GVI Kenya

Category: Butterflies, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Environmental Education, Shimoni Forest, Wildlife clubs | Date: Nov 14 2009 | By: gvikenya

Yesterday was Friday.  And that meant one thing – environmental education!  For the last few months or so, we’ve been swapping our boots and clipboards for chalk boards, songs and games and heading into the Base Academy (a small primary school in the village) to teach the children about environmental issues and some basic science.

We feel it is really important to give the children this sort of knowledge and awareness about the environment around them because firstly, what they learn in school about such issues is minimal and basic, and it doesn’t cover the things that affect their everyday lives.

This is why we have been focusing our lessons on areas that the children can relate to such as coastal forests, the importance of forests and the animals that live there, effects of deforestation, pollution etc.  A couple of weeks ago, we decided to re-brand our weekly lesson, and form a wildlife club for the kids.  This means they are now part of the Shimoni Base Academy Wildlife Club!  We felt this would encourage a sense of ownership and pride in the children who come, and would really make them feel a part of something. 

 The children coming back from the forest

We think it has worked really well, as we now have a regular group of about 30 children that are there every Friday, who all wear their Wildlife Club badges with pride, and sing the Club song through the village!  And since forming the Club, we have been putting an emphasis on actually taking the children into the forest every week.  The idea behind this is to get them out there, seeing the plants and animals for themselves, and getting them out of the classroom and excited about nature, the forest and the wildlife. 

So far its been a huge success; the kids absolutely love being taken out into the forest, and they have really enjoyed the topics we’ve covered so far.  We’ve been going over basic plant biology (as this was in their syllabus and their exams were coming up so we thought that would help), where we actually showed them the different plant species and the different parts.  Then we gave a lesson on butterflies, followed by sweep netting in the forest – they absolutely loved that (and were rather good at it…I’m considering using them for our surveys!), where we also showed them how to get the butterflies out of the nets without hurting them. 

And then yesterday we tried to touch on the subject of colobus behaviour.  We managed to get across the basic idea of why we study their behaviour, how colobus behaviour is adversely affected by things such as disturbance, and then what possible impacts this could have.  It went surprisingly well, and they grasped the concept really well.  It was a very simplified version of course, with the basic premise being if the colobus are undisturbed they will spend more time feeding, resting, sleeping and socialising, whereas if the forest around them is being disturbed, they may spend more time alert or travelling.

They are a great bunch of kids to work with, all so eager to learn and take part.  Hopefully we will be helping these children to grow up into environmentally aware adults, who understand about their surroundings, and take pride in the beautiful areas they live in.  

Tags: , adverse effects, alert, basic science, boots, butterlfies, chalk boards, clipboards, coastal forests, colobus behaviour, deforestation, disturbance, Environmental Education, environmental issues, exams, feeding, knowledge and awareness, nature, ownership, plant biology, plants and animals, pollution, possible impacts, pride, resting, shimoni, Shimoni Base Academy, simplified version, sleeping, socialising, songs and games, surveys, sweep netting, syllubus, travelling, wildlife club

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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: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Community Conservation, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kenya Wildlife Service, Logging, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest | Date: Oct 15 2009 | By: gvikenya

East African coastal forests are some of the most critical habitats for wildlife conservation in the world. Once upon a time they were a continuous belt that stretched from Somalia down to Mozambique, and were home to some of Africa’s most diverse and unique wildlife. Unfortunately today, what remains are small, isolated and fragmented patches, in which the wildlife is becoming more and more vulnerable.

 One of the many new roads scarring the forest

GVI has been conducting disturbance surveys in Shimoni forest for over three years now, and have a solid and robust set of data, which highlight the plight of this beautiful area. The main aim for our research in the forest, is to be able to hand it over to Friends of Shimoni Forest (a community-based organisation), which will empower them to lobby, apply or petition for things like land allocation or protective status for the forest.

The work of illegal loggers

We have been very encouraged recently however, as government organisations and the local administration have actively approached us for our data and results, as they too are very concerned with the level of destruction. Off the back of this, we have spent a lot of time putting together a disturbance report, which summarises our results over the years. This report has been written on behalf of Friends of Shimoni Forest, and has been submitted to Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Service, the Chairman of the County Council, the District Commissioner, the East African Wildlife Society and the IUCN.

A charcoal pit in action

It is massively encouraging to know that our results are being looked at by so many people, and that the number and range of people concerned with this destruction is ever increasing. We cannot wait to work with everyone in the future, so that together we can put a stop to it.

Tags: , administration, Chairman of the County Council, Charcoal Pit, critical habitat, data, destruction, District Commissioner, disturbance, diverse, East African coastal forest, East African Wildlife Society, fragmanted patches, Friends of Shimoni Forest, government organisations, illegal loggers, isolated, IUCN, Kenya Forest Service, Mozambique, results, robust, Somalia, surveys, unique wildlife, vulnerable, wildlife conservation

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Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, bottlenose dolphins | Date: Oct 14 2009 | By: gvikenya

Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area (KMMPA) lies south of Wasini Island (south-coast of Kenya) and covers an area of 39 square kilometres. The KMMPA includes the National Park surrounding Kisite Island and the Marine Reserve surrounding the Mpunguti islands. The KMMPA and the marine wildlife it contains are an important tourist attraction and, as a result, an important resource for Shimoni and surrounding communities. The islands within the KMMPA are surrounded by coral reefs attracting divers and snorkelers to the area. Almost every day dolphin-watching companies operating from Shimoni travel through Wasini Channel to the KMMPA. These tourist dhows most frequently encounter Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), and less frequently, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis).

Global Vision International (GVI) Kenya’s main working partner is the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). The research conducted by GVI is shaped to satisfy the objectives of KWS, so as to assist them towards better management of the area.  All data collected thus far is made available to KWS to aid in management plans of the study area. The Marine Programme is supporting KWS to collate data by conducting vessel surveys, which was focus on assessing the bottlenose dolphin abundance on the area, during the initial phase.

After three years of cetacean research in Kisite-Mpunguti MPA, GVI has estimated the absolute abundance of bottlenose dolphins around 122 individuals, being the second biggest population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in East Africa. The largest population of the species inhabits in Kizimkazi (south-coast of Zanzibar), and holds between 139 and 179 individuals (estimation made by University of Stockholm in 1999-2002).  

Photo-id and mark-recapture methods were the methodology used on both studies to get the estimation. Photo-ID refers to the identification of individuals by distinctive features (shape, outline, natural markings and scarring) of their dorsal fins, flanks and flukes. Some scars will be retained through life, whereas others will be added and may fade through life. The depth and severity of the wound will determine the length of time this may be used for identification. These features allow known individuals to be re-sighted. The re-sighting rate can be plotted on a discovery curve, the plateau of which suggests population size. Photo-ID can also be used to determine residency and demographic data such as inter-birth intervals, patterns of ranging and mortality.

Mark-recapture methods are used to calculate population size from the proportion of known individuals re-sighted over the study period. Mark-recapture models estimate only the size of marked individuals in the population. Therefore, the total population size has been corrected by the correction factor.

Kenya Wildlife Service applied a code of conduct in 2007 for the tour operators to follow when manoeuvring around the cetacean species; unfortunately it is not being fully adhered to as it has only recently been implemented. The levels of interaction between cetaceans and the tour operators are not being monitored or regulated in any way. The impact these activities may be having is unknown. In particular, it’s not known whether current levels of dolphin tourism are sustainable for the area. The first estimation of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in KMMPA will allow GVI and KWS to measure the levels of tourism impacts, analysing the population dynamics of this species.

Tags: absolute abundance, coral reefs, correction factor, demographic data, depth, divers, dorsal fin, identification, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, inter-birth intervals, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, kisite island, marine programme, marine reserve, mark-recapture, mpunguti island, national park, photo-ID, severity, shimoni, snorkellers, south coast, surveys, University of Stockholm, wasini channel, wasini island

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Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, Reef fish research | Date: Aug 31 2009 | By: gvikenya

My name is Aaron. I am a conservation student from England. I have joined Global Vision International (GVI) as a conservation intern to gain experience in the marine biology field. I have been with GVI for 9 weeks with a further 11 weeks to go.
This week on Marine represented a new opportunity to expand GVI’s research in Kenya. The majority of GVI’s marine research has concentrated on monitoring tourist and fishing activity against dolphin behavior and abundance. Whilst this research has been, and continues to provide essential data to Kenya Wildlife Service, it is only focused on the effects to cetaceans.

Setting up the survey 

This week we were able to begin monitoring reef fish abundance, with the intention of creating a long term data capture, similar to that of the dolphin surveys. This means that not only will we be able to see effects of tourism and fishing on dolphins, but we will also be able to see the effects on not only reef fish, but also coral reef habitats as the abundance of reef fish can indicate the health of reef habitats, which also act as feeding grounds for dolphins.

The way reef fish surveys are done is by sampling 5 random sections of coral reef habitats. Reef fish species and size are noted down. This gives a snapshot of the reef fish abundance at any one point in time and provides data on an exciting and important aspect of the marine ecology of Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area. It’s an honour to help set up this research and I am proud to be contributing to something that can make a real difference.

Survey training underway

Tags: abundance, cetaceans, coral, data capture, Dolphins, ecology, fishing, habitat, Kenya Wildlife Service, kisite mpunguti marine protected area, long term, marine, reef fish, surveys, tourists

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