Published Nation newspaper Saturday magazine 28 Jan 2017
Above – Pools in the Ndoto mountains
Copyright Maya Mangat
Walking in the Ndoto mountains Copyright Maya Mangat
Enormous tortilis acacias spread their canopy over the beautiful Salato campsite that is a business venture for the local Samburu women of Ngurunit in the Ndoto Mountains. Straddling the banks of the Ngurunit River, it’s cool and we plan to hike upstream into the mountains where water chutes and fresh pools of water are.
Up in the Ndoto mountains Copyright Maya Mangat
Across the road a cluster of tents is the base for the newly appointed Samburu county rangers and l pop in to ask if there’s anything new to look out for.
“We have lots of wildlife in the forests of the mountains,” tells Henry Lekuyie the ranger. “But the animals are very shy.
Mountains and plains – the Ndoto range in northern Kenya – Copyright Maya Mangat
Published Nation newspaper 21 January 2017
Reticulated giraffe in northern Kenya Copyright: Maya Mangat
A Reticulated giraffe stands alone in the midst of the green thorn scrub past the iconic Ololokwe mountain – the loaf-shaped of the northern drylands. It’s a giraffe listed in December 2016 as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and therefore threatened with extinction. Fewer than 100,000 exist on the planet with the Reticulated even more endangered than the other species. Understandably, we stop on the side of the newly tarmacked road that stretches all the way from Nanyuki via Isiolo past Samburu to Moyale on the Kenya-Ethiopia border.
In 1893, the famous British geologist of the ‘rift valley’ fame, Dr John W Gregory led the first scientific expedition up Mount Kenya but could not make it past the ice glaciers to reach the summit. The mountain top was decked in ice and snow. He spent several hours at the Lewis Glacier at 15,000 feet before descending.
Watamu Marine Association and Kenya Wildlife Service report an amazing sigh for the first time ever.
Picture above: False killer whales recorded first time in Kenya in December 2016.
They are witha pod of Indo-Pacific botlenose dolphins. Courtesy Jane Spilsbury/Watamu Marine Association
Published: Satmag Nation 14 Jan 2017
The gorgeous blue-ocean waters of Watamu reveal the first ever sighting in Kenya of False killer whales during a survey carried out by team from Kenya Wildlife Service and the Watamu Marine Association. The excitement is far-reaching.
“False killer whales are similar to Killer whales but smaller,” says a very excited Jane Spilsbury of WMA. “We were about two kilometres from shore when we saw these animals which are normally found in much deeper water.
False killer whales off Watamu, Kenya November 2016. Courtesy Jane Spilsbury/Watamu Marine Association
She continues. “These 13 to 19 feet long animals were hunting in a group of 50 – 100 and were accompanied by Indo Pacific Bottlenose dolphins. For an hour that we watched them the whales covered an area of over three square kilometers hunting sailfish.
“This shows that the Malindi Watamu Marine Protected Area has a rich biodiversity to attract such a rarely documented, data deficient species and also why it is an important conservation area for dolphins and whales. We’re so excited!”
Hoping off the boat after a morning sail in Mida Creek landing by the village of Dabasso, I stop to chat with Spilsbury at Eco-World. I had no idea that wine bottles had more than one use as she shows me around the newly built resource centre at Eco-World.
Thousand bottle Bottle-nose dolphin by Andrew McNaughton at EcoWorld, Watamu Picture copyright Rupi Mangat
Recycled wine bottle door by Andrew McNaughton at EcoWorld, Watamu Picture by Rupi Mangat
Seahorse from trashed waste from sea – rubber slippera into gifts – at EcoWorld, Watamu Copyright picture: Rupi Mangat
Four amazing women make a career of working with snakes. Attending the tenth international snakebite seminar at Bio-Ken snake farm in Watamu recently, each narrates the path taken.
Handling live venomous snakes is an extra-ordinary noble but extremely dangerous profession.
One reason for handling venomous snakes is to milk them – which is the only way to obtain snake venom to produce supplies of anti-venom. Without anti-venom being readily available and administered, a bite from any venomous snake can be deadly. Ironically, anti-venom can only be produced from ample supplies of venom from live venomous snakes. And it takes some dexterity to do that.
Diana Barr
Diana Barr keeping a keen eye on her students as they perform venom extraction from a Papuan taipan under her instruction at the Charles Campbell Toxinology Centre in Papua New Guinea. (Left: Owen Paiva, right Benjamin Wawagu Bande). The venom is sent to the Instituto Clodomiro Picado in Costa Rica where it is used to produce lifesaving antivenom. This highly venomous snake has a nervous temperament which coupled with its speed and agility make it an extremely dangerous snake to work with. It is responsible for around one thousand deaths per year in Papua New Guinea. Picture courtesy: Barr
Diana Barr working with an Indian cobra. This beautiful snake is one of India’s ‘Big Four’ and is responsible for thousands of deaths every year in India. Picture courtesy: Barr
Young and dynamic, Barr’s job as technical support officer at the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne and Global Snakebite Initiative, an Australian non-profit organisation working to reduce snakebite deaths and disability around the world, puts her in very close contact with the most venomous snakes in the world.
Moonlion Safaris 