At six in the morning, binoculars were already out at Mpala Research Centre. Staff, researchers, interns and visiting birders had gathered for the October Big Day, an international birdwatching event held on Saturday, 10 October 2026.

Their ambition was to record at least 150 species before darkness. With Mpala’s riverine corridors, black cotton savannah and dams to explore, there was plenty of ground to cover.

The birders divided into two teams whose names reflected their respective destinations. Team Hamerkop would follow the riverine corridors, taking its name from the distinctive wetland bird known for building enormous nests. Team Secretarybird would explore the open plains and dams, named after the long-legged raptor that hunts on foot across the savannah.

The day began with bird walks around the Research Centre and by 9 O’clock, the teams were heading into the field.

Among the participants were Wilson Nderitu and Kennedy Sikenykeny, two of Mpala’s most experienced bird researchers. Both have spent years following birds across this landscape, accumulating knowledge that extends well beyond identifying species by sight or sound.

Wilson’s work is closely associated with the superb starling, one of the most familiar birds of Kenya’s savannah. Since 2001, researchers led by Professor Dustin Rubenstein have followed these birds at Mpala, investigating their remarkably complex social lives.

Superb starlings live in cooperative groups in which some individuals breed while others help raise offspring. Why birds make these different reproductive choices, how family relationships influence cooperation and what happens when rainfall becomes unpredictable are among the questions researchers have explored.

Wilson has contributed to this work for more than two decades, developing an intimate knowledge of individual birds and their territories. Such familiarity is essential to research that follows the same animals across successive breeding seasons, revealing patterns that would be impossible to recognise during occasional surveys.

Kennedy’s expertise lies with another of Mpala’s remarkable birds, the vulturine guineafowl.

With their striking blue plumage and elaborate neck feathers, these birds are difficult to overlook. Their social behaviour, however, has proved even more remarkable than their appearance.

Since 2016, the Vulturine Guineafowl Project has investigated how these birds organise themselves into groups, maintain relationships and respond to changing environmental conditions.

Dr Charlotte Christensen, who joined the October Big Day birders, is a co-Principal Investigator of the project alongside Professor Damien Farine. Their research has helped reveal that vulturine guineafowl live in complex, multilevel societies, with stable groups associating to form larger gatherings.

By individually marking thousands of birds and fitting hundreds with GPS tracking devices, researchers have been able to follow their movements and interactions in extraordinary detail.

Kennedy, the project’s manager and a postgraduate researcher, is among those whose fieldwork makes these discoveries possible.

For Wilson, Kennedy and Charlotte, birds are not simply entries on a checklist. Their work involves recognising individuals, understanding relationships and observing how behaviour changes across seasons and years.

That depth of experience was part of what made October Big Day at Mpala particularly interesting. Researchers who spend much of their time studying individual species were joining a wider community of enthusiasts to see how many different birds they could identify in a single day.

And there is considerable variety to find.

Mpala’s landscape supports birds associated with open savannah, wooded areas, riverine vegetation and water bodies. Some are permanent residents; others arrive seasonally, connecting Laikipia to distant regions through migration.

The day’s initial checklist included 11 Eurasian migrants and one Afrotropical migrant. For birds arriving from Eurasia, the journey to East Africa can involve thousands of kilometres across continents.

These seasonal movements are part of a much larger ecological story, one that researchers have been documenting in East Africa for generations.

Among the most influential figures in that history was Dr Dale Zimmerman, the celebrated ornithologist and co-author of Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania.

Zimmerman spent decades studying and documenting the region’s birds, producing work that continues to inform bird identification and ornithological research.

His connection to Mpala is preserved in the Mpala Live archive through A Chat with the ‘Birdman’, Dr Dale Zimmerman, an interview exploring his experiences and observations in East Africa.

Zimmerman’s interest in changes in bird populations and distribution illustrates why records accumulated over many years matter. Observations made decades apart can help researchers investigate how species respond to changes in habitat and environmental conditions.

That long view has also been important in Mpala’s research on birds of prey.

In the early 2000s, raptor surveys at Mpala documented worrying declines in vultures. Research associated with Dr Darcy Ogada, now Africa Programme Director at The Peregrine Fund, contributed to understanding the threats facing these scavengers and the ecological consequences of their disappearance.

Vultures help remove carcasses from the landscape, providing an important ecological service. Their decline raises concerns about poisoning, human activities and the wider health of ecosystems.

From cooperative breeding in starlings to the social organisation of guineafowl and the conservation of vultures, Mpala’s bird research has helped address questions extending far beyond the species being studied.

Through Mpala Live, researchers and bird enthusiasts have shared their experiences with audiences around the world. Programmes such as Bird Is the Word, a live conversation with bird experts, and the interview with Dale Zimmerman form part of an archive that makes ornithological knowledge accessible to a wider public.

The Mpala Live Field Guide extends that effort, introducing readers to birds such as the eastern chanting-goshawk, bateleur, African finfoot, lilac-breasted roller and the two species that lent their names to the day’s competing teams.

Its profiles explore not only identification but also feeding, reproduction, behaviour and conservation, offering birdwatchers and students a way to understand the species they encounter.

For the participants from Ol Gaboli and Nanyuki, October Big Day offered another opportunity to learn directly from the landscape and from the people who study its birds.

The exercise also connected Mpala’s birding community to a global effort. In a snapshot of the international results, Kenya ranked ninth worldwide, with 824 species recorded across the country.

Back at Mpala, the competition was close.

Team Secretarybird recorded 111 species, narrowly beating Team Hamerkop’s 109. The combined count initially stood at 138 species before additional records brought the total to 148 distinct species, just two short of the day’s target.

As evening approached, the birders gathered for a sundowner, bringing a full day of searching, identifying and recording to a close.

The two teams had explored different parts of Mpala, compared observations and contributed to a national birding effort. Along the way, experienced researchers, interns and visiting enthusiasts had shared something that has sustained ornithology for generations: the pleasure of discovering what is out there.

At Mpala, that curiosity has produced decades of research, contributed to important conservation questions and helped introduce audiences around the world to the birds of Laikipia.

On October Big Day, it brought people together for another reason.

There were 150 species to find, and daylight was running out.

For a group of students in Laikipia, however, International Vulture Awareness Day offered an opportunity to look at these remarkable birds differently, not simply as scavengers, but as an important part of healthy ecosystems.

On 4 September 2026, Mpala Research Centre joined conservation organisations, birders, teachers and students at Likii Comprehensive School for a day of practical learning marking International Vulture Awareness Day.

The event brought together more than 130 participants, including 110 students from Likii Comprehensive School, St. Moses Comprehensive School, DEB Nkandone Comprehensive School and Brookwell Harmony School.

The day was organised in partnership with Laikipia Wildlife Forum, The Peregrine Fund, Northern Kenya Conservation Clubs, Kenya Wildlife Service, Mpala Research Centre and Youth on Wings – Nanyuki Birders.

But this was not a day for sitting through lectures.

The morning began outdoors.

Working in groups and equipped with binoculars, students explored the school grounds alongside birders and conservation practitioners. They learned how to identify birds using features such as appearance, behaviour, flight and habitat.

Among the species spotted were Superb Starlings, African Paradise-Flycatchers, Silvery-cheeked Hornbills, White-browed Sparrow-Weavers, Hadada Ibises and Common Bulbuls.

The exercise carried a simple lesson: you do not always have to travel to a protected area to begin observing nature. Even a school compound can become a place for discovering biodiversity.

Back inside, the students took a more active role.

Ahead of the event, participating schools had researched questions about vulture identification, habitats, nesting, ecological roles, threats and conservation. They then presented and debated what they had discovered.

The discussions explored the role vultures play in rapidly removing carcasses from landscapes and helping maintain healthy ecosystems.

Students also confronted some of the threats facing vultures, particularly poisoning, habitat loss and persecution.

Retaliatory poisoning following livestock predation is especially dangerous because poison intended for one animal can affect many scavengers that subsequently feed on the carcass.

The students were challenged to think about solutions too, from strengthening livestock bomas and protecting habitats to reducing unsafe use of poisons and helping their communities better understand vultures.

Rather than simply receiving conservation messages, the learners became the communicators themselves, asking questions, challenging ideas and sharing what they had researched.

Learning continued through an interactive seed-dispersal game that used movement and role-play to explore how animals help plants and ecosystems regenerate.

Students also turned to poetry, artwork, mime, dance and song to communicate what they had learned about vultures.

The day left something more permanent behind too.

Twelve ceremonial trees were planted by students, teachers and conservation partners, while Likii Comprehensive School received 100 indigenous tree seedlings to continue greening its grounds through the Adopt a Tree initiative.

The combination of field observation, debate, games, art and practical action reflected a broader idea at the heart of the event: conservation education works particularly well when young people participate rather than simply listen.

Vultures are among the world’s most threatened groups of birds, facing pressures ranging from poisoning to habitat loss.

Changing their future therefore requires more than studying the birds themselves. It also requires working with the people who share their landscapes.

Schools provide an important place to begin.

A student who understands why vultures matter can take that conversation beyond the classroom, into their family and eventually into the wider community.

For the organisations gathered at Likii Comprehensive School, International Vulture Awareness Day was therefore about more than celebrating one group of birds.

It was about curiosity, knowledge and giving young people the opportunity to see a familiar landscape, and some of its most misunderstood inhabitants, with new eyes.

In September 2026, Mpala staff and researchers came together for a practical workshop focused on strengthening field reporting using EarthRanger. The session brought together people working across Mpala’s field sites and campus, creating an opportunity to connect field experience with consistent approaches to data collection and recording.

The workshop was led by Dr. Shaleen Angwenyi, a wildlife veterinarian, Smithsonian Institution postdoctoral researcher, and Program Lead for Wildlife Health Watch.

Participants worked through several aspects of wildlife health and field reporting, including best practices for post-mortem photography, logging field events, assessing animal health using the Body Condition Score (BCS) system, and safely handling carcasses in the field. The session also covered the physical markers used to determine the sex of a carcass and provided a practical introduction to the wider EarthRanger ecosystem.

Rather than being a classroom-style training, the workshop drew heavily on the experience already present at Mpala. Staff who spend much of their time in the field shared observations and practical lessons with colleagues who are more often based on campus. These exchanges helped connect the information collected in the field with how it is recorded, interpreted, and ultimately used.

EarthRanger provides a common platform through which these observations can be logged and organized, helping build a clearer picture of wildlife health events and other activities occurring across the landscape.

The session was opened and closed by Dr Cosmas Nzomo, Mpala’s Acting Chief Research Officer, who emphasised the value of building practical skills and strengthening the quality of information collected across Mpala.

For participants, the workshop was ultimately about ensuring that when something happens in the field, the right details are captured, recorded, and made available to the people who need them.

Some of the most important moments in my journey at Mpala have happened far away from a desk or classroom.

They have happened during evening volleyball games, over Friday tea, on game drives and at gatherings in the dining hall. Sometimes they have happened in the field, walking long distances alongside rangers. And sometimes in the middle of the night, when someone needed help with a vehicle.

Socialising is almost unavoidable at Mpala, and that’s a good thing.

Many of the opportunities I’ve seen people learn and grow from, myself included, started with a conversation. That’s one of the things I have come to appreciate most about this place.

My own journey here started while I was an undergraduate studying Natural Resource Management at Karatina University.

I was born and raised in Rugongo Farm, a village in Nyahururu. While at university, I volunteered with Dr. Dedan Ngatia’s Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign. After completing my bachelor’s degree in July 2022, I came to Mpala for an attachment under Dr. Duncan Kimuyu.

For five months, I moved between different research projects. It gave me the chance to experience quite a bit of what was happening at Mpala and to work with different researchers and teams.

And then, somehow, I pretty much never left.

In January 2023, I joined Dr. Beth Mortimer’s Seismic Savannah Elephant project as a field technician.

One of the things I remember most from that project is the rangers.

Every ranger who went out with us did much more than keep us safe when elephants chased us. They joined in the work. We walked tens of kilometres and dug hundreds of holes to place seismic sensors, and they were right there helping us.

That willingness to help is something I have found again and again at Mpala.

After the elephant project, I worked with Lucrecia Aguilar on her PhD research on cats, cows and coexistence, mostly working with lions alongside Laikipia Lions Landscapes.

By then, I was beginning to figure out the kind of questions I wanted to pursue myself.

A couple of months later, I started my Master’s in Wildlife Management at Karatina University through the Mpala Graduate Scholarship Programme.

For my research, I studied temporary cattle bomas and how they can be used as a tool for rangeland restoration.

That was an important shift for me. I had spent a lot of time contributing to other people’s research. Now I was developing my own questions, collecting my own data and learning what it takes to carry a research project through.

Today, I’m a PhD student at Iowa State University under Dr. Jake Goheen.

And my fieldwork has brought me right back to Mpala.

I’m starting a project looking at predator-prey interactions involving dik-dik, impala, African wild dogs and leopards. I want to understand some of the understudied costs and benefits of antipredator behaviour, particularly as climate change accelerates and reshapes semi-arid savannas.

In many ways, I’m still doing what I started doing when I first arrived here: asking questions, going into the field and learning.

I’ve also spent quite a lot of time going around in circles at Mpala. Literally.

While preparing for a marathon, I trained on Mpala’s Ring Road. One loop is only 1.4 kilometres, or about 0.87 miles. When you’re preparing to run 42.2 kilometres, that means seeing the same stretch of road many, many times.

It takes focus.

Maybe that’s exactly what a researcher needs.

Research also asks you to keep going. You repeat things. You collect data. Something doesn’t work, so you try again. Sometimes progress comes one small piece at a time.

Most people go to places like Mpala on vacation. We get to work here, surrounded by all this biodiversity.

But what I love most is the people.

I’ve never been anywhere people are so willing to help, at whatever capacity they can. I saw it with the rangers digging holes for our seismic sensors. I’ve seen it in the people who stop to help when something goes wrong in the field. And I’ve seen it in those ordinary conversations that end up opening unexpected doors.

Looking back, I arrived here as an undergraduate looking for experience. I became a field technician, worked on elephants and lions, joined the Mpala Graduate Scholarship Programme for my master’s, and now I’m back doing my PhD fieldwork.

A lot has changed.

But the volleyball is still there. So is Friday tea.

And, unfortunately for anyone training for a marathon, Ring Road is still only 1.4 kilometres long.

A research project at Mpala might begin with a question about elephants, soils, disease, rainfall, animal behaviour or a thousand other things. But before the first sample is collected or the first piece of equipment goes into the field, there is another journey to make.

My advice? Start early.

Very early.

Research in Kenya requires different permits depending on what you plan to do, and obtaining the necessary clearances can take months. At Mpala, we advise researchers to begin the process at least six months before they expect to start their work. 

This is the point at which I would like to meet you.

I sometimes describe the compliance office as the doctor’s office. Come to us while the project is still being developed, and we can identify the small things that might become big things later. It is much easier to deal with a question in a proposal than discover it after flights are booked, equipment is packed, and your field season is supposed to begin.

So, what happens after you have an idea?

Tell us what you want to do

The first step is understanding your research.

What will you study? What methods will you use? Will you be handling animals? Collecting samples? Will you need laboratory space or specialised field equipment? Will you need access to existing datasets?

Those details matter because research projects do not all follow the same path.

One thing researchers should also remember when budgeting is that permits apply to individual researchers. A principal investigator’s permit does not automatically cover the students working under them. 

Getting this clear helps us work out what needs to happen before you arrive.

If animals are involved, tell us early

If your work involves trapping, handling or sampling animals, the appropriate ethical clearance needs to form part of your permit paperwork. We therefore ask researchers to flag animal work in their proposals early so that Mpala’s veterinary team can also prepare for any on-site support that may be required. 

This is one of those areas where the order matters.

Don’t design the entire field programme and then remember the approvals at the end. Tell us what you intend to do while the project is still taking shape.

Getting permission to conduct the research is important, but it isn’t the end of your preparation.

Suppose you are collecting samples. Where will they go when your fieldwork ends?

Waste needs similar forethought.

These may sound like things to worry about at the end of a project.

They aren’t.

They are questions to answer at the beginning.

Then there is the practical side

Once we know your research can proceed, we also need to know whether Mpala can support the way you intend to do it.

Mpala has four shared research facilities: the Molecular Genomics Lab, Wet Lab, Dry Lab/Computational facility and Field Equipment Centre. Together, they support work ranging from PCR and sequencing to sample preparation, GIS and modelling, camera trapping, and the use of GPS collars, acoustic recorders, and soil and seismic equipment. 

But shared is the important word.

Before assuming a laboratory or piece of equipment will be available, check with the Research Team to confirm that your methods can be accommodated, and reserve what you need well in advance. 

The same principle applies to data.

Mpala has existing weather and GIS datasets, project data and other research resources. If you need them, request them in advance. Access to some project data may depend on the principal investigator and the publication status of the work, and datasets should be cited by DOI where applicable. 

Again, the recurring theme is simple: ask early.

And then, finally, you get to do the research

By the time you arrive at Mpala, many of these conversations should already have happened.

Your permits and relevant ethical clearances should be in place. We should be aware of any animal work that requires veterinary support. Your laboratory requirements should be understood. Equipment should be reserved. Data requests should have been made. And if you will generate samples or hazardous waste, we should already know what will happen to them.

That preparation may not be the part of the research that makes it into the photographs.

But it is what allows the photographs to happen.

And our relationship doesn’t necessarily end when you leave.

When researchers publish work arising from Mpala, we ask them to identify Mpala Research Centre as an affiliation, include Mpala in relevant research keywords and share their reports and research outputs with the Centre. 

Research compliance can sometimes sound like a collection of forms, permits and rules.

I prefer to think about it differently.

My job is to understand what you are trying to accomplish and help identify what needs to be in place for you to do it responsibly and successfully.

So if you’re thinking about bringing your next research project to Mpala, don’t wait until everything is ready before speaking to us.

Come while it’s still an idea.

That’s usually the best place to start.

The Mpala Archaeology Project brings together Mpala Research Centre, the National Museums of Kenya (NMK), the University of Nairobi and Princeton University in a long-term effort to document, research and better understand the archaeological heritage of Mpala and the wider Laikipia Plateau. 

“We are doing this for our country. The important thing is that there is a clear understanding of what we are doing, who is involved and why we are doing it,” said Prof. Mary Gikungu, Director General of the National Museums of Kenya, welcoming the collaboration and emphasising the importance of documenting and safeguarding Kenya’s archaeological heritage.

The first phase of the project begins not with excavation, but with museum shelves, archives and records.

Archaeological work has taken place across Laikipia over many decades. The result is a rich but dispersed record that includes stone tools, ceramics, animal remains, beads and other materials, alongside field notebooks, site registers, photographs, maps, excavation records and published and unpublished research. 

Working with collections held by the National Museums of Kenya, the project team will identify material associated with Mpala and the wider Laikipia landscape, reconcile existing records and establish a standardised catalogue.

The principle guiding this first stage is straightforward: understand and document what already exists before generating new archaeological data.

This work will provide the baseline for future archaeological investigation at Mpala. Phase 1 will identify collections, consolidate dispersed documentation, standardise catalogue information, digitise artefacts and records, and connect individual objects to the sites and landscapes from which they came. 

One of the project’s most significant ambitions is to transform this historical record into an integrated digital resource.

Instead of an artefact existing simply as an object in a collection, the system is intended to connect it to its archaeological context: the collection it belongs to, the site where it was found, the wider landscape, photographs and records associated with it, subsequent analysis and the research publications that interpret it.

The project will use internationally recognised approaches, including FAIR principles, which emphasise making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable, and CARE principles, which address Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility and Ethics. It will also explore CIDOC CRM and CRMarchaeo for connecting archaeological and museum information within a common digital system. 

By the end of February 2027, the project aims to have a functional digital archaeological system and portal that will provide a foundation for the next stage of research. 

While Mpala provides the project’s starting point, archaeology does not follow property boundaries.

People, wildlife, water and other resources have moved across the Laikipia landscape for generations. Understanding an archaeological site, therefore, requires looking beyond individual artefacts and locations to the environmental and cultural landscape around them.

For this reason, the project places Mpala within the broader archaeological context of the Laikipia Plateau, connecting sites at Mpala with neighbouring archaeological localities and comparative collections from across the region. 

Phase 1 focuses on collections, records, digitisation, and the building of the archaeological baseline. Phase 2 will take researchers back into the landscape through archaeological surveys, GIS mapping, targeted excavation, dating, laboratory analysis and environmental reconstruction.

The longer-term third phase envisions research infrastructure at Mpala supporting collections, laboratories, training, heritage interpretation and community engagement. 

Community engagement will be particularly important as the work develops. Archaeological heritage is not simply a record of the past. It is connected to people living in these landscapes today, to their histories, and to their knowledge. Discussions with NMK emphasised the importance of ensuring that communities are part of the understanding and sharing of this history.

The project is also an investment in the next generation of researchers.

Two postgraduate students are already participating in Phase 1, with their dissertations forming part of the project’s planned research outputs. By March 2027, the team also expects to have produced foundational research papers, a standardised archaeological database, a new catalogue system, a digital archive, an analytical report and a research proposal to guide Phase 2. 

During a recent project meeting at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi, partners reaffirmed the importance of conducting this work within Kenya’s established systems for archaeological research and heritage stewardship. NMK’s custodial role will remain central as the partners develop the project’s governance, research and digital components.

For Mpala, the collaboration also opens another window into a landscape already studied from many angles.

Dr Darcy Ogada, the Africa Program Director for The Peregrine Fund, first arrived at Mpala Research Centre in 2000. She later completed a Post-Doc on vulture declines and disease transmission at the Centre. That work helped lay the foundation for long-term monitoring and community engagement strategies used across Laikipia today.

Through training, outreach, and vulture population monitoring across Laikipia, the Peregrine Fund is advancing Mpala’s shared goal of reducing wildlife-conflict. Their work not only protects vultures, but also strengthens the broader ecological research and conservation network that Mpala is part of.

#InternationalVultureAwarenessDay #HumanWildlifeConflict #Coexistence

At Mpala Research Centre, water availability is central to the relationship between people, wildlife, ecosystems, and the environment. The landscape provides an important setting for understanding how water moves through an ecosystem, how long it remains underground, and how geological processes influence its availability and quality.

A project led by Prof. Elizabeth Niespolo and Dr. Fred Omengo of Princeton University’s Geosciences Department is investigating how the geological history and ongoing evolution of the Mpala landscape control the occurrence, movement, chemistry, and age of groundwater, and ultimately its long-term sustainability.

The research, sponsored by Princeton University, examines where groundwater originates, where it moves, how long it remains underground, and what controls its availability across different parts of the landscape.

The rocks and sediments that form the Mpala landscape play a fundamental role in determining how water is stored and transported and, ultimately, how it becomes available to support vegetation and wildlife. Geology also influences the availability and distribution of nutrients that support vegetation and the wildlife and livestock that depend on it.

The project combines field observations, geophysical techniques, isotope chemistry, and detailed geochemical analyses to reconstruct the movement and evolution of water through the Mpala landscape. Further investigations using LiDAR and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) will help researchers map subsurface structures and identify potential pathways and groundwater storage zones.

The deeper aquifer system within Mpala appears to have relatively slow recharge rates, with this becoming more pronounced toward the eastern side of the conservancy. This suggests that some groundwater resources may be particularly vulnerable to prolonged drought and increasing water demand.

Toward the western parts of the landscape, relatively shallow aquifer systems appear to occur, including a number of perched aquifers and spring eyes.

Groundwater availability can therefore vary considerably even across relatively short distances. Understanding these differences is important in determining which groundwater resources are resilient, which are vulnerable, and how their availability may change as climatic conditions continue to shift.

The project approaches groundwater not simply as a resource for extraction but as part of a wider landscape system that connects soils, vegetation, wildlife, people, and climate. By reconstructing how water has moved through the Mpala landscape in the past and examining how it behaves today, the research is building a clearer picture of how these groundwater systems may respond to future environmental change.

The new project brought Mpala Research Centre into Explore.org’s global network of live nature cameras, creating a way for audiences anywhere in the world to experience Mpala’s wildlife in real time. Funded by the Annenberg Foundation, the partnership also had a bigger ambition: to use that window into Mpala to share knowledge about wildlife, research and conservation.

That required people behind the cameras who understood what they were looking at.

Anne did.

Born and raised in Murang’a County, she came to Mpala with a background in wildlife and natural resources. She studied Wildlife Management at the University of Eldoret, later pursuing an MSc in the same field, and conducted her thesis research at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.

Her training made her a natural fit for MpalaLive. She joined the team to help operate the cameras, but over the next 12 years her role would grow alongside the platform itself.

The cameras were the starting point. The idea behind them was always bigger than simply watching wildlife.

Anne captures that idea particularly well:

“Mpala is many things to many people. For scientists, it’s a living laboratory. For students, it’s a classroom in the wild. For live-cam viewers across the world, it is an unending adventure.”

That description gets to the heart of MpalaLive’s place within Mpala’s wider mission.

Mpala is a centre for research, education and conservation, where scientists work to better understand ecosystems and the species within them, and where students learn directly from the landscape. MpalaLive extends that experience beyond the physical boundaries of the Research Centre, taking a little of Mpala into classrooms and homes around the world.

From 19–23 August 2026, Mpala hosted a Conservation Genomics Workshop, bringing together researchers and students for five days of practical training in the use of genomic tools for biodiversity conservation and evolutionary research.

The workshop was organised through a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen and the Africa BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) and led by Prof. Rasmus Heller, Dr Nuno Martins, Dr Anders Albrechtsen and Dr Harvi from the University of Copenhagen.

At the heart of the training was the question: What can DNA tell us about the past, present and future of populations?

Quite a lot, it turns out.

Working with the Kenya2026 genomic dataset, participants learned how genetic information can reveal relationships between populations, historical movements and mixing, changes in population size and even evidence of adaptation to changing environments.

The workshop moved from the fundamentals of working with genomic data to hands-on analysis using computational tools. Participants began with command-line skills and data management before exploring techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), admixture analysis, demographic reconstruction, nucleotide diversity, relatedness, F-statistics, D-statistics and selection scans.

Behind the technical names were some very practical conservation questions.

How genetically diverse is a population? How closely related are different populations? Have they exchanged genes in the past? Has a population experienced a major decline or expansion? And are there parts of the genome that reveal how a species has adapted to particular environmental pressures?

Participants also explored the LCT region associated with lactase persistence, demonstrating how genomic data can uncover the relationship between genetics, environment, diet and adaptation.

Another technique, Pairwise Sequentially Markovian Coalescent analysis, or PSMC, allowed participants to look much further back in time, using patterns within a genome to reconstruct historical changes in population size across thousands of generations.

For conservation science, these tools are increasingly important. Protecting biodiversity is not only about knowing how many individuals remain. Genetic diversity can tell us something about a population’s resilience, its evolutionary history and its capacity to respond to future environmental change.

By hosting training such as the Conservation Genomics Workshop, Mpala continues to provide a space where scientists and students can develop the skills needed to ask deeper questions about African biodiversity and, importantly, turn those answers into better-informed conservation.