Grevy's Zebra

(TWO postings in one day ?!)

Grevy's zebra .... the rare species with lots of dazzling stripes !

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Kenyans go hi-tech to save endangered Grevy’s zebra:-  

A new technology that brings on board volunteers to participate in Grevy’s zebra census is putting Kenya on the edge of conservation of critically endangered species.

The technology involves taking photographs of the species by volunteers, which are then loaded on to a database known as Wildbook that identifies and gives results of individual species. The volunteers are known as ‘citizen scientists’.

Kenya is home to over 95 per cent of the world’s Grevy’s zebras whose global population are estimated at 3,000. Involvement of citizen scientists has since seen Kenya mapping out slightly over 2,800 zebras. Grevy’s zebras are the largest of the three zebra species, including the plain and hybrid zebras.

“Citizen scientists bring on board volunteers, including schoolchildren, wildlife enthusiasts, local communities, among others. They are required to take photographs of Grevy’s zebras to be used in a software that analyse and give results,” says Rosemary Warungu, Zebra project manager at Mpala Conservation Centre in Laikipia.

Wildbook is a software that helps in tracking individual animals in a wildlife population using natural markings while engaging citizen scientists to collect sighting information.

The incorporation of the technology places Kenya on the world map while raising awareness on the conservation of Grevy’s zebra.

The species, which originally inhabited five countries in Africa, now only exist in Kenya and Ethiopia. They are considered an endangered species, with hunting and habitat loss being the biggest challenges.

Involving citizen scientists in national count of the species in Kenya first took place in 2016 in an initiative dubbed Great Grevy’s Rally. The rally, since its launch, has been conducted twice -- in 2018 and early this year.

Wildbook, however, solved the challenge of counting the zebras, an exercise initially done manually on air.

“The Great Grevy’s Rally is often a biannual event where citizen scientists, conservancy managers, conservation organisations and government officials participate in the exercise within all the Grevy’s zebra ranges. This technology has been adopted here and solved the previous challenge,” Warungu said.

The technology comprises a database where all photos taken by citizen scientists are loaded. The system compares photos of the zebras to a database of previously recorded animals, thus saving researchers in the field weeks of manual work. In 2016, 25,000 photos were taken by citizen scientists in Kenya. The results from the images estimated the Grevy’s zebra population at 2,350. In 2018, 49,000 photos were taken.

(report from The Standard)

Menengai under threat

Menengai is an extinct volcano of the edge of Nakuru town; we lived on the side of Menegai for several years, and know well the stony but fertile soil on  its slopes .... our garden was mostly rough lava rocks and scrub ! 

Farmers cultivating a cleared section of Menengai Forest in Nakuru. Conservationists have warned against clearing swathes of indigenous trees in the forest. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Residents and conservationists have criticised a decision by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to clear more than 1,500 acres of indigenous trees at Menengai forest to accommodate farmers.  The forest has since 1930 been considered a buffer zone between Lake Nakuru National Park and a rapidly expanding Nakuru town.  It is fronted by Milimani Estate in the South, Ngachura and Bahati in the East, Solai in the North and Olo-Rongai in the West.

The Standard has established that some 1,526 acres of indigenous trees are being cleared to pave way for exotic bluegums to be cultivated under the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (Pelis), formerly known as the shamba system.

The KFS has defended the decision.   “The challenge with Menengai forest is illegal logging and forest fires. The shrubs and a few indigenous tree species are susceptible to forest fires and we are replacing them with bluegum. The area is under Pelis,” said Erastus Mugo, the forest station manager.

A number of residents and conservationists are, however, worried that the scheme will strip off Menengai hills of natural forest cover.  Menengai is a major tourist attraction, being home to the world-renown Menengai crater and a Sh60 billion geothermal plant.  Conservationists say clearing huge swathes of the natural forest would be an environmental disaster.

“Felling of these trees and shrubs that hold the soil in the area together is calling for disaster. The forest is also home to wildlife and burrowing animals. Replacing the natural cover with exotic trees amounts to doing away with the area’s ecosystem,” said Miheso Musindi, secretary of Milimani Residents Association.   According to Mr Miheso, the loose soils of Menengai make the area susceptible to landslides and fault lines and replacing the natural forest with exotic trees will expose neighbouring estates to danger and Lake Nakuru to siltation.  “The decision to replace the indigenous tree species is worrying. It means that all the soil will be swept downstream to Lake Nakuru. There will be no control of water running downhill and this will cause more havoc,” he said.

However, KFS says the targeted area forms an insignificant part of the 14,864-acre forest.  “The forest is zoned, with the natural forest covering 5,400 hectares (13,338 acres) and an exotic forest covering 618 ha (1,526 acres),” said Mugo.

Inadequate staff

He said protecting the natural forest from fires and loggers was challenging, especially with inadequate staff.  “We have 12 officers tasked to take care of 13,338 acres,” he said.  According to the KFS officer, bluegums would be easier to manage and more profitable.  “Bluegums are more resistant to fire outbreaks. They also generate revenue,” he said.

But residents have poked holes into the KFS argument.

Benson Ng’ang’a said the indigenous trees cover has over the years survived forest fires, intense logging and landslides.   “This area is so prone to fault lines that it is hard to maintain the roads passing through,” he said.

However, farmers set to benefit from the forest’s clearing supported the KFS plan.  “It will give us land to farm potatoes and beans,” said Abishack Muthoni.

A 2018 report on the status of forests in Kenya revealed that Pelis was the most abused scheme in the sector and that it contributed to the declining indigenous forest cover in the country.  In the Pelis scheme, KFS allows communities living next to forests to cultivate crops while taking care of young trees.  However, the 2018 task force indicated that the scheme led to the illegal conversion of indigenous forest land into plantations.

(Report from The Standard)

1969 .... gosh, I was thin then !   The tourist signs on top of Menengai.

"For Love of Soysambu" part 2

I've finished reading this, and greatly enjoyed it; much of the Cholmondeley history I already knew from other books, and yet there were huge amounts I didn't.  The author has lived for perhaps 25 years in a Soysambu cottage, so was able to talk to the family whenever she needed to, and they gave her access to their archive of family photos and records.

Over 100 years in Kenya, the Delameres had acquired land, but really very little wealth.  Various types of farming were tried, but the Soysambu soil was poor and animal diseases spread from the game which they could at first cull, but recent game protection laws now stop this.   Thus the zebra particularly have vastly increased and eat the grass needed for cows.  Population has increased in Kenya ENORMOUSLY .... when I first went there in 1968 it was about 5 million; now in 2020, it is around 25 million and rising.   So population pressure on land around Soysambu is squeezing and squeezing; squatter villages are proliferating around the lakes; power pylons are springing up disrupting bird migration routes; there is talk of an airport between Nakuru and Elementeita ..... 

Thus Soysambu is becoming/has become a Conservancy in an attempt to change land use.  Tourism might be the answer .... but do tourists want to witness the polluted lakes, the rubbish blowing in the wind, and everything else that has changed so much in 50 years ?

Now I am wondering about the disasterous results of colonisation, 'Africanisation' and independence in 1963, which in my opinion was correct, but post independence so much has gone wrong.   I weep to see how 'the garden of Eden' has been treated by man.

(Delamere's 'nose' across Lake Elmenteita from Soysambu)

"Elephants falling out of the sky ..."

NAIROBI, Kenya

A wildlife preserve in southern Kenya renowned for its stunning views of Mt. Kilimanjaro now has a new claim to fame: An elephant baby boom.

Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, Amboseli National Park has seen a record 140 newborn pachyderms welcomed into the world.

In a statement, Winnie Kiiru from the Elephant Protection Initiative said the high numbers can be attributed to the lack of tourist interruptions and abundant rains that have left rich vegetation, which serves as food for the grey giants.

The mass birth announcement comes as World Elephant Day is celebrated on Aug. 12.

“Greetings from Amboseli Kenya,” said Kiiru in a statement.

“It has been a difficult year for all of us but there is still much to celebrate. Here in Amboseli, elephants are thriving. 140 beautiful calves have been born in 2020 and more are expected.”  Twin baby elephant calves are among those registered in the record tally by park officials.

Amid a dearth in tourists, the Kenya Wildlife Service has seen a spike in poaching of wildlife for game meat. Animals are not targeted for their skin, ivory, horns, or other game products but solely for meat for local communities. This is a threat that has always followed elephants.

Kiiru noted that despite the good news in Kenya’s protected Amboseli National Park, “across Africa we face enormous challenges, due to COVID-19 there has been a collapse of tourism and the competition between humans and elephants for land has increased.”  She called on African governments to find solutions for human-wildlife conflict and raise money to repair the damage done to conservation by the coronavirus pandemic.

Cynthia Moss, director of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, told local media, “It seems baby elephants are falling out of the sky. The ability of a female to conceive and carry a calf to term depends greatly on her own physical condition.   During drought years, females may stop all reproductive cycling until rainfall improves, resulting in vegetation growth.”

(From Anadolu Agency news site)

Opening schools during Covid ....

Our British government, who has mis-handled the pandemic from day one, is now saying all schools must re-open in September, and that it will be safe for pupils and staff. How can it be, with the much vaunted 'track and trace' system a non-starter, and testing not being done .... and thousands of teens to thirty year olds .... and even families with young children ... ignoring advice and flocking in non-isolated groups to the beaches and parties ?

NAIROBI, Kenya — For Esther Adhiambo, this year was supposed to be a year of endings and new beginnings. She was expecting to complete high school, enroll in a university and get a job to help her single mother, who runs a small tailoring business in Nairobi’s Mathare slum.

Instead, for Esther and other Kenyan students, 2020 is turning out to be the year that disappeared. Education officials announced in July that they were canceling the academic year and making students repeat it. They are not expected to begin classes again until January, the usual start of Kenya’s school year.

Education experts believe Kenya is the only nation to have gone so far as to declare the entire school year a total washout, and order students to start over.

When the government shut down schools in March, it introduced remote lessons streamed over radio, television and videos posted on YouTube. However, for the vast majority of students, many in poor and rural households, remote learning was not an option. They didn’t have access to television, laptops, or the internet, or even the electricity to power these gadgets.

(From the New York Times)

'Old Africa' magazine ....

I'm still waiting for recent issues ..... this is the last one that came, having taken six weeks to get here from Naivasha !   I greatly enjoy this magazine, for there are often mentions of people I knew in Kenya half a life-time ago !

I emailed the publisher, and there was some error with recording my new subs, which he has put right, and then of course Covid-19 and the total cessation of flights from Kenya (and thus post) explains the delay.   I watch every day for the postman .....

I am due two more copies .... any day now !   (I hope).

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Isn't nature amazing:-

When rangers at a Kenyan national park first glimpsed a tawny foal alongside  its zebra mother, they assumed the newborn had been wallowing in a mud bath.  A closer look, however, revealed the surprising truth: the mare had given birth to a rare zebra-donkey hybrid known as a zonkey.

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT), which reported the discovery, said the birth was “highly unusual” but it was “not difficult to connect the dots” to establish the young zonkey’s paternity.

The mother is assumed to have been impregnated after straying out of Tsavo East National Park and into a neighbouring village more than a year earlier.  “She made herself right at home there, becoming an honorary member of a local woman’s cattle herd,” said the SWT, an animal rescue group which was asked to transport the “wayward” zebra back to a protected area several weeks later in May last year.

By this point, the trust said, the zebra had become “fairly habituated to community life” so was resettled close to the base of its anti-poaching team in Chyulu National Park where rangers could keep an eye on her.  She was seen frequently over the following months, and in early this year fence maintenance workers glimpsed the tiny foal by her side.

“It wasn’t until several weeks later that we finally got a proper sighting of the pair — and that was when her birth announcement revealed a whole new, surprising twist,” SWT said.  “During her time living within the community last year, she had obviously become acquainted with an amorous donkey.”

The young zonkey has the sturdy body of its donkey sire and the striped legs of its zebra mother. Like mules, it will be unable to breed once it reaches maturity, but the SWT said it “should otherwise lead a normal life”.

The conservation group said both mother and baby were “thriving” in a region with relatively few predators, plentiful water and lush vegetation.   It added: “They seem quite content to spend their days grazing side-by-side, a sight that makes us all stop and marvel at the wonders of nature.”

"For Love of Soysambu"

Greatly enjoying reading this new book in my Africa collection !

Its amazing what you can find on the internet .... I was checking out the author, Juliet Barnes, curious about her background, books written, etc., and found this ..... 

... the 5th Baron Delamere ... he looks better than he did when playing Dracula in December 1978 at Nakuru !!

Radio Kisumu !

Look what D W recommended for me !   

http://radio.garden/visit/kisumu/2oASkREv         I can now listen to dozens of African radio stations, should I so wish (I don't !)   

It works by moving the map around under the fixed green circle, until it is over the town you want .... I've got it set to Manene Radio, Kisumu.

There is a lot of typical jangley jangley African music, but the songs are very repetative, interspersed with adverts for various things, so I can understand about 20% of the Dholuo, which is lovely !!

The effect of Covid-19 on tourists .... and the Maasai

A report from Reuters:

INSIGHT -'No tourist, no dollar': Pandemic decimates livelihoods of Kenya's Maasai

MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE, Kenya, July 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For more than 50 years, Loiman Letolo, 70, has peddled her colourful beaded necklaces and bracelets to safari-goers at the entrance gates to Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve.

As the annual “Great Migration” of millions of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles into the Mara’s vast savannah gets underway, Letolo would normally be earning $50 a day from the droves of binocular-wielding tourists in their open-top jeeps.

The COVID-19 pandemic has, however, put a stop to that.

Instead, the grandmother of eight - wrapped in a vivid red “shuka”, or shawl, and wearing a face mask - queues with scores of women as community elders dole out rations of maize flour, beans and sugar bought with funds raised from well-wishers.

“I’ve been selling at the roadside since I was a teenager. In all my life, it has never been like this. There have always been tourists,” said Letolo, at the Nashulai Maasai Conservancy, a few kilometres from the Maasai Mara’s Sekenani gate.

“Now there are no tourists, there is no dollar and there is no food. If we didn’t get these weekly handouts, we would not be able to eat.”

The coronavirus has crushed Kenya’s billion-dollar tourism industry, leaving tens of thousands of people from one of Africa’s most recognisable tribes - the Maasai - struggling to survive.

This has raised fears amongst some conservationists that without government support or other livelihood opportunities, desperate communities living around protected areas may stop protecting wildlife, resort to poaching to get by, or sell land.

Semi-nomadic cattle, sheep and goat herders, Maasai communities around the Mara have for years relied on money from the hordes of foreigners with zoom lens cameras, eager to capture the greatest movement of animals on the planet.

As shareholders in private conservancies - community-run protected wildlife areas - the tourist dollars earned from lodge and camp stays, game drives, village tours and handicrafts during the high season from July to October are vital.

There are 15 conservancies around the Mara, collectively providing benefitting more than 100,000 people through land lease payments, as well as salaried jobs such as rangers, tour guides, housekeeping staff and drivers.

Nelson Ole Reiyia, founder of the Nashulai Maasai Conservancy - a 20 square km (5,000 acre) protected area on the Mara’s eastern boundary about six times the size of New York’s Central Park - said the fallout from the pandemic has ravaged the lives of the 2,000 people in the conservancy.

“This is usually the busiest time of the year. Our lodge was fully booked, but then COVID-19 happened and almost overnight the bookings were cancelled,” said Reiyia, sitting amid the empty tables and chairs in the mess tent of his camp.

“The coronavirus has decimated the local economy. No one in the community has been spared. People were staring starvation in the face, so we started crowdsourcing for funds to provide weekly food aid, but even that is not sustainable.”

Reiyia said he had been forced to furlough 40 of his 100 workers - mostly housekeeping staff - and also cut salaries for some senior rangers who patrol the conservancy which teems with giraffes and zebra alongside Maasai herders with their cattle.

‘EXCEPT FOR THE ANIMALS, IT’S EMPTY’

Offering everything from big game safaris to palm-fringed white sandy Indian Ocean beaches, Kenya attracted over two million visitors from countries such as China, Germany, the United States, France, India and Britain last year.

The tourism sector is a vital economic pillar, providing more than two million people with jobs and accounting for about 10% of the east African nation’s gross domestic product.

But the pandemic has seen the industry slump to its lowest level in decades. The government has so far estimated losses of at least 80 billion Kenyan Shillings ($752 million) - almost half of last year’s total revenue.

Nowhere is this more evident than at Kenya’s most popular tourist attraction: the Maasai Mara.

Covering 1,510 square km (373,129 acres) - about twice as large as Singapore - the Mara reaches its pinnacle every July and August when the majestic stampede of wildebeest migrate from Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park to find greener pastures.

Tens of thousands of visitors flock here annually, hoping to witness the hordes of wildebeest that run the gauntlet of hungry Nile crocodiles as they cross the Mara river, or sight a pride of lions lying under the shade of an acacia tree.

This year, however, there are few spectators.

“Except for the animals, it’s empty,” said Cosmas Saruni Ole Koshal, a Nashulai conservancy tour guide and driver, as he drove his jeep along a bumpy track past some eland and topi grazing in the Mara’s grassland.

“Normally, there are so many jeeps and minibuses on the tracks of the Mara at this time of year. We would be hearing the long-range radio going off every minute with guides sharing lion sightings, but these days the radiowaves are silent.”

The lack of tourists in the reserve means there are few taking breaks between dawn and dusk game drives to visit the mud-and-thatch Maasai manyattas, or villages, which are scattered around the Mara.

A manyatta - where visitors participate in a Maasai warrior jumping dance, learn to make fire, visit a homestead and purchase curios ranging from spears to wide-collared beaded necklaces - can earn hundreds of dollars daily in the peak season.

At Ewang’an manyatta, a branch-fenced settlement comprising of 24 homesteads located a few minutes drive from the Mara, villagers worry about the future.

“We would normally be getting 40 to 50 tourists every day paying an entrance fee of $30 each. We use this money to support the education and health needs of the community,” said Jack Moniko, an elder from Ewang’an, with a population of about 159.

“But these days we are worried, there are no daily earnings. We don’t know what will happen with this virus and when the tourists will return. Some people say even next year they might not come.”

Residents said their traditional livelihood of selling livestock had dried up with cattle markets and slaughterhouses closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Even if they could sell their animals, it wouldn’t be worth it as the cost of a cow had plummeted to a third of usual price to 20,000 shillings due to the pandemic, they added.

WILDLIFE UNDER THREAT?

Established to help landowners and livestock-keeping communities sustainably manage and conserve the wildlife and their habitat through tourist revenues, the Mara’s conservancies are now under threat.

Collectively covering over 1,400 square kms - almost equivalent in size to the reserve - conservancy camps generate nearly $5 million in lease payments for some 14,200 landowners annually, according to the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association.

But the pandemic has left most devoid of visitors, forcing the conservancies to withhold or make half payments to shareholders and furlough hundreds of tour guides, rangers and camp staff - most without pay.

Joseph Kosikir, 65, warden at Nashulai Maasai Conservancy, said he is luckier than most as he is still getting half his salary, adding many rangers and scouts from other conservancies had been sent home.

“I am in charge of 16 rangers and our job here is to protect both the community and the wildlife living here. We intervene to stop human-animal conflicts, seek out poachers and also protect the visitors who come to Nashulai,” he said.

“But if this corona situation continues, and all the rangers have to stop working due to no pay, it could be very bad for everyone. There will be increased conflicts with animals.”

Conservationists also fear desperate communities - which have for decades helped control deforestation and poaching - may be exploited by criminal gangs to poach animals to get by.

“The guys working in the lodges are jobless. The reserve and parks will lay off rangers,” said Kaddu Sebunya, chief executive officer of the African Wildlife Foundation.

“These guys know the parks better than anyone else and we all know who will recruit them - the poachers.”

But Reiyia said that is unlikely in the Mara.

“The Maasai culture has always been to protect the wildlife as we have relationship with the animals. We believe that if you kill an elephant it will come and haunt you as the elephant has the same spirit as a human,” he said.

"My biggest fear is that Maasai landowners - who are not getting any revenues - may get fed up and sell off their land to for non-conservation purposes. This could lead to the destruction of the Mara and livelihoods of the Maasai."