A Wildlife Census
Why the Census?
It takes legions of workers, a lot of financial resources, and the cooperation of people young and old to conduct a national census. A wildlife count similarly requires an expert team and a sizable financial investment, but the subjects are a lot less cooperative. So why do it at all? A wildlife census determines three things: (1) the abundance and distribution of wildlife species, (2) the trend in species numbers compared with past counts, and (3) the extent of human activities in the ecosystem. This information is used to identify threats to wildlife and design conservation activities that address these threats. Indeed, designing conservation measures without knowing where wildlife goes and the obstacles it faces would be like driving a car with your eyes closed.
Keeping our eyes open, AWF with its partners routinely orchestrates wildlife counts in its Heartlands. In the Kilimanjaro Heartland, AWF and other partners joined a historic transboundary census of the area that roughly maps AWF’s Kilimanjaro Heartland. Conducted by national park authorities in Kenya and Tanzania, the census was completed in the spring of 2010.
Aerial View of a Census
AWF recently joined its partners in this historical transboundary wildlife census of the following four regions that make up the Kilimanjaro Heartland.
Amboseli (5,466 square miles). Amboseli National Park and the surrounding area, consisting mostly of saline plains with fresh water swamps and the volcanic slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The biggest wildlife counts were in Amboseli. Almost all of the elephants counted (1,292 of 1,420) were found here.
Magadi (3,426 square miles). A combination of gently undulating plains and outstanding hilly landscape and step-faults characteristic of the Eastern Rift Valley. The region’s Uaso Ngiro and its several seasonal rivers are important watering sources for wildlife. This census block had the second-highest wildlife counts after Amboseli.
West Kilimanjaro area (1,873 square miles). A complex mosaic of natural communities, extensive grazing lands and large agricultural fields, found on the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The region includes several protected areas and two private conservation areas. Though not captured by the census, many of the Amboseli region’s elephants move through the West Kilimanjaro area at various points of the year.
Natron area (4,379 square miles). A stretch of diverse natural habitats, including extensive savanna grassland and woodland in which Maasai graze their cattle during the dry season, and permanent human settlement is not allowed. Although the Magadi region had the second-highest wildlife population densities overall, the Natron region had the highest wildebeest counts after Amboseli.
Elephant Steps
A world-renowned population of about 1,420 elephants roams the expanse of the Kilimanjaro Heartland, which stretches for some 9,800 square miles and crosses the national boundaries of Kenya and Tanzania. During the dry season, when food and water are plentiful, the elephants spend much of their time in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya. When the landscape outside becomes more lush, the elephants venture out of the park and into other surrounding areas, traveling as far as Lake Natron in Tanzania.
The ability of Amboseli’s elephants to move through abundant and safe habitat once they leave protected areas is the key to their survival. In fact, according to the recent aerial survey, that freedom of movement made all the difference in the wake of one of the severest drought’s on record. Thanks to the large-landscape conservation efforts of organizations like AWF, the region’s famed elephant population held steady throughout the drought. How was this possible? The area's pachyderms were able to move far outside the drought-affected area into habitat being protected with the help of AWF.
Eyes Opened: A Roadmap of Conservation
While the region’s elephants held steady, the census revealed that other wildlife populations were less fortunate. Hardest hit were large grazing herbivores, which need abundant and healthy pasture to survive. The wildebeest population in Amboseli plummeted 83 percent (from 18,538 to 3,098) and zebras by about 71 percent (from 15,328 to 4,432), vastly reducing the prey base available for large carnivores such as lions. Other problems caused by the drought were increased human-wildlife conflict, as livestock and wildlife competed for resources, and increased poaching. The livestock population also declined precipitously, seriously affecting livelihood opportunities for the people of the region.
Using the census results as a roadmap for its work in the Kilimanjaro Heartland, AWF is pursuing:
- Increased support to the community scouts, such as the Hifadhi Network scouts and Amboseli Tsavo Game scouts, to intensify their anti-poaching patrols
- Continued support to the wildlife authorities on collaborative and improved law enforcement to stem wildlife crimes such as poaching and wanton habitat destruction, including charcoal burning
- Initiation of cross-border carnivore monitoring and training of communities and scouts on the Tanzania side and the introduction of predator-proof bomas to minimize loss of livestock to predators such as lions
In October 2010, AWF's team in the Kilimanjaro Heartland began a dry season wildlife count that will help to enhance trans-boundary collaboration in other areas of operations in wildlife management and conservation, such as joint security operations.
> Read Kilimanjaro Heartland Director Fiesta Warinwa's census interview.
> View the census report from the Kenya Wildlife Service.
