Poachers and the Camera Trap
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2005
1
254
354
Trip End
Ongoing
The Celestial Mountains, Sarychat-Ertash Zapovednik,
Kyrgyzstan
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Climbing high once again the next day, we found Snow Leopard tracks and scat, which Akeel called "Alexander's Vinaigrette." We collected the "vinaigrette" for Alexander to examine later so he could know what they were eating: mainly ibex. Akeel and Alexander then measured the tracks and the length of the leopard's pace to give a signature of sorts to the animal. Two leopards were in this valley, Alexander noted as we reached a high point surrounded by the Ak-Shirak Range. He pointed at tracks on a snowy ridge, visible through binoculars, that marked the second leopard. The leopards were reproducing and had plenty of ibex to eat.
For much of this time, I was scanning the rocks and cliffs for ibex and snow leopards, hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive feline and help a bit with the survey
Ak-Shirak Massif: Frozen Headwaters
. Sometimes I would see something, but alas it was only a rock look-alike. Once again, the way down was challenging, as we crossed slate scree covered with a dusting of slick snow, a long fall down below. Satan slipped several times as I held on tightly encouraging him along the way: "you're doing great...take your time, this section's tricky." Satan's ears turned backwards, listening.
At Bordu Camp, the third and most remote camp in the core area, we surveyed for a full day, staying two nights. The camp had suffered from a bear attack, with muddy paw prints still on the walls and damage to the ceiling, unrepaired. Another bear decided to meddle with science, Alexander recalls, laughing: the bear tried to eat a camera-trap designed to photograph and identify snow leopards. Pictures of the bear's eye or ear filled the camera, which survived the attack.
The results of the camera traps were poor: next time we need to find better locations, Alexander said, as the results were not reflective of actual snow leopard populations as measured looking at their tracks, home ranges, and other signs. The camera traps are placed in pairs to automatically photograph both sides of whatever animal crosses between them
Akeel and Ascat Confront the Poacher
. Since snow leopards often follow set trails and tracks and ridgetops, these areas can be best for camera traps.On December 13, Alexander and I were photographing and videotaping a large flock of argali sheep when the gunshots echoed through the valley, sending animals running up the ridge. On the far ridge, I saw a horse. The man had to be that way. "Briconnier," fumed Alexander as we walked towards the horse. Askat and Akeel were a few minutes behind us. We took the horse and waited until the hidden poacher surrendered, giving Akeel his gun. Alexander then interrogated him, as the poacher begged for forgiveness.
In the distance, a man on a horse approached, but turned around quickly and galloped away as soon as he realized what was happening. But a half hour later, three riders were approaching, joining their friend and us.
The poacher with the rifle and scope had missed his quarry, but earlier he had killed an ibex. The group had butchered the ibex and bagged the meat--about forty pounds--which we confiscated, along with the rifle.
Alexander was clearly angry after they had left
Akeel Priming the Kerosene Stove
. The guards are corrupt he was muttering, speaking of the military checkpoints on the only road to the park. The poachers had undoubtedly bribed these officers so they could pass with their horses and rifle, he was thinking.Poaching is a major problem for the wildlife in the mountains of Central Asia. Argali meat can be found in local markets. As argali are the largest sheep species, they provide an excellent source of protein for little effort, especially in Sarychat-Ertash, known for having large concentrations of sheep. The successful return of the argali in the park, therefore, increases the threat, especially since outside the park, wildlife has dwindled.
But as the poacher was begging for forgiveness you could only appreciate the other side as well: that this man didn't want to do anything wrong, but he needed to provide meat for his family, to last the long winter, to survive high unemployment rates. He was doing only what people had been doing for millenia--hunting wild animals--as the petroglyphs in the region indicated. Hunting wild animals provides a direct connection with nature and the animals are free for their entire lives, by contrast with today's factory farms. But today, with millions more people, the scenario has changed: not everyone can be hunter-gatherers on this overburdened earth
Alexander Talks About Poaching to the Videocamera
.Surrounding the park were extensive hunting reserves, established to allow foreign hunters with large pocketbooks to hunt the prized Marco Polo Sheep, with its immense size and horns. One hunter will pay around $19,000 to shoot one trophy ram. Wolves and ibex can also be hunted, for an exta fee, paid to the Russian or American firms organizing the hunt, with a cut going to the government and only $150 paid for a CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) permit, giving these hunters the right to bring their trophy home with them.
A Karakol man told me a story of one of these hunters: "The old hunter couldn't see very well and didn't want to go by horse or walk, but had money so they went by helicopter. The Marco Polo Sheep were below. He shot and missed. 'Go closer,' he said. Then he shot again. He hit the inside fuel tank, which leaked everywhere. The helicopter fell to the ground. The man had money so gave lots of money and said 'don't say anything about this.'"
Money talks in these impoverished regions, but at the same time a hunting reserve can easily be mismanaged, if wildlife populations aren't adequately surveyed to determine a sustainable hunt. Given the high payoff ratio, the foreign hunting companies benefit from overexploiting the herds in the near term. Alexander says that now they even enter within the park boundaries, as the wildlife in the hunting reserves has been seriously depleted.
Indeed that is what we saw. On the way through the core area, we had seen about 1300 argali, with undoubtedly more counted in the buffer areas, another record year
Bordu Cabin
. This was a success story, though only for a relativly small area. In the surrounding hunting reserve, which we drove through on the way back to Karakol, we saw only five argali, despite seemingly good habitat.Economics, social ecology, and improper administration are all to blame for the problems affecting wildlife in the Celestial Mountains. For one, the large majority of income from wildlife was generated by hunting yet most of this income did not benefit the sustainable management of the wildlife it exploited. At the same time, the local communities were impoverished, despite the world's largest gold mine and thousands of argali right in their back door. Sarychat-Ertash itself, though supported in part through the neighboring Kumtor gold mine and international conservation groups, still wondered whether it could fund its 20-year management plan.
Alexander and I discussed that perhaps the system could be re-worked so that the hunting reserves were sustainable, so that trophy hunting income could benefit the park and the local communities, so that the threats to the wild animals would decrease over the long term, so that perhaps responsible wildlife tourism could also be developed in the area. There are many ways to accomplish this, that allows the local communities to regain more control over their local resources while better protecting wildlife.
Before we left the park, we took the poached ibex meat and left it for the wolves and eagles. We looked at the red pile in the middle of the icy grassland for a while. It wouldn't go to waste and it was the right thing to do, a small offering to the park and the successful restoration of wildlife. "New tradition," smiled Alexander as we rode out of Sarychat-Ertash National Preserve, with Satan as my steed.
