Zakouma National Park, Chad

Achievements

Zakouma is especially renowned for its free roaming herds of African elephants; now stable, but greatly reduced by a frenzy of poaching, which saw approximately 4000 killed in 10 years.  The last elephant poached inside the park boundary was in October 2011 when 7 elephant were killed in one incident. The method of shooting indiscriminately into the panicked, tightly packed herd is the normal modus operandi of the mounted poachers and of course devastatingly effective with up to 30 animals of all ages killed in one go, with many dying later from bullet wounds. Sadly, almost no calves had been born in the last few years presumably as a result of the stress caused by years of poaching. However, in early 2013, two calves were spotted in the main elephant herd. It is hoped that the presence of the calves marks a turning point in the fortunes of the Park’s elephant herds.

The remaining key species in the park are stable or on the increase and in general the ecosystem is healthy with the buffalo population in particular showing a huge recovery from an estimated 220 in 1986 to just over 8000 in 2012.  Herds of 600-700 orange tinted buffalo, an intermediate form between the forest and Cape buffalo, are a sight to see.

A better understanding of the movements of Zakouma’s elephants is still key to our successful protection efforts. In 2012, a further six satellite collars were fitted on elephants to try and ensure that at least one collar is present in each herd. Information was also received from villagers about a herd of elephants living near Fodjo Swamp, about 80km outside Zakouma. This was followed up on, and one cow was successfully collared in this herd of 13 individuals, who are resident in that area.

Five tiang and one cheetah were also collared in the park to enable us to better understand their movements. Each collared tiang migrated to the north of the park spending five to six months outside the park, only returning to Zakouma during December. The cheetah remained in the east of the park with short forays outside the park boundary at times.

The relationship between the park and local communities is better than it has ever been as local people are reaping the benefits from extensive law enforcement patrols in their areas especially during the wet season. Communities now willingly provide information on potential threats to Zakouma rangers and elephants. Links with outlying communities were maintained and built upon, with regular meetings held with village leaders.

The park launched an educational outreach programme in 2012 and employed four school teachers and two community officers. Primary and secondary schools in Goz Djarat were provided with school benches, temporary classrooms and teaching aids. Exercise books with an elephant conservation theme as well as educational games were distributed. Various youth groups visited Zakouma during the dry season and were taken on game drives, with many of these youngsters seeing wildlife for the first time.

In 2012, a volunteer worked in Tinga Camp for the year to improve the quality of the camp. New staff accommodation was built and eight of the guest rooms were refurbished. The power supply was overhauled, with solar panels and batteries consolidated at back of house. Landscaping was done in the camp to provide more privacy to the units. The main lounge/dining area was also refurbished and game viewing vehicles were rebuilt to provide more comfort to guests. A mobile fly camp enabling guests to spend a night under the stars was developed for use at Reguiek during the best game viewing months. Work commenced on a day visitor centre and camp site downstream from Tinga, which will provide inexpensive accommodation to visitors from local towns.

In early 2012, all Zakouma rangers underwent a month of training primarily in shooting and arrest tactics, with eight rangers from the regional wildlife authority joining the training. Despite this, our rangers faced an ever present threat of attack by poachers when following the elephant herds outside the park. However, the assassination of an entire patrol team on 3 September 2012 during their predawn prayers at the Heban outpost 90km north of the park, came as a terrible shock. Zakaria Ibrahim, Brahim Khamis, Daoud Aldjouma, Djibrine Adoum Goudja and Idriss Adoum were shot dead at close range while Hassan Djibrine managed to escapebut has not been found and is presumed dead. The camp attendant, Seïd Djimet, was injured but managed to escape and raised the alarm.

We have no doubt that this incident was a reprisal attack for the raid conducted on a poachers’ camp two weeks earlier, during which valuable poaching evidence was found. Two Chadian men were subsequently arrested relating to the murder of our guards and are in prison awaiting trial. The Heban outpost was one of two new posts which we put in place for the 2012 wet season.

The military precision of the Heban attack made us aware of a new, more dangerous threat to our park rangers and elephant population. A revised anti-poaching strategy was prepared and requests were submitted to government for the required permissions.

The new strategy is three-pronged: to equip and train a Rapid Response Team for the park and periphery, to improve our information gathering and to assist villages with schools and teachers in the corridor areas through which the elephants migrate to their wet season feeding grounds.