AWF Laikipia Predator Project covered by San Francisco Chronicle

The following story ran in the June 17, 2001, issue of the San Francisco Chronicle:

IN PEACE WITH PREDATORS: U.C. Biologists Say People Must Learn to Coexist with Africa's Carnivores if These Animals Are to Survive

By GLEN MARTIN

Laikipia Plateau, Kenya -- University of California at Berkeley biologist Laurence Frank is crouched disconsolately in the middle of the African bush, getting pelted with raindrops the size of seedless grapes.

The Long Rains have returned to northern Kenya after a two-year absence, reviving the parched land and alleviating the suffering of the wildlife that inhabits it.

But Frank, who is behind an innovative conservancy effort that emphasizes the co-existence of wildlife and livestock, isn't thinking about that. He has his hands full. With about 100 pounds of leopard, to be precise. Neither he nor the cat is happy.

"Uh, we have a situation here," Frank mutters through clenched lips.

He struggles to untie the rope that hobbled the animal's legs while he and his colleague, U.C. Davis biologist Rosie Woodroffe, had fit it with a radio telemetry collar and taken tissue samples.

Frank and Woodroffe are among the foremost experts on African carnivores. Frank specializes in spotted and striped hyenas, Woodroffe, in African wild dogs, and they both "do" lions and leopards.

They are at the forefront of a singularly successful conservation effort.

Sanctioned game preserves, Woodroffe says, will be increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of East Africa's population growth.

So if the game is to survive, she says, it must do so outside the parks, where landscape-sized ecosystems can be restored and maintained.

"We're doing that in Laikipia," she says. "There are no legally designated protected areas here, but wildlife is increasing, and that's in spite of human population growth. We're learning lessons here that can be applied to other areas -- most immediately, the edges of established preserves."

The approach they champion differs dramatically from the typical African conservation model -- protecting wildlife in vast, inviolate preserves. The trouble with such reserves, say the scientists, is that local people have no investment in them; the wildlife is consequently poached, and the land seized by squatters and nomadic herders.

Things usually go pretty well for Frank and Woodroffe during their field work, but this time the leopard has come out of anesthesia quicker than expected.

The cat remains groggy, but it's showing increasing signs of awareness and irritation. The two biologists know terrible things could happen if it lurches into full consciousness.

As Woodroffe hovers with a hypodermic full of ketamine and medetomidine to put the cat back under if things get ugly, Frank and local rancher John Perrot manage to loosen its bonds.

They jump back -- way back. The leopard remains panting on its side momentarily, then shakily gets to its feet and skulks off into the bush.

Frank, known in these parts for his laconic disposition, reveals little sign of stress. All in a day's work, after all.

Frank and Woodroffe are co-directors of the Laikipia Predator Project sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society, Africa Wildlife Foundation and Busch Gardens in Tampa. The project operates from the Mpala Research Center, part of a large ranch in central Kenya that is owned by American George Small and dedicated to conservation studies.

The two biologists are an extremely effective team -- and unintentionally entertaining. Both are formidably intelligent, but Frank is brooding and acerbic where Woodroffe, British by both birth and disposition, is given to wry teasing. She knows which buttons to push in Frank.

On catching a cheetah in a snare -- their first in years of capturing predators for telemetry studies -- Woodroffe coos with pleasure.

"Oh, Laurence," she says. "I know you'll hate this, but I'm afraid I'll have to cuddle it."

Frank, who has the field biologist's proper horror of anthropomorphism -- he hates "The Lion King" in particular -- squirms.

"I really wish you wouldn't say that," he murmurs.

"But it's true," she continues. "It's so, so -- cute. Sweet."

Frank vehemently protests.

"It is not sweet! Superbly adapted, yes! Sweet, no!"

Their work, in addition to buttressing the contention that wild animals and humans can share the African range, accomplishes other purposes.

First, it contributes significantly to the body of scientific data on the behavior and biology of Africa's top predators.

It also provides information on the effect of predators on Laikipia's livestock, a topic of enduring interest to the region's white ranchers and pastoral tribesmen, who raise cattle, sheep, goats and camels.

Frank and Woodroffe also function as field advisers and ambassadors for the Laikipia Wildlife Forum, a confederation of ranchers and pastoralists that promotes wildlife-friendly methods of livestock husbandry.

The program has enjoyed considerable success. Elephants in Laikipia have gone from zero to 3,000 in the past decade and zebra and the major antelope species are thriving. Giraffe, hippos and the major feline predators are faring well. African wild dogs, canids of great rarity, have recently been spotted in Laikipia after an absence of 20 years.

The Laikipia approach differs from the model of isolated game reserves used throughout most of East Africa.

"Situations vary from Tanzania and Botswana, where you have very large preserves, to Kenya, where you have quite small ones," said Woodroffe, "but in any case there is very little game outside the preserves."

The impetus behind the wildlife forum isn't strictly sentimental, Woodroffe notes. While most ranchers have an aesthetic appreciation for wildlife, they also have an acute commercial interest.

Cattle prices tanked in Kenya years ago, and there's no sign they're going up anytime soon. So, ranches and communal tribal holdings are looking to ecotourism and bird hunting -- and sometime down the road, big game hunting -- for salvation.

And to sustain those activities, there has to be a lot of wildlife, including charismatic carnivores like lions and leopards.

"Tourists love looking at big cats," said Frank.

Frank has worked in Africa 30 years, and the ranchers in Laikipia trust him. Woodroffe has only been in-country for five years, but her sunny disposition and profound scientific acumen have won her major points.

So people come to them with their problems. Such as Perrot. He had trapped the leopard the night before, after it had killed two of his camels.

Like many of Laikipia's ranchers, Perrot tries to avoid killing problem predators, prefering to see them trapped and released away from the livestock.

"We've had five leopards killing our stock in the last five years," says Perrot, sighing. "They're especially hard on our dogs. Snatched one off our back porch."

Frank has taken on the leopard primarily to accommodate Perrot. Personally, the biologist is dubious about trapping troublesome leopards and releasing them to different sites. In many cases, it would make more sense to kill them, he observes. Leopards are so plentiful in East Africa that one moves into a territory as soon as another cat vacates it.

"They're all over the place. They come right into Nairobi and eat backyard goats," says Frank.

Lions, however, are a different matter entirely. Although not rare in Laikipia, they aren't exactly abundant. Perhaps 150 inhabit the 4,000-square-mile plateau.

Compared to leopards, lions need lots of room. They are very big animals with voracious appetites, and they require large hunting territories. Leopards will kill sizable animals, but they'll also prey on tiny dik-dik antelope, hares and rats. Lions crave big game: zebra, the larger antelopes, warthog, even giraffe.

Failing that, cattle, sheep and camels become their prey. Little wonder, then, that Laikipia's ranchers and pastoral tribes historically have despised lions, shooting, spearing and poisoning them whenever possible.

That has changed in recent years. Understanding the benefits of a robust ecotourism trade, many ranchers are actively trying to bolster the number of lions on their properties.

Still, no one is actively giving up their herds. Abysmally low beef and wool prices notwithstanding, cattle and sheep are essential to maintaining cash flow.

And they are also critical as a food source. Far removed as they are from grocery stores, ranchers depend on their animals for meat; pastoralists require cattle for the blood and milk that are their dietary staples.

So Frank, Woodroffe and their colleagues in the Laikipia Wildlife Forum and the Mpala Research Center are emphasizing a native technology to cope with marauding lions: the boma, or thornwood corral.

"Bomas constructed out of acacia tree branches are extremely effective at excluding lions, particularly if guards are posted," said Woodroffe.

Frank and Woodroffe spend much of their time afield snaring, anesthetizing and collaring lions. The devices allow them to determine the hunting ranges of individual prides, aid in accurate censuses and sometimes help to identify lions that turn into habitual livestock killers.

The two make little effort to dissuade ranchers or tribal members from shooting problem lions.

"We need to work with the stockmen, not against them," Frank said. "Lions are declining across Africa because they kill livestock. They are then killed by ranchers and (tribal) pastoralists in turn. We need to know what makes good cats go bad, and one way to do that is to know when bad cats go dead."

While Laikipia's white ranchers are increasingly enthusiastic about the wildlife forum, the region's blacks have been far more restrained in their enthusiasm.

The primary reason: Most are poor, and what wealth they do have is represented by their animals. Antelopes compete with their livestock for grass, elephants raid their crops, lions, leopards, wild dogs, cheetahs and hyenas maraud their cattle and goats.

But some tribal members are beginning to change their viewpoint. Cooperative ventures between white ranchers and some of the tribes -- most notably the Samburu and Masai -- have been entered.

That bodes well, says Frank.

Local rancher Tony Dyer, a particularly enthusiastic supporter of the wildlife forum and the predator project, concurs.

"The tribes -- particularly the Masai -- are realizing there's more money to be made in keeping wildlife alive than killing it," he said. '

Dyer notes the Mpala Research Center sponsors a mobile clinic for Laikipia's pastoralists. And the forum is about to fund positions for tribal wildlife technicians and observers on the communal holding, he says.

Change is increasingly evident in the Samburu lands of northern Laikipia.

Woodroffe recently visited Kirimun, a Samburu holding, to interview tribal members about African wild dogs, endangered carnivores that recently had been reported in the area.

Leopards, the Samburu said through a translator, were plentiful, as were spotted hyenas. They confirmed striped hyenas and cheetahs lived in the area, but hadn't seen any for some time, nor had they noted any recent evidence of lion.

"The leopards and hyenas kill lots of goats," said one elder. "We'd just as soon they'd die off, along with the lions."

The Samburu supported the presence of elephants, giraffes and antelope, in large part because the animals bring tourists to Ol Malo Lodge. And Ol Malo, in turn, provides cattle, schools and medical care to the tribe.

For Frank, the progress he and Woodroffe have witnessed is bittersweet.

He was recently notified by the Wildlife Conservation Society, his primary sponsor, that his funding will be cut substantially in the coming year. He is currently casting about for alternative sources, but has yet to obtain firm commitments.

"I can't believe that this could be ending after -- years," said Frank. "We've accomplished some wonderful things, but there's so much more left to do. I truly believe the Laikipia model is the best hope Africa's wildlife has. We just want to keep it going."