Samburu Monkeys

Category: Samburu Survey | Date: Mar 19 2009 | By: samburumonkeys

The Mt Uarges guereza, Colobus guereza ssp. percivali is one of the eight subspecies of the Colobus guereza species. It is endemic to the forests of Samburu and is the only one of the eight listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List.

According to the findings of a survey I headed in Mt Nyiro forest, Ndoto forest, Kirisia Hills and Mathews range forests (between April 2007 and December 2008), the subspecies has been heavily poached for its skin by the local community who wear it during traditional ceremonies like circumcision. The skin is worn by ‘Morans’ on the lower part of the shin and round the heads during such ceremonies.

A man demonstrating how the skin is worn

Information we gathered over this period indicate that the ‘Lkoroi’ as it is locally known, once thrived on the eastern side of Mt Nyiro– Tum and Ewaso Rangai (lorian). Interviews with old men in Mt Nyiro and a retired colonial District Forest Officer who served in the area 50 years ago revealed that it is possible that there were guereza colobus in the Mt Nyiro forest up to the 1950s. All of them attributed the disappearance to poaching for the skin and habitat degradation due to encroachment during drought and periods of tribal conflict between the Samburu and the Turkana. The Turkana who use the skin as a head gear are said to have obtained it from Mt Nyiro as well.

In Kirisia Hills from the outskirts of Maralal to Baawa, Poro to Ang’ata Nanyuki, most of the adults interviewed admitted to having seen the subspecies in the forest in the last decade and blamed the dramatic decline of the subspecies population in this habitat on the proliferation of small arms which spiraled in the 1980s. Thea arrival of these semi automatic weapons made hunting the agile arboreal monkey extremely easy as oppossed to the traditional snare hunting methods. At Ol Dionyo Naju, we got reliable reports that the last remaining colobus in the area was killed in 2006 ostensibly for the skin. My fear is that Kirisia hills will soon go the Mt Nyiro way as it was clear that the monkey have been wiped out in most of its range within the Leroghi forest reserve.

Though the skin is passed over from father to son over generations, interviews with Morans around Maralal indicated that the skins was scarce and they were now turning to Mathews range forest where the subspecies is readily available for fresh supplies. Here the monkey is found in hundreds particularly on the central and southern parts of the forest reserve.  The monkey is an easy target as it is not accustomed to poaching like in Kirisia Hills where they have been known to actively avoid close human contact.

It is imperative that action be taken to halt the killings of the few remaining member of this subspecies before we lose the last stable population in Mathews range forest reserve.  This can be done through aggressive awareness rising coupled with improved law enforcement on the short term to halt further declines in the population of this Endangered primate.

Photo of the rare Mt Uarges guereza taken along river Wamba on Mt Uarges. Photo: Mwenja

Colobus guereza information

The species Colobus guereza is widespread across Africa and ranges from the Donga River region of Nigeria and the Yabassi District of Cameroon, eastwards across the Oubangui River from the Central African Republic to the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and then discontinuously eastwards to southern Sudan, Uganda, the Kenyan and Ethiopian highlands, and Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Meru and the Kahé District of Tanzania.

The eight sub-species are;

1.      Colobus guereza ssp. caudatus
2.      Colobus guereza ssp. dodingae
3.      Colobus guereza ssp. gallarum
4.      Colobus guereza ssp. guereza
5.      Colobus guereza ssp. kikuyuensis
6.      Colobus guereza ssp. matschiei
7.      Colobus guereza ssp. occidentalis
8.      Colobus guereza ssp. percivali

For more details on the survey, please contact me on the iregim[at]yahoo.com

Iregi Mwenja

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Category: Samburu Survey | Date: Mar 18 2009 | By: samburumonkeys

After twenty months of on-the-ground assessments of six rare primate species in Samburu, the verdict is out! There was some good news and some bad news as well. Below is a brief summary;

The aim of this survey was to validate presence and map the distribution of six rare primates species in Samburu. The species are; the de Brazza’s, the Sykes and the Patas monkeys, the Somali and the Senegal lesser galagos and the Endangered Mt Uarges guereza. Very little was known on the presence and status of the six species in the district prior to this study. Below is a brief summary of the findings;

De Brazza’s monkey
From the beginning of the survey in April 2007, six more groups of de Brazza’s monkey were recorded on the northern Mathews range, an addition to the 24 groups recorded in the year 2006 during the first survey of this newly discovered population. Between May 2008 and December 2008, two new groups were sighted in Sererit – southern Ndoto.

Patas monkey
Apart from the one stray (from Laikipia) Patas monkey reported by Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants which he saw on the western parts of Samburu National Reserve, no other Patas monkeys were seen in the district. The conclusion is that there are no Patas monkey is Samburu.

Sykes’ monkey
Reports about a small population Sykes’ monkey on the northern fringes of Leroghi forest – at Ang’ata Nanyuki were found to be unreliable as no monkey was seen in 8 months of intensive ground search in that area. Based on this information, our conclusion is that here are no Sykes monkeys in Leroghi forest or any other part of Samburu. Mt Kenya remains as the northern limit of the species range.

Mt Uarges Guereza
The Endangered Mt Uarges guereza was found in substantial numbers distributed over central and southern parts of Mathews range forest and southern Parts of Ndoto forest. The population in the neighboring Kirisia Hills was last seen in 2006. The few remaining are believed to have taken refuge in the dense inaccessible part of the forest (Saanata) following two decades of persistent poaching by local people who highly value its skin.

Lesser Galagos
The Senegal lesser galago was found to be widespread in the district. Eight live specimens were collected and released at South Horr (Mt Nyiro) and Mathew range after taking body measurements. However, the Somali lesser galago was not seen though there were reliable reports of sightings in the southern drier of the district.

Email me to a copy of the full report.

Iregi Mwenja

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 03 2009 | By: samburumonkeys

I found this moving story on BBC News about the above De Brazza’s monkey that was born by caesarean at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent. Her mother was too weak to look after her. To help keep her company, the three-week-old primate has been given a toy monkey with a mechanical heart. Read More..

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