Finding a New Monkey for East Africa

Yvonne de Jong March 7, 2015 Biodiversity, Blogs

By Yvonne de Jong & Tom Butynski
Posted on the National Geographic Explorers Journal on February 5, 2015

Knowing which animals live where is critical to planning effective conservation. To help set up good programs in Uganda, we set out to confirm whether one particular subspecies of monkey, the Dodinga Hills guereza, was calling this country home. Here’s what we found.

Read the whole post here.

Primate Discoveries in Northwest Kenya

Yvonne de Jong March 7, 2015 Biodiversity, Blogs

By Yvonne de Jong & Tom Butynski
Posted on the National Geographic Explorers Journal on January 14, 2015

In our last blog post (Discoveries From Two Years With Kenya’s Warthogs) we provided an overview of the major findings of our Quest for Kenya’s Desert Warthog. Of course, we collected a considerable amount of information on other species as well.

Here we present some of our findings about the primates of northwest Kenya.

Read the whole post on the National Geographic Explorers Blog ….

Discoveries From Two Years With Kenya’s Warthogs

Yvonne de Jong March 7, 2015 Uncategorized

By Yvonne de Jong & Tom Butynski
Posted on the National Geographic Explorers Journal on December 22, 2014

In December, 2012, we began our quest to better understand one of Africa’s least-known large mammals: the desert warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus).

Over the following two years we shared the findings from our project here on the Explorers Journal blog, revealing observations not only of warthogs, but also of several other species. This project has now come to an end, so we present a brief overview of what we discovered on our “Quest for Kenya’s Desert Warthog.”

Read the whole post here.

Wide-Eyed Primates and Wild Warthogs

Yvonne de Jong March 7, 2015 Biodiversity, Blogs

By Yvonne de Jong & Tom Butynski
Posted on the National Geographic Explorers Journal on August 1, 2014

There are two species of warthog (Kiswahili name ‘ngiri’) and both occur in Kenya; the common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) and the desert warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus). As mentioned in our earlier blogs (e.g., ‘Quest for Kenya´s Desert Warthog‘), our mission during this project is to better understand the biogeography and ecology of the desert warthog, one of Africa’s least known large mammals. During this project we also, opportunistically, collected data on other large mammals—particularly the primates.

Read the whole post here.

Photos: Biodiversity of Northern Kenya´s Huri Hills and Mount Forole

Yvonne de Jong March 7, 2015 Biodiversity, Blogs

By Yvonne de Jong & Tom Butynski
Posted on the National Geographic Explorers Journal on January 3, 2014

The Huri Hills, a remote region of large lava cones, is located between the Chalbi Desert and the Kenyan-Ethiopian border in central-north Kenya. These hills rise about 300 meters (985 feet) above the lava plateau, reaching 1524 meters (5000 feet) above sea level. Just north of the Huri Hills, separated by a descending plain of black-cotton-soil, lies the granitic Mount Forole (1887 meters;  6200 feet). This sacred mountain marks the Kenyan-Ethiopian border.

Read the whole post here