Poachers kill four giraffes in game park
By Adam Ihucha

12th January 2010


Poachers have killed four giraffes in the sprawling Noondoto wildlife migration corridor straddling between Tanzania’s northern tourism circuit and Amboseli National Park in Kenya.

The authorities said the giraffes were gunned down last Saturday at close range on the border between Longido and Monduli districts in Arusha Region.

Northern zone Anti-Poaching Unit commander Ally Lema told ‘The Guardian’ yesterday that his men, acting on intelligence information, ambushed heavily armed poachers on Saturday night.

“Having sensed danger the poachers ran away, abandoning their car loaded with four giraffe carcasses,” Lema explained.

The captured Land Rover 110 with registration number T920 AHF belongs to an Arusha resident, Jabiri Mussa Mfinanga, who is still at large.

“Unfortunately, this car is on our black list. The first time we seized it was in December 2008, when it was involved in a similar crime before it was set free by the court,” Lema noted.

Tourism observers say this is the highest number of giraffes to have been killed at a go in recent times. They are normally killed for their meat and, probably, bone marrow.

Recently, scores of wild animals got caught in snares across the northern tourism circuit in what is believed to be a rising appetite for bushmeat.

Losyeku Menye Ngera from Noondoto said of late they had been witnessing a number of giraffe and zebra carcasses in the corridor.

“Today, the greatest threat to wildlife after habitat loss is the appetite for bushmeat trade,” Losyeku said.

“There’s poverty, landless people settled next to wildlife areas and unemployment. And they all have to eat something, and the easily available thing is wildlife,” he stressed.

There are rumours doing the rounds here that the demand for giraffe bone marrows is on the increase in the belief that it cures HIV/Aids, but no medical expert has ever scientifically proved the theory.

With a ready market for bushmeat, poachers have no problem selling the meat to butcheries in the northern highlands.

Overwhelmed by an upsurge in game-poaching, the government mid last year announced to have hired soldiers who had undergone an extensive two-year military training with the National Service to boost anti-poaching-squads.

Announcing the measure in Arusha, Natural Resources and Tourism minister Shamsa Mwangunga said the

incidence of poaching in national parks had assumed alarming proportions, making it necessary to involve combatants with military tactics to keep the crime under control.


SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN