Posted by AFK Travel
September
9, 2014
By
Karen Elowitt
Warden
Emmanuel Koech
Warden Emmanuel Koech is a wildlife ranger for
the Kenya
Wildlife Service. Over the course of his career has worked in six
different national parks across Kenya, where he spends much of his time
monitoring wildlife habitats and tracking down poachers. AFKtravel.com recently
had the chance to talk with him about his favorite parks, close encounters with
poachers and lions, and how he was inspired as a child to protect
wildlife.
1. TELL ME A LITTLE
ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME A WILDLIFE RANGER.
I was born
and brought up in Elgeiyo Marakwet County along Elgeiyo escarpment, overlooking
Rimoi National Reserve. During my youth, we could visit the reserve which had a
lot of elephants and other game. The neighbors of this reserve are both
pastoralists and farmers’ communities. Most of the farming was done along the
Kerio River where elephants also drink water from and in the process, destroy
the crops, especially maize.
When the farms were invaded by these elephants, they could leave behind a
massive destruction which would make the community very angry. Locals could
mobilize and attack the elephants. The results were not pleasing since people
and elephants would both get injured or killed. This made me think how I could
help to avoid this scenario.
When I went
to high school, I realized that my dream would come true when I learned that
there was a wildlife club in the school. I joined the club immediately as a
member and after two years, I was elected its chairman. I used my position as
the chair to sensitize my fellow youth to the importance of protecting
wildlife. When I completed my high school education, I looked for another
platform to be at the forefront of conserving wildlife.
One evening
while at Gilgil (National Youth Service College), I learned that Kenya Wildlife
Service (KWS) was recruiting rangers at a neighboring town of Nakuru. I made my
mind to take up the offer to join KWS. The following day, very early in the
morning, I went for the recruitment at which I was successful, and eventually proceeded
to Manyani Field Training School (MFTS) for paramilitary training. On
completion I was posted to Nairobi
National Park, and the rest is history.
2. What sort of
training was required to be a wildlife ranger and how difficult was it?
To be a KWS
ranger, you must meet the recruitment standards, and then undergo a very
rigorous paramilitary training which prepares a recruit to face difficult
working conditions out in the field. It is an elaborate program pegged on the
academy’s motto of “Train Hard, Fight Easy.”
3. Give me an idea of
a typical “day in the life” of a ranger.
A ranger’s
day starts before 6:00am. For a ranger attached to the Wildlife Protection
Department, the first activity of the day is the “team up” parade. Ordinarily,
the commander will be updated on the health status of his men and state of
tools and equipment for work. Then, the commander will issue deployments
depending on the report we get about poachers. Movements to the operation area
will be dictated by the quality of the intelligence report. They may require
the team to be away from station for days and sometimes weeks at a time.
Depending on the mission, the commander will arrange for adequate supplies of
rations, water, and other necessary requirements.
4. What would you say
are the best and hardest parts of your job?
The best part of my job as a ranger is when we track down
poachers and attack them without any casualties on our side. The hardest part
of it is when we have a report of poachers, and after pursuing them, their
tracks can no longer be found. It is hard because until we find them, there
will be no coming back to the camp even if it takes a month.
5. Do you have a favorite
place to guide (if you’ve worked more than one park/reserve)?
I have worked in more than six national parks and since I love
nature, the best place to guide someone to visit is Kora National Park. It is
described as the last wilderness in Kenya, although all KWS parks are great
tourist destinations.
6. What is the most
suspenseful moment you’ve had on the job?
The most suspenseful moment that I have encountered on the job
was in the year 2000 when I was working in the South Turkana National Reserve. One
day, we received a report about a poached elephant and our commander assembled
us and briefed us on the report and what was to be done. We immediately left
the camp for the crime scene.
On approaching the site, we got out of our vehicle and advanced
towards the scene with caution. On the ground, we found one elephant carcass
with its tusks missing. The poachers had just left. We quickly followed their
fresh foot marks. We walked for about 15 km and finally got to a main road,
they had just been picked by a vehicle. I was on edge anticipating any possible
predicament.
7. Tell me some more
interesting things about your time as a wildlife ranger.
Way back in 1993, when I was working at Nairobi National Park, I
was informed by the community warden that there was a report on lions which had
strayed out of the park to and preying on livestock. As normal, I immediately
went to the armory and picked a suitable weapon for the intended task.
We departed the office for the mission area at around 0900 hours
and when we got there, the owner of the livestock was waiting for us. He showed
us the carcass of a cow that had been killed by the lion and where they thought
the lion was at that time. We were unable to locate the culprit lion even after
combing the area for about three hours. Just when we were about to give up, one
community member proposed that we use tracker dogs to track the lion in the
thicket. Sure enough, the lion roared inside the bush and we called in the vet
team for sedating and relocating it back to the national park.
After the vet moved in and darted the lion, we began our
approach. We moved closer while in the vehicle to scare it away but the lion
didn’t move. At one point we thought it was dead. The vet darted it, but the
lion still didn’t move. We decided to come out of the vehicle and approach it
on foot. In a split second, the lion roared and jumped over the vehicle and ran
away with the dart still on him. We gave it a chase for a while, then the drugs
took control and it fell down. We narrowly escaped death that day.
8. What sort of
changes have you noticed over the course of your career, in terms of the
wildlife and visitors to Kenya?
I have noticed that the population of wildlife is decreasing
because of human population pressure. Hitherto wildlife habitats are decreasing
day by day, hence calls are needed for urgent measures. In terms of
visitors to national parks, the numbers have increased with the noticeable
increase of tourists from the Far East market.
9. What kind of impact
(emotional or logistical) has the poaching crisis had on you, and how do you
adapt?
Emotional. It is very difficult when a fellow ranger is injured
or killed by poachers. This always affects the team members and sometimes
affects their performance.
Logistical. Following poachers requires a lot of resources (men,
rations, water, transport), these have impacted the performance of the
protection teams that are now overstretched by the demand to respond to
emergencies everywhere.
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