AFRICAN PARK PROBLEMS
By CLELAND SCOTT
KENYA'S two National Parks have only come into being since the war, and each is beset with problems for the trustees. Three species of animals create these difficulties. In the small Nairobi park it is the lions ; in the big Tsavo park rhino and, even more so, elephant are continually harried—almost entirely by African poachers. The Nairobi park is within three miles of the centre of the capital of the Colony, and has far more people in it daily ; and for some time the behaviour of the public was far from good. The conduct of the lions has been well-nigh perfect and their tolerance unbelievable. A semi-circle of fifty cars in no way upsets them, and they amble between the cars most amiably save for occasional faces made by lionesses with small cubs. So long as people stay in their cars even these very jealous mothers, perhaps showing off their cubs for the first time, restrain their natural instincts. Yet in spite of countless notices and warnings, somebody decides to get out of the car. If one day a lioness cuffs such an offender, the outcry will be great, and the lion tribe will be blamed for the bad manners of the public.
Admittedly lions have not suffered from uninteresting and insufficient rations, but they, too, like a change of diet, and although there are hundreds of antelope, zebra and wildebeest in the park, they enjoy beef. Around Nairobi are a number of dairy farms, many of them unfenced, with the cows not in barns ; so they are just too easy for the lions to kill. If the stockman happens to be fond of game, he will ignore an occasional raid and dismiss it as one of the many trials of farming in Africa. But if the lions start returning for such easy and good food it is unreasonable to condemn him for taking his revenge. While lions are first-class hunters, at times they are incredibly stupid, and return to their kill with disastrous results to themselves. A year or so ago a pride that had given untold pleasure to a very great number of people was sadly decimated.
Some months later another pride committed the same offence on a different side of the park. The farmer had recently bought the cattle from a neighbour, and the neighbour knew that the wardens were doing their best to drive back the lions with thunder-flashes. Had they been left alone they would probably have succeeded ; but the late owner was unsympathetic to the park and lined up a number of cars—the more headlamps the better—while he pro- ceeded to shoot and then gave a party after. He was entitled to kill these lions, but he might have used something larger than a 7 mm. and solid bullets for soft-skinned game ; not one beast was killed outright. What was so pathetic about this butchery was that he paralysed a half-grown one, and its mother flung herself over it even though she herself had been wounded. The net result of his efforts was that two half-grown lions and one lioness were killed and another wounded ; fortunately it was only a flesh wound in the neck and she recovered: He received, as he was entitled to, the skins ; but the carcasses were left on the weld some miles away, and one lioness spent most of the day guarding them so that the vultures should not eat them. However severely lions may be wounded, they will always try to drag themselves to cover simply because they do not intend that the vulture, who has always had to await their pleasure, shall feed on them.
To make a fence lion-proof on the Nairobi side of the park would cost so much that it is at present out of the question, since a deter- mined lion takes a deal of stopping, and the fence would have to extend many miles beyond the end of the area where cattle are kept. It would be interesting to see how much money the public would be willing to subscribe to help preserve the lions which are the main attraction of this park. It seems lamentable that these lovely mid generally well-behaved beasts have to be shot after giving such Pleasure to so many people. More wardens are being engaged, and they will undoubtedly help to preserve the park's greatest asset.
The Tsavo park, whose chief attraction is rhino and elephant, is at present very short of tracks and rest-houses. There the problem i, not to teach these beasts not to misbehave but to retain an unharried supply. Ivory and rhino horn still fetch high prices, while the cost 01 licences to kill either is great, particularly for elephant ; conse-
quently both are manna to the poacher. All that is needed is a rifle or a poisoned arrow, combined with hunting skill. Much of this Tsavo park is trackless, waterless scrub containing extremely dense bush beloved of both species. The actual hunting is done mainly by the Wakamba tribe ; yet without a middleman they would stop poaching. The middlemen arc invariably Indians. Recently sundry Africans have been found wandering about this uninhabited area carrying £45 in cash where there is nothing to buy save illegal ivory. For bona fide hunters the ivory has to be weighed and stamped before a District Officer whether you want it as a trophy or for sale. The middlemen either bribe the African police at the known road blocks, or else chop up the ivory and drop it into tins of ghee (clarified butter) or push it into bags of maize meal. It is then taken to the coast and loaded at some creek into dhows and shipped to India. The only way to stop such traffic is to give the first few offenders such a :.entence that the rest, and they are many, will .reckon that the risk is just not worth it.
Apart from native poachers, there are a few Indian and European hunters who hunt, deliberately, on the park borders, and as soon as a big tuskcd bull wanders outside he is shot ; sometimes he may be killed actually inside, but until boundaries arc properly marked nothing can be done about borderline cases. Wardens of the right type love game, but that does not prevent them wanting to hunt during their leave. To prevent any unpleasant remarks about wardens having an unfair advantage, it could be made illegal foe them to shoot an elephant within fifty miles of a park boundary.
No hunter is infallible, and beasts get wounded. Then they naturally are not kindly disposed towards the sight, sound or smell of anyont. How can they tell that the cause of the smell is a perfectly innocent tourist ? He, being in the park, assumes that the animals are as tame as those in a zoo—which is perfectly true in most cases. A beast suffering from an arrow- or bullet-wound is liable to charge "unprovoked." Thus another problem is pre- sented: Should entrants to the park be permitted to carry arms ? I personally would say no, because so few people are to be trusted with firearms where dangerous game is concerned. Once a man is armed he feels that, however many warnings he may receive from the beast which he is trying to photograph, if the worst comes to the worst he can shoot in self-defence. Also one has to legislate for the person intent on showing off. The tyro may save his own life, but he may leave a wounded beast behind, which then becomes a menace to everyone else. If you have no weapon you take fewer risks.
Someone may get hurt one day, but better that than have a number of potentially dangerous beasts in the park. The number of accid- dents that have happened during the last half-century in all the other national parks can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It ts astonishing, but true, how blase all game becomes once it finds itself unhunted. When poaching is prevented, the game, all of it, will become perfectly docile, as can be seen in the Parc National Albert or the Kruger park. On one track in the Tsavo park there Is a notice saying that the area contains dangerous game and that you enter at your own risk. It ends, "Exercise care."
Today the African and the Indian arc given every possible latitude in breaking the game laws, but if the game is to be preserved, as it can be in a park, it is time that an example be made. Ridiculous sentences like two months in prison or a small fine will never stop the traffic in ivory, which is, after all, an international as much as a national asset, since love of game is not confined to one nation. Anyone, of whatever colour, found carrying weapons in any national park should be run in. No African goes wandering about on the veld with a collection of arrows and a pack of dogs unless he means to hunt. I should have been delighted to shoot sundry antelope and birds for the pot, partly for a change of diet, and partly to save my pocket, but I did not ; and I fail to see why the African, or the Indian, should go unpunished for defying the game laws which help to bring in dollars from American tourists, just because his skin happens to be darker than my own. My partner and I have been living for a year in tents in this park, and we have not carried any weapons, nor kept any in camp ; and we have come to no harm from lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino or elephant in this very attractive piece of Africa.
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