Species Success Stories in 2001

The African Wildlife Foundation has supported species conservation since its founding in 1961. AWF has initiated or contributed to scores of model conservation programs, large and small, that have yielded new knowledge about wildlife and effective ways to secure its survival. The species portfolio is an integral part of the African Heartlands Program. AWF Chief Scientist Dr. Philip Muruthi reports the following 2001 highlights of AWF-supported species projects.

The Tarangire Elephant Research Project has expanded its activities. Initially, researcher Charles Foley concentrated on one third of the population in the northern part of the park. Several elephants now wear Global Positioning System collars, which show that elephants are spending more time outside the park and that the Tarangire elephant population is recovering from the impact of poaching in the 1970s and 1980s. AWF is using these results to secure areas outside the park for wildlife conservation. Several dispersal areas and movement corridors have been set aside with the help of local people and the Tanzanian government. Most notable is Manyara Ranch, a key link between Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyara National Park. AWF led efforts to acquire Manyara ranch for conservation.

A new working relationship is emerging between AWF and the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, which recently became an independent nongovernmental organization. For example, in 2001 AWF and AERP conducted a training course at Amboseli for elephant conservation staff from Samburu National Reserve and Tsavo National Park.

Since November 2000, AWF researcher Alfred Kikoti has documented the demographic characteristics and the movements of elephants on the Tanzanian side of the transboundary Kilimanjaro Heartland. His research will help to fill a gap in AWF's knowledge about the movements and behavior of elephants in the Heartland once they are outside the immediate environs of Amboseli. Sharing information with the Amboseli project is leading to a better understanding of the elephant population and conservation issues in this transboundary landscape. Before this initiative, most of the information generated by the Amboseli researchers was available only on the Kenyan side; it was not shared with the Tanzanians. Now, elephant conservation in this landscape is truly transboundary. A large bull was recently poached in the West Kilimanjaro area, reinforcing the need to understand and protect the population.

AWF is playing a larger role in conserving Africa's predators. In 2000, AWF initiated a project to research the impact of trophy-hunting on lions and other predator populations in the Zambezi Heartland. In Namibia, home to a third of Africa's cheetahs, AWF supports the Cheetah Conservation Fund, directed by Laurie Marker. During the last three years, AWF funds have enabled CCF representatives to visit schools in Namibia and reach approximately 24,000 children in 12 months to teach them about conservation.

AWF helped set up the Laikipia Predator Project four years ago to study carnivores, how and why they kill livestock and what people can do to reduce loss. While continuing its ecological studies, the project, directed by Laurence Frank, seeks to identify inexpensive methods that ranchers throughout Africa can use to protect their livestock from predators.

Over the last two years, the Wild Dog Conservation Project located in the Kajiado area of Kenya has confirmed the existence of a healthy population of wild dogs in the Kilimanjaro Heartland. The project, directed by Mike Rainy, employs local Maasai to track the wild dogs, recording their locations, dens, kills and conflicts with local pastoralists.

For the past few years, AWF focused its rhino conservation activities on the eastern black rhino stronghold in Kenya, where we have supported field monitoring and surveillance activities at the Tsavo East rhino free-release site and the Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary. AWF also has rehabilitated program facilities, including electric fences, houses for rangers, and vehicles.

In November 2001, AWF contracted with South African rhino specialist Gus van Dyk to conduct a field-based training course for rhino conservation staff in Kenya in order to improve their skills in rhino monitoring and surveillance.

This year, AWF's support of rhino conservation expanded beyond Kenya, Namibia and South Africa to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which hosts an important eastern black rhino population. AWF will support construction of a new ranger post and other rhino conservation activities in the area, where a growing number of rhinos are leaving the relative security of the crater and venturing into other areas.