AWF Blog

• Taking School Children to See Wildlife Up Close

  Posted: February 27, 2009, 5:12 pm by Muoria

  Public awareness (particularly among the local communities of the Grevy’s zebra habitat) on the plight of the Grevy’s zebra and other wildlife conservation issues is a key activity of AWF’s Grevy’s zebra conservation/research project. In addition, Kenya’s National Grevy’s Zebra Conservation Strategy, which launched in June 2008, recognizes the importance of local community participation in Grevy’s zebra conservation. This is in recognition that nearly all the wild Grevy’s zebras are found on community-owned land.  This implies that Grevy’s zebra conservation efforts can only bear fruits if members of the local community become the species’ guardians.

  It was against this background that we have initiated a vigorous public awareness campaign on Grevy’s zebra conservation in Isiolo community areas within Samburu Heartland.

  Towards the end of last year, we were approached by the Head Teacher of Kula Mawe Primary School to help finance a trip of the School’s Environmental/Wildlife club to Buffalo Springs and Samburu national reserves. We saw a good opportunity to initiate our Grevy’s zebra awareness campaign.

  Unfortunately, the roads in the area are in a terrible state and hiring a bus to transport the students and their teachers would have been too expensive for our project. However, we promised to help the school, so we continued toying with the idea. Luckily, AWF recently acquired a new bus which could be used for such purposes.

  We took primary school kids into the reserves to get a first-hand encounter with wildlife.

  The school is some 80 kilometers east of Buffalo Springs National Reserve. “Kula Mawe” literally means “eat the stones” – a name which it must have acquired from its abundant stones. On 18th February 2009, Felix (AWF’s field assistant/bus driver), Geoffrey (AWF’s Grevy’s zebra Research Assistant, and myself left the Nanyuki office for Kula Mawe Primary School so that we could start off our trip to the reserves very early on 19th Feb.

  We arrived at Isiolo town at 4:00 in the afternoon. I remained at Isiolo planning the next day’s logistics (packed lunch, water etc.) while my colleagues left for Kula Mawe. They called me to say they got to Kula Mawe around 6:00pm. They were treated to a heavy dinner organized by the local leaders.

  I understand that most of the students did not sleep that night due to excitement. At 5:30am on 19th February, the drivers were ready to start the historic trip but the students had apparently been ready long before them.

  At around 7:30 am, they found me at Isiolo finalizing procurement of supplies for the trip. There were a total of 28 students (14 girls and 14 boys), two teachers, two parents and a photographer to capture the day’s activities. They were also accompanied by Kula Mawe’s ward Representative (popularly referred to as “Councilor”) to County Council of Isiolo which manages Buffalo Springs National Reserve. This councilor happens to be the chairman of the Game Committee of the council.

  After a hurried breakfast at Isiolo we started for Buffalo Springs National Reserve. We had a brief discussion on conservation, the wild animals we expected to see, and the expected behavior in the reserves. We started our game drive at Buffalo Springs Ngaremara Gate had a brief discussion at Buffalo Springs (after which the reserve is named) before proceeding to Samburu National Reserve via a small rural town called Archers Post.

  The students saw elephants, reticulated giraffes, buffalos, warthogs antelopes (including impala, gerenuk, Grants gazelles, dik diks, and beisa oryx).They also saw baboons, vervet monkeys, and many bird species (including secretary birds, Somali Ostriches, Helmeted and Vulturine Guinea Fowls among others).

  I’ll post more photos next.

• Dr. Philip Muruthi Visits the Leopard Project

  Posted: February 27, 2009, 4:08 pm by Nakedi

  Dr. Philip Muruthi, AWF’s Senior Director of Conservation Science, recently came from Nairobi to visit the leopard project. During his stay he managed to hold very important and fruitful meetings with Dr. Sam Ferreira from SANParks, Mr. Thomas Ramabulana also from SANParks as well as Mr. Jason Trollip, the General Manager at Singita KNP. Through the meetings Dr. Muruthi got an opportunity to see the project from different viewpoints and in the process share his own insights with the above mentioned gentlemen.

  After all the meetings were done, we went to the field where I showed him some of the cage traps. I was hoping to take him on a long walk to check some of the cameras that I left out in the field to help me answer, though not statistically relevant, some of the outstanding questions.

  Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as we were hoping: we met some people who told us that there was a lioness covered in porcupine quills somewhere in the west, 30 kilometres away. The lioness was also apparently in a bad shape.

  Compared to other animals, porcupines appear as easy prey to most carnivores because their movements are rather sluggish. This makes them come across as easy prey; however, a slight misjudgement by would-be attacker may result in some nasty injuries, which may be fatal as was seen with Paddy a few weeks ago.

  We went in that direction, but were unsuccessful in locating the cat. We then headed back to the concession.

  It was time for the next part: locating the recently collared leopard. That took us a while and when we finally got the signal, the leopard was too far in to the block to follow up. No off-road driving is allowed in Kruger National Park. We then headed back to the lodge to discuss some of the methodology surrounding the project.

  Dr. Philip Muruthi checks out my radio antennae.

  On Sunday Dr. Muruthi had to go back to the airport, so on our way there we stopped at Satara, where we met with Rob and Tionette Gedes who are both very dedicated Friends of the Kruger National Park. They are currently involved in the Bird Census. I met them while following the previous leopard.

  It turns out they had a lot of leopard pictures that they have taken over time in the Kruger Park and were willing to share so that I can add those to the current leopard database. On that day they were very excited because they had just seen the fattest leopard they had ever seen. I didn’t believe them at first, but when I saw the cat on their video, it was the fattest leopard I have ever seen. They gave me all the pictures they had together with GPS position of each animal.

  Thank you very much Tionette and Rob!

  After that we were on our way and we managed to drive through some of the villages surrounding the Park. I would like to thank Dr. Muruthi for making time to come and visit the leopard project.

• A Brief History and Context of Bonobo Conservation in Lomako

  Posted: February 16, 2009, 3:22 pm by Valentin

  Lomako is a sector of the Befale Territory in the Tshuapa district of the Province of Equateur, DR Congo. The local population is that of the ‘Mongo’ who share the forest with the bonobos.

  In 1973, the Mongo population saw the first researchers arrive with their bonobo research projects. Projects, which would not have been possible without the contribution of the indigenous population who were employed as trackers, fishermen, carriers etc.

  The Mongos involved in such projects benefited by earning a salary, bonuses and other advantages, often receiving gifts. These benefits allowed them to organize themselves: some built houses, others would buy a bicycle, a sewing machine, a radio or other manufactured goods, it also allowed them to send their children to school.

  But life is never all roses and in the 1990’s with the collapse of Ex-Zaire, the war began which shook the country, and the researchers were foreced to leave and the projects had to shut down.

  Me meeting with come chiefs to discuss protecting the bonobos.

  Misery followed, taking the whole country. Agriculture, which was an important source of income, was no longer fruitful due to the degraded roads. As an alternative, the population turned to hunting in the forest for the bushmeat trade, in order to buy basic necessities, pay for health care and to keep their children in school. The bonobos (Edja in the local dialect) soon fell victim to the hunting activity.

  When faced with the hunting for the bushmeat trade, the families of Papa Bosco Ikwa Nyamalolo and Papa Mange Bofaso, devoted to the conservation of the bonobos, stayed in the forest awaiting the return of the researchers and for the projects to start up again. These two families continued to inform their ‘brothers’ of the importance of the bonobos but were betrayed by the enemies of conservation: the immigrants from the East and the West who continued to hunt the bonobos to earn a living. This was the least of problems faced by these two families who, in 1997, were threatened, tortured, beaten and pillaged by the military soldiers.

  Despite all the suffering, they never abandoned the bonobos and still today, remain in the forest to protect them.

  
  

  Papa Bosco Ikwa.

  Papa Mange Bofaso.

  New change was soon to come. In 2004, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) came to the Province of Equateur for the first time as part of a project initiated by CARPE/USAID, which aims to reduce the degradation of the forests and the loss of biodiversity by developing sustainable management of natural resources.

  So what future does the AWF have planned for the bonobos of Lomako and for Papa Bosco and Papa Mange, as well as the population living within the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba landscape? To be continued…

  The team here at the Lomako Conservation Science Center.

• New Blogs on AWF

  Posted: February 13, 2009, 5:47 pm by Nakedi

  I would like say how excited I am that my colleagues Dr. Bernard Kissui (Lions: Lions of Tarangire — www.awf.org/lionblog) and Dr. Paul Muoria (Grevy’s zebra: Guarding Grevy’s Zebras — www.awf.org/zebrablog) have started blogging about their work.

  During August in 2008 I had an opportunity visit their project sites in Tanzania and Kenya respectively and saw firsthand what wonderful work they are doing. They both have immense experience in their respective fields; I must say I have learned a lot from them during my visit. I am also secretly looking up to them, to get where they are in terms of applied research.

• Reconnecting With Old Friends

  Posted: February 12, 2009, 2:53 pm by Valentin

  On January 30th, Nancy Thompson Handler contacted me through my previous post. Nancy conducted research here from 1980-1991. She wrote:

  Having spent five years doing research in N’dele between 1980-1991, I am so excited to see your blog. I cannot believe that there is now a satellite dish in camp. We did not even have a functioning radio telephone! Take heart, even in the old days, the bonobos would disappear for long periods of time. The group (the Hedons) mostly seen on the western side of the study site with which I was most familiar during 1980-1982 was not seen at all during the 1984 field season and rarely after that. Please give Richard’s and my regards to Bosco, Charmante and any of our old field assistants. My time at N’dele was the best of my life. There have been so many technological advances since the 1980’s that you should be able to gather much better data on their ranging and behavior. Best of luck to you. I’ll be following your blogs and if there is anything we can do to help you, please let us know.

  Thank you for your comment on my blog, Nancy! I find your response very encouraging as since I started up the blog, you are the first researcher who has worked at Ndele to have made contact.

  Ndele remains one of the few sites where bonobos have been and continue to be studied by scientists from all horizons. But in this crucial part of our study the bonobos have been rare for over 9 months, they no longer make the usual evening vocalisations as they build their night nests or during feeding, probably due to the fruit shortage in the forest. For us, it is the first time we have experienced such a long period with so few encounters with the bonobos (maximum 4 a month and 2 on average).

  As to the trackers, we are still working with your old team: Papa Bosco; Papa Sayo; Papa Charmant; their children and other colleagues who came from the site of Iyemba about 15Km away from Ndele. The Iyemba site was started in the 1990s by the primatologist Jef Dupain who is now the Director of the AWF project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and he initiated the development of the new research centre at Ndele to add to the research already carried out on the bonobo population of this forest.

  All our team here, particularly Papa Bosco and his family, even those who you may not know, were delighted to hear of your contact via the blog and are very grateful. They pass on their regards and make the most of the opportunity to pass on their regards to all the other researchers who have spent any length of time, long or short, at Ndele and wish to have any news that might reach us here.

  Having mentioned the group of bonobos named the Hedons, named Bakumba by the German researchers, and their neighbours, the Rangers also known as Eyengo; we have found them again and they still seem to by occupying the same territories: the east and west regions of the research area. Unfortunataly, we have not yet managed to identify the individuals of each community and are unsure where their territories end and begin.

  So to you and any other researchers having spent time here in Ndele and indeed other conservationists and researchers interested in this species, we say : Thank you for your intervention and please continue because your comments on this blog, your suggestions and any contributions to our research and conservation project for the last of the great apes, will not only help us on a scientific level but will also, and perhaps more importantly, encourage us to persist with life here in the middle of the equatorial rainforest in the interest of preserving our closest cousin.

• Capturing Leopard #3

  Posted: February 11, 2009, 11:59 am by Nakedi

  After the leopard scare, Clement and I waited to see what would happen. Within a few minutes hyenas surrounded the area of the cage and in the meantime we thought they scared the leopard off. After waiting for a while we decided to go back in and re-set the cage.

  That went well, but to tie the bait back on to the trigger meant I had to stick my upper body into the cage with all those maggots as the meat was starting to putrefy. I did that with ease and came out reeking of impala meat.

  The following day at the same trap, we found that the same thing had happened again. This time the meat was almost completely covered with maggots. As I didn’t want to mess up the uniform like I did the previous day, I took off my shirt, went up the tree and stuck my upper body in the cage to fix the bait, maggots and all.

  I was disappointed because this meant we missed this animal twice in a row. After fixing the cage we visited the other cages with no luck until….on the last cage we saw from a distance that it was closed.

  We checked with the binoculars and saw that we had captured a leopard! We were so excited that we gave each other high fives and went back to call the Dr. Peter Buss from Game Capture unit. When he arrived, we had to go and get the leopard from the tree. That is such a scary moment and it gets me every time.

  Dr. Peter Buss anaesthatises the leopard.

  Because the leopard was high in the tree I had to take the ladder up to the tree while everybody hid behind the bushes. Just between us I was trembling from my head to my toes during that trip and it felt like forever to complete.

  During that time the leopard was looking at me with scorching eyes. He was extremely angry. What scared me the most was that he seemed to know where the door was…

  My thoughts during that long trip, besides reflecting on my short life:

  1. If he comes out that door, you know what will happen;
  2. If he comes out that door, hit him with the ladder square on the forehead, maybe he’ll faint;
  3. If that doesn’t work, shield yourself with the ladder; and
  4. If he comes out that door… no he can’t!

  I put the ladder under the tree and made sure that it was firm in between those scary growls. Peter then came along with the dart gun to anaesthetise the leopard. During that time I tried to divert the leopard’s attention by waving my arms on the ground while Peter successfully injected the leopard on the neck region.

  After a short while he was out. We brought him down and it was quickly established that he was a post-prime male. This made me a bit sad, because that means he is an old guy. Babu’s wise words started echoing in my head. With each capture it becomes more and more apparent that the leopards we capture are either old, or injured. It seems Babu is right on this one.

  Carefully lowering the captured leopard from the tree.

  Taking measurements, assessing status, and putting on the tracking collar.

  We made the decision to fit a tracking collar on him. This could provide valuable data that indicates how leopards change their behaviour as they age. For instance, what happens when they get thrown out of their territories by younger more powerful counterparts?

  The leopard waking up with his new tracking collar.

  Just like the previous two collared leopards, I sat with him after we were done to make sure he was okay.

• Check Out Our New Lion and Grevy’s Zebra Blogs

  Posted: February 10, 2009, 4:05 pm by Paul

  It’s a big week for AWF in cyberspace. The AWF Blog Team is growing with two great new bloggers: Bernard Kissui in Tanzania and Paul Muoria in Kenya.

  Dr. Kissui is heading up our lion conservation and research program in the Maasai Steppe Heartland. I don’t think many people realize how much trouble Africa’s lions are in — there are roughly 23,000 left on the continent, down from 100,000 only two decades ago. One big driver of their decline is human-wildlife conflict. A major part of Kissui’s work is to work with Maasai to find ways to reduce reduce predation on livestock and therefore reduce the conflict that leads to lion killings like we saw in December.

  Check out his blog: Lions of Tarangire — www.awf.org/lionblog

  Dr. Muoria is further north in the Samburu Heartland, working to conserve the endangered Grevy’s zebra. As you know, this is definitely the most beautiful of the zebra species, but with a population of less than 3,000, their future is not so certain. Muoria is doing some pretty fascinating work creating a database of each individual Grevy’s to get a better handle on the population, their movements, and threats.

  Check out his blog: Guarding Grevy’s Zebras — www.awf.org/zebrablog

  These guys are born story-tellers. Check out their blogs to hear from the experts first-hand.

  Happy reading!

• Baiting Traps - Who’s the Bait…?

  Posted: February 10, 2009, 11:33 am by Nakedi

  So I started baiting the cages on Tuesday January 27rd. With the loss of the research leopard due to a porcupine incident, I needed to fit another leopard with the tracking collar.

  It so happened that at that time I had a visitor to the leopard project. We went out on that morning and while we were baiting, it became boring for everyone, Clement, Nicky and Wayne (which is completely understandable!) so I suggested everybody head back to the lodge while I continued with the work.

  I managed to bait all the cages. After baiting the last cage, I left a little bit of meat outside just to see if a leopard patrolling the area would show some interest.

  The following day Clement (tracker) and I went to check if there was anything caught in the cages. We went through the first three cages with no luck, but when we got to the last cage it was closed and the bits that I had left outside were gone.

  I then got off the car and started towards the cage. Upon approaching the closed cage I realised something had been tagging on the meat. I then told Clement what I thought. He didn’t believe me, so we started debating. I would say something and then Clement would counter it.

  During the debate, while it was Clement’s turn to state his thoughts, I heard Grrr! I quickly stopped Clement and said with a whisper, “listen.” There was Grrrr again. The growls came from within ten meters of us, but we couldn’t say from where. I whispered, again “this must be a leopard.” Clement said, “yes, and it is eating the bits that you left outside.” Without saying a word, we each started walking towards the car.

  We didn’t take more than five steps when we heard a much louder GRRRR! We immediately stopped, I felt my thigh muscles tighten…it was the world famous “fight or flight” moment. Obviously my legs were prepared to run as all the blood was rushing there, but then I remembered one of the most famous bush commandments: THOU SHALT NOT RUN. Besides, I doubt if I would have been able to outrun Clement, he looks more athletic than me. After we stopped, there was another GRRRR! Somehow this prompted us to hold hands. That was a scary moment as we both had no clue from which direction the assault would come from.

  The thing was so close that when it growled it sounded like we were surrounded. How was holding hands going to help us? After the three second halt, we cautiously and slowly - without looking back - made our way to the vehicle. Of course the speed with which the vehicle was approached increased with the shortening of the distance. I don’t remember when we let go of each other’s hands, but after we sat down in the vehicle we both burst out laughing. I could hear my heart pounding and felt the sweat streaming from my forehead. We were relieved to be in the safety of the vehicle.

• Introducing the Lions of Tarangire

  Posted: February 9, 2009, 5:26 pm by Kissui

  The conservation of large carnivores poses a significant challenge worldwide. In Africa, the African lion was once widely distributed across the continent, but populations have dramatically declined and in some areas disappeared due to human population increases, fragmentation of habitat and human-lion conflict has reached extraordinary levels in many ecosystems.

  The remaining populations of the African lion are restricted to small and isolated protected areas, where, despite concerted protection, they are subject to unusually high mortality due to close interactions with an ever increasing human population outside protected areas. The long-term conservation prospects for lions in migratory ecosystems will depend on resolving conflicts with humans.

  Some of the lions of Tarangire.

  Tanzania holds immense potential for long-term lion conservation prospects. Although it is difficult to obtain accurate numbers of total lions, the most recent estimates by experts suggest that less than 50,000 lions remain across the entire African continent, of which 25-50% is found in Tanzania.

  I would like to introduce you to my lion research and conservation project in the Maasai steppe that I have been involved with over the past five years. The Maasai Steppe in northern Tanzania is one of East Africa’s important ecosystems with large numbers of migratory ungulates, elephants (Loxodonta africana), lions (Panthera leo), leopards (Panthera pardus), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) and wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), to name just a few.

  Maasai steppe is a complex social-ecological system with high levels of interactions between wildlife and humans. The average human population growth in the Maasai steppe has been 4-8% since 1988. The Maasai Steppe is a highly migratory system in which wildlife move seasonally across a 30,000 sq km area utilizing core protected areas as well as communal village lands. This dynamics create conditions for human-wildlife conflicts of unprecedented magnitude and complex challenges for wildlife conservation in the Maasai steppe.

  AWF's Maasai Steppe Heartland, which includes Tarangire National Park and surrounding ecosystem.

  In this blog you will learn about the ecology of the Maasai steppe lions, including their seasonal range use patterns and demography. On the human dimension of our research, you will learn about human-lion conflicts especially retaliatory killing of predators due to livestock predation, and how we work with pastoralist communities to mitigate the conflict and promote human-lion coexistence.

  The most recent incident of retaliatory killing of lions due to livestock predation occurred in the western border of Tarangire National Park. A collared lioness and a male lion from one of our study pride called Altipiano were speared to death by pastoralists following an attack on livestock.

  Read more details in my next post. For now, welcome to my blog!

• Welcome to My Blog

  Posted: February 5, 2009, 5:48 pm by Muoria

  I am Dr. Paul Muoria, a research scientist with African Wildlife Foundation. My work revolves around the conservation of the endangered Grevy’s zebra (Equus grevyi).

  This beautifully striped equid was once widespread in the horn of Africa but are now extinct in Somalia, Djibouti and Eretria. Today, they are only found in Kenya (North of Equator) and in small isolated pockets in Ethiopia. Their total population is estimated at less than 3,000 individuals. Of these, Ethiopia has about 100 individuals. This makes Kenya the host of nearly all the wild Grevy’s zebras in the world.

  The Grevy's zebra Equus grevyi.

  The majority of these Grevy’s zebras are in the Samburu Heartland, which they share with nomadic pastoralists who have managed to preserve their rich cultural heritage. A small proportion of Grevy’s zebra are found in Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba national reserves.

  As you follow me in my blog, you will learn how we work with the local nomadic pastoral communities, reserve managers and other land owners to monitor Grevy’s zebra numbers, movements and threats facing the species, and how we are helping raise awareness about the plight of this species among local communities, and at at the national and international levels.  You will also learn how individual Grevy’s zebras can be distinguished using their unique stripe patterns (just like you finger prints).

  However, today I just wanted to welcome you to “Guarding Grevy’s Zebras”.

  In my blog I'll tell you how I study Grevy's and work to protect them.

• Attending the Green-Flag Award Ceremony

  Posted: February 4, 2009, 2:21 pm by Nakedi

  On Friday January 23rd I had the privilege to attend the Green Flag Award Ceremony for Eco-Schools in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The ceremony was organised by Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa & World Wildlife Fund task team in association with De Beers Mines & Nampak.

  The aims of having Eco-Schools in my view are to:

  1. Encourage sustainable development in education and management;
  2. Improve the environmental performance of schools by teaching learners the three “R’s”: RECYCLE, RE-USE, and REDUCE; and
  3. Uplift local communities through the knowledge gained by the learners.

  The day started well; among the speakers were representatives from WWF-SA, Department of Education in the Limpopo Province, De Beers Mines, and lastly we were honoured with the presence of the reigning Miss Earth South Africa, Matapa Maila who happened to sit next to yours truly during the ceremony!! More importantly though, she is from Limpopo Province, which I think meant a lot to everybody, especially the learners.

  Miss Earth South Africa was here to honor the learners.

  All the speakers stressed the importance of community upliftment through education, especially environmental education.

  The learners during the award ceremony.

  The highlight of the day for me was listening to the learners recite poems they wrote for the day. They all sounded convincing; in addition their attitude showed that from then on there would be no going back. The learners also showed us some of the objects that they made from recycled materials, pictured below.

  Crafts made from recycled materials.

  Later during the day, best performing schools and educators were given awards for their hard work towards environmental education.

  Although this is not directly relevant to the leopard research, I hope in the future I will have the opportunity to present the leopard work to the learners.

  Naturally, Miss Earth wanted to sit by me during the ceremony.

  Judging by the distance between me and the nearest person I must have been wearing my leopard perfume!

  
  I would like to thank Cathy Dzerefos of Eco-Schools Limpopo Province for inviting AWF to the ceremony.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes