- Omondi said the census will be carried out in Laikipia, Samburu and Meru June 25.
- He said once Laikipia, Samburu and Meru have been covered, the census will be 87 per cent done.
Scientists undertaking the first ever national wildlife census have expressed confidence that the exercise will be completed soon as major ecosystems have been covered.
“So far so good, we have covered Tsavo, Maasai Mara and Amboseli, which are the major ecosystems in the country,” Wildlife Research and Training Institute head Patrick Omondi told the Star on Tuesday.
Dr Omondi said the census will be carried out in Laikipia, Samburu and Meru June 25.
“We are now going up north where wildlife is mostly outside the protected area,” Omondi said.
Omondi said once Laikipia, Samburu and Meru have been covered, the census will be 87 per cent done.
The national wildlife census covering both land and aquatic wildlife was launched on May 7.
Tourism CS Najib Balala presided over the official launch of the drive at Shimba Hills National Reserve in Kwale county.
The two-month exercise is fully funded by the government and is being executed by the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, the Kenya Wildlife Service and the newly created Wildlife Research and Training Institute.
The Sh250 million drive will enable the country to have refined data on wildlife and find out where they are.
Balala recently said the country has 35,000 elephants, 1,600 rhinos, 100,000 giraffes, 2,400 lions and 2,000 Grevy zebras.
However, data on some wildlife such as cheetahs, leopards, spotted hyenas and the endangered pangolins is not available.
During the census drive in Amboseli, scientists carrying out the exercise found out that change in weather patterns has impacted wildlife behaviour.
Initially, the scientists were anticipating to find wildlife such as elephants outside the Amboseli National Park as the ongoing census ought to have been a dry season count.
"But because the rains were not enough, most wildlife was inside the park. That was an unusual finding," he said.
Amboseli National Park has about 2,000 elephants that the ecosystem cannot maintain.
The wildlife spends most of their time outside the park during the rainy season. This is because there is a lot of food and water outside the park where there are communities.
Omondi, who is the immediate former director of biodiversity, research and planning at KWS, said during the rainy season of March-April, Amboseli normally becomes a big lake.
He said wildlife during this time ought to have moved out to group ranches and other dispersal areas outside the park.
"But during this census, and because there was no rain, we found more wildlife inside Amboseli park including large herds of elephants.
"This is a new finding indicating there is some change in the weather pattern that has an impact on wildlife behaviour," Omondi said.
He said the finding is part of some of the interesting outcomes of the census.
This, he said, will inform the deployment of wildlife rangers in addressing human-wildlife conflict because authorities know where wildlife is.
Omondi said the final tally of the status and distribution of Kenya's species will be released together once the census is over.
However, some findings will be released to wildlife managers immediately.
"Like when we know the high concentration, we share GPS points with managers, we do not wait until the numbers are tallied. If we see, for example, there is any encroachment, maybe livestock is inside, we will inform the managers so that they can take action. There is some immediate reporting but the real answers will be after all the census is done," he said.
The exercise will count terrestrial, freshwater, marine mammals, key birds (ostrich and kori bastards), endangered primates (Tana Mangabey and Tana red colobus) and reptiles (crocodiles) in the 47 counties.
In 2020, Kenya marked a milestone in conservation by recording zero rhino deaths as a result of a collaborative multi-sector security approach in dealing with poaching.
KWS said the census will enhance conservation efforts by determining the exact numbers of wildlife, including the endangered species and their exact location.
Every three to five years the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife is required to provide information as outlined in the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, 2013 as well as the status of wildlife resources monitoring report.
These reports are supposed to be presented to Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary responsible for Wildlife Conservation and Management as stipulated in sections 49(4) and 64(3) of the Act.
Edited by Henry Makori