Saving Stripes

Category: Laikipia, News | Date: Oct 28 2009 | By: savingstripes

Meantime back home in Laikipia, the drought that has been going on for nearly a year has finally broken – somewhat.

Up until the middle of October it had still hardly rained at all - just a few scattered showers. The humanitarian crisis and extreme livestock death rates have been in the international news quite a bit, lately. Back in Laikipia, we started to notice that wildlife, too, were dying. Many animals were rib-skinny, with new carcasses showing up daily. Usually in a drought like this, big animals like buffalo and eland are some of the hardest hit. Our friend Heather Larkin found this skinny eland along the (dry) Ewaso Nyiro River.

Plains zebras are pretty tough. How have the Grevy’s been faring? We didn’t hear any reports of Grevy’s dying from drought directly, but there have been some lion kills, and it’s quite possible that Grevy’s become more susceptible to predation when they are weak from a drought like this.

The first rains bathed Laikipia in mid-October, bringing relief, hope, flying termites, and a few shoots of green grass. Since then it has been raining sporadically, perhaps less than hoped for but a start, nonetheless. With at least a month still to go in the rainy season, we can hope that more rain will bring green grass and health back to the region.

One response so far

Category: Laikipia | Date: Jan 26 2009 | By: savingstripes

Hi, this is Corinna, Siva’s wife. I’m also an ecologist, though mostly I study boring things like grass — nothing as cute as Grevy’s zebra! I’m going to tell you a bit more about the projects Siva and I are working on, but today I want to step back and talk a little bit about the place where we work and live.

Laikipia is a district in Kenya, but it is also a beautiful high plateau on the flanks of Mount Kenya. Mount Kenya is just a bit shorter than its more famous rival, Kilimanjaro. On clear days we can see the snow on top of Mount Kenya, about sixty kilometers south of where we live. Here’s a picture I took of the mountain at sunrise:

Laikipia is basically a plateau that has formed as the slopes of Mount Kenya have eroded over many millennia. We live at about 1800 m elevation — that’s just over a mile high.  Thanks to the altitude, we don’t get many mosquitoes or other annoyances. Instead, we enjoy the most wonderful climate — sunny, hot days (but not too hot!) and cool nights. It’s a bit dry, but it would be hard to ask for better weather than what we get on an average day here! As in most of Kenya, the rain here falls in two seasons — April and November. The total amount of rainfall, though, is only about 500 mm (20 in), and the timing and amount of rain varies greatly from year to year.

The weather isn’t the only special thing about Laikipia. This region is home to a huge abundance and diversity of wild animals, second only in East Africa to the Serengeti-Mara. Yet, unlike the Serengeti, almost none of the land here is formally protected. Almost all the land is privately owned — mostly by wealthy foreigners or by groups of Maasai families. Most of the properties are managed for livestock production, tourism, or both. It’s quite common, even, to see livestock and wildlife right next to each other.

The challenge that this regions presents is to figure out how wildlife can live side by side with people and their livestock. It is a formidable challenge, but also an exciting one. Most of Africa’s wildlife relies on unprotected lands. Put simply, their future depends on our ability to find creative ways for people and wildlife to coexist.

No responses yet