Diary of a Primatologist: August 2014

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Fish nets don't just catch fish!

Just 72 hours after witnessing beautiful green turtle hatchlings racing from the beach to the ocean I get to see a full grown adult. Unfortunately this encounter happened because a fisherman had been night fishing and two had got caught in his net. Luckily our Director is passionate about turtles and has been telling the fisherman that if they cut them free she will pay to repair their nets.

So after hearing about these turtles I race to the beach, fling my shoes and socks off and run into the water getting my trousers soaking wet in the process. My first thought was, WOW that is a massive turtle and I couldn't believe they can go from being so small to so big. This guy had already had the netting cut from around it and was being released back to the ocean. Then a slightly smaller turtle was brought out of the small wooden boat and was heavily entangled in plastic netting. The fisherman worked hard to cut the turtle free and within 3 minutes they had succeeded and away it went.

This is an example of how education and incentive within the local communities can help save precious species from decreasing.

First turtle free of the net

Being set free

Once off the sand moved fast to get back to the ocean

The second smaller turtle caught in a lot of netting

Fisherman struggling to free it

A lot of netting to cut free

Doesn't look injured

Netting almost free

Last little bit to go

The turtle is free and sent off to freedom

Going

Gone

The fisherman return to water

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Monday, 18 August 2014

Run Turtle Run!

Today there is a little more green in the ocean; green turtle that is.

One of our Directors is very involved with the local turtle watch and told me the nest outside Colobus Conservation was almost ready to hatch. 11 days had passed and I was loosing hope that I was going to actually see this amazing natural event; as I leave Kenya in one week. Apparently they were late due to the cold weather and high tides

Well this morning I got the call saying there was disturbance at the nest and that they expected them out any time soon. Usually they hatch at night to increase chances of safely making it to the ocean; but the lateness meant it could happen during the day. On putting the phone down I grabbed my camera and ran for the beach filled with excitement. Thankfully today I was finally going to witness the green turtle hatchlings breaking out of their nest and running for the ocean.

When we got there we saw the marked nest and the path to the ocean had been cleared to give the hatchlings the best possible chance. They have to be careful when marking the nests as local people can dig them out and eat or sell them to tourists. We then waited around for about 45 minutes before we started to see some movement.

The nest ready for action

Everyone was poised for turtles

The first one popped out and then stopped as if to adjust its sight and get its bearings. Then the little guy just ran as fast as a little turtle covered in sand can. All of a sudden another one came out, then another and another and another. By this time the nest was uncovered and tens of green turtle hatchlings were pouring out of this hole. They were all darting for the ocean, but some seemed to take a slightly longer route than others.

The first Green Turtles coming out the sand and making for the ocean

Then a couple more

Then even more

Then the nest just exploded with baby turtles

This guy stopped on reaching the surface, then ran like the wind

There were just so many

Almost at the water little guy

They had a long way to go in baby turtle terms

The first ones started to reach the water (about 20 meters away) within minutes and they were initially pushed back up the beach by the waves. Luckily the wave then swept them out into the big blue ocean, and with just one final bobble on the top they disappeared out of sight forever.

They were moving fast

Caught this guy mid flight

Getting closer, no looking back now

Starting to hit the water

Only to be pushed back by the waves

Guarding them till they hit the water

Shows just how small they are

This little guy waved goodbye to me before disappering

Then they were just shadows

Obviously all this commotion did not go unnoticed and before we knew it passer bys (including Masai) were upon us taking photos. With the increased footfall I started to get worried not only might some of the turtles be trampled on, but they would be scared and not make it to the ocean. Gladly this did not happen, and before we knew it this large beach that just moments earlier had been filled with new life and excitement returned to a quiet, blank surface where you wouldn’t even know this event had occurred.

Everyone wanted to see the turtles start their lives

Important to get a selfie with the turtles

Within a few short minutes tracks was all that was left

OMG did we really just witness that

On returning to the nest Juma (a trained local turtle expert) excavated it to check none of the turtles were trapped. The nest was at least 50cm deep and he had been counting the turtles as they had appeared with the final numbers being 135 survived and 17 died in the nest; some due to crabs others just didn’t hatch. So out of 157 eggs it was a very successful hatching. Apparently only a handful will make it to adulthood as usually a lot will be killed on the way to the ocean (crabs, birds, ants), and through their first year by fish etc. The human factor and lateness of the nest meant all of the emerging hatchlings successfully made it to the water; they are on their own from there.

The successfully hatched shells on the left, dead ones on the right

17 did not make it out the nest

It was without doubt a memorable moment that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

All that was left to do was wonder what they are getting up to under the big blue ocean

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Thursday, 14 August 2014

The Rare Sable of Shimba

I recently went to a talk hosted by the Shimba Support Group (SSG) on the Sable Antelope (Sable) of Shimba Hills National Reserve (SHNR). There are only 60 Sables left (increasing from 56 in 2012) and they all reside in the Shimba area; therefore at high risk of exctintion.

On arriving this out of place sofa was very comfortable

The talk was held at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) office in Diani in what appeared to be an outside storage area. I met up with Shazaad (chair of SSG) and examined the interesting drawings on the wall; including a house, Barrack Obama, what appeared to be Wayne Rooney and fittingly a Sable. We then took our seats (some chairs were better than others) and waited for the talk to being.

KWS support the SSG and it was held at their office in Diani

Meeting up with the SSG Chair, Shazaad

Nope I did not choose this chair

Sable drawing on the wall

Shazad opened the talk and was talking about how there is “to little emphasis on the Sable and that more is put on the big animals like the Elephant, Lion and Rhino. If we are not careful the Sable could be lost forever and that would be a big blow for Kenya in the fight for wildlife conservation”.

The main talk was then underway and was delivered by two SSG committee members Ayesha and Esme as well as Nathan from KWS, who as an active ranger within SHNR. It began with basic facts about the Sable like:

There are five subspecies of the Sable and Kenya has the Roosevelt Sable (Hippotragus niger roosevelti).
Classed as endangered in Kenya, but the IUCN has it as least concern because it lumps it together with the other sub species, except the critically endangerd Giant Sable.
Males are black in colour with the females & young a chestnut brown.
Male & female both have horns reaching 81-165cm & 61-102cm respectively
Typical in herds of 20-25 with a dominant bull, cows, sub adult females and young bulls usually below 24 months.
The young bulls group together in bachelor herds until they reach 4 or 5 to look for their own group.
One dominant female will lead the herd and will usually be the oldest, healthiest & darkest in colour.

Then they moved on to the threats facing the Sable in Shimba, the main ones being:

Inbreeding, Poor Habitat, Malnutrition (apparently the soil is lacking in calcium & phosphate), poaching, farming including livestock grazing.

And the main challenges:

Security, monitoring, diversifying the population of the Sable.

Some good news is that the new wildlife act that was introduced this year to Kenya now classes the Sable as an endangered species. This means the penalties for poaching them is similar to elephants with a fine of 1 million KES; we will wait to see how effective this is in being implemented.

This talk was followed by one from Dadley Tsiganyiu Deputy/Community Warden of SHNR. He repeated some information, but concentrated more on how we must include the local community in any action to protect the Sable going forward. They are the ones who will truly decide if this species survives or is lost from Kenya forever. Problems like logging, charcoal burning, firewood collection and farming can all be made more sustainable. If more education is put into these communities and their local skills, like wood carving, are used effectively they can become a resource; not a problem. The big challenges are poverty, illiteracy, misinformation and that they see benefits as short term materialistic items, rather than long term conservation.

There were a lot of questions asked towards the Warden and some underlining anger as to why they are not aggressively marketing SHNR, as well as the dwindling wildlife numbers like the Giraffe and Elephants. Shazaad made a point that in previous years when it was marketed a lot more the visitor rate (therefore income generation) went up greatly. This provides local jobs and vital income to support the staff and communities within the park.

The Warden did say that unfortunately the “conservation in Kenya is more political and that is the main problem”; I don’t know a country that doesn’t have that problem.