Conservation planning in an agricultural landscape: the case of Sharpe's Longclaw

We studied the distribution and habitat use of Sharpe's Longclaw, Macronyx sharpei, a Kenyan montane grassland endemic, in a fragmented agricultural landscape at two spatial scales. Monthly counts in a fixed number of plots selected in contrasting habitat types provided insight in the species' distribution in relation to the available habitat. Simultaneously, focused ecological work in a smaller area provided information on its behaviour, movements and habitat choice, and allowed us to interpret the wider distribution patterns in a biologically meaningful way. Sharpe's Longclaw occurs only in grasslands, not in cultivated fields or plantations of exotic trees. It prefers short grassland with a well-developed tussock structure, apparently because tussocks provide good cover while foraging and nesting. However, as tussock grass is unpalatable to livestock, this grassland type is being ploughed up, re-seeded and converted to cultivation at an alarming rate, and the remaining patches are becoming ever more isolated from each other. Although only limited information on the species' population dynamics and dispersal ability is available, there is a clear need to conserve and manage the remaining natural grassland habitat. Since most of the land within the species' distribution range is privately owned, keeping viable populations of Sharpe's Longclaw may be extremely difficult.