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We are deeply saddened received a sad report. A mass poisoning incident in the Wildlife Management Area (WMA) just outside Ruaha National Park. We received a ‘mortality alert’ from one of our collared lions, and the team responded rapidly. When they arrived at the site, they found a devastating scene – six lions (the collared adult female, three sub-adult females and two sub-adult males) had been killed, apparently from poison as they were all found close to a scavenged cattle carcass. This event had additional tragic consequences, with dozens of critically endangered vultures found dead or badly affected. RCP worked closely with colleagues from WCS Ruaha-Katavi, Tanzania, the Parks authorities and other local agencies, and they eventually found 74 dead vultures as well as the six lions. Thanks to the skills of the WCS team, four other sick vultures were able to be taken to the Park for treatment. Sadly, one died shortly after arrival but the others are currently doing well.

The authorities are investigating this incident, but it appears as if someone poisoned a carcass after lions attacked cattle. Alarmingly, poisoning is a common response to conflict, and this highlights how vital it is to do all we can to prevent carnivore attacks on stock, and reduce chances of retaliatory killings. Cattle are extremely important to local people, and carnivores can cause major economic and cultural hardship when they attack stock – and, when people don’t benefit from lions, it is unsurprising that they resort to killing them. Thanks to support from many partners, we have made great progress in reducing such attacks, for example by predator-proofing enclosures and engaging communities, but there is much more to be done across the landscape, and protecting grazing livestock is particularly challenging. It is also vital to secure the Wildlife Management Areas and – probably most important of all – make sure that local people receive real benefits from wildlife, so they eventually see them as more of an asset alive than dead.

This kind of event is truly devastating, but it does highlight the value of our collaring programme – without alerts from the collars, we are very unlikely to find out about such incidents, especially when they occur in remote areas. It also highlights the importance of close collaboration on the ground with partners such as Wildlife Conservation Society, Ruaha National Park, Tanzania National Parks and others, as the rapid and coordinated response meant that at least some animals could be found alive and treated.

Although this incident occurred in the WMA and not on the village land where we do most of our work, it is an extremely distressing reminder of the impact that conflict can have on wildlife. It reinforces how crucial it is to continue and expand our conflict mitigation work across the landscape. Although it is hard to measure, we are certain that by protecting livestock, providing local benefits and engaging communities, we have prevented many similar incidents occurring on village land over the past few years. The challenge now is to redouble those efforts, including collaring more lions, to learn the true scale of conflict-related mortality around Ruaha, and work as hard as possible to reduce it. This has affected the whole team, who work tirelessly day and night to prevent carnivore killings, but we thank everyone who supports us, as together we know we can reduce these terrible impacts in the future.

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The Wildlife Conservation Society announced yesterday that a team of scientists has discovered a new species of chameleon in the mountainous rainforests of Tanzania.

The brown and green chameleon with scattered blue spots was named Kinyongia msuyae, after Charles A. Msuya, a pioneer of Tanzanian herpetology who collected the first known specimen of the new species, according to a statement by WCS.

The chameleon was found only in only four forest fragments, two in the Udzungwa Mountains and two in the Livingstone Mountains. Their habitat spans the so-called “Makambako Gap,” a “biogeographical barrier” scientists believe to exist between the distinct faunas of Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains and the relatively little-known Southern Highlands.

But many scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Society, including Tim Davenport, the director of WCS’s Tanzania Program and co-discoverer of the new chameleon, do not believe the Makambako Gap really exists, arguing that the Southern Highlands are every bit as important in terms of biodiversity as the Eastern Arc Mountains.

Furthermore, according to Davenport, the discovery of Kinyongia msuyae provides further evidence to back the argument, as it shows closer biological affinities between the Udzungwa Mountains, part of the Eastern Arc Mountains, and the Livingstone Mountains of the Southern Highlands.

Davenport and a team of scientists described Kinyongia msuyae in a study published by the journal Acta Herpetologica late last year.

Several other finds in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands in recent years lend even more credence to the theory that there is no gap. In 2003, WCS discovered the kipunji — a species of primate that turned out to be an entirely new genus, the first found in Africa in nearly a century — and in 2012, WCS found Matilda’s horned viper, a new species of snake.

“Along with our discoveries of the Kipunji, Matilda’s horned viper and other reptiles and frogs, this new chameleon really seals the deal as regards the boundary of the Eastern Arcs,” Davenport said in a statement.

“It is very clear now that the so-called Makambako Gap doesn’t exist zoologically, and that the Southern Highlands is every bit as biodiverse and endemic-rich as all other Eastern Arc Mountains. With its own unique fauna and flora the region thus warrants as much protection as we can possibly afford it.”

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