For Arthur Muneza, taking a trip to Africa isn’t that big of a deal – it’s his home. Recently, however, he made a trip to Africa that was a big deal, one that may be the biggest of his young career.
Muneza, a Michigan State University fisheries and wildlife master’s student, participated in Operation Twiga – Operation Giraffe – with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the Uganda Wildlife Authority to translocate 20 Rothschild’s giraffes across the Nile River in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda.
He spent two weeks working with wildlife professionals capturing and moving the giraffe to their new home – an area that has no giraffes.
There are 1,500 Rothschild’s giraffes in the world. The 1,250 that live in Murchison Falls National Park are essentially boxed into the northern half of the park by the Nile River. Globally, there are about 80,000 giraffes.
“For perhaps as many as 200 years, Rothschild’s giraffe, one of the most endangered subspecies of giraffes in Africa, has not lived below the Nile River in Murchison Falls National Park,” said Robert Montgomery, assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife and Muneza’s adviser. “Arthur was part of a large collaborative team that changed that, Operation Twiga provides a fantastic example of conservation in action. ”
A MasterCard Scholar, Muneza expects to graduate with his master’s degree this May.
“I have worked with veterinarians, rangers and ecologists from across the world, who have given everything that they have for giraffe conservation,” Muneza said. “They have expended every ounce of energy in chasing down, roping, monitoring, loading and translocating giraffes to a new and hopefully better home. Operation Twiga had its ups and downs, which is part of the emotional roller coaster that seems to accompany every field season.”
Muneza and the others on the adventure had a few favorites, including one they nicknamed Melman after the character in the Madagascar movies.
“Melman was a favorite among the team not only because he looked exactly like the giraffe from Madagascar, but also because of his infectious personality,” Muneza said. “He was curious about every part of the translocation and confidently ran off to his new home leading the other giraffes.”
But for Muneza, it was about more than learning to handle animals in the wild – he made connections with some of the leaders in the small giraffe conservation industry, including Julian Fennessy, executive director of the Giraffe Wildlife Foundation, and Tom and Kathy Leiden of the Leiden Conservation Foundation.
“Arthur is a great example of what conservation efforts in Africa needs to thrive – Africans with the education to push forward and really make a difference,” Fennessy said. “We were thrilled to work with Arthur and to have him as part of our team.”
Tom Leiden agreed.
“There’s no doubt that Arthur will go far – he’s one of two giraffe biologists in the world … two,” he said. “The world needs more students like Arthur who want to roll up their sleeves and do the work.”
For his part, Muneza called this the opportunity of a lifetime but doesn’t discount the likelihood that it could happen again.
“Every member of Operation Twiga shared one unifying mission: to devote their energies to helping these precious animals. And every animal counts.”