Saving Stripes

Category: Ranches | Date: May 22 2009 | By: savingstripes

Yesterday morning we were driving from our house to the research centre when we came across a touching and remarkable scene. In and among the bushes, in a little area where the grass has actually greened up, there was a group of about 50 Grevy’s. The first remarkable thing about this scene was the sheer number of animals in one place. At first we counted about 30 animals, and then more came wandering out of the bushes, and then more…

The second remarkable and rather sad thing was that the group was divided by a fence. The fence runs along the edge of the road. The zebras were all inside the fence from us – except for one poor female. She was heavily pregnant – thick veins showing along her belly. Perhaps that is why she got separated from the group and missed the opportunity to cross the fenceline at one of the gaps (which are intended to be wildlife crossings) in the fence. Whatever had happened, one thing was clear: she wanted to be part of that group as much as the group wanted her.

We watched, saddened, as the lone zebra repeatedly trotted up to the fence, only to stop and anxiously flick her ears at the zebras on the other side. Some members of the large group seemed to grow restless, and a long line of animals started walking up the hill and away from the fence. But a dedicated group of about 15 zebras stayed by the fence facing the lone zebra, repeatedly trying to reach her. Their anxiety was just as great as hers.

Grevy’s zebra are not supposed to form strong group bonds. Unlike their cousins, the plains zebras, they don’t live in stable groups or harems. Groups are constantly splitting and coming together. So, the common wisdom has always been that they must not have strong social ties to one another. But this scene we witnessed, as well as other things we’ve seen (for example, small groups of females that consistently stay together) suggest that Grevy’s social ties may be a lot stronger than people have realized.

Watching this scene was an example of some of the complexities of trying to conserve multiple species at the same time. The fence was put up about 5 years ago to keep rhinos inside that particular property. Black rhinos are highly endangered (only about 300 left in Kenya) and at high risk of being poached for their horns. The fence is not very tall and has gaps in it every couple of kilometers (with posts arranged so that rhinos can’t pass through the gaps). But, driving up and down the road nearly every day, we have seen so many scenes of animal distress along that fence. Elephant babies unable to pass through the posts, gazelles getting tangled in the wires, panicked animals unsure of whether to run towards or away from it. Only the impalas seem unaffected by the fence, gracefully jumping over it (while their young run awkwardly beneath it).

All of this makes us wonder: what is the cost of conserving one species – rhinos – to all the other species that live here? Are fences like this really a solution to the rhino poaching problem?

In the case of our lone zebra, we left the group slowly walking up the road towards another gap in the fence. We hope that the pregnant female found her way across and joined back up with her circle of friends.

-Siva & Corinna

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