Paul Omorogbe spent a night at Omo Forest Reserve on the eve of 2024 World Rangers Day. He shares the experience of forest rangers at the reserve.
The year was 2018. The place was Itasin, a village in Ijebu East, Ogun State. Titus Onyewen, chief ranger of Omo Forest Elephants Initiative and Olabode Emmanuel, Project Manager, Omo Forest Elephants Initiative, were at Itasin. They had received a call that elephants had entered the village.
“There was a time we had a problem in the forest due to encroachment. Many of the elephants then began to migrate out of the forests. In this particular village called Itasin, very early in the morning we saw people gathered and following an elephant.
“There was already one fatality in a village called Baoku where someone was trampled by an elephant. We started asking people to go back so that there would not be further casualties. My boss here (referring to Emmanuel) was with me. Before we knew the elephant was facing him. I asked my boss if I could lead the elephant away and he said yes. I went across the road and called it. The elephant followed and I led it to where the others were.”
Onywen has been a ranger since 1989. He told Nigerian Tribune this seemingly unbelievable story of being able to communicate with elephant on the eve of this year’s World Rangers Day, celebrated yearly on July 31. The account was corroborated by Emmanuel who recalled with an air of trepidation a day that could have been his last.
“He has been here for a long time and that means a lot. I will say he is a member of the herd of elephants. There are few people in the world that have that gift of being elephant whisperer – they can talk to elephants.”
A whisperer refers to a person who can control and train a particular type of animal just by using the voice and gentle body movements, and without using force or threats.
“When he first told me he had that gift, narrating his experiences from the early 90s, I thought that this man was cooking things up… until when I started seeing it myself. The Itasin experience involved the two of us. We were trying to get people away from the elephant not knowing the elephant was coming towards me. By the time I would turn back I was one-on-one with the elephant!”
He recalled how he asked Mr Onyewen to asked the elephant to go away, and how it followed him into the forest and out of sight.
Asked what language he speaks to the elephants, Onyewen said: “Elephants can hear any language.”
He explained that he had previous one-on-one encounters with elephants where he would run away out of fear. “But one day, I decided to wait and see what would happen. I was bold that day. The elephant charged at me and stopped right in front of me. It repeated that about five times and then went to join the rest of the herd. I followed the elephant to its herd and met them calm. I believe they then understood that I was not a threat to them.”
“The story he shared with us is not something you learn from a textbook. You have to be in the forest to have that experience,” Emmanuel noted.
The Omo Forest Elephant Initiative, which Emmanuel and Onyewen belong to, is a project by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation in Omo Forest Reserve. It is a collaboration with the Ogun State Government and other partners to protect one of the last viable populations of forest elephants by protecting their habitat. It is for this reason that a ranger team was established. Elephants and other wildlife are monitored by these rangers. They also engage in awareness creation among community members, protecting the reserved area from forest invaders and reforestation.
A typical day as a ranger
Rangers on a typical day divide themselves into groups of patrols for different purposes. There is the bike patrol which goes out on motorbikes covering long distances into the forest.
There is the “foot patrol” which goes out on foot. This patrol is out for closer inspection of wildlife like tracing their footprints and dung, monitoring camera traps or any other activity that is better done on foot.
“For foot patrol we go out by 7.30pm or 8pm and return to the base camp by 1am,” Onyewen said.
There is also a “hunting patrol” meant to take care of illegal hunters in the forest. This patrol usually goes out in the evening. “When we hear a gunshot, we have to trace the site and lay ambush to catch the hunters.”
The rangers also engage in stop-and-search activities inside the forest.
“We have strategic locations where we stay to do stop-and-search. Anyone coming into the forest must be searched to know if they have any incriminating objects in their possession. If we find anything incriminating, we seize the objects. At times, we have to arrest the offender and take them to the authorities at Abeokuta.”
He added that rangers also carry out elephant monitoring and tracking. “At times we have to know exactly where the elephants are. Now it is rainy season and the elephants can be found everywhere. But in dry season, we don’t see them like that. So, we have to know their whereabouts as they move in the forest.”
After their patrols, rangers also cater to forest conservation activities. “Sometimes after patrol, we go to the nursery and water the trees that have been planted to preserve the forest,” Onyewen said.
From predator to protector
Gbenga Ogunwole is a hunter turned ranger at Omo Forest Reserve. He shared his story: “Hunting is something I love. I learnt it from my grandfather. But I met Mr Emmanuel who opened my eyes. He told me that I can be part of conservation effort. I got to know that these animals should be protected. Now I encourage others not to hunt wildlife. What I have gained as a ranger is more than what I had as a hunter.”
Mr Emmanuel explained that “Conservation is not done in isolation. We need people to do it. We need the forest-dependent community to do it. One of the best ways to get sustainable impact is to involve the community around.
“We look for the hunters and re-orientate them. Many of them could see that the population of wildlife has diminished compared to what it was years ago. They get to understand that natural resources are finite.”
Staying safe
The rangers at Omo Forest do not carry arms. “We only have cutlasses and walkie-talkies,” Onyewen said. The rangers in Omo Forest say that they are lucky not to have the presence of bandits and kidnappers in their territory. “We have a number of villages surrounding the forest. We have the support of these villagers alongside the assistance of local vigilante groups that help in security.”
Therefore, these rangers were happy to report that as far as they can remember, none of them has been lost to forest invaders.
However, the same cannot be said about rangers elsewhere. Results released by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2018 to mark World Rangers Day revealed that one in seven wildlife rangers (14 percent) surveyed across Asia and Central Africa have been seriously injured at work within the previous year. The official death toll from July 2017 to 2018 as confirmed by the International Ranger Federation (IRF) and Thin Green Line Foundation (TGLF) to be 107, up from 101 in 2017.
The 2018 figure brought the total number of rangers reported to have lost their lives in the line of duty to 871 since 2009, which is when IRF and TGLF started to officially record the incidents.
“These are not just statistics, these are men and women, rangers, who leave families behind, often with little support except for what we can provide. As a world community we need to do more and we have to do better in training and equipping rangers so that they have a greater chance of returning home to their families after a patrol,” said Sean Willmore, President of the IRF and Founder of its charity arm, TGLF.
In the International Ranger Federation’s (IRF) analysis of on-duty ranger fatalities over a 16-year period, 2006-2021, a total of 2,351 on-duty ranger fatalities have been recorded. Of the data analysed, felonious deaths, such as homicide, accounted for 42.2 percent with the others a result of accident, illness, wildlife attack or other unintentional work-related casualties. Ranger casualties appear to be increasing over time and may reflect phenomena such as increasing human and wildlife conflicts, as well as changing climatic conditions.
Towards better ranger welfare
Festus Iyorah, the Nigeria representative for Wild Africa said, “World Rangers Day is an opportunity to celebrate our rangers protecting Nigeria’s wildlife and wild spaces.
“They are the unsung heroes dedicating their lives daily to protect Nigeria’s wildlife across National Parks, Forest Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuaries nationwide.
“They also face dangers from wildlife as well as poachers and militia groups working to deplete wildlife populations. As a result, it’s important we encourage our rangers by prioritising their welfare and ensuring they are continually retrained to help them discharge their duties properly.”
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