Dominik's account of Christmas eve 2012 and reflections on the struggle

I thought I would post Dominik's account of last Christmas eve - this year he was away from the reserve and consumed by worry and a sense of defeat...

After a month of relative quiet and the capture of some big-time poachers (and their immediate release without prosecution) we are in the line of fire again.

Christmas Eve 2012, 16:00 hours, and I am sitting on the steps of the old house, overlooking the magnificent coastal forest in the clear afternoon light below. While I was out with the Elders and Chiefton to clean the graves and pray for rain and peace, the killers were already zeroing in on their pray......

For over 16 yrs we have now been in the hard knuckle business of community conservation against overwhelming odds. Taking on the timber giants of the day in the late 90’s, the ever more prominent snaring fraternity throughout, fighting bush fires and banditary. From 2004 to 2008 an almost impossible struggle against Chinese logging of a scale unknown before.

The first ever fine to be paid since the creation of the park for illegal logging was a truck captured by us and followed by several more (released without a fine). Seeing community relations plummet and agitation and defamation soar through our success. Being hailed and damned, shunned and consulted. All this has passed but now, in this time of drought we face our biggest challenge yet, the unopposed slaughter of our elephants by all means under the sun but predominantly by the use of automatic weapons of war. Facing the same mafia as before only now their agents are armed with machine guns not chainsaws and use helicopters not trucks.

Someone told me that wildlife crime is now bigger then trade in illegal arms and right up there with drugs and human trafficking.

As the blood moon rises into the afternoon sky and we finish at the graves the poachers are getting into position to open fire regardless of their target. The wounding or killing of a calf will most likely lead to being able to kill the mother trying to protect her child. Perhaps they even get to kill the aunt who may try to shield the youngster from further harm. Entire family clans have been eradicated like this. I hear of stories from Bilibiza and Taratibu where this has happened. Many herds are now without a cow or sizable bull, only adolescents and juveniles left to their own, inadequate, devices,

Blurred flashes of recent memory, my distant family. As I said this is Christmas Eve 2012 in the afternoon. I had just taken photographs of the rising ¾ full moon when the news came in excess of 75 rounds of AK fire reported at the mountain some 3km from the house. 

The news came as a shock wave, as it always does – “get your head together”, “assess your capacity and possibilities”, “what time is it?”, “who can I take and how will we locate the site?”. It is a moment of electrifying intensity and deep hurt as the knowledge sets in that the damage is done, and that over 70 rounds rarely miss their target. Déjà vu images of dead cows come to mind, their babies near, hacked out faces, and the air of desperate confusion giving way to a morgue like silence. Got to move!

We race to gather some men and set off, but this turns out to be more difficult then expected. The destructive and decomposing influence of the chief park ranger, (in my absence) showed effect. Six rangers refused to go, having been told not to pursue armed poachers and not to go into the bush the same day as the incidence! So, I ended up with two, Ali and Juma, and we climbed the mountain to observe the bush from above and, as we were told the shooting was near, we settled in. Not before long, approximately one hour, we heard the terrible sound of axe on bone. This made a rough estimate of position possible. The need for action was like the force of a decompression chamber but it would have been seriously unwise to enter the bush at such a late stage and stoking around the dark for heavily armed bandits. All we could do so late in the day was to sit and listen once we had gotten into position. When hearing the axe (hacking into the skull to retrieve the ivory) we took aim and fired several vollies into the bush. The killers hurried away with their loot but possibly a little surprised to be noticed at all.

Birthday surprise

An unbelievable 7 months later and Dominik returns from Mozambique for Laurie's first birthday.  He with long rather bedraggled hair and baby, round, bum-shuffling, with a few words, in fact Dadeee (but not Mumeee!)

People assume that Dominik had not bonded with Laurie, how else could he be away this long in his first year? Missing Christmas and so many 'firsts'?  But in fact that is far from the case.  He felt Laurie was safe and once at Mareja he couldn't tear himself away from his elephants who were far from safe. I think he feels he should stand between them and the bullets (obviously with the help of the Rangers).

A close encounter with a Hyena

Dominik sent me this extraordinary photo today.  The first sighting of a Hyena since 1999. So rare to get such a beautiful close up.  This young animal must have been displaced from his pack - it was very hungry.

As scavengers Hyenas have suffered greatly from eating poisoned monkeys.  Poison is used a lot to kill animals that damage crops. Dominik thinks Hyenas are being lured from far afield by rotting elephant carcasses.

Washing day for the Rangers

The veranda of the new eco-houses

The new uniforms bought with Elephant Appeal money 

Four days out of communication and 70km in search of ivory hunters

I have just heard from Dominik after over 4 days.  Apparently he had sent a number of texts but they didn't wind their way through the ether.  He has been in pursuit of poachers hot on their heals with 6 others, 2 Mareja rangers and 4 from the Park.  Trekking in heavy rain over 70 km through dense bush.  The poachers were about 3 hours ahead of them carrying ivory from one or two animals just killed in Mareja.  Finally they arrived in Muacu and searched the village.  They found some AKM ammunition, endless snares, leg irons and approximately 400 m of wire stolen from the Park's elephant fencing, now used to make more snares, but not the Poachers...they had got away.

Christmas eve ... 75 shots heralded christmas day

The park ranger at the mountain post ran to Mareja when the fire went on and on.  Dominik and two rangers (perhaps unsurprisingly the rest would not come) quickly set off in the gathering dusk to the mountain and fired warning shots over the canopy, a rather futile attempt to scare when the damage had already been done.  Dominik says he then heard hacking as the ivory was removed.  It is surprisingly hard to locate sound in the dense forest and now night had fallen.

Christmas day revealed this body, a lone teenaged bull and after much searching another old kill of a decaring mother and baby, all ivory removed. 

It turns out this male was the shy teenager I had watched half hidden by large trees down by the big river.  My first sighting of an elephant in the wild.  He allowed us to quietly observe him eating before eventually becoming wary, flapping his large ears and disappearing.  He was about 18 years old.

There have been a steady stream of poaching attacks over the last 2 years, taking between 1-3 animals at a time and across the wider national park it is estimated that the population may have been reduced by as much as 30-40%.  

It is a huge task patrolling nearly 40,000 hectares of forest at Mareja with a team of only 10 local rangers, and safeguarding these magnificent  beasts against the horrifying force of poaching.  I just hope that every animal killed brings us nearer to radical action. It seems that that action has to come quickly and with huge international will - they say our largest land mammal has only 10 years left at this rate of persecution, what a sad world that will be.

A shrieking night-flyer from Shaun via new phone

What an excitement!  Shaun is visiting Mareja, he is an amateur but very expert lepidopterist with a particular interest in hawkmoths.  He does a day/night job as a fireman and spends spare time collecting and developing his specialism.  He saw an advert I placed in the oxford natural history museum for researchers, keen to develop our biodiversity inventory.  Well he went for two weeks with light-traps, pins and boxes in hand.

Coming out of the dry season and being on the edge of the rains we were not sure what sort of life would emerge for him into his light-traps.  Anyway all in all it seems to have been a successful trip and my fear that Dominik would divert Shaun with other jobs, noticing his practical capable ways - was slightly realised.  (D using his new phone sent me photos of Shaun helping him to prop up a huge crumbling column in the main house.) But imagine my delight when one evening I get a phonecall, in fact the night before Shaun left - and I hear shrieking in the background.  Soon the sound is married with a picture. Look at this beauty! A death's-head hawkmoth, with the extraordinary skull marking, who when alarmed admits a high-pitched call.

(We have had really poor comms in Mareja until recently and it has been markedly improved by a new service provider and Dominik's propulsion into new technology with an iphone type ...I must add 'type' as our frugal approach meant that he got an imitation lower grade make, which unsurprisingly doesn't work that well.)