conservation – Page 4 – Moonlion Safaris

Traditonal dhow asail on Lamu seafront, Kenya coast. Picture courtesy Dipesh Pabari

Lamu plastic dhow sails to save oceans

Published on February 26, 2017 by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

Above: Traditional dhow asail on Lamu seafront. Courtesy Dipesh Pabari

Published in The East African, Nation media 25 February-3 March 2017

6-model-of-the-flipflop-covered-dhow-800x600 — A model og the Plastic dhow that will sail from Lamu in Kenya to Cape Town, South Africa – the first journey of its kind – Picture courtesy: Dipesh Pabari

A chance meeting of two high school friends puts in motion something the world has never seen – a life-size plastic dhow to sail Lamu to Cape Town with a message – stop dumping plastic in the ocean.

Lamu Beach clean up. In one day 5 tonnes of plastic debris was removed from the beach. Picture courtesy Dipesh Pabari

Children picking plastic bottles is from the port of Lamu. Picture courtesy Dipesh Pabari

“There’s enough plastic trash in the ocean to make a flotilla,” states Ben Morrison who had an awakening two years ago walking a 10-meter stretch across the beach to the ocean. It was covered in plastic trash. Sailing past were ancient wooden dhows with their lateen sails billowing in the wind that have frequented the east African coast since antiquity.

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Diana Barr working with an Indian cobra. This beautiful snake is one of India's 'Big Four' and is responsible for thousands of deaths every year in India. Rupi Mangat Read

Women in a Venomous Field

Published on January 7, 2017February 19, 2017 by Rupi Mangat1 Comment

Four amazing women make a career of working with snakes. Attending the tenth international snakebite seminar at Bio-Ken snake farm in Watamu recently, each narrates the path taken.

East African 7-13 Jan 2017

Handling live venomous snakes is an extra-ordinary noble but extremely dangerous profession.

One reason for handling venomous snakes is to milk them – which is the only way to obtain snake venom to produce supplies of anti-venom. Without anti-venom being readily available and administered, a bite from any venomous snake can be deadly. Ironically, anti-venom can only be produced from ample supplies of venom from live venomous snakes. And it takes some dexterity to do that.

Diana Barr

Diana Barr keeping a keen eye on her students as they perform venom extraction from a Papuan taipan under her instruction at the Charles Campbell Toxinology Centre in Papua New Guinea. (Left: Owen Paiva, right Benjamin Wawagu Bande). The venom is sent to the Instituto Clodomiro Picado in Costa Rica where it is used to produce lifesaving antivenom. This highly venomous snake has a nervous temperament which coupled with its speed and agility make it an extremely dangerous snake to work with. It is responsible for around one thousand deaths per year in Papua New Guinea. Picture courtesy: Barr

Diana Barr working with an Indian cobra. This beautiful snake is one of India’s ‘Big Four’ and is responsible for thousands of deaths every year in India. Picture courtesy: Barr

Young and dynamic, Barr’s job as technical support officer at the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne and Global Snakebite Initiative, an Australian non-profit organisation working to reduce snakebite deaths and disability around the world, puts her in very close contact with the most venomous snakes in the world.

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Elephant crossing under the bridge of the new SGR crossing point.

The Train and Tuskers of Tsavo

Published on January 4, 2017 by Rupi Mangat1 Comment

The impact of the SGR on the mega-herbivore in the last of its stronghold – the mighty Tsavo

Published The East African Nation media -31 Dec 2016-6Jan 2017

Caption above – Elephant crossing under the bridge of the new SGR crossing point.by Limo Elisha

Under the searing sun of the Tsavo East National Park, a herd of elephants as red as the soil browse near the newly constructed standard gauge railway cutting across the 13,747 square kilometres park.

This section of the railway line near the park’s Manyani Gate is raised on a steep embankment to attain the gradient for the high-speed trains for the SGR. A 70-meter-wide and five-meter-high underpass in the embankment allows the mega herbivore to move to and fro from the adjoining 9,065-square-kilometer Tsavo West National Park – making the two parks the largest protected elephant park.

Until this steep embankment of the SGR was built a year ago, the elephants of Tsavo crossed the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway and the century-old railway line from anywhere they wished along the 137-kilometer span of the highway and rail that ran through the two parks.