Shimoni East Colobus Census Part 2

Yesterday we tackled transects 1, 2 and 3 plus the two parallel routes that fell between them. there was some tricky travelling, navigating through dense undergrowth with a compass (GPS coverage is not strong enough to rely upon here!) and trying to keep five separate groups in step with each other by counting paces... 21,000 paces for each group!

Today was the second half, covering transects 4, 5 and 6 and all the parallel routes in between. Unfortunately we ran out f people to hit transect 6 and 100m route beyond, so there will be a day 3 ahead of us. But we had more sightings today, with 9 groups of colobus! Also 9 groups of sykes monkeys, but no baboons. Today's cameo appearances (or casual observations!) were provided by multiple suni (tiny forest antelope... a pet cat could bring these down!) four Zanj elephant shrews, red-capped robin chats, sunbirds and black kites. Having so many eyes in the forest at one time is awesome!

Shimoni East Colobus Census Part 2

Shimoni East Colobus Census 2009

This will be the first of a two part update on some exciting research going on in Shimoni forest. We are aiming to build on work previously done by Julie Anderson and repeated by GVI in 2007... a colobus census of Shimoni East forest.

Marta is one of our expedition volunteers, working towards her masters degree in Environmental Modelling, Monitoring and Reconstruction! She is using her time with GVI in Kenya to do the field work for her thesis, focusing on the colobus, so we were more than happy to adapt our schedule to work with her.

We timed the census for when we had the largest group of volunteers here in Shimoni, and managed to get a huge forest group of 15 fired up and ready to take on the forest. The census requires a primate survey along all of our transects which are spaced 200m apart, plus groups going in between them, following compass bearings through the bush, so we effectively survey at 100m intervals to avoid missing any groups.

In an ideal world we would have enough people to cover the whole forest in one morning, but Shimoni forest is no stroll in the park, so we had to split it over 2 days. For the groups going 'off-road' between our established transects, it was rough going; plenty of crawling through thickets and fighting off thorns. However the sense of adventure won through and it was with smiling faces that they headed back to base.

On day 1, five groups of colobus were sighted, ten groups of sykes monkeys and one of yellow baboons. Special guest appearances included a pair of Zanj elephant shrews, hornbills, African fish eagles and an abundance of red bellied coastal squirrels!

Shimoni East Colobus Census 2009

Zanj Elephant Shrews In Shimoni Forest

Our coastal forest research team of volunteers was out in Shimoni's forest continuing our pilot study of the vulnerable (officially 'data deficient') Zanj elepant shrew, of which Shimoni forest is home to what seems to be a substantial population. The method were are trying out involves setting a 50m long fishing net... and no, we're not getting our marine and forest research confused. Elephant shrews are 'trap shy' so many conventiona small mammal traps meet with little success. However they are fastidious about following their pathways through the forest and if a net happens to cross one, they are apparently as likely to entangle themselves trying to get through as they are to turn around and find another route to their nest. This is the theory at least!

So the team set up the net and then went to get a couple of bird surveys done, then take a lunch break... at which point, out of the dense undergrowth, two elephant shrews came charging out, one 'chasing' the other. Running straight towards us they came to a sudden halt literally a few feet from us. Clearly caught by surprise, they froze, turned and ran off in opposite directions. Although one headed in the direction of our net, after fanning out and closing in on the net, our volunteers found it empty... the elephant shrew had evaded us once again.

Relatively little is known about the behaviour of the Zanj elephant shrew (Rhynchocyon petersi) and they ar elisted as data deficient by the IUCN, considered vulnerable due to habitat loss. We can only guess at the behaviour we saw, but it culd have been a territorial conflict; their territories average 1.7ha are defended against individuals of the same sex. Males are the more common trespassers which can lead to chases and fights.

Zanj Elephant Shrews In Shimoni Forest

Sunny Sunday Mornings And Humpback Whales

Following the weekend, we have a recollection from our marine research staff about a decidedly less-than-typical Sunday off from last expedition...

Our sixth sighting of of Humpback whales for the expedition came on Sunday morning... our day off! This time a mother and her young calf were spotted socialising in the Wasini channel, between our two bases in Mkwiro and Shimoni, so close to our Mkwiro base that we were able to see them from land. It didn't take us long to prepare the cameras and GPS, and kit up the boat, to follow the pair as they slowly cruised through the channel.

They seemed relaxed in the calm shallow waters, the young calf lying on its back showing off the distinctive white pectoral fins, while the mother rubbed bodies beneath. We were simply overwhelmed with the beauty and magnificence of the moment! But the show was yet to be over and after a short diving period, the calf breached more than half its body clear of the water, just 30m from our boat... wow! Worth putting in the overtime on a sunny Sunday morning like this!

Sunny Sunday Mornings And Humpback Whales

Eco-Tourism In Shimoni

Hello again!

I felt it was necessary to follow up on the recent blog post about our visit to the ancient Kaya's (sacred shrines) in Shimoni forest and the potential for eco-tourism guided walks through Shimoni forest.

It was a while ago that the idea of guided forest walks was first raised. The idea came at a stage when destruction and deforestation in the forest was increasing dramatically. Friends of Shimoni Forest, the community-based organisation that GVI helped found, were discussing ways to tackle this when the subject of Shimoni's slave caves came up;

One of the success stories of community-based tourism projects in the area is the guided tours of Shimoni's Slave Caves, which date back to a time when the slave trade in Kenya was emerging. The caves are huge underground caverns that were used as a holding pen for thousands upon thousands of slaves before they were shipped to the market in Zanzibar. Today the caves are much smaller due to siltation raising the floor and blocking access to deeper chambers, but they still offer an incredible, if not markedly sombre reminder of a thankfully long-passed chapter in Shimoni and Kenya's history.

On a visit to Shimoni's slave caves, you are taken down by a local guide who talks you through the geographical origins and human history of the caves; you can even see the rusted iron rings in the walls where slaves were chained. You also get excellent close up views of the local bat population!

The Shimoni Slave Cave Committee use the caves to benefit their local communities. The flow of tourists through the caves end up paying for teachers, secondary school scholarships and medicines for the dispensary through the proceeds of their visits.

Friends of Shimoni Forest have realised that harnessing the economic benefit of tourism is the next logical step. It seems crazy after all that sitting 10 minutes walk away is a part of one of the 25 original global biodiversity hotspots, home to was is likely to be Kenya's second largest population of Angolan black and white colobus, and no one gets to see it!

The guided walks will see trained members of Friends of Shimoni Forest guide tourists on a route through the forest, firstly visiting the sacred Kaya's and then walking on through the heart of the forest to soak in the beauty of 'Mbuyu Tundu' (the forest's traditional Kiswahili name). Visitors will get to watch the charismatic colobus and energetic Syke's monkeys run through the canopy and if they're lucky, a glimpse of the Zanj elephant shrew.

All Friends of Shimoni Forest need is time and money to invest, and they will have an income generating scheme from the forest that doesn't require its destruction. And people from all over the world will have the opportunity to share in this exquisite marvel of nature. If you want to give a helping hand to this community conservation then donations can be made through the Just Giving page, linked to this blog!

Eco-Tourism In Shimoni

Made In Mahandakini

Sara, our former expedition volunteer, intern and now field staff member heading up our Tsavo West sustainable development programme updates us on developments at Mahandakini:

When I came to Africa a year and half ago I never thought I would be teaching women here how to hand weave using sisal, a natural fibre that grows here. But then again I wouldn't have imagined having the opportunity to build relationships with communities in the way I have. If I was to go to any other villages and tell the women I was going to teach them how to weave using sisal I have no doubt that they would laugh at me; a young 'mzungu' (white person) woman knowing how to weave let alone able to teach them something about it they didn't already know!

I first visited Mahandakini a year ago and have been back many times since. The welcoming nature of the people in this village has allowed me to stay in their homes, eat meals with them and play games with their children. With the relationships I have established I feel just as at home in Mahandakini as I would back home in Australia. This is important not just for me but for the community, building something rare - their trust. and that is the reason I was able to spend a week teaching the women in Mahandakini new weaving techniques to make handles for the bags that they have been weaving over many generations past.

With our keen group of volunteers, we spent a number of days seated on the ground with the women, tangled in sisal twine, giving practical training on different ways to weave sisal and produce attractive handles for the all-natural bags that they produce. Our aim is to enable them to add the 'finish' that will catch the tourists' eyes and so add value to their products - this is key to successful sustainable development, finding markets for the skills that they already possess.

We taught them three new weaving techniques alongside making labels for the bags using recycled elephant dung paper. By the end of the week a number of bags were completed with handles and labels produced by the women of Mahandakini, which I can now take with me in search of potential new markets for the women. Importantly the success of the week would not have been possible without the trust of the people of Mahandakini in both me and the volunteers they were meeting for the first time. A big thank you to everyone and congratulations to the women of Mahandakini!

Made In Mahandakini

At Home With Shimoni's Wildlife

Our Shimoni base on the mainland is only about 10 minutes walk from the forest where we conduct our research and has been host to a variety of wildlife over the years, that simply wander / fly / slither in to the cottage by accident! Of course there is the constant threat of the odd Syke's monkey or galago (bushbaby) that is all to aware of whereabouts and whose sole intention is to feast on our fruit supplies.

This week has seen the usual plethora of mother nature's finest. Firstly there was the unknown species of tree snake, and whilst trying to find that we came across a scorpion hiding behind the fridge, and later on two bananas went missing in the hands of of our friendly neighbourhood galagos. The highlight however was the bat which found itself slightly of course gliding around the bedroom.

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

Bats are a fascinating taxonomic order (Chiroptera) that is separated in to two suborders; fruit bats (megachiroptera) and insect bats (microchiroptera). In spite of their marked similarities, the two groups exhibit numerous less obvious differences which may suggest that insect bats share a common ancestry with insectivorous mammals while fruit bats may have more recent affinities with primates. The scientific community currently awaits for confirmation of these potentially separate origins which would signal the need for division in to two distinct orders.

From our photographs we can see the very small eyes and large eyes indicative of an insect bat. After a look through our book, we think he is of the family Nycteridae, and genus Nycteris, with the common name of the 'slit-faced bats'. We are secretly hoping another one will lose its way and find itself in the cottage so we can better photos for a closer look!

At Home With Shimoni's Wildlife