Archive for the ‘On Patrol’ Category
Hello Stratton Elementary - I just wanted to let you know I am in Ishango at the moment protecting the hippos. I will send photos soon. Joseph
I want to share some photos with you all. Paul from World Picture News, who was with us the other week, took the following pictures while we were out on patrol, as well as some photos of the Kabirizi family of Mountain Gorillas. Here is a small selection:
Last day of the patrol here at Djuma.
Before heading into the forest we took coordinates using GPS, and we again take coordinates whenever we come across illegal activity such as logging…
…and poachers traps.
All the information that we take from these patrols is recorded so that we know what areas are high in illegal activity and can patrol them more regularly.
Later on in the patrol we spotted some large nests up in the trees.
Which are made by chimpanzees and we spotted a further five in the same area.
Again we took GPS coordinates and then stopped for a rest next to the stream.
Patrolling through the jungle is thirsty work, and below you can see Gripolo using a cup made out of a leaf to drink some water from the river.
The patrol of the last few days has been very successful with all the traps that we were able to take down, as well as coming across the okapi traces which was very exciting for all of us here. We were also very pleased to have Paul from World Picture News with us and look forward to seeing the photographs that he took. For now, here is one that Cyprien took of himself, with Kikanda on the left and Moses in the background on the right.
Here is the market in Djuma, as you can see it’s just a small town on the border of the park.
And here is a child who saluted when she saw me and so I took this photo. Below is the morning briefing before going out on patrol, and you can see that there is both Troop 1 and Troop 2, as Troop 1 have now joined us along with Paul, a photographer from World Picture News. Paul joined us for a couple of days to take photos of us while out on patrol.
Above you can see on the left is Cyprien and in the middle is the chief section of the second section, Troop 2, and the guard on the right is from the Djuma Patrol Post. This is at the edge of the park and so we have put up a sign to show what activities must not take place beyond this point. As soon as we started our patrol we found these trees cut inside the park.
We destroyed them so that they could not be used or sold. We also came across these men and this stock of planks on the park’s limits.
We asked the men questions to ask where these planks had come from and they told us that they were coming from outside of the park. We believed there story to be true as there was no evidence of the planks coming from the park and also there would be no reason for them to enter the park to cut this wood as here there are exactly the same trees both inside and outside the park. Following on from my brother’s patrol in the same area, we also came across some Okapi traces.
The traces were extremely fresh and show that there were Okapi here in this very spot just earlier on today.
This is very exciting as Okapi were thought before to only exist in Epulu.
As they are an endangered species this discovery is incredibly important, and it is thanks to the financial support that we have been receiving through our blogs that this patrol was possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you at Stratton Elementary for your continued support, it is truly fantastic that by working together we have managed already to achieve such incredible results. We are now in a better position to increase our patrols of this area, as well as improving the Patrol Post here at Djuma ,so that we can secure the future of the Okapi here in this very dangerous part of the park.
And so with our patrol continuing along the route of the rebel group NALU, after some time we came across these two branches in a cross shape on the path.
We know this to be a warning sign not to continue along the path, and we also now knew that as well as us being aware of their presence in the forest, they too were now aware that we were following them.
We crouched down to remain hidden and I sent a tracker ahead to assess the situation and he brought back this photograph of more crossed branches.
This was a definite warning not to follow them and so we did not go beyond this point. Although it is not an ideal situation to have rebels in the park, their presence is due to the politics of governments and we do not want to risk the possibility of a war by confronting them. They will also most likely be heavily armed and, as we are only a small group, we do not want to lose any of our men to fighting. When we moved back away from the group we came across a camp probably used by the same group of rebels.
It was now abandoned with only one resident left.
We believe that they left this camp about two months ago.
We went about demolishing what was left to prevent poachers from moving in to the same area.
And then continued with our patrol in the other direction.
We left Mukakati and headed towards the Patrol Post at Djuma.
We stayed at the Patrol Post just long enough to offload our provisions, and then immediately headed out on patrol.
Again, like we did at Mukakati, we found many traps set by poachers and went about dismantling them.
Above you can see me demonstrating where the head of the animal would enter the trap. When the animal continues in its direction, the trap tightens around the neck and halts it in his tracks. Once the trap was dismantled we continued on our way.
Halfway into our patrol and we found this path.
The route comes from the direction of Uganda and from the many tracks we estimated that a large group of men had come this way.
Further along we found in the sand many footprints from boots, shoes, sandals and even bare feet. From this we estimated that there were no fewer than 25 people who had come this way.
Continuing along the track we found this small fire which had been camouflaged with leaves and branches to keep it hidden, and all around this point we found several areas of flattened vegetation where in each area groups of two or three persons had spent the night. It was evident that around this fire was where the chief of the group of men would have stayed the night, and all around him would have been where his men spent the night keeping lookout for enemies, and thus protecting the chief. From this it was evident that it was a rebel group who had stayed in the area, and because of the path coming from Uganda it is very likely that it would have been the NALU (National Army for the Liberation of Uganda). We continued to follow the path of the group with extreme caution, and tomorrow I will tell you about the camp that we came across and the warning signs from the NALU not to follow them any further.
Above you can see my troop along with Gripolo the tracker, pictured on the left, and you can read more about him over on Elie’s blog here. Before we start the patrol it is necessary for me to brief my men before we enter the forest, and it is Gripolo who I ask for information about the track that we are about to take. Not long into our patrol we found evidence of a duiker visiting the area. Along this bank there are salt deposits and we found marks where the duiker had recently been here licking the salt.
Soon afterwards we found the faeces of a human. We quickly concluded that he was in the area to poach animals and so from this trace, which were fresh that morning, we were able to follow his tracks to see all the traps that he had laid.
As you can see, it wasn’t long until we found one of his traps, and then another…
and another…
From following the path of this poacher we were able to take down and destroy 24 traps in one day.
I should think that the poacher goes out each morning to check his traps, and when he sees that they have all been taken down he will know that we’ve been here in this area and this should hopefully dissuade him from setting up traps again in this area.
The Mukakati Patrol Post is in the very north of Virunga National Park, once we arrived we greeted our fellow rangers and then went about setting up camp.
Here is Cyprien outside one of the tents. Unfortunately we only have 12 of these tents for the whole of the Advance Force, which is 49 people. This means that we often have to have four people in each tent.
After a day on the dusty road it was time for a wash, and then we sat down to prepare our evening meal -foufou and makayabo (salted fish).
With camp set up and a full stomach, we were now ready for an early start the next day to go out on patrol.
This piece of paper is not only to show the guards at the Patrol Posts, but also in case the military groups along the road should ask us for our destination we need to show them official papers to justify our travel. Congo is still a country with many armed rebel groups and therefore there is still a lot of insecurity, so it is necessary to always travel with the right papers. Tomorrow I will start to tell you about our patrol, and the poachers, traps and rebels that we found there.
Yesterday I went up to the Djuma Patrol Post to pick up my brother Jules and his troop. They have just completed a ten day patrol of the area, and it was time for them to come back to the base at Mutsora.
Here is Sidani who was part of the patrol, in the camp at Djuma. And below I am with a guard who is permanently stationed at the Post.
You will be able to find out more about the patrol over on Elie’s blog over the next few days. Also on his blog is a video presentation he did for his sponsors at Happy Hollow Zoo, although some of the images may be a bit much for you at Stratton Elementary.
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