ZIMBABWE CONSERVATION TASK FORCE

6th February 2011

SNARE REMOVALS

Thanks to various donors who have helped us to import the tranquilizer, M99, in particular the RSPCA and the Born Free Foundation, a number of snares have been removed from animals in the wild. A big thank you also to the brave people who risk their lives to remove the snares.

Esther and Hans van der Meer of the Painted Dog Conservation in Hwange have made good use of the M99. Esther and Hans were actually looking for a snared African wild dog when they were alerted to the fact that there was a young elephant bull with a wire snare around his trunk at Kanondo. They abandoned their search of the wild dog and went to remove the snare from the elephant.

The following morning, the managed to find the wild dog and removed a snare from him as well.

Prior to this, Sharon Pincott alerted Esther and Hans to be on the lookout for Gwenneth, one of the Presidential Elephants who had a wire snare deeply embedded in her leg. They eventually found her at Mpofu Pan and she was having a lot of difficulty walking. They had a hard time removing the snare because it was embedded right down to the bone but the snare removal was successful and Gwenneth is doing well now.

ESTHER REMOVING THE SNARE FROM GWENNETH

Last year, Sharon contacted Esther and Hans again about another member of the Presidential Herd, Adwina who also had a snare embedded in her leg. They came to her rescue and removed the snare.

TREATING ADWINA

They also removed snares from 2 buffalo, one of whom recovered nicely. The other was in poor condition and his injuries were so severe that, sadly, he died.

Another recipient of the donated M99 is Brent Staplekamp of the Lion Research Project in Hwange National Park. Brent successfully removed a snare from an elephant bull recently. We would like to thank the SAVE Foundation of Australia who supplied Brent with various veterinary supplies such as tools, syringes etc.

BRENT AND HIS TEAM REMOVING THE SNARE



NEWS ON SHARON PINCOTT

In our November 2010 newletter, we included a statement from Sharon regarding her eviction from Hwange Safari Lodge. We are now pleased to be able to report that we have been advised of some positive new developments with one of the existing lodges in Hwange, and all going well we hope to be able to report in our next newsletter that this is where Sharon Pincott will soon be operating out of. Our thanks for now go to those from Dawn Properties (a company, it should be clarified, that is not owned or controlled by African Sun) – soon to commence building a new luxury camp on the Hwange Estate, which they will manage themselves – who reaffirmed their support of Sharon’s work and access to land where these elephants roam, so that her crucial long-term monitoring of Zimbabwe’s flagship herd can continue.

We trust that everyone will support those conservation-minded safari lodges that support our long-term wildlife warriors. Without our dedicated conservationists on the ground, complementing the efforts of the Parks Authority, there would certainly be less wildlife for us all to enjoy. We also encourage you to read Sharon ’s latest blog story. Go to www.sharonpincott.com and take the link on the home-page to her Getaway blog. There is something for everyone to think about in this short Christmas story - “What will you do in 2011 to make a difference?”

HUNTING IN HWANGE NATIONAL PARK

We have received a report that 5 elephants and 3 buffalo were shot by sports hunters at Main Camp in Hwange National Park during the last week of January this year.

Lawrence van Aswegan and Allison Smith, safari operators believed to be based in South Africa have been offering hunts of Non Trophy Elephants INSIDE Hwange National Park. They claim that Parks and Wildlife Management are selling these hunts as part of a culling programme in order to raise money for parks. It has also been reported that only female elephants are to be targeted which makes matters even worse because many of the females have calves. The females move in family groups as opposed to the males which very often wander around alone. To target females means destroying family units and leaving orphaned babies behind. This is extremely traumatic for the families of the elephants shot and there have been numerous instances of elephants traumatized in this way, attacking humans. We have emailed National Parks to try and get confirmation of this but we have not received a reply.

National Parks claim that Zimbabwe is over populated with elephant, citing the numbers at around 100 000. If there are so many, we can't help wondering why it is necessary to shoot elephant inside a protected national park.

LAKE CHIVERO RESORTS INVADED

Lake Chivero is a retreat 20km from Harare. Along the shores of the lake are a number of fishing clubs, boating clubs, holiday flats, caravan parks and camping sites. War veterans have started invading these tourist resorts.

Of particular concern is the Kuimba Shiri Bird Sanctuary, previously known as Admiral's Cabin. This resort is very popular with tourists because of the 450 species of beautiful exotic birds there. President Mugabe's nephew, Patrick Zhuwao has been linked to the lake side invasions and he is especially interested in Kuimba Shiri. The intention of the war veterans is apparently to take over the tourism facilities and hand them over to senior ZANU PF officials.

GPS PROTECTION FOR RHINOS AT SOMKHANDA GAME RESERVE

Somkhanda Game Reserve in Zululand is home to 7 white rhinos and after losing 2 rhinos to poachers last year, a specialised GPS unit has been utilized to try and save the remaining rhino from the same fate. The unit is placed into the horn and relays information on the tagged animal every 60 seconds. The tracking technology is designed to give early warning on potential poaching occurrences by noting irregular movements of the animal. Somkhanda is one of the first community-owned nature reserves in South Africa.



Johnny Rodrigues
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force
Landline: 263 4 339065
Mobile: 263 712 603 213
Email: galorand@mweb.co.zw
Website: www.zctf.mweb.co.zw
Website: www.zimbabwe-art.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15148470211
Temporary website: www.zctfofficialsite.org.

The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force relies soley on public donations. Your donation can help to preserve the wildlife in Zimbabwe. If you would like to assist, please contact us.