http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08...WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

This is another piece of the poaching story that is seldom noticed in conventional media

You sure notice less vultures in Masailand than say the Selous or Kigosi. My PH told me it was because the Masai poison carcasses.

The Anti-Hunters' best try at thinking:

Wild lion populations are in decline therefore we need to (i) Stop legal hunting of all - wild and captive bred - lion! (ii) Get airlines to refuse to carry legally hunted lion trophies. But the true scientists and hunter/conservationists tells us that these measures do not work! Therefore we propose these measures as "remedy" for the declining vulture numbers. We should (i) stop all legal vulture hunting and (ii) convince the airlines to not carry legally hunted vulture trophies as cargo!

Does not sound like a logical solution with a chance of success to you? It sure does so for the Anti-Hunting brigade!

Maybe we should seriously start to consider Amy Robert's alternative " the alternative is to start culling humans!"

In good hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
You sure notice less vultures in Masailand than say the Selous or Kigosi. My PH told me it was because the Masai poison carcasses.

Damn right and one doesn't see the numbers of jackals and hyena that used to roam around either. The poisoned carcass of a donkey or cow attracts all types of scavengers and they too, regrettably, bite the bullet.

The same is being reported in Namibia. The hyena and vulture population has been decimated due to poisoning and yet the practice is not illegal.

In addition to the poisoning of carcasses which decimates the predators and scavengers we have the dilemma of haphazard deforestation of land,
most of which is unsuitable for farming unless one has mechanized means and proper irrigation equipment and a borehole or more.
Combine that with farming know-how and the passion/vocation that goes with it (which the Maasai lack) you might just be able to produce some decent crop yields.
Other than ONE productive, properly managed farm in the Simanjiro District, almost all others have been a waste of time and created abandoned pockets of land now subjected to desertification.
For those who don't know, when land is deforested for farm use by the locals, the trees (those not suited for charcoal) are used to fence off these plots, sometimes adjacent to one another leading to the creation of "barriers" which happen to be in the middle of the migratory corridor and which interfere with the migration cycle in part.
As more of these "farms" are created, and so will the interference of the migration route increase, to the point when there will be no migration to that part of Masailand.
I had tried explaining to the elders that they should identify suitable areas for "block farms" instead of a random scattering of plots of varying sizes and to leave large swathes of land in its natural state to allow freedom of passage to the wildlife.
I guess it was just a wasted effort on my part.

The last time I hunted with Gerard (2009)fujotupu I witnessed exactly what you are talking about and listened to those very words from him. I can only imagine what it looks like now.

I was in Simanjiro in '12. Sorriest looking fields I've ever seen. The Masai were never meant to be farmers.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
You sure notice less vultures in Masailand than say the Selous or Kigosi. My PH told me it was because the Masai poison carcasses.

Exactly!!! It is common place.

Tha Masai also poison lions when they predate upon their livestock.

There has been a problem with livestock in protected woodland areas going back to British reports I have read from the 1950's.

Cheers, Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Rockdoc:
Tha Masai also poison lions when they predate upon their livestock.

There has been a problem with livestock in protected woodland areas going back to British reports I have read from the 1950's.

Cheers, Chris

110% correct!

Due to increased car traffic from population growth our Texas vulture populations is doing quite well with the increasing road killed wildlife, dogs and kitties. The black vultures that came up out of central america nearly wiped out our native red-headed turkey vultures by being more aggressive on all carrion but the turkey vultures that were left only survived because they were the few that were just as aggressive. Thus, leaving only aggressive turkey vultures to mate with each other. A lesson in evolution; the turkey vulture has now made a big come back by being just as aggressive as the back vultures at carrion sites.