Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.13
Poisoned wood sandpipers (
Tringa glareola
)
Photo taken by Martin Odino
by most consumers and killed in large numbers. The Marabou stork is sometimes referred to as
'
mbuzi
', (i.e., the 'goat') because it is such a large bird.
Most other resident and intra-African birds are seasonally abundant (i.e., only found within the
irrigation scheme when there is a crop). This was particularly the case for the doves and pigeons,
which only fl ocked to the irrigation scheme at harvest time. Likewise, the palaearctic migrants are
only seen in winter, since their breeding grounds occur in the northern tropics. However, certain
palaearctic migrants are especially susceptible to poisoning, despite the short duration of their sea-
sonal occurrence. Incoming palaearctic migrants are particularly vulnerable because they arrive
hungry and will gorge themselves at stopover sites such as Bunyala. The black-tailed godwit suf-
fered very high mortality rates (of 43%) after feeding on laced bait. This migrant species was only
observed at the site at the in-coming stage (August to December) of migration and not during the
return (early in the year when the study began in February and lasted until May) when it probably
follows a different return route. In contrast, the wood sandpipers occurred both at the in-coming and
return migrations, but suffered lower casualties than the godwit.
Some species were very easily poisoned with pesticides. For example, the Abdim's stork was
readily drawn towards the bait and continued consuming poison-laced bait even if they saw other
members of their fl ock becoming intoxicated and disoriented. By contrast, the open-billed stork is
warier, and is alerted by the apparent intoxication of fl ock members. As such, repeated baiting ses-
sions were sometimes required to kill this species.
Cultural practices and beliefs have entrenched the practice of poisoning birds in Bunyala. Even
so, the problem may be more to do with attitude than culture. Many people believe that God has
given what is in the wild to the people, and they will even point to passages in the Bible to justify
their behaviour. People will often see a wild animal such as a baboon or wild boar and exclaim '
kitu
mbaya
', meaning: 'the thing is bad'. Thus we seem to have an attitude problem towards our wildlife,
associating certain wild animals with wickedness, when it is we who are wild towards them.
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