Ngong Forest

The Ngong Forest Sanctuary is home for several animal and bird species. Quite often especially during walks, one is likely to see baboons, sykes monkeys ,bush bucks, duikers,sunis, squirrels,tree and Rock hyrax, warthogs together with many butterflies and birds species.

Sykes monkeys

Rock hyrax

In 2003, the Trust erected a perimeter electric fence along the forest to reduce forest destruction by keeping off intruders, this worked perfectly but for the recent vandalism especially in areas along the bypass which opened access to the forest, part of the fence was rendered inactive resulting to fence posts and wires being cut and stolen. We embarked on removing the wires and posts along this area , the Trust is doing everything possible to solicit for funds to revive the fence.

Part of the fence where wires had been cut

During our patrols, we have recently been encountering astray dogs in the forest and it looks like they are increasing day by day.Maybe they are finding their way to the forest at points where the wires and post have been removed. There is a time i even witnessed a dog chasing after a suni. The small mammals has to be more alert now, with the increasing new predators.

A dog in the forest

Anyone with an idea how we can eliminate such astray dogs?

Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary is protected through kind donation from friends and well wishers, join us by donating to-wards protection of this adorable forest reserve.

By Nicholas Akatch

The Banda school students alighted from their bus some minutes after 9:00 o’clock yesterday morning. Led by their science teachers, the 34 student were on mission to study various ecological habitat and human impact in Ngong Forest Sanctuary . They moved in a single queue along a tiled pavement and went straight to the education center’s auditorium,here the Project Coordinator introduced them to the sactuary’s staffs, the guides and Kenya Forest Service guards,who would assist them with their study.

Banda school student at education center

They then proceeded to the orientation banda where they split in 9 groups and assembled their equipment in readiness to start their task. They were also given a brief description of the forest ecosystem and advised on how to conduct themselves whilst in the forest.

The student gets instruction at the orientation banda

Ranger Nicholas who led the team to the forest. Our first stop was at Eucalyptus plantation,this was their first study site. They sat down ,totally silent for 20 minutes to observe, listen and get acquinted to the surrounding before embarking on their first task. That was the trend they followed every time they went to a different habitat. Each group identified a site within the habitat,lay down a 5×5M quadrant,where they determined the following abiotic factors: light intensity, speed of the wind, the soil pH and temperatures. Other tasks were accessing the human impact on that area ,plants identification,identification of animals through direct observation or checking out for their signs i.e droppings.

Students filling in their worksheet

We moved from one group to another helping them in identification and answering any queries. Everything was running smoothly until i reached to group 3 which comprised of two boys and two girls. “How ‘re you doing” i inquired. “Patia mimi ndazi na chai,” shouted one of the boys whose name i learned later was Karuga . Before i could answer Angela, one of the girl in the group shouted in an exaggerated indian accent, “Hawa wazungu wanataka nini”.They were laughing loudly as they repeated this phrase and i could not help but joining in the laugher. Suddenly one of the girls was shouting, crunching her fist on others. “is there anything wrong?” i asked . “leave her alone she has a mental problem” Angela said. Is it true? i asked the group of which they answered that she hit her head against a wall and lost her memory and that her understanding was very poor. All this time they were laughing which made me doubt those allegations, i sensed it was all a joke!!!

“We then need to help her do her task; i told the group as i reached down for her worksheet. To my surprise she was almost through answering all question in the worksheet, i read through the answers and could not help joining in the laugher as i realized that they were just making fun and she was indeed a brilliant student. By this time all the other groups had finished their study in the plantation, we proceeded to the indigenous forest after which we then took them on a nature walk through a thick forest canopy before breaking off for lunch.

Karuga and his group 3 team displaying some of the living things they found in forest

Student in the indigenous forest

In the afternoon, they studied meadow area . The last exercise was sampling , to estimate the number of tissue paper plants in the meadow area by throwing a 1×1M quadrant 10 times and counting the number of the plant in each .

At the end of the day everybody had enjoyed the exercise and we went back to the orientation banda where we bade them farewell.

the forest is a wonderful learning site,Come and let your students enjoy doing their ecology practicals in the forest,contact us through office@ngongforestsanctuary.com

Ngong forest Sanctuary is protected through kind donations from well wisher and friend, Join us by donating towards the protection of this adorable forest reserve

By ranger Joseph karanja

Email: jranjus@yahoo.com

It has been along time since i saw warthogs roaming around. Sometimes back, anybody who visited the forest using Ngong Racecourse entrance had a chance to see warthogs and olive baboons feeding on left overs at the dump site. Their number were reduced by poachers who had set snares in most parts of the forest. A desnaring activity earlier carried out by Born free Foundation in conjunction with Wildlife Clubs of Kenya and Ngong Forest Sanctuary, had managed to remove a total of 600 snares with the highest number of snares recorded in the Racecourse area which is approximately 400M from the Sanctuary’s main office. Yesterday a male Warthog was just a few meters from the office,staring at me as though posing for a photo, after which it took off to the bush.

The Warthog

The Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary is protected through kind donations from friends and well wishers, join us by donating to-wards the protection of this adorable forest reserve.

By Nicholas Akach

Among the services provided by Ngong Forest Sanctuary is promotion of Environmental Education. Through kind donations from European Union, Safaricom Foundation and Karen Country Club, the Trust has successfully constructed an Education Centre in the Sanctuary which will act as a resource centre for the dissemination of Environmental Education to Schools, Colleges, Corporates, Community groups and the General Public . The Centre has an Auditorium that can accommodate upto 100 visitors and an office.

Part of the Auditorium

We are now equipping the centre with the necessary environmental education resource materials in readiness for the official opening early next year.

Over the past one year, ICIPE has been conducting insects inventory in the forest and has managed to mount several hundreds of insect species for display at the centre.

Some of the insect displays prepared by ICIPE

Other resources in the Centre are a public address system , overhead projector , a laptop, furniture intended for use during meetings, seminars and training sessions

Some of the resources at the centre

We are looking forward to having materials with conservation based information like books,wall hangings, DVDs and equipment for screening of conservation based movies.

Join us by donating/assisting us with such materials or any other resources that may facilitate in the delivery of environmental information to our visitors.

Thanks to our supporters,donors ,readers of our blogs and not to mention our visitors. We wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year

By Nicholas Akach .