Tag: conservation

Lappet-faced vulture with Tawny eagle in Tsavo West National Park at Lake Jipe on the Kenya-Tanzania border Copyright Luca Borghesio

Jaunt at Jipe

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With an amazing raptor-filled day in Tsavo West

Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 22 April 2017

Above: Lappet-faced vulture with Tawny eagle in Tsavo West National Park at Lake Jipe on the Kenya-Tanzania border
Copyright Rupi Mangat

Aeriel view of Grogan's Castle with Kilimanjaro Copyright Grogan's Castle
Aeriel view of Grogan’s Castle with Kilimanjaro Copyright Grogan’s Castle

The road from Grogan’s Castle is a long thin thread through a bush-filled veld of Prosopis juliflora, one of the most terrible invasive plants in the world. These water-suckers compete for water with indigenous species and are so aggressive that one was found with roots at 175 feet deep in the earth.

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Guereza colobus or mantled colobus - monkeys of the old forest. They rarely come down to earth and feed mostly on leaves. Picture courtesy: Kat Combes,Soysambu Conservancy

Fundraising for Pre-translocation ecological assessment of Mount Kenya Guereza and the habitats of Soysambu Conservancy, Kenya

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April 8, 2017

This April 8, 2017 Pre-translocation ecological assessment of Mount Kenya Guereza and the habitats of Soysambu Conservancy. resulted in an accelerated human-guereza conflict as the groups crop raid to supplement the meager wild food.

To save this population, 142 individuals were successfully translocated to Karura forest in 2016 and over 200 individuals still remain in the fragmented private riverine habitats of Kipipiri. Urgent translocation efforts are therefore, required to safe these groups from being exterminated in the near future. Such an effort however, requires identification of a suitable habitat with enough food, cover, security and away from human habitation and especially the agricultural community to minimize human-colobus conflicts in the sink habitat.

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Tour of Ikutha and Mutomo Plant Sanctuary

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Published Saturday magazine, Nation media 8 April 2017

A hill and church with history in Kitui

Main pictures: Africa Inland Church established 1895-1914 in Ikutha overlooking Yatta plains -copyright Rupi Mangat

Africa Inland Church in Ikutha founded 1895-1914 by Johannes Hofmann - a historical site Copyright Rupi Mangat
Africa Inland Church in Ikutha founded 1895-1914 by Johannes Hofmann – a historical site Copyright Rupi Mangat

Kitui’s first step to fame is that it was somewhere in the now-mapped county that Johann Krapf became the first European to sight Mount Kenya’s snowy peaks from the village of the strongman – Chief Kivoi in 1849 – and the outside world came to know of the mountain on the Equator. It’s also from the Kikamba lingo that the country’s name is derived from – when Krapf asked the locals what the mountain was called, they replied Kinyaa – the mountain of the ostriches because of its snowy white peaks against the black granite.

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Tuskers at Thomson’s Falls

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Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 1st April 2017

Above: The gorge with Ewaso Nyiro river flowing from the wetland at Nyahururu via Thomson’s Falls to Lorian swamp in the arid lands – copyright Rupi Mangat

Thomson’s Falls in Nyahururu reveals more in its ravine flowing in the depths of South Marmanet Forest

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Elephants deep in the gorge – need a zoom lens to capture them – copyright Rupi Mangat

“The elephants have been spotted,” announces Walter Muriithi of Panari Resort Nyahururu sandwiched between the rocky gorge of Thomson’s Falls and South Marmanet Forest. We rush out to drive the few kilometres around the forest bordered by local farms and stop at the electric fence. It’s a deterrent to keep the elephants from raiding the farms.

Fence at Marmanet forest and the farms to keep elephants from straying out – copyright Rupi Mangat

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The dam in Mutito -copyright Rupi Mangat

Waterfalls and legends of Mutito Hills

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Published Saturday Nation magazine

The dam in the forest -copyright Rupi Mangat
The dam in the forest -copyright Rupi Mangat

18 March 2017

Kitui county’s little-known hill in its southern side is a show stopper

Drama in the skies above the cliffs where the eagle soared with a snake in its talons -copyright Rupi Mangat
Mutito Hills – exciting range so unexplored -copyright Rupi Mangat
Mutito Hills – exciting range so unexplored -copyright Rupi Mangat

This is drama fit for Nat Geo Wild. There’s a sheer copper-coloured cliff in front of us. We’re perched on a rocky outcrop by the side of a dam deep in the forested hills of Mutito. The dam that provides clean fresh water to the town of Mutito was built in the 1930s by British missionary and still functions.

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