NAIROBI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has allocated 250 million shillings (about 1.86 million U.S. dollars) for undertaking the 2024 wildlife census, an official said Friday.

       Patrick Omondi, chief executive officer and director of the state-owned Wildlife Research and Training Institute, told journalists in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that the exercise, which will end by June 2025, will seek accurate data for the population of all aquatic and land-based wildlife species in the country.

       "We have begun preparations for conducting the 2024 wildlife census which will be the second national scale census since 2021," Omondi said during the inception meeting for the 2024 wildlife census which marks the commencement of the pivotal initiative aimed at conducting comprehensive wildlife enumeration across various regions of Kenya.

       Omondi noted that the counting exercise will deploy the use of aircraft, boats, cameras as well as geographic information systems that target wildlife species in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The census will ensure continuous monitoring of wildlife resources to obtain data on the status of wildlife including trends, threats, challenges, and opportunities.

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       He said that the planned census is particularly important following the devastating drought in 2022 that impacted wildlife resources heavily including endangered species such as elephants and grevy's zebra.