Residents in eastern Ijara district, where the Arawale Nature Reserve is located, were reported by the East African Standard to have set up teams to closely observe individuals and vehicles visiting their village.

They told the newspaper they were only trying to protect their Kenyan heritage.

The report said the villagers had set up "intelligence teams" to block all exit and entry routes to their district and to check all vehicles from outside the village to protect the Hirola antelope, which has vanished from most other parts of Africa.

Normally regarded as a "sleepy district", Ijara was inspired to set up the vigilant teams in reaction to reports of a memorandum signed by Kenya's former foreign affairs minister and his Thai counterpart last year. The report allegedly approved the export of 175 wild animals from Kenya to the Chiang Mai Night Safari.

The Hirola antelope, which the community associates with good luck, was said to be on the export list.

The newspaper report said the residents were ready to lay down their lives to protect their beloved Hirola, quoting one villager as saying: "The Hirola will be exported over our dead bodies."

Nikhom Puttha, the deputy secretary general of the Wildlife Fund Thailand, said the report confirmed Kenyans had not agreed to the deal as Plodprasop Suraswadi, Chiang Mai Night Safari's director, had originally claimed.

Nikhom, who went to Kenya last month as a guest of Kenyan wildlife conservation groups, said residents of the Ijara district were part of a social movement in Kenya opposing the animal export project.

"We have learned [from the trip] that no wildlife were caught and quarantined ready for export as Plodprasop claimed," he said.

Nikhom said after discussing the case with Kenyan environmentalists, they agreed to ask the Kenyan Supreme Court in Nairobi - which postponed the delivery of 175 rare animals to Thailand last year - to investigate the details of the case.