Image: pumbatours.com
KWS says it has so far placed 16 infra-red cameras at watering points in the Tsavo ecosystem as it seeks to reduce poaching activities in Kenya’s largest national park.
The cameras will be used by KWS personnel to monitor usage of watering points and identify poachers who normally target animals at the water holes, especially rhinos and elephants, with ivory having a huge market in East Asia.
Tsavo has seen its share of poaching catastrophes, with 11 elephants discovered shot in the first week of 2013.
Just recently a suspected poacher was gunned down inside the Rukinga Ranch in Voi District with game wardens recovering three AK 47 rifles and 574 bullets.
According to Tsavo Conservation Area Assistant Director Francis Kimani the new strategy will stretch up to private sanctuaries to secure the endangered animals.
“The war against poaching is still going on and KWS has intensified surveillance in protected and private sanctuaries. We are calling on the local community to support us in wildlife conservation efforts,” he said.
The efforts are just part of the many initiatives in use as poaching surveillance goes hi-tech. In January the Ol Pajeta conservancy launched a drone program to help protect its rhino conservation efforts
