A Maasai rhino ranger at Chester Zoo (The Horn, Autumn 2006)
In order to raise awareness and money for the EAZA Rhino Campaign, and in addition to its ongoing educational activities, Chester Zoo invited a very special guest to the UK for two weeks in August. Wilson Mancha Selengia is the game scout leader of Richard Bonham’s rhino unit in the Chyulu Hills in Kenya, a project with which Chester Zoo has been involved since 2003 through Save the Rhino International.
Wilson is 25 years old, and has been in charge of the rhino unit since April 2004. After completing a course on basic military training – including foot drill, fire fighting, camp craft, first aid, physical fitness, communication and interpersonal relations, and a series of seminars on nation-building issues – he served as an intern with the school for Field Studies. His main role was to collect data on wildlife population and movement within the Kimama Community Wildlife Sanctuary. He applied for the position in the Chyulus along with 14 other people, and got the job. At that time, there were only six members of the rhino unit (there are 15 today) and no leader. He gained an award in wildlife management just a few months ago.
I meet Wilson at Chester Zoo. He is having a great time, discovering many animals he has never seen before. He tells me, “I had always wished to be involved in wildlife management with black rhinos, and endangered species and getting this position is a big step forward.
Everything is so different from Kenya,” he continues. “I had never been abroad before. The flight from Nairobi was really long and at some point, I thought the plane was lost in the sky. And the roads are so nice. No dust around when you drive! Also, the lights are working and people always stop when they turn red.”
Each morning, Wilson meets the keepers and has the chance to spend some time with the animals they take care of. “You know, I had never touched a rhino before. Normally, I observe them from a distance and sometimes climb a tree to avoid a charge. I was also very amazed by the tigers, the sea lions and those elephants from Asia with no tusks! A lion came running to his keeper and I was really scared, I ran away. Normally, I only see them from a distance.”
Today, as usual, Wilson is going to the Tsavo rhino enclosure with Marisa, a member of the education team led by Stephen McKeown and Maggie Esson. For two hours, they talk to visitors about rhinos and the EAZA Rhino Campaign, sell raffle tickets and dress the kids with real Maasai blankets and necklaces. When Marisa explains that Wilson is a Maasai rhino ranger coming from Kenya, the kids look at him in admiration. Always smiling, he poses for a picture and talks about his job, carrying a riffle on his shoulder.
“I like tracking rhinos, their movement in the bush and studying their behaviour and the species of plants they eat,” he says. “I enjoy seeing a mother with a calf eating peacefully in the bush.” Then Wilson shows a snare. “Last year, we collected 210 of them. One day, during one of our daily foot patrols, we found a wildebeest but also a giraffe caught in snares, dead. We also found two speared elephants. The spears are always poisonous. When we have an injured elephant, we call the Sheldrick’s team in Tsavo or the Amboseli elephant project. Then they come and look after the animal. We have close relations with them and Kenya Wildlife Service.”
“But our job can be very dangerous. One man called Kimilo was trying to poach rhinos in the Park with two other men. They were feeding on eland, gazelles, and wildebeests. We tracked them and finally found them at night because they had lit a big fire in a cave. They tried to kill us with their poisonous arrows. But we were ten rangers and we could arrest them. Now they are in jail for five years. But those people are human beings and most of the time, hunt because they have nothing to eat. So we try not to shoot at them but in the air.”
Regularly, he uses the small digital camera that the education team have lent him and takes a picture. Some memories to take with him to Kenya.
When I finally ask him if he would like to stay longer in the UK, he replies: “I really like it here and everyone is very friendly. I go out at night with the staff members and this is very nice but I prefer the animals in the wild. And while I am here, poachers might be looking for rhinos. Back home, I like telling the communities about the animals they have never seen and try to involve some more people in conservation. I think we do not involve the communities enough. I would like to be able one day to start an education project about rhinos for those communities and the students. If people can help us by giving information about these animals, that will make a difference.”
In the canteen where we are having lunch, Wilson answers more questions about his work. His stay at Chester has been a great experience for everyone: the visitors, the Zoo staff and Wilson himself. He will have so much to say to his team, when around the fire at night in the bush, on one of their regular rhino patrols.
Renaud Fulconis
EAZA Rhino Campaign Manager
From an email sent by Maggie Esson to Richard Bonham:
‘This to confirm that we put Wilson on a plane yesterday evening in Manchester. Alas he was proudly sporting a Manchester United shirt (a present from one of my staff) rather than his ranger uniform. So I hope we haven’t done more harm than good!
“He has, I believe, had a successful trip, certainly from our point of view. He has worked hard and engaged the public very well.
“He is absolutely loaded with luggage: 15 polo shirts and caps from Chester Zoo, two new rucksacks, a sleeping bag and fifteen polar fleeces from Cathy, new hiking boots etc. He has been well entertained by my staff and received many gifts when he left including cards and book which the staff had signed. I hope Wilson will show them to you. He has been taking photographs all the time and we have copied them on to a CD plus run some out as prints. He was particularly taken with our okapi and couldn’t believe this animal was from Africa. On his last day he fed a bottle to our baby giraffe and went onto our lemur island to feed the ring-tailed lemurs, who are very tame and climbed all over him. He also touched a live black rhino for the first time while working on the rhino section.
“I hope we have inspired him to go on to do things with rhino conservation. I’ll await your feedback with interest!’
Thanks. Maggie Esson
Grant news
We are delighted to announce that we have just transferred US $44,162 from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to the Chyulu Hills rhino project. This grant will help pay for scouts’ salaries, uniforms, kit, training, rations and medical expenses, for vehicle fuel and maintenance, for incentives for informers, for radio maintenance, and for the construction of elephant fences around three waterholes and an observation tree platform. We are very grateful to USFWS for its support.