Assessment of biodiversity monitoring in Kululu Forest (Rungwa North Open Area) in 2021 and 2022

The ADAP teams of the Rungwa Corridor project under the supervision of the Land and Natural Officer, Mr. Matana Levi, and HEPIA master’s student Raimundo Pizarro (TAWIRI / COSTECH N°2021-456-NA-2021-143), carried out two annual systematic camera trap monitoring campaigns in Kululu Forest in 2021 and 2022. The monitoring with WCS aimed to establish a baseline on the fauna of this area, to measure future changes. We present the main findings of this monitoring below.

Context

The Kululu Reserve has been largely unmanaged for several years. The hunting company that operated the block ceased operations five years ago, and in the absence of an established community-based management system, the area can be characterized as an open-access area without management activities to limit illegal use. In such a context, and given the high human pressure, especially pastoral, we expected a community of medium and large mammals suffering and in decline. From an ecological point of view, the Kululu Reserve is one of the last two narrow corridors connecting the ecosystems of western Tanzania to the Ruaha – Rungwa complex in central Tanzania.

Species diversity

To our great surprise, the monitoring revealed a strong resilience of the large and medium mammal fauna, with 55 species detected over the two years of monitoring, including nine species on the IUCN red list. This is one of the most diverse areas sampled by ADAP.

Afrotherians: The group is represented by three species: the elephant, aardvark, and elephant shrew. The elephant is the only species of high conservation concern in this group. Monitoring confirmed the continued use of the corridor by elephants in their seasonal westward dispersal, consistent with WCS observations.

Carnivores: Large carnivore species were also detected, with lion appearing to be on the verge of local extinction (two detections in 2021, no detection in 2022), while wild dog, despite human pressure, appears to be still resident in the area as they were detected in both years. The situation of hyena and leopard is less worrying but also seems to suffer from the strong pressure of pastoralism, particularly for hyena, whose number of independent capture events has almost halved between 2021 and 2022. Medium and small carnivore species are well represented and still seem to be little impacted by the strong human presence. A small peculiarity is that the caracal was detected in both years, whereas it was not detected in the monitoring further west.

Herbivores: Among the large body mass species, the situation of buffalo and hippopotamus is concerning, with a limited number of catches reflecting sharply contracting populations. The situation of giraffe appears to be better, as well as that of most of the large antelope species that are still present, particularly Sable and roan, hartebeest, greater kudu, and to a lesser extent elk and topi. Medium-sized antelope, especially territorial males such as waterbuck and impala, were less detected than might be expected due to habitat. Their number appear to be shrinking under pressure from pastoralism and illegal hunting.

Suids are well represented with both warthogs and bushpigs detected in high numbers.

Finally, zebra is also doing well.

Primates: Only two species were detected, the baboon and the green monkey, whose situation does not seem to be of concern. Among the prosimians, we detected the small and large bushbabies.

Birds: The repeated detection of male and female ostriches over the last two years was surprising. There appears to be a viable population, despite the degree of human pressure.

Factors affecting species distribution and occupancy

Modeling confirmed that the presence of humans, especially livestock, is one of the main factors explaining variations in species distribution and occupancy. While for some species, such as the greater kudu, their presence remains strictly related to ecological factors (habitat, presence of water), for most species it is human activity that appears to be the main determining factor.

Conclusion

The Kululu forest corridor appears to remain functional for most species, particularly elephants. The status of wildlife populations is, however, a concern for several species, because of the strong pastoral presence and significant illegal hunting activities documented during the monitoring. It is essential to classify the site as a Participatory Forest Management (PFM) site and initiate monitoring to better protect this conservation area. The Village Game Scouts have been recruited, trained, and equipped thanks to the support of the ADAP and WCS projects and they are ready to work.