Armed with deadly poison and specialized arrows, four poachers entered the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area (EWMA) on January 15. They came for elephants and ivory.

So sure of their tactics, the gang didn’t even bother to bring bows or guns. The poison, according to one source who later came forward to Honeyguide, could kill an elephant within a half hour after the arrow pierced its skin. They use the arrows like small spears and hurl them at the pachyderms.

Tracking an elephant herd from West Kilimanjaro’s Kitenden Corridor to an area outside Tingatinga Village, the poachers allegedly had planned to set an ambush. Only they didn’t know one thing — an ambush had already been set for them.

Days earlier, an informant, let’s call him Juma*, contacted one of Honeyguide’s commanders who works alongside the village game scouts and rangers of Enduimet. Juma knew the poachers’ plans inside and out. But he had made the courageous decision to act before the gang could slaughter the animals.

In the pre-dawn hours of January 17, Honeyguide joined forces with Enduimet’s Mobile Unit, Dog Unit, and another anti-poaching team from the nearby Ndarakwai Ranch. Upon receiving more details from the informant, members of the Dog Unit practically knew the exact bush under which the poachers had gone to sleep the previous night.

The unsuspecting gang had barely risen from their slumber before they found themselves in custody of the Enduimet WMA forces. As the case is ongoing and now involving the Tanzanian government and police, Honeyguide will provide updates as more concrete details emerge. It is said that Tanzanian government agencies will conduct toxicology tests to identify the poison used on the arrows.

Big Life Foundation provides the primary support for Honeyguide throughout our projects in northern Tanzania. Since 2010, Big Life and Honeyguide have assisted to protect resources and to support communities throughout the cross-border Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro ecosystem in Kenya and Tanzania. In 2013, not a single elephant died from poaching within Enduimet’s borders.

After a week in which another rhino died by poachers’ hands in the Serengeti, however, we all know the extreme day-by-day challenges for anti-poaching and resource protection teams. No matter what, though, Honeyguide and our partners, along with the case-breaking courage of an informant, certainly prevented more wildlife from being needlessly massacred in East Africa this past week.

* To conceal his identity, the name of the informant and circumstances surrounding his role in this breaking story have been altered.