June 22, 2009
Colobus Checks with Peter
Written by Jamie Yarger
Today I followed Peter, who works for the Colobus Trust, on one of his Colobus checks. The majority of the sites and locations that we visited along the coast of Diani Beach were private residential and a few hotel grounds. We were unable to locate any Colobus monkeys at the first several locations we visited. It was not until the last location we visited that we came across two troops of Colobus monkeys. The first troop of Colobus was a group of ten monkeys and there was seven Colobus in the second troop. The physical location of the two troops was very close together which is a sign that the troop used to be one and then split apart into two troops as the amount of monkeys within the single troop grew to be too large. The location in which we found both of these troops was the old Tradewinds Hotel grounds. The hotel has since been demolished and the majority of the land that was once a hotel is now underbrush and forest which is the main reason that there are more monkeys and wildlife at this particular location. The Tradewinds hotel ground has just been put under new management with a plan to renovate the hotel and turn it back into a functioning hotel. The construction and deforestation it will take to clear the paths, drives, beach area, and surrounding hotel area will potentially affect the way in which the Colobus troops will survive while living on this land.
In addition to tracking the age and gender of each Colobus monkey within each troop and the location and direction of travel of each troop as a whole, we were also able to speak with several residents of the land we were surveying. I spoke with several residents about the media they use while David asked them questions about what they knew about the area, Colobus monkeys and conservation. Through talking with several residents of Diani Beach I was able to discover that the majority of people do not have access to internet. This is because internet is quite expensive for the majority of Kenyan workers in this particular area. Rather than having a computer in their home or paying for internet at an internet café, they will use internet on their cell phone, specifically Safricom, as this is cheaper and more accessible to Kenyans that are not living near a large town or city. When Kenyans do access the internet the most popular sites that they visit tend to be those such as facebook – sites in which they can chat with others and keep in touch. Sites such as YouTube where they would be able to view videos and photos are not of interest among the majority of Kenyans. For those Kenyans that own televisions, most only have the 7 basic Kenyan channels simply because they are free
The third form of media that I asked residents about was radio which everyone immediately responded that they listen to radio frequently and do have regular access to radio. Those that I interviewed tend to enjoy listening to American hip hop and Swahili music.
So from my discussions, when concerning the great Primate Handshake media, the form that would best be seen by a wide range of Kenyan citizens (in Diani Beach area) would be through the use of Kenyan radio stations. An alternative possibility would be through adverts, photos, videos or links on websites such as facebook.
