Since August of this year GVI has been supporting Kenya Wildlife Service and the Colobus Trust to carry out the first national census of the Angolan Black and White Colobus since 2001. Having already completed the census in Shimoni’s forests, we have spent the last few weeks at Gonja Forest Reserve, between the border posts of Kenya and Tanzania. Our Terrestrial Officer, Emma, returned today after finishing off the last of the transects with our team of expedition members. For me playing a key role in the census has been one of the most valuable contributions we have made to the conservation of this amazing animal.  Emma, our Terrestrial Science Officer, tells us the news from Gonja…

Above: The research team for Gonja Forest Reserve, Emma is second from the right in the top row

“After two weeks and twenty two transects, Gonja provided us with just 13 Colobus sightings from 5 troops, two of which were just solitary males. In 2001,  the census recorded 24 colobus, which indicates a worrying decline in the population for an area of forest that is under formal protection.

Above: The red legged running frog, Kassina maculata, a wonderful find in Gonja

But there were some excicitng findings too… we found two new species of frogs that we haven’t recorded before one of which was the beautiful Kassina maculata, or red legged running frog, the second species in this genus that we have found.

We also had a visit from a shrew, a Crocidura spp, which was very cute! Unfortunately with over 100 species described that all look very similar, we are unable to identiy which species it is without taking a specimen for identification by experts. Finally our time crawling through Gonja forest also gave us some smaller adventures… the bee nests and army ant attacks were not the fondest of memories but we saw some very very cool spiders!”

Above: The shrew we found, Crocidura sp 

Above: One of the spiders that make the coastal forests such an exicting place of discovery

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