Track: Ecology, Conservation, and Archaeology
Determining Migratory Patterns of Large Mammals in the Amboseli Ecosystem and Their Relationship with Water Sources
Dr. David WesternMs Lucy Chege
The Amboseli ecosystem is in a semiarid savanna environment in which water availability is highly seasonal, receiving less than 350 mm of rainfall annually. Data collected since 1975 show that large mammals in this area exhibit seasonal movements by dispersing in the wet season and concentrating in the Amboseli basin during the dry season, and this can be related to the seasonality of rainfall and water availability. There are three widely recognized categories of large mammal communities based on the patterns of seasonal movements, and these are (1) migratory, (2) dispersal, and (3) resident. Traditional subsistence pastoralists who keep large livestock herds also largely populate this area. They subsist almost entirely on the products of their domestic stock and locate their settlements at an average of about 8 km from water. Livestock are taken to water on alternate days. This undoubtedly provides more competition to the wildlife for the limited water sources. This seasonal movement of wildlife provides challenges for its conservation as wildlife areas become economically more valuable and additional livestock production threatens to sever the seasonal migrations. Our aim is to use GIS to understand dynamics of the migrating herds, their relationship with water resources, the habitat selectivity patterns, the extent of the dispersal area, and interaction with the pastoralist communities. Management implications and recommendations will be discussed.
Dr. David Western
Kenya Wildlife Service
P.O.BOX 62844
Nairobi,
KENYA
Telephone: 254-2-501763
Fax: 254-2-224569
E-mail: kws@users.africaonline.co.ke