Jackals in the Mist

The weather here has been unusually bad the last few days. Non-stop rain and very cold. So we haven't trapped any animals in a few days. However, before the rain descended on Nyungwe, we were lucky enough to catch a young jackal in one of our larger traps. Jackals are closely related to dogs and are opportunistic carnivores that feed on small mammals, birds, reptiles, and other prey items like insects.  Initially I was very excited that we finally captured a jackal. But after sedating her and giving her a physical exam, my excitement turned to sadness. She was only about a year old (5.5kg) but had a serious snare injury to her right front paw. Her leg was broken at the wrist, and the pad of her paw was seriously mangled- only two of her five pads of the paw remained. She had an obvious snare scar just above her mangled paw, and above the scar, her wrist was bent - clearly fractured. I don't know what her chances of surviving such an injury are, but I suspect they aren't great. Jackals typically hunt by pouncing on their prey, and with one of her two front paws being useless, I don't see how she will survive in the long run. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe that was why she was in my trap at all (ie. hunger).

It is becoming increasingly clear that the plight of Nyungwe's carnivores is not a priority in Rwanda. For one, carnivores are elusive and nocturnal, tourists or locals rarely see them so they can't be used to bring in tourist dollars into the country.  One hears much about the state of gorillas and birds throughout the world, but the plight of poorly studied carnivores in these remote mountains, where it is almost impossible to see these creatures, is not on anyone's mind, even those government and NGO agencies responsible for conservation.

Studying carnivores can be difficult and frustrating work — people are generally either afraid of carnivores or generally dislike them because they can prey on their livestock, so there is little incentive to protect them. Poachers can receive either much-needed protein from hunting carnivores or money for selling snared wildlife in remote villages, or more likely, across the border in the DRC, a mere 40km away.

This is not the first snare injury I have seen. My camera traps have captured images of other jackals with snare scars on their wrists. And these are just pictures of animals that survive- I'm sure there are many more of the smaller carnivores that aren't able to free themselves from the snares of poachers.  It's also interesting to talk to locals about carnivores here. Some people boast that they have seen leopard and golden cat (the two most elusive carnivores that have existed in Nyungwe in the past- now it is not clear if they have been extirpated here or not). Yet, most of the people I talk to aren't able to even differentiate between even common, non-carnivore species, like primates.

For example, my two students from NUR came to work here for the last month on their thesis projects. I received a call from them one day as they were going to check their traps that they had run into "monkeys" blocking the trail. I tried to ascertain what species of monkey (there are 13 species here and only one is aggressive, the olive baboon). They said they didn't know what species it was, only that it was grey. I asked for other descriptions (are they in the trees or on the ground? How big are they? How many?). The students were petrified of the animals and could only tell me some vague details. I told them to hang out and see if the troop moved away, otherwise they could eventually clap their hands and slowly approach them. I received a text an hour later saying they (the monkeys) hadn't moved and they were too afraid to approach them. To make a long story short, the monkeys turned out to be olive baboons. Which can be aggressive if you are 1) a stupid tourist who tries to get too close to take a picture, or 2) a stupid tourist/local who tries to feed the animals. But otherwise the animals are fairly mild mannered and given a respectful distance, pose no real threat. But what struck me wasn't what species they were, so much as my undergraduate biology students, one of whom grew up at Akagara National Park (where there are tons of baboons), couldn't identify them, even though theyare extremely common in Rwanda.

So if Zoology students aren't able to identify one of the most common primate species found in Rwanda, then I don't rely too heavily on the ancedotal "sightings" of leopards and golden cat that I have heard about in Nyungwe. For one, leopards look a lot like serval (large spotted felid), and solitary cats are amongst some of the most elusive of carnivores to ever see. There's really no telling what carnivore species remain in Nyungwe. I can tell you however, that if you go to websites endorsing tourism at the National Parks in Rwanda, you'll be surprised to know that these websites say that tigers, yes TIGERS, are in Rwanda!! Tigers are in India and other parts of Asia. See for yourself: http://www.akageralodge.co.rw/games/wild%20activites.htm

I'm hoping that my camera trapping might begin to shed some light on whether some of these rarer carnivore species exist, and what habitat they prefer. Perhaps this data can be used to encourage further conservation measures in Nyungwe - specifically, to protect wildlife from illegal poaching. Because while no tourist will ever likely see a wild leopard at Nyungwe, they still remain one of the more charismatic carnivores (after lions) that persist in Rwanda, and perhaps knowing they exist might draw some tourist dollars to this part of the country.  Unfortunately, it seems that money is the only real incentive for developing conservation plans in most of Rwanda