6 
Bulletin of (he FANHS 29(1-2) 
» carry out a small mammal study to investigate 
species diversity, negative health impacts and causes 
of fluctuations. This study will run concurrently 
with a study on raptors to investigate the classical 
predator-prey cycle syndrome which affects 
productivity and diversity of many species of 
raptors Other correlates such as rainfall, 
temperature, land-uses and impacts of grazing 
pressure will be incorporated. 
• evaluate raptor species diversity and density, 
autccological studies on a "flagship species" such 
as the Eastern Rile Chanting Goshawk— looking at 
impacts of different land use systems (as well as 
changing land- uses) on its ecology and behaviour, 
raptor banding program to study replacement rates, 
pesticide survey (based on blood and muscle tissue 
collected from raptors), and nest-scarchcs and 
monitoring 
The role of raptors in conserving the 
Nguruman area 
The Nguruman Project promises to be a highly focused 
vet multi-faceted conservation approach which employs 
raptors in an umbrella of protection and as instruments 
for understanding the environment The approach is 
rooted in partnerships with local organizations such as 
ICIPE. National Museums of Kenya, African Centre 
for Conservation, and the East Africa Natural History 
Society among others, with the staled goals of 
a) conserving biological diversity; b) building local 
capacity for conservation, and c) answering significant 
scientific questions which will aid in providing 
conservation and management recommendations for 
sustainable use of the area Research activities in the 
area will fall into two categories. I) single species 
studies, conducted in such a way that community-level 
questions can ultimately be addressed, and 2) baseline 
inventory and monitoring efforts. 
Training and education 
The Ngumman Project proposes to use the process of 
conducting research as a vehicle for training and 
education Local people with limited formal education 
but with considerable experience in the area will be 
trained in techniques for studying and monitoring 
woodlands, forests and bird communities, while lhc> 
participate in data collection, and. in some eases, 
project design, data analysis and interpretation This 
method has already proven successful in other areas 
such as Arabuko-Sokokc forest (David Ngalal and Lake 
Naivasha (Reuben Chege) where locally trained 
individuals are collecting vital data for long-term 
monitoring projects. Collaborating organisations receive 
the benefit not only of more experienced staff, bui 
community education, awareness, sensitivity and 
outreach 
Species-level studies 
Species-level studies will focus on population dynamics 
and ecological requirements such as prey preference, 
home range area, and population density of selected 
raptor species Single-species studies arc both short- 
term (two to five years) and long-term (more than five 
>t*ars) These studies provide the detailed biological 
knowledge that is needed for future management efforts 
and aids in interpreting data from ccnsusing and 
monitoring. About 60S of the raptors that breed in the 
East African tropics arc poorly understood in aspects 
of population dynamics, distribution, breeding biology 
and feeding ecology (Virani and Wiitson, in press ). 
Hence much of what we learn will be new and exciting 
to the scientific world Information from telemetry 
studies of density and home range provides estimates 
of habitat area required for sustainable populations and 
hence aids in designing sizes for reserves. A key feature 
of the single species studies is that they arc accomplished 
with sufficient standardisation of method so dial they 
can eventually be combined to yield a community- level 
approach (Burnham rial., 1992) 
Inventory and monitoring 
An important goal of the project is to establish a long- 
term ecological monitoring programme within the 
Nguruman area This part of the project projioscs to 
use repeated censusing of permanent 1 km- plots and 
of certain species groups to reveal possible ecological 
changes over time and to provide baseline comparisons 
between communities in different natural and modified 
habitals 
I labitats which will be compared arc various primary 
forest and woodland types along a topographic moisture 
and drainage gradient, as well as areas subjected to 
vauous human uses: indiscriminate logging of figs and 
other trees, large and small scale farms, foliage for 
livestock forage, and conversion of riverine forest to a 
mosaic of succession*! stages by slash and bum 
agriculture This segment of the proposed project 
includes refinement and comparison of census 
techniques described by TUrley (1989) and evaluated 
by Whitacrc and Tbrlcy ( 1990) While censusing efforts 
centre around raptors, several other bird groups and 
some mammals have been progressively incorporated 
into census protocols. Iinamous. cractds. doves, 
psiliacines, large woodpeckers, certain passerines, and 
primates Our goal is to include species that arc readily 
detected and identified and arc likely to provide useful 
conservation information. For example parrots are 
subject to direct human exploitation, while hornbills 
aud large woodpeckers may well prove sensitive to 
logging pressure 
Munir Virani 
Research Associate, National Museums of Kenya. Dept 
of Ornithology 
Rob Copeland 
Senior Research Scientist, International Centre for 
Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) 
