Samburu Monkeys

I started my conservation career 7 years ago as a Park Warden at the Kenya Wildlife Service. I served in various Parks and Reserves and was lucky get hands-on experience on the conservation of different tropical ecosystems-types ranging from marine at the Kiunga Marine National Reserve in the Lamu Archipelago to the Afro-alpine ecosystem of Mt. Elgon National Park.

It was during this time that I developed great interest in rare threatened species when I realized that they were never incorporated in the mainstream conservation agenda. Most conservation Organizations focused on “greater species” like Rhinos, elephants, cheetahs etc, whose dilemma has been “over-marketed” at the expense of the endangered “lesser species” like the de Brazza’s monkey, bushbabies etc.

De Brazza’s monkey

I decided to dedicate my time working on the conservation of these forgotten endangered species that required equal if not more urgent attention. However, the greatest challenge was to create awareness on these rare species to secure support from all stakeholders. To create the awareness, I started by working on the assessments of conservation status of the de Brazza’s monkey and the Sitatunga (an antelope), to convince all and sundry that they needed attention too.

However, my most outstanding work has been the national assessment of the de Brazza’s monkey, which includes the first survey of the newly discovered population in Mathews range in Samburu. Over the years, this has meant that I sometimes work in areas where other biologists have not ventured due to insecurity and lack of infrastructure like in Samburu and Boni-Dodori forest on the Kenya Somali border.

Guereza colobus

In Samburu, the difficult condition in this region deters many biologists from venturing here. It was therefore not surprising that this discovery came too late in time. I have also found out that there are plenty of other endangered and neglected primate’s species that needed attention too here. I have this year expanded my research to cover six rare species in Samburu i.e. the newly discovered De Brazza’s, Sykes’ and Patas’ monkey (new reports in the district as well) and the Mt Uarges guereza, the only Endangered guereza sub-species and endemic to Samburu.

Sykes monkey