Leopard trapped at Mt. Kenya

For the last few months our game scouts have found a number of remains of some of our free ranging animals. The tell tale signs of leopard could be seen in the vicinity of the kills.

Footprints revealed there were at least 3 or more different leopards that visited the Conservancy regularly. Of late, they had taken up permanent residence at this most convenient “dinner table”.

They obviously had discovered a favorite gourmet food provider: easy to catch gazelles, Llama, even one baby bongo fell prey. Meanwhile, at the adjacent Mount Kenya Safari Club leopard sightings were reported by guests, confirming just how bold these intelligent hunters had become.

That did it. Muraya, one of our keepers and expert at trapping, went to work. Within a week he was able to catch a magnificent female and her two adult male cubs in a trap in 3 separate nights.

They were speedily sent of to a National Park near us, but not near enough for them to return.

The release took place at the same spot so the family could be united again. Having had the “luxury” life feeding of our plentiful and unaware wildlife they need to forget the easy life and go back to hunting for a living.

Still we are thrilled to see the leopard population on the increase on Mount Kenya!

Enthusiastic students' first encounter with wild animals at the orphanage.

The majority of Kenyan kids have no opportunity to see the wealth of wildlife their country has to offer. They may live in cities or remote rural areas. Most of them would normally have no access to the game rich areas. There are of course no Zoos and a trip to the game park is out of reach for most families.

Many years ago, Bill Holden and the Hunts started inviting area schools to visit the animal orphanage at their Mount Kenya Game Ranch. The children had a wonderful time. From there grew our educational programs. Later we founded the William Holden Wildlife Foundation in order to carry on the educational programs in earnest and in the memory of our friend and partner Bill Holden. Chaired by Stefanie Powers, the Foundation has grown into the premier wildlife educational facility for visiting Kenya students in the region.

A close encounter with the largest of wild birds: An African Ostrich

The highlight of course remains a visit to the Conservancy and the Orphanage.

Here the kids get to “touch and feel” whatever species of indigenous wildlife are in our care at the time. The program has made a major impression on most of the part tacking students… so much so that some of them become involved in Conservation as they enter their professional lives.

One example is Peter Fundi, who still works as a Wildlife Manager at the Conservancy when he is not away at University working on his masters degree.
He has based his dissertation on the bongo rehabilitation program, in which he has been involved from the start. We can’t wait to see him graduate….

Wildlife Manager Peter Fundi with Education coordinator Michael Nganga taking a break at the orphanage.

Meanwhile the Conservancy has also taken interns and helped facilitate their studies. Julia was one such enthusiastic volunteer that gave up some of her holidays to learn about wildlife at the Conservancy. We just received this letter from her Mom:

May I take this opportunity to update you on Julia. She has applied universities and already has received a few conditional offers, including from the university of her first choice – the Imperial College in London. She is very happy with these offers, and very motivated to study hard to obtain the points that are required for the Imperial College. In all applications, she has chosen the subjects related environmental conservation as planned. Her experience in Mount Kenya has been extremely precious in deciding her future path. The real exams are conducted in May, so she has quite an extended period of hard work. We are confident that she has a determination and commitment required to get through this important stage of her life.

(Signed: Tomoko Nishimoto)

To her and all you enthusiastic young people out there: we wish you all the best and don’t give up on your dream!

Donations may be made online from this page:
www.animalorphanagekenya.org/donate.php

Here is an article published in the March, 2011, edition of East Africa’s Destination magazine, written by Juliet Barnes.

“In the vast savannahs of Africa there is a dimension of time and space that is an echo of our own beginnings and which reminds us that we were not born initially to live in the concrete jungle” -William Holden

Snakes Suffer Too

Poor old puff adders – nobody likes them. I felt a shard of pity when I heard that they’re supposed to live in hot, dry areas, but nowadays they’re being found on the forested slopes of Mount Kenya. Like us, snakes are victims of climate change. I looked at the stuffed puff adders, amongst many other specimens at The William Holden Wildlife Foundation

Education Centre: The African monarch is more palatable because it’s beautiful, but actually it’s also poisonous – other butterfly species mimic it so they don’t get snapped up by predators either. Nature is indeed a stage for a myriad of miracles. However this intricate ecosystem on Africa’s second highest mountain, also a World Heritage Site, is – as the puff adders prove – under very serious threat. William Holden Wildlife Fund Education Centre.

This Centre inspires school children (aged 11 and up), from all over Kenya, irrespective of background, to think about conservation. It’s not open to the public, although representing Destination I was hosted by Administrator David McConnell and shown around by Michael Ng’ang’a, Educational Coordinator. This conservation guru imbues these youngsters with knowledge and wisdom, his lectures tailored to age and background. This unique educational experience is mainly conducted in the great outdoors, supplemented with talks and films in the impressively stocked library/ lecture theatre.

Day groups combine activities at the Centre with visiting the nearby Animal Orphanage. The more comprehensive three day programme adds in campfire discussions and quizzes, treasure hunts around the nature trail, a game drive in the Centre’s four wheel-drive vehicles (including the popular six-wheeler), a weather station visit, and activities like tree-planting, cleaning up litter, or dismantling snares. Older kids climb a hill, studying vegetation zones and the uses of indigenous plants. Groups bring food and bedding, otherwise the entire experience, including cooking facilities, washrooms and spacious dormitory tents, is free.

Animal Orphanage residents

However this is no frivolous picnic on Mount Kenya; alcohol and cigarettes are banned, and groups must partake in the programme. Before leaving they clean up. Afterwards they’re expected to write up their observations.

My kids did the three day visit and came back preaching conservation. They’d stroked a baby bongo and met llamas (No way! I thought. Ha! Perhaps we should listen to our kids…) Like the other 10,000 plus youngsters who visit annually, or benefit from the Centre’s outreach programmes, they learned valuable lessons to carry with them into adulthood in an ever challenging world where the destruction of natural resources is spiralling our planet into crisis.

Recycling and Conserving

This was about the only two days in the year the WHWF wasn’t fully booked, so it was relatively quiet, apart from the shouts of red-chested cuckoos from the treetops. As we toured the attractive, well-maintained buildings and grounds, I learned about combatting climate change (which we can all do at home) and Mount Kenya’s crucial importance. Nature is artfully designed to work in harmony, but bring in one factor and it all goes amiss. A sign in a glade on the nature trail directs you to open a door to see the environment’s greatest enemy. You find yourself gazing in a mirror!

Energy from Biogas

First we toured the wetland that recycles all the camp’s waste water, emerging in the last pond having been cleaned by plants and filtered through stones. I was shown a simple biogas plant converting llama dung (more on llamas later) – although cow dung is better – into cooking gas. One parent expressed much gratitude after his daughter forced him to make biogas at home. Every youngster also makes an eco-friendly briquette: gently squeezing and moulding a ball made of soaked sawdust, waste paper, dry grass, leaves and charcoal dust, then dried into a cheap, slow-burning fuel alternative that emits minimal smoke. Michael invented his own briquette press.

Then there’s a solar water boiler – a black kettle hung in a reflecting cone, tilted to catch the sun’s rays; a bush fridge and solar box oven. Youngsters also learn the importance of composting, separation of waste and recycling.

The nature trail winds through unspoiled forest alongside the clear, glacier-fed Nanyuki River. There’s information on everything from soil quality to climate change. All groups plant a tree and harvest seeds for the nursery, taking seedlings back to school. They’re also shown organic farming: there are trout ponds, ducks, geese and rabbits and vegetable gardens with space and water-saving examples in sacks and tyres. Across the fence denuded land beside Kaloleni village reminds us of this forest’s fragility: we’d seen butterflies, birds, monkeys and two rare, wild black river duck. The other side of the fence supports nothing.

Movie Stars and History

Stefanie Powers and Rana

Actress Stefanie Powers is the driving force behind the WHWF Education Centre. Best remembered co-starring with Robert Wagner in Hart to Hart (which earned her five Emmy award nominations), she’s still starring, mainly on stage nowadays. Stefanie’s nine-year love affair with actor William Holden kept her close to Kenya. A year after he died in 1981, Stefanie opened this Centre on land donated by the Hunts, fulfilling Holden’s dream. In her autobiography One from the Hart, she writes: “I see his legacy in the animals he helped to preserve and the people whose lives he bettered.”

Holden’s love affair with Kenya began when he first visited in 1964. He met a fellow big game hunter, Don Hunt, well known in America for his children’s educational TV show. Both realising the importance of protecting Africa’s animals, they bought land and founded the Mount Kenya Game Ranch in 1967 – the first in Kenya. Don also met his future wife, German-born Iris, in Kenya. Heavy poaching in the 70′s prompted their rescuing and translocating of many vulnerable species with the blessing of Kenya’s first President, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. The ranch offered safe sanctuary, while surplus stock were exported to zoos in the USA and to other African reserves. When Iris’s house and bedroom became too full of rescued creatures in need of expert care, she started the orphanage.

Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy

In 2004 the Game Ranch became the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy. Separate from the WHWF, albeit working together side by side, this 1,200 acre sanctuary is still home to Stefanie Powers and Don and Iris Hunt, as well as 1,500 animals – some 28 species. Reserved for the breeding and rehabilitation of wild animals, it’s not open to the public.

We drove around in the evening light, watched over by Mount Kenya’s peaks, the glaciers elusive behind a shifting wreath of cloud. There’s only one white rhino left after “big muma” was machine-gunned by a gang hell-bent on getting her horn.

Happier news was the golden-eyed, white zebras; early British explorers reported these ghostly creatures on the Leroghi Plateau near Maralal. Later a couple more were sighted on Mount Kenya and zoologists labelled them Albinistic Sports.

As poaching escalated, the Hunts captured the four remaining white zebra from Leroghi and moved them to their game ranch where they bred well. Now over 100 have now been released on the mountain and future plans include releasing more up north.

There are non-indigenous, rescued animals too: two pygmy hippo who yawn for a cookie from Iris, an elderly zebroid (horse-zebra cross) – one of the original pack animals used on Mount Kenya and South American llamas. These crazy-looking creatures (I just love the toothy stare), woolly relatives of our camel, were originally donated by Don’s brother and have bred so well that 12 have been donated to Kenyan universities in the highlands. Amongst their many uses, they are wonderful pack animals, used for scaling the high Andes. The kids at the WHWF Centre actually get to walk with them!

The Animal Orphanage

Iris Hunt with orphaned baby zebra

Some released orphans return, like the caracal who has been released three times – now being prepared for release further away. Karen the bushbuck, whose mother was eaten by a leopard, has been resident for six years: she leaves to find mates, but returns to her comfort zone to give birth.

Karen and her two grown babies, who haven’t left yet either, were happily playing chase with a baby bongo in the evening sun. Other animals, like the monkeys, are released in family groups. Meanwhile they’re breeding: a Colobus nursed her baby and a Pattas monkey restrained hers from coming too close to us. Patricia the ostrich looked on as I met the world’s first “mangaboon.” A crested Mangabey, confiscated in Zurich, made friends with a baboon and this was the result! Things that wouldn’t happen in the wild happen here: three cheetahs, abandoned cubs who were hand-raised, ignore the Mount Kenya Hartebeest. Romeo the porcupine tolerates Matata, half-whitenosed monkey and half-Sykes, who steals his food. The bush pig wants a scratch. Sokoke wild cats mew for their dinner. The whole place takes on the slightly surreal feeling of an incredibly cosmopolitan, blissfully happy boarding school.

The Bongo Project

Don Hunt with Bongos

I met Kate, a beautiful young bongo, named in honour of Prince William’s engagement. William Holden called bongos the “stars” of the Mount Kenya ecosystem. A big, dark male, with impressive horns, wanders by. Fundi says he’ll grow to over 450 kg. “Aren’t they beautiful?” Iris echoes my thoughts. “They used to be all over Mount Kenya…” I notice her pendant is painted with a bongo.

Back in the 1970′s, after studies indicated a drastic decrease in bongo populations, 20 animals were sent by the Hunts to the USA to breed. In 2004, when bongos had become officially endangered, the first group arrived back home. After settling back in they bred successfully in special designated areas within the conservancy, slowly encouraged to become wild again. Several years later this was named one of the world’s top ten Most Successful Conservation Projects, focussing worldwide attention on the importance of Mount Kenya.

Now there are over 80 bongos, with the first group ready to be released back into the Mount Kenya forest. Don’s vision is to have 400 wild bongos back on the mountain in ten years time.

Classroom at WHWF

Money Matters

At the WHWF Centre a plaque acknowledges donors – including Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Martina Navratilova, Paul Newman and Robert Wagner. The orphanage has “tiles” displaying similar. Youngsters in Kenya, whether from private or government schools, benefit from their generosity. Iris assured me that these outfits are transparent – true music to any Kenyan’s ears: every cent of every donor dollar goes back in. “William Holden”, Iris smiled, “used to be sent off to do a film when we needed a new tractor.” They pay their Kenyan staff, but everyone else (international staff) does it for love. But why is it always up to foreign donors? Kenya is surely reaching a place where we are able to give back – to join in protecting our natural resources. Isn’t it time we gave back to our priceless natural heritage?

Click Here to make a Donation Online

Outreach

The WHWF Education Centre also runs outreach programmes for rural schools and communities. Their Bongo Outreach Programme targeted 61,000 people in 2009: many didn’t even know this endangered antelope existed.

David took me to two of the five government schools where the WHWF have built libraries and kitchens. At Guara Primary it was heartening to see the spotless building housing offices, a lecture hall and a library with the emphasis being on conservation. Wathituga Primary had an older, more established library, creatively decorated with maps, charts and posters. They also had a kitchen with an innovative environmentally friendly cooking pot.

Facing the Future

Flying back to Nairobi, via Loisaba and Samburu, I had the chance to see the desperate drought below. A former lifeline, the Ewaso Nyiro River, fed by Mount Kenya’s streams had dried up. Here was a horrifying reminder of the importance of educating the next generation so they can endeavor to repair a frail future.

Useful Info

Getting There

The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, Animal Orphanage and William Holden Wildlife Fund Education Centre are situated beside the Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club. Urgent assistance with funding is required.

Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy
Tel: +254 62 32788 / + 254 20 239 7751
Website: www.animalorphanagekenya.org
Donate: donate.animalorphanagekenya.org

Accommodation:
Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club
Tel: +254 20 226 5000
Email: Kenya.reservations@fairmont.com
Website: www.fairmont.com

Visit Destination magazine

A mere few days away from prominently displaying your find under the Christmas tree it becomes painfully clear that you’ve left it too late again – or did Father Time play tricks on you?

Suddenly, on what was supposed to be an idle weekend, you are faced with the familiar dilemma: another CD but which one did you buy last year? …a box of chocolates then but would someone else revert to the same emergency purchase?

Or, wait, how about a lasting gift of life…..to show you care, make a difference in the lives of our countless orhan animals waiting to be returned to their ancestral home: The African bush.

Here’s how it works:

For the young-at-heart who forever wonder whether there’s a Father Christmas after all

* Adopt a homeless animal

I am a young Sykes Monkey

I am a very active Hartebeeste

I am a very rare Bongo Antelope

I am an adorable Bushbuck

Honor a loved one with his/her very own tile on our famous “Wall of Tiles”

* Friends and Wildlife Guardian Permanent Tiles

Tile for our Platinum Friends

* Annual membership for the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy.

A lasting gift for children – Father Christmas makes him/her…

* a Godparent …to one of the “Lion King’s” furry friends

* a Bush Baby …(up to 12 years) a permanent tile bearing baby’s name

Bush Baby Tiles for the very young

What will we do with your donation? Every animal in our care will receive its favourite treat for Christmas – you make it possible!!!

Jack Colobus an his Christmas Treat

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!!

Your heart is with us but your purse won’t comply – download our free Christmas story…

Can you believe this?? You will probably never see this again. A little miracle!… with all the gloomy news floating out there… here is a nice nature story that is uplifting…

This tiny deer was delivered by Cesarean section at a wildlife hospital after his mother was killed by a car. Little Rupert, who is so small he can fit in an adult’s hand, was born after vets failed in their battle to save his mother.

A deer you can hold in your hand!

Rupert weighs just over one pound

At just six inches tall and weighing just over a pound, he is now in an incubator in the intensive care unit at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Buckinghamshire.

The dear little deer, Rupert, pulls a striking pose for the camera.
Staff are optimistic Rupert, now five days old, will make a full recovery.
Deer are very, very tricky but this one has spirit. He’s an extremely feisty little guy and quite pushy.

Asleep: Rupert takes 40 winks. How sweet eh?

A giant farm dog and a tiny piglet cuddle up as if they were family after the baby runt was dismissed by its own mother.
Surrogate mum Katjinga, an eight-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback, took on motherly duties for grunter Paulinchen – a tiny pot-bellied pig – and seems to be taking the adoption in her stride.

Lonely Paulinchen was luckily discovered moments from death and placed in the care of the dog who gladly accepted it as one of her own. Thankfully for the two-week old mini porker, Katjinga fell in love with her at first sight and saved her bacon.

Motherly love: Baby piglet feeds on its new surrogate mum

And the unlikely relationship has made the wrinkly piggy a genuine sausage dog. In these adorable images Paulinchen can even be seen trying to suckle from her gigantic new mum.

The two animals live together on a huge 20-acre farm in Hoerstel, Germany, where Katjinga’s owners Roland Adam, 54, and his wife Edit, 44, a bank worker, keep a pair of breeding Vietnamese pigs.

Nose place like home: The baby piglet nuzzles up to its new mum

Property developer Roland found the weak and struggling piglet after she was abandoned by the rest of her family one evening after she was born.

He said: “The pigs run wild on our land and the sow had given birth to a litter of five in our forest.

“I found Paulinchen all alone and when I lifted her up she was really cold.

Feeding time: Piglet's new canine mother has no problem providing milk for the youngster

“I felt sure some local foxes would have taken the little pig that very night so I took it into my house and gave her to Katjinga.

“She had just finished with a litter of her own, who are now 10 months, so I thought there was a chance she might take on the duties of looking after her.

“Katjinga is the best mother you can imagine. She immediately fell in love with the piggy. Straight away she started to clean it like it was one of her own puppies.

“Days later she started lactating again and giving milk for the piggy. She obviously regards it now as her own baby.”

Mum of the year? Quite possibly.

The Chaircat Comments:

We have witnessed many such “strange liaisons” at our animal Orphanage. In the animal word, race plays no role.

Friendships are formed between the most unlikely species. Animal mothers often “adopt” the less fortunate, the needy without prejudice and remain close and loyal for the rest of their lives. There are many lessons to be learned in the animal kingdom!

The Hartebeest is often referred to as the clown of the plains. We like to think the Mount Kenya Hartebeest are much prettier, both in their more russet colour and their longer horns placed close together giving the animal a fashionable slender appearance.

One month of careful preparation for this special moment is coming to an end as the safari-green truck is winding its way across the grassy plains of our Conservancy. Three of these rare creatures already live at the Conservancy. They were rescued in unrelated incidences some time ago.

Here on the slopes of mighty Mount Kenya, these six beautiful creatures unite for the first time., one step closer to the goal of breeding them to prevent extinction. We mark the occasion with a new story for you, one that began at a ranch not far from here.

Early in 2008, the bush drums could be heard loud and clear: “Solio”, a 60,000-acre cattle and wildlife ranch in Kenya’s Rift Valley, allocated 15,000 acres of its land to the government to help them with re-settlement of refugees and other landless people.

The news was significant. Suddenly, the refuge for seven of Kenya’s most popular species of wildlife had become a potential target for poaching. The task at hand was enormous – nearly 3,000 animals urgently needed relocating to national parks and/or private land across Kenya.

Amongst those, and particularly endangered, were a number of Lelwel Hartebeest. Three of these long-legged antelopes easily recognisable by their unique narrow head have now found a safe haven at Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy to join 3 others already in residence there.

Their relocation to our Conservancy recognises our continuous commitment to conserving Kenya’s precious wildlife and gives our resident Hartebeest ladies the chance to produce much longed for offspring. Watch this space for our first baby news!!

In the meantime, why not become a fan of our six original Kongoni? How? Find out here

Miraculously, a brilliant spectrum of colours can be seen from afar within weeks. Hundreds of species of wild flowers and plants have reappeared on Mount Kenya dispersed by wildlife and birds, one dazzling colour fading into another.

Deep-blue Gentians compete with rocket-shaped Red-Hot Poker. The pale yellow flowers of the Sugar Bush shake hands with red-coloured African Gladiola. Erica, radiant in pink, add yet another shade, and dwarf shrubs and tussock grasses have made a home in gaps neglected by pole-like Giant Lobelia.

The recent fires have swept across the grasslands so rapidly that many deeper running plant roots have been left undamaged. Exposed to sunlight interrupted by periods of rain, the mineral-rich soil now offers ideal conditions for dormant seeds to germinate and grow.

A new floral generation has painted an incredible picture that truly tells a thousand words.

Did you know that magnificent Mount Kenya is a World Heritage Site?

Simultaneously, eight other forests in Kenya were burning ferociously destroying over 70,000 acres of forest, a damage estimated at over $ 4 million. No-one could put a value on the potential loss of some of the world’s most endangered species.

Weeks of hot weather without rain had parched the vegetation, easy food for hungry blazes that were being hurried along by strong winds. In most cases, signs pointed towards illegal charcoal-burners and beekeepers as the cause of the fires.

Unbeknown to us at that time: the moorlands above Kenya’s last indigenous forest would be ablaze for another 6 days before finally burning out. The fires severely threatened the homes of elephants, leopards, antelopes and countless other animals. Many of the mountain’s white zebras were bred and born at our Conservancy and released into the seemingly invincible wilderness.

The combined forces of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Forest Service, local communities and our own team ensured that man and beast on the slopes of Mount Kenya stayed out of harm’s way at all times.

While a truly spectacular sight at night, the fires are a vivid reminder of the volatile nature of Kenya’s most important watersheds. The Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy together with our William Holden Education Center aims to prevent this through ongoing education of all the surrounding communities.

During the course of the year, the monsoon’s low pressure belt moves between its northernmost point over Arabia and its southernmost point over Zambia. As it travels between these two extremes, the low pressure belt passes over Mount Kenya between Mid-March and June, then again from October to December dispensing much needed rain.

In January and February, however, while the low pressure area is situated over its southern extreme, it drives predominantly north-easterly winds across Mount Kenya. Unable to carry along moist air from the Indian Ocean, it results in the lowest rainfall of the year.

The green pastures of our conservancy, home to some 1,500 animals, give way to dry grass. Even the smallest uneaten leaf is longing for the occasion drop of rain, a mere 37 millimeters last month.

The dry seasons at Mount Kenya follow the same rites of passage -  cool nights reaching 40 degrees Fahrenheit give way to steadily rising temperatures reaching their peak, 85 degrees Fahrenheit, by noon. By then, the morning dew has been consumed by the merciless rays of the sun.

Famous botanist Olov Hedberg has given this fluctuation in temperatures the aphorism “winter every night and summer every day.”

On Saturday afternoon, however, we were treated to a spectacle of a very special kind. As the clouds wrapped themselves around Mount Kenya unusually low, all eyes turned skyward in anticipation of much needed rain. Slowly at first, it arrived in big drops sweeping over man and beast. It flowed downhill in little trickles forming puddles that the thirsty soil drunk greedily.

At any time of the year, precipitation is vital to the survival of Mount Kenya’s fauna and flora. Lacking it, the wildlife at our Conservancy relies on its caregivers to supplement the daily food ratio with expensive hay. Sadly, the rising demand has resulted in a simultaneous increase in cost and, once again, we turn to you, our loyal friends for support.

As if to remind us of her presence, the sun soon peeked through the clouds. 2 hours after the rain had started, nature treated us to a spectacular rainbow.

We are hopeful that the subtle green that has appeared within hours of the rain means renewed life in the weeks to come and so we continue to search for rain clouds over Mount Kenya.

Please will you consider making a donation towards food for the animals in our care? The following link will guide you: www.animalorphanagekenya.org/donate