Peter Njoroge - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Peter Njoroge

The Desert Wheatear Oenanthe deserti is a Palaearctic species that winters in northern Africa fro... more The Desert Wheatear Oenanthe deserti is a Palaearctic species that winters in northern Africa from Mauritania east to Ethiopia and south to 1° N in South Sudan (Lewis & Pomeroy 1989). It is a vagrant in Kenya, with only three previous records: two individuals on 17 February 1984 at Kiunga, and one on 18 October 1996 in the Kerio Valley (Bird Committee, EANHS 2009); and one adult male in Nairobi National Park on 17 November 2016 (Fisher & Hunter 2018). On 8 February 2018 while on an ornithological survey at the Lake Turkana Wind Power site, we observed a Desert Wheatear about 500 m outside the staff village (2°29’02.4” N, 36°50’13.2” E; 743 m) in an area of scattered shrubs on barren rocky soil with sparse tussock-like grass. The bird struck us as a little odd compared to the Isabelline Wheatears O. isabellina and Pied Wheatears O. pleschanka we had been observing at the site. We quickly took a few photographs before the bird flew off; and on reviewing them it was clearly an adult fe...

Global Ecology and Conservation, 2015

BIRD COMMUNITIES IN SUN AND SHADE COFFEE FARMS IN KENYA Chris Smith Agricultural expansion to mee... more BIRD COMMUNITIES IN SUN AND SHADE COFFEE FARMS IN KENYA Chris Smith Agricultural expansion to meet rising demands for crops is one of the greatest threats to terrestrial biodiversity. Coffee, one of the most valuable trade items in tropical countries, provides economic livelihood and habitat for wildlife, especially when it is grown under a canopy of shade trees. In the Neotropics, birds are well studied in coffee, where they usually are more abundant and diverse in shaded farms. However, large differences in abundance between nearby study locations suggest these differences are regionally specific. Few studies have been done in coffee in Africa, which comprises 20% of the world's area of coffee cultivation. I studied differences in the bird communities between sun and shade coffee in central Kenya, and examined effects of vegetation and landscape on bird abundance and diversity. Sun coffee had higher species richness and abundance of all major guilds (omnivores, insectivores, and granivores), and showed low community similarity to shade. Unlike findings from the Neotropics, canopy cover appeared to have a negative influence on all guilds, while understory volume of weeds increased bird abundance and species richness with a similar magnitude as canopy cover. Forest fragment size, distance from fragment edges, and proportions of landscape cover at a 250 m scale did not strongly affect bird communities in sun coffee. These iii differences highlight the need for further studies of the effects of coffee cultivation on bird abundance and diversity in Africa. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Bird Conservation International

Summary Shade coffee is a well-studied cultivation strategy that creates habitat for tropical bir... more Summary Shade coffee is a well-studied cultivation strategy that creates habitat for tropical birds while also maintaining agricultural yield. Although there is a general consensus that shade coffee is more “bird-friendly” than a sun coffee monoculture, little work has investigated the effects of specific shade tree species on insectivorous bird diversity. This study involved avian foraging observations, mist-netting data, temperature loggers, and arthropod sampling to investigate bottom-up effects of two shade tree taxa - native Cordia sp. and introduced Grevillea robusta - on insectivorous bird communities in central Kenya. Results indicate that foliage-dwelling arthropod abundance, and the richness and overall abundance of foraging birds were all higher on Cordia than on Grevillea. Furthermore, multivariate analyses of the bird community indicate a significant difference in community composition between the canopies of the two tree species, though the communities of birds using t...

Journal of Threatened Taxa, 2022

Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei is an endangered Kenyan endemic bird restricted to high-altitu... more Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei is an endangered Kenyan endemic bird restricted to high-altitude grasslands with long tussocks. The species occurs on the grasslands surrounding Lake Ol’Bolossat in Nyandarua, Kenya, an area that is globally recognized as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area. The grasslands receive little conservation measures, which have led to the decline in the population density of Sharpe’s Longclaw. Nesting success in birds is crucial for their population growth. The daily survival rate for natural nests of Sharpe’s Longclaw in the grasslands of Lake Ol’Bolossat had not been systematically assessed prior to this study. Natural nests were actively searched during the breeding seasons of March–May 2016, while artificial nests were constructed using dry grass containing artificial eggs made of cream modeling clay. Natural nests had a higher daily nest survival percentage than artificial nests. The highest daily nest survival rate was 40% and the lowest 0.01%. ...

The dataset contains bird species occurrences recorded during a field trip carried out from 1st N... more The dataset contains bird species occurrences recorded during a field trip carried out from 1st Nov – 7th Nov 2020 in selected sites in Garissa and Tana River counties both in the lower Tana River Basin, Kenya. The sites visited include Bangale; Bula-Nadir; Bula-Rahma; Bura-Galore-Bura; Daba woodlands; Danabole-Wayu ward; Halo-Hirimani (Bura); Jamhuri (Galore); North Bilbil; Sankuri (Garissa); South Madogo; Walestokocha; Walsorea-Hirimani; Wayu (Galore); Wenje and West of Madogo. The bird species were recorded using the Kenya Bird Map atlassing protocol as either seen or heard with BirdLasser, a smartphone application.

This is a record of bird species recorded in Arabuko – Sokoke Forest. The data was collected usin... more This is a record of bird species recorded in Arabuko – Sokoke Forest. The data was collected using point count method of data collection for a number of days from 18 – 24 June 2017. Point count data in birds is mostly used for estimating population sizes and for detecting changes in population sizes of birds. At times this method is used to determine species diversity and prepare checklists. This data is also made up of a small list of owl species recorded in the forest specifically in Cyanometra Forest of the Arabuko – Sokoke Forest.

Ecology and Evolution, 2022

Abstract The vast majority of interspecific interactions are competitive or exploitative. Yet, so... more Abstract The vast majority of interspecific interactions are competitive or exploitative. Yet, some positive interspecies interactions exist, where one (commensalism) or both (mutualism) species benefit. One such interaction is cleaning mutualisms, whereby a cleaner removes parasites from a client. In this note, we document the novel observation of a black‐cheeked waxbill (Brunhilda charmosyna) appearing to clean a Kirk's dik‐dik (Madoqua kirkii), at the Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia County, Kenya. The purported cleaning took place for over one minute and is notable firstly for the dik‐dik remaining still for the duration of cleaning and secondly for involving two species that are much smaller than those traditionally involved in bird–mammal cleaning interactions. Unfortunately, no further cleaning events were subsequently observed, raising questions about whether this record was opportunistic or a regular occurrence. Future observations may reveal whether this behavior is widespread and whether it involves other small passerines.

Occurrence data from natural history collections are critical to understanding biodiversity chang... more Occurrence data from natural history collections are critical to understanding biodiversity change over time. The ornithology collection at National Museums of Kenya, holds over 30,000 specimens each carrying important information such as their occurrence across space and time. We mined data (species name, locality, collection date etc.) from these specimens collected from the Tana River Basin. Here, we present a geo-referenced dataset of avian species collected from 1911 to 2004.

The Upper Tana Basin, in the central part of Kenya is approximately 12,500km2 with an elevation r... more The Upper Tana Basin, in the central part of Kenya is approximately 12,500km2 with an elevation range of 400m to 5199m. Several parks are found in this area such as the Aberdare National Park and Mount Kenya consisting of a rich biodiversity. Here, we present an occurrence dataset of the birds of the Upper Tana catchment area recorded from 7th to 14th of May, 2019. We recorded a total of 600 occurrences consisting of 145 species.

Genome Biology and Evolution, 2021

The title read as: "Genomic Analyses of Unveil Helmeted Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris) Domesticat... more The title read as: "Genomic Analyses of Unveil Helmeted Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris) Domestication in West Africa". This has been corrected to: "Genomic Analyses Unveil Helmeted Guinea Fowl (Numida meleagris) Domestication in West Africa". This error was introduced during production and has now been corrected.

International Journal of Biological Research, 2016

Hinde’s Babbler which is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List with isolated populations conf... more Hinde’s Babbler which is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List with isolated populations confined to some parts of central and eastern Kenya. A survey was conducted between June and December, 2015 to assess and compare population status of Hinde’s Babbler across a gradient of levels of protection. Data was collected at intervals of 100m along predetermined cumulative 19 km transects where playback of Hinde’s Babbler was used to elicit response of individual groups. At each point of detection, total number of adults, offsprings and vegetation phenology was recorded. The entire habitat population was 540 individuals (dry season; Ngaya FR-255, Meru NP-137 and Agricultural landscape- 148), 411 individuals (wet season; Ngaya FR-168, Meru NP-185 and Agricultural landscape- 58) though there was no significant statistical difference between the seasonal datasets. There was significance difference between adults and juveniles in both seasons (Mann Whitney, Dry P= 0.0001 and wet season, P...

Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club, 2016

Scopus, 2008

Ishaqbini community conservancy, in the arid northern-eastern Kenya was established in 2006 by lo... more Ishaqbini community conservancy, in the arid northern-eastern Kenya was established in 2006 by local pastoralists as a community initiative to safeguard their wildlife heritage especially the endemic Hirola Beatragus hunteri . Prior to this survey there were no known recent avifaunal surveys for the area despite the fact that the conservancy lies adjacent to the relatively well-known lower Tana River forests, an important bird area (Bennun & Njoroge 1999), as well as the East Africa coast forests endemic bird area (Stattersfield et al . 1998). In this paper we present the results of an avifaunal survey of the conservancy that includes a description of the bird assemblages in the conservancy, and an annotated account of some species of global and regional conservation concern occurring there.

Ecology and Evolution, 2020