Nutritional Status of Maasai Pastoralists under Change.

This study assesses the nutritional status of Maasai pastoralists living in a period of great social, economic and ecological changes in Kajiado County, southern Kenya. Data on weight, height, skinfolds, and circumferences were collected from 534 individuals in the year 2000. The data were used to describe mean differences in human nutrition between ages, sexes, and within and among three Group Ranches.

Influence of aesthetic appreciation of wildlife species on attitudes towards their conservation in Kenyan agropastoralist communities.

The influence of human aesthetic appreciation of animal species on public attitudes towards their conservation and related decision-making has been studied in industrialized countries but remains underexplored in developing countries. Working in three agropastoralist communities around Amboseli National Park, southern Kenya, we investigated the relative strength of human aesthetic appreciation on local attitudes towards the conservation of wildlife species. Using semi-structured interviewing and free listing (n = 191) as part of a mixed methods approach, we first characterized local aesthetic judgments of wildlife species.

Understanding human-landscape interactions in the "Anthropocene".

This article summarizes the primary outcomes of an interdisciplinary workshop in 2010, sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, focused on developing key questions and integrative themes for advancing the science of human-landscape systems.

Responses to alternative rainfall regimes and antipoaching in a migratory system.

Migratory ungulates may be particularly vulnerable to the challenges imposed by growing human populations and climate change. These species depend on vast areas to sustain their migratory behavior, and in many cases come into frequent contact with human populations outside protected areas. They may also act as spatial coupling agents allowing feedbacks between ecological systems and local economies, particularly in the agropastoral subsistence economies found in the African savanna biome.

Nutritional ecology of pastoralists in dry tropical Africa.

African pastoralists inhabit a variety of environments within tropical arid to semiarid regions. Ecological and cultural factors as well as economic opportunities and constraints influence the amounts and types of foods available. The preferred staple of all pastoral populations is milk from livestock.