Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report

Spring-Summer 2013

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Cover photo by Mdonya Old River Lodge’s game driver, Kahimba.

Dear friends of the Ruaha Carnivore Project,

The second half of 2012 and first part of 2013 have exceeded even our own expectations. The Lion Guardians programme got off to a very quick and so far successful start, with three staff members and five Barabaig Lion Guardians hired. We had the entire dry season, when the number of depredations is low, to get them used to their jobs and the Barabaig community used to the idea of not killing lions. They then proved their worth in this recent rainy season, as they helped stop numerous lion hunts, and helped reduce lion killing in the core study area.

We had hoped to provide two full secondary school scholarships to pastoralist children. Instead, we raised enough money to send six children to secondary school, which was really great.

Thanks to grants from the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative and other supporters, we have now predator-proofed over 50 livestock enclosures, which is great. No livestock have been killed in the improved enclosures, which has reduced the local economic costs of carnivore presence and the need for retaliatory killing.

Our camp has grown tremendously: we have added two bandas (thatch-roofed platforms to protect our tents from the elements and marauding wildlife), are slowly replacing our nylon tents with second-hand canvas ones (that hopefully will be less inviting to snakes and mice), have expanded our solar power array, and—most exciting of all—have run a water pipe from Kitisi to camp! This was surprisingly inexpensive and saves many hours of manpower and wear and tear on our vehicles.

You can read more about what we are doing below and also find out more on our website www.ruahacarnivoreproject.com or on Facebook. None of our work would be possible without all of our supporters, so huge thanks from the entire team for everything you are doing. We hope that you enjoy the report!

Best wishes, the RCP team

Dr. Amy Dickman, director; Dr. Maurus Msuha, scientific collaborator; Monty Kalyahe, senior research assistant; Ayubu Msago, community liaison; Msafiri Mgumba, senior research assistant; Justin Chumbulila, research assistant; Stephano Asecheka, Lion Guardians coordinator; and George Sedoyeka, Lion Guardians coordinator.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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ABOUT THE RUAHA LANDSCAPE AND THE RUAHA CARNIVORE PROJECT

Tanzania’s Ruaha landscape, which includes the Ruaha National Park, Wildlife Management

Areas, Game Reserves and neighbouring village lands, is one of the most important places in

the world for large carnivores: this area holds over 10% of the world’s remaining lions, one

of only four cheetah populations in East Africa numbering 200 individuals or more, the third

largest population of endangered African wild dogs in the world, and globally important

populations of leopards and spotted hyaenas. However, despite its significance, very little

scientific research has been conducted on Ruaha’s carnivores, hindering the development of

effective conservation plans. Furthermore, there is intense human-carnivore conflict in the

local area, which is a major conservation issue. This conflict – in which carnivores pose a

threat to people or their stock, and people respond by killing carnivores – causes severe

problems for both villagers and carnivores, so reducing it is a top priority for the project.

The Ruaha Carnivore Project, which was established in 2009, is part of the Wildlife

Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) within Oxford University’s Zoology Department. It

works in partnership with Tanzanian organisations such as the Tanzanian Wildlife Research

Institute (TAWIRI) and National Parks authorities to achieve the following:

(i) Provide baseline information on large carnivore distribution, relative abundance and

ecology across the Ruaha landscape, including both protected and unprotected land; and

(ii) Reduce the costs and improve the benefits associated with living alongside carnivores for

local people, thereby reducing human-carnivore conflict in this critically important area.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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GENERAL NEWS

Five Barabaig Warriors become the first Ruaha Lion Guardians

Thanks to a grant from Panthera, and through close partnership with the Lion Guardians

organisation in Kenya, five young Barabaig warriors have been hired as RCP’s first Lion

Guardians. As Lion Guardians, the warriors help protect lions in human-dominated areas by

collecting data on lions, warning people of lions’ presence in grazing areas, helping villagers

repair livestock enclosures, locating lost livestock (and children) and working with other

warriors in the community to prevent lion hunts.

The Barabaig are responsible for the majority of the Ruaha area’s lion killings, both in

retaliation for livestock depredation and as part of their coming-of-age rituals. They are an

intensely secretive group who typically do not mix with outsiders, and earning their trust

took RCP staff almost two years. But since agreeing to become part of the Lion Guardians

programme, which originated in Kenya with the Maasai, there has been a striking decline in

lion killings in the core study area. This is particularly impressive as convincing a Barabaig

warrior to renounce lion killing is no small feat — some of the Barabaig Lion Guardians

reported participating in more than 90 lion hunts before becoming Guardians!

Our Lion Guardians team (from left to right): Gwagi Gaga, Daremu Philipo, Stephano

Asecheka (ccordinator), Ema Kwashema, Mandela Dudmeka and Daudi Kinyoka

The Barabaig’s commitment was sorely tested in February, when almost nightly attacks on

Barabaig bomas caused more than a dozen livestock deaths. The Lion Guardians and RCP

staff worked day and night — even staying at vulnerable bomas overnight — to help prevent

attacks and retaliatory lion hunts. The Lion Guardians intercepted one hunt and convinced

the warriors to turn back, and eventually the attacks stopped without any lions being killed.

We look forward to reporting on more successes as the programme grows.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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First Simba Scholars start school!

One of the benefits that local villagers said they would most appreciate from the presence

of carnivores was better access to education. To address this, in 2012 RCP raised funds,

through the AZA Conservation Endowment Fund and private donors, to provide six ‘Simba

Scholarships’. These are competitive scholarships available for children from local pastoralist

families, and the six Scholars began attending Idodi Secondary School in February 2013. It is

hard for villagers to pay for their children to attend secondary school, so this has been very

important in terms of a tangible benefit to local people, as it will have long-term value for

the students and their families. To learn more about these first Simba Scholars, visit our

website at www.ruahacarnivoreproject.com. Please contact RCP if you are interested in

learning more about the Scholarships or funding a Simba Scholar next year.

Ayubu Msago (RCP’s community liaison) with the six Simba Scholars: from left to right, Grace

Nchachi, Herieth Charles, John Kunguti, Kwangu Charles, Isaya Koyesa, & Zawadiana Daniel

Staff Updates

Msafiri Mgumba has returned to camp after completing his Postgraduate Diploma in

International Wildlife Conservation Practice at Oxford University. We are thrilled to have

him back with all his new skills, and have promoted him to Senior Research Assistant.

Research Assistant Meshack Saigulu received a scholarship to undertake his Masters degree

at the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) – we are sad

not to have him at camp but will be working with him again both during and after his

degree. Stephano Asecheka and George Sedoyeka came on board to manage the Lion

Guardians programme, and Justin Chambulila has been hired as a research assistant for RCP.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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New options for donating

People interested in giving to the Ruaha Carnivore Project - in particular those in the United

States - have a great new option for online donations. The Houston Zoo is hosting a

donation page for lion conservation organizations, and RCP is one of the featured

organizations. To check out our gorgeous and easy-to-use page, go to

www.houstonzoo.org/lionssp/projects/ruaha-carnivore-project. Please give! U.S. tax-payers

and others can also make tax-free donations through Americans for Oxford at

www.oxfordna.org/giving_how.htm. Remember to designate the Ruaha Carnivore Project as

the recipient of your donation. One hundred percent of your donations, through either link,

go directly to support RCP’s research and programmes that help people living in the Ruaha

landscape better coexist with carnivores.

Do you want to get involved with exploring wild Africa, from the comfort of your own

home? Now you can, through RCP’s newest initiative, the Ruaha Explorer’s Club (REC). REC

members become virtual explorers of the Ruaha landscape by sponsoring one of our camera

traps that move throughout this relatively uncharted area. Each camera’s images and GPS

coordinates are posted on designated Facebook pages that the sponsors control, giving

Explorers a unique insight into the work of RCP and the wonders of Ruaha’s wildlife. The

first sponsorships are being trialled and the programme will be made public in the spring of

2013. Look for news on this fun initiative on our website (www.ruahacarnivoreproject.com)

and Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ruaha-Carnivore-

Project/116298238442772.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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RESEARCHING CARNIVORE ECOLOGY

Despite the global significance of the Ruaha landscape, very little research has been

conducted to date; thus remarkably little is known about the number, distribution or

ecology of its valuable carnivore populations. We are working with a variety of stakeholders,

including Tanzanian authorities, Park lodges and tourists to collect as much reliable data as

possible on Ruaha’s carnivore populations. These data are then shared with organisations

such as TAWIRI, where we hope they will assist in the development of conservation and

management plans for carnivores in the Ruaha landscape.

Camera-trapping

RCP staff continue to analyse the data in the images recorded in our camera traps. To date,

we have recorded 8,027 camera-trap images, which involve 43 different wild mammal

species, including 22 carnivore species. While most images have come from the Park (4,607)

followed by Wildlife Management Area land (2,319) and then village land (1,101), species

diversity continues to be highest on Wildlife Management Area land (37 mammal species,

including 17 carnivore species), followed by the National Park (35 mammal species, 18

carnivore species) and village land (35 mammal species, 17 carnivore species).

Senior Research Assistant Monty Kalyahe is examining these data in more detail as part of

his Masters in Conservation Biology at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK.

Monty’s analysis will provide the first scientific data on carnivore diversity, distribution,

demography and abundance across different land-use zones of the Ruaha landscape.

This image of a young male lion was captured by a camera trap placed in the

Mpululu area of Ruaha National Park in December.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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Carnivore sightings

Who better to collect data and images of carnivores than game drivers for the lodges in

Ruaha National Park? RCP has worked with the lodges, by equipping the drivers with digital

cameras and GPS units to record carnivore sightings during their daily travels. These data

will be used to identify individual animals and provide critical information on their

movement in and around the Park. Mwagusi Safari Camp’s three drivers lead the pack with

an incredible 1,112 sightings, Ruaha River Lodge (four drivers) has tallied 833 sightings,

Mdonya Old River Camp (two drivers) has reported 580, and Jongomero Lodge (two

drivers), the furthest southwest and our newest addition, has logged 20. From July 2012 -

February 2013, Mwagusi’s Vicent Kavaya collected the most sighting data forms and images

of carnivores, with 69 reports – thanks so much to all the lodges and drivers for the efforts!

In addition to providing an incredible amount of data, the game drivers’ photos are

gorgeous and sometimes quite dramatic. In 2013, we hope to hold a game driver photo

contest on Facebook, with such categories as “Best Identification Photo,” “Cutest Sleeping

Lion Photo” and “Most Dramatic Photo”.

This beautiful image was taken by Mwagusi Safari Camp driver Moses.

Additionally, visitors to the area are asked to tell us about carnivore sightings and, if

possible, email us their photos. So far, we have received information on 315 large carnivore

sightings, mainly from Ruaha National Park but also from occasional sightings outside the

Park. The majority of tourist sightings were of cheetah (125), followed by lion (93), then

leopard (71), spotted hyaena (24), and finally African wild dogs, with 2 reported sightings.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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Visitors to Ruaha National Park can share their photos with RCP to help us track the comings and goings of Ruaha’s resident carnivores, such as these cheetahs

(photo by Sasja van Vechgel (www.heart4photography.com).

These reports are extremely useful to us, so if you are planning to visit Ruaha National Park

or have visited it in the past and would like to share your sightings with us, please contact us

via Facebook or by email. The camera-trapping and sightings data are being used by MSc

student Leandro Abade, who has produced the first maps of likely carnivore presence across

Ruaha. These maps show the importance of the southern area of the Park, which is close to

village land – this really highlights the need for us to reduce human-carnivore conflict in the

villages, as carnivore killings in that area are likely to affect carnivores in the Park as well.

Map predicting priority (red) areas for large carnivores around Ruaha (c) Leandro Abade

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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REDUCING HUMAN-CARNIVORE CONFLICT

There is intense conflict between humans and large carnivores around the Park, caused

mainly by attacks on livestock, as well as a lack of tangible benefits from carnivore presence

for local people and little understanding of conservation. To address these issues, RCP

employs three main strategies: (i) reducing the costs of carnivore presence; (ii) improving

the benefits associated with carnivores; and (iii) providing education and outreach.

Reducing the costs of carnivore presence

More than 60% of carnivore attacks on stock occur at livestock enclosures, which are often

poorly constructed due to a lack of good materials. To address this, RCP works with villagers

to reinforce their bomas using chain-link fencing and tall posts made of, when available,

living trees that will fill out over time and become truly impenetrable. The livestock owner

pays half the cost and shares the labour with RCP, who brings in the necessary materials and

expertise. Not a single head of livestock has been lost while inside one of our reinforced

bomas.

Thanks to grants, including from National Geographic Big Cats Initiative, the Columbus Zoo

and Zoos and Aquariums Committing to Conservation (ZACC), we have now reinforced over

50 bomas in 14 villages surrounding Ruaha National Park. While the Barabaig experience the

highest levels of livestock depredation - and kill the most lions in retaliation - they were

hesitant to try these bomas. However, in 2012 we convinced a Barabaig man to work with

us to reinforce his boma, and since then 10 more Barabaig households have followed. We

now have a waiting list of Barabaig households wanting reinforced bomas.

Locations of RCP reinforced bomas, colour-coded by village (c) Msafiri Mgumba

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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Reducing carnivore attacks upon villagers’ livestock economically benefits local people and

also has a valuable conservation impact by reducing retaliatory killing, which can have

devastating effects on carnivores and other wildlife.

Providing benefits linked to carnivore presence

Preventing livestock loss is only part of the battle. Since villagers derive few if any benefits

from carnivore presence, one of RCP’s priorities is to develop relevant, community-based

initiatives so that villagers can see real benefits from carnivore presence. The most-desired

benefits selected by villagers included education, human health and veterinary health. We

have already worked with villagers to equip a local healthcare clinic, and our progress on

education and veterinary health is detailed below.

Education

To address educational needs, RCP’s Kids 4 Cats ‘sister school’ scheme pairs schools in more

developed countries such as England and the United States with schools in the villages

around Ruaha, with the goal of raising money to buy much-needed supplies. One of the

latest schools to join up the Kids 4 Cats programme is Longney Church of England Primary

School in Gloucestershire, England. Longney School has been twinned with Makifu Primary

School, which has 246 students and only six teachers. We have delivered over Tsh 4,000,000

(US$2,400) in books and supplies to our twinned schools and are continually expanding this.

Students at Idodi Secondary School display the books received from RCP’s

Kids 4 Cats Programme.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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Many other local schools would love to have an international ‘sister school’ through Kids 4

Cats, so if you know of a school that might be interested, please contact us via our Facebook

page or email amy.dickman@zoo.ox.ac.uk.

As mentioned earlier, we awarded our first six Simba Scholarships this year to secondary

school-age children from poor pastoralist families - those who traditionally suffer the most

from carnivore presence yet receive the fewest benefits. Because pastoralists live in the

outlying areas of a community, move around and often have few financial resources, their

children either don’t attend school at all or only attend primary school, which is free in

Tanzania. Our ultimate goal is to provide at least one secondary school scholarship for each

of the 22 local villages, so if you are interested in helping a child receive a secondary-school

education as a benefit of coexisting with carnivores, please contact us.

Veterinary Medicine Programme

Our surveys revealed that villagers lose nine times as many livestock to disease than to

predators, and if we can help lower that number, people should be better able to tolerate

the occasional loss due to predators. Thanks to a grant from the BBC Wildlife Fund, we

launched a pilot project that provides access for pastoralists to partially subsidised

veterinary medicines. Due to intense demand, we make the medicines available to people

who have invested in predator-proofing their bomas, which has caused demand for our

bomas to skyrocket. The medicines are another direct, tangible benefit to local people from

the presence of the project – and therefore carnivores – on village land, and these benefits

are highlighted and discussed during community meetings.

Our veterinary medicines programme provides commonly used livestock medicines to

pastoralists at a much-reduced price.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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OUTREACH AND EDUCATION

With so few nongovernmental organizations working in the Ruaha area, local people often

have little awareness of conservation issues or the fact that carnivore presence can bring

significant economic revenue to the area. They are also often hostile towards the Park and

its wildlife, as they are unsure of its role and whether it provides any community benefits.

There is also often confusion about the causes of livestock loss; for instance, it can be

difficult to determine whether an animal died from an illness or injury and was then

scavenged or was killed by a predator. Improving local knowledge of these issues is a very

important part of RCP’s work.

We are very pleased to say that we have now surpassed the 10,000 DVD night participant

mark. DVDs about wildlife conservation are shown at village centres, schools and sub-

villages throughout the area and attract large crowds, providing RCP staff an excellent

opportunity to talk about wildlife, carnivores, and RCP’s programmes. To date, 2,418

students and 8,118 other villagers (2,405 men, 1,954 women and 3,759 children) have

attended DVD shows. Local people hugely enjoy the nature programmes, despite being

narrated in English, and we are very keen to work with our partners to eventually develop

Swahili versions – so if you could help with that, please let us know!

Villagers watching an educational DVD night, conducted by Ayubu Msago

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The vast majority of people who live in the villages surrounding Ruaha National Park have

never had the chance to visit it. Because many of the Park lodges’ guests fly directly into the

Park, most villagers do not realize how popular a destination it is for tourists. To help them

understand the value of the Park, and to see wildlife in non-threatening circumstances and

improve their understanding of both the Park and wildlife, RCP takes villagers into the Park.

Ruaha National Park staff have played a key role in this, and their community outreach team

meets with the villagers to explain the local role of the Park and answer questions.

Maasai villagers and Suleiman (one of RCP’s conflict officers) on an educational Park trip

Villagers are fascinated not only by the wildlife but also by the carloads of foreign tourists

and the planes landing at the Park airstrip. Everyone reports greatly enjoying seeing wildlife

and learning about conservation and the role of the Park, and we have a long waiting list for

future trips. More importantly, these trips are changing people’s perceptions about the Park

and carnivores: 82% of Park trip participants said the trip made them feel more positively

about potentially dangerous animals such as lions, 99% said the visit improved their attitude

towards the Park, and 100% said the visit made them feel more positively towards the

Ruaha Carnivore Project. Thanks to various grants, including from the Angel Fund at the

Cincinnati Zoo, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and the BBC, to date RCP has taken

296 people (116 men, 75 women, 57 boys and 48 girls) on educational Park visits, and we

intend to continue and expand this initiative.

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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LOOKING FORWARD

We will be launching two new programmes and one exciting research project later in 2013.

The first programme is the livestock guarding dog (LGD) trial, which is being funded by the

Taronga Conservation Society of Australia. LGDs have been used very successfully by the

Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) to protect goats and sheep from cheetahs and leopards in

Namibia, so we are keen to see if they will help reduce attacks and human-carnivore conflict

in Tanzania. We are working on permits and transport of the dogs at present and are aiming

to bring them from CCF to Tanzania in June. As soon as everything is in place, Msago will

travel to Namibia to bring back our first livestock guarding dogs. Secondly, to prevent

diseases being passed from domestic dogs to Ruaha’s African wild dogs – a key threat to this

endangered canid – we will be working with veterinary officers and partners to develop a

domestic dog vaccination initiative. Thanks to a grant from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo,

we will vaccinate local dogs in the three villages closest to wild dog territories for rabies and

distemper. This will also provide another valuable benefit to villagers, as rabies is a major

human health threat in this area.

2013 will be the year of the dog in terms of RCP plans!

Very excitingly, RCP recently received permission from the Tanzanian authorities to begin

satellite-collaring lions, in order to better understand patterns of movement and conflict

across the landscape. This will be exceptionally valuable as it will provide the first detailed

data on lion ecology for the Ruaha landscape and also will be linked to the Lion Guardians

programme, as the Guardians will help collar and track the lions on village land. We plan to

collar five to 10 lions, depending on available funds – stay tuned for more information!

We are grateful to everyone who has supported and helped us, and thanks for your interest

in the Ruaha Carnivore Project. Our next report will be published in autumn 2013, and until

then check our website and Facebook page for updates. For more information about RCP,

please contact Amy Dickman on amy.dickman@zoo.ox.ac.uk.

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Project partners

Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Department of Zoology, University of

Oxford

Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) and the Tanzania Carnivore Centre

Major sponsors (> $20,000) during May 2012 – April 2013

University of Oxford Kaplan Fellowship

Panthera

National Geographic Big Cats Initiative

Peoples’ Trust for Endangered Species

Roger Fry

Taronga Conservation Society of Australia

Additional sponsors (> $1000) during May 2012 – April 2013

Angel Fund, Cincinnati Zoo*

AZA Conservation Endowment Fund

BBC Wildlife Fund

Blank Park Zoo

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

Conservation and Research Foundation

Dallas Zoo

Feline Conservation Federation

Handsel Foundation*

Houston Zoo

John and Sheila Compton

Jonathan and Meg Ratner Family Foundation

Leiden Conservation Foundation

Scott Satterfield & Laura Brown

SeaWorld Busch Gardens Conservation Fund*

Steven and Florence Goldby

Tom and Heather Sturgess

Woodland Park Zoo

Zoo Atlanta

Zoo Heidelberg

*Represents supporters who have given over $20,000 cumulatively over time

Ruaha Carnivore Project Progress Report – Spring 2013

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Fieldwork and education partners

David, Pat and Jon Erickson

Exmouth Community College

Clayton Middle School

Foxes African Safaris and Ruaha River Lodge

Honiton Community College

Jongomero Camp

Justin Brashares, Clinton Epps and Chantal Stoner

Kwihala Camp

Leo Sooter

Lion Guardians and Living with Lions

Longney C of E Primary School

Mdonya Old River Camp

Mwagusi Safari Camp

Steuart Weller Elementary School

Tandala Tented Camp

TwoMoors Primary School

Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN)

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Ruaha Landscape Programme

Other supporters

British Airways

Exmouth Rotary Club & Exmouth Raleigh Rotary Club

John Wilkes, Bearcreek and Sandcrab Trading

Peter Jones and the Big Picture, Oxford

Ro Dickman

WildCRU, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford

The Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire OX13 5QL, U.K.

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 611100

Email: amy.dickman@zoo.ox.ac.uk Web: www.ruahacarnivoreproject.com

Donate (tax-free US donations): www.oxfordna.org/giving_how.htm

http://www.houstonzoo.org/lionssp/projects/ruaha-carnivore-project/

All other donations: www.giving.ox.ac.uk/academic_departments/mpls/wildcru.html