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Hunting Down Porcupines to Earn a Living
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- Published on Monday, 16 July 2007 23:07
It is not the typical territorial conflict between angry peasant farmers on one side and elephants, lions, hyenas, baboons and leopards on the other.At Borabu, Omae leads the war against the little porcupine that has defied battles waged by villagers for years.
Since colonial times, Omae has trapped and killed countless porcupines - the spiked nocturnal creatures that reap with impunity where man has sown. But there is no end in sight to the crop destruction menace of the porcupine in Borabu - Omae or no Omae.
The war on the porcupine in this village is fuelled by frustration. The villagers don't understand why the little creature, despite its destructive nature, is not viewed as game, like elephant and monkey, for purposes of compensation by the Government.
Mzee Nyambane Omae, 77, shows one of the porcupine traps he laid at a bush in Nyandoche village in Borabu division, Nyamira district .Residents estimate that there are 35 to 40 porcupines per square kilometre in the hilly Borabu settlement scheme, capable of destroying three-quarters of an acre of crop in a month.
But, as the porcupines unleash terror on the main source of livelihood in Borabu, Mzee Omae keeps vigil, laying traps for the animals.
He started trapping the rodents way back in 1959. He ties wires to two flexible wattle branches in the hole where the porcupines live. He then seals all holes that don't lead to the trap with soil and stumps. Porcupines normally live in holes dug by ant bears.
"When the porcupine tries to get out of the hole, it is caught at the entrance by a stick I fix on the main trap, making it unable to move. It dies on the spot," says Mzee Omae, who also goes by the name Kerongo (Kisii for porcupine).
He says up to 10 porcupines stay in one hole and he can trap all of them on a good night. Sometimes he goes a full chilly night without trapping any. He instals up to 23 traps in a day in the vast settlement scheme.
The porcupines caught are of some use to Omae. "There are many uses such as medicine," he says, while others are "processed" into a concoction that is fed to livestock "to make them fierce at night in case rustlers strike". Part of the local lore has it that cows fed with the extracts from porcupine flesh cannot be stolen because they turn wild against rustlers attempting to drive them away.
Omae says it is taboo for a Kisii to eat porcupine meat. The liver of a porcupine, he adds, is used to treat some diseases. "Roast a porcupine's liver, crush it and mix it with either tea or porridge and you will be ok," he says. He uses the quills as treatment for other diseases.
The man is popular in the village. People make orders for the quills while those who want to protect their animals from rustlers want the meat.
But how did he get into this business? "It was just by chance. When I was in Nyahururu way back in the 1940s, I tamed 180 dogs which I was using in hunting. Whenever I killed a wild animal, I used sell it to a white man. I continued hunting but gave up when another white man invited me to this area to eradicate porcupines.
"When I came here, I had acquired skills from the Dorobo who used to live in Ng'arua forest and I used the skills to successfully tame the porcupines."
And he has never looked back. "I'm happy with my job. I have bought seven acres of land in Tindereti where my grand children stay and I pay my bills from this job. I'm happy with this profession," he says.
Mzee Omae is paid Sh250 for every porcupine he kills. But who will take over from him when age knocks him out of the business? "If I were to parade those that I have trained, you would be shocked; it's a whole school."
One of them is Peter Mairura Ngoge who says: "Mzee approached me and told me that he wanted to train me. I did not hesitate because I knew one day I would take over from him. When he is sick, I do the job alone."
The two say that last season, porcupines destroyed several acres of maize, cassava, tea, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other crops in Riamanoti, Matutu, Motagara, Mongori, Kijauri, Isoge, Tinderet, Mekenene and Nyandoche Ibere settlement schemes.
Former Kisii mayor Claire Omanga says that this season, the losses attributable to porcupines were immense.
Mzee Omae has also perfected skills in trapping monkeys, ant bears, moles, hawks, leopards, squirrels and cheetahs.
About porcupines
Porcupines are rodents best known for their quills, for self defence against predators.When threatened, a porcupine will raise its quills. This is the piloerection reflex, the same as the goose bump reflex in humans. The quills are not poisonous, but can cause serious injury.
Male porcupines use urine to soften the females' quills before mating. They live in forests, deserts and grasslands.
Porcupines vary considerably in size: The African Porcupine can grow to well over 20 Kg and Rothschild's Porcupine of South America weighs less than a kilogramme. Most porcupines are about 60 to 90 cm long, with a 20 to 25 cm long tail. They are rounded, large and slow. (Source: Wikipedia)
