An Elephant Killing and the Hounds’ First Operation
by Warden Emmanuel de Merode
On a routine flight over the park on Tuesday, we did a short aerial reconnaissance of the Ishasha Valley, that marks the border with Uganda. As we flew over, one of my passengers saw a lion by the river. Lions have sadly become quite rare and I circled to get a good view. We quickly saw what the lion was after. The large bloated carcass of an adult elephant lay in the bushes by the river. It was clearly an ivory poaching incident: the tusks had been hacked out of the elephant’s face.
We took some photos and headed back for headquarters. As we flew back, I worked on the next steps, instructing the standby section of rangers to prepare for an immediate operation, and briefing Rodrigue, the sector warden in Rwindi, the central sector of the park. I decided to call Marlene in Switzerland. As I described the incident, she decided that the canine unit could handle such an operation. This was a big step, their first anti-poaching operation, after a year of training. We decided to use Shamavu and Dodi, together with Gratien and Lily as backup. They’re a strong team, but it was an incredibly challenging crime scene – the killing had been done four, maybe five days before, and would have been heavily contaminated by scavengers. Still, we have to do everything we can.
The canine unit drove through the night, and early yesterday morning I flew the hounds in. The team quickly found the carcass, and the canine unit got to work. It was a horrific, brutal scene. The investigation was harder than we expected. The poachers had left nothing, just a few broken branches. We decided to use carcass itself as a scent item that the hounds could use to track the poachers, but the tracks were blended in with the passage of every hyena and every lion in the neighbourhood. On top of that, Dodi and Lily took one look at the carcass and bolted. It’s not surprising as the carcass looked terrifying and had a horrific stench. Shamavu spent a good half hour talking to Dodi and reassuring her. He was able to convince her, and she came in. He used a bone as the scent item, and after twenty minutes searching for a trail, they took off.
They crossed the river and headed west at considerable speed, with a defence unit of six rangers on their heels. The trail headed straight towards the fishing village at Nyakakoma. Dodi kept focussed despite the large herds of cob, topi and other animals. We kept on the trail for about seven kilometres, until it was clear that the trail was going to Nyakakoma. There wasn’t much more useful information to be gained at that stage, and Dodi was getting quite tired, so I instructed Shamavu to cease the trail and we flew the dogs back to headquarters.
Last night, Rodrigue moved in with his unit. They patrolled the area through the night, and in the very early hours of the morning saw torches in the savanna. They intercepted the suspects, who immediately opened fire. After a short exchange of fire, the suspects fled, leaving four rifles on the scene. The suspects were poaching, and may well have been the elephant poachers. Rodrigue is continuing the investigation.
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3 Responses to “An Elephant Killing and the Hounds’ First Operation”
Hi,
I Liked your article very much. You folks must be appreciated for using the Man’s Best Friend to save the Elephants and other animals that are being poached.
Please email me more details when you get them. Do you have any videos related to this search?
Thank you and keep up the good work. MY THOUGHTS are with you. I wish I was also there with you all to help you out.
Best
Chandramouli Mettapalli
[...] The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park employs a lean, mean team of crime-fighters to take on evil elephant poachers. These elite commandoes are fearless trackers, work for practically nothing, have exceptional loyalty, and are a pack of adorable puppies. [...]
[...] The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park employs a lean, mean team of crime-fighters to take on evil elephant poachers. These elite commandoes are fearless trackers, work for practically nothing, have exceptional loyalty, and are a pack of adorable puppies. [...]