Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Category: Life of a Vet, Livestock, Wildlife | Date: Mar 02 2008 | By: admin

Today, I met up with ranger Naitoi and I have downloaded the photos he has taken from last year. There were very interesting photos of wildlife in the reserve, but what really interested me the most were the photos taken from livestock attack scene. Yup, crime scene photos with all the gruesome details of torn flesh, dripping blood and all… well, basically lots and lots of dead bodies.

Naitoi had almost 200 photos of livestock attack, but I only manage to update 34 photos here on my personal website. The text is in Japanese, but the graphics should give you an idea on how much damage the large carnivores can cause to livestock keeper. These amazing photos gives an idea on what we are dealing with when we talk about need for predator control. The wildlife-livestock conflict is the major reason why lions and leopards are being killed all over Africa, but if you take a look at these photos, you will understand livestock keepers’ anger over the whole issue.

The first sets of photos are of cattle killed by lions. Second sets are leopard attacks on sheeps and goats. Lastly, I posted photos of livestock massacre or killing craze by leopard. I do not know if these are appropriate word to describe this behavior, but it is just crazy how this predator play kills the poor animals. It is just an enormous waste of animal lives…

This photo in particular shows powerful representation of what kind of damage carnivores are capable of inflicting on a herd of livestock. This is as a result of one leopard entering into boma at night, killing18 animals in half an hour or so, and eating only one. ALL the photos of mass killing are taken at different household in Trans Mara.

If you live in an area within 5 Km of wildlife reserve border, the livestock owners will be compensated for the loss (under the condition that they would not revenge kill the carnivores) It was hugely successful program started by Mara Conservancy in reducing an incident of revenge kill. However, this scheme has come to halt following the financial difficulty after tourism collapse.