GVI Kenya

Category: Butterflies, Shimoni Forest | Date: Oct 23 2009 | By: gvikenya

When I first came out here to GVI Kenya in July 2008, I never thought I would become an avid fan of butterflies.  To be honest, I would have laughed at the thought (as would many of my friends back home in England!), but I now proud to say otherwise.

As part of our biodiversity research in Shimoni east forest, we monitor butterfly diversity and abundance.  We are trying to put together a comprehensive species list, as well as record any changes in species presence, distribution, or changes in abundance.  We do this for several reasons. 

Charaxes brutus.  Here you can see its proboscis very well (the curly red thing) which is used for feeding.

Firstly, butterflies are a very well studied taxon.  They are also easily identifiable (they are 90% identifiable by external characteristics), and we can do it ourselves relatively accurately using a book (Larsen 2006).  They are also excellent ecological indicators due to their very specific plant and habitat associations.  So by monitoring them, we can indirectly monitor the health of the forest. 

 Charaxes brutus

And finally, they have a trait that plays straight into our hands.  They can only take off upwards.  This means they are very easy to trap!  We use things called canopy traps, which comprise of a board with a pot of bait in the middle.  A couple of inches above the board is a cylindrical tube of mosquito netting.  So the butterflies fly onto the board to feed on the bait, then when they attempt to fly away, they fly straight into the net!

The face of Charaxes brutus

Once caught, we remove them from the net, and take photographs of the upperside and the underside for later identification.  Getting them out of the trap is fairly easy.  You grab them by the sides of the thorax, which is the middle section that houses all of the muscles for the legs and wings.  You can then use your other hand to slide your finger between the wings and get a grip of the thorax from the top and bottom.  The butterflies we catch in the traps tend to be the larger species, and they are very strong!  It still surprises me how solid their thorax is, and the strength of their wings.  By using this method, we can be sure not to touch their wings or harm the butterfly.  Once photographed, we let them fly on their way.  An example of the grip we get is shown below.

Papilio demodocus demodocus

I decided to write this blog because Andy (a new edition to GVI) has a camera with an amazing macro setting, allowing us to get some really cool photos of the butterflies.  Enjoy the close ups!  

Tags: , abundance, bait, biodiversity research, Butterflies, butterfly diversity, canopy traps, cylindical tube, distribution, ecological indicators, habitat association, health of the forest, identification, mosquito netting, papilio demodocus demodocus, plant association, Shimoni east forest, species list, species presence, taxon, thoraxcharaxes brutus, underside, upperside

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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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