Environment     

Kenya, Tanzania begin joint wildlife census

Xinhua, October 9, 2013

• Kenyan and Tanzanian governments on Tuesday begun a joint aerial count of elephants and other large mammals in the shared ecosystem of the Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro.

  The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the week-long exercise seeks to establish the status of wildlife within the cross-border landscape which includes the elephant, wildebeest, zebra and other large mammal following the last total aerial count conducted in 2012 by the same team.

  "It will enhance knowledge on the relation between wildlife, habitat and human impacts while at the same time fostering cross- border collaboration on wildlife monitoring and management between the two East African countries," KWS said in a statement.

  From the last survey report, the elephant population in the area has been relatively stable, with 1,087 individuals counted in the year 2000, 1,090 in 2002 and 967 in 2007 compared to 1,266 in 2010.

  According to KWS, the elephant population indicated by the census carried out in April was 1930 in the survey area, adding that there was a dramatic decline in the number of large herbivore species between 2007 and 2010 due to the prolonged drought between 2007 and 2009.

  KWS statistics also showed that the number of wildebeest declined by more than 80 percent from 18,538 to 3,098 during the April survey; the number of zebras declined by more than 70 percent from 15,328 to 4,432; and the number of buffalos declined by more than 60 percent from 588 to 231 in the Amboseli area.

  "There was a general increase in the number of large herbivores between the years 2010 and 2013. However there was noticeable population recovery for several species as revealed by the April count," KWS said.

  The one-week exercise, which is costing 140,000 U.S. dollars, is a collaboration between the two countries and their agencies such as the KWS, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Wildlife Division of Tanzania (WD) and Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA). The exercise, which is funded by Kenya and Tanzania, seeks to safeguard the vast ecosystem that is threatened by human influence that includes pastoral activities, crop farming and proliferation of charcoal burning.

  The aerial census seeks to establish the landscape's wildlife population abundance, trends and distribution. It is the practice of Kenyan and Tanzania wildlife authorities to conduct both a wet and a dry aerial census every three years in the Amboseli West Kilimanjaro and Magadi Natron cross border landscape. This collaboration started in 2010 and this census is the fourth.

  "This in a huge way affects wildlife dispersal and a huge concern to the future of the area for wildlife conservation," KWS said.

  The census will cover 25,623 square km area including 9,214 square km of the Amboseli area, 6,348 square km of the Namanga- Magadi areas in south-western Kenya and 3,013 square km of the West Kilimanjaro and 7,047 square km of the Natron areas in north Tanzania.

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