Category: biology

Jambo! I’m Gabi. Currently a second year masters’ student of the Integrative Plant Science programme. In January I went on a three week expedition to Kenya, far from the Finnish winter, to participate in two field courses. Together with my fellow students we followed various experts around to learn about the natural world in Kenya. In my first week I went with aspiring botanists to the Taita Hills research station in South East Kenya. Where the collaboration between the University of Helsinki is most apparent when you stand in front of the small but expertly built sauna, which seems oddly out of place in the mountainous region of Kenya. In the second and third week I went traipsing through the Kenyan savannah learning about human-wildlife conflicts under the guidance of three seasoned conservationists.

 

Week 1 – The secret life of botanists

What do botanists do? They look at plants. And that is exactly what we did. Adorned with a hat and lathered in sunscreen, we hiked up various hills and mountains stopping every 2 to 3 metres to admire any photosynthesizers, both big and small. The forests hold a wide range of unique plants, from the small Commelina benghalensis with its blue petals to the tall Newtonia buchananii tree with its sturdy buttress roots that support an impressive trunk reaching far above our heads. 

Taita Hills is an important water catchment area. Water captured here supplies large areas of the country. Therefore, changes that occur in this area have far reaching consequences beyond the local towns. Due to the persisting drought people are forced to seek resources from the forest. Human disturbances include collecting firewood and harvesting plants for livestock fodder. On Mount Vuria, one such harvested species is Dracaena afromontana. Few individuals remain in areas that used to foster an abundance of the narrow stemmed shrub with its long and slender leaves. Besides this, the spread of introduced species such as Lantana camara presents a real nuisance. They will sprout back when they are cut down and are fire resistant.

There was a clear distinction between forests that had a high human disturbance compared to relatively intact forests. In disturbed forests we encountered more non-native plants, such as Eucalyptus spp. and Grevillea robusta, both from Australia. They are important sources of timber. Yet, in these arid regions, Eucalyptus trees are considered problematic for forest diversity. As part of its ecology, a Eucalyptus tree sheds its bark, which increases the risk of wildfires and their spread. Moreover, its leaf litter changes the soil pH to become more acidic, which favours its own propagation, but disadvantages local species. 

Aside from visiting the forests, we were invited to Darius’ farm, one of our field guides. His sloping plot of land left us in awe. He implements different intercropping strategies and combines improved and traditional crop varieties; the former for the yields and the latter to maintain a diverse gene pool. His approach is in stark contrast with the large monoculture plantations of sisal (Agave sisalana). Originally from Mexico, this fibre crop has been planted in rows as far as the eye can see. We drove past kilometres of saw-edged rosettes that have replaced native trees, shrubs and herbs.

After a week of vigorous hiking and plant inspecting, we ended the course with a feast and a bonfire. We said farewell to our field guides, the station staff and Taita Hills. With the first week behind me and the second week about to start the focus of my expedition shifted from flora to fauna.

 

Week 2 – Putting the wild in wildlife

All facts are fun but some are more fun than others. Did you know that cheetahs have non-retractable claws? They are so fast that they need maximum grip when chasing prey. Did you know that the aardvark is closely related to the elephant? After spending two weeks with animal enthusiasts I’ve stocked up on some of these fun facts. The one I want to share most of all is the propeller tail of Africa’s most dangerous herbivore, the hippopotamus.

While defecating hippos will swing their tails energetically. In the water this results in an even distribution of nutrients, which is appreciated by fish and other aquatic organisms. By bringing nutrients from terrestrial to aquatic systems hippos fulfil an important ecological role, one that fishermen value in particular. On land, this Jackson Pollock technique is used to mark their territories and, unintentionally, to entertain the two jeeps packed with ecology students. They are very territorial and males will fight savagely to defend their patches of land and water. I don’t recommend getting caught between one of these grim neighbour disputes. Conflicts between humans and hippos arise when humans unknowingly cross paths with hippos. Hippos will not shy away from confrontation and running away won’t do you much good as they have no trouble keeping up. 

You may already know that vultures are excellent scavengers. But did you know that vultures have great vision too? While gliding in the air they will keep an eye on their peers. If one swoops down, having spotted a recently deceased or dying animal, others will follow suit. So where there is one vulture there will soon be dozens. Due to a very acidic stomach (pH ≈ 1), they are resistant to various diseases, even anthrax. Sadly, they are experiencing drastic population declines, in large part because of secondary poisoning. This happens when people poison livestock carcasses in retaliation against carnivores such as lions, leopards and cheetahs. As vultures have a slow reproduction rate, individuals that die are not readily replaced. 

Continuing with this more sombre side of these ‘fun’ facts. When giraffe calves are born they drop from a height of 2 metres. In rare cases, calves die from that impact. Last one. Spotted hyenas have a very curious social hierarchy. Mothers can raise up to two cubs which are born with their eyes open and their pointy teeth already poking out. Soon after birth they fight for the position of dominant cub. The outcome of these first contests determines their social standing and impacts many aspects of their life.

 

Week 3 – Caught in the middle

In addition to learning about animal ecology, we set out to shed some light on the issues that arise when animals and humans meet. We wanted to learn from the locals how certain species cause conflict and what is being done to mitigate these issues. The communities we visited live in close proximity to wildlife. While most locals appreciate the animals and understand their role as a high-profit tourist attraction, large carnivores endanger livelihoods by killing goats and cattle. In contrast to Europe, where we have food security, in these parts anything that threatens people’s livestock poses a serious risk for survival. Therefore, it is not surprising that these attacks lead to retaliatory killing of carnivores. Indubitably, as conservationists we would prefer the animals to be spared, but it is rather arrogant to tell the locals that they should not defend their livelihoods. Frequently, farmers and pastoralists lack resources and know-how. Hence, conservation efforts often focus on showing locals how to better protect their livestock by fortifying their enclosures. Efforts also include informing them on the ecological consequences of poisoning carcasses and retaliatory killings. More controversial methods include building electric fences to keep animals in or out of certain areas. 

However, conservation is not as straightforward as a conflict between farmers and animals. There are many different stakeholders with their own interests that do not always align with the preservation of wildlife. Besides local subsistence farmers or pastoralists, you have landowners that determine who has access to the land and usually cater to the tourism industry. Not to mention the governmental bodies that make land use policies and add a layer of bureaucracy. On the other side, the integral part of this web is wildlife itself. They require space, which is encroached by the growing population and changes in land use. In the middle you will find the conservationist that is trying to consider the stakeholders while safeguarding the needs of wildlife. In many cases, rather than being a human-wildlife conflict it turns out to be a human-human conflict.

 

All in all

It has been an invaluable experience, both culturally and academically. I’ve been enriched by the colourful welcome from the Maasai and Turkana tribes in Leikiji, the banter of the field guides in Taita Hills and the remarkable endemic flora and fauna of the African savannahs. Many thanks to both the IPS and EEB master programmes for offering these precious field courses IPS-175 and EEB-306. Thanks to the HiLIFE Trainee Conference Grant that has eased the financial burden of this three week venture. And thank you reader for reaching the end of this condensed retelling of my African adventures!

Gabriela Lemoine

There are things you cannot truly learn by just reading about them. You can get acquainted with the concept, but if you want an in-depth understanding of it, you need to get rid of the distance and the intermediate messengers and go observe directly with your own eyes. As a biologist, I’ve acquired most of my scientific knowledge by studying. Now I’m studying a MSc degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Helsinki, where I’m doing very variated courses that allow me to learn both about the underlying ecological and evolutionary processes that shape nature as we know it, as well as the current climate and biodiversity crisis and what can we do to stop it. I’m now getting more and more interested in the branch of conservation and applied science, which involves a human and social dimension. The required degree of empathy and comprehension in this area is hard to get if you are distanced from the environment and situation.

I recently had one of the most insightful experiences of my life. With the help of the HiLIFE conference grant, I went to Kenya for two weeks to take part in a course about human-wildlife conflict (HWC) in East Africa, which is part of my MSc programme and was organized by one of my teachers, Mar Cabeza. Before leaving, I had to prepare a brief presentation about one of the most conflictive species in the area: the African elephant. I talked to my mom about this presentation, and she was honestly surprised: “How can such a kind, smart and nice grass-eating animal be the source of conflict?”. My mom loves elephants, it would be a dream for her to see one in the wild. I love them too, of course, and I know they are essential for their ecosystem, aside from being beautiful. I could observe them in Kenya and it was a magical moment that I will never forget. But what I will also never forget is what we heard when we asked local people about them. “I like all animals, but I’m terrified of elephants”, a girl said.

The views from our campsite. On the other side of the fence, we could see giraffes and elephants

 

As a key part of the course, we organised focus groups and interviews with local people to hear about the HWC first-hand. This girl had some scary experiences with aggressive elephants that she couldn’t just forget about. Even though we had seen electric fences targeted at elephants all over the region, they are strong and smart animals, and they keep finding ways to trespass them. The risk of having a face-to-face with an elephant is high enough to have the population concerned. And this is not even the major source of conflict with elephants. These animals cause huge losses by crop raiding and infrastructure destruction, especially water structures like dwells. Droughts like the current one in Laikipia force animals to search for water and food in human settlements, so these incidents become more frequent. In communities with a subsistence economy, this is a serious threat to the population. Situations like this one increase tensions between the people and the wildlife and are counterproductive for conservation.

Some colleagues (and me, bottom-left) and local people participating in one of the activities during the focus group

 

At the same time, elephants might not be very happy about some human activities, I thought. Elephants migrate long distances, so when they find an obstacle impeding this movement, it’s logical to think they will try to overcome it. They can’t just decide to stop a behaviour shaped by evolution over thousands of years just because lately humans are building and expanding more than before. In Laikipia, several landowners have built elephant fences around their huge properties, often the elephants being more of an excuse than the actual reasons. Conflicts between different stakeholders (including farmers, nomad shepherds, ranch owners and private conservancies, among others) over the uses of and rights over the territory play a big role in determining the placement and extension of the fences. Consequently, the design of this alleged solution to HWC attends very little to what is actually needed, and, predictably, it fails to prevent any conflict. This doesn’t mean that elephant fences are useless. Maybe the small village we visited would be a safer place if it was surrounded by an elephant fence. Unfortunately, effective solutions are not usually that easy to implement.

The landscape at the community we visited in Laikipia

 

It is very easy, from a distance, to oversimplify conflicts like this one, where we search for “good” and “bad” characters among the stakeholders. There will always be interests with which we empathize more or less and that can lead us to mistakenly think that some perspectives or opinions are less relevant or not worth taking into consideration. As biologists, we have a tendency to talk about the relevance of conservation from an ecological point of view. It is a truth that elephants are ecosystem engineers and that they play a huge ecological role. Without them, the savanna wouldn’t look like it does, and all surrounding species would be affected in an unpredictable but guaranteed chain effect. We know we need to conserve elephants, that is our position as scientists, and we see this as such a big truth that we sometimes forget to consider other needs. But conservation is an essentially human discipline: we decide to conserve, what to conserve, when, where and, maybe most importantly, how to do it. It attends to our needs, it comes from us, and ignoring how people are affected by it would be a mistake.

The elephants we saw in front of our campsite, seen through my binoculars

 

“The people that are less to blame for global change are the ones that are suffering the worst consequences”

This is something one of our teachers said, and in this course, it stopped being just an idea that I heard. It became a reality that I could see with my own eyes. I got to see the dry landscape, observe the wildlife, hear about the conflicts from the locals and discuss and put together all the information we were receiving. Altogether, this course has reshaped my way of seeing conservation and completely changed my perspective. And I think this new point of view will make me a better scientist and conservationist in the future.

This has been, in a nutshell, and leaving many things out, my experience in this amazing course. Thanks for reading me! And thank you to HiLIFE for helping me join this course.

Lola Fernández Multigner

Hi all!

My name is Sarella Arkkila and I am a second year masters student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Helsinki. I did my bachelor’s in Animal Behaviour at the University of Aberdeen and knew that this is what my passion lies in. Coming to the University of Helsinki, my search for a research group studying animal behaviour began. I found the amazing Information Ecology and Co-evolution research group ( https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/evolution-sociality-behaviour/information-ecology-co-evolution ) led by Prof. Rose Thorogood and knew that this is where I wanted to continue my career within biology. I was honoured to be allowed to join the research group.

My thesis work is on the effect of the landscape of fear on the parenting behaviour of the Eurasian reed warbler. Landscape of fear (LOF) is how animals view their surroundings and the different risks associated within that surrounding. There are several factors that contribute to the LOF, such as the perception of the risk of predators and parasites. LOF in turn influences an animal’s behaviour in different areas of its habitat. For example, in an area where an animal perceives the predation risk to be higher, they may exhibit more vigilance behaviour. These changes in vigilance behaviour can influence foraging efficiency and parental provisioning, as the focus is on spotting and avoiding predation, which can ultimately affect an animal’s fitness. The study of LOF is crucial especially now that environments are changing rapidly, and where new pressures arise and the survival of species within their new or existing habitats are uncertain.

Within the concept of LOF, a few studies have been done on how changes in perceived risk of predation impact indirectly on fitness, but perceived risk of parasitism is yet to be tested. The common cuckoo is a brood parasite, laying its eggs in other species’ nests, one of which is the reed warbler. The reed warbler changes its behavioural defences when it perceives that it is at greater risk of parasitism by cuckoos. This behavioural change can either result from direct observations of seeing a cuckoo or from social information from neighbouring birds attacking a cuckoo in its nest. However it is unknown if this perception of greater risk of parasitism has indirect and long-term effects on behaviour, ultimately affecting the quality of parenting.

Looking for Reed Warbler nests within the reeds around Helsinki.

To understand the impact of the LOF from parasitism, I conducted fieldwork with the research group in the summer 2021. As part of another experiment, we manipulated the social information (SI) that the birds received about cuckoos by using model nests (previously collected nests), threats (painted 3D models), and alarm call playbacks. I then compared their ‘fear-type’ behaviour both during the presentations and afterwards to birds presented with alarm calls but an innocuous ‘threat’ (a teal), or to ambient teal calls as a control. I collected behavioural observations from video recordings at the nests, which gave me a ‘reed warbler’s perspective’ that could not be gained by observing the birds in person. To evaluate the long-term impact of the LOF, I then recorded parental behaviour 6 days later during incubation, and then again once the chicks had hatched.

A reed warbler incubating its eggs, a screenshot taken from an incubation video.

For my Master’s thesis, I have been watching a sample of these video recordings to determine how socially-provided information about parasitism risk influences behaviour. Thanks to the HiLIFE traineeship, I can now dive deeper into the videos to find out more about the longer-term effects of fear and publish a scientific article on the findings. I hope to be able to share the study results with you after this fantastic HiLIFE traineeship period. Wish me luck!