Photograph by Paul Benson

LOLLDAIGA HILLS RESEARCH PROGRAMME

Tom Butynski & Yvonne de Jong

Monthly Report – July-August 2016 (Issue 4)

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Cover photograph: Pinked-backed pelican Pelecanus rufescens, Lolldaiga Hills Ranch.

New to lolldaiga.com

Camera trap portfolio for July and August 2016

New homepage image. Photograph by Per Aronsson

Additions to Paul Benson’s photographic portfolio

Link to Daraja Wildlife Project, Jua Kali, Kenya

New homepage image welcomes viewers to www.lolldaiga.com. Savanna elephant Loxodonta africana, Lolldaiga Hills Ranch. Photograph by Per Aronsson.

Renewed ArcGIS licence We thank Dr. Jake Wall for his continued help with ArcGIS (Esri) mapping software!

Update: Lolldaiga-Mukogodo-Ewaso N’yiro Important Bird Area BirdLife has now responded to the November 2015 proposal by Lolldaiga Hills Research Programme to establish the 5,200 km² ‘Lolldaiga-Mukogodo-Ewaso N’yiro Important Bird Area’. What is required before BirdLife designates this IBA are the following:

The best available population estimates for the 'Threatened' species of the proposed IBA. This includes all species…not only birds. There are a large number of threatened species in the proposed IBA. These data will take some weeks to compile. It should be noted that the region of the IBA, with all of its researchers, experienced naturalists, and species/conservation baselines, likely has the best information in tropical

Africa as concerns the abundance and distribution of its threatened species.

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Completion of BirdLife’s 'IBA Monitoring Form'. This form needs to be completed in detail as it will serve as the baseline against which change in this IBA is evaluated. The IBA Monitoring Form needs to be completed and submitted to BirdLife once each year as part of the protocol for maintaining an IBA. This will require information inputs from IBA partners located throughout the IBA.

In addition to the above, the Lolldaiga Hills Research Programme will update the bird species list for the proposed IBA; a few dozen additional bird species have been reported for the area of the IBA since November 2015.

Once the new IBA has been established, the Lolldaiga Hills Research Programme will work to set-up a system of monitors among the many researchers, professional guides, interested naturalists, and school conservation / bird groups who live within and near this IBA, and who appreciate all that this IBA has to offer in terms of landscape and species conservation...and benefits to people. There is much scope here for partnership building, conservation education, and reduction of threats.

New report: Systematic Areas Sample Survey of Laikipia County, April 2016 By A.K. Kes Hillman Smith, Gordon O. Ojwang & Victor N. Mose A systematic aerial sample survey of Laikipia County (9,666km²) was carried out in April 2016 by Kenya’s Directorate of Resource Survey and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) survey teams in partnership with Laikipia Wildlife Forum (LWF), and Mpala Research Centre, with funds from US AID. Two DRSRS Cessna Caravan aircraft flew the survey, based out of Mpala Ranch. Parallel transects, spaced 2.5 km apart, were flown north-south over the entire survey area. Here are some of the results (compared with survey results since 1985):

“Livestock are by far the most numerous mammals, over 12 times more numerically and with a biomass over 3 times more than all wildlife combined. They are widely distributed throughout, even in areas that aim to have only wildlife, such as Laikipia Nature Conservancy.

Cattle at nearly 250,000 have increased 66% since 2012, 137% since 2001 and 95% since 1985. Shoats at over 546,000 have increased 44% since 2012, 126% since 2001 and 93 % since 1985. In other words livestock have doubled over the 30 year survey period with the most rapid increase being since 2001. It would be interesting if ranch owners/managers are able to provide numbers of their own cattle and those legally grazing on their land, in order to know the proportions and distributions of illegal grazers.

Elephants have doubled since the 1985 estimate but have not changed significantly since 2012 and their numbers within Laikipia may also be affected by movements in and out of the area in response to rainfall, forage availability and human activities. No fresh carcasses were seen and the proportion of combined stage 3 and 4 bones seen to live elephants was 1:20.

Hartebeest, eland, oryx and ostrich have decreased over the 30 years, with hartebeest and eland numbers extremely low.”

For the full report, go to: www.laikipia.org

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Immature martial eagle Polemaetus bellicosus, Lolldaiga Hills Ranch. Photograph by Tom Butynski

Meetings and Visits

July and August 2016

German Diplomats to Lolldaiga (7–9 July, LHR) – Dr. Johannes Refisch (Project Manager, UNEP’s Great Apes

Survival Partnership) organized a visit to Lolldaiga Hills Ranch by about 10 Germans who work in Nairobi for the

United Nations, German Embassy, or GTZ. During their visit they toured the Ranch and met with LHR staff to

learn more about management, conservation activities, and biodiversity on the Ranch. They also made a day

visit to the cultural museum in Mukogodo Forest.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (16–18 July, LHR) – Dr. Kay Behrensmeyer of the Department of

Palaeobiology, Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of Natural History, visited Lolldaiga Hills Ranch with Bill

Keyser (also Smithsonian), Peter Hetz (Executive Director, LWF), and Marianne Kuitert. Dr. Behrensmeyer has

conducted research in Kenya for more than 30 years on predator-accumulated ‘taphonomic’ assemblages of

bones. During her visit, more than 100 small mammal bones were collected from an owl pellet deposit site on

northwest Lolldaiga Hills Ranch. These bones will be identified to species by colleagues at the Chicago Field

Museum of Natural History.

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Smithsonian Institute visit. From left to right: Bill Keyser, Peter Hetz, Kay Behrensmeyer, Tom Butynski, Yvonne de Jong, and

Marianne Kuitert. Photograph by Jean-Pierre Dekker.

Two Great Ape Conservationists Visit

(5–7 August, LHR) – Dr. Johannes Refisch

(Project Manager, UNEP's Great Apes

Survival Partnership) and Jef Dupain

(Regional Director for West and Central

Africa, African Wildlife Foundation), visited

Lolldaiga Hills Ranch to reunite with Tom

Butynski and to discuss great apes research

and conservation.

Bird Survey (28–30 August, LHR) – Peter

Hetz (Executive Director, LWF) and Tony

Potterton (bird expert) visited Lolldaiga

Hills Ranch to discuss conservation and

research, and for 1.5 days birding.

Johannes Refisch and Mireille, Jef, and Ando Dupain

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Planned

African Queen Butterfly Meeting (15–18 September, LHR) – Dr. Ian Gordon (BirdLife consultant and

evolutionary biologist) has organized a meeting at the Lolldaiga Farm House to discuss future research related to

the evolution of mimicry in the African queen butterfly Danaus chrysippus.

Conservation and Management Meeting (17 September, LHR) – Peter Hetz (Executive Director, LWF) has called

for a meeting between LWF, Borana Conservancy, and Lolldaiga Hills Ranch to discuss the ‘Laikipia Unit

Initiative’, ‘LWF Draft Strategic Plan 2016-2030’, and ‘The Wildlife Conservation and Management Act’.

Butterfly & Moth Survey (28–30 October, LHR) – Hermann Staude (Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa) and Steve

Collins (Director, African Butterfly Research Institute) will visit Lolldaiga Hills Ranch to work with Mike Roberts

(General Manager, Lolldaiga Hills Ranch) to expand the Ranch’s butterfly and moth lists.

Bird Survey (ca. 6–10 November, LHR) – Sir Jeffrey James will visit Lolldaiga Hills Ranch for several days of bird

surveys with staff of Lolldaiga Hills Research Programme and others. The southward passage of birds,

particularly raptors, will be on at this time. It is anticipated that a few more bird species will be added to the 371

species currently on the Lolldaiga Hills Ranch Bird List.

Publications and Reports

Publications and completed reports

De Jong, Y. A., Butynski, T. M. & d’Huart, J. P. 2016. IUCN/SSC Red List assessment for the desert warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016. IUCN/SSC, Gland, Switzerland. Website: <http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41767/0>

De Jong, Y. A., Cumming, D. H. M., d’Huart, J. P. & Butynski, T. M. 2016. IUCN/SSC Red List assessment for the common warthog Phacochoerus africanus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016. IUCN/SSC, Gland, Switzerland. Website: <http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41768/0>

In press

De Jong, Y. A. & Butynski, T. M. Desert warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus. In Ecology, Evolution and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries. Implications for Conservation. Melletti, M. & Meijaard, E., eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Butynski, T. M. & De Jong, Y. A. Common warthog Phacochoerus africanus. In Ecology, Evolution and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries. Implications for Conservation. Melletti, M. & Meijaard, E., eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Butynski, T. M. & De Jong, Y. A. Primates of Africa’s coastal deltas and their conservation. In Primates in Flooded Habitats: Ecology and Conservation. Barnett, A. A., Matsuda, I. & Nowak, K., eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Butynski, T. M., Parker, I. & De Jong, Y. A. Historic and current distribution, abundance, and habitats of Roosevelt’s sable antelope Hippotragus niger roosevelti (Heller, 1910) (Cerartiodactyla: Bovidae) in Kenya. Journal of East African Natural History 104.

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Zinner, D., Keller, C., Nyahongo, J. W., Butynski, T. M., De Jong, Y. A., Pozzi, L., Knauf, S., Liedigk, R. & Roos, C. Distribution of mitochondrial clades and morphotypes of baboons Papio spp. (Primates: Cercopithecidae) in eastern Africa. Journal of East African Natural History 104.

De Jong, Y. A. & Butynski, T. M. IUCN/SSC Red List assessments for 13 species of African primate.

Submitted

Butynski, T. M. & De Jong, Y. A. South Western Mau Forest Reserve game proof barrier feasibility study. Unpublished report to IDH/ISLA and Rhino Ark.

Cunneyworth, P., De Jong, Y. A., Butynski, T. M. & Perkin, A. W. IUCN/SSC Red List assessment for the Peter's Angolan colobus Colobus angolensis palliatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016. IUCN/SSC, Gland, Switzerland.

In preparation

Butynski, T. M. & De Jong, Y. A. Taxonomic status of the Mount Kilimanjaro guereza colobus.

De Jong, Y. A. & Butynski, T. M. A new subspecies of gentle monkey Cercopithecus mitis (Primates: Cercopithecinae) from northern Tanzania.

De Jong, Y. A. & Butynski, T. M. IUCN/SSC Red List assessments for 29 subspecies and one species of African primate.

De Jong, Y. A., d’Huart, J. P. & Butynski, T. M. Biogeography of the desert warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus (Pallas, 1766) and common warthog Phacochoerus africanus (Gmelin, 1788) in the Horn of Africa.

Pinked-backed pelican Pelecanus rufescens, Lolldaiga Hills Ranch. Photograph by Paul Benson.

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Rainfall on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch

Species totals as of end of June 2016

Mammals on the Lolldaiga Hills Conservation Landscape…………………………..105 species Birds on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch…………………………………………………………………….371 species Birds on the proposed IBA/KBA………………………………………………………………….525 species Reptiles on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch……………………………………………..……………….….32 species Amphibians on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch...............................................................12 species Butterflies on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch……………… ……………………………………………135 species Moths on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch......................................................................200 species

Except for moths, species list for the above taxonomic groups can be viewed at www.lolldaiga.com

Rainfall data kindly provided by Peter Karani.

Southwest Lolldaiga Hills Ranch.

Photograph by Tom Butynski

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618

6

120

28

102

53

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

South West Central North

Rainfall (mm) at four sites on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch during July and August 2016

July August

15 140,4

131

157

56

13

76

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Monthly rainfall (mm) on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch during 2016 (mean of four sites)

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Best Zoological Society of London/Lolldaiga Hills Ranch camera trap images on Lolldaiga Hills Ranch

(July-August 2016).

Savanna elephant Loxodonta africana

Striped hyaena Hyaena hyaena

Günther’s dik-dik Madoqua guentheri

Hilgert’s vervet monkey Chlorocebus pygerythrus hilgerti

Common warthog Phacochoerus africanus

Savanna elephant Loxodonta africana

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Lion Panthera leo

Waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus

Savanna elephant Loxodonta africana

Savanna elephant Loxodonta africana

Reticulated giraffe Giraffa reticulata

Leopard Panthera pardus