Latest news on the Hippos: by Karen Paolillo.

2002 was a year of mixed blessings.
Zimbabwe as a Country was destroyed daily due to politics and man's greed for power and control. We tried to remain calm amidst chaos and collapse, continuing to try to improve the Turgwe Hippos' lives
At times the human spirit weakens and depression can win over positive thoughts, but in general we managed to rise above most of the problems and find as much good as we could in our world gone mad.
Never in my lifetime in this once beautiful Country have I seen so much pain, sadness, sorrow and madness. Yet here at Hippo Haven the animals get on with their lives, oblivious to man's policies.

This wildlife Conservancy, supposedly set aside as a wildlife area, by agreement between government and landowners, (for businesses in that line) has still nearly half of the million acres invaded.
Nowadays more than a thousand people move on and off of the properties to poach and kill the animals, cut the trees, burn the grass and generally destroy a once pristine wildlife habitat.
We are in the southern half of the Conservancy and our home borders two properties taken over by so called war veterans and their minions.
Just one kilometer from our home the land has been raped.
Trees burnt and cut down, large areas totally cleared of all vegetation to plant crops that can never grow, as this is a drought prone area. In all the years that man has inhabited this area no crops have grown without irrigation and here it is not possible to irrigate, as there is no permanent water
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We believe that most of the so called "settlers" who have moved onto these lands are not here to grow crops anyway; they have been sent here to destroy, to kill all that they can and to do as much damage to demonstrate that they are in charge.

Do they not realize that even a little baby can destroy something, but to build is a completely different story

Previously even this pristine wildlife land had been managed by the real owners. Controlled burning to keep long and unpalatable grasses from taking over good grazing. Collecting records of the animal species in the areas and improving them by introducing others, helping genetics and improving the breeding of the animals. Management of water sources and building more areas where an animal can drink and have a water hole, the creation of weirs in the river and so on.
All of these developments have cost the real owners time, money and effort, but to destroy decades of work can be done in but a few months, as we are seeing on a daily basis.

I want in this Newsletter though to try and speak of some of the positive things that have happened during 2002 and not dwell too much on the negative.

Firstly the birth of two new hippo calves Hope, born in early February and Sabi, in early April, both females and offspring respectively of Cheeky and Surprise.
Now in early 2003 the calves are growing beautifully.
They have just survived their first really big flood of the Turgwe River, a time that is fraught with danger for a little hippo.
They have gone through the whole of 2002 without thank God, being caught in one of the poachers wire snares. They have learnt like all little hippos to play with each other and their siblings, they know which grasses taste the best, they have their own associations with other hippos in the group and they continue to learn what it is all about to be a hippo.

Up until November 2002, 19 hippos including Hope and Sabi lived next to our home, Hippo Haven. Living in the pool that Jean-Roger had opened up for them at the Chinchindwi weir.
Twice in 2002 it became necessary for Jean to take the Trust sand pump back into the pool and spend up to three weeks using the suction pipes to suck out the sand and create deeper and larger areas for the hippos to live in
This gave them all sufficient water to submerge and not be in any way overcrowded.
The sand in the Turgwe River had been brought into it during the 2000 cyclone, silting up the main river and clogging up all natural areas where the hippos used to live.
The Chichindwi weir was the last weir not breached during that period and yet it still filled with sand so we needed to work the pool to make it habitable again for the hippos
That pool ended up being the only area within the Turgwe River where hippos, crocodiles and fish could comfortably live.
At one stage we had 20 crocodiles living with the 19 hippos.

Between working the pool and recording the hippos' daily lives we also spent each day patrolling the immediate area around the pool. We covered approximately 3 square kilometers a day in search of the wire snares that the poachers set to trap and kill the wild animals.
In 2002 we personally removed just under 400 snares in this small area. Over double of what we found in 2001. We also were responsible for the neighbours game scouts finding another 250 snares in the same area, again double to 2001. Hence sadly, the poaching is on the increase.

I would like to explain to you what a poacher here is all about. Many people in Europe have the wrong conception of a poacher: some quaint old man stealing the odd rabbit or pheasant from some aristocrat's land.
A wealthy man who often in the people's eyes actually deserves this theft, as he himself has an annual shoot where hundreds of these rabbits or birds are shot by him and his friends.
Or perhaps in the USA people associate a poacher to some down and out in need of nourishment and hence driven to act in such a way, yet again stealing from the rich, when he is so poor.

Here in the Save Valley Conservancy the poachers around our home are the same people who on a daily basis, operate here to kill the animals. They are not killing for food, but for money. They are very organized, each having his own patch of land where he poaches. They sell the meat to the highest bidders and they are more or less above the law. Often if caught they are released. The police say that they live on the now "occupied land" and hence are new "settlers" and untouchable, thanks to politics.
Alternatively due to Zimbabwe's lack of food they are just given community service and not jailed, as there is not enough food to feed all the criminals. Community service is a joke as they poach on the way to the job and on the way home. Many of the poachers that game scouts have caught are released the day they are taken to the police and are back poaching the very next day. Law and order is still a thing of the past at present in Zimbabwe. People can more or less do whatever they want, as long as they belong to the right political party.
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So the men who poach around us are becoming extremely wealthy people but they will only stop when there is nothing left. Not a bird that flies, nor a fish that swims nor a mammal that runs. They will destroy all.
We find in the area we patrol the same snares set in the same places over and over again. Each poacher has his own signature: how he ties his wire nooses on trees and bushes etc. Also the men are creatures of habit and often leave a specific signature when they slaughter the animal.

One man leaves always the animal's head. Another leaves the animals' four legs always together, separate to the rest of its carcass, and so on.

In 2002 as well as the 650 snares found in our area we found seven poachers camps, where they smoke the meat of the animal they have killed. We found caught and killed in the snares and sometimes cut up, 23 mammals, two skinned pythons and 3 cut up tortoises.
Amongst the mammals were the antelopes: kudu, impala, waterbuck, wildebeest, warthog and bushpig, baboons, plus a couple of snared dassies or hyrax as they are known by.

That was just a tiny drop in the ocean of what these men are killing around us. We removed many of their snares but then they just move to another area and return to us after a few days.
This Wildlife area used to have an electric fence around the boundary of the million acres. When the Conservancy was first invaded back in April of 2000 the people cut the wire and the poachers began to steal some of it. Now many many kilometers of wire have been stolen and now used as snares.

Within the river system of the Turgwe only two pools were left with water decent enough for several species of the river fishes to survive. The fish in the rest of the river have been fished out by the invaders, their families and anybody who felt like fishing.
Yet not sustainable like in the previous years when many people were allowed to fish in the river systems but these people fish with large nets. Nets made from mosquito netting or shade cloth where even the tiny fries, the baby fish could not escape. Hence total decimation of the fish population.

We tried and continue to try to protect the fish around our home. On many occasions Jean-Roger or myself have heard voices and seen people netting, hidden in reeds below our home.
Jean would climb down the riverbank and try to apprehend those responsible. Nine times out of ten they would run like the wind the moment they spotted Jean. All dropping their nets and fish and running away.
On one occasion Jean-Roger could not believe his eyes.
He managed to sneak up on the sound of people netting. As he suddenly appeared through the reeds the group of eight people bombshelled. Among these were father, mother, sister, brothers, and uncle of one tiny toddler of around two to three years of age.

All the family ran and much to Jean's absolute astonishment they left the baby behind.
Nowhere in our knowledge of people or for that matter any animal species have we heard of a mother deserting her young. She will normally fight to the death to protect her child, but these people just dumped their fish, net and baby and ran off!
The baby proceeded to scream its little head off and Jean really didn't know what to do.
The river by the way is home to many crocodiles that often hide in the reeds. crocodiles eat people, especially small ones!

Whilst he stood there in indecision, from another side of the river two game scouts arrived dragging behind them the mother and one son, who had literally ran into their arms. The scouts, unbeknown to Jean, had seen the people in the river from the other bank and were on their way to arrest them.
The fate of the little baby did not in anyway concern the mother.
This was an eye opener for both Jean and I!

What must be pointed out here is that these people did not need to fish, they are just opportunists, The fish were there and they know that if they do not take them all then somebody else will. So the main fish population of the Turgwe exists now in but the two hippo pools!

These people are also not part of the starving millions that do try to survive in present day Zimbabwe. They are all supporters of our present government and hence get a regular delivery of maize meal (their staple diet) plus they have access to meat from the poachers who are all connected and hence untouchable in a court of law. Anyone working with the so called war vets who stole and moved into the house next to our home do not go hungry. That war vet has access to food and regularly supplies all of these people with maize.

I mentioned in last year's newsletter that poachers threatened Jean and I with our life hanging in the balance on both occasions.
Already in early 2003 we have had an incident, again a contact with two poachers.
Just after the New Year we found a snare with beside it the head of a female waterbuck and her unborn calf! We found a further four snares in the vicinity.
That afternoon we covered another little dry riverbed about one kilometer from the butchered waterbuck.
I was patrolling in the river Jean was above me on the riverbank. We always walk in sight of each other. Suddenly I heard the noise of metal being banged, a sure sign of man around. Jean had disappeared so obviously had heard it at the same moment. I became cautious and moved into the thick bushes on the side of the river. Within seconds I see two men running towards me with Jean-Roger in hot pursuit of the one poacher.
That man made the mistake of running up the riverbank opposite to me, a steep rise. Jean is from the French Alps and is much faster uphill than on a level stretch, having climbed mountains since childhood.
He caught up with the man and jumped him. The man became quite feral, trying to bite Jean and lunge at him. Jean realized that he would either have to let go, or defend himself, as we carried no handcuffs.
The man narrowly missed Jean's wrist with his teeth so Jean used a pepper spray in one of the man's eyes. Instead of slowing the man down this made him even more ferocious and he lunged out at Jean managing to steal Jean's walking stick.
At the same time he dropped the sack he was carrying which contained 7 snares and a knife and ran off.
Jean let him go as he realized we had nothing to restrain him with. We now intend to get some handcuffs!

Fortunately we found no more snares as Jean had literally surprised the two as they were setting their first snare, which we then removed. So for once we beat them to actually setting their snares and killing an animal. For the next two weeks that area remained quiet with no more new snares but then of course it started up again.

We have no recourse but to continue our patrolling until we pray some form of stability as well as law and order return to Zimbabwe.
We are told by the owners of the lands in this Conservancy that the government still says that this land is for wildlife and all so called " Settlers" are to be removed.
Yet we have been hearing that for the last two years and all we see are more lands being cleared, more animals killed and far more snares being set.

We cannot though lose Hope

This year the Trust will continue to open the Chichindwi weir pool for the hippos to utilize that is if we can buy the necessary diesel to run the pump. All goods, foodstuffs, etc. are either in very short supply or completely unavailable these days in Zimbabwe.

We supplementary fed the hippos during November. The invaders had burnt out the hippos' grazing back in September and all of the hippos were beginning to lose condition. Our neighbours actually have managed to farm a bit of maize on the irrigated part of their property, 22 kilometers from here. They let us have the maize stalks and I had managed to buy game pellets, a protein rich food which is very much in short supply. We fed the hippos for the entire month of November. Then some welcome rain helped the grass to grow and we stopped feeding. We never fed a complete diet as these animals are wild and we do not want them to be dependant on human care.

Where we can assist, when it is man in the first place who has burnt out their grass we do.

Our rains have been poor and we may need to feed the hippos properly later this year. We will have to wait to see. I am though stocking up with game pellets before they become an item of the past. This is thanks to a foster parent in the UK who generously helped the hippos allowing me to buy a few tons of this food.

We will continue work for these hippos, as we have no intention of giving up. Their lives and their supporters are far too important for us to walk away from.

Karen Paolillo, Hippo Haven, Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe. February 2003.