Natural sciences students taking the “Tropical Field Ecology” module returned from their walk on the wild side of Kenya over reading week. This annual trip through the Rift Valley region has been ongoing since 2013, coordinated by Professor Ian Donohue of the Zoology Department in conjunction with Reuben Ndolo. The East African Rift Valley is a 3,000 kilometre long volcanic trench that harbours an array of tropical ecosystems, both terrestrial (forests and grasslands) and aquatic (freshwater and saline lakes and wetlands) – a naturalist’s paradise. Over the course of 10 days, thirty students and five accompanying staff travelled between national parks, camping and dorming as they went.
During their ventures, the group saw creatures great and small – from elephants and lions to rhino beetles and millipedes. Seeing these spectacular creatures in their natural habitat was undoubtedly exciting, bringing academic theory to life. “I remember standing on a viewpoint over Lake Nakuru and the students were talking about the way the pelicans were rounding up fish,” recounts retired professor, John Rochford, “They were doing that encircling behaviour they had heard about in a lecture and were able to watch them doing it”.
However, animal spotting was not the only learning outcome of this trip. The students also got to witness conservation in action. “I knew that the animals were going to be really cool,” reflects Zoology student Louis Grelet, “but I was surprised by how interesting it was to learn about the conservation efforts and issues in Kenya. There is this balance between conservation of wildlife and looking after the growing population.”
East African countries including Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya are rising in economic power. The Rift Valley’s potential for geothermal power attracts foreign direct investment, particularly from China. Therein lies the challenge of maintaining Kenya’s natural ecosystems while also allowing for economic growth.
Exemplifying this conflict between conservation and economy is the geothermal power station located in Hell’s Gate National Park, adjacent to Lake Naivasha. The students had the chance to visit the station and speak with employees of Kenya Electricity Generating Company, better known as ‘KenGen’. Of the experience Professor Rochford muses, “You look at it and you see all these pipes and wells in a national park and think, ‘this is bad’, but at the same time, Kenya is aiming to be completely non-dependent on fossil fuels by 2050”.
While in Naivasha, the group also visited the Naivasha Raptor Centre for rescue and rehabilitation. Here, they spoke to handlers of impressive birds of prey such as Rüppel’s vultures. They also encountered the Marabou stork, famed for its 2.6 metre wingspan and considered one of the ‘Ugly Five’ animals of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The group’s next destination, Baringo, is an arid landscape – totally different to the lush green catchment area of Naivasha. Members of the Rehabilitation of Arid Environments (RAE) Charitable Trust spoke with the students on their work with the local community to rehabilitate the degraded grassland. Reclamation of the Baringo community lowlands is a source of pride and income for indigenous people, demonstrating the potential for positive interplay between ecological and economic enrichment. Nevertheless, Lake Baringo’s wildlife remains world-renowned. The bird watching mecca of East Africa, Baringo plays host to approximately 480 species. The group, therefore, had a fantastic time birdwatching and insect-hunting.
Next on the itinerary for the Trinity naturalists was Nakuru, Kenya’s youngest and fourth largest city. Nakuru’s recent designation not only as a city, but also as a UNESCO Creative City, signifies its positive progression. However, the Lake Nakuru catchment area faces significant challenges, with the national park suffering from rising water levels and human encroachment. “The lake is expanding and they can’t expand the park as it is smack bang up against the city,” explains Professor Rochford, “The buffalo overgraze in the park as they can’t disperse from there because of what’s around them”. On a more positive note, within a single hour of safari touring in Nakuru, the students were lucky enough to see four of the so-called ‘Big Five’: lions, leopard, rhinos, and African buffalo. The animals’ nickname originates from the difficulty to hunt on-foot and endures amongst tourists despite Kenya’s zero-hunting policy.
To see some elephants, the last member of the Big Five, the group headed to their final destination; the Masai Mara National Reserve. This is a highly protected conservancy named after the semi-nomadic pastoralist Maasai people of the area. Like all land in Kenya, the Mara is community-owned. The Maasai lease their lands to eco-safari operators and are often hired as wildlife trackers and rangers. The empowerment of tribes to manage land within the conservancy grants them political and financial autonomy. However, lack of communication between community conservancies can provide challenges for wildlife management. The Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), a Western NGO, deals with northern conservatories. There are concerns amongst Kenyans that the NRT’s management of pastoralist communities are a form of neo-colonialism, a power disparity highlighted by the Covid-19 crisis. Lack of tourists over three years meant that the state-run conservation body, Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), was strapped for funds. “They were running on a skeleton budget to try and keep going,” says Professor Rochford, “and the NRT was getting huge philanthropic donations from America and other places”.
Although the tourism industry is booming once again, the KWS’s reliance on tourism remains a concern. In conversation with a KWS representative, the students enquired on the steps taken to reduce pressure on parks from tourists. They were told that national parks try to make the cost of entry competitive, rather than directly restricting numbers.
Overall, the trip to Kenya was deemed a success by students and staff alike, during which the students thoroughly learned about Kenyan ecology, conservation and politics. For Zoology student Jessi Sohn it was “Definitely one of the biggest highlights from my time at Trinity”. Environmental sciences student Aoibhín Ní Bhróin spoke highly of her experience. “Being on a trip with such a big group of like-minded people who are all passionate about ecology in similar ways was magical,” she reminisces, “We had to keep field notes and work on our group projects but it really didn’t feel like work because the learning environment was so exciting”.
Plans for next year’s trip are already underway for current third year students. Students in Zoology, Environmental Science, and Botany are given a year’s notice so that they have sufficient time to plan and save for this optional module. Costs are kept to a minimum through savvy planning by staff but nonetheless constitute a significant expense. For most students, however, it was worth every penny.
