Rare | GVI Kenya

Taming of the Shrew

Category: Coastal Forest, Elephant Shrew, Shimoni Forest, Shrews, Small mammals | Date: Nov 17 2009 | By: gvikenya

For about a year now we’ve been experimenting with a method of trapping the elusive and shy Zanj elephant shrew. This particular shrew is technically a sengi, and is a species that is not only endemic to the east African coast, but is also listed as ‘rare’ and ‘data deficient’ by the IUCN.

Shimoni forest boasts a significant population of this small mammal, and sightings of it by our forest teams are fairly regular (especially at this time of year when visibility is good). So we did some research and decided to procure ourselves a 50m long, very finely threaded fishing net with which to catch them with!

One of the cleared patches that mark the habitual pathway

We set the net up in a large semi circle, and either ‘beat the bush’ towards the net hoping to drive a shrew into it, or we sit nice and quietly and wait for one to wander in. This method works because the Zanj elephant shrew uses habitual pathways, which it will travel along each day clearing them of obstacles. So if one was to encounter the net, it would most likely attempt to get through or over the net, causing it to get entangled. Once caught we would take its measurements, weight, and then clip a small patch of fur on a designated spot on its body for mark-recapture purposes.

Some zanj elephant shrew droppings that are found around the paths

Unfortunately we haven’t caught one yet, but I do not doubt the method itself. Due to the amount of time needed to complete all of our regular surveys, we only get a chance to do this survey perhaps once or twice every three months. This is obviously not even remotely enough to stand a chance of catching a shrew. Especially because until recently we did not know what their trails looked like and therefore could not strategically place our net.

But a couple of weeks ago we saw one of the little chaps running away from us, and so we had a closer look at the exact route it took through the undergrowth. To our surprise, the path was quite obviously marked. Approximately every 30cm, there is a cleared area of dirt. A patch where all the leaf litter and twigs and other debris is cleared, leaving a bare area of dirt approximately 10cm long. And these cleared patches headed off into the undergrowth!

Several of the patches leading off into the undergrowth

Now we know what to look for, we have been spotting the shrew trails all over the forest! This has given us motivation to get back into shrew netting, and allowed us to strategically place our net across these trails, greatly increasing our chance of catching one!

We’ll keep you posted!

Tags: , beat the bush, data deficient, debris, droppings, East African Coast, elusive, endemic, entangled, fishing net, good visibility, habitual pathways, IUCN, leaf litter, mark-recapture, measurments, method of trapping, obstacles, rare, regular surveys, research, sengi, Shimoni Forest, shrew netting, shy, significant population, small mammal, strategically, trails, twigs, undergrowth, weight, zanj elephant shrew

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Critically Endangered Bird Sighting!

Category: Birds, Coastal Forest, Shimoni Forest, Spotted Ground Thrush | Date: Oct 13 2009 | By: gvikenya

So on Friday we told you about our southern-banded snake eagle sighting, and on Saturday you heard about our humpback whale. Well I’m afraid we’re going to keep boasting about our sightings, because they don’t end there!

It was at the end of the week, and a forest team was wearily trudging back to base from a long, hot day of forest research. We were no more than 30 metres away from the gates, when we heard a rustling in the leaf litter to our left. We all peered in, and to the utter shock of us all we were staring straight at a spotted ground thrush! This was one of the most exciting sightings we’ve had in months and months. And to our utter disbelief and joy – we saw it again today! We think it was the same one as it was in almost exactly the same spot.

This may not sound that exciting, until we tell you that it is a critically endangered species with very restricted distributions. It is under serious threat from habitat loss, and Shimoni forest is one of the few places left in the world that it can still be seen.

It is a medium sized (about 8 inches) terrestrial forest thrush that is difficult to observe. This is mainly due to it being well camouflaged, silent and shy. It tends to freeze motionless when disturbed or surprised. It lives mainly in deeply shaded areas with deep leaf litter, where it feeds on seeds, fruits and invertebrates.

(zimmerman et al, 1999)

This is only the third and fourth sighting we’ve had of this species in almost a year, which when you imagine we are in the forest almost every single day, highlights the rarity of this sighting. There is action being taken however, consisting mainly of a partnership between Birdlife International and Nature Kenya, plus other organisations in several countries, who are working together to gather data and information about this species. They are then using this information to produce conservation management strategies to safeguard the future of this wonderful bird.

Tags: Birdlife International, camouflaged, conservation management plan, countries, critically endangered, data, Forest, freeze, fruits, future, habitat loss, humpback whale, information, invertebrates, leaf litter, motionless, Nature Kenya, observe, organisations, partnership, rare, research, restricted distributions, safeguard, seeds, serious threat, shy, sighting, silent, Southern Banded Snake Eagle, species, Spotted Ground Thrush, strategies, terrestrial

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A Real Welcome Back

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!