Hiking in the Hills of Taita

A journalist reports about the Taita hills and our work to conserve their endangered biodiversity:

https://rupitheafricantrotter.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/hiking-in-the-hills-of-taita/

Rie Jensen's MSc thesis on Taita apalis foraging

One of the possible causes of the steady decline of Taita apalis (it decreased by 50-70% in the last 15 years) is that some change in the availabilty of its preferred food might have occurred inside its tiny range.

Rie Jensen, a Danish student from Copenhagen University, visited the Taita hills during the 2016-2017 breeding season to study Taita apalis' foraging in different forest fragments. Rie's work was supervised by Professor Anders P. Tøttrup and by me.

Rie (second from left in the photo) has recently successfully defended her thesis, and is now working on publishing her results. Congratulations, we all look forward to reading the very intersting papers that she will publish!

One short synopsis of Rie's work can be found here

One step closer to extinction

Journalist Rupi Mangat tells about Taita apalis and how it is now one step closer ot extinction

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/434746-4312846-1iru85/index.html

Visit them before is too late...

An article on the Taita hills has just been published on the Saturday Magazine of the Daily Nation newspaper, and guess who is the bird in the photo?

Vanishing birds of the Taita hills

Our recent article one the birds of the Taita hills published on the webpage of the Society for Conservation Biology

Long time ago in Ethiopia...

A short piece that I wrote for the online newsletter of the Society of Conservation Biology.
It is quite long time ago now, but I still have vivid memories of my adventures in Ethiopia in search of Prince Ruspoli's turaco, for sure one of the most beautiful and charismatic birds of Africa, and one whose discovery is tied to the name of an Italian explorer who died in the earth of Africa at the end of the 19th century.

Critically Endangered Long-billed tailorbird stable or slightly increasing in its only stronghold

Since 2006, I have collaborated with Norbert Cordeiro and BirdLife Tanzania on an ambitious conservation project focusing on the many globally threatened birds of the East Usambara mountains, in Northern Tanzania. Here is the latest update on our work published on BirdLife international's webpage

Taita Critically Endangered birds project updates

Some updates on our Taita hills Critically Endangered Birds project activities on the webpage of the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund that has repeatedly funded our work.

The Taita Critically Endangered birds project is a collaborations between me, Dr Mwangi Githiru (BirdLife Species Guardian), and Nature Kenya (BirdLife in Kenya). Many persons are involved in the activities in the field, among which Lawrence Wagura and James Maina Gichiah

Nature Kenya launches appeal to save the Taita Apalis from extinction

Prompted by the results of our research, Nature Kenya, one of oldest environmentalist organizations as well as the BirdLife partner in Kenya, has launched an appeal to save Taita apalis. Let's hope that the appeal will meet with success, because Taita apalis is really on the brink of extinction.
While we wait to see the results of NAture Kenya's appeal, our field research continues, to try and understand why Taita apalis has decreased by more than 60% in just ten years: its global population might not be less than 200 individuals!


LINK TO NATURE KENYA'S APPEAL

Race is on to save the rare Taita Apalis

Taita apalis featured in a recent newspaper article by journalist Rupi Mangat, who summarizes the latest research findings from our work and the initiatives to try and save this unique bird from extinction.

Here is the link to Rupi's article