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Our 2021 wall and desk calendars as well as season's greetings cards will soon be available! Boost your brand visibility by printing your 2020 calendars with us. You will benefit from our huge selection of wildlife photographs taken by some of East Africa’s top wildlife photographers. Give us your contacts/details and leave the rest to us! +254 20 3874145 / 20 3871437 +254 722 202 473 / 734 600632 [email protected] +254 20 3871335 / 20 3870837 4 | OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2020 PADDOCK DIARIES FRONTLINE 40 Brian Finch reports on the fascinating habits of bats 05 Director’s Letter occupying his bedroom. 12 News Update PORTFOLIO OPINION 42 Delta Willis profiles wildlife photographer 16 Richard Gregory Schmid expalins the traits of an Federico Veronesi. ethical safari guide. ON SAFARI CONSERVATION 47 Sandy Wood goes on a great escape among apes in 18 Kaddu Sebunya highlights the crucial role of dogs southwestern Tanzania’s Mahale Mountains. in the fight against illegal wildlife trade. 50 Juliet Barnes explores Kenya’s Soysambu 21 Rupi Mangat throws light into the negative Conservancy on camelback. consequences of the planned damming of Uganda’s Murchison Falls. BOOK REVIEW 52 Sidney Shema reviews Rupert Watson’s 25 Symon Masiaine ole Ranah tells the story of book Peacocks and Picathartes: Reflections the northern Kenya pastoralists championing on Africa’s Birdlife. wildlife conservation. 53 Kari Mutu appraises Using our Traditions: 28 Irene Amoke, Laura Deluca and Alex Dudley A Herbal & Nutritional Guide for Kenyan Families highlight innovative community conservation by Tara Fitzgerald for the Trust for Indigenous initiatives thriving despite the pandemic. Culture and Health. BIODIVERSITY FILM REVIEW 31 Abigail Church details the variety of wildflowers 54 Laura Deluca and Alex Dudley review Kifaru, a and wildlife in Nairobi’s Giraffe Sanctuary. film by David Hambridge. 37 Rupert Watson explores the dietary habits TRIBUTE of oxpeckers and wonders if the birds are saints 55 Alex Bell pays tribute to her father, Tony Archer or sinners. (1933-2020), a self-taught naturalist. OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2020 | 5 BOARD MEMBERS Davinder Sikand William Pike Otekat John Emily Cissy Walker Matt Walpole OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2020 | VOLUME 45 | NUMBER 4 Michael Wamithi Elizabeth Migongo-Bake EAWLS MISSION The East African Wild Life Society is a trailblazing conservation organisation dedicated to helping protect the environment and promoting prudent use of natural resources in the region. The Society carries out its mandate mainly The Impala is the symbol of the East African through advocacy, implementing conservation Wild Life Society. SWARA is the Swahili word programmes, supporting field research, advancing for Antelope environmental education, promoting sustainable development and inspiring people through The East African Wild Life Society vibrant events on wildlife and environmental conservation. @eawildlife EAWLS WORLDWIDE REPRESENTATIVES USA WHY SUPPORT US Mr & Mrs Harry Ewell East Africa is rich in plant and animal Financial Representatives biodiversity. A partnership with the East 200 Lyell Avenue Spencerport African Wild Life Society is a great way NY 14559-1839 COVER PHOTO: A CARACAL for individuals and organisations to help BY FEDERICO VERONESI conserve the region’s iconic species. Grant Winther Your contribution will help restore and 867 Taurnic Pl. NW Bainbridge Island, safeguard habitats, including forests and WA 98110 wetland ecosystems; protect wildlife EDITOR and marine life while promoting John Nyaga UNITED KINGDOM (UK) sustainable use of natural resources [email protected] Nigel Winser for the benefit of current and future The Old Forge, Brook End, Chadlington, generations. Nature sustains livelihoods EDITORIAL BOARD Oxfordshire. OX7 3NF (01608 676 042) and forms the foundation on which our Nigel Hunter UK mobile - 07495 469941 economies thrive. Your membership William Pike [email protected] offers you tangible benefits and Lucy Waruingi allows you to participate in impactful Delta Willis NETHERLANDS programmes while benefiting from the visibility that the partnership affords. Irene Amoke Stichting EAWLS Ridderhoflaan 37 2396 C J Koudekerk A/D RIJN DESIGN & LAYOUT George Okello SWITZERLAND Copyright©2020 Bernhard Sorgen SWARA is a quarterly magazine owned and CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS Erlenweg 30 8302 Kloten pub lished by the East African Wild Life So ci e ty, Rose Chemweno a non-prof it or gan isa tion formed in 1961. Views FINLAND, SWEDEN & NORWAY expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the ADVERTISING & SALES Roseanna Avento views of the publishers. No part of this publica- Gideon Bett [email protected] tion may be reproduced by any means whatsoever +358405355405 without the written consent of the editor. Opin- PATRONS ions ex pressed by con trib u tors are not nec es sar i ly The President of Ken ya AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY the official view of the Society. SWARA ac cepts The President of Tan za nia The African Journal of Ecology is Published by the in for ma tion given by con trib u tors as correct. The President of Ugan da Wiley – Blackwell in association with East African Wild Life Society. Purchase a copy of this Journal CHAIRPERSON at Wiley Online Library: wileyonlinelibrary.com/ Elizabeth Gitari journal/aje VICE-CHAIRPERSON SWARA OFFICES Cissy Walker EAWLS Head Office P O Box 20110 – 00200, HON. TREASURER Riara Road, Kilimani, Nairobi Davinder Sikand Tel: + 254-(0) 20-3874145 + 254 (0) 20 3871437 + 254 (0) 722 202 473 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SWARA appreciates the continued support it Nancy Ogonje + 254 (0) 734 600 632 receives from Fauna & Flora International 6 | OCTOBER6 | APRIL - -DECEMBER JUNE 2020 2020 On Wildlife and Plastics umanity has in 2020 camps and lodges in the Mara been rattled by anxiety in 2016 and produced a report and uncertainty, that was presented to the County thanks to the Covid-19 Government of Narok. The report Hpandemic. For conservationists and had recommended that county businesses that rely on travel and government declare a moratorium tourism, the going has been especially on the construction of new camps rough as a result of movement in Maasai Mara. It was also hoped restrictions across the world. the county administration would In Kenya, travel international be guided by the report that also restrictions were eased in August, but advised that camps and lodges in the visits to the country’s national parks Reserve comply with environmental and reserves remain greatly subdued. guidelines. It was expected that with the low The conflict between the staff of a numbers of visitors, tourists would safari lodge and migrating wildebeest have “exclusive viewing” of wildlife. is a clear indication of failure to heed own bags. This practice proceeded That did not, however, happen with the advice in the EAWLS report. well until early 2019 when small clear many tour operators flouting game- The onus is now on the County polythene bags started infiltrating viewing rules. There were reports of Government of Narok and the the market. At first, they were used visitors being allowed to get out of National Environment Management secretly but over time, traders their vehicles, exposing them to the Authority (NEMA) to take action stopped hiding them. Information danger of being mauled or killed by through the implementation of the from some traders revealed that they nervous wild animals. recommendations contained in the entered the country from Uganda. In the Maasai Mara National report and to ensure that the draft This proves that when cross-border Reserve, migrating wildebeest faced Maasai Mara National Reserved policies and laws are not in harmony several challenges this year. Larger Management Plan is completed and it is difficult to enforce a ban numbers of gnus drowned in the implemented. effectively. Mara River than usual. The reason for EAWLS has pollution as one of its this phenomenon remains unknown. Plastics issues of concern in its new Strategic The migrating wildebeest also found Kenya has made three attempts to Plan (2020-2024). We will, therefore, it hard to climb steep riverbanks. ban the use of plastic bags. The first be in the forefront to advocate for But even as the animals struggled one was the 2007 bid to outlaw the harmonization of laws across borders, to overcome the challenges, human manufacture and import of plastic especially between Kenya, Uganda beings in their usual cavalier attitude bags up to 0.03 millimetres in and Tanzania, to ensure effective to natural phenomenon intervened thickness. In 2011, Kenya sought enforcement of the ban on single-use in one area to exacerbate the to do away with plastic bags up to plastics. wildebeests’ problems. Staff in one 0.06 millimetres in thickness. Both Besides, EAWLS will join other of the tented camps in the Mara were attempts failed. Civil Society Organisations, both local seen herding the animals back into In 2017, the government and global to counter efforts by a the river. The apparent lodge stands announced a ban on “the use, lobby from the petroleum industry in on the path of the migrating gnus manufacture and importation of all the United States to influence Kenya and is, therefore a hindrance to their plastic bags used for commercial to water down its legislation against annual movement from the Serengeti and household packaging.” The ban plastic waste in a bid to ensure that plains in Tanzania to Maasai Mara. applies to two categories of bags. The the East African country continues After the public uproar that carrier bag “constructed with handles, to import large quantities of plastic followed the footage of men shooing and with or without gussets” and the garbage from the US. According to a wildebeest back into the Mara River flat bag “constructed without handles, recent report in the New York Times, to prevent them from rampaging and with or without gussets.” it is feared that the United States through the tented camp, the That ban took effect August will force Kenya to reverse its ban on government ordered that the lodged 2017 and Kenyans fully complied single-use plastic in a new trade deal.