WHY ELEPHANT ROAM Shadrack Mumo Ngene ITC dissertation number 171 ITC, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, the Netherlands ISBN 978-90-6164-290-9 Cover designed by Benno Masselink Printed by ITC Printing Department Copyright © 2010 by Shadrack Ngene WHY ELEPHANT ROAM DISSERTATION To obtain the doctor’s degree at the University of Twente, on the authority of the Rector Magnificus, prof.dr. H. Brinksma, on account of the decision of the graduation committee, to be publicly defended on Wednesday 19 May.2010 at 13.15 hrs by Shadrack Mumo Ngene born on 18 July 1968 in Kitui, Kenya This thesis is approved by Prof. dr. Andrew K. Skidmore, promotor Prof. dr. Herbert H.T. Prins, promotor Dr. Hein A.M.J. van Gils, assistant promotor To my wife Felistus Matha, children Faith Kalunda and Francis Muthui Acknowledgements This work could not have been completed without the input and support of many people. I take this opportunity to thank some of them. Firstly, I am grateful to my promotor Prof. Andrew K. Skidmore of the International Institute of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Prof. Herbert T. Prins of Wageningen University, and assistant promotor Dr. Hein van Gils (ITC, The Netherlands) for their guidance and encouragement throughout this work. I acknowledge Sipke Van Wieren (Wageningeni University, The Netherlands), and Dr. Boniface Oindo (Maseno University, Kenya) for reviewing the thesis chapters. Prof. Andrew Skidmore was instrumental in accepting me as his PhD student in early 2005. He pursued funding for me through a PhD scholarship from the ITC research fund. I also greatly honour and appreciate his scientific contributions. Without his continuous encouragement I could not have completed this work. Prof. Andrew Skidmore, I enjoyed working with you during my PhD period, and still appreciate the many meetings we had from which I learned a lot about remote sensing and GIS. Prof. Andrew Skidmore, you were supportive, friendly, and contributed immensely to my PhD thesis. You taught me the tricks of publishing manuscripts and you were my inspiration throughout my stay in Netherlands I greatly acknowledge the contribution of Prof. Herbert T. Prins, who kept on providing stimulating new ideas during our discussions throughout my entire PhD. Discussions with Prof. Herbert were always thrilling but scientifically challenging. Many thanks go to Dr. Hein van Gils, Dr. Bert Toxopeus, Dr. Sipke van Wieren, and Dr. Boniface Oindo for reviewing my first draft manuscripts. You were all friendly and reviewed my draft manuscripts promptly. I appreciated your open discussions on the ecology of elephant movement as well as on life issues. To ITC, the African Parks Conservation (APC, The Netherlands), the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) European Union (EU) funded Elephant Research Fund (ERF), I am deeply indebted for providing me with a fully funded PhD position to work on this thesis. At Kenya Wildlife Service headquarters, many people supported my studies. I am grateful to Dr. Julius Kip’ngetich (Director, KWS) for leading the fund i raising for purchase of the satellite linked GPS collars used in this study. Your willingness to hold several meetings in Serena hotel (Nairobi, Kenya) after working hours and over the weekend motivated me to work in Marsabit, a hardship area. Dr. Richard Bagine (former Deputy Director - Biodiversity Research and Monitoring, KWS) and Dr. Samuel Kasiki (current Deputy Director - Biodiversity Research and Monitoring, KWS) provided the necessary administrative support and technical input during my fieldwork and the period during which I was writing my thesis. Drs Patrick Omondi (Senior Assistant Director - Species Conservation and Management, KWS) was instrumental in raising funds from the European Union’s KWS-ERF and USFWS and I greatly appreciate his efforts to make sure that the project proposal was accepted for funding. I thank Drs Sharon Kisire (Head of human capital, KWS) and Joseph Onyango (former training manager, human capital department, KWS) for facilitating clearance from the director’s office, a requirement for my many travels from Kenya to the Netherlands. I thank Dr. Francis Gakuya (Head of veterinary department, KWS) and Dr. Chege (Veterinary department, KWS) for facilitating and immobilizing the elephant during the collaring operations. Lastly I thank the support I had from Wicliff Mutero and Joseph Mukeka (both of KWS-GIS unit), who ensured that I received all the necessary shape files for the study area promptly. They also provided technical support in GIS analysis. Special thanks to the Head of KWS airwing, Pilot Major (rtd) Solomon Nyanjui for ensuring that an aircraft was allocated in times when I needed to fly to Marsabit, and for being our helicopter pilot during the collaring operation in April 2007. Many other staff in KWS contributed to my study in one way or another, including Moses Litoroh, Drs Erustus Kanga, Apollo Kariuki, Thomas Mailu, Felix Mwangangi, Pilot Robert Obrien, Pilot Kiroken, Pilot Mwiti, and Mwanahamis Twalib. You made me achieve my field work goals and gave me words of encouragement, which kept me working hard to complete writing this thesis. My deepest appreciations are extended to all the members of Marsabit Protected Area with whom I stayed during field work. I thank Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Dr. Henrik Rasmussen, Drs Jake Wall, David Dabaleen, and the late Dr. Kashimir, all of Save the Elephant trust for their fieldwork and technical support. To Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton, you efforts to ensure that we received the funding from APC are highly appreciated. Your aerial support during collaring operations made our work of deploying the collars easier. Henrik, Jake, and David, without your field and technical support, it could have been difficult for me to fix the collars on the elephant. I thank you all for your jokes and encouragements. ii I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Martin Hale and Ms. Loes Colenbrander for their admirable research administration. My stay in ITC was also facilitated by the support of the Education Affairs department, with special thanks to Marie Chantal Metz, Theresa van den Boogaard and Bettine Geerdink. Particular thanks go to Carla Gerritsen, Marga Koelen and Petry Maas–Prijs of the ITC library for their support and facilitation with acquiring articles and books from outside the ITC library. I thank Marjolein Woerlee and Saskia Groenendijk for organizing my accommodation during my stay in Enschede. I recognize and appreciate Esther Hondebrink for her secretarial supports and ensuring that I had opportunities to meet with Prof. Andrew Skidmore. Also, thanks to Marco van Druten, Frans Gollenbeek, Marion Pierik and Kim Velthuis for their support in all financial matters. Special thanks to Thea de Kluijver for her unrelenting help with keeping us healthy and physically fit. Thanks to Ginie Gerrits, Hellen Murad, and Wendy Stiksma, you made my travelling to and from The Netherlands and Kenya possible. I am grateful to the geo-technical support team at ITC, without their appropriate and speedy support it would have been difficult to have written this thesis. My acknowledgements go to Ard Kosters, Gerard Leppink for their IT support and Benno Masselink and Job Duim for all other logistical help. I also thank Patricia Meijer, Secretary Resource Ecology Group, Wageningen University, for organizing our many meetings with Prof. Herbert Prins. Sincerest thanks go to my generation of PhD candidates. I feel grateful to be part of this fabulous group. As PhD studies take a long time, it is difficult to mention all the friends and colleagues. But among them: Dr. Peter Minang, Dr. Marleen Nooman, Dr. Moses Cho, Dr. Roshanak Darvishzadeh, Dr. Chudamani Joshi, Dr. Jane Bemigisha, Dr. Pieter Beck, Dr. Wang Tiejun, Richard Onchaga, Si Yali, Yanqiu Xing, Guofeng Wu, Claudia Pittiglio, Ha Nguyen, Nicky Knox, Mobushir Riaz Khan, Mohammad Abouali, Abdulmaged Alhemiary, Filiz Bektas, Meng Bian, Sabrina Carvalho, Anas Fauzi, Teng Fei, Atkilt Girma, Nima Moin, Jeniffer Kinoti, Abel Ramoelo, Ben Wielstra, Si Yali Ha Nguyen, Sureeporn Nipithwitaya, Ouyang Wei, Monica Lengoiboni, Tyas Mutiara Basuki, Mhosisi Masocha, Ajay Kumar Katuri, Anthony Arko Adjei, Lal Muthuwatta, Adam Nyaruhuma, Alphonse Nkurunziza. Kitsiri Weligepolage, Iswar Das, and the lates Emmanuel Owusu and Dan Omolo are worth mentioning. Special thanks go Mhosisi Masocha not only because he was my first office mate but also for his encouragement and advice, especially during the first six months of my PhD course. His technical support during my entire study period is highly appreciated and his scientific publishing knowledge and advice was of great help. iii I am grateful to all Kenyan students for supporting me in one way or another during my stay in Enschede. All of you were really supportive and your encouragement renewed my energy to keep on working during the most difficult phases of this journey. Special thanks go to Richard Onchaga, Peter Masika, Peter Mapusia, Zack Kuria, Richard Kyuma, and the late Dan Omolo. I also thank all my friends from different countries for their honourable support. My strongest support came from my family as they always kept sending me good wishes and encouragement from Kenya. I am grateful to my dearest wife (Felistus Matha), daughter (Faith Kalunda) and son (Francis Muthui) who were the source of all my aspiration, encouragement and strength. Without your support I would not have had the energy to complete