Rewilding Grasslands to Restore an Endangered Antelope
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Rewilding Grasslands
to Restore an
Endangered Antelope
Replanting grasslands is a novel
approach because ecological
restoration has mostly been
tried in forest ecosystems, not in
African rangelands.
W
hen Kenyan wildlife biologist
Abdullahi Ali won the 2020
Whitley Award, it was a boost
to his pioneering conservation
project to save the hirola (Beatragus hunter),
a critically endangered antelope species, from
extinction. occasional poaching and rinderpest in the
Ali was just one of six winners out of 100 1980s also contributed.
global applicants for the award. Born and Hirola are listed as critically endangered
raised in Garissa, as a teen a visit to the on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Maasai Mara National Reserve inspired Today, they occur only on a narrow strip
his vision to work with wildlife. He studied of land in Garissa County along the Kenya-
wildlife biology at the University of Nairobi Somali border, a fraction of their original
and has a PhD in Ecology from the University rangeland. Five individuals live in the
of Wyoming, USA. Ishaqbini Hirola Sanctuary of Garissa while
The 2020 award “was incredibly exciting a small population was translocated to
but also humbling as we still have a lot to do Tsavo East National Park in 1963 and 1996.
to ensure the full recovery of the species,” However, hirolas outside their natural habitat
said Ali, founder of the Hirola Conservation are thought to be declining in Tsavo.
Program (HCP). Every year, the UK-based Hirolas feed almost entirely on grass and
Whitley Fund for Nature supports grassroots the dwindling of grasslands coincide with
conservation leaders around the world the elephant poaching crisis in the 1970s and
championing effective conservation solutions 80s. “Because of the porousness of the Somali
with limited resources. border and the closeness to the Arabian
The light-brown hirola antelopes with Peninsula, all the elephants in that area,
distinctively long faces and lyre-shaped horns approximated to be 5,000, were eliminated,”
live in the semi-desert regions of Kenya and explained Ali.
Somalia. The name hirola is derived from Elephants maintain savannah grasslands
the Somali name ‘arwala’ and they are the by bringing down trees and opening up the
only living members of the genus Beatragus. vegetation. Says Ali, “once you eliminate
In the 1970s hirola numbers plummeted these large herbivores, nothing else will
from around 15,000 to less than 500 in do that.” Subsequently, much of the hirola
the wild, a decline of over 95 per cent. The habitat gradually changed from grasslands
crash was linked to habitat loss but livestock to woodlands. Ali adds that hirola are now
overgrazing, drought, predation by carnivores, a refugee species, “living in sub-optimal
JANUARY - MARCH 2021 | 33
BIODIVERSITY
Ali’s mission is to grow
hirola numbers by restoring
degraded habitats to
increase food availability
and boost “the survival rates
for calves to sub-adults to
adults giving birth.”
have brought in different cultural practices,
including hunting with snares.
Since 2016, HCP has been clearing excess
habitats and unable to access the full potential trees and planting new grass in experimental
of food they need for food, shelter or other fenced plots, sites chosen for their favourable
resources.” soils and other biotic conditions. The annual
This also affects the biological cycle of the replanting exercises are done in partnership
species with females calving at the wrong with local communities as part of capacity
time, while the closed habitats increase the building and applying home-grown solutions
risk of predation. Other grazing animals such compatible with local cultures. Says Ali, “It’s
as the Coastal topi, Desert warthogs, buffaloes also enhancing livestock productivity, and
and Beisa oryx have also declined over time. they get employment from this.”
Ali’s mission is to grow hirola numbers by Garissa is occupied by nomadic pastoral
restoring degraded habitats to increase food Somali communities. Proximity to the
availability and boost “the survival rates for Somalia border makes the area susceptible to
calves to sub-adults to adults giving birth.” banditry, while historic mistrust of outsiders
What started as a PhD project has grown into means conservation efforts are more likely
an organisation of 10 technical people and to succeed if fronted by an ethnic person. Estimated current
more than 30 community rangers working HCP’s community outreach extends to field population of
hirola with less
in anti-poaching and hirola protection. excursions for schoolchildren or making than 250 mature
Somalis generally do not hunt for bushmeat impromptu village visits to show conservation individuals.
but newcomers from other parts of Kenya works for everybody, including the elderly.
34 | JANUARY - MARCH 2021
BIODIVERSITY
“We are inspiring a multi-generational group this as a long-term project of at least 10 years.
to see the impact that we need in the long- They would also like to understand more of
term,” said Ali. antelopes’ physiological conditions and how
Research literature dating to the 1970s this highly degraded environment has affected
and indigenous community knowledge has them.
informed the choice of grass species for Now with financial support from the
rewilding. As the local soil seed bank had been Whitley Fund Award, HCP can work
decimated from overgrazing, native grass towards expanding rangeland rehabilitation,
seeds were obtained from Baringo County in strengthening conservation awareness in the
western Kenya. “Livestock eat the grass and local communities, enhance anti-poaching
young shoots so they don’t mature and drop work and re-establish the Arawale National
the seeds in the soil,” said Ali. Reserve of Garissa, once a hirola home range.
This semi-arid region has highly variable Restrictions on movement and social
weather and the rains failed in between 2016 gatherings in 2020 due to the Covid-19
and 2017, so grass seeds did not sprout. But pandemic curtailed much of HCP’s fieldwork
HCP did not give up and good rains since and community interactions. But Ali is
2018 have resulted in the successful growth of determined to continue with the replanting
new grass. Ali says that camera trap footage work because of the strong support he is
shows hirolas seem very interested in the new getting from pastoralists who have suffered
grass plots. He hopes to gradually improve from years of environmental degradation.
the soil’s seed bank so that natural pollination
and seeds dropping happens without human To learn more about HCP, visit: https://
intervention. www.hirolaconservation.org/
Replanting grasslands is a novel approach For more on the hirola see ‘Saving the Most
because ecological restoration has mostly Endangered Antelope in the World’ (Swara
been tried in forest ecosystems, not in African April-June 2020).
rangelands. Ali says his approach is “based on
evidence over the last three decades of how
the system was, how the species was doing KARI MUTU is an independent
writer for various newspapers and
and what we can do to reverse it.” Last year
magazines.
HCP extended replanting into wider areas of
the Garissa landscape and they plan to restore
1,000 hectares of wilderness. Ali envisions
JANUARY - MARCH 2021 | 35
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