The Nation (Nairobi) April 23, 2005 Barnabas Bii Nairobi
Sitatunga, a rare antelope, faces extinction.
Found only at Kingwal Swamp in Kenya, its numbers have fallen from 300 to less than 50 within two years.
Yesterday, residents of Kingwal in Nandi North District criticised the Kenya Wildlife Service for failure to conserve the rare antelope, now threatened by massive poaching.
They claimed KWS was not helping them to protect the aquatic antelope from wild dogs and people who kill it for its highly valued meat.
On Thursday, the residents saved a male sitatunga from being mauled by a pack of wild dogs. The dogs early this month killed a sitatunga and injured another one last week.
Toretmoi Sitatunga and Biodiversity secretary Julius Tanui said more than 12 sitatunga had been killed in the last three months.
That is really a shame. On one hand, though, your can hardly blame the wild dogs for doing what comes naturally. Unless, they're talking about feral dogs, and not the Wild Dog specie. The fricken poachers need to be made an example of. The Sitatunga is really a neat looking antelope. Of course that goes without saying - it is after all a spiral horned antelope, and they all look way cool.
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need to be made an example of. The Sitatunga is really a neat looking antelope. Of course that goes without saying - it is after all a spiral horned antelope, and they all look way cool.
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