Wednesday, December 24, 2014 Retiree turns pension to tortoise farm

 
Mr Jacob Toroitich feeding tortoises at Equator Tortoise Park in Mogotio, Baringo County, on December 3, 2014. The park, off the Nakuru-Baringo Road, is home to one of the oldest tortoises at 316-years-old. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By WANJIRU MACHARIA
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Everyone would wish they or a person they love lives long like a tortoise. And true, a tortoise lives long, as confirmed by a private sanctuary in Baringo County.

Equator Tortoise Park off the Nakuru-Baringo Road is home to one of the oldest tortoises at 316-years-old. Named in accordance to their ages, the park has three elderly tortoises dubbed 316, 311 and 277.

There are also hundreds of young ones with the last batch being hardly a year old.

On the main road, there is a big billboard inviting visitors to the park established in 2008, but on getting there, most of the visitors are overwhelmed by the number of the reptiles, albeit in small space.

400 TORTOISES

There were more than 400 adult tortoises lazing around in the one eighth of an acre.

The love of the harmless slow moving reptiles and the realisation that they faced extinction due to human activity and predators in the wild, led Mr Joseph Chesire to use his pension to create sanctuaries for tortoises.

He has created a refuge for the three tortoise species in the country namely, the African leopard, hinge back and the endangered pancake tortoise, at his two sanctuaries in Baringo.

“The three oldest tortoises are in their menopause stage because they have not laid eggs for the last six years they have been at the park,” Mr Chesire said.

Asked how the ages were determined, the former civil servant said that they were calculated by two teams of experts, one from Ghana and the other from Australia. They used a magnifying glass that helped them determine their years via minute scales on their shells.

SMALL CAGE
Tens of the reptiles lie motionless, others moving about and attempting to stray into an un-cleared section of the park, which has been left natural for the laying of eggs, while others surround the watering point.

Mr Chesire explains that those in inertia are hibernating while those trying to jump over to the bushy area of the park are hungry thus searching for grass and weeds.

“They are very smart, they support each other to jump over the half a metre stone wall separating the two sections. They climb on each other and before you know it, most of them are on the other side,” he added.

On the bushy perch is a raised cage with over 253 young tortoises and hatchlings.

The cage is too small to even host three rabbits, but yes, it can hold the baby tortoises in their hundreds owing to their size. A three year-old tortoise cannot fill a human palm.

“One can be forgiven for thinking that those baby tortoises have just been hatched but some of them are three years old and still we cannot put them out with the rest.

The former surveyor, who also keeps cattle, sheep and goats, has spared another 10 acres in Mugurin farm around Lake Bogoria for the reptiles. The farm hosts a larger population of the reptiles.

“Sometimes the population at the parks grows drastically prompting us to relocate them to the farm at Mugurin,” he added.

SELDOM AFFLICTED BY DISEASES
At Mugurin, the reptiles are in free range and fend for themselves. Mr Chesire has been licensed by the Kenya Wildlife Service to keep the reptiles and has pledged to give up to 50 acres for tortoise conservation if he gets supports from the relevant authorities.

The park manager, Mr Jacob Toroitich says the reptiles are fed on specific wild vines, hay and cabbages.

“We hire people to collect the vines from the forest at a Sh300 per sack or buy cabbages and hay from neighbouring farms,” said Mr Toroitich.

He noted that tortoises are not great feeders as they eat once in three days and are rarely afflicted by diseases, therefore, hardly require medical attention.

“We only spray them once in a while to avoid external pests, feeding them costs us about Sh10,000 per week.”