Overview of the plight of the Hirola, its importance and a practical plan to facilitate population increase to pre-1970s levels of > 10,000

The Hirola Antelope is native only to Kenya and Somalia. The current population of the Hirola is between 400 and 500. In addition to concern over its possible extinction, the loss of the Hirola species will also be the demise of the entire genus Beatragus, as the Hirola is its only living member, making this program all the more important.

The overall objective of creating Hirola International Reserve is to increase the population of Beatragus hunteri to pre-1970s levels of at least 10,000. “The natural population in the 1970s was likely to number 10,000–15,000 individuals but there was an 85–90% decline between 1983 and 1985.” (King, 2011).

This effort requires the cooperation of the local community. Since the lives of the nomadic people of southeastern Kenya revolve around their livestock, assisting them in improving their way of life – particularly in facilitating water for their cattle as well as improving access to human medical services – is the way to win their hearts and minds.  The local peoples’ full support is required to facilitate general approval for use of lands to create predator-free sanctuaries and to ease resistance against pro-Hirola initiatives including the very idea of an international reserve.  The Hirola sanctuary at Ishaqbini in Garissa County has proven that eliminating natural predators (lions, hyenas, cheetahs), as well protecting Hirola against human predators, directly resulted in a three-fold increase in the initial the Hirola population over a period of nine years.

It can be assumed because of the dramatic reduction of Hirola in the wild, that the project will not meet its targets unless we construct predator-proof sanctuaries in the style of Ishaqbini. 

Defining the boundaries of the International Hirola Reserve and assessing necessary size.

In order to restore the Hirola population to 10,000, we envision a reserve within Kenya of approximately 225 kilometers square and the same-sized reserve within Somalia. This would be in total 225 km x 444 km, or 100,000 square kilometers. It would be expected that Somalia would support the project with a commitment to earmark a similar amount of land and resources. In short, this paper proposes a reserve of 50,000 km2 of land within Kenya.

Our estimate is that 100,000 square kilometers of territory is necessary to accommodate 10,000 Hirola (or 1 Hirola for every 10 km2). This is deduced from the following documented facts:

  1. “The size of a nursery herd’s home range varies from 26 to 164.7 square kilometres (10.0 to 63.6 sq mi) with a mean size of 81.5 square kilometres (31.5 sq mi).” (Andanje, 2002.) 
  2. “Nursery herds number from 5 to 40 although the mean herd size is 7-9. They are usually accompanied by an adult male.” (Kingdon (1982) & Andanje (1995)).
  3. “As of 2014, a 27 km2 predator-proof fenced sanctuary has been constructed at Ishaqbini and a founding population of 48 hirola is breeding well within the sanctuary. (King, et al. (2014)). (Note: There is conflicting information about the size of Ishaqbini sanctuary.)
  4. “Adult males attempt to secure a territory on good pasture. These territories are up to 7 square kilometres (2.7 sq mi).” (Bunderson, W. T. (1985))

Calculations: Mean nursery herd home range 81.5 square kilometers, mean size of nursery herds = 8. Therefore, it is reasonable to estimate 10 square kilometers required for 1 Hirola in the wild.  Ishaqbini was 23 km2, but now it is purported to be  43 km2. A maximum capacity of 183 was reached inside that 43km2; therefore, there were approximately 4 Hirola per km2. In other words, the population density inside the predator-free was 40 times the natural population density of Hirola living in the wild. The expected population in an area of 10 km2  is 1, whereas in a 10 km2 predator-proof sanctuary, 40 Hirola can co-exist.

The Ishaqbini Sanctuary reached maximum capacity with roughly 183 Hirola in an area of 43 km2.  (Hussein, personal communication, 2024.)  For the purposes of this paper, we will assume an upper limit of 5 Hirola per km2. Given a target population of 10,000, we will project 5000 Hirola in Kenya and 5000 Hirola in Somalia. 

Phase 1 for Kenyan HIR

For the remainder of this paper, we will focus only on the 50,000 km2 proposed for Kenya and building up the population of the Hirola within Kenya to 5000. Development of the proposed Hirola International Reserve (HIR) would be in phases.

Phase 1’s mission will be to build up the population of the Hirola within Kenya to 5000 through the use of 20 sanctuaries, each approximately 7 km x 7 km (=50 km2), and each positioned within a “parcel” of 500 km2. (Note: actual size at 22.5 km x 22.km is 506.25 km2, rounded to 500 km for simplicity.)

 The detail of an example parcel is shown here:

Parcel detail

Illustration of a Parcel & Sanctuary Layout

This is only an example, and the actual positioning of the sanctuary within a parcel could be designed by a landscape architect, and each could be different, depending on what was appropriate for the surroundings.

  1. Each sanctuary will occupy a “parcel” 10 x its size. A 50 km2 predator-free sanctuary would sit in a parcel of 500 km2. The parcel would occupy land equivalent to 22.5 km long and 22.5 km wide, while the sanctuary itself  would be equivalent to 7  km long x 7 km wide (= 50 km2). The balance of the land will be left “free” is to ensure low impact on the natural ecology and allow local people to live and move freely.
  2. One parcel/sanctuary would be potential home to a population of 250 Hirola.
  3. Each parcel would have one 50 km2 sanctuary. 
  4. A sanctuary would eventually be home to 250 Hirola over an area of 50 km2, or 5 per km2.
  5. Time to build: 2 years.
  6. Cost to build sanctuary: $2 million for fence, electrified fence and other infrastructure.
  7. Within each parcel we will drill four bore holes,  two of which would be inside the sanctuary itself. This will provide water for both the Hirola inside the sanctuary (2 bore holes) and the livestock outside (2 bore holes).
  8. Cost per bore hole: $15,000, x 4 = $60,000.
  9. At 250 Hirola per sanctuary, we plan to build out 20 parcels, to eventually reach a population of 5000 Hirola in Kenya.
  10. We figure to expect additional costs $500,000 per parcel.
  11. Total costs for parcel/sanctuary infrastructure, not including lodges, staffing, etc.: $2,560,000 per parcel x 20 parcels = $51.2 million USD.
  12. A critical key of Phase 1 is to develop and employ rangers working in or in conjunction with Kenya Wildlife Service. Sanctuaries will require a minimum staff of approximately 10 rangers and two managers. The rangers will have the responsibility to do daily monitoring of the Hirola population. Also, part of this program, working in conjunction with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), will be to translocate Hirola to new sanctuaries as they become available. 

How parcels would fit into the overall landscape of the proposed Hirola International Reserve.

 The following illustration is conceptual, and it is not intended that all parcels are arranged in a grid as shown below. The idea is to show that 20 such parcels could be breeding grounds for Kenya’s quota of 5000 Hirola. In reality, the 20 parcels would be placed in a more imaginative way, appropriate to the circumstances. 

Key objectives:

  1. Providing open space between sanctuaries for free movement, allowing virtually unrestricted access of local populations (both human and animal) to continue age-old traditions of movement.
  2. Protecting Hirola in 20 manageably sized sanctuaries.

Phase 2

At the close of Phase 1, we hope to accomplish having 20 Hirola sanctuaries in the style and roughly the size of Ishaqbini. 

Even though we have demonstrated that 5000 Hirola in relative captivity can survive in a space of 1000 km2 (the space inside the actual sanctuaries is 50 km2 x 20 sanctuaries = 1,000 km2), this does not reflect natural distribution of 10 km2per Hirola, which necessitates 50,000 km2 to support 5000 Hirola in Kenya in the wild. 

Phase 1 focuses on increasing the Hirola population. Phase 2 focuses on setting up a permanent infrastructure for rangers, local staffing, scientists, students, eco tourists and locals associated with HIR. This will not only be reinforce the security of the Hirola, – it can also bring revenue, jobs and prestige to southeastern Kenya. 

In parallel while building of sanctuaries and water holes of Phase 1, Hirola International Reserve (HIR) can begin to work on Phase 2, including the introduction of lodges. We suggest that with each of the 20 sanctuaries, we erect some type of lodge and/or housing. These will serve as hubs for coordination of activities and as living quarters of rangers and construction workers .  Lodges can serve as centers for local education and international visitors, including scientists, eco-tourists and international students.  

We propose that Kenya implement “lodge zoos”, where, adjacent to the lodge, there is an open area where animals will be free to live and graze, yet visible to tourists and scientists. The following animals live in the area and could be inhabitants of these open spaces: hirola, elephants, African Wild Dog, eland, oryx, buffalo, topi, Tana Mangabey, Tana Red Colobus Monkey, reticulated giraffe (including the white rare giraffe), lion, zebra, ostrich, warthog, lesser kudu, gerenuk and dik-dik. Cheetah, leopard and hyena would have to be separated but might also be local animals that tourists could see in a secure game park.

Benefits

It should be kept in mind that along with investment, there will be direct, tangible benefits to the local population, the wildlife (not just Hirola) and to Kenya as a country for its far-reaching, visionary treatment of a knotty problem (possible extinction of a species and genus). Kenya would be doing a service to the world, since similar problems exist in many of the world’s nations. 

© Copyright 2024, Jeff Shea, World Reserves and World Parks Kenya.