Towards sustainable game bird management by rural communities in Laikipia, Kenya
Titus
1
Adhola ,
Dr. Nicholas
2
Georgiadis
& Dr. Penn
3
Llyod
1. National Museums of Kenya, 2. Mpala Research Center, 3. University of Cape Town
Rationale
Preliminary Results
This project was prompted by recognition of four deficiencies:
1.
Considerable but unrealised potential exists for rural communities in semi-arid areas to derive economic
benefit from sport hunting of game birds.
To manage game birds sustainably, knowledge of their local ecology and population dynamics is required.
Game bird management capacity and experience is lacking in Kenya.
Vulturine guineafowl population biology has never been studied in the wild.
2.
3.
4.
1.
Surveys done so far indicate helmeted guineafowl are more widespread than vulturine guineafowl in
Laikipia (Fig. 2), with highest densities at Elkarama and lowest at Mpala (Fig. 3).
Vulturine Guineafowls have so far been recorded only at Mpala and Oljogi, but the densities do not differ
between the two properties (Fig. 2).
Mean and variance of NDVI values successffully discriminate all but one sighting location of the two
species (Fig. 4).
2.
3.
Objectives
Focusing on two closely related game bird species Helmeted Guineafowl Numida meleagris and Vulturine
Guineafowl Acryllium vulturinum ( Fig. 1) which coexist in the Laikipia region of central Kenya, objectives were to:
Laikipia
Mpala A
1. Compare the densities, population dynamics, habitat associations, and breeding seasonality of the two species,
along a rainfall gradient.
2. Develop and implement methods for monitoring their populations that are suitable for management purposes.
3. Assess the potential for game bird management on some of the group ranches in the region.
Mpala C
Mpala B
Ol Jogi
Kenya
Elkarama
Ol Pejeta
Approach
70
60
Density (birds/sqkm)
Fig 1. Vulturine (left) and
Helmeted Guineafowl (right)
co-occur in parts of Laikipia
District, and not in others.
What factors control their
distribution
and
abundance?
2.
3.
Helmeted
Vulturine
50
40
30
20
10
0
The following methods are being used:
1.
Species
a
m
ra
a
k
El
Distance Sampling was to estimate guineafowl densities. Both guineafowl species are being censused
within strata on 4 properties in Laikipia: Mpala, Ol Jogi-Pyramid, Elkarama and Ol Pejeta.
MODIS NDVI is used as a surrogate for rainfall in assessing the association between Guineafowl
abundance and rainfall.
Satellite imagery and NDVI will be used to ‘predict’ distribution of guineafowls after a sustained period
of distribution data collection.
m
rs
a
e
t
r
a
Py
w
i
p-S
l
jog
l
O
O
la
a
Mp
Property
Fig. 2, left:
Locations
where helmeted and
vulturine guineafowl have
been sighted on the focal
properties in Laikipia.
Right: mean NDVI map of
the same area, showing
the rainfall gradient from
south-west to north-east.
Fig. 3. Densities of guineafowl
species on different properties
Fig. 4.
Discriminant analysis
based on means and standard
deviations of Modis NDVI values
at each sighting location correctly
classified
all
sightings
of
helmeted
guineafowl
(filled
circles) and all sighting of
vulturine
guineafowl
(open
circles) but one (arrowed). This
suggests the quantity and
variance of rainfall influences
guineafowl species’ distribution.
Future
Sponsors: The Research Programme for Sustainable Use of Dryland
Biodiversity (RPSUD), Nancy and Lambeth Townsend, and the National
Museums of Kenya. James Osundwa provided GIS assistance.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Further sampling will include drier areas to the northeast (Samburu Reserve);
We will add remote sensing imagery to increase the number of variables used in discriminating habitat
preferences between the two species;
Addition of breeding success data may highlight different responses by the two species to rainfall;
Experience gained in censusing game birds will be applied in game bird management on community land.