February was a busy month for SWT/KWS Anti-Poaching Teams, despite the onset of unseasonal rains that relieved many landscape pressures. Rangers patrolled 30,278 kilometres, lifted 1,094 snares, and made 29 arrests. They also supported a wide range of field operations, including a number of wildlife rescues, from a bull elephant trapped in a watering hole to orphaned warthogs and zebras.
The 29 arrests made during the month included five suspected bushmeat poachers, 12 herders found illegally grazing livestock in protected areas, two firewood collectors, two charcoal burners, four loggers, and four individuals arrested for illegal entry into the parks. Teams also destroyed charcoal kilns, harbours, hides, and camps used by offenders, and evicted livestock from protected areas with associated bomas dismantled. Three elephant carcasses were discovered during patrols, and 68 kilograms of ivory were recovered and handed to KWS for safekeeping.
Teams responded to eight human-wildlife conflict missions, pushing elephants out of community areas, alongside veterinary operations and wildlife rescues. The Burra Team extinguished a bushfire and, the following day, extracted a buffalo that had become stuck in mud. The Kulalu Team supported a complex operation to free an adult bull elephant from a watering hole. The Yatta Team worked alongside the new Drone Units and also supported the treatment of an injured giraffe.
Elsewhere, the Kenze Team rescued a snared antelope in the Chyulu Hills, the Kulalu II Team rescued a baby warthog, the Meru Team came to the aid of an orphaned bushbuck, and the Mtito Team helped rescue an orphaned zebra foal. The Kwale Team, meanwhile, arrested a poacher found in possession of fresh bushmeat.