Bushbaby Returns
Category: bush baby | Date: Jun 12 2009 | By: gvikenya
Hi there, a while ago we were blogging about our midnight feasters… up to 3 bushbabies that climbed through our kitchen window under the cover of darkness to share our bananas! One of them was missing one his front legs which may be why he was such a common visitor for some easy pickings, but remained agile enough to leap around the kitchen with banana in mouth - he or she (they move too quick to be able to work out!) was named Yardy after a few suggestions… three feet in a yard!
However since March they had been notable by their absence and we were beginnig to wonder what had happened to them, hoping it was simply that with the arrival of the rains they were finding their food easily enough elsewhere. Bushbabies, in our case the small-eared galago, are nocturnal foragers of gums, flowers, seeds, fruits and insects so they have a diverse menu to choose from. They are also a little partial to alcohol, or at least fermenting fruits, and where I worked in Tanzania before, the swahili phrase ‘kama komba’ (like a bushbaby) was the local equivalent of ‘pissed as a newt’… a term for someone who it a little too drunk!
Anyway, the pleasing news for us at least, is that over the last few nights one of the bushbabies has been back to supplement its diet with our bananas and we don’t mind one bit! No confirmed sightings of Yardy yet, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on our kitchen window before bedtime once again, and will be sure to let you know!
Environmental Education For Shimoni School Kids
Category: Coastal Forest, Environmental Education, Shimoni Forest | Date: Jun 11 2009 | By: gvikenya
These last few weeks have seen an exciting new development for GVI’s forest team here in Kenya. For one day a week we’ve decided to swap our boots and compasses for chalk and lesson plans!
Over the last few months, GVI has started working more and more with the Shimoni Base Academy, a new school tucked away in Shimoni village. It is part funded by private donations, which allows the fees for children from poorer families to be subsidised. One thing that shocked us was the revelation that the children at Base Academy were not being taught science at school. It seemed like such a shame that these children were living right on the edge of one of the most important habitats for biodiversity and endemism in the world – Shimoni’s Coastal Forest.
And as we are conducting research in the forest, and know it rather well, we thought that dedicating an hour a week to environmental education based around the forest they live next to, could have a massive impact on the children and in turn could help to protect the forest in the future.
We spoke to a few of the children and discovered they knew very little about the forest, and didn’t even know what animals lived there. So we created a short-term syllabus to kick things off, starting with a basic introduction to forests in general, and the important roles they play in things such as the water cycle and preventing soil erosion.
We then led onto why Shimoni Forest in particular was so important, touching on its role as a international biodiversity hotspot, how it protects the in-shore coral reefs and its capacity as a vital natural resource. After that we moved onto the animals of Shimoni forest (the lesson we think they enjoyed the most!) including the threatened population of the sub-species of Angolan black and white colobus, and the rare Zanj elephant shrew. The lesson planned for this week will be based on the consequences of Shimon Forest disappearing. Hopefully this will highlight to the kids the importance of the forest in every aspect of their lives, now they are more aware of what it gives them! The overlying theme for our environmental education lessons is going to be instilling a sense of pride in Shimoni Forest, which is actually their forest, so that they will go away with a better understanding of its role in their lives, and their role in its safe keeping.
Cotton Processing, Food Security and Ex-Poachers
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 05 2009 | By: gvikenya
We recently returned to Mahandakini, a village located in the southern part of Kenya close to the border with Tanzania. The village has a population of around 2,000 people, many of whom having given up poaching in nearby Tsavo West National Park and have been seeking to engage in sustainable income generating activities. GVI’s role is to assist the community with capacity building to support alternative livelihoods. During our week long trip to Mahandakini we continued where we left off last time, developing a Food Security Programme for the community and cotton processing industry that Mahandakini is endeavoring to establish.
Throughout the week at Mahandakini, we worked in two groups; the first focused on developing the Food Security Programme, whilst the second spent time assisting with the development of a cottage cotton industry in Mahandakini. as part of the Cotton Processing group we worked through problem solving with the community, providing training on using natural dyes and assisting with financial management. The primary obstacle facing the cotton processing industry in Mahanadakini is the lack of funds for the processing and ginning machines necessary to undertake large scale cotton processing. Over the week, we managed to initiate a plan for the community to develop the cotton industry by selling the cotton they are already growing, and buying cotton material which can be dyed and manufactured into value-added products. In this way the community will be able to start generating income immediately, some of which can be used to save up for the cotton processing equipment required for spinning and weaving.
Our week wasn’t all about cotton though; we took time to visit some of the amazing sights in the local area. We visited caves which were used by British soldiers who were fighting in Kenya during World War 2 and are now home to thousands of bats, went swimming at beautiful Njoro Spings the source of which is melt water from Mt. Kilimanjaro, and visited Ziwani Voyager Ranch, a great opportunity to see some local wildlife including elephants, hippopotamus, zebra, antelopes and a vast array of birdlife. Finally the week culminated with a wonderful traditional dinner prepared by some of the women from the ex-poachers group; the community invited us to share a meal with them as a sign of their appreciation for the work we had achieved together!
Tags: alternative livelihoods, capacity building, cotton, food security, Mahandakini, sustainable development, tsavo west national park
Humpback Dolphins Sighted With Four Calves
Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Humpback Dolphins, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, Turtles | Date: Jun 04 2009 | By: gvikenya
Today we chugged our way along the coast of the Shimoni peninsula all hoping for an exciting day to finish off the marine research week. Not long after leaving the Western end of the Wasini Channel our hopes were fulfilled when Shafii sighted Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins just off the coast. First contact was with a mother and calf but shortly afterwards we spied another group about a hundred metres away and so headed off to check them out… and were rewarded with a group of twelve to fourteen humpback dolphins literally frolicking in the shallow waters.
Humpback dolphins are meant to be ’shy’ but this group were anything but as they spy-hopped, breached, swam around the boat and generally showed off, posing for the paparazzi on the boat. Most excitingly, there were four mother and calf pairings - baby humpbacks are particularly cute with their little humps and tiny dorsal fins and they gave our two photo-identification photographers plenty of opportunities while the rest of us ooh-ed and aah-ed at the display. It can’t be a bad day when you are sat on a boat in the sunshine watching a group of dolphins at a time of day when you would normally have been arriving at the office to start work! We had a spectacular snorkel in the warm waters off Kisite Island then spied a turtle swimming on the surface as we headed back to base.
Tags: Cetacean research, dolphin research, indo-pacific humpback dolphin, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, photo-identification, Turtles, wasini island
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