© Climb Mount Kilimanjaro. All rights reserved worldwide
Kilimanjaro gallery
Look who made it to the top of Kilimanjaro this week!
Wildlife slaughtered in West Kilimanjaro corridor
December 19th 2007.
The slaughter of wildlife in the West Kilimanjaro district is
threatening the very existence of certain species in the region, according to a report
in The Arusha Times.
With two giraffes killed on the night of December 2, the total
number of giraffes killed in West Kilimanjaro within the last 10 months has risen
to a shocking 210. The giraffes are believed to have been particularly targeted due
to a widespread misconception amongst locals that the marrow from their bones, mixed
into a soup, can cure HIV-
Nor
are giraffes the only creatures being killed in the corridor. Alfred Kikoti, director
of Kilimanjaro Elephant Research and Conservation Program, said that poachers killed
no less than 106 different species in 2007, including 50 zebras, 50 gazelles, 10
ostriches and 5 impalas. These deaths can be added to the loss of more than 20 elephants
slaughtered in the corridor between 2000 and 2005.
If the slaughter continues, Kikoti
estimates than within five years there will be no wildlife in the corridor at all.
It’s a frightening prospect given West Kilimanjaro’s vital role as a corridor linking
Kenya’s Amboseli Game Reserve with Arusha National Park and Mount Kilimanjaro Game
Park. As such, West Kilimanjaro is essential for the migration of the animals across
their feeding grounds.
The problem is exacerbated by West Kilimanjaro’s remoteness,
with much of it inaccessible by car and indeed in some places even on foot, making
it difficult to patrol the region. Furthermore, even when the authorities do stumble
upon a group of poachers, the rangers are often so outnumbered that it is easy for
the poachers to escape. Kikoti cites one recent incident where all but one member
of a gang of poachers managed to escape after they’d been caught skinning some giraffes
they’d just killed.
The news of the loss of wildlife in the corridor caps a disastrous
year for wildlife in Northern Tanzania, following on from the news in September this
year of the poisoning of 23 extremely rare wild dogs in Loliondo.