Seasonal space-time dynamics of cattle behavior and mobility among Maasai pastoralists in semi-arid Kenya
Introduction
Pastoralism is considered the most important and sustainable livelihood system in the world's arid and semi-arid lands (Sandford, 1983). More than half of the world's pastoralists are in Africa (Reid et al., 2008), and within parts of East Africa, where arid and semi-arid lands encompass up to 60% of the land area, pastoralism is the dominant livelihood system (Bourn and Blench, 1999). Pastoralists who reside within arid lands employ a range of adaptive strategies that facilitate mobility and avert risk in the face of spatial and temporal variability of environmental resources (Behnke et al., 1993, Scoones, 1994a, Niamir-Fuller, 1998). These strategies include, but are not limited to, the pooling of labor resources (Sieff, 1997, Turner, 1999), continuous tracking of resources (Niamir-Fuller, 1999), accessing key resource areas (Scoones, 1991, Ngugi and Conant, 2008), and the use of culturally designated grazing reserves (Ruttan and Mulder, 1999). Pastoral livestock micro-mobility, in particular, has been used to infer how pastoralists cope with environmental variability by documenting seasonal patterns of forage intake and energy expenditure (Coppock et al., 1986, Western and Finch, 1986).
Geographically oriented social scientific research on pastoral coping strategies has traditionally focused on understanding the social, political, economic and ecological processes of access to, and utilization of, resources in arid and semi-arid lands (Bassett and Zimmerer, 2003). This body of research typically suffers from inattention to the non-human agents that make these processes possible (that is, the type of livestock species itself) and a lack of understanding of the varied ethological aspects of livestock. Alternatively, natural science researchers have suggested that focusing on animal behavior allows for greater understanding of how forage maximization and energy expenditure minimization of cattle can be achieved (Vavra and Ganskopp, 1998). This may be done either by documenting the time dedicated to grazing activities, which can be used as a proxy for forage intake (Coppolillo, 2000, Schlecht et al., 2004), or by measuring the distance traveled by livestock from a pastoral household, which is an indicator of energy expenditure and how far away adequate forage and water resources are located (Western and Finch, 1986, Semenye, 1987, Coppolillo, 2000). However, this type of research is often devoid of a context-specific set of socio-ecological and cultural pastoral herding strategies.
Pastoralists are highly dependent on resource availability, which is driven by precipitation (Ellis and Galvin, 1994). Precipitation in East Africa is spatially and temporally heterogeneous, and is a function of the north–south movement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) (Norton-Griffiths et al., 1975). Inter-seasonal precipitation is one of the main factors influencing herding strategies, which are manifested through cattle mobility and behavior in various ways. During the wet season, precipitation increases soil moisture, stimulates dormant seeds, and enhances growth of perennial grasses (O'Connor and Everson, 1998). Herders are thought to respond to increased resource availability by keeping cattle as close to the household as possible, which reduces the energy expended by cattle, increases forage intake, and reduces the amount of labor required for herding (Coppolillo, 2000). Such a strategy would be illustrated by a higher frequency of grazing and a lower frequency of walking behaviors. During the dry season this trend is expected to reverse, as forage resources are likely to decrease in both quality and quantity. Consequently, herders direct cattle to forage available spaces further from the household and the frequency of walking behavior is theorized to be higher while grazing behavior is lower, resulting in higher energy expenditure and lower forage intake (De Boer and Prins, 1989, Samuels et al., 2007). At the same time, pastoralists are known to rely on a key socio-ecological strategy known as tracking. Niamir-Fuller and Turner (1999: 37) suggest that tracking occurs when, “… herders scout and track ecological variability, both spatially and temporally, by constant monitoring, and adjust(ing) the behavior of their animals.” This strategy ensures that pastoralists are able to access niche areas and take advantage of ecological heterogeneity on the landscape (Behnke et al., 1993, Niamir-Fuller, 1998). However, few empirical studies have sought to document the explicit spatial, temporal, and behavioral manifestations of tracking in traditional pastoral herding practices, and the extent to which these practices differ under seasonal constraints (Niamir-Fuller, 1999).
The purpose of this paper is therefore to address previous shortcomings of research on pastoral coping strategies by providing a more robust geographical and behavioral interpretation of pastoral livestock micro-mobility. This is done through a case study of Maasai pastoralists and their cattle in East Africa, and is executed by testing two hypotheses that postulate how relationships between cattle mobility and behavior vary seasonally.
- H1
The total distance and duration of cattle mobility in the wet season is less than during the dry season.
- H2a
The frequency of grazing behavior is greater than walking behavior in the wet season.
- H2b
The frequency of walking behavior is greater than grazing behavior in the dry season.
These hypotheses are empirically evaluated by combining field based techniques documenting cattle behavior with explicit space–time tracking of cattle mobility, and supplemented by key informant interviews with herders for a pastoral area in southern Kenya.
These data allow for more accurate assessments on the degree to which inter-seasonal variability influences the grazing strategies of pastoralists. These data would also provide a unique opportunity to understand how pastoral livelihood systems and herding strategies are likely to be affected by: (1) climate change, given that current projections indicate that the climate in East Africa will witness greater variability both within and between seasons (Christensen et al., 2007, McSweeney et al., 2007); and, (2) pastoral sedentarization, given that trends indicate further individualization of tenure and reduced livestock mobility (Rutten, 1992, Fernandez-Gimenez and Le Febre, 2006).
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The site selected for this study is the Talek area (700 km2), located in Narok district, Kenya (1° 26′ S, 35° 12′ E; Fig. 1), immediately north of the border with the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The Talek area was selected because it is: (1) biophysically representative of the larger Serengeti–Mara ecosystem that characterizes a wide expanse of arid and semi-arid lands in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania (Sinclair and Arcese, 1995); (2) socio-culturally and economically representative of
Observed seasonal cattle mobility patterns
Cattle mobility patterns varied significantly between the wet and dry seasons (Table 2). The average daily herd to household radius during the dry season was 1.80 km greater than in the wet season, while the average daily total distance traveled was 2.76 km greater in the dry season than the wet season. The duration of grazing was marginally but significantly different (approximately 26 min longer in the dry season) between the two seasons. There was no difference between the times at which cattle
Seasonal space–time dynamics of cattle mobility
Seasonal space–time dynamics of cattle mobility followed hypothesized trends whereby herd distance, herd to household radius, and total duration all are significantly greater during the dry season. The standard deviation of total herd distance traveled is high in both the wet and dry season, while the standard deviation is lower for the herd to household radius. This suggests variability in the total distance traveled by cattle within each season and may be explained by the cultural herding
Conclusions
This study sought to understand the coping strategies of Maasai pastoralists and their cattle in southern Kenya using, as it relates to cattle behavior, seasonality, and land cover using explicit space–time data. One main methodological and three empirical findings have resulted from this study: (1) handmade collars that hold GPS units are an effective and easily replicable method to help understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of cattle behavior; (2) differences in the patterns of cattle
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (awards # 0525809 and # 0706756), the Compton Foundation, and Michigan State University. The author would like to thank his research assistants in the Mara for their patience and hard work, and the individual Maasai families who allowed me to study their cattle. This study was conducted with the permission of the Government of Kenya, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology – Research Permit No. MOEST 13/001/31C 85. The author
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