Kenya
Partners
Angaza Vijiji
Evarastus Obura (evarastus@angazavijiji.org)
Josephine Linet Ambaisi (ambaisilinet@angazavijiji.org)
Paul Webala (pwebala@mmarau.ac.ke)
...and many voluntary community helpers
For more information, see: www.angazavijiji.org
www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2Pxn3SdJ8WvjlrQWIB4Ig
Our work focuses on 4 colonies in Vihiga and Kisumu County as follows:
Mbale A and Mbale B: These are entirely peoples' farms and homesteads with mostly plantation vegetation, dominantly eucalyptus and cyprus trees. The landscape in this area is dotted with Eidolon feacal matter. Residents/ homeowners in these places simply hate bats because of what they explain to be nuisance animals who destroy their trees, crops, bad smell especially after it rains and noise.
Ilwanda: These are homesteads in the outskirts of mbale town dotted with plantation vegetation mostly eucalyptus, cyprus and mangoe trees.
Maseno Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI): This is a government institution dotted with plantation vegetation mostly eucalyptus, some ficus species and cyprus trees.
Challenges:
Majorly mythical hate for bats (negative perceptions) and lately association of bats with covid 19 pandemic.
Locations
Vihiga county
for Konjero se Ekonjero, between 15 - 18 km from monitoring sites
Mbale A
A section of roost trees at this site has been cut to drive the bats away end of 2021.
Mbale B
Ilwanda
A section of roost trees at this site has been cut to drive the bats away in August 2021.
Kisumu County
Maseno
Mbale, Ilwanda and Maseno combined
The roosts in Vihiga county are in only 20 km distance from Maseno, so we were also interested to see the seasonal patterns for the cumulative number of bats from the four roost sites:
