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The Mammal Committee of Nature Kenya and the National Museums of Kenya have partnered with Spotteron Citizen Science to develop a mobile app to monitor mammals in Kenya.

The mobile app, known as Mammal Atlas Kenya (Makenya), is currently available on Google Play and Spotteron (www.spotteron. net). Spotteron is a web-based platform that hosts citizen science, environment protection and volunteer monitoring apps.

Makenya seeks to involve naturalists in collecting scientific data to map the distribution of over 390 mammal species. Data collected will then inform the development of a distribution map for mammals in Kenya.

“The app allows users to record mammal sightings using their mobile phones. It captures locations where the mammals were recorded. The captured data is then used to populate distribution maps,” Simon Musila, Head of Mammalogy section of the National Museums of Kenya said.

The availability of the Makenya app also marks the incorporation of technology in mammal conservation efforts. Citizens can now be actively involved in the monitoring of Kenyan mammals. Users are encouraged to share sightings of common and rare mammals.

“There are many mammal species in Kenya and the distribution of some of them is not known. This app will help experts consolidate shared information into a single database for an informed distribution map,” Musila said.

Wildlife enthusiasts can download and install the app on their Android or Apple IOS mobile devices for free. Once installed, they can now start contributing to monitoring of mammals across Kenya’s extensive network of protected and unprotected areas, including national parks, game reserves and forests.

The app allows users to record GPS coordinates of the area they spotted a particular mammal and even share pictures. Makenya users can utilise the app anywhere; on land, in water, and even underground as long as they have a stable cellular network connection. The crowd-sourced data captured by Makenya will also be used to monitor mammal species distribution within their known ranges.

Within Kilimambogo lies Kyeleni, an unexplored agricultural village. On 20^th February 2021, the Nature Kenya Youth Committee embarked on a two-day mission to survey the biodiversity in this area. (Kilimambogo is also known as Ol Doinyo Sabuk.)

Our journey to the village took longer than expected. Despite being exhausted from the three-hour drive, the team eagerly anticipated its visit, unsure of what to expect. Mr Francis, our contact person, greeted us by the roadside and directed us to the camping area, which would be our home for the next 24 hours.

Upon arriving at the campsite, the team was divided into groups to ensure cooking was completed early, to allow more time for the evening survey. The groups were: team Ugali (funny how energetic the members of this group were), team Stew (the best cooks in the group), team Firewood (in charge of lighting the fire), and team AOB (in-charge of cleaning the cooking pots after meals).

Francis gave some members of the group a tour of his farm as lunch was being prepared. In the middle of his farm, not far from the camping area, was the main attraction – a mango tree. You can only imagine the excitement of the hungry group upon seeing this tree. Francis allowed them to pick some mangoes. He even went out of his way to harvest some maize for the team to roast before lunch.

You would be mistaken to imagine that after feasting on mangoes and roasted maize, only a few people would show up for lunch. There wasn’t a grain of rice nor a drop of soup left in the pots!

We converged at around 5 p.m. and went through some of the species present in the area, survey methods, and identification tools (iNaturalist, Makenya, and guide books) for use. We set out on our first survey, hoping to come across some interesting species.

Three hours into the search, we had spotted a few birds. Some of the birds had been identified by their calls. Darkness fell fast, and we retreated to the camping area.

After dinner, we gathered around a fire. The team was still going strong and decided to play a few games before calling it a night.

The following morning was chilly and quiet, with only the sweet melodies of birds heard. We started birding at 6 a.m. The bird experts in the group assisted the rest of the team with identification through calls. As the sun steadily rose higher into the sky, more birds became visible, making it easier to identify them.

Although no other species besides birds had been spotted hours into the survey, the herp and mammal lovers remained optimistic.

The day grew hotter, and we began to meet local residents who were puzzled as to why such a large group was in their village early in the morning. Francis explained that visitors from outside, particularly those interested in conducting research, were rare.

As we approached the foot of Mt. Kilimambogo, the team heard calls of excitement from within. “Come see a snake,” someone called.  The snake enthusiast hurriedly rushed to the scene to catch a glimpse of the snake while others moved further away. To their amazement, it was a Cape Wolf Snake. Unfortunately, it was dead. A few meters away, the group came across another dead one: an Olive Snake.

The two snake sightings were the team’s highest moments. This energized us for the rest of the hike to the base of the mountain.

This survey would not have been successful without the continued support of Nature Kenya. In total, we recorded 32 bird species, two amphibians, and two snakes, with the prominent plant species being Euphorbia, Croton trees, and Sisal.

As the sun sets in the Maasai Mara, Narok County, neighbouring herders usher their livestock to the bomas (livestock enclosures) for the night. For Joshua Salaash the experience is different today – Joshua is leading his herd of cattle into a newly constructed eco-friendly and secure predator-proof boma.

In March 2020, Joshua lost six sheep to a lion attack at night. Before the construction of the new boma, the return of livestock each evening marked the beginning of a long restless night of listening for any commotion and shooing away predators.

“The possibility of losing livestock to a lion or a hyena was very high back then. My old boma was not strong to prevent attacks. It had many loopholes that made it easy for predators to breach and prey on my livestock. With this new shed boma, I can sleep more comfortably,” says the 37-year-old.

Maasai Mara is a human-wildlife conflict-prone area because of the proximity of human settlement to wildlife conservancies. Humans, livestock, and wildlife share the same space. Most conservancies are vast and not fenced, leaving wild animals free to roam, occasionally straying into villages and attacking livestock. Most herders in the Mara ecosystem say they have had their livestock preyed on by wildlife several times.

Wildlife attacks on livestock result in retaliatory assaults most of the time. Affected herders hit back by poisoning carcasses of sheep, goats, or cattle with pesticides. The poison is aimed at the predator, but it kills non-target species such as vultures in the process. In Kenya, these poisoning incidents are responsible for 60 percent of vulture mortality.

Conservation organizations working in the Mara ecosystem have devised new tactics to reduce human-wildlife conflicts in the area. Construction of the predator-proof bomas is one such intervention. Nature Kenya has partnered with the Mara Predators Conservation Programme to construct five predator-proof bomas in the Maasai Mara ecosystem.

The selection of five predator-proof bomas beneficiaries was conducted in June 2020. Officers from Nature Kenya and the Mara Predators Conservation Programme met with representatives from conservancies, the local administration, and local communities. The five beneficiaries were chosen based on the history of wildlife attacks, proximity to human-wildlife conflict hotspots, and assurance of permanent residence in their respective areas.

“Human-wildlife conflict issues are sensitive because they touch on the livelihoods of the affected herders. We had to carefully select beneficiaries to best bring out the advantages of this new initiative to the communities as part of solving human-wildlife conflict,” says Simon Shati, a Vulture Liaison Officer working for Nature Kenya.

The predator-proof bomas are constructed using recycled plastic poles that are surrounded by triple-twist chain link and barbed wire. A steel gate is installed to control livestock entry and exit. The boma is impenetrable for large carnivores as it is sealed all round. The recycled plastic and corner metal poles are sunk two feet deep into the ground. Their pits are filled with mortar to make them stable.

“The poles are high, standing at about two metres tall, which is high for a predator to scale up,” says Simon.

One boma can comfortably hold a herd of 700. Simon says that in addition to being made from a material that can withstand harsh weather and pests like termites, the herders do not need to cut down any trees.

Already the effectiveness of the bomas has been tested unintentionally by recent attacks. In the small village of Oloolchuura, sandwiched between two conservancies and the Maasai Mara Reserve, Siloma Ole Reiya considers himself a lucky man. On one corner of his shed boma the wire mesh is slightly deformed outwards following a commotion by cows. The deformity is proof of the events of the night of July 7, 2020 when a pride of lions unsuccessfully attempted to break into the predator-proof boma.

“I would be counting it as my fourth loss of animals this year were it not for this new shed. The layers of chain-link and barbed wire made it impossible for the lions to come close to the herd. Thankfully I was also able to scare the pride away in good time,” says Siloma.

A few kilometers away in Ingila village, Letutuk Tira’s homestead is not easy to miss; it is surrounded Naboisho and Olare Motorogi conservancies and the Mara Reserve. For Letutuk, predator attacks are a common phenomenon. Letutuk is another beneficiary, and his account of a July 14, 2020 attack reads like a scene from a movie:

“The big cat pounced on my motorbike, damaging the headlight, before attempting to enter the locked shed. I fled from the scene and I must say I am fortunate to be alive and for my animals to be safe,” says Letutuk.

The improved bomas are one among many projects aimed at reducing the cases of predation of livestock by wildlife. Nature Kenya has since 2018 been working with the Maasai Mara Wildlife Ambassadors, the Maasai Mara Important Bird Area (IBA) site support group (SSG), to create awareness about wildlife poisoning and its consequences. The group conducts market and village outreaches, using traditional dances and other forms of performing arts to spread conservation messages. Nature Kenya has recruited “vulture volunteers” who are members of local communities engaged in vulture conservation activities. All these efforts are geared towards helping communities to take up better human-wildlife conflict prevention mechanisms.

There are prospects of expanding this project to other areas within the Mara Ecosystem, and to Kajiado County in the coming months.