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PROJECTS - Equipment for Game Scouts
Game scouts in Zambia
receive an initial issue of clothing and equipment. When they wear
out, there are often no replacements. Game scouts in the North Luangwa
National Park (where Americans Mark and Delia Owens worked - authors
of "Cry of the Kalahari" and "Eye of the Elephant") were going bare
foot or making foot wear out of tire carcasses. Their "uniforms"
were tattered and torn and many had none at all. All 20 Ruger Model
77, Mk II, .308 rifles had broken stocks that were held together
by screws and wire and all rifle sights were broken. Malaria was
rampant and the scouts had no mosquito netting to sleep under. Poachers,
on the other hand, were well equipped with Soviet bloc AK-47 rifles
and seemingly unlimited supplies of ammunition.
WILDCON "adopted" the 83 game scouts and supplied them with several
sets of uniforms, back packs, combat boots and boot socks, mosquito
bars, rain ponchos, ground sheets, blankets, canteens, anti-malaria
tablets, hats, web belts, first aid kits, polymer military rifle
stocks and rifle sights, and much more.
When Mark and Delia left Botswana and started their antipoaching
operations in Zambia's North Luangwa National Park, they, together
with the now better equipped game scouts, brought the killing of
elephants down from an annual average of 1,100 to ZERO! Those who
watched "Turning Point" in early March 1996, saw Mark handing out
the WILDCON combat boots to the scouts. Mark and Delia have now
concluded their very successful antipoaching and research project
in Zambia and are now involved in conservation in the USA.
Awards
for Game Scouts
Few people recognize
the often heroic job game scouts perform while carrying out their
work under extremely harsh conditions of weather and danger. In
1993 WILDCON established an awards program to recognize game scouts
who distinguish themselves in contacts with poachers. WILDCON renders
appreciative awards to those men who demonstrate outstanding acts
of bravery by issuing cash awards plus prized equipment such as
Mini-Maglites and Swiss Army Brand "Swisschamp" knives.
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310 472-2593
