Above: Gautam (left) and Raff taking a break on the way to Goualougo Camp, Republic of Congo. Photo Credit David Morgan
Published: The East African Nation 30 May 2020
That there’s no time to lose to save our wildlife is a universal truth.
That the internet is the most powerful tool on Earth is another universal truth.
The two put together gave Gautam Shah, founder of Internet of Elephants his drive to enter the world of wildlife conservation in a novel way…via your mobile phone playing games to save wildlife.
IoE WV screens scenes from the game Wildeverse Photo Credit Internet of Elephants
Above: Grey crowned cranes in Lake Nakuru National Park. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published; The East African Nation media 23-29 May 2020
the big birding effort on May 9 2020
At the stroke of midnight on 9 May, more than 50,000 bird watchers from across the globe took to the outdoors for the next 24 hours to log in birds on their eBbird apphttps://ebird.org/globalbigday, birds that were seen or just heard by them. An extraordinary turnout given that much of the world was under some form of lockdown!
Long-crested eagle (logo of Nature Kenya) at Lake Nakuru. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Above: Campfire at Melako community conservancy – Marsabit county. courtesy NRT
Published: The East African Nation media 16-22 May 2020
After COVID-19, escape to Kenya’s northern-scape or even now if you’re not in Nairobi or Mombasa during
By Rupi Mangat
It is from the shoulder of god’s mountain that you get that first unforgettable view of the land below that stretches into infinity. It’s the plains and peaks of the northern frontiers of Kenya that is so alive with peoples, wildlife and cultures unique to this part of the world, adapted to the searing sun and resilient flora.
Until 20 years ago most of it was unknown to the outside world until the success of Lewa Conservancy that became one of the first black rhino sanctuaries during the infamous poaching era that saw the country’s rhino numbers crash from 20,000 black rhino in the 1970s to fewer than 300 by the 1980s.
Above: Jaguar, in La Papalo, Mexico by Alejandro Prieto
Published: The East African Nation media 16-22 May 2020
By Rupi Mangat
The New Big 5 is an international initiative to create a New Big 5 (#NewBig5) of wildlife: the Big 5 of photography, not hunting. Shooting with a camera, not a gun. Check out this website and then vote for your five. The results will be announced later in the year. It’s open to all…young and old from any part of the world.
with unusual birdsong heard and massive flocks seen in cities
“The wake-up call of Hadada ibis in my estate (Buru Buru in Nairobi) was always 4.30 a.m.,” remarks Jennifer Oduori, a veteran birder and member of the birders’ group at Nature Kenya. “Now because it’s so quiet, they have changed the time to 6 a.m.”
The Hadada ibis, a common bird in Nairobi, has one of the loudest calls in the bird world and it’s enjoying the bliss of a quiet sleep during the current Corona-curfew days …just like many humans are.
What’s even more interesting is that Nairobi which is the birding capital of the world with more than a thousand species has new arrivals that Oduori is trying to identify from pictures sent to her by other birders.
More unusual reports are coming in from Kenyan birders, members of Nature Kenya, the country’s oldest natural history society established in 1909 by like-minded people interested in nature.
In late April afternoon, Abigail Church sent a video from Nairobi’s Giraffe sanctuary of 1,000 Great white pelicans flying over it, wave after wave for 15 minutes en route to Lake Magadi, a phenomena never recorded before of such large numbers in the city. It made the video go viral amongst the birders.
Mangrove kingfisher at Sabaki River mouth Kenya north coast by Steve Garvie
Meanwhile in Mombasa the built-up island with few trees, another bird not recorded on the island before, has surprised Mustafa Adamjee. “ I heard Mangrove kingfishers call all night in the middle of Mombasa town where there are few trees , noisy and so built up..
Mangrove kingfishers are intra-African migrants seen around the island or along the beaches lined with mangroves and coastal bush but never in town.
The list is endless of the many unusual sighting around the world’s cities, but it’s in the far-away port of Mumbai, that is India’s largest city of some 20 million people, that’s currently stealing the show.
It’s turning pink…with tens of thousands of flamingos after the country’s nationwide lockdown that’s quietened down the city. According to the Bombay Natural History Society the flamingos are also spreading to wetlands where they were rarely seen before “because there is no human activity there now.”
In terms of birding, it’s getting exciting in the era of the Corona.
Greater flamingos at Lake Bogoria. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Calling out Loud
According to the British Trust for Ornithology, just like Oduori, Adamjee and a thousand other Kenyan birders the daily chorus of birdsong is now more audible in the heart of the cities.
In the current quieter world, the feeling amongst birders is that it could be helping the birds to be heard by potential mates which increase their breeding success. However this has to be verified scientifically by continued survey even during these social distancing cash-strapped corona days. And that depends on volunteers who are keen birders.
Birding – a World of Volunteers
Long-crested eagle (logo of Nature Kenya) at Lake Nakuru. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Birds are everywhere – in air, water and land. Keeping track of the avian world depends largely on volunteers whose data can be used by research scientists and policy makers to safeguard their realm and in Environmental Impact Assessments when taking on any infrastructural project, for birds are indicators of the environment.
Birding in Kenya is largely thanks to Fleur Ng’weno of Nature Kenya who in February 1971, started the Wednesday Morning Birdwalks from the Nairobi National Museum. For the last 35 years the walks have taken place weekly, rain or shine led mostly by Ng’weno or someone if she’s not around. Nature Kenya has branches almost everywhere in the country.
Despite the walks being suspended for the first time in Kenya which to the birders’ chagrin is the March-April migration time, Ng’weno the octogenarian is still busy birding with a face mask in the Nairobi Arboretum, Karura Forest and Nairobi National Park as are others in the country, filling in their data diligently.
Grey crowned cranes in Lake Nakuru National Park. Copyright Rupi Mangat
‘Back to Normal’
The world-over, reports abound of wildlife stepping into cities and towns as nature rebounds during the pandemic. There’s less pollution and noise, the air is clearer with snow settling back on mountains such as Kenya and Kilimanjaro from where it had vanished to a point of a sliver. However, the big question is, will any short-term gains made by wildlife be reversed once the lockdown is over?
Or will shape policy for a healthier world with nature as the pandemic ebbs?
On the Flip Side
However, according to Darcy Ogada Assistant Director of Africa Programs for the Peregrine Fund the CV19 will probably have a large negative effect on all wildlife in rural areas because of the economic fallout. “People are hungry. Poaching of smaller species like antelope has most certainly increased and birds will be poached for food too. Protected areas aren’t excluded. As parks fees and tourism declines it has an immediate impact on security operations in these areas,” she comments.
Rupi the African Trotter 