Hyenas in Kenya are reported to be castrating male buffaloes on a daily basis.
The incidents reported by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) are raising concern among conservationists, regarding the future of buffaloes now that their reproductive organs are being destroyed by hyenas.
The KWS Director-General Dr Erastus Kanga, tens of buffaloes had been castrated by hyenas in the last couple of months, rendering them unproductive.
Incidents of buffaloes being castrated by hyenas on a large scale have been mostly occurring in the Aberdare Forest.
The Aberdare Forest, formerly, the Sattima Range or ‘the mountain of the young bull,’ are the third highest range of mountains in Kenya, located north of capital Nairobi and just south of the Equator.
According to the Kenyan Wildlife Service agency, the hyenas have now become the biggest threat to the buffalo populations in the country.
This is because they attack the male Buffaloes’ reproductive organs, therefore rendering the ‘Mbogos’ unable to procreate, thus affecting the animals’ current figures.
The KWS noted that cases of human-wildlife conflicts were also on the rise, with the Tsavos, Mara, Kajiado, and Laikipia being the most affected.
Meanwhile, as they are seeking scientific ways of dealing with the hyenas, Dr Kanga noted that the new phenomena posed a major threat to the current numbers of buffalo in the vast ecosystem.
“The buffaloes that cannot bring down buffaloes are going for the low-lying scrotum in the process, castrating the animals,” he said, while speaking at Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI) in Naivasha.
According to Kanga, they were working with stakeholders to address the rising challenges facing wildlife conservation.
“We need to start doing research and look at how artificial intelligence and technology can be able to help us not only mitigate, but prevent these human rights conflicts,” he said.
On his part, Wildlife Research and Training Institute Director Dr Patrick Omondi said that the institute, with the stakeholders, had completed the national wildlife census, with the final results expected next month.
Omondi termed the exercise as successful, adding that the researchers were working on the data with the results expected in the next scientific conference in Naivasha.