an elephant.

JOHANNESBURG - A security guard has been killed by an elephant in the area where 14 lions are on the loose.

Forensic pathologist are on the scene.

Officials are closely monitoring the pride of lions at mine outside Phalaborwa in Limpopo.

More to follow

https://www.enca.com/news/security-guar ... phalaborwa

[harrys]

Very , but now it gives them reason to kill some Ellies for the community in the name of keeping the community safe

[Lisbeth]

Now there is also an elephant. Where exactly are those lions

[Lisbeth]

I found this:

[Lisbeth]

Actually, even following the river the Park isn't that far away nor is Grietjie Nature Reserve and others. The area of the mine is enormous

[Penga Ndlovu]

It could not come at a worse possible time as today the talks with LEDET are starting about the 14 Lions.

Will have inside info in a short while

[Lisbeth]

Exactly my thoughts yesterday!

Once a thing arrives at the social media it gets blown up and goes across the line Common sense is very scarce there

[Lisbeth]

Apolinari Tairo - eTN TanzaniaSeptember 28, 2019 19:25



two-year anti-poaching program has registered mixed results with a spike of a quick increase in wildlife populations in protected parks and game reserves causing rise of human-wildlife conflict.

Counted as a blessing by trustees, conservators and patrons of wildlife and wild creatures conservation and protection, the increasing number of wild animals in their natural habitats had so far, created fear in local communities living in this part of Africa.

Movements of wild animals are now a common scenario in some parts of Tanzania after a successful anti-poaching operation that had seen wildlife poachers getting tough penalties through Tanzanian legal courts.

Local communities living near wildlife habitats have expressed fears to see natural foes, the wild animals, roaming in their habitats. Those communities have voiced their concerns through the Tanzanian parliament and the media, seeking a protection from invasions of wild, fierce animals.

Elephants, buffaloes, hippos, crocodiles, hyenas and leopards have been reported to invade human settlements in Tanzania, scaring children from going to schools and peasants from tending their farms.

Baboons were reported to decimate crops in farms located near forest areas.

Launched about two years ago to save the wild animals from notorious poachers, the paramilitary operations which applies military strategies and high-tech to fight poachers, have seen a quick increase of wildlife of all species in Tanzania.

Tanzania was among African states, where rampant poaching of wild animals has been a big problem, raising an international alarm to the government of Tanzania to end such a calamity in conservation.

Before the launching of paramilitary operations, Tanzania was rated among Africa’s leading “Elephant Slaughterhouses”. Killing of elephants and other animal species scared survived ones into hiding deeper in forests and the protected parks to save their lives from poachers.

In a recent, sequence of incidents few weeks ago, a zebra left its natural habitat in Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania to visit a village near this famous African park, with no fear to humans.

Elephants, hippos and other browsers have been spotted roaming in human habitats searching for food, while other species searching for passages or corridors to other parks.

Authorities are now grappling with how to keep wild animals from destroying crops and invading human settlements adjacent to wildlife habitats, especially near the Serengeti National Park, and in Manyara and Katavi regions in northern Tanzania.

The Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Constantine Kanyasu said that the Tanzanian government is looking to establish a special unit to address the problem.

“It is common to encounter a herd of elephants roaming in human habits in parts of this country, and some hippos, lions, crocodiles and leopards are a common sight,” Kanyasu told eTN.

Cases of elephant and crocodile attacks on people have been on the increase and communities living near Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania especially face frequent invasions by elephants. In Manyara and Katavi areas, the menace is from hippo and crocodile invasions.

“You can encounter a herd of 500 elephants roaming within local communities. It is no wonder these days. These wild animals are increasing in numbers with no fear of humans now because they are protected from poachers”, he added to eTN.

Through specialized conservation methods, the Tanzania government is now looking for plans to control the marauding wild animals causing fear to people and destruction of crops.

Kanyasu said that the Ministry of Natural Resources is now looking for interested hunters to hunt hippos and crocodiles to reduce their numbers in some areas of Tanzania where these animals have being posing threat to people.
Under its plan to cull crocodiles and hippos, the Ministry of Natural Resources is now drafting a regulation that would guide wildlife conservation officers to authorize the sale by auction the specified animals.

He said that his ministry is looking to auction then hunt and kill 10 percent of all crocodiles and an unspecified number of hippos across Tanzania.

He said the government plans to remove hippos near residential areas to reduce wildlife and human conflicts which are now on rise across Tanzania due to increase of those animals found in dams, rivers and lakes where people carry out subsistence business.

There have been reported cases of hippo and crocodile attacks to people in areas neighboring dams, lakes and rivers across Tanzania, with several killings of people near bodies of water.

Kanyasu told eTN that the exercise to kill hippos and crocodiles is being implemented this month (September). Special regulation has been drafted to guide interested hunters with hunting quotas to kill all hippos near human habitats and 10 percent of crocodiles in those areas.

“We are planning to reduce their numbers in areas where they pose danger to local communities. Wildlife managers will be deployed to supervise the exercise to ensure that no poachers will penetrate to kill the animals without proper permits”, he said.

Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) estimates that there are more than 20,000 hippos known to exist in Tanzania’s fresh waters, though the number could be more than double, taking into account to those living deeper in great lakes and rivers across Tanzania inaccessible to researchers.

The Minister said that auctioning the hippos and crocodiles is aimed at reducing the human-wildlife conflict, also raising revenues for conservation of wildlife.

Africa’s Great Lakes of Tanganyika, Victoria and Nyasa, all bordering Tanzania, are known to be infested with big numbers of hippos and crocodiles, apart from those living in inland rivers of Rufiji, Mara, Kagera, Ruvuma, Ruvu and Wami rivers.

Several hippos and crocodiles are found living in inland lakes, man made dams fro hydropower generation and for crop irrigation.

“We have been receiving reports of wildlife attacks on people nearly every day. It is hard and expensive to control the wildlife near human settlement”, Kanyasu said.

Tanzania has a licensing system which allows hunting and sale of wild animals including hippos and crocodiles. The government had suspended the export of hippo teeth in 2004 to control poaching of these large African river and lake mammals.

The government of Tanzania had in 2018 introduced paramilitary training to wildlife rangers to empower them with military strategies to combat poaching of wildlife, mostly elephants and rhinos across Tanzania.

Paramilitary training is composed of military strategic plans on protection of elephants and rhinos, also other wildlife species living in protected area and those roaming freely outside wildlife parks. Elephant populations in Tanzania are estimated to more than 60,000 living in protected parks.

A report published by the National Geographic in 2016 had indicated poaching cartels operating in Tanzania and other parts in Africa trading on hippos teeth which are curved into ornaments, fetching millions of US dollars in Asia.
Records from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) show that between 2004 and 2014 Hong Kong was reported to import almost 60 tons of hippo teeth from Africa for commercial purpose.

Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been recorded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as major sources of hippo teeth in the African continent.

The IUCN estimated the number of hippos in Africa ranging between 125,000 and 148,000 heads, while thousands have been legally and illegally killed for the domestic and international trade.

https://www.eturbonews.com/268906/tanza ... on-humans/

[Lisbeth]

PUPPY POWER



Derek van der Merwe, Limpopo Regional Coordinator, EWT Carnivore Conservation Programme | DerekV@ewt.org.za

When Eskom was confronted with human-carnivore conflict issues at the flagship Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme in KZN South Africa, they approached the EWT to work together to find a solution. In January 2019, a massive step was taken to address human-carnivore conflict on the reserve due to the livestock losses resulting from carnivore predation. In order to minimise stock losses and maintain good community relations, Eskom and the EWT placed five livestock guarding dogs at five selected families residing on the Ingula site. These community members are subsistence farmers living in homesteads created by Eskom on various parcels of land surrounding the Pumped Storage Scheme.

The Ingula community was experiencing considerable losses of livestock to predation, which was affecting their livelihoods. There had been no attempt to utilise any proactive conflict mitigation measures to reduce livestock predation with this community. Moreover, very few measures have been adopted in other rural communities in South Africa. This has provided us with a unique opportunity to introduce an effective non-lethal conflict control measure into a community and to up skill community members to implement the measure themselves.


Community members welcome their new livestock guarding dog

An intact carnivore guild is fundamental for healthy ecosystems. Carnivores are an important part of a healthy ecosystem, by predating on vulnerable prey, such as the old, injured, sick, or very young, leaving more food for the survival and prosperity of healthy prey animals, decreasing the chances of the spread of disease. Carnivores help limit the growth of prey populations and prevent overgrazing of ranges ensuring that other negative impacts will be negated from the Ingula offset.

Worldwide, human-carnivore conflict is a leading threat to carnivores and the EWT is dedicated to resolving this. On South African agricultural land, conflict between humans and carnivores is rife and arises mainly from carnivore predation or the perception of predation on livestock. This usually leads to retaliatory killing of the suspected predators. Livestock predation can undoubtedly have a serious economic impact on livestock owners, and a wider impact on agricultural production and rural development. This conflict often takes the form of carnivores predating upon livestock, which was seen on site wherein members of the Ingula homestead project found dead livestock and the presence of carnivore predation. As such, it was imperative to ensure that both the community on site as well as the carnivores gain a solution to foster co-existence. Our project is assisting the community to live in harmony with carnivores and make livelihoods more profitable.

The Livestock Guarding Dog Project at Ingula has been a major success thus far. The project offers a long-term solution to secure valuable habitat for carnivore populations on Ingula Nature Reserve including leopards, Brown Hyaenas, Spotted Hyaenas, Black-backed Jackals, Serval and Caracal. Since the implementation of our first five puppies in January this year only one sheep has been lost to carnivore predation. Some farmers at Ingula were losing over 20 livestock per annum to predation events before the project started. This has increased the tolerance levels of farmers towards carnivores, thus expanding the areas where these carnivores can safely roam. A win-win for both predators occurring on the Ingula reserve as well as community members who were experiencing unsustainable losses.


The EWT’s Derek van der Merwe and the proud owner of a new Maluti puppy.

Going forward we will place another five Maluti livestock guardian dogs as well as five Alpacas to address livestock losses with community members as well as test the efficacy of these mitigation measures to determine what measures work best at Ingula. Community links are important to Eskom, as is the protection of biodiversity. This is especially important on sites such as Ingula, which was formally declared as a nature reserve in April 2018. By giving community members access to a resource such as the livestock guarding dogs as well as alpacas in the future, impacts on wildlife at the Ingula nature reserve will be greatly reduced.

This work is made possible by Eskom and Eukanuba

[Lisbeth]

About the EWT’s Livestock Guarding Dog Project

The EWT has been dealing with carnivore conflict and farmers for the past 40 years and has learned valuable lessons in the arena of preventing human-wildlife conflict. The EWT believes that prevention is better than cure and the solution that evolved from this realisation was the EWT’s Livestock Guarding Dog Project which deploys livestock guarding dogs such as the indigenous Maluti (Lesotho Highland dogs) and the Turkish Anatolian Shepherd, as well as more recently Alpacas onto farms in order to prevent loss of stock. The EWT enters into a 12-month partnership agreement with the farmer that ensures the farmer’s compliance with the advice and assistance supplied by the EWT’s LGD Project staff and the health and wellbeing of the livestock guarding dog. This means that the canines are raised and integrated within the livestock herds according to proven protocols, which guarantees the success of the project.

Puppies from these breeds are taken to the farm and placed into a sheep, goat or cattle herd from a young age, where they interact and bond directly with the livestock. This introduction allows the herd to accept the puppy as one of their own and for the puppy, in turn, to grow up as a member of the flock. As the puppies grow up, they begin to fulfil their duty of protecting the herd against predator attacks by warning of predators in the vicinity and herding the animals away from the threat. These canines move and live with the grazing livestock as they traverse the farm. The dog is placed as a deterrent and guardian and not an attack dog. The majority of predators, when faced with a worthy adversary, will not hesitate to back down and leave and this is the livestock guarding dog’s key strength. Through pure size, protectiveness of its livestock, and intimidation, he is able to passively defend his herd from being the next meal.