Sharpe’s Longclaw: Endangered and disappearing.

The Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw is a medium-sized pipit-like species. There are estimated to be between just 10,000 - 19,000 individuals left and the entire world range of this lovely bird is the rapidly disappearing native grasslands of south-western Kenya: in fact, according to BirdLife International, the bulk of the population is now centred in just three locations, the most important of which is currently thought to be the Kinangop Plateau.

Even though a fair amount of research has been done on Sharpe’s Longclaw in the Kinangop region almost nothing is known about the species outside the plateau itself, meaning that virtually nothing is known about the longclaw in about 90% of its (theoretical) range. The Bird Atlas of Kenya lists a small number of records from various locations (Mt Kenya, the Aberdares, Mt Elgon, Mau Narok, Eldoret), but almost all these records are more than 50 years old and have not been confirmed in recent decades: consequently researchers are understandably reluctant to integrate them into current range and population data.

A Sharpe’s Longclaw stands amongst the tussocks of a native grassland.

What is known is that in areas where the longclaw has been looked for there has been a dramatic decline. The causal factor is - almost inevitably - anthropogenic: ie clearance and conversion of grassland for livestock and timber production by local land-owners. The longclaw’s grassland habitat is currently estimated to now cover between just one-third and half of its historical extent and the rate of grassland conversion is apparently accelerating due to the current world food crisis. This is only going to became worse in the future because increasing human population and lack of employment in Kenya oblige most locals to depend on small scale subsistence agriculture.

Sharpe’s Longclaw appears to be an extreme habitat specialist living only in tussock grassland, and using the thick tussocks as nesting sites. Tussock grassland is a peculiar habitat that is created by a combination of relatively low rainfall and intermediate grazing intensity. If rainfall is not high enough the grassland becomes unsuitable bushland; if too much rain falls it becomes forest. Grazing intensity has major impacts on the habitat also: too much grazing and the tussocks (and the birds’ nesting sites) disappear; too little and there is bush encroachment into the homogeneous expanses of grass the longclaw prefers.

Again according to the BirdLife website around 60% of remaining tussock grasslands are highly fragmented because they are found in small land parcels (2-10 ha) divided amongst small-holders: populations of Sharpe’s Longclaw are themselves therefore increasingly fragmented, which inevitably effects breeding success.

An additional concern is that where the grasslands are left to grow, the tussocks which the birds use for nesting are often grubbed out as they are unpalatable to the cattle and sheep the farmers rear. The land is then rendered almost useless for longclaws. This could of course be reversed if management practices aimed at lowering the intensity of grazing could be implemented.

Turning around the decline of grassland birds like Sharpe’s Longclaw is extremely difficult. It requires finding out exactly where the remaining birds are through extensive surveys of likely habitat, raising awareness of the bird and its requirements at the local level through education programmes and community involvement, and then preserving the extant habitat (which generally means purchasing the land for reserves, or entering into costly management programmes with land-owners). Restoring heavily grazed or cleared habitat to its original state may be an additional option, but - outside of already protected areas - this is something that will be very difficult giving the rapid growth of human populations in the region and their increasing demands for meat and wood for fuel and housing.