Karura Forest - A Visitors' Guide

KARURA FOREST – A VISITORS’ GUIDE

KARURA FOREST – A Visitors’ Guide

RYAN DALY, 1st Prize, Karura Photo Competition 2017

DEDICATION This guidebook is dedicated to the memory of Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), who in 1999 led the campaign that saved Karura Forest and who was also the inaugural Honorary Patron of the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association.

A publication of the FRIENDS OF KARURA Community Forest Association

Presented in association with the KENYA FOREST SERVICE

Contents WELCOME

First published in 2019 by the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association Karura Forest House – Gate A, Karura Forest Reserve, Limuru Road, P O Box 63402 – 00619 NAIROBI, Kenya E-mail: info@karurafriends.org Website: www.friendsofkarura.org ISBN 978-9966-134-19-6

Text: Copyright © Friends of Karura Community Forest Association 2019 Photographs: Copyright © Harvey Croze / Friends of Karura Community

Forest Association 2019 (unless otherwise attributed) Artwork: Copyright © Friends of Karura Community Forest Association 2019 Maps: Copyright © Friends of Karura Community Forest Association 2019 Mapping data sources: Kenya Forest Service / Google Earth / ArcGIS / FKF field surveys All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written consent of the publisher.

INTRODUCTION: The green heart of Nairobi FACTFILE ADVISORY: Useful information for visitors

Printed by: KulGraphics Limited, P O Box 18095, 00500 – NAIROBI, Kenya

Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this guidebook is accurate in all respects. The Friends of Karura Community Forest Association cannot be held accountable for consequences arising from use of this information.

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PART ONE: THE STORY OF KARURA HISTORY:

The isolation of Karura Karura’s dark decades Enter: Wangari Maathai A new dawn for Karura

14 16 18 20

RECOVERY:

The rehabilitation effort The people’s forest

22 26

FINDINGS:

The pre-history of Karura

31

MAP OF THE KARURA FOREST RESERVE

34

PART TWO: THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA THE FLORA:

Contributing writer and editor: Gordon Boy, Narrative Resources Design: Job Ballard, Wit Design Coordination: Harvey Croze, Chantal Mariotte

5

The vegetation

37

THE FAUNA: Invertebrates

Reptiles and amphibians Birds Mammals

Return of the guereza colobus

45 50 53 59 65

ABOUT THE FRIENDS OF KARURA

68

Front cover: Swollen Karura River waterfall, laden with red soil after heavy rains upstream.

Visitors’ Guide // 3

KARIBUNI

Welcome!

T

EN years have passed since the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association (FKF) came into being. The mission it embarked upon in 2009 was to work in partnership with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) in transforming Nairobi’s Karura Forest Reserve from a neglected ‘no-go’ area frequented by criminals and equated with apprehension and dread into a safe and well-managed expanse of recreational urban green space, accessible to all – now and in the future.

It has been an eventful first ten years.

In this time, strong working partnerships have been forged with reserve-adjacent local communities and interest groups, with agencies of national and county government, with the Kenyan corporate sector, and with various non-governmental organisations. The resulting collaborative effort amounts to one of the finest examples of successful participatory forest management Kenya has ever seen.

The results speak for themselves. Karura is today one of Nairobi’s most popular and cherished recreational attractions, welcoming on average nearly 40,000 paying visitors a month – up from none at all in 2009.

Most of these visitors are Kenyans living in Nairobi.

For everyone, whether resident in Nairobi or passing through, Karura is an oasis of tranquillity in an otherwise noisy, overcrowded cityscape. It is a place in which to unwind, or where you can jog, walk, or cycle on safe, well-maintained trails amid scenic natural surroundings rich in biodiversity.

And it is a place where schoolchildren and students can learn about a priceless natural

heritage that elsewhere in Nairobi has all but disappeared.

Karura’s ongoing reforestation programme, meanwhile, has seen the extent of the reserve’s indigenous forest cover increase to about 45% – up from just 25 % in 2009.

This has been achieved through rigorous tree-planting in areas cleared of exotic plantation trees and invasive alien shrubs. The eventual aim is to see Karura restored to a fully functioning natural ecosystem complete with an entirely indigenous flora.

And yet, while much has been achieved over the first ten years, there is still a lot of work to be done. As part of the ongoing campaign, FKF is marking its tenth anniversary with the publication of this splendid guidebook – designed to give the people of Nairobi and visitors from elsewhere in Kenya and around the world an insight into why Karura Forest is so important, while revealing its fascinating history and showcasing its amazing biological diversity.

It is my great privilege, on behalf of the KFS, to be introducing a publication that I believe will enrich the experience that lies in store for you and for Karura Forest’s other visitors, while paving the way for wider public participation in the continuing restoration effort. With your help and involvement, it will be possible to build further on our shared knowledge and understanding of this fabulous place.

Welcome to Karura Forest!

Julius Kamau Chief Conservator of Forests Kenya Forest Service Visitors’ Guide // 5

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6 // KARURA FOREST

The green heart of Nairobi

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HE 1,041-hectare Karura Forest Reserve is the heart and lungs of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. As one of only a few forests in the world that is located entirely within the precincts of a major city, it gives the people of Nairobi and their visitors a much-needed refuge and escape from the stresses of daily urban life.

Already home to some five-million people, Nairobi is one of the fastest-growing cities on the planet. By 2030, it is expected to become a mega-city – a metropolis, that is, with more than 10-million inhabitants.

And by 2050 the city’s population is expected to surpass 20-million. The continued health and well-being of people in Nairobi will depend increasingly on ensuring that the city’s few surviving forest remnants are preserved as well-managed and productive ecosystems.

Such ecosystems play a crucial role in stabilising a city’s climate and hydrology. As water catchments, they store rainfall, maintaining and helping to purify river flows while replenishing the water table. Through evapotranspiration they return moisture to Visitors’ Guide // 7

INTRODUCTION

FACTFILE Location The Karura Forest Reserve encompasses 1,041.3 hectares of gently undulating terrain in the northern reaches of the Nairobi metropolitan area, about six kilometres from the city’s central business district. About 135 km south of the Equator, the reserve comprises two main blocks separated by that section of Limuru Road linking the Nairobi suburbs of Muthaiga and Gigiri.

The larger block, located between Limuru Road and Kiambu Road to the east, covers an area of about 710 hectares. The Sigiria salient, to the west of Limuru Road, covers about 250 ha. A third, outlying portion of the reserve takes the form of a narrow 80-ha strip to the east of Kiambu Road.

8 // KARURA FOREST

Forest Sanctuary (covering about 500 hectares), and in Ololua Forest (about 250 ha), as well as in City Park (60 ha) and the Nairobi Arboretum (30 ha).

Nestled in Nairobi’s northern suburbs, barely six kilometres from the city’s central business district, Karura is an island of tranquillity in a broiling sea of urban development and sprawl. It is a place where city residents and visitors can walk, or jog, or cycle freely along secure and well-maintained trails amid scenic and stimulating forest surroundings rich in natural biodiversity.

Attractions include a 20-metre waterfall,

© FRIENDS OF KARURA FOREST

the atmosphere, helping to generate localised rainfall, while at the same time acting as thermo-regulators. And as carbon sinks, they soak up pollutants and replenish atmospheric oxygen. All these ecological services are fundamental prerequisites for any process of sustainable urban development and growth.

For a rapidly expanding city like Nairobi, healthy and well-managed urban forest ecosystems also have a vital role to play in providing areas of recreational green space, in preserving and safeguarding a priceless natural heritage, and in nurturing peace of mind among people now and in the future.

The Karura Forest Reserve is today Nairobi’s largest and most accessible expanse of forest. Other, smaller forest remnants are to be found in the northern sector of the Nairobi National Park, in the Ngong Road

The reserve’s maximum extent, west to east, is six kilometres. North to south, the reserve is nowhere more than 2.8 km wide.

The main entrance gate into the central block of the reserve is off Limuru Road, diagonally opposite the Belgian Embassy and not far from the Muthaiga Shopping Centre.

There are four other entrance gates – two leading into the central block of the reserve, and two for the smaller Sigiria block. These points of entry are described in the Advisory (following pages) and are also shown on the map (on pp. 34–35).

Altitude Altitudes in the reserve range from 1,640

two prehistoric caves, a small waterlily-covered lake cradled within an old abandoned quarry, birdlife-rich wetlands, and five perennial rock-lined streams, all tributaries of the Nairobi River. In places the forest is pristine. Monkeys forage in the canopy, while bushbuck, duikers, and suni antelopes can be seen browsing in the dappled shadows on the forest floor. On leafy pathways in the forest and in grassy glades there is a continual flicker of passing butterflies.

As a priceless living remnant of a natural and cultural heritage that elsewhere in Nairobi has all but disappeared, Karura is an important educational resource for local schools and colleges. The forest has become a magnet, not only for school parties, but also for members of the public keen to learn about the flora and fauna and the ecology of the indigenous upland dry forest that

historically extended over much of greater Nairobi – and well beyond.

Recreational amenities in the reserve include five picnic sites; three venues for holding fairs, weddings, and other social events; tennis courts; a football pitch; an obstacle course, and a world-class café. Now one of Nairobi’s most cherished recreational sites, Karura attracts nearly 40,000 visitors each month. Of these visitors, the overwhelming majority are Kenyans who live and work in the city – and their families.

Yet, despite its many vital functions and its obvious public appeal today, it is a wonder and a blessing that the Karura Forest Reserve has survived. This Visitors’ Guide tells the story of how, against all the odds, Karura has endured – and of how, over the past ten years, the forest has been given a new lease of life.

metres to 1,740 metres (5,381–5,709 feet) above sea level. The altitude of the Nairobi City Centre is 1,690 metres (roughly 5,545 feet).

rain falls during the long rains. Rainfall patterns are erratic, however, and in some years less than 500 mm (19.5 inches) of rainfall may be recorded.

Rivers and streams Five perennial tributaries of the Nairobi River either pass through or border on the reserve.

All flow roughly west to east. These are the Ruaka in the north, the Karura, the Thigiri, the Gitathuru, and the Mathare, delineating part of the southern border of the Sigiria salient (see map).

Temperature Mean daily maximum and minimum temperatures are 25˚C and 13˚C. Even during the warmest months (February and March) maximum temperatures seldom rise above 27˚C. Over the December–March dry season, the warmest period, Karura may receive as many as ten hours of sunshine daily. In the coolest months (July and August), when skies are typically cloudy and overcast, the sun may shine for no more than two or three hours a day, usually in the late afternoons.

The sun rises at about 6:30 a.m. daily and sets at about 6:45 p.m., with only slight variations year-round.

Rainfall Karura’s average annual rainfall is 1,000 mm (39 inches). In normal years there are two rainy seasons – one (the ‘long rains’) peaking in April and another (the ‘short rains’) peaking in November. Usually most

Visitors’ Guide // 9

ADVISORY

Useful information for visitors Opening hours The Karura Forest Reserve is open to visitors daily between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. all year round.

Access You can gain access to the reserve via any one of five entrance gates. These are shown on the map on pp. 34–35. The Main Gate (A) is off Limuru Road – diagonally opposite the Belgian Embassy, no more than about 800 metres from the Muthaiga Shopping Centre roundabout.

The central block of the reserve can also be accessed from Kiambu Road via Sharks Gate (C), named after the nyama choma (barbecue) establishment on the opposite side of the road. For pedestrian access only, there is a third gate (D) at the end of the ICRAF driveway off United Nations Avenue.

This leads to the Karura Forest Environment Education Trust (KFEET) centre.

10 // KARURA FOREST

The Sigiria sector of the reserve can be accessed from the west via the Sigiria Gate (F) at the end of Thigiri Lane, off Thigiri Ridge Road in the suburb of New Muthaiga. There is also pedestrian access via the ‘Belgian Gate’ (E) off Limuru Road, near the Belgian Embassy, opposite the driveway leading up to the Main Gate (A).

An entry fee is payable at all gates. Parking is available at the Main Gate, at Sharks Gate, and at the Sigiria Gate, as well as at the KFEET centre and at the Amani Garden events venue. There is a modest fee for parking. Bicycles can be hired at KFEET and at the Sharks and Sigiria gates. Guides too are available, but their services should be booked in advance.

At the Main Gate you can purchase an A3 fold-out map showing all the trails on which you may wish to walk, jog, or cycle, while highlighting features of special interest. The offices of both the Friends of Karura

Community Forest Association (FKF) and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) Karura Station Manager can be found alongside the Main Gate – in Karura Forest House.

Fees Details relating to entry fees, parking fees, event fees, and other charges are posted on the FKF website – www.friendsofkarura.org Picnic sites There are five designated picnic sites in the reserve. Picnics can be enjoyed only at these sites, which are marked on the map (pp. 34–35).

Dining The River Café adjacent to the reserve’s Amani Garden events area serves up worldclass cuisine.

Washrooms There are ten sets of public toilets in the reserve. All are marked on the map (pp.

34–35).

Dogs Dogs brought into the reserve must at all times be kept under control. Only in three designated areas (see map) can dogs be off-leash.

Eco-responsibility Do not litter. Take your rubbish out with you, or use the litter bins provided. Karura is a plastics-free zone. No disposable plastic containers or bags are to be bought into the reserve. Do not remove any naturally occurring object – vegetable, animal, or mineral.

Do not attempt to feed any wild animal. Be sure to make as little noise as possible. And do not harass or disturb Karura’s wildlife.

Hotlines Telephone numbers that you may find useful in the event of an emergency are as follows: FKF Chief Scout – 0728 606 449, FKF Team Leader – 0728 501 333, FKF Infrastructure Coordinator – 0721 112 607, and KFS Forest Station Manager (Karura) – 0728 501 944.

Visitors’ Guide // 11

PART ONE

THE STORY OF KARURA

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

H

ISTORICALLY, Karura formed part of the southern fringe of a vast unbroken swathe of upland dry forest that extended northward around both the Aberdare Mountains and Mount Kenya. Until the 18th Century much of this great forest was the exclusive domain of aboriginal hunter-gatherers.

Fragmentation of this ‘super-forest’ began with the dispersal in the 18th Century of Kikuyu cultivators who had first settled in the Murang’a area, along tributaries of the Tana River, early in the 17th Century.

In moving southward, the Kikuyu settlers cleared tracts of forest acquired from the aboriginal Ogiek groups, whom they called Athi (‘Hunters’), in order to grow crops.

By the 1880s, when the first Europeans arrived, large areas of the forest north of Kiambu had been replaced by farmlands.

Many of the Athi people, having given up their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, had adopted the language and the customs of their powerful and prosperous new neighbours.

Around the southern edges of their territory, the Kikuyu were careful to maintain a buffer zone of forest between themselves and the Maasai pastoralists and other potential foes on the adjacent open plains.

This amounted to the preservation of a wide forest belt extending all the way from the Rift Valley escarpment in the west to the high country north and east of Kiambu.

Karura is one of the few surviving fragments of this once-continuous forest belt. While preserved primarily as part of a protective shield, it doubled as a sacred burial ground, a venue for important ritual 14 // KARURA FOREST

c­ eremonies, and as a source of herbal remedies and other forest products.

The status of forest land protected under traditional Kikuyu law and custom meant nothing to the British Colonial Administration of the early 1900s. Karura and other tracts of forest in Kikuyuland and elsewhere were promptly annexed as sources of fuelwood and timber for the Uganda Railway, the ‘Lunatic Line’ that in 1899 had reached Nairobi, then just a makeshift rail-head settlement on the edge of the nearby Athi Plains.

In 1902, as white settlers were beginning to stream in, the Colonial Administration started carving out residential areas from virgin forest north of the Nairobi River.

The suburb known today as Parklands, then a part of the greater Karura Forest, was among the first areas to be “zoned” in this way. Soon afterwards, in 1903–1905, the Homestead and Karura Farms, in what is now the suburb of Muthaiga, were carved out of the forest, amid efforts to secure a ready supply of meat, dairy products, and fresh produce for European settlers in then-British East Africa.

Quarries established in grassy areas of shallow soil within the forest provided grey-stone bricks for the construction of suburban homesteads. One of these quarries is today the site of Karura’s Lily Lake.

These developments greatly reduced the extent of the forest. In Parklands today, the only surviving fragment of greater Karura is City Park – a 60-hectare wedge of largely degraded habitat separated from its mother forest by acres of impenetrable suburban housing.

WINTERTON ARCHIVE / NW UNIVERSITY, EVANSTON, USA

The isolation of Karura

By 1907, most Kikuyu farmlands north of Karura had been annexed for white settlement. Appropriation of this land met with little resistance, as the Kikuyu were then reeling from an epidemic of smallpox, one of many alien plagues that arrived with the European settlers. Many died, while others fled, creating the impression that the land had been abandoned and so was up for grabs. Alienation of these farmlands kindled the resentment that would culminate in the Mau Mau Uprising of the 1950s.

The colonial Forest Department, meanwhile, established in 1902, had wasted no time in depleting what remained of Karura Forest in order to meet the spiralling timber needs of the fledgling Protectorate.

Ever larger tracts of indigenous forest were replaced with monospecific plantations of fast-growing exotic timber trees such as Eucalyptus, Araucaria (monkey-puzzle trees), cypresses, and pines.

Postcard from circa 1920 showing northern Nairobi forest then contiguous with Karura but soon to be cleared for settlement.

By 1932, when the Karura Forest Reserve was gazetted, trees and shrubs of indigenous species accounted for no more than about one-quarter of the vegetation within the reserve’s nominal 1,041.3-hectare area. What dispersal corridors remained for wildlife were limited to strips of riparian forest alongside streams entering or leaving the forest and to patches of tree-cover found in surrounding private gardens.

Such corridors, while permitting the free movement of birds and of smaller mammals, were no longer adequate conduits for dispersal and genetic exchange among Karura’s larger mammals, which were marooned as a result – on what for them had become an ecological island.

Visitors’ Guide // 15

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

Karura’s dark decades

I

T seems nothing short of miraculous, looking back, that the Karura Forest Reserve still exists, given the pressures it faced during the latter half of the 20th Century.

Neglected and forgotten, Karura degenerated over this period into a ‘no-go’ zone frequented by thieves, poaching gangs, and other ne’er-do-wells.

The Kenya Forest Department, the agency responsible for managing Karura, was powerless to intervene. Under-staffed and poorly funded, the department and its needs ranked low among the priorities of the country’s Colonial Administration of the 1940s and 1950s. Britain was then otherwise preoccupied, first with bankrolling the military campaigns of World War II,

Chimney-stack of the incinerator once used for burning decommissioned currency notes.

16 // KARURA FOREST

and then with putting down the Mau Mau Uprising.

The department’s ‘closed forests’ policy of keeping people out of government reserves was not only deeply unpopular; it was also unenforceable. Reliant on funding from a cash-strapped central government preoccupied with timber production and plantation forestry, the department had lost its way. Yet it was this same flawed model that the Government of independent Kenya chose to adopt after 1963.

By the mid-1980s, forest reserves all over Kenya were in crisis. Many were too dangerous to visit, having been infiltrated by gangs of loggers, charcoal makers, firewood collectors, and bush-meat hunters. Ravaged by these illegal activities, some reserves had become so degraded that would-be land-grabbers were openly calling for them, wholly or in part, to be de-gazetted.

The Karura Forest Reserve was no exception. It provided the cover under which gangs of criminals mounted raids on up-market suburban homes, meeting afterwards at hiding places in the forest to divide up their spoils. The bodies of murder victims were disposed of in the forest, which was a dumping ground too for household garbage and for industrial waste from garages and building sites. There was a clandestine chang’aa (illegal liquor) distillery beside today’s Lily Lake. And a religious sect had commandeered the Mau-Mau caves alongside the Karura River.

A ramshackle chimney-stack near Karura’s eastern edge provided the wherewithal for one of the most bizarre operations that was then being conducted in the forest. This

i­ncongruous structure belonged to the Central Bank of Kenya and it formed part of the incinerator apparatus that was used for the burning, under armed escort, of decommissioned currency notes.

Poaching gangs supplying Nairobi’s wood-carving cottage industries meanwhile continued to chop down the forest’s prized Muhugu (Brachylaena) trees. Thugs lurked in the shadows in the hope of ambushing and robbing unsuspecting passers-by. Even Karura’s Chief Forester was mugged while on one of his patrols. The few intrepid Nairobi residents who were still brave enough to enter the forest to walk their dogs would carry a side-arm or some other weapon, even a golf club, as a precaution against attack.

Members of the public, while happy to visit Karura’s still-excellent tree-nursery in order to buy seedlings, stayed away from the forest proper. This played into the hands of unscrupulous property developers who with the complicity of corrupt government

Lily Lake is nestled in an old grey-stone quarry that provided the bricks for the building of early suburban homesteads.

o­ fficials conspired to hive off parcels of the forest.

By the late 1980s, more than 240 hectares (about 23 %) of the forest had been demarcated into choice plots for residential housing in anticipation of a de-gazettement order. Then, between 1994 and 1998, further de-gazettements were proposed. Almost one-third of the forest had now been allocated secretly to developers.

Protests from incensed Nairobi residents led to a temporary halt in these plans. But then, in September 1998, the developers moved in. The Forest Department received a quit notice. And the clearing of the forest began.

At this point the Karura Forest Reserve appeared to be doomed …

Visitors’ Guide // 17

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

T

HE battle for Karura came to a head in January 1999. Angry demonstrators, including some Kenyan opposition MPs, stormed the bulldozing sites of property developers who had started clearing the northern parts of the forest. Violence broke out and several of the protestors were injured.

Some of the earth-moving machinery was damaged beyond repair.

A tense stand-off followed between security guards and a protest movement now growing by the day. Under mounting public pressure, the government produced a list of the companies that had been allocated land in the forest. None of the companies named could be found in the records of the country’s Registrar-General, however. So the identities of the powerful figures behind the land-grab remained obscure.

It was at this point that Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, famously entered the fray. Already well known the world over for her great courage and commitment in fighting environmental causes, Maathai was one of the few Kenyans brave enough to stand up to the machinations of powerful figures in the government of then-President Daniel arap Moi who were using gazetted forest reserves as patronage resources to reward those who enabled them to stay in office.

Almost nine years earlier, in November 1989, Maathai had been instrumental in stopping a land-grab in central Nairobi’s iconic Uhuru Park. There, the Moi government was planning to build a 60-storey edifice to be known as the Kenya Times Media Trust Complex. Although beaten repeatedly, Maathai succeeded in turning 18 // KARURA FOREST

© NATION MEDIA GROUP

Enter: Wangari Maathai

the tide of public opinion against this vanity project, which was scrapped in January 1990. Her tree-planting crusade became a powerful symbol of resistance in Kenya to dictatorial one-party rule.

In January 1999 a women’s group led by Maathai came under attack while planting trees along the northern edge of Karura as part of a peaceful demonstration against the continuing excision of the forest. Set upon and savagely beaten by a large group of security guards, several of the women suffered serious injuries. Maathai herself, bleeding from a head wound, was rushed to hospital.

This was the turning point in the battle to save Karura Forest. The attacks on Maathai and on the other women galvanised opposition within Kenya and around the world to the illegal allocations of forest land. Other demonstrations followed. The Kenya Police were sent in to disperse the

protestors. Hordes of angry students took to the streets. And the University of Nairobi was closed.

The Moi government nevertheless continued to rail against the “misguided” protestors. But soon the momentum was unstoppable. Further brutal government clampdowns were condemned in the international news media and by the United Nations and other global agencies. Under a barrage of opposition, the government reluctantly backed down. The developers melted away.

The title deeds were not immediately revoked however, sparking fears of another assault on the forest. Such fears began to recede only after Kenya’s General Election of 2002 when a united opposition under Mwai Kibaki defeated Moi’s KANU party.

Maathai was appointed Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in

Karura’s saviour: Wangari Maathai (above) with schoolchildren. Facing page: Leading one of her 1999 protests against would-be land-grabbers (top); briefing forest scouts in March 2011.

the new government, which in 2003 started annulling irregular allocations of public land approved during the Moi era. Only much later though, in 2017, would the ill-gotten Karura title deeds finally be revoked.

This victory for the people ranks among the proudest moments in Kenya’s recent history. For her “outstanding contributions to sustainable development, democracy, and peace”, Wangari Maathai was in 2004 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in 2011, aged 71. The Karura Forest Reserve is her greatest living legacy. And this guidebook is dedicated to her memory.

Visitors’ Guide // 19

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

A new dawn for Karura

F

OREST management in Kenya received a much-needed boost with the introduction in 2005 of sweeping policy changes under a new Kenya Forests Act. A newly constituted authority, the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), was mandated with implementing the new policies, replacing the outmoded and discredited Kenya Forest Department.

The new Act incorporated safeguards against irregular de-gazettements of forest land. Policy aims were redefined, placing the emphasis on conserving forests as water catchments, as providers of ecosystem services, and as havens of biodiversity, as well as for their role in stabilising climate through evapotranspiration and carbon storage and sequestration.

At a time when forest cover in Kenya had reportedly fallen below the threshold of 2.5 % of national land area that is seen as critical to maintaining a stable climate and providing for water security, the change of

The opening in May 2009 of Karura’s first Family Trail attracted hundreds of enthusiastic participants.

20 // KARURA FOREST

emphasis was long overdue. It replaced earlier, extractive priorities that had revolved largely around timber production and plantation forestry.

Significantly, the new Act recognised the need for participatory management involving forest-adjacent local communities, which were encouraged to form Community Forest Associations (CFAs). This was a radical departure from previous “hands-off” policies that had pitted local stakeholders against the government authority.

The Act also recognised the crucial role of collaborative public/private-sector partnerships involving the corporate sector, local businesses, and non-governmental organisations. Again, this was a radical break with the past, opening up access to supplementary funding, while also creating new revenue streams. This would give the Forest Service an unprecedented degree of self-sufficiency in no longer having to depend wholly on

Suni family group

disbursements from squeezed central government coffers.

All this was good news for Karura Forest. Once the new measures had come into effect, the Residents’ Associations of Karura’s forest-adjacent Nairobi suburbs, notably Muthaiga, Gigiri, and Runda, wasted no time in preparing to form a Community Forest Association.

To this end, a CFA working committee was established and a series of stakeholder meetings and workshops was held. The communities of less affluent forest-adjacent suburbs such as Huruma Village, to the north of Karura, were involved in the consultative process. With the KFS, a joint management plan for the forest was drawn up, incorporating recommendations from all parties.

Other ideas, such as the establishment of an education centre, were explored in association with the Green Belt Movement, the United Nations Environment Programme, and various other agencies, both private and in government. Wangari Maathai agreed to

Reduced mammal numbers owing to bush-meat poaching had forced Karura’s apex predator, the Crowned Eagle (above), to move elsewhere.

serve as honorary patron of the new Karura CFA. A series of events was organised to publicise the new management plan. A ‘Family Trail’ was opened to the public, generating extensive media coverage and so helping to raise public awareness. Hundreds of people participated in this event, along with government officials and dignitaries, celebrities, and members of the diplomatic corps, all of whom walked the length of the new trail.

Nairobi residents and stakeholders turned out in force to express their support for the plan.

On 1 October 2009 the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association was registered, setting in train what would go on to become one of the most successful community-based participatory forest management programmes ever seen in Kenya.

Visitors’ Guide // 21

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

The rehabilitation effort

T

HE Friends of Karura Community Forest Association (FKF), on being formed in October 2009, wasted no time in joining forces with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) in tackling the daunting challenge of rehabilitating Karura and of transforming the forest into a popular and self-sustaining recreational amenity.

The ultimate objective of the rehabilitation effort was to see Karura restored to a functioning natural ecosystem complete with an entirely indigenous flora. Before work on this could begin however, it was necessary to secure the forest and to develop the basic infrastructure needed in order to attract paying visitors.

No public funding was to be forthcoming; so the immediate priority lay in finding private-sector donors to finance all essential security and infrastructure developments

identified in an initial five-year joint-management plan formulated for Karura under the KFS’s Strategic Five-Year Plan (2010– 2015).

The first and most urgent step was that of ensuring that the forest’s entire perimeter was fenced. The next step was to introduce a system of vigorous security patrolling on all Karura’s forest tracks and trails.

Sections of the 20-km perimeter of the main Karura forest block were protected already by fence-lines or walls on adjacent residential properties. So, only about 15 km of new fencing were required. Here, East African Breweries Limited provided the funding for construction and maintenance of a 2.1-metre (seven-foot), 14-strand electric fence around the unsecured verges.

This donation set a very helpful precedent: Most subsequent developments in

Karura would be undertaken with CSR (corporate social responsibility) donations from Kenyan companies, organisations, and individuals. The success of the initial fencing project was such that other donors were quick to step in and to finance the fencing of unsecured perimeter sections of the smaller Sigiria forest block.

Further donor support, meanwhile, led to the recruitment and training of an initial cohort of 24 forest scouts from Huruma Village. After undergoing two months of intensive training with the British Army Training Unit in Kenya, the scouts were deployed in the forest to supplement the On parade: Forest scouts, drawn mainly from adjacent communities (left) are put through their paces by KFS officers. Top: Enrichment planting of indigenous trees on land cleared of plantation exotics.

22 // KARURA FOREST

patrolling regimens of Karura’s small contingent of armed KFS rangers.

Attention could now turn to the development of an infrastructure to cater for the needs of visitors, who had started coming to the forest in ever greater numbers. With additional donor funding, urgently needed facilities, including gates and gate-houses, public toilets, and parking areas, were hastily constructed. Existing forest tracks and trails were improved. Maintenance activities were scaled up. Foot-bridges were built.

Signposts and route-markers were erected.

Rubbish bins were installed. And litter collectors were mobilized.

Other developments were to follow hard upon. Shell Kenya (now Vivo Energy) agreed in 2010 to convert the old sports club it had been leasing near the forest’s edge into a centre of learning dedicated to promoting environmental education and awareness. The resulting centre, known as Visitors’ Guide // 23

REHABILITATION

the Karura Forest Environment Education Trust (KFEET), is a joint-venture partnership involving Vivo, KFS, FKF, the Green Belt Movement, and the Oshwal community in Kenya.

KFEET’s four hectares of sports fields and recreational facilities would go on to be used for the hosting of society events generating revenue for the conservation of Karura Forest.

All these infrastructural improvements very soon paid dividends: Within one year, Karura was receiving more than 7,500 paying visitors a month. And by 2011 the forest was financially self-sufficient in terms of being able to cover all recurrent management expenditure.

Work on rehabilitating the forest itself could now begin in earnest. A massive tree-planting and reforestation campaign Reclamation: Indigenous re-planting after the removal of infestations of Lantana and other invasive alien shrubs (facing page).

24 // KARURA FOREST

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

was launched with the eventual aim of expanding Karura’s natural forest cover and of replacing old plantation stands of cypresses, monkey-puzzle trees, and eucalypts with trees and shrubs of indigenous species. This would prove an extremely tall order in that exotics had in 2009 occupied nearly 75 % of the Forest Reserve.

Most of the exotic plantation trees were more than 50 years old and had started succumbing to age-related drying. Removal of some of the older stands began in 2011 under a phased KFS-run logging programme following standard tendering procedures and regulations. Logged sites then had to be prepared for re-planting with native trees.

This was a labour-intensive, time-consuming, and costly process involving the manual removal of stumps and surface debris.

The other major challenge lay in a continuing battle, under way since 2011, to rid the forest of vast, choking infestations of invasive alien plants, notably Lantana camara and Caesalpinia decapetala (‘Mauritius thorn’). Enrichment planting, in areas cleared of invasive plants, with indigenous tree-seedlings has allowed ever more space to be reclaimed by natural vegetation.

The regeneration of the forest would create employment opportunities, both permanent and casual, for hundreds of people from Karura’s poorer forest-adjacent communities, which were also providing the security scouts and the maintenance crews responsible for keeping the forest safe and its 50 kilometres of tracks and trails in good order.

By 2016, when a second five-year KFS/ FKF management plan (for 2016–2020) came into effect, the momentum of Karura Forest’s rehabilitation and recovery had ­become unstoppable …

Visitors’ Guide // 25

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

Karura – the people’s forest

C

OME 2019 and the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association (FKF), a transformed Karura had earned itself a place among Nairobi’s most popular and best-loved recreational attractions. Nearly 40,000 people were now visiting the forest every month, of whom more than 70 % were Kenyans.

TripAdvisor, the on-line ratings’ platform for travellers, had seen fit to rank the forest among the top three destinations for visitors to the city.

Rehabilitation of the natural forest had remained the primary focus under the second five-year Kenya Forest Service (KFS)/ FKF strategic management plan for Karura, embarked upon in 2016. By October 2019, the extent of Karura’s indigenous vegetation cover had increased to roughly 45 % – up from 25 % in 2009.

This was accomplished through rigorous tree-planting and through reforestation of areas cleared of plantation exotics and invasive alien shrubs. Restoration of Karura’s natural forest will remain a core management priority for many years to come.

Regeneration of the natural forest will continue to create jobs for hundreds of people from Karura’s poorer forest-adjacent communities. By October 2019, no fewer than 85 people had taken up permanent posts under the KFS/FKF management programme. Scores of others, many of them women, were benefiting from casual contracts – as tree-planters and tree-carers, or in keeping the forest and its perimeter fencelines free of encroaching weeds.

All told, the communities were now earning in excess of KSh 1.5-million (the equivalent of about US$ 15,000) a month from forest-related employment – all paid for with closely audited funds from gate-takings, event fees, and tree-planting donations. The children of forest workers were benefiting moreover from an FKF-run bursary scheme.

Local perceptions of the forest had been radically transformed. No longer equated with danger and dread, Karura was now a valued source of jobs and livelihoods. It had become the people’s forest.

Karura’s infrastructure had meanwhile continued to be improved and upgraded. Durable metal foot-bridges were Administrative hub: Offices of the Friends of Karura and of the KFS management team.

26 // KARURA FOREST

Prime location: The Amani Garden events area – ideal for holding private functions.

c­onstructed. And new flush washrooms were built. Parking areas were expanded. Picnic sites were designated. And new monkey-proof rubbish bins were installed.

Access to electricity and to running water was extended to all forest gates. A robust digital revenue collection system was also introduced.

Human resources too were expanded to meet the burgeoning administrative needs of keeping Karura clean and secure for its monthly influx of close to 40,000 visitors, while overseeing the logistics of proliferating new projects and fund-raising events.

As a seat for managing the forest, a modern new office-block was in 2018 built alongside Karura’s main Limuru-Road entrance gate. The building was financed entirely with revenue generated by the forest.

Whereas the emphasis in Karura’s first five-year strategic management plan (of 2010–2015) had been on securing the forest and developing a service infrastructure for visitors, the accent in the second five-

year strategic plan (2016–2020) was on research and on use of the forest as an educational resource.

To this end, several joint-venture projects were undertaken. In one project, genetic selection studies for docility and yield in honeybees were conducted by scientists from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE). In collaboration with FKF, the ICIPE team then rolled out a series of raining workshops in cottage honey production for people from Karura’s forest-adjacent communities.

At the same time, scientific inventories of the forest’s flora and fauna were being compiled. By 2019, plants of more than 560 species had been listed as occurring in Karura Forest. The list of birds, meanwhile, under compilation with the help of Nature Kenya, ran to some 230 species. Both lists are growing month after month as additional species are recorded.

Since 2013, remote camera traps have been deployed amid efforts to record the Visitors’ Guide // 27

PEOPLE’S FOREST

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA LUCY NJOKA

forest’s larger mammals and to ascertain their movements and relative abundance.

To date, these cameras have produced images and video of mammals of more than 20 species – ranging from Giant Pouched Rats to African Civets and Bush Pigs.

The pictures have revealed, among other things, a little-known type of antelope behaviour that has come to be known as ‘growsing’, whereby selective browsers – including Bushbuck, Harvey’s Red Duikers, and Suni antelopes – habitually ‘graze’ on the forest floor, on fallen canopy leaves. Evidently, this is an important feeding strategy among forest antelopes.

The most ambitious FKF project undertaken to date has been the re-introduction to Karura, after an absence spanning many decades, of the Mount Kenya Guereza, Colobus guereza kikuyuensis (separate article, pp. 64–67). In all, 122 of these arboreal primates were re-introduced between 2014 and 2016 in a translocation project that was 28 // KARURA FOREST

co-funded by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW).

The translocated animals soon adapted to their new home, where they have been breeding well and where the loud, croaking pre-dawn calls of the males can again be heard reverberating through the forest. The ecology and behaviour of Karura’s guerezas have been the subject of several field studies undertaken by university students and training institutions. More than 40 guereza births have so far been recorded in the forest.

The re-introduction of the guerezas coincided with a return to the forest of Crowned Eagles, which prey on monkeys and small antelopes. One pair of these powerful eagles re-occupied an old nest abandoned in the early 1990s. The returnee eagles too have been the subject of post-graduate study. The return of these apex predators has been reassuring in providing welcome evidence of recovery in the Karura ecosystem.

Other FKF-sponsored research projects have included archaeological digs in the ‘Mau-Mau’ caves flanking the Karura River. Pre-historic artefacts unearthed during these excavations have shed new light on human habitation in the forest during the Middle Stone Age of between 300,000 and 40,000 years ago (following article).

Concurrent palynology (pollen) studies showed how the vegetation of Karura has changed over the past 500 years from open or lightly wooded grassland frequented primarily by grazing animals to an upland dry forest inhabited by browsers. Extensive wetlands were found to have been another prominent feature of the Karura landscape in centuries gone by.

Research initiatives instigated by FKF have greatly enhanced our knowledge of the Karura ecosystem and its flora and fauna, past and present, as well as its cultural significance down the ages. Other studies have examined Karura’s role in carbon sequestra-

Environmental education and awareness: The KFEET Centre (facing page) is a magnet for visiting school parties (above).

tion and in purifying water flows. Invasive alien plant species and their management has been another subject of intensive study.

The focus on environmental education has ensured that many tens of thousands of schoolchildren are now visiting Karura each year on guided natural history outings laid on as part of their science tuition.

Outreach and inclusiveness have been identified as areas of special focus in the third KFS/FKF management plan (2020– 2024) for Karura, This guidebook, while marking FKF’s tenth anniversary, is expected to play its part in encouraging broader public participation in the effort to understand and to appreciate Karura – the people’s forest.

Visitors’ Guide // 29

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

The pre-history of Karura

T

Heritage site: The larger of two caves near Karura Falls (top) has yielded fascinating insights into Karura’s cultural pre-history.

30 // KARURA FOREST

WO enigmatic caves are of particular interest to people visiting Karura Forest today. Facing each other from opposite banks of the Karura River valley, these caves – like many others in south-central Kenya – go by the name of ‘Mau-Mau’ caves: a reference to their presumed use as hiding places and staging posts by Mau Mau freedom fighters during Kenya’s struggle for independence in the 1950s.

Considered by some to be sacred, the Karura caves have also been used in recent times as places of worship by adherents of at least one home-grown religious sect.

Human occupation of the caves, however, far from being restricted to modern times, goes back over many tens of thousands of years. This was first suggested by a cache of pre-historic stone tools, including points, backed-blades, and burins, that palaeontologist Dr Louis Leakey collected in the caves in 1939. Potsherds and ostrich-egg shell fragments of much more recent provenance were among other artefacts collected at the time.

It was not clear from which cave Dr Leakey had collected these materials, however, as his study, interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, was never finished. Some archaeological research was carried out in the caves in the 1970s, but again no findings were ever published. So, come 2010, there was still no comprehensive record of human habitation in the Karura caves.

It was at this point that, in a bid to plug the gap, the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association (FKF) contracted the Archaeology Section of the National Museums of Kenya to make thorough excavations in

both caves. Archaeologists from the British Institute in Eastern Africa also participated in the exercise, which was completed in 2011.

The excavation trenches and pits yielded 1,280 stone artefacts, 696 pottery sherds, and 261 bone fragments or teeth. Charcoal samples were taken for radiocarbon-dating purposes. Pollen samples were also taken for analysis, amid efforts to reconstruct the contemporary make-up of Karura’s vegetation at different stages in the past.

The oldest of the stone tools are obsidian points, used as sharp tips on hunting weapons. Some of these are believed to have been left behind between 150,000 and 40,000 years ago by Middle-StoneAge hunter-gatherers. Some may have been used earlier still – and possibly even before the evolution in Africa of modern humans, Homo sapiens, about 200,000 years ago.

Most of the stone artefacts are obsidian backed-blades – flaked stone knives with one edge blunted so as to fit neatly into the palm of the hand without cutting the fingers. Other obsidian tools include hammer-stones, scrapers, burins (chisel-like tools for splitting bones or stripping hides), and crescents. Most of the tools date from the Neolithic or Late Stone Age of between 40,000 and 3,000 years ago. The oldest radiocarbon-dated artefact was 4,370 years old. Other tools – made from quartz-trachyte, basalt, and chalcedony – were also unearthed.

Obsidian, a form of dark volcanic glass, does not occur naturally in the area. It has been established that all of the obsidian found at Karura was sourced from around Visitors’ Guide // 31

PRE-HISTORY

Naivasha in the central Great Rift Valley, more than 100 km away. This is indicative of how, during the Late Stone Age, roving groups of hunter-gatherers were covering considerable distances and may also have been trading with one another.

Pottery, both pre-historic and modern, was unearthed. The oldest potsherds are in the distinctive Narosura style of the southern Cushitic pastoralists who first occupied Kenya’s central Rift Valley about 3,000 years ago. Cord-rouletted pottery of the kind made by the Nilotic pastoralists who came much later, in the 18th Century, was also found, along with channeled pottery of similarly recent Kikuyu origin.

The presence in the caves of the bones of domestic livestock animals – cattle, goats, and sheep – suggests that pastoralist groups, besides trading their wares with the hunter-gatherers, may also have made use of the Karura caves. Over the past 30,000 years, human occupation of the caves appears to have been continuous.

Most of the bones and teeth found in the caves are those of wild animals, including bush pigs, roan antelopes, reedbuck, duikers, and dikdiks. While bush pigs and duikers still occur in Karura Forest today, the presence, among the quarry of the hunter-gatherers, of roan antelopes, reedbuck, and dikdiks suggests that the habitat has changed markedly over the past 3,000 years.

This is borne out by the findings of the palynology (pollen analyses), which revealed that, until about 500 years ago, much of Karura’s vegetation was open or lightly wooded grassland and that extensive wetlands were also prevalent. The transition to upland dry forest, then, has been a comparatively recent development – in response to a changing climate.

32 // KARURA FOREST

PART ONE // THE STORY OF KARURA

‘Old Man of the Forest’: This huge Manilkara tree stands outside the cave’s entrance.

Excavations in progress (above). Obsidian backed-blade (facing page). Below: Faunal remains in the shape of bone fragments and teeth (left); potsherds.

Visitors’ Guide // 33

LEGEND

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‘Sharks’ Gate

FKF

Visitor Vehicle Access

‘Belgian’ Gate

Dogs Off-leash Areas

36 32

Parking

Ru ug aka u 30 Wan Ri Tra gar iM aat 29 hai Waterfall Tra ck 26 Mau-Mau Caves 41a

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Huruma Village 35

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Offices of FKF/CFA & KFS Forester Karura

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34 // KARURA FOREST

Visitors’ Guide // 35

The vegetation

T PART TWO

THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

36 // KARURA FOREST

HE Karura Forest Reserve holds within its boundaries one of only a few surviving tracts of the upland dry forest that until as recently as 100 years ago covered much of the greater Nairobi area. Historically, Nairobi’s conjoined forests formed the southernmost reaches of a vast ‘super-forest’ that extended northward around both the Aberdare Mountains and Mount Kenya.

Today, no more than 4,500 hectares – less than 1 % – of Nairobi’s indigenous forest remain. Karura’s, then, like other tiny, isolated fragments of this habitat, offers tantalising insights into the nature and make-up of a forest that elsewhere has all but disappeared. Karura Forest may in this sense be thought of as a living museum.

At no time has the vegetation of Karura consisted entirely of upland dry forest. In some parts of the reserve, the soils overlying the bedrock are shallow and cannot support deep-rooting trees and shrubs. In such areas, open grassland, marshes, and wetlands – both permanent and seasonal – have always been prevalent. In the vleis, impeded drainage has allowed more clayey soils to accumulate, sustaining a distinctive edaphic vegetation.

In 2009 indigenous forest covered only about 260 hectares or one-quarter of the Karura Forest Reserve. Since then, an additional 215 hectares, cleared of plantation exotics and invasive alien shrubs, have been re-planted with trees and shrubs of native species, increasing the extent of the reserve’s indigenous forest cover to nearly 475 hectares – or to roughly 45 %.

This recovery is the result of an ongoing reforestation programme managed by

the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association (FKF) in conjunction with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). In the mature indigenous forest, FKF has labelled many of the trees, making it easy for visitors to identify typical forest species.

Dominant among Karura’s taller native trees are Croton megalocarpus, known locally as Mukinduri, and Brachylaena huillensis, also known as ‘Silver Oak’ or Muhugu. The Crotons – elegant trees often more than 20 metres tall with flattish, spreading crowns and layered silvery foliage – are conspicuous in forming the canopy.

Their abundant fruits, pale woody capsules, are prized by doves and other forest birds and by squirrels. Browsing mammals eat the fallen fruits.

Brachylaenas are slow-growing trees with pale-barked, often dividing trunks.

Their steeply ascending branches, bearing grey-green foliage, terminate in narrow, irregular crowns, up to 15 metres off the ground. Their wood is highly prized among woodcarvers, with the result that the species is threatened over much of its range. Many of Karura’s larger trees were poached during the 1980s.

Another common forest tree is Elaeodendron buchananii or Mutanga. As the larval food plant of the Ermine ‘Tent’ Moth, the trunks and branches of some trees are festooned after rain with the protective webs woven by these caterpillars. Use of the bark in traditional medicine has resulted in the mutilation of some of Karura’s Elaeodendron trees. The small oval fruits, yellow when ripe, are eaten by many invertebrates, birds, and mammals.

Visitors’ Guide // 37

FLORA

‘Cape Chestnuts’, Calodendrum capense, known locally as Murarachi, are very striking forest trees up to 20 metres tall with shapely, spreading crowns. They are conspicuous when flowering, having exquisite pink and pink-white blooms. Markhamia lutea, or Muu, is another tall forest tree that produces showy flowers – bright yellow and trumpet-shaped. The fruits are long, thin, twisted capsules that trail like brown streamers after splitting open to release their winged seeds.

One of the taller trees in the forest is the ‘Pillarwood’, Cassipourea malosana, known locally as Musaisi. The smooth greyish trunks of older trees may rise sheer for 15 metres or more before branching. Trees of a related species, Cassipourea rotundiThe bark of some of the forest’s Warburgia or Muthiga trees (example below) has been removed for use in traditional medicines.

PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

folia, also occur, but these are seldom more than 10 metres tall and so form part of the under-storey.

Huge ‘African Greenhearts’, Warburgia ugandensis, are among Karura’s other taller trees, rising to 20 metres, although old trees growing beside streams are taller. It is from Muthiga, the local name for these trees, that the adjacent Nairobi suburb of Muthaiga gets its name. In Kikuyu, muthiga means medicine – a reference to traditional use of the bark for treating a wide variety of common ailments. Many of Nairobi’s surviving Warburgias have been mutilated as a result.

The leaves, peppery-hot in taste, are among the larval food-plants of the Noble Swallowtail, one of Karura’s emblematic butterflies.

Less common large canopy-forming trees include the ‘Natal Mahogany’, Trichilia emetica, known locally as Mururi; the ‘African Pencil Cedar’, Juniperus procera (Mutarakwa), and the ‘African Cherry’ or ‘Red Stinkwood’, Prunus africana (Muiri).

Brachylaena huillensis

38 // KARURA FOREST

Trichilias have dense crowns of glossy, dark green leaves. Their sweet-scented creamy-green flowers attract bees and sunbirds, which feed on the nectar. Monkeys eat the flowers. The round fruit capsules split on maturing to reveal large seeds almost wholly enveloped in a lurid orange-red coating known as an aril. Hornbills and other birds strip away the arils, which are poisonous, and eat the black seeds embedded within.

Karura’s tallest trees are found beside streams. Here, giant trees of two species in particular stand out. One is the ‘Forest Milkberry’, Manilkara discolor, known locally as Mugambwa, and the other is the ‘Forest Newtonia’, Newtonia buchananii or Mukui.

The forest’s most iconic single tree is the towering Manilkara growing outside the larger of Karura’s Mau Mau caves. Over 30 metres tall, this tree (pictured on page

Fish-eye vista: Gap in the forest canopy in the Karura River valley.

32) has become famous as the ‘Old Man of the Forest’. Manilkara trees produce fleshy oval fruits, yellow when ripe, that are highly prized by frugivorous birds and by fruit bats and Kolb’s Monkeys.

Some of Karura’s older Newtonias, shapely, soaring trees with buttressed trunks, are no less impressive. Newtonias grow only near water. They have flattish crowns and spreading, storeyed layers of foliage. The leaves boast many pairs of small, feathery green-yellow leaflets. The roots of the trees help to anchor river-bank soils.

Prominent among other taller trees in the valleys are two deciduous species: the ‘Cape Ash’, Ekebergia capensis, or Mununga, and Albizia gummifera (Mukuruwe).

Visitors’ Guide // 39

FLORA

Towering Mukuyu Figs, Ficus sur, with buttressed trunks, line Karura’s rivers. Along with figs of another species – the Mugumo ‘Strangler Fig’, F. thonningii – they provide plentiful fruit for resident mammals and frugivorous birds. The fruiting trees attract birds of wandering species, including flocks of Violet-backed Starlings and African Green Pigeons.

Forest trees of the Karura under-storey include the Olive, Olea europaea cuspidata, known locally as Mutumaiyu; the Teclea, Vepris simplicifolia (Munderendu); the ‘Arrow Poison Tree’, Acokanthera schimperi (Murichu); the Ebony, Diospyros abyssinica (Muirosi), and the ‘Red Bitterberry’, Strychnos henningsii (Muteta).

Also prominent in the under-storey is the ‘Forest Iron-plum’, Drypetes gerrardii (Munyenye), which has drooping foliage and whose tiny berries, orange-red when ripe, are prized by monkeys and frugivorous birds. The ‘Forest Peach’, Rawsonia

PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

lucida (Mutendera), has mottled grey bark, peeling in strips to reveal the orange-pink under-bark.

Conspicuous at times is the ‘Forest Craibia’, Craibia brownii (Mukubu), an under-storey tree often with a knobbly trunk that produces copious sprays of fragrant mauve-tinged white flowers. Common on the forest margins is the ‘Wing-leaved Wooden Pear’, Schrebera alata (Mutoma), whose small ‘woody’ fruit capsules, shaped like miniature pears, persist on the trees long after splitting open to shed their gossamer-winged seeds.

The ‘Knobwood’, Zanthoxylum usambarense (Muguchua), is also common in the under-storey. These small trees, often multi-stemmed and straggling, are easily The ripe fruits of Maytenus undata (left) and Vepris simplicifolia (top) are prized by monkeys and frugivorous birds alike.

40 // KARURA FOREST

recognised from their vertically furrowed trunks covered with spine-tipped woody bosses. Harvesting of the bark for use in traditional medicines has resulted in the mutilation of some Zanthoxylum trees.

Prominent under-shrubs in the forest include Chaetacme aristata (Maiyuyu), a thorny scrambler; Strychnos usambarensis (Mutikani); Ehretia cymosa (Murembu), often covered in sprays of white flowers and which produces clusters of small edible fruits, bright orange when ripe; and Erythrococca bongensis (Muhuruanguare), which forms scrambling, prickly thickets. In places, the climbing woody coils of the Liana, Hippocratea africana, form looping, knotted tangles.

Common shrubs of the forest margins include Searsia (formerly Rhus) natalensis, known locally as Muthigitu, a species easily recognised from its distinctive trifoliate leaves, and Grewia similis, or Muduruduru, which bears attractive mauve-blue flowers.

The fragrant bright yellow flowers of Ochna ovata are especially attractive to bees.

Both these shrubs bear small edible fruits, prized by frugivorous birds and by browsing mammals, which also eat the foliage.

Another shrub of the forest margins is Ochna ovata, or Mungarima, which produces fragrant yellow flowers. The new leaves have a striking russet hue. The fruits, black when ripe, are eaten by birds and browsing mammals alike.

Two small forest under-shrubs, Croton alienus (Musenia) and Psydrax (formerly Canthium) keniensis (‘Wild Coffee’, or Mubiru-wathi), both endemic to Kenya, and both eliminated from much of their former range, live on in Karura Forest – as does Uvariodendron anisatum, a rare endemic shrub classified as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Visitors’ Guide // 41

FLORA

42 // KARURA FOREST

Erythrina abyssinica

Rangaeris Comet Orchid

Cordia africana

Vernonia brachycalyx

Gloriosa superba

Scadoxus multiflorus

‘Papyrus Sedges’, Cyperus spp., flourish in Karura’s wetlands. All have brush-like whorls of leaves at the tips of their flower stems. The white flower-heads of Cyperus circumclusus are usually prominent after rain.

On Karura’s Lily Lake, water plants of two species are prominent. One is the familiar ‘Blue Water Lily’, Nymphaea nouchali.

The other, which has similar leaf-pads, but whose flowers are white and very much smaller, is the ‘Floating Heart’, Nymphoides brevipedicellata.

Grewia similis

NATALIE BLAKE

Some of the flowers of these aromatic, aniseed-scented shrubs arise directly from the woody stems.

Northern parts of the main Karura forest block, traversed by the Tara Trail north of the Ruaka River, are noticeably drier than other parts of the reserve. Here, succulent plants, including Aloes of various species and trees such as Euphorbia candelabrum (Muthuri), come into their own.

Much of Karura’s canopy is open enough to admit some sunlight, which means that in places grasses can occupy the herb layer on the forest floor. The most widespread of these grasses are Oplismenus burmannii, short and wavy-leaved, and the ‘Guinea Grass’, Megathyrsus (formerly Panicum) maximum, which forms tall clumps after rain, providing cover for smaller mammals, while producing the seeds on which many birds and rodents feed.

The ‘Water Grass’, Schoenoxiphium lehmannii, is common both in the forest and around Karura’s marshes and wetlands.

Also common now, as a pioneer species in areas cleared of invasive alien plants and re-planted with indigenous tree-seedlings, is the ‘Natal Rose Grass’, Melinis repens.

Native to southern Africa, this naturalised species has a feathery pink inflorescence.

Bulrushes of the genus Typha form thick stands in Karura’s marshes. The tall rushes provide nesting sites for many birds, including the Grosbeak Weaver, whose exquisite nests are woven from the split rush fibres. A Typha stand’s close-set, upright stems arise from a single massive underlying rhizome.

Over time, Typha can transform open water into covered marshland. Typha rhizomes die back at intervals, many years apart, allowing sedges and other wetland plants to re-establish themselves.

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Craterostigma Violet

Visitors’ Guide // 43

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Invertebrates

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TIM NICKLIN

THE FAUNA

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HE Karura Forest Reserve is home to invertebrates of more species than all of its other animals and all its plants combined.

Here, as in other forest ecosystems, invertebrates may account for as much as 80 % of all species of fauna and flora.

Most of the invertebrates are insects.

Other arthropods include spiders, crustaceans (freshwater crabs and wood-lice), and millipedes. Terrestrial molluscs – snails and slugs – are also represented, as are earthworms, which are annelids.

Invertebrates fulfil a number of vital ecological functions. Many recycle nutrients and enrich soils by eating and digesting plants or by breaking down deadwood, leaf-litter, and other organic matter, including the dung and carcasses of other animals.

The replenished nutrients are crucial in providing the basis for renewal in a forest.

Some invertebrates – certain insects primarily – pollinate flowers, so enabling plants to produce seeds and fruits. Some, as predators or parasites, keep populations of other invertebrates in check, ensuring that a healthy and productive ecological balance is maintained.

As prey, invertebrates form an essential link in the food chain, providing nourishment both for one another and for amphibians and reptiles, as well as for birds and mammals of many species.

Invertebrates permeate every stratum – from the soils underfoot to the topmost reaches of the canopy, and from the beds of streams and water bodies to the inmost dark recesses of crevices in or beneath rocks.

Without invertebrates, the ecosystem as a whole would be unable to function.

Conspicuous among Karura’s invertebrate fauna are many striking butterflies.

These colourful insects are most active on warm, sunny afternoons, when the large swallowtails in particular may catch the eye.

High-flying Noble Swallowtails, Papilio nobilis, with ochre-tipped golden-yellow wings, are often seen visiting flowers at the forest’s edge. Caterpillars of this species feed on the leaves of the Muthiga (‘African Greenheart’) trees from which the suburb of Muthaiga takes its name.

The Green-banded Swallowtail, Papilio phorcas, and the Narrow Blue-banded Swallowtail, P. nireus, which has metallic blue inner-wing bands, are common beside forest streams where they join butterflies of other species to sip salts in mud-puddling aggregations. The caterpillars of both feed on the leaves of Vepris and of other trees and shrubs in the Citrus family Rutaceae.

The African Mocker Swallowtail, P. dardanus, also known as the ‘Flying Handkerchief ’, is another eye-catching species.

The males, sporting creamy-white wings with black edgings, weave their way over clearings in the forest. Females mimic unpalatable butterflies such as the African Monarch, Danaus chrysippus, in order to deceive would-be predators. The Regal Swallowtail, P. rex, Kenya’s largest butterfly, may be seen sailing majestically overhead in the canopy.

Emperor butterflies may be seen darting jerkily between the under-canopy and the forest floor, where they gather to sip from fermenting fallen fruit or from animal excrement. Karura’s most common Emperor is the Green-veined Charaxes, Charaxes Visitors’ Guide // 45

INVERTEBRATES

candiope. Other Emperors though – including the Pearl Charaxes, C. varanes, and the Blue-spotted Charaxes, C. Cithaeron – are also present.

Another very striking butterfly, the Forest Mother-of-pearl, Salamis parhassus, may be seen floating over glades or mud-puddling in stream-side wallows with butterflies of other species. The pearly, glinting wings of these butterflies, seen from different angles and in different lights, reveal a range of subtle sheens – from pale metallic green to shimmering rosé.

Other common forest butterflies include the Layman, Amauris albimaculata, a species with dark, white-spotted fore-wings and yellow inner hind-wings that may be seen floating languidly over forest paths.

The shaded forest floor is the domain of Banded Evening Browns, Gnophodes betsimena, cryptic butterflies that sit stock-still on the leaf-litter, wings folded, resembling fallen leaves – flying only when absolutely necessary, to avoid being trampled on.

Honeybee visiting Blue Water Lily flower

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Seasonally abundant on Karura’s rivers and streams are butterflies of two striking species with bright orange inner-wings and fine black wing-markings. These are the Common Leopard Fritillary, Phalanta phalantha, and the larger Eastern Blotched Leopard, Lachnoptera ayresii. Both species visit animal urine and dung and both gather in numbers to bask, open-winged, in shafts of sunlight on stream-side rocks.

Kenya’s smallest butterfly, the Clover Blue, Actizera stellata, with a wing-span of just 18 mm, frequents grassy areas where its caterpillar food-plant, clover, grows.

Moths, as a group, far outnumber the butterflies of any habitat in terms of numbers of species. For every one species of butterfly, there may be as many as nine moth species. Yet moths, because they are nocturnal and hide by day, tend to escape our notice. Of the many different caterpillars on view in the forest, the vast majority are the larvae of moths.

Conspicuous after rain are the large protective webs woven by the caterpillars of the Ermine ‘Tent’ Moth (Yponomeuta sp.). The trunks and branches of Mutanga (Elaeodendron) trees, upon whose foliage these larvae

feed, are often draped with their elaborate silken ‘tents’.

Of all the insects in the reserve, it is bees – as the principal agents of pollination, the process essential to all life – that perform the greatest service. Here, common bees, other than the familiar and widely exploited Honeybee, Apis mellifera, include various Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa spp.) and Leaf-cutter Bees (family Megachilidae), as well as tiny Stingless Bees of several species.

Karura’s streams and wetlands are home to many striking dragonflies and damselflies. The dragonflies, robust and fast-flying, perch with wings outspread, whereas the damselflies, weak fliers of delicate and slender build, perch with their wings folded. The larvae of both groups are aquatic nymphs.

Common dragonflies include the Redveined Dropwing, Trithemis arteriosa, often seen perched, dipped wings thrust forward, on overhanging reeds at the water’s edge. Other common dragonflies include the Blue Emperor, Anax imperator, and the Broad Scarlet, Crocothemis erythraea.

Both are robust, fast-flying species. African Black Widows, Palpopleura lucia, small dragonflies with dark wing markings, may

Noble Swallowtail (facing page). Above: Eastern Blotched Leopard, Lechnoptera ayresii (left); Green-banded Swallowtail.

be seen basking on stream-side rocks. The males have powder-blue abdomens.

The Banded Groundling, Brachythemis leucosticta, a dark-bodied dragonfly with black wing-bands, flits about at the feet of passing animals and people, snapping up small insects flushed from cover.

The Globe Skimmer, Pantala flavescens, is a migratory species that arrives in swarms with the onset of the rains after having completed a 20,000-kilometre journey over the Indian Ocean via the Maldives and the Seychelles. Of mustard-yellow body-colour, these high-flying dragonflies are often seen in open areas far from water.

Damselflies, while not as conspicuous, are abundant after rain in Karura’s wetlands.

Bluets (Africallagma spp.) and Bluetails (Ischnura spp.) are seasonally common, fluttering about among grasses near the water’s edge, preying on midges, mosquitoes, and other small insects. The males in both groups are blue and black with blue-tipped Visitors’ Guide // 47

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SUSHIL CHAUHAN

abdomens. Females are usually brown and black. Spreadwings of the genus Lestes may also catch the eye; the males of some species have striking blue eyes and bold green thoracic stripes.

Beetles, unsurprisingly, as the largest and most diverse order of creatures in existence, are well represented. Most conspicuous are those of colourful species that feed during the day on the nectar of low, flowering shrubs. Net-winged Beetles (family Lycidae), with their lurid orange-and-black wings – nature’s warning colours, these, to advertise toxicity – are hard to miss.

Longhorn Beetles (family Cerambycidae) of various species, all with very long, adaptable antennae (their ‘horns’), may be seen despoiling flowers. Metallic Longhorns of the genus Promeces especially, many of which are electric green-blue in colour, may catch the eye. The larvae of some Longhorns are maligned timber pests, boring into the woody stems of plants.

In the forest, the beetle fauna is far less obvious. Many of the beetles are of species that lurk beneath the leaf-litter or which dwell inside decomposing logs or under

PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

loose tree-bark. Rhinoceros Beetles (genus Oryctes), a nocturnal group best known for flying clumsily into artificial lights, feed on plant sap. Their larvae, plump grubs, eat decaying vegetation on the forest floor.

Cotton Stainer Bugs, Dysdercus intermedius, and their gaudy purple-red nymphs are often seen beside forest paths, ambling about in the leaf litter. Other bugs include the Rain Tree Bug, Pytelus grossus, whose nymphs feed on plant sap in the canopy.

Excreted fluid dripping down in showers betrays their presence.

Not to be overlooked are the many ants (family Formicidae) and termites (Isoptera) that are at work around the clock transforming vegetable matter into enriching soil nutrients. With the help of assiduously cultivated fungi, Termites break down otherwise indigestible woody material.

Ants include the infamous Siafu (Dorylus sp.) that after rain march through the Dragonflies (above): Pantala Globe Skimmer (top) and Broad Scarlet. Left: Rose Chafers (Pachnoda spp.) are abundant at times.

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forest in long, menacing trails, carrying off and devouring the eggs and larvae of other insects. Never shy to let you know of your transgression should you step into their path, these predatory ants also kill and devour earthworms, molluscs, and other invertebrates. By keeping other invertebrate populations in check, they play an important regulatory role.

Conspicuous among Karura’s non-insect invertebrates are some very large spiders.

Yellow-grey in colour and with long, powerful, black-banded fore- and hind-legs, these are female Garden Orb-weavers (family Araneidae) and they preside over strong circular webs, some of more than one metre in diameter, strung out over leafy forest paths.

Despite their intimidating appearance, these huge spiders are harmless to people.

As in many spider groups, sexual dimorphism is extreme. The males, diminutive by comparison, lurk warily on the peripheries of webs. Some are eaten by the females after mating.

After rain, molluscs of various species appear in large numbers amid the forest undergrowth. Most are snails or slugs that feed

Beady eyes: Spreadwing damselflies of the genus Lestes (left) are seasonally abundant.

Above: Freshwater Crab, Potamanautes sp.

on the leaves, stems, soft bark, and fruits of forest plants, or on decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor.

Prone to desiccation over dry periods, the snails spend much of their lives aestivating within their shells under leaf-falls, where they lay their eggs. Snails provide a rich food-source for many forest creatures, including predatory insects, reptiles, birds, and rodents and other mammals.

Millipedes (Class: Diplopoda), too, are most active after rain. Slow-moving denizens of leaf-litter and of deadwood, they coil into a tight spiral when disturbed. Feeding mainly on decaying plant matter, they play a vital role in recycling nutrients, and so in helping to enrich forest soils.

All this goes to show how it is lowly invertebrates of one sort or another that, in many different ways, help to underpin the healthy function and well-being of the entire living ecosystem.

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PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

Reptiles and amphibians

Above: Hyperolius Reed Frog. Facing page: Jackson’s Forest Lizard (top); Battersby’s Green Snake.

TIM NICKLIN

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Skink, Lygosoma sundevalli, is a burrowing species found in loose soils and leaf-litter or under rocks. It has shiny, brown-grey mottled scales; a small, pointed head, and very short limbs.

The Grass-top Skink, Mabuya megalura, is a sleek brown lizard with black and white side-stripes and a very long tail, which may account for as much as two-thirds of its body length. A grassland specialist, it uses its long tail to slide swiftly over and through clumps of tall grass.

Tropical House Geckos, Hemidactylus mabouia, familiar nocturnal companions in homes throughout East Africa, are common too in Karura Forest, hiding by day under loose tree-bark.

STEPHEN SPAWLS

S predators and as prey, reptiles and amphibians are vital links in the food chain of a healthy ecosystem. Amphibians, moreover, with their moist, permeable skins, are sensitive to pollution and to environmental degradation, making them good bio-indicators of habitat quality.

Karura’s most conspicuous reptiles are diurnal lizards of species given to basking in the sun on exposed rocks or branches.

Jackson’s Forest Lizard, Adolfus jacksoni, an arboreal species that on hot days basks on the trunks and branches of trees at the forest’s edge, is perhaps Karura’s most abundant reptile. These slender lizards are predominantly olive-brown in colour with yellow and blue spotting on their flanks.

Karura’s most striking common reptile, Jackson’s Chameleon, Chamaeleo jacksoni, is most often seen in low shrubs at the forest’s edge. The males have three long horns, which they put to telling effect when jousting with one another. In females, horns are small, single, or absent. This large chameleon is found mostly in Kenya’s central highlands, but the species does also occur on Mount Meru in northern Tanzania.

Skinks of at least five species are known to occur in the reserve. The most common of these is the familiar Striped Skink, Mabuya striata, which on sunny afternoons can usually be found basking on rocks, as well as on the roofs and walls of buildings.

The smaller Variable Skink, Mabuya varia, is usually found among rocks, in low shrubs, or on broken ground. Typically brown with a pale lateral stripe and some dark speckling on the back, it is a versatile, widespread species. Sundevall’s Writhing

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A

Snakes of seven species are known to occur in the reserve. The largest of these is the unmistakable African Rock Python, Python natalensis. Images of one such snake, taken in the forest in March 2019, elicited a viral following on social media.

Karura’s most common snake is Battersby’s Green Snake, Philothamnus battersbyi, a harmless diurnal tree-snake that preys on frogs and which is most often seen coiled up in bushes overhanging streams.

Karura’s other snakes are of nocturnal species that are seldom encountered. The White-lipped Snake, Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia, is a terrestrial species of olive-brown hue that preys mainly on frogs. The Brown House Snake, Lamprophis fuliginosus, often seen around Nairobi homesteads, preys on rats and mice. Both the Cape Wolf Snake, Lycophidion capense, which is grey-brown,

and the red-brown Forest Wolf Snake, L. ornatum, emerge after dark to hunt lizards.

Both are terrestrial species that hide by day in holes or in ground cover.

Peter’s Worm Snake, Leptotyphlops scutifrons, is a primitive burrowing species that spends most of its life underground.

Very thin and black, these ‘bootlace’ snakes, which feed mainly on insects and their larvae, are often mistaken for worms.

Amphibians found in the reserve include various frogs and toads. All are most active after rain, when their insect prey is most abundant and when the males, gathering at breeding sites, make advertisement calls to attract prospective mates.

At dusk, the Reed Frogs (Hyperolius spp.) of Karura’s wetlands are especially vocal, emitting a melodic tink–tink chorus.

These small frogs vary in colour. Most are tan-grey above and light pink below with reddish inner limbs and reddish fingers and toes. They are eaten by Hamerkops and by cormorants, herons, and storks.

Northern Clawed Frogs, Xenopus borealis, breed in Karura’s streams. Wholly aquatic, they have fully webbed hind limbs with conspicuous claws. Flat-bodied, dark and blubbery, and with small, beady eyes on the tops of their heads, they are given to floating, limbs akimbo, just below the water’s surface.

Angolan River Frogs, Amietia angolensis, may be found lurking in shallow pools or hiding under fringing plants on riverbanks.

These large, robust frogs, pale olive-brown and with sharply pointed snouts, are active day and night, year-round.

The large and aptly named Guttural Toad, Bufo gutturalis, a noisy nocturnal species with a rough, warty skin, may also be found lurking on riverbanks.

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PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

Birds

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IRDS of 228 species have been recorded in the Karura Forest Reserve. The birdlife of Karura is especially diverse, given the reserve’s wide array of habitats, ranging from wetlands, marshlands and rivers to bushed forest margins, and from grassy clearings and glades to closed-canopy forest.

All these habitats support different bird communities. Most of the birds are of resident species that breed in the reserve and which can be seen all year round. Some are of wandering highland species that visit Karura intermittently. Others are Palaearctic migrants from Europe or Asia that are present only between October and April, during the Northern-Hemisphere winter months. A few are intra-African migrant species from as far away as southern Africa or Madagascar.

Resident forest specialists include Crowned Eagles, the most powerful of all African birds of prey. Recently, a pair of these massive eagles, which prey on monkeys and other forest mammals, re-occupied an old nest abandoned many years earlier.

Sadly, that nest has since been destroyed; the host-tree’s having fallen over. Now, the eagles are building another nest elsewhere in the forest.

The return of these apex predators coincided with marked increases in Karura’s populations of mammalian prey animals after rampant bush-meat poaching was eliminated with the help of the Friends of Facing page: Crowned Eagle (top) with antelope prey. Below: Hartlaub’s Turaco.

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Karura Community Forest Association.

Crowned Eagles are today often seen – and heard – displaying high above the treetops.

The secretive Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle is another forest raptor that nests in the reserve.

A diverse mix of native trees and shrubs means wild fruit is available year-round, sustaining resident forest birds of many species while also attracting wanderers. Resident fruit-eating birds include Hartlaub’s Turacos – large, stunning birds that may be seen shinning up tree-trunks or gliding scarlet-winged from tree to tree. Their loud nasal calls reverberate through the forest.

Other forest birds include greenbuls of no fewer than six species. Common species are the Yellow-whiskered Greenbul, usually seen in the canopy, and both Cabanis’s Greenbul and the Slender-billed Greenbul, which are given to lurking in the under-storey among the foliage of fruiting trees. Greenbuls are vociferous, singing and chattering throughout the day.

Wandering species attracted by Karura’s fruiting trees include groups of large and noisy Silvery-cheeked Hornbills and flocks of Violet-backed Starlings and African Green Pigeons.

Abundant insect life provides sustenance for many other forest birds. Caterpillars hatching on forest trees are the dietary staple of the Narina Trogon, one of Africa’s most colourful birds. Trogons though, perched high in the canopy, can be hard to see, despite their vivid red bellies.

The same goes for another colourful caterpillar specialist, the African Emerald Cuckoo, a species with bright yellow underparts that is often heard whistling Visitors’ Guide // 53

BIRDS

TIM NICKLIN

in the treetops, but which is seldom easily seen. The wandering Red-chested Cuckoo, famed for the nagging ‘It will rain’ refrain of its call, also feeds on caterpillars hatching in the forest after rain. All cuckoos are brood parasites that lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.

Woodpeckers of three species – the Cardinal, the African Grey, and the Brown-backed – may be seen in the forest.

Woodpeckers are bark-foraging specialists, using their sharp, pointed bills and their long, probing tongues to prise insects and grubs from crevices and cracks. Male birds may be heard tapping assertively on deadwood to proclaim their territories.

The Brown-chested Alethe and the White-starred Robin are two shy, thrushlike species that forage for insects and grubs in the forest undergrowth or among the leaf litter on the forest floor. Another secretive species, the African Black Duck, is found on streams flowing through the forest.

Mountain Wagtails on stream-side rocks pluck insects from the flowing water.

Forest-edge habitats support skulking birds of many species. Foraging in mixed flocks, you may find the Tropical Boubou, the Grey-capped Warbler, the Black-

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PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

backed Puffback, the Chin-spot Batis, the White-bellied Tit, the Green-backed Honeybird, the Black-collared Apalis, and the Grey-backed Camaroptera.

Black Cuckoo-shrikes may be seen between May and September, when migrant birds from southern Africa are usually present. Females are yellow-grey and mottled.

Flowering shrubs around the forest’s edge attract sunbirds of several species, including the Variable Sunbird, the Collared Sunbird, and the Northern Double-collared Sunbird.

Other common species of Karura’s forest edges include the Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, the White-headed Barbet, the African Paradise Flycatcher, the Montane White-eye, the Red-faced Crombec; the White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, and Rüppell’s Robin Chat. Tall trees at the forest’s

edge provide launch-pads for groups of Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters.

Palaearctic migrant birds commonly seen between October and April include Eurasian Bee-eaters, striking birds with pale blue underparts, and Shrikes of two species, Isabelline and Red-backed, both given to perching on low shrubs in open, grassy areas. Migrant Willow Warblers may be seen busily scouring the branches of trees.

Raptors that nest in tall trees near the forest’s edge include Great Sparrowhawks, voracious predators on other birds, and African Goshawks. Often seen near the forest’s edge are African Harrier Hawks, or Gymnogenes, predominantly slate-grey raptors that prey upon the chicks of nesting birds. The Long-crested Eagle can usually be found perched in isolated trees around

Noisy visitors: Silvery-cheeked Hornbills (above) – male (right) and female. Facing page (bottom): Black-backed Puffback.

the forest’s edge, scanning grassy areas for rodent prey.

Karura’s grass and marshland habitats support birds of seed-eating species, including various sparrows, weavers, and waxbills.

Grosbeak Weavers build exquisitely crafted nests in stands of bulrushes. Flocks of Mannikins – Black-and-white and Bronze – scour the turf for grass seeds, along with Red-billed Firefinches and Red-cheeked Cordonbleus.

Grey-headed Kingfishers are often seen in and around Karura’s marshlands, as are White-browed Coucals, often referred to as ‘water-bottle birds’ on account Visitors’ Guide // 55

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of their bubbling call, and Striated Herons. Warblers of various species, including both the Lesser Swamp Warbler and the Dark-capped Yellow Warbler, forage in the reed-beds.

Karura’s wetlands support a diverse water-bird community. Species swimming in open water on Lily Lake may include Yellow-billed Ducks, White-backed Ducks, Common Moorhens, and Little Grebes.

With their long, splayed toes, African Jacanas walk on the lily pads and on other floating vegetation. From low perches in the fringing reeds, Malachite Kingfishers may be seen diving to capture aquatic prey.

Black Crakes forage here among the sedges. Even the elusive Red-chested Flufftail may occasionally emerge from cover.

Grey Crowned Cranes, Black-headed Herons, and Cattle Egrets forage in the swampy verges, along with Sacred Ibises and Egyptian Geese. The ubiquitous Hadada Ibis will be sure to make itself heard.

Hamerkops can usually be found hunting frogs in these wetlands, which in season attract migrant birds too, including Grey Herons and Sandpipers – of three species: Common, Wood, and Green.

African Black Duck

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Long-crested Eagle

Northern Double-collared Sunbird

Narina Trogon

Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater

Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird

Little Grebe

Yellow-billed Duck

African Jacana

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Mammals

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ARURA’s most conspicuous non-human mammals are antelopes – of three species that forage by day as well as at night – and two diurnal primates. Habituated to a benign human presence, the antelopes are less shy here than in most of the other forests they inhabit.

The largest of the antelopes is the Bushbuck, Tragelaphus scriptus, which is often seen ruminating in the forest undergrowth or bounding across glades. Bushbucks are mixed-feeders, browsing on shrubs in the forest, but emerging at dusk to graze in open, grassy areas. Particularly vocal, they emit a distinctive, dog-like bark of alarm when disturbed.

Diminutive by comparison, the forest’s tiny Suni antelopes, Neotragus moschatus, in pairs, pick their way quietly through the undergrowth, browsing on the shoots and flowers of shrubs, as well as on herbs, fungi, and fallen leaves and fruits. The forest’s other antelope species is Harvey’s (Red) Duiker, Cephalophus harveyi – a small, chestnut-red duiker that browses in the dappled shade, again on herbs and on fallen leaves, fruits, and flowers.

All three of Karura’s antelope species ‘graze’ on fallen canopy leaves. This hitherto little-known feeding strategy has come to be known as ‘growsing’.

Troops of Kolb’s Monkeys, Cercopithecus mitis kolbi, forage both in the canopy and on the ground, feeding not only on Facing page: Foraging Kolb’s Monkey (top), also known as Sykes’s Monkey.

Below: Adult Bushbuck male

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the fruits, flowers, and leaves of forest trees and shrubs, but also on birds’ eggs and on invertebrates and their larvae, which they pluck methodically from under loose bark.

Better known as Sykes’s Monkeys, these white-throated guenons have a repertoire of varied calls, including a sharp ‘pyow’ that resonates through the forest.

The other conspicuous diurnal primate is the Guereza (Black-and-White Colobus), Colobus guereza kikuyuensis, recently re-introduced to Karura Forest after an absence of several decades (following article).

Mammal numbers in the forest have increased considerably since 2010, when persistent bush-meat poaching was eliminated with the help of the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association (FKF). The increases are reflected in the records of the FKF observation programme KaruraKam, which uses remote camera ‘traps’ to monitor the comings and goings of mammals in different parts of the forest, night and day.

Most of the mammals in the forest are of nocturnal species that hide by day and which are seldom ever seen. With the help of the camera ‘traps’, however, their presence and their night-time movements are now well documented.

Bush Pigs, Potamochoerus larvatus, especially active in the forest at night, emerge from the riverine thickets in which they hide to rootle for tubers and bulbs or to scour the leaf litter on the forest floor for the insect larvae and other invertebrates that form a part of their omnivorous diet.

Other nocturnal omnivores that have been photographed in the forest include the ornately patterned African Civet, Civettictis Visitors’ Guide // 59

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civetta, a terrestrial species, and the smaller African Palm Civet, Nandinia biotata arborea. Both are very active after dark, foraging for invertebrates and hunting rodents while also feeding on fruits. African Palm Civets are arboreal and often rest during the day in hollows or on forks high in forest trees. They also prey on the chicks of nesting birds.

Blotched Genets, Genetta maculata, are perhaps the most numerous of the forest’s resident carnivores. Predominantly arboreal, they feed mainly on rodents, but they also eat invertebrates and fruits. Also present are Honey Badgers, Mellivora capensis – voracious predators of bee-hives that also feed on invertebrates, which they dig up or extract with their powerful claws.

The only species of nocturnal primate so far recorded in the forest is the Kikuyu Small-eared Galago, Otolemur garnettii 60 // KARURA FOREST

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­kikuyuensis. Bulbous-eyed and bushy-tailed, these primates – also known as bushbabies (on account of the loud, shrieking calls of the males) – are forest specialists, feeding on the fruits, sap, and resins of trees, as well as on invertebrates. By day they rest in holes in the trunks of hollow trees.

Mongooses of three species are known to occur in the forest. The species most frequently seen, scurrying across forest tracks, is the Slender Mongoose, Herpestes sanguineus – a small diurnal forager with dark fur and very short limbs. Sightings in the forest of the nocturnal White-tailed Mongoose, Ichneumia albicauda, Africa’s largest mongoose, are comparatively rare.

The Egyptian Mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, is seen only occasionally. All subsist on a mixed diet of rodents, insects and their larvae, snails, frogs, lizards, and the nestlings and eggs of birds.

African Clawless Otters, Aonyx capensis, are seldom seen during the day, although signs of their presence – scats containing the crunched remains of freshwater crabs – abound on rocks along Karura’s rivers and streams. KaruraKam footage has shown these otters to be very active at night, engaging in playful behaviour on the riverbanks.

Other mammals on record as occurring in the forest include the Cape Hare, Lepus capensis, and the Side-striped Jackal, Canis adustus. Non-resident Olive Baboons, Papio anubis, turn up in the forest occasionally.

Insectivores found in the forest include the White-bellied Hedgehog, Atelerix albiventris, as well as shrews of one or more species yet to be identified.

The forest’s largest rodent is the Crested Porcupine, Hystrix cristata, a nocturnal forager that feeds on roots, tubers, bulbs, tree-bark, and fallen fruits – often shedding

Above: Harvey’s Red Duiker. Facing page: Kolb’s Monkey (left) and Suni antelope.

quills along the way. By day, porcupines rest in burrows or in crevices in rocks.

The burrows of nocturnal Gambian Giant Pouched Rats, Cricetomys gambianus, can be seen at the bases of many forest trees.

Rodents of this species have been trained as sniffers for locating land-mines in war zones. In the forest, this species – a good climber with a distinctive half-white tail (the terminal half is white) – eats mainly fruits, seeds, and roots.

Ochre Bush Squirrels, Paraxerus ochraceus, are diurnal rodents commonly seen in shrubs at the forest’s edge, foraging for fruits and seeds. Rodents of several smaller species, mostly of rats and mice, breed rapidly and so are always present in large numbers Visitors’ Guide // 61

MAMMALS

– providing a ready prey-base for owls, ­raptors, and predatory mammals, which in turn act as a ‘pest-control’ service in keeping their great numbers in check.

Karura also provides shelter and sustenance for multitudes of bats – of many species, both fruit-eating and insectivorous.

The fruit bats, which include the Angolan Collared Fruit Bat, Myonycteris angolensis, and Wahlberg’s Epauletted Fruit Bat, Epomophorus wahlbergi, are perhaps the forest’s most important seed-dispersers.

By eating fruits from one tree and then excreting the swallowed seeds in another part of the forest, these robust, strong-flying bats perform the vital service of helping trees to propagate and spread. The insectivorous bats, for their part, play a crucial role in keeping the forest’s large and potentially destructive populations of moths and other night-flying insects in check.

Night and day then, around the clock, mammals big and small, of one sort or another, mostly unseen by us, are playing their part in preserving the delicate ecological balance that enables the forest as a whole to function as a productive, self-sustaining ecosystem.

Angolan Collared Fruit Bats

62 // KARURA FOREST

PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA Kikuyu small-eared Galagos

Honey Badger

Large-spotted (Blotched) Genet

Gambian Giant Pouched Rat

African Civet

Bush Pig

African Clawless Otters

Karura by night Camera ‘traps’ deployed in the forest have revealed an astonishingly rich and varied nocturnal mammalian fauna.

Crested Porcupine

Visitors’ Guide // 63

PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

Return of the guereza colobus

T

HE Karura Forest Reserve has since 2014 supported a growing population of guereza colobus monkeys. Re-introduced after an absence spanning several decades, the resident guereza troops represent yet another facet of lost biodiversity that has been restored to the forest.

Famed for their beautiful long, flowing black-and-white fur and for the loud, croaking territorial pre-dawn calls of the males, guerezas are highly agile, wholly arboreal primates that are given to making spectacular bounding leaps between tree-tops in the canopy, precipitating showers of falling leaves.

Guerezas are among the most specialised of all arboreal primates, having evolved to make do with long, clasping fingers for climbing, on hands that are devoid of thumbs. Guerezas are also among the most folivorous of all primates, subsisting largely on leaves, plucked not with their fingers but with their mouths. This level of specialisation has, across much of their range, left them vulnerable to the effects of habitat loss through deforestation.

Three subspecies or races of Colobus guereza are found in Kenya. One, the Mau Forest guereza (Colobus guereza matschiei), occurs to the west of the Rift Valley. Another, the Mount Uarges guereza (C. g. percivali), occurs on the Mathews Range.

The subspecies historically present in Karura Forest, and which has now been re-introduced, is the Mount Kenya guereza (Colobus guereza kikuyuensis), found on the Aberdare Mountains and on Mount Kenya in forests that were once contiguous with greater Karura.

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Re-introduction of the Mount Kenya guereza was first mooted in 2012 when the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association (FKF) entered into discussions with the National Museums of Kenya’s Institute of Primate Research (IPR). The idea soon gained traction amid alarming reports on the plight of doomed guereza groups marooned in small, isolated, and highly degraded fragments of unprotected riparian forest along the Malewa River and its tributaries near Kipipiri on the western foothills of the Aberdares.

Many of the Kipipiri guereza groups were in immediate danger of being extirpated. Their shrinking habitats could no longer sustain them and they were clearly suffering from acute food-stress. In a desperate bid to survive, some groups had reportedly resorted to crop-raiding, which had brought them into conflict with local farmers, who were killing the monkeys. Translocation, then, was the only way of saving these embattled animals.

As a secure refuge far removed from any possibility of conflict with farming communities, Karura seemed to offer a viable alternative home for the Kipipiri guerezas.

The feasibility of an FKF-proposed translocation was explored in consultation with scientists from the IPR and from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

Preliminary surveys in the Kipipiri area found 42 guereza groups. Of these, 26 groups were prioritised for translocation on the basis of being most at risk.

Habitat surveys revealed that trees of six of the ten species on which the Kipipiri guerezas were known to have been feeding Visitors’ Guide // 65

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were also found in Karura Forest. Trees of 18 species recorded as guereza food-plants in Kakamega Forest were likewise also represented in Karura. This confirmed Karura’s viability as a habitat capable of supporting a population of as many as 150 guerezas.

Meetings with the Kipipiri farming communities had meanwhile established that all were unanimous in wanting the ‘problem’ guerezas removed.

Guerezas though are very difficult to capture, as they dwell high up in the canopy and seldom come down to the ground.

Tranquilising darts cannot be used for fear that sedated individuals might either be killed or maimed on tumbling from the tree-tops. Instead, the monkeys would have to be trapped in cages provisioned with the leaves of their preferred food-plants.

All the members of a guereza family group would have to be captured on the same day and then rushed to Karura, where a huge habituation holding pen, deep in the forest, awaited them. The capture unit, led

by IPR primatologists, would be embarking on the largest-scale guereza translocation ever attempted.

The translocation was carried out in three phases and in line with the primate translocation guidelines of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The project was co-funded by FKF and the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW).

During the initial phase, which began in May 2014, 35 guerezas in six groups were captured and moved to Karura Forest.

The second phase saw a further 45 guerezas translocated to Karura, while in the third and final phase another 42 guerezas were moved. All told, then, 122 guerezas in 22 groups were successfully translocated to 66 // KARURA FOREST

PART TWO // THE BIODIVERSITY OF KARURA

Karura. Only three animals (2.4 % of the total) died while in transit.

The translocated animals have adapted well to their new Karura home. More than 40 guereza births have since been recorded in the forest. This is heartening in that the animals, back in their native Kipipiri habitats, had not been breeding regularly, owing to constant food-stress.

Re-introduction of the Mount Kenya guereza has coincided with a return to Karura Forest of Crowned Eagles, which

prey on monkeys and on small antelopes.

The presence of these powerful eagles has prompted troops of the forest’s native Kolb’s Monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis kolbi), better known as Sykes’s Monkeys, to form cooperative foraging associations with the guerezas in order to bolster group security.

The return of the guereza colobus has given the faunal diversity of Karura Forest a timely boost, while saving these handsome primates from almost certain annihilation in their native habitats.

In their element: The re-introduction (facing page) of the guereza colobus has been a resounding success. More than 40 guereza births have been recorded in Karura Forest since 2014.

Visitors’ Guide // 67

LAST WORD

About the Friends of Karura

T

HE Friends of Karura (FKF) is a Community Forest Association (CFA) founded in 2009.

Like other CFAs in Kenya, FKF is a conservation entity established under Sections 46 and 47 of the national Forests Act of 2005 to work alongside the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) in helping to protect, manage, and enhance forest resources in the country.

Under the terms of successive five-year Joint Forest Management Agreements with KFS, FKF operates as a full partner in the management and the rehabilitation of the Karura Forest Reserve – Nairobi’s largest and most accessible expanse of intact forest.

In this capacity, FKF is mandated with harnessing the cooperation, support and expertise of Kenyan stakeholders in Karura’s reserve-adjacent communities and with forging productive public-/private-sector partnerships geared to preserving for future generations Karura’s function as a priceless recreational amenity, open to all, and as a provider of vital ecosystem services.

Based at Karura Forest House off Limuru Road, alongside the reserve’s Main Gate, FKF is a membership-driven, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to boosting public interest and involvement in the ongoing rehabilitation effort. In the face of runaway urban development and expansion, handson participation by Nairobi residents and their families, as well as by the city’s corporate sector, is critical to ensuring that this unique urban forest, having been rescued from near-oblivion, will continue to recover and to flourish into the future.

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You can support the work of FKF by renewing your membership or through becoming a new FKF member. Your membership will be crucial in enabling the CFA, in its partnership with the KFS, to continue to protect and to restore the forest to its natural state, while at the same time providing employment opportunities for people from less privileged communities living in forest-adjacent areas.

Membership categories under which you can enlist are posted on the FKF website, along with associated annual subscription fees and methods of payment.

Just go to www.friendsofkarura.org On the website, you will also find news items, updated regularly, on what is going on in the reserve, as well as newsletters and information of a practical nature, tailored to enriching your experience of a visit to the Karura Forest Reserve.

Comments and enquiries can be directed to: info@karurafriends.org

ASANTENI The ongoing rehabilitation of Karura Forest could not have been undertaken without the generous support of various collaborating partners and project sponsors.

Both the Friends of Karura Community Forest Association and the Kenya Forest Service are grateful for the support they have received from the following companies, agencies, and organisations: African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (Kenya) APA Insurance Barclays Bank Davis & Shirtliff East African Breweries Limited G4S Kenya George Drew Foundation H Young & Co (EA) KPMG KulGraphics Pelican Signs Postel Directories (Kenya) Samsung Electronics EA SBM Bank (Kenya) Sukuma Twende Trust

Visitors’ Guide // 69

KARURA FOREST – A VISITORS’ GUIDE

Karura is Nairobi’s largest and most accessible remnant tract of upland dry forest. As recreational green space, it gives people a welcome respite from the stresses of city living, while delivering essential ecosystem services.

This comprehensive, beautifully illustrated Visitors’ Guide tells the story of how, against all the odds, Karura has survived – and of how, over recent years, it has been transformed from a ‘no-go’ zone frequented by criminals into one of Nairobi’s safest and best loved leisure haunts.

Karura’s many attractions are showcased – along with the forest’s ecology and its astonishing biological diversity.

‘This magnificent book encapsulates the many impressive conservation gains made in ten years of solidarity over caring for Karura Forest – one of Kenya’s natural gems’ — WANJIRA MATHAI, Wangari Maathai Foundation

A publication of the FRIENDS OF KARURA Community Forest Association Presented in association with the Kenya Forest Service