Treking across Central Congo to Arrive Unannounced
Category: About the project, Places, wildlife | Date: Jul 24 2008 | By: teresehart
We are in the very center of Congo because we want to know where and how many bonobos remain in this forgotten forest of 50,000 sq km. What threatens them and other large animals like the elephant and the okapi? Our ultimate goal is to bring real protection to some part of the forest between these rivers: the Tshuapa, Lomami and Lualaba (TL2).
The compass sets the direction, the observers follow and porters are last.
Our teams move out across the forest to specific locations, using GPS waypoints to guide them along a map-determined route. They follow a well-tested protocol of field methods to discover the presence and abundance of forest animals. In May and June two teams were doing just that, but Maurice’s circuit, described here, had a special mission.
A view towards Djonga as the team climbed the hills between the Tshuapa and Lomami watersheds.
Maurice was to lead a team to go to the far west of the TL2 zone to where there is a scattering of small communities called Djonga. Why? Because those communities were angry, angry about conservation. We had heard that a group from further west, one professing to work for conservation, had come to Djonga last year and something went wrong, very wrong. We rely on the good will and support of all the villages in this 3-river area. We need the Djonga population to protect the far west flanks of TL2.
The first stage of the trip was the trek from Obenge to the first Djonga village through the blocks of E15, D15 and C16. It took 11 days.
While Maurice’s team explored the Djonga forests, Crispin was put in charge of discussions with the villagers. Here is the first report of their trip to Djonga:
Crispin crossing forest towards Djonga. Although this stream has a white sand substrate it is clear unlike the black water streams in the north.
Djonga is a cluster of small settlements surrounding several islands of savanna near the Tshuapa River. It took Maurice, Crispin and their team eleven full days to march across uninhabited forest between Obenge and Djonga. This was a major trek with nothing but GPS guidance, even by the standards of these seasoned TL2 explorers.
A pre-dawn breakfast on one of the eleven days of forest-march to reach the villages at the western edge of TL2
The expedition encountered no people and very little sign of human passage in the crossing to Djonga. During the recent war years, however, army detachments, Mai Mai groups, and various armed men under minimal control crisscrossed this forest. They left their noms-de-guerre and often a date carved on tree trunks.
This graffiti tree is on the approach to Djonga
They also encountered little sign of animals. Tracks or dung of okapi, buffalo and bongo were rare. Was this because they had been hunted out, or because the forest soils were impoverished ? Only monkeys were abundant: including the new species of monkey, Lesula, first found close to Obenge.
Hardly a large mammal but this viper was worth a photo along the trek to Djonga. It’s not usual to see them climbing.
Exhausted the team finally marched out of the forest into the clearing of Bolota the most northeastern of the Djonga villages. They were a strange sight indeed in a community as insular as this! And it felt a bit dangerous considering the last visitors had indeed made themselves unwelcome….
Weary but cautious, Maurice prepares to meet the village elders.
IVORY : West of the Lomami
Category: people, wildlife | Date: Jul 19 2008 | By: teresehart
The TuTu River is fast, deep and difficult to cross
There is a remote forest west of the Lomami and sheltered between the TuTu tributaries that is amazingly rich in wildlife.
West of the Lomami and east of the Tshuapa, block E15 has amazingly little hunting compared to adjacent blocks of 900 sq km.
The Tutu bends 90 degrees and the feeder rivers of its basin bend with it, so as Bernard’s team followed the compass line of their transect, they negotiated many difficult rivers. They found a forest rarely frequented by bushmeat hunters: too difficult to be worth it?
Crossing a Mutoto ya TuTu, or TuTu’s child, the name our porters gave all the streams and rivers of this unknown area of forest
A red colobus overhead follows the progress of Bernard’s “caravan” beneath him
Primates peered from the trees. There were bonobo nests, forest antelope, okapi and more sign of forest elephant than they had found anywhere before.
A fresh okapi print near one of the many Mutoto ya Tutu
Bonobos were feeding here. The evidence is the ripped and stripped Marantaceae fronds.
But what made this circuit memorable were the ivory tusks found lying in the mud on the 8th day of the circuit (4 days from the return to Obenge). They had been there a long time, mottled orange like the earth itself and no bones were in sight.
The porters gather round one of the tusks where it lay along their path.
Perhaps an elephant, wounded or just old, came to this secluded area to die. It is not often that ivory is found — anywhere in the wild. Usually elephants are killed, their ivory hacked out, their flesh stripped, and the bones left to molder.
This is the more usual scene of elephant remains found along a transect. There was an elephant slaughter here, more than a year ago, and the ivory was carried away by the poachers leaving the bones to slowly decay.
This time ivory was found after the bones were completely gone. Old ivory, but heavy. One tusk was 19 kg (42lbs) and the other 19.5 kg (43lbs). Can you imagine carrying that around like your teeth, day after day !!
This photo by Reto taken of an elephant family in a baie in the Ituri Forest. kuster.reto@gmx.net
I first wrote about this after the tusks were brought out, Ashley and John told me about presenting the tusks in Obenge, and then in Opala and finally in Kisangani. But now I have had a chance to sit down with Bernard, go through his photos and his account of carrying the ivory back. They were even bigger than I had been told before!
The porter Kasidi resting against the two tusks.
This is what happened
The trail-blazer and observation team were following the compass bearing.
Omene with the compass, directing the trail-blazer who is ahead of him. Bernard follows.
At particularly dense areas the porters skirted to one side to avoid crawling through the worst liana tangles with their loads. This was such a place. Bonne Année who was in the lead spotted the first tusk and Kasidi the second. They all gathered to consider the best move. Should they bury them? Throw them in the river? Take them back? Ivory could be big trouble…
At the site of the find. Bonne Année is on the left.
And so I add the photos below to the previous post about the ivory’s fate. I do so with a special appreciation for the forest and a special awe for its ivory seeking history: The slave caravans of Ngongo Luteta lugging loads of ivory to Zanzibar and, later, the ivory barges of the Belgians shipping more loads of ivory, now in the other direction to the Atlantic. And with a renewed commitment to help assure that elephant will have a place in the basins of the TL2 (Tshuapa-Lomami-Lualaba) carrying their own ivory for many years to come.
Carrying the ivory out.
Crossing a stream, now with the ivory.
Helping each other with the ivory across a bigger river.
BUSHMEAT 5 : Ashley Goes South, Up the Lomami
Category: Places, Threats, bonobo, wildlife | Date: Jun 17 2008 | By: teresehart
And what do they find? More of the same. Alas.
Ashley, Bernard, Kahindo, Dino with all their field teams , headed south in both dugouts.
The teams heading south to do inventory circuits in new areas.
They stopped at the village of Ngoma Myuli, in the Province of Kasai Orientale and within the new Sankuru Reserve. It is a small village of just over 30 people. The ethnic group is Balanga.
Ngoma Myuli is a small pleasant village.
Ashley says this:
“They are friendly and open, but have no scruples about hunting. That’s how they make a living.
They proudly showed us yesterday’s catch. It includes monkeys and among them a bonobo.
They caught two black mangabeys, a black and white colobus and a local variety of blue monkey.
There is a 12 gauge shotgun. That is what killed all of them. There are no military weapons: No AK47, No FAL and no outlaws or brigands terrorizing the population.
The headman demonstrated his old 12-gauge for me — that was all he needed to make a life from bushmeat.
The bushmeat is carried to the village of Kindu. It takes at least 3 days to get there: pirogue and bicycle.
Sold in Kindu, the dead monkeys are each worth 8000 Francs Congolais or $14.50 That is more than twice the mark up from selling them here to a traveling merchant . But the bonobo – now that is real money – if smoked whole and sold in Kindu, it could get 50 US dollars, maybe even a bit more.
Head of male bonobo killed in same hunting trip as the primates pictured above.
This is the challenge to conservation. How do you turn good people away from a good living with no alternative of equal value to offer ??
How can the hands of these two species be made more equal in our use of this land?
For more information about bushmeat hunting in the TL2 landscape:
http://lomami.wildlifedirect.org/2008/03/09/bushmeat-4-tl2-in-the-middle/
http://lomami.wildlifedirect.org/2008/02/26/bushmeat-3-the-history-of-hunting-in-tl2/
http://lomami.wildlifedirect.org/2008/02/03/bushmeat-2-not-for-pot-species/
http://lomami.wildlifedirect.org/2008/02/01/bushmeat-1-a-healthy-lunch-from-the-tl2/
About bushmeat trade – general:
http://www.bushmeat.org/portal/server.pt
http://bushmeat.net/links.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080122-refugees-bushmeat.html
http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/ioz/projects/bushmeat.htm
Different views of bonobo:
http://lolayabonobo.wildlifedirect.org/
http://bonobo.wildlifedirect.org/
http://bonobohandshake.blogspot.com/
Obenge : Most Distant Outpost of the Opala Backwater
Category: Places, Threats, people, wildlife | Date: May 30 2008 | By: teresehart
Mama A.T. visits her impoverished but prodigal brood
A red colobus monkey, with baby in its lap, watches us at Losekola
The territorial administrator or Mama A.T., as she is called, greets an Obenge child. The TL2 compound is in the background.
Adele, the territorial administrator from Opala left a devoted husband and two adoring toddlers in order to accompany us to Obenge. She was more than a week away, not only from her family, but also from the territorial administration. WE appreciated it; the visit was a good thing for the TL2 project and definitely put Obenge on the map of the local administration.
We started looked for a campsite as night fell. Mama A.T. was sitting just in front of me in the dugout.
Over the years, John and I have known many territorial administrators who used their position to gain gratuities and beltline. But Mama A.T. from Obenge did not invite bribes …. This was business.
I accompanied Mama A.T. on her stroll through Obenge. People were amazed and delighted that she had come to visit them.
Mama A.T. took full advantage to warn the citizen’s of Obenge to stay away from brigands and the illicit activities by which they live. Her examples were Colonel Thoms and Major Ranger, the two Maimai that recently “ruled” this little village. We toured Obenge together and she questioned many of its inhabitants.
The whole village of Obenge gathered to listen to the Mama A.T.’s message.
All of this was to be expected, after all she did come as far as Obenge, but what really surprised us is that she agreed - and eagerly – to accompany us to the primate camp, Losekola, a ten kilometer trek through the forest. She really wanted to know what we did, what we were all about.
There is no short cut for dignitaries. The territorial administrator crosses the Losekola River on her way to our camp.
Afterwards I wondered if part of the reason she pushed all the way to Losekola was because the Bishop of Isangi told her that our real activity was diamond mining – and she wanted to see for herself. If so, we congratulate her. It is always easier to just believe rumor.
Together with mama A.T. on the primate study site near Losekola camp.
Whatever reason she came, we were able to show her the trail grid, the monkeys, and importantly, the skeletons left from the elephants poached by Colonel Thom and Major Ranger.
With bones from a poached elephant on the Losekola trail grid.
We were not the ones to tell Mama AT about the elephant killing but rather Jean Mutetela. He was at his forest fishing camp when the poachers came. We stood around a knee-high skull from which the ivory had been severed while Mutetela told us how it took a full day to flay and hack the meat from the carcass.
He told how Colonel Thoms’s men made a two night camp at the site of the slaughter then carried the meat back to his own camp where they built several large smoking racks to dry it. The whole camp was buzzing with flies.
Jean Mutetela, in front of the destroyed shelter, explains the poaching epidsodes.
And how the elephant family returned to the scene.
The surprising bit of the story was what happened afterwards. Mutetela described this with wide open eyes. The family of elephants came back. He pointed to the destroyed shelter the poachers had built. The elephants trampled the shelter and they scattered what was left of the carcass. And – Mutetela paused , “ they still come back sometimes – just to visit their mother’s bones.”
Mama A.T. recovers from a wasp sting at Losekola camp.
Welcome to Losekola and the Mystery Monkeys
Category: Places, bonobo, people, wildlife | Date: May 05 2008 | By: admin
Those Puzzling Primates of TL2 !
Waiting for the UNKNOWN. Conveniently this unknown is a ground monkey (Lesula) so John’s comfortable position is appropriate with a cup of coffee to keep the eyes keen.
There are monkeys out there between the three rivers that no one recognizes. They are not in our field guides. We’ve sent photos to the most renown of African Primatologists. Result: a lot of raised eyebrows. And the more we find out the higher our eyebrows go.
The field teams cover hundreds of kilometers on each exploration circuit, and always with limited supplies and limited time. If they see something bizarre, unidentifiable, they will write it down, try to get a photo but then move on.
The mystery monkey, ngoyi-blanc, looking down on the field teams.
If we suspect something really unknown (and we do), we have to be in one place to watch, to record and to watch some more. We have to send samples for genetic analysis. Are we sure these primates are not just a handful of hybrids? What do they eat? How do they forage? How social are they?
Losekola has a great field team. Kahindo, standing, has been receiving dawn to dusk training from John who says he is well on the way to being an inveterate naturalist.
The following is from John’s notes:
We explained our needs in Obenge. Jean Mutetela , a local hunter-fisherman, suggested we set up a study area at his camp in a stretch of forest, west of Obenge, along the Losekola river. When we described our two biggest mysteries – he said we would find them there.
Jean Mutetela holding Lesula-shedded stems of their favorite Marantaceae food
The two mystery monkeys are Lesula – a secretive ground monkey and Ngoyi a confusing canopy species. We eventually realized that the confusion came from the fact that the same local name- Ngoyi - was given to two different monkeys. Ngoyi 1 is a little known variety of the blue monkey and the other -Ngoyi 2 - well, whatever it is; it is certainly less known than Ngoy1.
We were first alerted to the unknown, Lesula, when we saw this captive in Opala.
Not only was Jean Mutetela happy to come on as a guide, he quickly agreed that there would be no further hunting on the study area. “I’ll stay busy with my fish traps on the Tutu River, when I am not with you looking for monkeys.”
Mama Madawa from Obenge tends the Losekola kitchen and about everything else that needs tending in camp
Over the past week Kahindo and I, accompanied by Washie, local guide and experienced monkey hunter, have developed a profile of the Losekola monkey community. Eight species of monkey along with the bonobo roam the 4 km2 study area.. The red colobus is the most spectacular with startlingly bright russet coat. They travel in large loose groups of up to 75 animals or more, invariably accompanied by one or two other species spread through the tops of many trees. Because of the thick fretwork of branches and leaves, it takes a lot of watching to see who all is above us.
The red colobus taking a closer look
Washie uses hunters’ tricks to excite the animals into calling, so that we can locate and identify them. One of the more effective is his imitation of the rasping squeal made by fighting monkeys, which invariably elicits “comment” from other monkeys hidden in the treetops.
My favorite though, is Washie’s imitation of the shrill call of the Crowned Eagle, Africa’s largest raptor, and a monkey-hunting specialist. Using a leaf blade to gain the proper cadence and tremolo, Washie produces a remarkable eagle imitation that raises a chorus of alarm from dispersed monkeys. Amazingly, they don’t flee.
Washie in perfect imitation of the Crowned Eagle
Sometimes Washie will rapidly whip a thin branch, with a tuft of leaves at the tip to imitate the sound of the powerful wing beats of the eagle. His finale (performed only rarely so as not to habituate the monkeys to the “cry wolf”) is his combination of wing beats, foot stomping and the anguished cry of a monkey in the talons. The sound of the combat is irresistible, especially to the red colobus, some of whom swing down close to peer at us.
Terese: Can you tell from the above? John is very excited. As he says, these new discoveries send his old field naturalist blood racing. HOW IS IT THAT THESE NEW MONKEYS WENT UNDISCOVERED. John’s assessment : this area is so remote that we are the first binocular sporting biologist to venture into the depth of the TL2 and any primate specimens from Obenge arrived as heavily smoked and unrecognizable bushmeat in centers like Kisangani.
And here is the thrill: I (Terese) am on my way to Losekola tomorrow. First to Kisangani, then a very long day on a motorcycle to Opala and three days in the dugout to Obenge, then a day on foot to Losekola. This will be my last post until the end of the MONTH but then – a first-hand account!
A beaming John sending me an email from Losekola via Bgan. “Make sure you and Ashley bring chocolate and good coffee”
Mystery Ivory in the Swamps of the Lomami
Category: Places, wildlife | Date: Apr 09 2008 | By: admin
The team is mainly slogging through swamp. It is inundated forest southwest of Obenge: a lot of swamp forest, isolated dry hillocks, then again swamp and always another river to cross…day after day.
A wet “exploration circuit” between the Tshuapa and the Lomami
But this particular forest is extremely important. The forest of the Tutu watershed is the only remaining forest with a good elephant population in the whole TL2 landscape. In fact there are not many other forest elephant populations left in all of the DR Congo’s central basin…and that is a lot of forest ( more than 800,000Km² !)
Elephants are concentrated along the TuTu River, west of Obenge
The “Boussolier” with the compass calls out directions to the “pisteur” with the machete who is breaking trail up front: “Stay right” “Straight to that Apakipekipe,” (a big swamp tree). Slow going. Bernard and Muhindo are the observers behind the boussolier: one keeps his eyes in the treetops watching for primates, the other’s eyes are on the ground looking for tracks, elephant “rubbings” or dung. Both take notes. Seven porters follow behind with tents and food.
At least four more days of wet-knee transect before returning to Obenge, the village that is our current base.
It is the pisteur, stepping up on some nominally firm ground, who sees them first. “Pembe!! Hey, two pembe (tusks) right here”.
Pembe is white gold. You don’t find elephant tusks just lying around in the forest. But these were just lying there— actually half buried and they were huge, compared to the size of tusks found on the forest elephants hunted today.
They dug and pulled them from the muck and ground tangle. They were nearly black , with ruts and riddles from years, probably decades of slow weathering. Did some big elephant just come here to die? The team scoured the area for bones – none. Even teeth – none.
An elephant entering a marshy glade in the Ituri Forest, photograph © Reto Kuster
Or maybe it was some poacher — If so, how long ago? — and if so, why did he leave the tusks? Besides, there is no path near-by, nor a navigable stream, nor any kind of recognizable landmark. Even today the poachers of TL2 , have no compass, let alone GPS. They would not even temporarily leave such wealth in such an unrecognizable place. But maybe such obscurity is just the sort of place an old or wounded elephant would seek to die.
At 25kg those tusks would have fetched well over a thousand dollars just in Opala. In Kisangani? In Kinshasa? In Dubai? Before they had been so “weathered” on the outside, how much did they weigh?
Ashley got an SMS on his satellite phone sent from the team’s satellite phone. “What do we do, boss? Throw them in the river or bring them back?” They brought them back.
Crispin is holding one of the tusks to show to officials in Opala. John and Ashley in the background.
The tusks might be white gold, but they are also contraband and associated with the most unscrupulous of poachers. Obenge’s Chefitaine de Village said, “Take them to Opala”. In Opala the authorities said, “Take them down to Kisangani”. In Kisangani a very self-important Chef de Ressorts Désirables (= chief of desirable finds), signed for the ivory and took it, presumably, to the bank. Presumably.
Two Down for the Lomami
Category: Threats, bonobo, people, wildlife | Date: Mar 20 2008 | By: admin
And gone their guns and ammunition…
The forests are quieter, the forests are safer and that is thanks to a massive united effort including collaboration from the village of Obenge all the way to the top military, hundreds of km further north in Kisangani.
And none too soon. We had gotten One Maimai Down but there was One Central Pin left behind.
Major Ranger, wearing his hallmark “99″ t-shirt, in the central Obenge baraza where he was arrested.
Ashley left Obenge in December fearing the worst. And the reports that we received back from Lambert, who was planting and tending the gardens, were not good. From December ’07 through February ’08 Major Ranger and his boys were responsible for the killing of fourteen elephants and two bonobos. At least that is how many we know about; we fear the Obenge forests may well have lost more.
True to his word, General Kifwa in Kisangani acted.
One of his men, Major John, wearing plain clothes, accompanied Crispin of TL2 to Obenge in order to verify the presence of illegal military arms and terrorism of the population. With the report from his own man, the general sent Major John back with 70 military to clean up the territory of Opala.
Seventy troops were chosen in Kisangani. Major John in the red beret with hands on hips.
Fourteen from this unit, including Major John himself, continued to Obenge to apprehend Ranger. Ashley arrived to find them already present.
Major John, I presume?
This was Ashley’s assessment:
“ Major John has done really well down here including good control of his troops.
No one in Opala or Obenge has any problems with him or his soldiers and he
has got rid of quite a few undesirables that were big time hunters and their guns.”
A group of Obenge women assured that the military were well fed. They too benefited from the TL2 gardens.
The whole village joined in to help Major John’s unit find the various military weapons hidden in the surrounding forest.
The chefitaine or woman village chief with Major John (arms crossed) and some of his unit in Obenge
A total of 10 Kalachnikovs were removed from the village. Another 11 military arms, included two FAL along with the usual AK-47s, were taken from the same inter-connected band of poachers in Opala.
A last photo opportunity for a few members of the unit and Kahindo (TL2) before Ranger is taken off to Opala and then to Kisangani.
We hope that this is the end for a while of the worst high-end elephant poaching up the Lomami.
Ashley saw them off:
“The pirogue left this morning for Opala with the military and Major
Ranger. So it is goodbye to him forever.
The village is understandably very happy.”
And so is the forest…….
BUSHMEAT 4 : TL2 in the Middle
Category: Places, Threats, wildlife | Date: Mar 09 2008 | By: admin
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A Geographic look at bushmeat hunting in DRCongo.
Are there safe sites for forest animals in DR Congo ? It is, after all, a country of many protected areas. Are these parks and reserves safe?
Information from the recent war and post war period is not reassuring. Protected areas were/are very permeable to arms and bushmeat trafficking.
The quotes above are from the period of the war and ensuing anarchy. The protected areas shown are those most likely to be successfully protected (see bottom of post for a map with a more complete coverage of Congo’s protected area network and for translations of the above quotes)
Don’t be discouraged.
The very fact that there are people to quote, means that there are people fighting to assert the integrity of these areas. Major setbacks have been followed by major steps forward.
Park guards in the Okapi Reserve arrested, and are transporting this poacher to the Park Center in the Ituri Forest.
We CAN have a future WITH Congo’s forest animals. The promise lies in formal protected areas. Although far from problem-free, these can make a big difference that we are now beginning to witness. How so?
1) There is a legal basis to arrest and prosecute not only elephant poachers but bushmeat hunters in protected areas.
2) There is a national institutional structure with wardens and park guards, the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN).
3) There is an international interest in Congolese protected areas and nature conservation. This international interest brought key protected areas through war with borders intact and animals inside. And it is that international interest that is allowing ICCN and the protected areas to reconstitute post-war.
4) Finally: new areas. There are remote areas that retain rich faunas. The ICCN is committed to protect these. Effective protection will depend upon discovery of the most crucial areas and effective support from local populations. Then national and international backing must be brought to these areas so that ICCN can build a park infrastructure from ground up.
During the war in Maiko Park, Maimai and Simba rebels lived off the park.
Inside protected areas today, animals have a far better chance of NOT dying at the hand of man, than they do outside. This is despite the slackening of protection during the war.
In the Okapi Reserve, uncontrolled military, using automatic weapons, were the elephant poachers. Here Crispin (now in TL2) holds up an elephant ear left by poachers in their camp.
Our exploration teams marched through some forests in the west and north of the TL2 landscape that had been emptied by bushmeat hunters, showing how important it is to manage – and protect – forests like those of the east and south of TL2, that have abundant and rare animals.
In the Rubi Tele Reserve there are over thirty small scale diamond mines (100 or fewer miners) with one very large one (several thousand miners) outside. All the miners live off of bushmeat from Rubi Tele.
Protected Areas hold a potential that can be made real. It is a potential for Congo’s animals
• to persist into the next generations,
• to drive a tourist industry,
• to support traditional lifestyles …..
Traditional hunting in the Okapi Reserve can continue to be viable because a part of the Reserve is protected from all forms of hunting and thus acts as a reservoir and breeding ground for the larger area where only traditional forms of hunting are permitted. (Kim Gjerstad photo)
This is the smallest forest antelope of the Ituri Forest, the hunting net still around its legs.(Kim Gjerstad photo)
This is one of the medium-sized antelope, the hunting net from liana fiber visible below. (Kim Gjerstad photo)
A completely protected area, a national park, would mark off for our nearest animal relatives (bonobo) their own corner of the world. TL2 should be one of those corners – or rather a commons for apes right in the middle of Congo.
TL2 is right in the middle. Let it be a bonobo commons. And within it, let there be a national park.
And soon , more about protecting the TL2: Challenges and Solutions.
Translations for Map 1 (a bit more complete than on the map):
World Heritage Sites –
Garamba: “The Sudanese horsemen have killed almost 1,000 elephants in the past year and are on the verge of eliminating the last wild population of northern white rhinos.” Norton. Interior Secretary of USA, 2004
Okapi Faunal Reserve: “…I have the honor of informing you…a poacher, known as Master, was arrested by park guard of the Okapi Reserve in February 2004 and was transferred to Beni from where he slipped away a couple months later and is now again poaching in the Okapi Reserve.” Inventory team leader, Okapi Reservem July 2005.
Virungas : “…four buffalo shot down, 14 colobus shot down, four elephants shot down, one lion shot down, 29 hippopotami shot down.” Virunga park guard report 2004
Kahuzi Biega : Rebel activities continue in the lowland sector where the main gorilla population existed before war. It has been off limits for ICCN activity through the war. Thus, unable to confirm reports of extensive gorilla slaughter. NGO report 2004
Salonga: Large scale bushmeat hunting started rather recently (southern Salonga). Hunting with automatic weapons changed from mainly elephants for ivory to monkeys for the lucrative bushmeat trade… reasearcher 2007
Other protected areas—
Maiko: “honor to bring to your attention that the slaughter of animals happens systematically in the central sector of Maiko national Park, mainly carried out by Maimai rebels….” park warden, ICCN, 2005
Bili Uere : “disturbing news…zones of Bili are invaded by hundreds of gold panners…this can have a disastrous effect on the fauna.” Researcher 2007
Rubi Tele : “…the big hunters come from elsewhere. They use 12 caliber rifles as well as snares…” environmental Impact Study 2007.
BUSHMEAT 3 : The History of Hunting in TL2
Category: Places, Threats, people, wildlife | Date: Feb 26 2008 | By: admin
Traditional hunting was not more gentle than hunting today. A large mammal, like an okapi, falling on spears sticking straight up in a pit, is not gentle.
These men are covering a pit dug along a narrow animal trail.
But traditional hunting does NOT empty the forest. Bushmeat hunting is different, it scours ever larger areas of forest. Traditional hunting was local: it happened in nearby forest that was just as much home as the village, and, in the past, was set in a vast matrix of virgin forest containing un-threatened animals.
Traditional weapons were arrows, perhaps poison tipped, and spears. The inner bark of the Kusa liana (Manniophyton fulvum) rolled into a narrow tensile line and knotted into a net used in communal hunts. Pits were dug deep into the forest floor, covered and camouflaged. Ingenious snare traps were made of flexible poles and lianas.
John (20 years ago) inspecting a Red River Hog killed with a spear.
All of these methods of hunting still exist but it is the new techniques and the new scale that empty the forest.
Snares made with wire or nylon line can wipe a forest clean of animals. When made with traditional fiber rope, snares rot in the rain, also they can not withstand the strength of a large struggling animal. Wire and nylon can.
A blue duiker caught in a nylon snare, ©Copyright_Reto Kuster
Where did the wire and nylon come from, when did they infiltrate the forest? During the colonial era the offal of advancing modern society penetrated the Congo. The wire filaments of truck tires abandoned behind the mission station were perfect for snaring small animals. And the winches on land-rovers, or the drags from logging rigs provided cable to untwist and re-form into a noose that could hold a forest pig or okapi.
These new traps were so efficient the forest around the village grew silent and the hunting radius had to move farther and farther from the village.
Occasionally a villager owned a 12 caliber rifle, often a home-assembled version, BUT truly long distance hunting for big game came with weapons of war.
This was no longer villagers hunting for subsistence or to sell meat for a little cash to buy the family a round of new clothes. No. This was military and ex-military seeking ivory to fill the coffers of military officers in large cities far away. Their weapons of war could destroy a herd of elephant.
Elephant family at the kind of forest opening (mineral lick) where they are frequently hunted. ©Copyright_Reto Kuster
The origin of these weapons is a bloody footnote in the long war that has ravaged Congo and that drags on in the Virungas. This part of the war never made international news. Along TL2’s southern savanna border war struck in 2001 when the Rwandan backed RCD-Goma streamed towards Kinshasa to attack the current president’s father, Laurent Kabila. National troops and local families fled into the forest; abandoned AK-47s made their way north, down the Lomami, and are now killing the remaining elephants along the TuTu River.
Weapons abandoned by troops as they fled into the forest
Also in 2001, taking a forest route, Tutsi-backed RCD chased the Hutu Interahamwe deep into the TL2 landscape. A well-armed Colonel Jado of the RCD, originally from south of Ubundu, fomented ancient racial strife between the Banyamituku and the Balengola. There was massacre and rape. A small aside perhaps, but five years later the Balengola could count among their losses the extermination of all their elephants.
Eventually we hope we can put this map in the sidebar, but until then, here it is inside the post to help orientation
The pursued Rwandan Interahamwe chose the most remote area in which to take refuge. For three years, 2001-2003, Obenge was their base. Although all Interahamwe had left, it is no surprise that Ashley arrived in Obenge last year to find mainly hunters from distant regions. Local inhabitants scattered from Obenge years earlier. Their forest was invaded, armed, and, even now, slowly losing its rarest animals.
The memories are raw. As Ashley went up the Lomami for the first time in July and August 2007, the sound of the motor on his dugout sent whole villages scattering into the forest. Only hours later people would filter back in ones and twos. Men first.
One of the men on Ashley’s team comforts two children left in a hunting camp as everyone else fled helter-skelter into the forest, convinced that Ashley’s team were military come to commit atrocities.
Strange how this recent history of TL2 is just as bloody and almost as obscure as the history of forest war more than a century earlier.
BUSHMEAT 2 : Not-For-Pot Species
Category: Threats, bonobo, wildlife | Date: Feb 03 2008 | By: admin
All animals are vulnerable, but some more than others.
A hundred years ago, even fifty years ago the bonobo, the forest elephant and the okapi were among the least hunted species in Congo. A fortuitous, but unfortunately short term “right to life”. These animals do not withstand pressure from poaching. They are an extreme contrast to rabbits and mice: they birth only one young at a time, they have long intervals between births (>4yrs for bonobo), each pregnancy is many months (>20 for the elephant and >14 for the okapi), and they do not reach sexual maturity quickly (elphant at 9 to 12 years and bonobo have their first young between 13-15years). So, once their populations are reduced they don’t bounce back and, alas, they are easily reduced right down to local extinction. In TL2 these are our most vulnerable animals.
This traditional monkey trap, made entirely of natural forest materials, would not catch bonobo
Even fifty years ago guns were scarce in DR Congo and metal wire for snare traps was a rarity. These, the Big Three, bonobo, elephant and okapi, were abundant, each in its own area of forest. Local people, forest people, understood their special status. In some areas they were taboo –custom forbade killing or eating them –and in other areas, where they were hunted, it might be only older men who were allowed to kill them.
A traditional hunting camp of the Mbuti pygmies in the early 1980s. They set off daily for net hunts, with nets made from the local forest liana they call Kusa. No nylon, no wire.
This was the case in the Ituri Forest where young men risked too much by killing a potent animal like the okapi. The forest might get angry and then they would only have themselves to blame if their wife had a miscarriage or the toddler “lost his breath” and died.
This wire is used to make snare traps. Traps don’t choose. Any animal that steps into it is caught.
Even where taboos did not exist, the means for killing the Big Three required a maximum effort for a minimum success rate. Much easier game was the little antelope or the monkeys that moved in large troops. These smaller animals could be caught with a bow and arrow or in the hunting net; they were also less vulnerable to extinction. To capture elephant or okapi a deep pit had to be dug, covered and disguised, then checked regularly. Occasionally, an okapi or elephant was pursued on foot and speared. To actually kill one was unusual, a cause of celebration, for song, for appreciative quiet. If an elephant, okapi or bonobo was killed, then the familiar spirits of the forest had to be placated.
Passing military marked their presence deep in the Lomami forest on this tree
But, with the long civil war that ended the last century and started this century, military with assault rifles have invaded even the most pristine areas and have changed the vulnerability status of the Big Three. Strangers, unfamiliar and insouciant of local custom, saunter through villages, hungry, unpaid, but with weapons of war slung over their shoulders. Now AK-47s are widely dispersed, hunters move huge distances in search of elephant. They are transients with no use for local taboos. They have no ancestral attachment to the spirits of the forest.
More about the Big Three of the TL2
Bonobo: Found only in DR Congo, and only on the left bank of the Congo/Lualaba River. They are Great Apes along with gorilla, orangutan and chimpanzee. There is only one national park protecting bonobo, the Salonga. Bonobo do much of their traveling on the ground. Mainly vegetarian, they do eat some meat.` An interesting aspect of bonobo social structure is that it is dominated by female coalitions. Although smaller than males, they maintain their social status through cooperation, maintaining strong bonds between unrelated females. Adult males are caring and affectionate with all infants. Sexual access to females is not limited to one male and paternity for young is uncertain. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species : Endangered
A pensive bonobo from Lola ya Bonobo near Kinshasa. Photo by Eleanor Hart
Okapi: Found only in DR Congo, mainly in the northeastern forest but also on the west bank of the Congo River in the TL2 area. They are the lesser known members of the giraffe family and are rarely seen despite their large size (that of a small horse) because of cryptic coloration and long periods of immobility. Okapi are solitary. In relatively rich forest, females have the smaller home range, four to five square km, while males, although smaller, have larger home ranges overlapping those of several females. Okapi are ruminants. They eat only leaves, and only leaves of specific species, stripping the young leaves from branches with their long prehensile tongue.
Okapi at park headquarters in the Réserve de Faune à Okapi. Photo by Kim Gjerstad
Elephant: Of the Big Three, the forest elephant is disappearing fastest. Recent surveys have shown that in the last fifteen years it has been essentially eradicated from areas where it was previously abundant including some national parks. The forest elephant, now generally recognized as a separate species from the savanna elephant, is the lesser known, but this has not protected it ! With each individual eating more than 150kg of leaves and fruit per day, walking long distances and digging for minerals, elephants are the great sculptors of the African forest. When their highways are overgrown, there is a particular silence that settles on the forest. IUCN Red List of threatened species : Vulnerable
Elephant bones scattered on the floor of the Lomami forest show where poaching occurred. We found in the Ituri that such sites were often visited for years afterwards by surviving members of the elephant family
Officially each of these animals has national protection. Our hope is that we can help make that a reality. Everyone who hunts for subsistence or for gain in the forests of the Big Three can avoid killing them easily. A forest in which any of these three animals is allowed to exist in peace – is a forest of hope.
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