We were fortunate to benefit this year from the Wildlife Conservation Network’s (WCN) Cross-Partner Internship Program. Dr. Jim Sanderson from the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation came to Kenya in July 2014 for 10 days to help us out with our camera-trap monitoring methodology and analysis for Laisamis. A veteran in camera-trapping, Jim has written software for processing and analysing the images from camera trap data, making it a fast and efficient process and enabling accurate and timely results.
In Laisamis, we use camera traps to monitor Grevy’s zebra when they come to drink at the Laisamis River, the most important dry season water source in the region. Our aim is to capture the stripe pattern on their right flank as that information enables us to identify individuals, giving us both important population information, and informing us on the nature of how different Grevy’s zebra classes utilise this critical water source.
Jim and the team headed north and spent four days experimenting with the best placement for the cameras to maximise the capture of Grevy’s zebra stripe patterns. We then had a two-day training workshop during which the team learnt how to use Jim’s software to process and analyse the data set.
It was a unique context for Jim to work in with the diffuse human/livestock-wildlife interface of northern Kenya. He also learnt about our community conservation work and met some of our Grevy’s Zebra Warriors. Thanks to his visit, we now have an effective monitoring system in place for the current dry season, which will be replicated annually. We are extremely grateful to WCN for providing funding for this invaluable opportunity and look forward to future work with Jim as we continually improve our methodology and analysis.
