Ostriches are abundunt in this dry part of kenya, North Eastern province(NEP) with mainly the somali Ostich race. They are present in almost all the districts but little effort has been directed to its commercial exploitation as an alterntive to pastoralism. Local communities here attach alot of Nutritutional and medicinal value to ostrich meat and its products. I have come a cross many isolated ostrich populations in the region which can become perfect ostrich farms.

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Dear freinds.
This post is just to bring to your attention how an introduced ailien species known as prosopis Juliflora is rapidly colonsing the sanctuary and it is environs replacing indiginous acacias and other forage plants for the giraffes and the gerenuks. we have tried a number of measures such as harvesting it for firewood and cleaaring, but this seems still not effective. The plant originally from south america was introduced in kenya in early 80s just to increase green cover in arid and semi arid areas of kenya. It is now becoming a serious problem blocking water corridors and supressing all kind of indiginous vegtations. Your ideas and opinions on control measures of this plants will be of great importance.

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Imagine sighting one of the most endangered animals in Kenya in this remote corner of the country. i encountered this rare animals in Ijara ( southern part of Garissa district now given district status). We took this pictures recently while we were taken round a visiting professor from Germany. Wild dogs are critically endangered in the conservation world and are hard to come by.Dear friends I must say thank you for all those who supported us towards getting the computer for the sanctuary. I would like to say thank you to Susan M, Pirjo I, Inaga G, Willam H and Antonio C for their contribution towards this special appeal.

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WILDLIFE LIVESTOCK IN PERFECT CO EXISTANCE IN GIRAFFE SANCTUARY

The Garissa Community Giraffe sanctuary (GCGS) falls within an immediate sub urban environment of Garissa Town. The local community consists of the Bor-Algi community of a predominately pastoral Somali clan and the Malakoti who are hunter- gatherers settled along the Tana River. The livelihood activities for these communities include hunting, charcoal burning, livestock rearing & trade, Quarrying/ Sand harvesting, fuel wood sales , building poles harvesting, Poaching among others.
With more than 3000 households surrounding the sanctuary with their traditional livestock, a perfect culture of co existance and tolerance is emerging with communities appreciating the wildlife. This is attributed to several environmental education programs that we have organized for these communities and this has really reduced the friction between communities, their livetsock and the wildlife in the area. The long term impact of this interaction is not yet visible, however, we are worried that it may in future lead to intense competition resulting to conflicts in the area. Other than giraffes we also have other wildlife species such as Gerenuk, Lesser Kudu, Cheetah, Hippopotamus, Guinea fowls & other birds, Common Zebra, Warthog, Ostrich- Somali race, Hyena, Lions among others.

We are very grateful to the county council of Garissa for setting aside this land to conserve the existing wildlife and habitat diversity in this unique area which is a potential ecotourism hotspot. However, there is no development plan in place to direct settlement and safe guard the existing ecological diversity.
Finally I would like to say thank you for the following Pirjo,Dana,pirgo and dr. antonio for their kind donation we received from them towards the purchase of the much needed computer. I once again would like to appeal for more donations of this special request. Lack of this computer is actually slowing our blogging efforts as we are still relying on distance cyber cafe to share information as we stated in our earlier post. Kindly assist us in securing this computer. I once again say thank you for all those who contributed towards this appeal.
Abdullahi Hussein.

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It is a sad moment for the giraffe sanctuary community since we lost a mature female giraffe to poachers last week. The poor animal was speared on the underbelly but did not die immediately and ran away with serious injuries.Sadly the giraffe succumbed to the injuries later and was found dead by the sanctuary’s scouts during one of their regular patrols.

Poaching has been known to be rampant along watering routes and corridors during the dry season.We have reported the matter to the District Kenya Wildlife Service Representatives who are currently following up the issue. I would like also to say thank you for our dedicated scouts for the formidable job they are doing in saving the giraffes.
Finally I would like to acknowledge the kind donation of USD 50 from Kathy.S which will assist greatly in our monitoring efforts.

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