[Simon Wotton from our Conservation Science Department tells us about the latest surveys to find Gola malimbe…]
I have been doing fieldwork for the RSPB since 1992, but the toughest few weeks were when two of us went to the Gola Forest in 2006 to survey white-necked picathartes for our sabbatical. RSPB staff can take a sabbatical every 7 years, so of course I decided I wanted to go back to Gola again! There were four of us keen to start monitoring Gola malimbes (Malimbus ballmanni) within the Gola Rainforest National Park (GRNP), to confirm the current distribution of this endangered species - myself, Frances Hawkins, Andy Schofield and Rosemary Setchfield. Gola malimbe was rediscovered in the GRNP in 2007 after 30 years with no records in the forest, and it appears to be found in exactly the same area as in the past - one small part of the forest (1-2 km2) where it was first discovered and described in the early 1970s.
Annika Hillers, the GRNP conservation scientist, was able to organise everything for us from the GRNP office in Kenema and we were working with three GRNP research technicians during our 3-week fieldwork period – Dennis Bannah, Patrick Dauda and Mohamed Lumeh. After the initial shock of arriving in tropical West Africa from a sub-zero England, we were ready to head into the forest after a couple of days of preparation in Kenema. This involved Dennis and Patrick buying enough food for the first two weeks of our expedition, including two 25kg sacks of rice!
A GRNP vehicle drove us to Lalehun, on the NW edge of Gola Central. Here, Patrick and Denis arranged for some of the local villagers to help carry our equipment, food and rucksacks to the ‘Malimbe Camp’, about 11km SE of the village, along a now little-used trail from Lalehun to Konella. The trek from Lalehun to Malimbe Camp was very hard work and took us over five hours. The camp was a small clearing right by a stream, which would be our home for two weeks. For our last week in the forest, we moved 2km to the West, to the ‘Old Malimbe Camp’, aka ‘Malimbe Tourist Camp’, with another week’s worth of provisions carried into the forest for us.
Malimbe Camp (Frances Hawkins)
We quickly got used to lots of rice for our meals, all cooked by a local villager from Lalehun, and with washing in the stream. The sounds at dusk were just amazing – a cacophony of frogs and various birds and mammals during the night, including rufous fishing owl, Nkulengu rail, African palm civet.
The survey involved working methodically in the known core area in Gola Central and then radiating out, following any mixed-species flocks encountered until the presence or absence of the malimbe could be confidently determined. It has been noted that, where present, Gola malimbe is relatively easy to detect as it frequents large and vocal mixed species flocks in the mid-storey, often in association with shining drongos. At the same time, habitat data were collected at locations where mixed species flocks were encountered (with or without Gola malimbe) and we also searched for nests.
Gola forest (Simon Wotton)
Conditions were tough and it was difficult to move through the forest, particularly when trying to follow flocks. We managed to find Gola malimbes in 21 flocks out of 36 encountered, with malimbes recorded in 9 1km-squares. More excitingly, we found up to 19 nests that were probably (fairly) recently-used Gola malimbe nests – at least we knew some of them were, as we managed to see Gola malimbes flying very quickly in and out of one or two of them. All but three of the nests were hanging from rattan.
We also attempted to get a good recording of the Gola malimbe calls, which we eventually managed to do two weeks into the trip, when a flock, containing a pair with a recently-fledged male, appeared over the campsite.
Exhausted we returned home, happy to have added to the current knowledge about this elusive species.
It's not only birds that make Gola important (Simon Wotton)