Kenyans Seize Huge Amount of Illegal Ivory

Kenya seized almost 700 kilograms of ivory worth millions of dollars in a night-time raid at the country's main airport. Elephants are being screwed by Asian demand for ivory. It's a mess.

From the BBC....

Officials say the sales have fuelled demand for ivory in Asian countries, especially China, contributing to a sharp increase in elephant poaching.

So far this year poachers in Kenya have killed 128 elephants for their ivory; last year 98 were killed.

In July, Kenyan authorities intercepted 16 elephant tusks and two rhinoceros horns being illegally exported to Laos from Mozambique.

Some wildlife experts have attributed the increase in elephant poaching to the presence of Chinese workers in Africa.

With demand for ivory products increasing back home, some Chinese workers on low salaries in Kenya are reported to have become middlemen in the ivory trade.

Lion Population Decreasing in Kenya

I've been reading a lot about threatened elephants and primate populations in Africa and wondered about lions. One rarely hears about how they are doing. But, unfortunately, they are in trouble too.

This article talks about the specific situation in Kenya. The storyline is all too familiar.

The national lion population has been falling by an average of 100 per year for the last seven years due to a combination of factors, particularly human-wildlife conflict, destruction of habitats, climate change, disease and increase in human population.

Kenya's lion population has dropped from an estimated 2,749 in 2002 to 2,280 in 2004 and probably just 2000 individuals in 2009.

Kenya's Political Troubles Have an Effect on Wildlife

The recent troubles with the Kenyan presidential election have brought problems related to Kenyan wildlife, but not in the way that you might think. Tourists have been scared off, which in turn effects revenue for conservation projects.

Conservation projects to protect Kenya's rich wildlife, from its rhinos to whale sharks, are at risk if the country fails to attract tourists back after a post-election crisis, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Kenya relies on its game parks to draw hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. But, the sector has been badly damaged by a wave of cancellations following ethnic clashes triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election in December.

The violence that killed more than 1,000 people prompted European tour operators to cancel chartered flights to the east African country, dealing a heavy blow to its tourism industry -- the leading foreign exchange earner in Kenya.

Funding for conservation projects has shrunk as a result of of the slump in tourist numbers, conservation officials say.

Monkeys in Kenya Linked to Global Warming

There's a double-edged ecological sword in Kenya.

The bad news....

Kenyan conservationists discovered the De Brazza monkey population in the country's arid north, yet the species is largely known to live in the wet areas west of the Rift Valley, Nairobi-based Wild Direct said in a study titled "Primates in Peril."

While large populations of De Brazza's monkey, known for their white beards andshyness, exist in central Africa, the population in Kenya is low and under immense anthropogenic pressure.

"This latest discovery really underlines our ignorance of changes in the landscape over a relatively short period of time," said world-renowned Kenyan conservationist Richard Leakey....

Before the latest discovery, De Brazza's monkeys were not known to exist east of the Great Rift Valley, which is dry.

And the GOOD news...

"I was not expecting to find more than two to three groups. When I realized that there were such healthy populations existing in an unknown habitat, I was overwhelmed," said Iregi Mwenja, who has been studying the species in Kenya for four years.

The new discovery puts the species out of threat in Kenya, where it was facing extinction owing to human-wildlife conflict -- rampant deforestation and competition from other species, Wildlife Direct said in the statement.

Photo by charliejb.