GVI Kenya

Category: Shimoni Forest, bats | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: gvikenya

Our base on the mainland is located on the outskirts of Shimoni village, about a 10 to 15 minute walk from Shimoni East Forest.  The “cottage” has been host to a variety of wildlife over the years.  These are generally disorientated creatures that simply wander / fly / slither into the cottage completely by accident.  Of course there is the constant threat of the odd sykes monkey or galago (bushbaby) that is all too aware of their whereabouts, and whose sole intention is feasting on our fruit supplies! 

This week has seen the usual plethora of mother nature’s finest.  Firstly there was an unknown species of tree or possibly vine snake.  While we were trying to find that, we discovered a scorpion hiding behind the fridge, and we had at least two bananas stolen by our friendly neighbourhood bushbabies.  The highlight of the week however, was a bat which found itself slightly off-course in our bedroom!

We found him hanging from our ceiling looking quite confused – and very cute!  After managing to get a couple of photographs we spent the next 40 minutes trying to herd the poor thing out of the bedroom and then out of the front door.  It was actually an incredible experience, watching the bat fly slowly, effortlessly, and with absolute precision through doorways and around a rather small cottage.  You could hear the small clicks of echo-location as he casually avoided obstacles and hugged the contours of bookshelves, computers and sofas. 

Bats are a fascinating order (Chiroptera) that is separated into two suborders; fruit bats (Megachiroptera) and insect bats (Microchiroptera).  In spite of their marked similarities, the two groups exhibit numerous less obvious differences which suggest that insect bats share a very ancient common ancestry with insectivores while the fruit bats may have more recent affinities with primates.  While the scientific community wait for confirmation of separate origins (which would require two separate orders), fruit bats and insect bats remain distinct suborders (Kingdon, 1997).

From our photographs, we can see the very small eyes and large ears, which suggests our friend is an insect bat.  After a brief look through a book, we think he is of the Family Nycteridae, and the Genus Nycteris, which has the common name of the slit-faced bats.  There are 10 species found across the whole continent, excluding only the Sahara dessert.  We are hoping another one will lose its way and find itself in the cottage, so we can get better photos for a closer look! 

Tags: , bats, chiroptera, echo-location, insect bat, megachiroptera, microchiroptera

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Category: Community Conservation, Environmental Education | Date: Feb 03 2009 | By: gvikenya

Welcome back to GVI Kenya on tour! So cotton, bats and Njukini Women’s Group, what do they have in common? The truth is not much except that they all featured in our work here at Mahandakini today. Oh, and so did Kilimanjaro, treating us to some truly awe-inspiring views!

Cotton was one of our main themes with the community group we are working with here in Mahandakini. The WSPA community group, Mahandakini Youth Network for Animal Rights and Welfare
Have identified value added cotton production as a route to alternative liveloods that could guard against their 32 members returning to wildlife poaching and the bush meat trade. Cotton was widely grown here when there was a ready government market, being a hardy reliable cash crop in the semi arid strip between Tsavo West and Tanzania. But when the market disappeared, many farmers sought alternatives such as maize that is easy to sell, but more prone to the often failing rains.

Under a government initiative to revive cotton production, Dishon, the community group chairman has received training on spinning and weaving raw cotton as well as fabric dyeing, and is able to transfer those skills to his group and the wider community. Being able to source, spin, weave and sell the products of cotton locally would offer a realistic sustainable opportunity to provide a ready market to farmers and employment to the community. Profits from the enterprise would then feed in to their food security plans. At its most basic, food security for the community here means buying maize at harvest time when the price is low, storing it and selling back to the community at the same price at tougher times of year when the market price puts it out of financial reach for many families. This is not a profit making enterprise but a genuine community support process ensuring their neighbours don’t go hungry when traders force up the price of basic food stuffs.

Our morning with the community group was spent exploring both these initiatives, the planning, organisation and costs as a precursor to developing a fully fledged proposal, that could source the necessary funding to get them started.

The afternoon took us to neighbouring Chumvini village, where we have visited the bat caves at the primary school. Such wondeful animals it is always a thrill to see them up close and personal. On our last visit however we were dismayed to see that the school children didn’t share our respect and affection for the bats. After seeing them take out a number of bats with sticks we vowed to return and try to change attitudes. So with the gracious cooperation of the teachers, we took standard 8 - all 70 children! - for an hour’s lesson of games and bat facts, pressing home the benefit of bats, not least their remarkable ability to reduce mosquito populations! The ‘bat moth’ game at the end was designed to illustrate the concept of echolocation with a blindfolded ‘bat’ calling out and listening for the replying ‘moth’ until the bat catches the moth. Not sure how well they understood echolocation but they certainly enjoyed getting out of the classroom!

Finally we ended the day at the next village, Njukini where the women’s group gave us a tour of their grain store, sharing valuable information to take back to Mahandakini for their food security plans. This admiral group of local women that have been working as a cooperative for over 30 years were welcoming, gracious and as inspiring as their Kilimanjaro back drop! We were welcomed back to see them on our next visit to Mahandakini and personally I can’t wait to share an hour or two with this collection of women (and men - gender equality is alive and kicking even in dusty rural Kenya!) rich in shared experience, wisdom and sense of community.

Tags: bats, community development, cotton production, Environmental Education, food security, Kilimanjaro, Mahandakini, tsavo west, world society for the protection of animals

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