National Geographic

in April 2008, was “pivotal,” Ogada says. “For thefirst time a whole group of conservationists weretalking about the issue in the same room.” Still,Kahumbu knew it would be diicult to persuadethe government to ban a chemical that Kenya’sbooming agricultural industry had becomedependent on. “They don’t have a cheaper andequally efective alternative,” she says.The poisoning problem received worldwideattention in early 2009, when a U.S. televisionnewsmagazine, CBS’s 6 Minutes, aired a reportabout Furadan 5G killing lions in Kenya andhighlighted Furadan’s availability. Citing “30-plus poisonings” in the Amboseli region and“another 35 or 40” in pastoral lands (not conser-vation ranches) in Laikipia, northwest of MountKenya, carnivore biologist Laurence Frank toldcorrespondent Bob Simon, “That’s gotta be justthe tiny tip of the iceberg.”The exposure embarrassed FMC, which pulledFuradan 5G from the market in Kenya and set upa buyback program. The strategy was efective,to a point: Since about 2010, agro-vet shops hav-en’t sold Furadan 5G. But carbofuran is still verymuch available. Occasionally Furadan entersthe country from elsewhere in Africa. And nowcounterfeit Furadan is in circulation, as areother carbofuran- based products from Chinaand India. Meanwhile another FMC pesticide, apink substance called Marshal, has shown up oncarcasses meant to lure predators. Marshalcontains carbosulfan, which breaks down intocarbo furan in low, yet still toxic, concentrations.Despite the eforts of Kahumbu, Odino, Ogada,and others, Kenya’s government has not outlawedcarbofuran. President Uhuru Kenyatta has prior-itized food security, and the nation’s populationgrowth makes a ban doubtful. More food meansmore intensive farming, with more herbicidesand insecticides, according to Kahumbu. “Ban-ning any pesticide is quite unlikely,” she says.As for FMC, Cori Anne Natoli, a companyspokeswoman, wrote in an email that “this isthe first that we have heard of any misuse ofMarshal insecticide,” adding that the companyis investigating and claims no responsibility forany availability in Kenya of Furadan.``````PERHAPS THE MOST GLARING reminder thatKenya continued to be a pesticide free-for-allafter the Furadan recall was a poisoning inci-dent nearly three years ago involving the MarshPride, the immensely popular lions that werefeatured on the BBC series Big Cat Diary. Inearly December 2015, the pride, which breedsin the Musiara Marsh, near the northwesternboundary of Masai Mara, killed several cattle. Inresponse, herders spiked a carcass with poison.One lioness died, and a second, severely weak-ened, was mauled to death by hyenas. Shortlyafterward a debilitated male was trampled bybufalo and had to be euthanized by a KWS vet.A post mortem revealed traces of carbosulfanas well as old spear wounds—battle scars fromherders’ previous attempts at retaliation.The edges of all protected areas have becomemore dangerous for wildlife, but nowhere is thethreat to large, highly mobile animals more obvi-ous than in the eastern part of the Mara region.Outside the reserve, ranch livestock herds havebeen expanding and open land shrinking,prompting Maasai pastoralists to drive more andmore cattle into the reserve to graze, especiallyduring the dry season or times of drought.At the height of the incursions, thousands ofcattle amble illegally into lion habitat. The lionsdevelop a taste for witless, slow-moving prey,taking victims on both sides of the boundary.POISONING AFRICA 99