Recent activities

Animal images from people associated with the Biodiversity Museum at the University of Hargeisa are now being shared with GBIF. At present, most are of insects. but it is designed to make available clear, identifiable, documented images all kinds of animal.

One of sites visited by Swayne in the late 1800s and by Faisal (SBF) and Xiyar (MoECC) in November 2024.

Faisal has been accepted as a participant in the course on "Plant Taxonomy Skills for Conservation" that will be offered by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in collaboration with the East African Herbarium and the University of Nairobi in Kenya in June 2025.

On publication of "Rangeland management practices in Somaliland: lessons learned from the Aroori Grazing Reserve" in Rangelands (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019005282400049X).

Grant awarded to Stephen Johnson, Faisal Jama Gelle, and Ismael Esse Hayir for "Learning from Swayne and today's elders". Swayne hunted in Somaliland in the 1890s and described country in a book. Faisal and Ismael will revisit three sites compare their present conditions with Swayne's descriptions.

Dr. Tharina Bird, Curator of Entomology at South African's National Natural History Museum, ran a workshop on arthropod collection, sorting and preservation for 16 students from the University of Hargesia at the Geed Deeble Botanic Garden.

Ahmed and Faisal participated in the International Book Fair in Hargeisa, a major event sponsored by the Red Sea Cultural Centre. They spoke about "Introduction to the Plants of Somaliland" (see April) and Faisal presented a poster on work he, Helen Pickering, and Ahmed are preparing on "The history tree of Ina Guuxa".

Prepared photographs of Ziziphus species for use in a documentation challenge and met with representatives of Amoud University, the University of Burao, and the Somaliland Biodiversity Research Institute.

Introduction to the plants of Central Somaliland, ed. 2 published. The new edition is bilingual (English and Somali) has improved color, a stronger binding, a brief explanation of why names change, and correction of some errors in the first edition.

Aloe kaysei formally named and described. The name honors Kayse Ali, the pastoralist who first noticed it.