Namibia: A leading model for conservation

The country of Namibia is likely the biggest leader for wildlife conservation in Africa. This great success is thanks to a wide range of incentives for the conservation of wildlife by private citizens. Essentially, for wildlife to thrive it must have value. Many people think wildlife has intrinsic value, and I would agree with this. Simply knowing the animals are there and that I may be able to see them one day is enough for me. This, however, is a First World luxury. When you are starving and cannot afford to feed your family aesthetic values do not mean anything to you. Namibia’s conservation efforts have been extremely successful as they specifically address this issue in their wildlife management strategy.

Namibia was not always a wildlife paradise though. Before it gained independence in 1990 wildlife populations were at all time lows. Predators were seen as threats to cattle and thus were designated as vermin to be exterminated. Herbivores were seen as competition for grazing lands as well as sources of meat. During the military occupation of Namibia wildlife was illegally slaughtered by soldiers and locals for bush meat. Conservation was not a priority.

However, after Namibia gained its independence from South Africa conservation became a top priority. Namibians recognized the wildlife was part of their cultural heritage as well as an excellent source of income. Local communities could now apply to become conservancies and gain ownership of their wildlife. Communities saw opportunities to generate income from the wildlife rather than exterminate the animals to make room for their cattle. Wildlife has become one of the largest sectors of the Namibian economy through photo safaris, ecolodges, regulated hunting, and meat harvesting. Thanks to these economic incentives Namibia now has 79 conservancies covering over 16 million hectares. According to the World Wildlife Fund 44% of Namibia’s land area is devoted to conservation. The benefits of this new-found conservation mindedness in Namibia is evident. Predator populations are recovering, herbivores are found in excellent numbers, and poaching is relatively low.

To my shame I have not yet visited Namibia, but this is something I hope to remedy soon. This country is truly a gem of wildlife conservation due to its multi-faceted approach to wildlife management. Below are a few more links to information about Namibian conservation efforts.

Namibia: A Model For Conservation | First For Wildlife.

Namibian Cheetah Conservation Success Story.

http://gametrails.org/namibia-announces-plans-for-350000-from-rhino-auction/

Plain Talk: Let’s do a little to save a lot of birds : Ct

As spring is upon us and migration is underway I wanted to share this article I found about birds colliding with windows. This is one of the greatest sources of mortality for birds, other than predation by feral or free ranging pet cats. The article lists a couple of ways to prevent these fatal collisions. I would take this a step further and ask that you do not let your cat run free, especially this time of year.

Plain Talk: Let’s do a little to save a lot of birds : Ct.

Tourism May Be Last Hope to Save India’s Bengal Tiger – Yahoo News

Tourism May Be Last Hope to Save India’s Bengal Tiger – Yahoo News.

Wildlife crimes and illegal trade

A series of articles related to wildlife crimes and illegal trafficking of wildlife parts.

http://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/the-economics-of-the-illegal-wildlife-trade.29-05.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/28/un-ban-kimoon-wildlife-trafficking-central-africa

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/20135262017481252.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-p-farwell/slaughtering-elephants-an_b_3328425.html

Red-cockaded Woodpeckers: Declines and Conservation

Bird species have faced serious declines since the Americas were colonized by Europeans. One of these species is the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. With estimated populations ranging from 920,000-1,500,000 groups at the time of European settlement these birds had fallen to only 10,000 individuals within 4,000 groups by the time they were listed as endangered in 1979.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

This drastic decrease in numbers was due to an almost complete loss of habitat. These birds rely on old-growth longleaf pine forests. Particularly because they burrow in trees that are infected with red heart disease. This fungus is fairly common in trees that are 70 years old or more but with few trees left in this age range there was little habitat left in which these birds could nest.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker male

The bird does seem to be on the increase in recent years. Now considered vulnerable by the IUCN the birds have increased to around 6,105 breeding groups according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This increases is largely attributed to better management practices for these birds and their ecosystems. Once mostly restricted to South Carolina they have now expanded back out to cover 11 states (AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, NC, MS, OK, SC, VA, and TX).

Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation

Once widespread throughout the Great Plains the Lesser Prairie-Chickens, Tympanuches pallidicinctus, are now limited to a restricted range through parts of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. These smaller relatives of the Greater Prairie-Chicken are dependent on large areas of native prairie, particularly shortgrass prairie and sand sagebrush grasslands. However these birds have experienced a 92% reduction in range since the 1800s with similar decreases in the number of birds.

Habitat loss has been the largest driver of this decline. With the 92% reduction in range this seems like a natural conclusion. However, the way in which habitat is being lost may not seem as obvious. If one were to drive through the native range of these birds they might ask how is this habitat lost? There is very little construction through these areas. The habitat has actually been degraded by the conversion of prairie to agricultural land and through the construction of tall structures such as power lines and wind turbines.

Lesser Prairie-Chicken range map

Lesser Prairie-Chickens will not venture near tall structures as these are excellent perching places for hawks and other flying predators. Unfortunately for these birds, which are labeled as vulnerable by the IUCN, the best places for wind energy happen to be right in the middle of their remaining habitat. So as we attempt to create more green energy by harnessing wind we are inadvertently putting more pressure on a species that has already been pushed to the brink.

Fragmentation of land through fence construction has also been a threat to these low flying birds. When they are flushed and try to evade danger they often smash into these fences and die.

Lesser Prairie-Chicken

There is hope though. Several organizations are working to protect this species. NRCS, Natural Resources Conservation Service, has developed a program to promote conservation on private lands. This plan includes supporting better grading practices that maintain proper nesting cover for these birds, protecting and restoring large tracts of native prairie and  sagebrush grasslands, and increase connectivity of prairie-chicken habitat. So far 600 farmers and ranchers have enrolled in this program conserving around 1 million acres of habitat.

The Wildlife Society has also been involved in the conservation of prairie-chickens. Particularly several student chapters have organized work days to go out into prairie-chicken habitat and place reflectors on fences, with land-owner permission of course, to prevent these birds from striking fences by helping them see the wires from farther away.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Your Neighborhood Bear – Yahoo!

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Your Neighborhood Bear – Yahoo!.

The Lewa Conservancy: Kenya’s crown jewel

I have mentioned it several times of the last few weeks and now it is finally time to talk about it. The Lewa Conservancy in northern Kenya is often held as the pinnacle of wildlife conservation in Kenya. Out of all the areas I visited in Kenya this area was the best for wildlife viewing. From the moment our bush plane touched down on Lewa’s airstrip we were surrounded by wildlife. In fact we had to run off a greeting party of reticulated giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis reticulate, and plains zebras, Equus grevii, from the landing strip.

From the airstrip we headed to Lewa’s security compound. Along the way we spotted 4 species of the Northern 5 (Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe, beisa oryx, and Somali ostrich) species only found in northern Kenya. The elusive gerenuk,the fifth member, was not located until the following day. At the compound we had the distinct pleasure of meeting with John Pommeri, the head of security, who spoke with us about the history of Lewa and their current conservation efforts.

Reticulated giraffe in Lewa

Lewa was founded in 1983. The original conservancy covered 10,000 acres but has since expanded to 45,000. This area is fenced to avoid conflicts with humans which occur when the animals leave the conservancy. As John says, it is not to keep humans out of the conservancy, but to protect them and the wildlife. Lewa tries to maintain good relations with the local community to gain the support of the community for their conservation efforts. They hope that through providing water sources for the community and education to empower women and children they can foster change within how the community views wildlife and deter poaching. Originally grazing of cattle was allowed within the conservancy as part of their community relations campaign. This is no longer allowed as the conservancy has switched to a more natural management approach. To maintain relations the conservancy is teaching local communities how to manage their lands for wildlife rather than cattle so that they can earn income through tourism.

Lewa has several species which it works to conserve, but the bulk of their efforts are focused on three species: rhinos, elephants, and Grevy’s zebra. As I stated in my post about the Grevy’s there are only 2,000 individuals left including juveniles as well as mature animals. With 400 of the remaining 2,000 calling Lewa home, the conservancy is an area of vital importance to this species. The Grevy’s at Lewa seem to be breeding very well.

Rhinos have been another success story. Lewa has worked extremely hard to protect their rhinos using a combination of technological advancements and old fashioned foot patrols they have been able to protect their rhinos so well that they are now at carrying capacity for the conservancy. As such they intend to relocate excess rhinos at some point in the future to neighboring reserves to start rebuilding other populations. Sadly rhinos are still poached in the conservancy on occasion, but the security personnel swiftly catch up to any poachers that manage to enter the conservancy. Of the three incidents this year one group was forced to flee without rhino horn, the second group of four men was killed when they engaged security personnel in a firefight, and the third group of poachers were captured and convicted.

Grevy’s Zebra in Lewa

Along with rhinos, elephants were the other species that John focused most of his time on. In the past Lewa and the surrounding area have had trouble with the local elephants. Lewa elephants would often brake fences as they tried to migrate to other areas for food and water. Also, the local community has grown so much that they have blocked the path for elephants living in the nearby mountains to mingle with the Lewa herd. This genetically isolation could have led to serious problems in time. So the folks from Lewa came up with a plan. Gaps in the fence were created to allow the elephants and other species of Lewa to migrate in and out as they historically would have. These gaps are built along sections of fence which do not border local communities that may have a problem with wildlife entering their crop fields. Concrete barricades in the gaps prevent rhinos from leaving and entering areas where they cannot be protected but are still short enough that elephants can get over them. The second step of the Lewa plan helped the isolated mountain herd. A fenced corridor was built, including a tunnel to allow elephants to travel under a major road along Lewa’s border, to allow the mountain elephants to mingle with Lewa elephants preventing genetic isolation.

Lewa is really the paragon for wildlife conservation in Kenya. Their efforts have shown many local communities that wildlife is to be valued and conserved rather than eradicated to make way for cattle and settlement. Lewa teems with wildlife and as such has been incorporated into the Mt. Kenya World Heritage Site. This is a wildlife lover’s utopia and I highly recommend anyone traveling to Kenya must see it.

Conservation of Grevy’s Zebra

The Grevy’s zebra, Equus grevyi, is the largest of the equids as well as the most critically endangered. This was one of my target species that I wanted to observe and photograph during my recent trip to Kenya. To do so I had to travel into northern Kenya to see the Lewa Conservancy, a conservancy that deserves a post of its own which will be a topic I work on after this, and the Il Ngwesi group ranch. I had feared that this species may be hard to find as there are so few of them left in the world. However, Lewa is home to one of the largest populations of this species and we managed to find a small herd of them shortly after leaving the airstrip.

The Grevy’s zebra is an interesting creature which looks like a cross between the plains zebra, Equus burchellii, and the wild ass, Equus hemionus. In fact, they fill a narrow ecological niche between the wild ass, which is more desert adapted, and the plains zebra, which is heavily dependent on water (Estes 2012). During dry seasons the Grevy’s will migrate to better-watered highlands. However, this species is not overly limited by food. It can eat grasses you tough for cattle and when these are gone it will shift to browsing. Without the need to find better grazing as long as water is available it will not migrate. They have even been known to dig waterholes in stream beds which they fiercely defend rather than migrate (Estes 2012).

Grevy’s Zebra

These zebras are highly territorial. Stallions maintain dung middens to mark the boundaries of their territory. A stallion will not tolerate the presence of another dominant male in his territory when a female is in estrous, although subordinate males are still allowed within the territory but at a distance from the dominant stallions females. However, the territorial stallion will often mingle with subordinate bachelors and even other territorial males when the females are not in estrous (Estes 2012). Females will breed as young as 3 years old but stallions never before the age of 6. The foals become more independent after 6 months but still follow their mother up to 3 years. When females are forced to travel during droughts they often leave their young unguarded or in a crèche (Estes 2012). Lacking the instinct to hide, the foals just stand around as easy prey for any predator in the area.

Historically this species ranged throughout most of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. With only 750 mature individuals left, and only 2,000 total including juveniles, this species is almost entirely restricted to the Laikipia region of Northern Kenya (Moehlman 2013). As of 2010 the Ethiopian population was estimated around 126 individuals, a 90% decrease from the 1,900 estimated in 1980, and the species has been extinct in Somalia since 1973 (Hollingshead 2010).

Grevy’s grazing

In Kenya it was believed that hunting for skins was a large part of the decline of this species throughout the 1970s. However, even after the closing of all big game hunting in the late 70s this species has continued to sharply decline. More recent data suggests that possibly the biggest factor in the decline is low juvenile recruitment, that is to say that very few of their offspring are surviving to adulthood, due to competition with pastoral people and livestock for access to food and water (Moehlman 2013).

There are many efforts in place now to save this unique species. They are a CITES Appendix I species and are being upgraded to the designation of “protected animal” in Kenya. Kenya has taken steps to create a national conservation strategy. The aforementioned Lewa Conservancy has been a shining example of the dedication of Kenyan’s to saving this iconic species.

Literature Cited

Estes, R.D. 2012. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press. 240-242. Print.

Hollingshead, A. 2010. “Equus grevyi” (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed August 30, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Equus_grevyi/

Moehlman, P.D., Rubenstein, D.I. & Kebede, F. 2013. Equus grevyi. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.1. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 August 2013.

See Spot Run: A discussion of cheetahs and cheetah conservation

When I first visited Africa in July of 2009 the cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, was the first species I saw and photographed. Although it was in a cheetah center rather than in the wild this species will always be special to me as it was like an ambassador, welcoming me to the continent where I feel most at home. While the lion is still my favorite the cheetah is a close second. It was not until my fourth trip back to Africa that I was able to once again see these magnificent animals and photograph them in the wild.

Cheetahs are the most specialized of the world’s big cats, essentially the feline version of a greyhound. These amazing cats have traded strength for incredible speed, reaching speeds of 90-112 kph (60-70 mph). Though they are incredibly fast they lack both stamina and the strength of their felid relatives. Their jaws are fairly weak and lack the major canine teeth of other cats. Without the strength of other predators they are easily run off of their kills. While in Tanzania’s  Tarangire National Park I witnessed a pair of cheetahs that had been run off of a warthog kill by vultures. It is very likely that the cheetahs fled the kill out of fear of the vultures attracting larger competition rather than by the vultures themselves. As for stamina they can only maintain their speed for a short distance, prey must be overtaken within 300 yards, before they need to cool down. In fact a cheetah can cause itself to overheat if it tries to run for too long.

While predominantly solitary creatures cheetahs, mainly males, have been known to form coalitions. Males usually disperse and defend their own territories, but some litter mates have been known to stay together. The benefits of forming coalitions seems less obvious than in the case of lions. Females are solitary and wander amongst male territories. Having a coalition would not increase the likelihood of being visited by a receptive female. Single males would have a better chance of mating as they would not have to compete with a companion male for the right to copulate. The only benefit these males may receive is in hunting as having a companion would allow them to drag down larger prey.

Cheetahs that are actively hunting walk along alertly and will use termite mounds and low hanging tree limbs as vantage points. To get within range of prey the cheetah may wait at the vantage point if it sees prey grazing towards it or attempt a stalk. Some stalks are unsuccessful and do not result in a chase, but those that do result in chases are successful roughly 50% of the time. Serengeti cheetahs lose roughly 10% of their successful kills to other predators. However, females with cubs will occasionally try to defend these kills against hyenas and wild dogs, but will quickly yield to larger competitors such as lions.

While cheetahs are fascinating creatures they face serious threats. Once widespread across Africa and into southern India cheetahs have now become severely limited in range. In the 1950s they became extinct in India and are now very rare throughout North Africa. They are still wide spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa but very sparsely distributed. To make matters worse a series of genetic bottle necks have led modern cheetahs to be over 90% similar in genetic make up. This degree of genetic uniformity means that one disease could possibly devastate cheetah populations and quite possibly push cheetahs into total extinction.

There is a glimmer of hope though as many organizations throughout the world are working tirelessly to save cheetahs. The De Wildt Cheetah Centre in South Africa works to relocate cheetahs captured near ranches to areas where they will not run into conflicts with humans. This centre, where I saw my first cheetah, also has an ambassador program in which they teach humans that cheetahs are not a major threat to livestock and attempt to foster good relations between ranchers and this species of cat.

Back in the US at Texas A&M is another project which may benefit cheetahs. A professor there has been working mainly with bison, another species that has a severely limited genome, to collect DNA from hides taken prior to the genetic bottleneck the species went through. It is hoped that this genetic information can be spliced into modern bison and add more diversity back to their genetic code. In theory, this professor could do the same thing with cheetahs to hopefully provide them with enough genetic diversity to survive a disease that otherwise might wipe them out.

Cheetahs are an amazing species that have captured my heart. It took me three additional trips to Africa to finally catch glimpses of them in the wild, but the effort was well worth it as my latest trip provided three new cheetah sightings for a total of 6 cheetahs (one pair in Tarangire, a coalition of three in the Serengeti, and a solitary cheetah spotted a few hours after the coalition). It would be a great tragedy if we let this species slip out of existence. Fortunately there are many great people working to make sure this does not happen.