Project Update 3: April - May 2009

Field Dates: 25/04/2009 to 04/05/2009

Sites: Bunyala Rice Scheme, Muluwa

We surveyed the site for poisoning, counting a total of 236 dead birds out of 779 birds exposed to the poison baiting.

I administered 12 more questionnaires and secured several informal audiences with some poachers(trying to get their attention and trust having brought up the subject that bird poisoning is not only cutting down large populations of birds but that eating poisoned birds is harmful).

We collected 10 poisoned bird samples and extracted their guts which I took back to Nairobi for analysis of the presence of the pesticide poison, Furadan. On 8th May 2009, I submitted 10 samples to the Kenya Plants Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS), the recommended analytical laboratory by the national pesticide control authority, the Pesticides Control Products Board. Unfortunately, KEPHIS stipulated unfavourable procedures and in 2 weeks the samples had not been tested. I therefore reverted to submitting the samples to the highest, locally recognized toxicological analysis lab, the Government Chemist on 26th May 2009 and will get the results when I return from the May-June survey.
On20th May 2009, I was invited to a bushmeat symposium, The Kenya Bushmeat Symposium, 2009, organized by the East African Wildlife Society, a forum that gave me the opportunity to present to other stakeholders the findings of this research hitherto.

I am also going to survey two more sites in June 2009: Ahero Rice Scheme and Mwea Rice Scheme where there is also bird poisoning. I wish to mention that the samples’ analysis and the extended surveys are a measure of my project’s sustainability and I am using funds raised on my weblog through blogging on the project findings of the Bunyala field work funded by RSG.

I continue to advocate for ending of wildlife poisoning on the weblog, http://stopwildlifepoisonijng.wildlifedirect.org, whose posts are predominantly on the Bunyala bird poisoning.