Bush Babies

Nki Reservation - South Cameroon Living Nki reservation entering Bomba Bee national Park, this is the only road leading to South Cameroon.

Bush Babies

Charara safari area, Kariba. - Zimbabwe Sue and Marty Vick, native of Aberdeen, South Dakota, are in Zimbabwe for their fourth elephant hunt. Marty is a pro-gun and hunting fanatic, Sue's thing is bassets' breeding. ' At least, my guns don't shit on the carpet ' barks the husband.

Bush Babies

Communal area near Bomba-Bek - South Cameroon Blaise hunts traditionally with the bow and arrow and poison. He knows the forest perfectly and for a bag of whisky, he poaches anything. As a Baka, hunting the elephant is a rite of passage to manhood as well as a tradition. The conservation issue for hime is a ' problem for white people '.

Bush Babies

Bomba Bek National Park - South Cameroon The state anti-poaching team is entering the deep forest of the National Park via the main road, for a ten-days mission in autonomy. Then will have to track poachers and elephants herds in deep humid ground in the rainy season, facing heavily armed poachers with only one unloaded rifle for 6. L'equipe d'eco-gardes du Parc National de Bomba Bek s'introduit sur la piste centrale pour penetrer dans la foret. Le Parc n'est accessible qu'a pied apres plusieurs kilometres de pistes. Jean-Paul, le chef d'unite est accompagne de Gaelle, la seule femme, Rene, du WWF, Parfait, Toutou Jean-Marie, le pisteur, Olivier l'etudiant et Gabriel le piroguier.

Bush Babies

Bomba Bek National Park - South Cameroon After a few hours of creating a way to the river, breaking the wild luxurious vegetation, the anti-poaching team need the wooden canoe to cross the river, only access inside the park, where all the elephants went to hide. Le Parc de Bomba Bek est delimite par deux cours d'eau. Pour entrer, il faut d'abord continuer a pied une petite heure, puis traverser la Bek en pirogue. L'equipe decharge la pirogue d'un des 4x4 pour la porter jusqu'aux rives de la Bek.

Bush Babies

Bomba Bek National Park - South Cameroon Rene and Jean-Paul take the GPS data which locates the traces of animals and poachers spotted during the day. These are indicators of the presence of species in the Park. The 10-day mission allows tracking of poachers as well as the listing of animals. Rene et Jean-Paul reprennent les donnees GPS qui localisent les traces d'animaux reperees durant la journee. Autant d'indicateurs de la presence des especes dans le Parc. La mission de 10 jours permet de traquer les braconniers autant que de repertorier les animaux.

Bush Babies

Dande North, Ward II. Sunday morning. 5:00 am. Last checks before flying for patrol over Dande safari for anti-poaching patrol. Richard Tenant is checking if poachers have not sabotaged the plane during the night.

Bush Babies

Charara safari area, Kariba. Back to camp with today's praize. Kitchen boys retrieve the bushbuck. Marty will take the head and skin back to the US. ' That will make a wonderful carpet ', he says. The meat will be grilled on a barbecue some night later.

Bush Babies

Charara safari area, Kariba. In camp, Sue Vick, the wife, rests a while in their safari tent before a long day waiting for her husband in the car.

Bush Babies

Bomba Bek National Park - South Cameroon Mango Fire is the canoe driver, he has to drive tents, pots, food and anti-poachers who do not know how to swim, through the Bek, with a very strong current flow. Au bord de la Bek, le piroguier, qui répond au surnom de " Mango Fire ", fait de multiples aller-retours pour acheminer le materiel, les tentes, les vivres pour les 10 jours de mission a venir dans le Parc. Finalement, il fait traverser, dans un courant violent, les membres de l'équipe qui ne savent pas nager, 2 par 2.

Bush Babies

Communal area near Bomba-Bek - South Cameroon Blaise, the Baka elephant tracker during his mission. The arrows, made by hand, are covered with a natural poison which kills their prey. He knows every inch of the forest, simply follows the tracks, in silence and with patience.

Bush Babies

Charara safari area, Kariba. On the tracks of the ele, the hunters find 3 elephants. But the wind turns, smelling humans, surprised, elephants are charging. The contact can be very dangerous. And if the hunters are not reacting fast enough the confrontation can be fatal.

Bush Babies

Ndevo crossing, Dande North, Ward II. Second day, private anti-poaching patrol starts at 5:00am.

Bush Babies

Bomba Bek National Park - South Cameroon Jean-Paul, the chief of anti-poaching unit, observes the surroundings on his watchtower in the salt pans of Pondo. He can see above the trees. But the vegetation is very dense especially in the rainy season. According to the traces, at least a mother and her little elephant came to scrape salt in the saltworks tonight but no sign of poachers yet. Jean-Paul, le chef d'unite, observe les environs sur son mirador dans les salines de Pondo. Il permet de voir au-dessus des arbres. Mais la vegetation est tres dense surtout a la saison des pluies. Selon les traces, au moins une mere et son petit éléphanteau sont venus gratter le sel dans les salines cette nuit.

Bush Babies

Charara safari area, Kariba. Finally. After only 2 hours of tracking, the hunters are in contact with elephants, hidden in dense bushes. They try to determine if there is a tuskless cow, without any calf, old enough to be killed.

Bush Babies

You are following four stories, intertwined, between Cameroon and Zimbabwe. The good, the bad and the ugly. You decide.

Here, noises in the bush, the thorns tear off the shirts. Then the elephant turns, faces Marty. There, the blow resounds. Deafening. The fifty-year-old female crumbles masterfully, killed on the spot. "What a perfect shot Marty, congratulations! ", the hunter revels in front of the recumbent carcass. Lights up a cigar.

This summer, Marty (a 70-year-old American from South Dakota) has chosen to spend $30,000 to hunt his fourth elephant on the shores of Lake Kariba in northern Zimbabwe. Each year, the authorities sell 500 of their 82,000 heads to rich hunters. They come from the United States, Germany, Russia, France or Belgium, killing pachyderm in this exotic supermarket.

In 10 years, Africa has lost 110,000 elephants, according to the latest report presented at COP 17 (CITES) in September 2016 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). For Zimbabwe though, the safari hunting market remains one of the main incomes of the country, undergoing an unprecedented economical crisis.

So they watch the 'Game'. Private safaris companies such as Chalton MacCallum has 24 private mercenaries in their never-ending free-range hunting area protecting the 400 species recorded. Days in complete autonomy in the bush, fighting a genuine war against poaching. They are assisted in the air by the ultralights of' Flying for Wildlife ' to spot traces. In one week, 60 traps are neutralized and 2 poachers arrested. In one year 20 were taken into custody and 5 tried.

A few thousand kilometers away, they are nine, under-armed, underpaid to protect the 2382 km2 of the Bomba Bek National Park in eastern Cameroon against poachers who hunt elephants with CAR-imported machine guns. Ten days of mission, on foot, in dense forest and mud during the rainy season, from encampments to encampments. The state rangers scrutinize, observe and document human traces and remains of their crimes. Helpless, in an unfair fight.

Then there is Blaise and Gabirel. With an ancestral knowledge of the forest, the Bakas of eastern Cameroon have hunted the elephant for thousands of years. The last hunter-gatherers have become mercenaries hunting for the first who will offer them whiskey. Elephant poachers or poacher trackers for rangers, they find themselves in the frontline of a system that uses them.

Bush Babies is 3 years body of work (2014 – 2016) questioning the complexity of conservation through the story of the large elephant poaching crisis. Following hunters, poachers and anti-poaching teams in central and southern Africa, the story blurs the lines of the Good and Bad and strains common biases.

Bush Babies

More Stories by Melanie Wenger