GVI Kenya

Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest | Date: Oct 22 2009 | By: gvikenya

Well my arms are aching and my hands are blistered, yet I feel the need to let everyone know about why…

We have been doing primate and biodiversity research on Shimoni east forest for almost 4 years now, and are getting some robust data.  Yet just across the road on the other side of Shimoni village lies the uncharted, and mysterious realm of Shimoni west, ever beckoning us to it.  We have been planning to expand our research into Shimoni west for a while now, and have finally begun the adventure. 

The girls ready for the day

The western forest is almost twice the size of its counterpart, and teaming with flora and fauna that are crying out for recognition.  There is definitely a viable population of our beloved colobus monkey, as highlighted by the censuses conducted in 2001 by Julie Anderson and in 2007 by GVI.  That is the only time GVI have officially done research in West, and Anderson’s census is the only other event. 

We have on occasion, ventured into Shimoni west on fact finding missions and with the intention of making preliminary assessments into the possibility of starting research in there, and one thing we have noticed is the high level of disturbance ranging from charcoal pits, pit saws and snares.  This only increased our sense of urgency.

 Katie getting stuck in

So as of last week, we have officially begun our preparations.  By preparations, we mean donning work gloves, sharpening our pangas (machetes) and practicing our angry faces and heading into West to begin the long and tiresome process of cutting transects.  Transects are an essential part of research (specifically for distance sampling – the method of survey we use for the primates), which involves cutting paths in a grid system that allow us to pass relatively easily through the research area.  We do try and minimize the damage we cause, so there is always plenty of crawling and climbing! 

Matt’s panga face

We’ve started cutting our north / south spine, which will run approximately 1 – 1.2 km through the centre of the forest, off which our research transects (that run east-west) can cross.  We have done two days so far, and have gone approximately 600 metres!  That may not sound like much, but trust me on this – it’s not bad!  This endeavor will take many months to complete (as we still have to carry on our surveys in East), but we’ll keep you updated on our progress. 

Once more into the breach dear friends!

Tags: , adventure, angolan black and white colobus, biodiversity research, census, Charcoal Pit, climbing, colobus monkey, crawling, distance sampling, disturbance, fauna, flora, grid system, Julie Anderson, machete, panga, pitsaws, preparations, Primate Research, research area, Shimoni east forest, Shimoni village, Shimoni west forest, snare, snese of urgency, transects, western forest, work gloves

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Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest | Date: Oct 16 2009 | By: gvikenya

Have you ever asked yourself what you would do with your day if you were a colobus monkey?  Perhaps not, but down here in Shimoni east forest, we are rather curious…

GVI has been conducting primate behaviour surveys on the colobus monkeys for about two and a half years now.  It has been a constant effort, but unfortunately we have never dedicated as much time and energy into it as we would have liked.  This is due to the fact that our forest research programme has many parts to it, with an array of different surveys that all require our attention. 

We have been privileged recently though, by the presence of a masters student from Manchester Metropolitan University who has come out to do his thesis on colobus behaviour in Shimoni forest!

Gareth has been with us for over ten weeks now, and still has approximately five weeks to go.  He has been stomping through the forest during every waking hour in search of our beloved colobus, with the hope of quietly observing and recording their behaviours. 

The main outputs one wants from behavioural surveys are time budgets.  These are simple breakdowns of what the colobus actually spend their time doing (normally as a percentage of total time).  So for example you could observe that during the early hours of the morning, an adult male may spend 60% of his time feeding, whereas during mid day, this may be replaced by resting (say for perhaps 85% of the time).  Whilst one is recording states (which are longer durations e.g. feeding and resting), one is also recording events, which are of a shorter duration, or “instant” events such as urination, or scratching.

You may be asking yourself why we would be interested in these details of a monkeys life.  Well, apart from being amazing to watch (they are scarily human-like!), these observations can tell us much about the wellbeing of the population, the impact of environmental pressures, the effects of human presence / absence, and the impact that human disturbance is having on different populations. 

For example if you were to observe a troop that reside deep in the forest well away from human presence, and then compare those results to a troop that is near recent destruction, you may observe some serious differences.  The troop deep in the forest may spend more time feeding in the morning and evening, and resting during the middle of the day – what they should be doing.  The troop closer to human disturbance may spend more time alert, or travelling.  This reduces the time they can spend on activities such as feeding, or socially important behaviours like grooming.  You do not need to be a genius to guess that this will be likely to have implications for the health of the individuals and the troop as a whole.

 Observing colobus in their natural habitat

So we are very happy to have Gareth here with us, and are extremely excited to see his results.  They may well reveal some distressing facts, which I have no doubt we will be able to link to the increasing destruction of the forest.  But the first step is collecting this data, and analysing the results.  Once we have firm conclusions, the next question will be “why?” and the next step – how do we stop it.   

Tags: , adult male, alert, angolan black and white colobus, behavioural survey, distressing facts, energy, events, feeding, firm conclusions, human disturbance, human presence, instant event, Manchester Metropolitan University, observations, percentage total time, population, primate behaviour, resting, results, scratching, Shimoni east forest, social activity, states, surveys, time, time budgets, urination

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Category: Cetacean research, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Humpback whales, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest, Southern Banded Snake Eagle | Date: Oct 09 2009 | By: gvikenya

Well hello everyone!

First of all, apologies for the lack of blog action over the last few weeks or so.  We have had a month long break in research, and all of us here at GVI have had a well deserved holiday!  We’re back now, for another 3 month research period that will bring us up to December. 

We’ve kicked off with an amazing first week for both the marine and terrestrial research programs, with plenty of exciting sightings.  I’ll begin today with a bit about the terrestrial action, and then will fill you all in tomorrow about our humpback whale sighting on marine!

Wednesday saw the first exciting sighting for one of the groups in the forest.  We were on transect 6 (our northern most transect) doing a primate community survey.  We had stopped to observe two troops of colobus monkeys that were having a verbal disagreement.  The two dominant males were producing a barrage of croaking roars, aimed at each other.  Male colobus monkeys have an enlarged larynx which allows them to produce this sound – a territorial vocalisation.  It is an awesome sound to hear, and we were standing in the middle of these two going all out!

As we were watching the colobus, a huge shadow passed over us as gazing upwards we were presented with a spectacular view of a southern-banded snake eagle! It had obviously been disturbed by the noise, and flew so low over our head we got a perfect look at it, allowing for a 100% identification.  We are all trained on the identification of the rare, threatened or endangered bird species in Shimoni forest, specifically for opportunities such as this.

(Stevenson, Fanshawe 2004)

The southern banded-snake eagle is a threatened species, and we have only sighted it a few times over the last year.  It is a stunning eagle, and we were all gibbering with excitement for hours afterwards! 

(Stevenson, Fanshawe 2004)

We have a bunch more exciting sightings from the rest of the week, but these shall have to wait until we’ve told you about the whale tomorrow!  We are very glad to be back, and look forward to getting into our blog again, to keep you all up to date with the progress, sightings and happenings on the beautiful south coast of Kenya.

Until tomorrow!

(Stevenson, Fanshawe 2004)

Tags: angolan black and white colobus, coast, dominant male, endangered, Forest, humpback whale, Kenya, larynx, marine research, primate community, rare, research period, Southern Banded Snake Eagle, terrestrial research, terretorial, threatened, transect, troop, verbal disagreement, vocalisation

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Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Community Conservation, Eco-tourism, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kaya, Shimoni Forest | Date: Aug 19 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hello there,

My question for the day: how do you find Shimoni Forest? Well, a good place to start is the Lonely Planet…

A year ago when we were in the early stages of planning community-based eco-tourism with guided walks in Shimoni Forest to see the beautiful Angolan black and white colobus monkeys in their natural habitat as an alternative, sustainable use of forest resources, we had a surprise visitor… a travel writer from the Lonely Planet.

We plied him with as much information as we could about the planned guided walks in Shimoni forest and also community-based cultural tourism in Mkwiro, where we have our marine research base and work closely with a community that has many challenges in accessing the tourism revenue that Kisite Marine Park brings to the area. It is fair to say that at the time, everything was very much a ‘work in progress’ and we have continued to support the development of these initiatives over the last year.

But I am ecstatic to report that the Lonely Planet put their faith in our optimism, and have put both Shimoni Forest and Mkwiro village on the map - or at least in the pages of their latest edition of the Kenya Lonely Planet. This is about the best free marketing we could have hoped for.

In actual fact, the first we knew of Shimoni and Mkwiro’s recent rise to backpacker prominence was when an excited Faridi, our friend in Mkwiro, received a phone call for a Mkwiro homestay booking. Within days Athumani, treasurer of Friends of Shimoni Forest, had an enquiry about a guided walk in Shimoni Forest. It took a few more days before we found out where the leads had come from, and it gives us a huge amount of encouragement. So now the challenge is on to get the communities up to speed and delivering a professional, enjoyable and worthwhile eco-tourism experience, but it is a challenge we are relishing!

As you have been reading we have been out cutting the tourist trails but to ensure we are offering an eco-tourism experience that is both professional and educational, we really need to find financial support for Friends of Shimoni Forest; to access some of the sacred kaya sites over the coral rag we will need to construct a raised boardwalk to keep visitors safely on their feet, we hope to compile signs and information boards and an information centre with restaurant to enable visitors to spend the day exploring the rich forest wildlife on their ‘Shimoni safari’!

We see this as an invaluable opportunity to raise awareness about the conservation of Shimoni’s coastal forest and the wider eco-region and to engage the local community in generating sustainable revenue from their forest resources and wildlife rather than exploiting them through extraction of timber and charcoal. Our coastal forests are a Global Biodiversity Hotspot and it seems only fitting that we tap in to the global community to support their conservation. So we are asking all of you that would like to help contribute to community-based conservation in Shimoni and safeguard the future of the colobus in their natural habitat to consider donating towards this cause.

The support of the Lonely Planet has really instilled the confidence in us all here in Shimoni to make this happen and we hope that it will instill confidence in you to donate the much needed funds.

Here’s to a brighter future in Shimoni,

Corti

Tags: angolan black and white colobus, Community Conservation, Eco-tourism, Friends of Shimoni Forest, lonely planet, Shimoni Forest

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Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest | Date: Jul 06 2009 | By: gvikenya

This week our research teams were back in Shimoni forest after a few weeks break. We were aware of the intensely thick canopy and vegetation that has literally sprung into life since the onset of the rainy season, and were concerned about how this was going to affect our primate community surveys. The density of the vegetation makes spotting primates significantly more challenging than in the dry season, and the very strong winds that are present at the moment reduce the chances of hearing the primates; a vital tool in the search! The rains and winds also regularly bring down trees in the shallow soils of the coral rag forest which can make it near impossible to find let alone follow our transects!

We headed out optimistic nonetheless, and made our way to the furthest transect away; transect 6. The last time we had been back to re-survey transect 6 we had been confronted by swathes of destruction from fire and on-going logging and charcoal burning.

Our fears of not seeing the primates melted away steadily throughout the day however, after we got sighting after sighting of the Angolan black and white colobus monkey, and several good sightings of sykes monkeys.

The day ended up with seven colobus sightings and two sykes sightings. The average group size of the colobus seen on that day was just over 4, with the largest group including seven individuals. What was particularly exciting to see was the number of young colobus in the groups; two very young infants who still had all white pelts and very cute pink faces, two juveniles that had developed grey pelts, and 3 sub-adults. Sub-adults are often hard to distinguish accurately as they have developed their adult colouration, but by watching their behaviour and interaction with adult females in the group it is possible to observe their on-going attachment to their mothers.

The rainy season is the peak birth time for colobus, so it should be expected to see young ones, but it was a huge sense of relief that the disturbance we were confronted with the last time we working in this part of the forest has not displaced the troops of colobus or interupted their breeding cycles.

Tags: angolan black and white colobus, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest, sykes monkey

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Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Logging, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest | Date: Mar 26 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hello again everyone,

Today I’m going to write the first of what I hope will be an ongoing story about a particular troop of Colobus that inhabit Shimoni Forest (east).  It’s a troop that we at GVI are beginning to know quite well, and are becoming rather fond of. 

 One member of the Angola troop

There is an area of forest, where our north / south spine runs through our third transect.  The area is made up mainly of a fairly large clearing, which is surrounded on two sides by tall, mature forest.  To the west of the clearing (the negative sections of our transect) the forest becomes dense with lots of thickets and low canopy, whereas to the east the clearing continues for a fair distance.

We’d always noticed there were a high number of Colobus sightings in and around that area, but because of the distances between the sightings (often up to 400 metres) it was assumed they were different troops.  But recently, we have been attempting to conduct behaviour surveys in the late afternoon and early evening (the times in which our data set is falling behind in). 

What we’ve noticed is that all the smaller groups we’d been seeing scattered around during the day, are actually subgroups of a much larger troop that come together in the early evening, and presumably sleep together as a large group.  Colobus troops are known to do this; sleep together in larger groups, and then separate during the day to feed in smaller subgroups. 

We’ve named the troop the ‘Angola’ troop.  So far, we have conducted 4 hours and 10 minutes worth of behaviour surveys on different individuals in the Angola troop, but still haven’t got a complete set of demographics.  The largest count we have is 14 individuals, with 3 males, 2 females, 1 sub-adult and 1 infant.  I have no doubt there are others hiding away in the canopy that we haven’t seen, and that our total count isn’t spot on yet, but I intend on making it a goal in the coming weeks to try and identify every individual in the troop and successfully age and sex all of them.

This troop is becoming special to us, firstly because of the hours we’ve spent quietly observing them in the canopy , and secondly because the spot they inhabit is a man-made clearing, and illegal logging and charcoal burning continues to plague the entire area.  All it would take would be for a few of the larger, key trees to be felled, and that entire troop would be displaced.

I will continue to keep you all updated on the Angola troop, and we will hopefully have a much more detailed picture of all the individuals for you all soon.

Take care, and I shall be back soon
Matt

Tags: Angola troop, angolan black and white colobus, Charcoal Burning, Logging, man-made clearing, primate behaviour, troop demographics

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Category: Birds, Butterflies, Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Logging, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest, Small mammals, Spotted Ground Thrush, chameleon | Date: Feb 13 2009 | By: gvikenya

Yesterday we sent three teams in to the forest in an attempt to catch up on delays caused by having to re-cut transect 6, and a shorter week as some our research team prepare to take a long weekend break. 

Tess took ‘team 1′ up to transect 6 to finish off maintenance… re-clearing the paths we use to survey the forest following a combination of natural tree falls and sadly even more ‘unnatural’ tree falls as illegal timber extraction and charcoal burning continue. It is the hottest and hardest work so it was a mixture of relief and pride to hear they finished it. The excitement was reserved something else however - the team recorded another spotted ground thrush, our 2nd in as many weeks of this critically endangered bird species. Critically endangered due to habitat loss, something only too evident in the forest we survey; the presence of such a conservation important species however could provide an invaluable stimulus to raising awareness of the plight of Shimoni’s forests. Alongside the Angolan black and white colobus it represents a ‘flagship’ species - a focus for conservation that would benefit the wider habitat and species assemblage. 

Matt and I joined forces with our two teams to check the small mammal traps… empty… but on the way to transect 4, following our group from the back I noticed something on the ground, inconspicuous enough for the others to have walked by. A new born colobus monkey, sadly lying dead on the ground. A genuine mix of emotions; upsetting for everyone to see such a beautiful, vulnerable creature that didn’t quite make it - a species that we are committed to conserving, and acutely aware that every individual counts when habitat destruction is sending the species in to increasingly rapid decline in Kenya. But the scientist in me was also excited; when you study animals so intently, each day raises new questions, sometimes more than it brings answers. An opportunity to examine a new born so closely is a privilege. Pure white, thin silky fur, the face still pink, the dried skin of the umbilical cord still present. The hands clenched with the characteristic colobus trait of it’s reduced, almost non-existent thumb. Perfectly formed, but lifeless.

The infant had died probably at the end of the day before. A small gap in the tree canopy directly above suggested it may simply have fallen as its mother leaped between trees but this is obviously conjecture. It was curled in the foetal position so hadn’t died immediately, but likely had died as a result of a fall. We buried it, marked with stones… partly an emotive, collective mark of respect but the scientist still lurks - an complete, clean skeleton of an infant by the end of the rainy season will be of major interest. 

On transect 4 we conducted a bird survey - many were heard and crowned and trumpeter hornbills, green wood hoopoe, plain-backed sunbird and a pair of woodpeckers. Another exciting ’second’ of this expedition was spotted in the leaf-litter by Asha; a bearded pygmy chameleon.  

I took my team on to transect 5, to survey canopy height and coverage; straightforward, slow-paced work, but the panga needed swinging to clear the path of branches and vines, and the heat and humidity were taking their toll on all of us. Back at section 0, we mustered our remaining collective energies for butterfly sweep netting. There wasn’t quite enough energy left in reserve to chase down the few high and fast flying butterflies flitting through the sunny spots until Tom stepped up to the challenge at the end - a beautiful swordtail butterfly. 

And those were the highs and lows, but as with every day in Shimoni’s coastal forest the small, these daily rewards keep us coming back. Until next time… Corti

Tags: angolan black and white colobus, butterfly research, pygmy chameleon, Spotted Ground Thrush

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