Simon Thomsett

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 30 2007 | By: admin

30th Oct 2007.

On the weekend I spent Sat morning with a bloated male cheetah, who was very different to the 3 coalition males we sometimes encounter. He was very much tamer. Jim and Debbie Cavanaugh had spotted him lounging on a dam wall in bright sun and in full view and let me know. Very different to the normally shy wild cheetahs we have here. He had just eaten an enormous amount. He walked past us being pestered by a jackal.

On Sunday morning Dr Paula Kahumbu and her son joined me to look for ‘our’ cheetah. Again Jim found them first and let us know. He has an ability to intuitively know where they are that defies science. This time it was a female, that has 2 cubs, although we didn’t see them.

There is no question that these Athi/Kapiti plains hold one of the largest concentrations of cheetah found anywhere in the world. We were much too complacent about this in the past, possibly due to the persistent lack of interest displayed by NGO and GOs that perhaps rightly focused its resources on parks and reserves and large private or group ranches mostly in the north. Institutionally ignored perhaps, but the facts speak for themselves. Last year for example we knew of 27 cheetah on 4 ranches. Today we know of 11 on 20,000 acres (this does not include what we may assume to be an equal density on an additional 64,000 acres surrounding this population). Populations can double due to the births of many cubs, then rapidly decline due to their high infant mortality. Whatever the case if we compare these densities to almost all protected areas in Kenya, we find it to be the most dense. As such it should raise the conservation profile of the region. Instead urban and industrial development is focused on expanding south east down the Mombasa Road. We have little chance in conserving one of the richest wildlife areas in Kenya, simply because nobody knows about it. We are about to witness the loss of tens of thousands of acres to ‘development’, unless of course we can put in economically competitive but non-destructive alternatives.

Yesterday was spent in Nairobi, getting a ticket to go to India to join a team counting vultures in mid November. I met Mark Jenkins and Joe Petters at Wilson Airport who both informed me that Duchess was fine. Amos was going out each day and leaving her food, and she had impressed a few visitors. Although I understand she is a bit too shy to come down if anyone is around. This is the way it should be of course.

I had intended to drive down last week to see if she was OK and to take more food. What she really needs is a concerted effort to get her hunting. I suspect that she has not yet killed and this may be simply because of the paucity of medium sized to small mammals in her immediate area. I should like to take her on walks to get her to see a few Dik Dik, outside of the high canopy forest. Simply introducing her to the possibility of finding food in this drier location only a few hundred meters from the forested valley would almost certainly create a curiosity in her the visit these areas on her own. It has always been the case in the past. Other released Crowned Eagles, insecure in their new home sometimes hit a mental gridlock in which they seem happy to zoom about their familiar surroundings but can appear very cautious about venturing outside it and broadening their horizons. Sometimes, once through this mental territorial barrier they do not look back and keep moving, often very fast in a seemingly irrational attempt to escape their hacking site. I think that this pattern of movement is consistent only with confusion. They can fly around at home in a few hundred meter blocks for months, but when sudden finding themselves in a new area they attempt to find ‘home’ again but cannot, so they keep moving. The look of relief when you finally track them down with the radio, many kilometres from home is very clear. They look embarrassed, but come down immediately to the glove. Taking them on the long walk back home they look tired and yet happy. When you approach familiar surroundings they fly off with gusto to their favourite perches and do a quick inspection of the area. Sometimes they call. It is a territorial call, and this must surely mean that they recognises the area.

So far Duchess hasn’t made any attempt at moving or hunting, and this is expected. There is no hurry. But I am anxious to see her again, and jealous that others do. To see her in such a great location is wonderful.

But the 6-hr drive is no flippant thing to consider, especially as there is a very treacherous steep climb over a rubble strewn track up the escarpment just as one approaches Ol Donyo Laro. It would take a minimum of 3 days just to visit her. To put a final end to my plans I received a Black Sparrowhawk with spinal and/or head injuries. He could not use his limbs, hold his head straight, feed or defecate when he arrived. Each day he demands that one spends time feeding him, cleaning him, putting a tube down his mouth for food, and up his rear end to relieve him of it. He flops and falls on his head and nearly suffocates. So the first few days is devoted to him. Mwanzia and Jonathan are doing a good job cleaning his box and can feed him, but he requires injections and my time.

Male Black Sparrowhawk (or B Spa) in sling, 30th Oct 2007.

Over the last few days the B Spa has regained some motor control of his left wing and leg. His head is held level, and he can almost eat for himself. Very encouragingly he can now defecate without help. He can spend the day hanging from a chest harness, that just allows his legs to touch the ground. At night he hangs suspended in a big dog box in my sitting room. His tail is strapped together lest he destroy the feathers. It would take him many months longer to grow a new tail, than it would to recover from a broken spine. One thing people forgot is that feathers a semi-permanent. When damaged they do not miraculously grow new ones. It can take over a year. The consequences of a smashed tail or wing feathers often means a near inability to fly. But many kind-hearted people still persist in throwing such hopeless cases into the wind and thinking it ‘flew away.because we never saw it again’.

This B Spa will take a long time to recover. He will have to learn how to fly again. And that will not be accomplished in a cage or shed. Nor will he know how to hunt and he certainly would need months of hard flying before he can hope to chase down their favourite prey, which is doves.

I sometimes get discouraged these days if in the field of wildlife rehabilitation there are those that take an extreme humanitarian stand that defies logic in nature. Wild predators kill. Humans may or may not like it. Some emotive conservationists may not like it and may go out of their way to make sure it does not happen. Pragmatic wildlife people understand that predators hunt and kill everyday, and it is part of life. Here in Kenya we have these divided groups. One should try to please everyone, but not allowing a hawk to kill isn’t sensible. Nor is it reasonable to not allow a hawk, falcon, buzzard eagle or owl the ability to exercise outside of a shed in natural surroundings, ‘just in case it catches something’. Most understand this, even if they do not wish to witness it. Some very reasonable opinions oppose recreational hunting, but may extent this to overlap those, like myself, who wander about the bush with a hawk on hand in search for something for it to chase. I can see how it is easily perceived that one thing may lead to another, and the end result may indeed seem a little too contrived and appear like recreational ‘hunting’. But so far I have always been able to defend the use of ‘falconry’ in raptor rehabilitation. One ancient wildlife management technique just happens to outstrip all others, and be cheap to do and be very rewarding. In many countries it is seen as a necessary tool to get those particularly demanding powerful, heavily wing-loaded species back into the wild.

Without going into too much detail this B Spa, will I hope survive. He will not be thrown in a chicken wire cage to batter himself senseless, but restrained with jesses and a leash. He is almost trained already, hanging pathetically from his swing, he looks forward to his food. He isn’t too fussed about me now cleaning his face and feet after a meal. It is simple to ask him, should he be capable of it to fly to me to get his food. I shall increase this distance to hundreds of meters with luck. His wings may regain co-ordination, and his feet their power. But this will not be enough. He must prove that he can fly, like an athlete. His breast muscle must grow and he must be able to keep pace with his natural quarry. It will not take that much time, and be fun to do if he recovers. Maybe just a few weeks.

Right now he inhibits my work. He is a huge responsibility, and there may come a time when, if he does not improve, I shall have to put him down. I make these decisions many times. It is something I do not share with others. I guess if anyone is reading this, I am sharing it. It may turn out that he survives however. Cross fingers.