Gripolo the Tracker and the Crocodile Trap
Category: Out on Patrol | Date: Apr 06 2007 | By: admin
I would like you to meet one of our trackers, his name is Gripolo. He has worked for over 35 years with the Congo Rangers, and has helped us with providing vital information as well as joining us on many expeditions and patrols.
Gripolo joined the Troop on all of the patrols for every day of the ten that they were there. Below you can see the Troop briefing before entering the forest.
Below, they found this crocodile trap next to the Semliki River. As bait, poachers have used a colobus monkey whith they have trapped previously.
At the entrance of the trap is a circular piece of metal wire, which gets caught around the neck of the crocodile and tightens with movement. On the left of the picture, hanging down, is the branch which is released with movement and pulls the wire taut.
With caution, my men took down this trap, and below you can see just the colobus monkey hanging as bait.
After a full day of patrolling the troop returned to the camp at the Juma Patrol Post.
And the next day they took the vehicle for their return trip to our main base at Mutsora.
I am pleased with the work of my men, but we need to do many more patrols in the future to secure the area and can only do this with the funds and support from all of you reading this blog.
Thank you so much for your help already, with each day our presence here in Virunga National Park grows stronger, which in turn makes this a safer place for the wildlife here.
Technorati : Colobus, Congo, Congo Rangers, Crocodile, Virunga, WildlifeDirect
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3 Responses to “Gripolo the Tracker and the Crocodile Trap”
Fred, on 13 Apr 2007
Thanks for this - can you tell us more about Gripolo’s expertise?
Heather V., on 15 Apr 2007
It is so strange to see a Colobus monkey used as bait. It is a rare treat to see them exhibited in zoos in the United States, so they are considered quite special. When we traveled to Kenya in 2002, we were speechless when we actually saw them in the trees in Crater Lake National Park.
Again, thank you so much for all the hard and dangerous work that you do to protect the animals.
Elie, on 20 Apr 2007
Hello Fred
This man Gripolo is Mbuba Tribe and they are known as bushmen and as such they know well the region.
They find everything for their livelihoods from the bush, and when we built a Patrol Post in Djuma this created restrictions on the tribe to collect firewood, fruit, mushrooms, fish and medicine from the bush. Of course, they are people who have always lived in the bush, and so we worked with them and permitted them to still continue and collect the wood, medicine and mushrooms that they need.
This created a strong relationship, and after that they gave information to the rangers about fauna and especially illegal activities in the area and lead the rangers to where these activities take place. It it not easy to find your way through the forest with a compass, but Gripolo has his own compass in his head and gets us to these places straight away.
They also know very well the park boundaries. We have many problems with local communities, but the Mbuba tribe helps us solve these problems by verifying these boundaries.
They are also used as porters and keep watch around the camp when the rangers are on patrol.
All in all, Gripolo and the Mbuba have been very important in maintaining this sector of the park.
Thank you for your question, I will be pleased to answer many more.
Elie
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