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SO. The rhino horn trade debate. If you are bored of the topic, perhaps this reality-check will help to recalibrate your context?
The world’s largest wild rhino population not far from where I live is being hammered by poachers; every day, helicopters clatter overhead as teams of rangers and vets scramble to and fro. The authorities at senior level have their HEADS IN THE SAND – those not involved in the poaching syndicates – while their ground crew put their lives on the line. Every day.
Our first story below sheds light on when poaching spiked and provides possible reasons. Some experienced conservationists quoted believe that we have no option but to permit trade in rhino horn. Others say no. Have your say – what is your view? For club members only.
Our second story below celebrates one of the best athletes in Africa, and our third provides a window into the most incredible place on earth for weird and ENDEMIC creatures that time forgot.
Lastly, the great RICHARD LEAKEY passed away this week. I first met this fossil-hunter turned politician and conservationist over a private dinner, more years ago than I care to remember. He spoke his mind, and in the process, made enemies – some of whom tried to kill him. He lost both legs in a plane crash where sabotage was suspected, yet he soldiered on. There are not many leaders of sound mind left who have not been tamed by keyboard warriors and cancel culture.
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
I am sitting writing this from the heart of the Kruger National Park. And it is glorious: midsummer and lush, the rains have been good and the bushveld is positively pulsing with life. Sure, the wildlife spotting is a little tricky, but the wonder of the Kruger lies in the anticipation, the vast space and the majesty of the scenery.
Though we failed in our mission (for now) to see one of only three wild white lions in the world, I was perfectly content to while away the time watching a herd of elephants. The cows were standing sentinel as the calves slept through the blistering heat of the day, determined to ignore the recalcitrant youngest member of the herd. Clearly bored with nap time, he scrambled all over his prone herd mates, trying desperately to provoke a game with little succe
ss. It was such a familiar scene for anyone that has spent time with human children. For me, at least, spending time in the bushveld and with animals is less about racing from sighting to sighting and more about absorbing the magic of what is unfolding in front of me. While I recognise that time is limited for many on safari, I can say that this approach has meant that I have never, ever been on a boring game drive. Africa always delivers; we just have to learn to let her do so in her own way.
This time, we adventure to eastern Madagascar, in our four-part series on this wondrous island. See the resources section at the end of this story for the other three stories in the series.
For the last 88 million years, life on Madagascar has been on its own, creating an island of evolutionary oddities and myriad travel experiences. Sometimes referred to as a “Noah’s Ark” or the “eighth continent” due to its geographic isolation and high levels of endemism, Madagascar is, simply put, enormous. It is approximately 587,000km2 (around two and a half times the size of the United Kingdom). A combination of ocean currents and dramatic topography has created a tapestry of different climates and habitats perfectly suited to the island’s peculiar inhabitants (or the other way round).
The island is home to over 300 recorded birds (60% of which are endemic) and 260 species of reptile – including two-thirds of the world’s chameleon species. There are over 110 species of lemurs spread throughout Madagascar’s protected areas, in a variety of shapes and sizes, but all possessing a shared, wide-eyed charisma. Six of the world’s eight baobab species occur only in Madagascar. All in all, the natural history is unique, shaped by the fascinating and beautiful, isolated island habitats.
In an ideal world, a trip to Madagascar would last weeks, giving the curious traveller every opportunity to explore the magnificent island. Realistically, however, time is usually limited and deciding where to invest one’s attention is guaranteed to create a significant traveller’s quandary. This four-part series is intended to help guide this decision.
Eastern Madagascar
Madagascar is an island divided, split just off-centre by an arched spine of mountains that runs from north to south. The arid highlands sit astride the central plateau to the west before gradually descending to the sea – a palette of browns and yellows decorating sharp scenery and thorny plants. The eastern part of the island could not be more different. Tropical rainforests, resplendent in green, are the dominant vegetation type. Although these forests cover just a fraction of their historic range due to human encroachment, this emerald corridor is home to an estimated 50% of Madagascar’s biodiversity.
Away from the capital city, Antananarivo (Tana), and the main tourist attractions, journeying through eastern Madagascar is a step back in time to an era before convenience and accessibility became a mantra of tourism. This is where the best travel tales are made – stories of adventures to a remote idyll on the back of an ancient motorbike or in a local pirogue (dugout canoe), arriving sweaty, dusty, and elated. Of course, this is entirely at the traveller’s discretion, and there are easier ways to access some of the more popular tourist haunts in the east.
Sunset over the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo
Andasibe-Mantadia National Park
When it comes to the wildlife viewing for which Madagascar is famous, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park (see cover image above) – formerly known as ‘Perinet’ – is one of the most important ports of call. With its plethora of fantastic beasts and easy accessibility from Tana, it is one of Madagascar’s most famous national parks. It consists of two halves: the Analamazaotra Special Reserve and the Mantadia National Park, which together protect around 155 km2 of precious rainforest. Historically, Analamazaotra was part of Mantadia, but logging and agriculture have isolated the two regions.
Most visitors to Analamazaotra are there to see the vocal and critically endangered indri – the largest of all living lemur species. The indri is found only in the forests of eastern Madagascar, and Andasibe-Mantadia is the best place to see them. These extraordinary creatures look something like a cross between a panda and a monkey, and they fill the forests with haunting, unearthly howls. Local legends tell of a time when two brothers separated – one to become human, the other the indri. The cry of the indri, say the stories, is because they still mourn their lost sibling. However, it is well worth remembering that sacred or not, they too are subject to the demands of the physical realm and standing directly beneath them for the perfect photograph may result in an unexpected shower or worse. (This word of warning applies to all lemur sightings.)
In addition to the indri, Andasibe-Mantadia is home to at least 11 other lemur species (scientists regularly discover new lemur and chameleon species in Madagascar). These include the glamorous, limber diademed sifaka and the adorable nocturnal woolly lemurs. Like all national parks in Madagascar, the trails can only be explored with a guide supplied by the park, but this will make the trip more rewarding. Their expert direction will reveal the hiding spots of secret creatures and bring the magic of the forest to life, from tiny brightly coloured frogs to spikey tenrecs, mammals that resemble hedgehogs but belong to their own family, endemic to Madagascar.
While wandering along leafy trails to tumbling waterfalls, visitors can keep their eyes peeled for the fluttering of endemic bird species such as the Madagascar yellow-brow, the Madagascar wagtail, or even the Madagascar serpent-eagle. Andasibe is also a good place to see Madagascar snipe, brown mesite, brown emutail, and white-throated oxylabes.
Timing a trip between September and January means bright colour splashes decorate the forest as hundreds of orchids burst into bloom.
Clockwise from top left: ruff-necked lemur; golden mouse lemur; woolly-necked lemur (photographer Jennifer Vitanzo)
Misty mountains of Masoala and the forests of the east
Extending over 2,300 km2 of the island’s north-eastern peninsula, Masoala National Park is Madagascar’s largest protected area. Famously biodiverse, Masoala is well and truly off the beaten track and accessible only by boat (or on foot for adventurous hikers with time to spare). Consequently, those who do make the journey are usually rewarded with a piece of paradise all to themselves. The park includes three separate marine sanctuaries, the Nosy Mangabe Special Reserve (see below), and sections of Antongil Bay, while the terrestrial portion covers a mosaic of tropical rainforest, lowland forest, coastal forest, mangroves, and marshes.
The captivating red-ruffed lemurs are found only in the rainforests of Masoala. These hefty lemurs play a vital role in dispersing the seeds of tropical hardwoods and are critically endangered due to habitat loss. Most of the park’s other lemur species are nocturnal, so a night walk accompanied by the swooping silhouettes of massive bats is an integral part of the exploration.
[For a more detailed account of Masoala National Park, read Magnificent Masoala.]
Maosola National Park is part of the Rainforests of the Atsinanana UNESCO World Heritage Site – a serial property composed of six national parks protecting relic forests in Madagascar. The other five parks are Marojejy National Park (not far from Maosola), Zahamena National Park, Ranomafana National Park, Andringitra National Park, and Andohahela National Park. The parks run from north to south along the eastern escarpment and support some of the most threatened plant and animal species on the island. These biodiversity hotspots are bursting with colour and life, from silky sifakas and red-bellied lemurs to Madagascar red owls and helmet vangas.
Indri – found only in the forests of eastern Madagascar
Nosy Mangabe
Just off the coast in Antogil Bay, the mountainous terrain of Nosy Mangabe swells up out of the murky green waters of the cove. It is the kind of setting deserving of a Hans Zimmer soundtrack, complete with a rum-drunk pirate wielding a cutlass and chasing his hat across the sand. Indeed, Nosy Mangabe is steeped in a rich history of trade and piracy. A rusty shipwreck stands guard at one of the coves, and Dutch sailors of the 16th century scraped doodles into the rocks.
Today, the island is uninhabited but for a campsite that serves as a base for researchers and tourists. The dense forest is one of the best places in Madagascar to see the endangered aye-aye, a nocturnal evolutionary oddity designed by nature to fill the ecological niche of a woodpecker. With their long fingers and scraggly fur, these bizarre-looking lemurs were almost wiped out entirely due to an unfortunate belief that they are harbingers of evil and bad luck. The population inhabiting Nosy Mangabe was introduced to the island in the 1960s as part of a conservation initiative, and it has flourished ever since. Nosy Mangabe also boasts one of the largest populations of the fascinating leaf-tailed gecko – a creature with a genuinely spectacular camouflage strategy.
The outlandish and persecuted aye-aye
Whales, beaches, and reefs
True to form, the beaches of eastern Madagascar are as lush and wild as the interior – a tropical paradise Robinson Crusoe style. Far from the calm and sheltered west coast, the seas here often crash and tumble onto palm-fringed beaches and at certain times of the year, swimming in the rough seas is ill-advised. The weather can be unpleasant, and cyclones regularly batter the region from January to March each year. However, when timed correctly, there are sections of calm where shallow turquoise waters and laid-back coastal towns offer holidaymakers a piece of paradise – often cheaper and more secluded than the more popular northern islands.
Nosy Boraha (formerly Île Sainte-Marie) is a long, narrow island that lies off Madagascar’s east coast. Like Nosy Mangabe, Nosy Boraha was once a notorious pirate hideout. The savage ocean claimed several buccaneer ships, and experienced divers can now explore which sea creatures have made themselves at home in the sunken wrecks. On the island, a forlorn-looking pirate graveyard dates back to the 17th century.
Every year, from July to September, humpback whales travel through the calm, sheltered channel between Nosy Boraha and Madagascar on their way north to calve (often in Antongil Bay).
A humpback whale breaches
The Pangalanes Canal and the Palmarium Nature Reserve
Further south, the Pangalanes Canal links a series of lakes, rivers, and waterways from Tamatave to Farafangana – a distance of over 645km along the coast parallel to the ocean. Used by locals as a sheltered transportation route, it passes through small towns and villages that have changed little in the past hundred years. Apart from the opportunity to observe traditional Madagascan life, a highlight for most visitors along the canal is the Palmarium Nature Reserve, home to several species of highly habituated lemurs.
Clockwise from top left: Arachnis flosaeris orchid; Boophis tasymena; giant leaf-tailed gecko; Madagascan yellow-brow
The ins and outs of exploring Madagascar
Madagascar’s tropical climate is generally enjoyable year-round, though the wet season runs from November to March and is usually accompanied by minimal wind. February carries the highest risk of fierce tropical cyclones, which tend to batter the east coast particularly viciously. The cooler dry season from April until October alleviates the worst of the oppressive heat, particularly when hiking on the islands or through the humid forests.
There are plenty of budget-friendly and camping options in or near all the destinations mentioned above. It is advisable to travel in Madagascar with a reputable company, but it is also possible to hire a car to drive between attractions. The roads are bad, particularly during the wet season, and a 4×4 is essential. The only major exception to this is the Andasibe-Mantadia, which is easily accessible from the vibrant capital Tana.
A brightly coloured helmet vanga removes a centipede from the forest ecosystem
Final thoughts
Madagascar is a fantastical land – a natural evolutionary playground and a human kaleidoscope of cultural influences. Remarkable, offbeat, and enticing, this magical island offers an intoxicating combination of unique wildlife viewing and magnificent scenery. There is far more to Madagascar than our series could ever hope to convey, but there is no question that it offers something to everyone. Our travel consultants are always on standby to help you plan the Madagascan holiday of your dreams.
Ken Behrens is a birder, naturalist, consultant, guide, and photographer who is based in Madagascar. He is the co-author of several books, including Wildlife of Madagascar. His work can be seen at ken-behrens.com
This time, we adventure to western Madagascar, in our four-part series on this wondrous island. See the resources section at the end of this story for the other three stories in the series.
For the last 88 million years, life on Madagascar has been on its own, creating an island of evolutionary oddities and myriad travel experiences. Sometimes referred to as a “Noah’s Ark” or the “eighth continent” due to its geographic isolation and high levels of endemism, Madagascar is, simply put, enormous. It is approximately 587,000km2 (around two and a half times the size of the United Kingdom). A combination of ocean currents and dramatic topography has created a tapestry of different climates and habitats perfectly suited to the island’s peculiar inhabitants (or the other way round).
The island is home to over 300 recorded birds (60% of which are endemic) and 260 species of reptile – including two-thirds of the world’s chameleon species. There are over 110 species of lemurs spread throughout Madagascar’s protected areas, in a variety of shapes and sizes, but all possessing a shared, wide-eyed charisma. Six of the world’s eight baobab species occur only in Madagascar. All in all, the natural history is unique, shaped by the fascinating and beautiful, isolated island habitats.
In an ideal world, a trip to Madagascar would last weeks, giving the curious traveller every opportunity to explore the magnificent island. Realistically, however, time is usually limited and deciding where to invest one’s attention is guaranteed to create a significant traveller’s quandary. This four-part series is intended to help guide this decision.
Western Madagascar
The curvy outline of Madagascar’s western edge is a testament to a time when the island was still joined to Africa (then part of Gondwanaland) around 165 million years ago. The sheltered bays and coves closest to its parent continent were the island’s gateway to the outside world for the antecedents of its amazing wildlife. It is here that the flotsam carrying the earliest lemur ancestors would have washed ashore, while the first chameleons would have taken their initial wobbly steps into a new home on the beaches. Both of these creatures would find themselves in a world all to themselves and would go on to evolve into the myriad species known today (and some still undiscovered).
The hot and dry region is well deserving of its title of the ‘Wild West’, far removed from the country’s capital, Antananarivo, and the rich, lush forests of the east. Divided into northern and southern sections with little in the way of roads linking them, western Madagascar requires patience to get to and around, with travel through farmlands and sparse savannas. This forbearance will, however, be richly rewarded by the scenery and wildlife on offer. Some of the most iconic images and scenes associated with Madagascar are from its enormous western portion. From upside-down trees to rocks with teeth, the island’s arid west is full of Madagascan specialities.
Clockwise from top left: Baobab alley; a bridge crossing a chasm in Grand Tsingy; a forested hillside featuring baobabs (Adansonia perrieiri); entwined Baobabs ‘Baobab de Amoureux’
Allée des Baobabs – Baobab Alley
Of all Madagascar’s evocative settings, perhaps Baobab Alley receives the most photographic attention (see our cover photo above). This exquisite stretch of dusty red road is lined by towering baobabs, some of which are over 2,800 years old and around 30m in height. Against the short surrounding scrubland, these giant Grandidier’s baobabs (Adansonia grandidieri) stand out as a natural monument. At sunrise and sunset, tourists flock to admire their dramatic shapes in the golden light – their long, straight bodies and peculiar crowns (like roots planted in the sky) create an entirely alien atmosphere.
Of the eight species of baobab in the world, six are found only in Madagascar. The Grandidier’s baobabs of Baobab Alley are the tallest. They were once part of Madagascar’s vast tracts of dry deciduous and tropical forests. Sadly, slash-and-burn agriculture and relentless human development are estimated to have destroyed around 50% of the island’s forests over the last 60 years, leaving these stately giants isolated.
After that sombre thought, visitors can travel just seven km from the Baobab Alley to appreciate an ancient story of boundless love in the form of two intertwined za baobabs (Adansonia za) – the ‘Baobab de Amoureux’. The legend goes that two people were once desperately in love but were already promised to others. Desperate, the couple appealed to their god, and thus the baobabs came to be entangled for eternity.
Clockwise from top left: Madagascar blue vanga; Madagascar serpent eagle; Madagascar blue reed-frog; Madagascar paradise flycatcher
Kirindy Mitea National Park
Not to be confused with Kirindy Private Reserve further north, the 722 km2 (72,200 ha) Kirindy-Mitea National Park is one of the more remote national parks, situated on the west coast, south of the sleepy beach town of Morondava. The large park encompasses the overlap of southern and western biotypes. The habitats are many and varied, including dry deciduous forest, tropical dry forest, spiny forest, mangroves, beaches and coral reefs. An added advantage is that few tourists travel here because it is so remote, and one can explore the hiking trails in relative seclusion (with a mandatory guide, of course).
A predatory fossa, most easily seen in Kirindy Private Reserve (photographer Pedro Ferreira)
Kirindy Private Reserve
The relatively new Kirindy Private Reserve (Kirindy Forest) is located north of Morondava and is privately owned and operated. Despite the region’s destructive history of logging, wildlife here has survived and is now flourishing. This is a reserve, not a national park, meaning night walks are available within the reserve itself rather than just on the outskirts. (Night walks in the national parks of Madagascar have been banned, but guides are still permitted to lead groups of tourists along the roads bordering the parks to look for nocturnal lemurs, chameleons, and other creatures of the Madagascan night.)
Kirindy Forest is the best place in Madagascar to see the lithe, carnivorous fossa – the island’s largest mammalian predator. Looking something like a cross between a cat and a mongoose (though more closely related to the latter), the acrobatic fossa is equally at home in the trees or on the ground while hunting for reptiles, birds, and lemurs. Fossa start their mating season in November, when the females take to the trees, call loudly and wait patiently to take their pick of appropriate suitors. A visit during this time does not guarantee a fossa sighting, but it does increase the likelihood of a truly exceptional one of the island’s most exciting animals. Though fossa have a widespread distribution across the island, they occur at extremely low densities and are seldom spotted in the other protected areas.
In addition to the fossa, Kirindy Forest is also home to the smallest lemur on Earth: the critically endangered Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur. This minuscule primate weighs just 30 grams on average. It is named after Madagascan primatologist and conservationist Berthe Rakotosamimanana (the reason for selecting her first name can be left to the imagination). These tiny creatures wrap themselves in vines and sleep during the day, emerging at night to forage, so a night exploration is essential. This is especially true because they are creatures living on the edge of existence – experts suggest that they could be extinct in the next ten years if the current rate of deforestation continues.
Though the forest is bursting with reptile and birdlife, one final mammal species of Kirindy Forest deserves mention. The Malagasy giant rat (giant jumping rat) is a regular nighttime visitor to the camp and looks very similar to a springhare.
Clockwise from top left: Von der Decken’s sifaka; red-tailed sportive lemur; Verreaux’s sifaka; ring-tailed lemur; red lemur
Tsingy De Bemaraha National Park
The term “tsingy” loosely translates as a place where you cannot walk barefoot, or to walk on tiptoe. It is the perfect description for the extraordinary geology of Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. Together with the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve, the region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site centred around the ‘Great Tsingy’ and the ‘Little Tsingy’. In places, the jagged limestone pinnacles stretch almost as far as the eye can see – a sawtooth landscape shaped by the forces of water and wind over millennia.
The park’s infrastructure is well-developed and well-maintained, but a certain degree of physical fitness is necessary to make the most of a trip. The weather is generally hot, and even though the park is only accessible during the cooler, dry season (April to November), temperatures regularly exceed 35˚C on the plateaus. The hikes include travelling along via ferrata, walkways, and suspension bridges before descending into narrow, humid caves and canyons.
Naturally, the park’s peculiar geography is home to Madagascar’s usual array of weird plants and strange creatures adapted to very narrow niches. These include bottle trees and orchids, to the giant coua (a bird) and the extremely rare Madagascan big-headed turtle. Of course, lemurs are ever-present, and those hoping to complete their checklists (with over 110 lemur species on the island, this would be an impressive feat) could tick off the Von der Decken’s sifaka and red-fronted lemurs, among others.
Tsingy De Bemaraha National Park
The ins and outs of exploring western Madagascar
Timing a trip to western Madagascar requires some delicate balancing of weather, wildlife and wishes. Throughout the island, some wildlife species enter torpor during the dry winter months, starting around May and continuing until November. This applies to everything from chameleons to lemurs and is particularly true in the drier sections of Madagascar, where plant and food availability are scarce. In the west, the parks come to life during the hot rainy season from November to March, but this is also when the roads are at their worst, and some areas are completely inaccessible. May offers a good compromise – the vegetation is still lush after the wet season, and the animals are still mostly active. However, those wishing to see baby lemurs should delay until September/October.
There are plenty of budget-friendly and camping options in or near all the major parks, and some more exclusive options for the discerning visitor. The prime western destinations are far from the capital and often require a long drive over rough roads or a chartered flight. Once there, it is essential to try to plan hikes and activities for the early morning or late afternoon to avoid the worst of the heat. Plentiful water and sunscreen supplies are crucial, as is a hat. Acquainting oneself with the colourful lives and personalities of local people en route is an inevitable part of exploring western Madagascar and only adds to the richness of the experience.
Clockwise from top left: A motorised barge trip on the Tsiribihina River; camping on the Tsiribihina River; Luxury at L’altra Faccia Della Luna – Chez Diego – Anakao; view from a room at Chez Diego; Auberge Peter Pan, Anakao; Fine dining in the middle of nowhere at the Mad Zebu
Final thoughts
Madagascar is a fantastical land – a natural evolutionary playground and a human kaleidoscope of cultural influences. Remarkable, offbeat, and enticing, this magical island offers an intoxicating combination of unique wildlife viewing and magnificent scenery. There is far more to Madagascar than our series could ever hope to convey, but there is no question that it offers something to everyone. Our travel consultants are always on standby to help you plan the Madagascan holiday of your dreams.
Want to go on safari to Madagascar? To find lodges, search for our ready-made packages or get in touch with our travel team to arrange your safari, scroll down to after this story.
Ken Behrens is a birder, naturalist, consultant, guide, and photographer who is based in Madagascar. He is the co-author of several books, including Wildlife of Madagascar. His work can be seen at ken-behrens.com
Why did rhino poaching flare up so suddenly in South Africa just over a decade ago? The answer to this question may provide some useful clues while searching for solutions to douse, or at least dampen, the recent poaching inferno that has swept over Southern Africa and extinguished the lives of close to ten thousand of these iconic animals. Rhino poaching is not new of course. For centuries, hunters and horn poachers of all hues have been slaughtering them across Africa and Asia – some to hang on the walls of lounges and trophy rooms, some to be carved into dagger handles or kept as status symbols, or simply crushed up for use in traditional Chinese medical potions.
Yet there was a critical point – in 2008 – when horn poaching literally exploded in South Africa – the last, large bastion of global rhino conservation.
Whoosh! It was almost as if a match had been tossed over a petrol-soaked land to ignite a massive bush fire that would spread out to engulf just about every piece of land in South Africa where rhinos had thrived for several decades in relative safety, in stark contrast to rhino populations in most other parts of Africa.
Thirteen years later that fire is still roaring, despite the Dollar fortune spent to quell the problem. It has fostered the inevitable militarisation of state and private nature reserves – in turn fuelling perceptions in some quarters that rhino conservation outweighs the social welfare of nearby poor communities.
The skeleton of a poached rhino, note the section of the skull where the horn was hacked off
The skeleton of a poached rhino, note the section of the skull where the horn was hacked off
What triggered the fire?
What happened between 2007 and 2008 that could help to explain the sudden inferno?
Was it simply a case of coincidence, or circumstances in which the availability of rhino horns elsewhere in Africa had been virtually exhausted due to poaching? Was there a sudden surge in demand for rhino horn that was triggered by an explosion of wealth in China and Vietnam?
Or, was it that in June 2007, new regulations came into effect to restrict the hunting of rhinos for horn trophies? Or that on June 12, 2008, former Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk notified the wildlife industry that government would shortly impose a moratorium on the domestic trade in rhino horns?
(Though rhino horn trading has been banned at an international level since 1977, it was still legal to buy and sell rhino horns in South Africa until 2008 – even though there is no direct consumer use for horns in this country).
According to court papers filed on behalf of the former minister, significant volumes of rhino horns previously traded on the domestic market were being sold clandestinely and then moved to Asia. In other words, legal domestic trade was supplying the illegal international trade.
Soon after the moratorium came into effect in early 2009, the government introduced further measures to make it more difficult to obtain horns from “pseudo hunting”. (Sham hunts in which professional hunters shot animals on behalf of their predominantly Vietnamese clients who had never fired a rifle in their lives).
Is it significant that the surge in rhino poaching in South Africa began to rocket as soon as the loopholes for illegal trade from South Africa were largely plugged?
Dr George Hughes, former chief executive of the Natal Parks Board/Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife conservation agency renowned for rescuing Southern Africa’s white rhinos from the brink of extinction, says he is not a great believer in coincidences.
Hughes, a career conservationist who has been advocating for a controlled, legal trade in horns for several decades, says: “The moment they did that (declared a domestic moratorium and clamped down on trophy horn hunting) poaching just took off.”
“Criminal syndicates read the newspapers and saw what was happening and once the ball started rolling the poachers discovered that our parks were not impregnable – and now we have lost between 8 000 and 10 000 rhinos in South Africa.”
Poached rhino horns jammed into the engine of a vehicle to conceal them from the authorities
Trade
According to Dr Hughes, the most viable long-term strategy to reverse the continuing wave of poaching and illegal trade is to ensure sustainable financial incentives for more land-owners to re-build the depleted national rhino herd, by re-opening international horn trade.
It’s an unpopular proposal for many, that has spurred a highly-polarised debate among conservationists and animal-welfare groups for more than four decades.
Nevertheless, the option to re-open trade was revived recently in the SA government’s High-Level Panel report released in May 2021 by national Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.
These lists help to recap some of the main divisions:
AGAINST TRADING:
It is barbarous, ethically wrong and anachronistic to commodify and trade body parts of an animal on the verge of extinction
As a member of the Big 5, and the second-largest land mammal globally, rhinos are an iconic species and should not be farmed or reduced to the status of domesticated cows or chickens
Re-opening trade will fuel unsustainable demand for rhino horn in China and Vietnam and may revive demand from countries like Taiwan and Singapore
Re-opening trade will send out mixed messages and undermine campaigns to reduce or eliminate consumer demand for horns
Southern African nations are behaving in a selfish way because they have larger populations of rhinos. Resuming legal trade will drive the small surviving rhino populations of East Africa and Asia to extinction
A legal trade would provide cover for criminal syndicates to launder poached rhino horns, much like blood diamonds
There are not enough rhino horns to meet growing demand from natural deaths, captive breeding or stockpiles
Trading only favours the interests of a small number of captive rhino breeders and speculators whose primary interest is short-term financial profit
FOR TRADING:
Financial incentives to protect rhinos by selling horns from captive-bred animals (or from natural deaths or legal stockpiles) will help to reduce poaching pressure on wild rhinos and safeguard the species from extinction
Humanity has been farming and hunting animals for millenia. Many wild species, including elephants, crocodiles, cheetahs etc have been semi-domesticated – but wild specimens remain a major tourist attraction
Like bans on alcohol, cigarettes or drugs, demand for rhino horn has not abated despite nearly 40 years of international trade prohibition
Demand reduction campaigns have done little to end demand and may prove futile if current poaching rates continue
Southern African rhino range states have a right to manage and protect their rhinos using methods that have been more effective in protecting and multiplying rhino numbers compared to nations that ban hunting or sustainable use of wildlife
Trade will not eliminate poaching or laundering, but the overall benefits of controlled trade outweigh the risks of continued prohibition
Southern Africa has substantial stockpiles of horns and legal trading would provide new incentives to multiply rhino numbers
Commercial incentives are vital to landowners to justify keeping rhinos on their land for tourism, hunting or captive breeding instead of switching to more profitable land uses such as crops or mining
Releasing the High-Level Panel report in May 2021, Minister Creecy made it clear that South Africa will not be submitting a proposal to re-open international trade at the next meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Costa Rica in 2022.
Nevertheless, a closer reading of the panel recommendations approved by Cabinet suggests that South Africa has not shut the trade door and still aims to submit a future proposal if it can secure broad support from other African and Asian rhino range states.
This recommendation, known as Option 3, confirms that international trade remains illegal, but keeps the door open to resuming trade once certain conditions have been met – including a continued reduction in poaching and moving away from intensive captive-breeding operations. The panel has recommended that Creecy should immediately engage private rhino landowners and other stakeholders to seek broad consensus on horn trading, a lengthy proposal that could take anywhere between six and 15 years.
This would involve building up a “respected negotiating team” to engage other range states over the next three to five CITES meetings, which are held every two to three years.
In short, get ready for another loud, ugly and protracted slugging match between local and global stakeholders with sharply opposed views.
The case for resuming trading is often portrayed as being driven solely by profit-hungry rhino breeders such as John Hume (a South African rancher who has built up a captive population of over 2 000 animals, making him the world’s largest private owner of rhinos).
However, there are several widely-respected conservationists like Dr Hughes who have voiced support, or qualified support, for a resumption of trading. They include the late Dr Ian Player, the former Natal Parks Board ranger and founding force of the Wilderness Foundation which seeks to sustain wildlife and wilderness areas. He was also head of Operation Rhino, the 1960s project to translocate hundreds of animals from Umfolozi Game Reserve to Kruger National Park and other reserves across the nation and other African parks.
Combined with later initiatives in which surplus rhino from Ezemvelo were sold on auction to private ranchers and reserve-owners, Project Rhino was one of the world’s greatest conservation achievements, ultimately leading to a situation where South Africa became the country with the world’s largest number of rhinos.
At the height of the rhino poaching crisis, Player took a controversial decision to support a resumption of the international horn trade. “Everyone wanted to hit me. There was a violent reaction when I said that the time had come to start talking about this,” he told me in an interview shortly before his death in 2014.
“Yes, of course, there are all sorts of dangers with allowing some form of controlled trade. That is inevitable with a commodity of such great value. But we also have to face the reality that government is running out of money. Is there another way to stop what is happening? . . . Nobody can really say until we have tried it.”
Ezemvelo wildlife veterinarian Dr Dave Cooper, who has dedicated his 40-year career to treating and alleviating suffering in wildlife, also supports a resumption of trading, albeit on a structured, experimental basis.
Cooper, who has also had the harrowing task of conducting autopsies on hundreds of poached and badly mutilated rhinos – or chopping off the horns of hundreds more to make them less of a target to poachers – argues that the trading ban has had the perverse effect of making dead rhinos more valuable than living rhinos.
“I still think we should try this (trading) option. In principle, I think it could help tremendously . . . because poaching went up the moment government announced that there would be no domestic trade.”
Like it or not, he says, there is already a massive trade in rhino horns. So the choice, in his view, is between completely illegal trade involving criminal syndicates – or a legal trade that could provide incentives to protect living rhinos.
A captive-bred rhino with its horns intact
No room for experiments
But tourism industry veteran Colin Bell – like many others – does not buy into the trading argument.
Bell, a former safari guide and co-founder of high-end ecotourism entities Wilderness Safaris and Natural Selection, warned in 2014 that: “We do not get a second chance if we get the economics of rhino trading wrong; all the rhino in the wild will be gone.
“We have to get our policies right and there’s no room for experiments; viewing rhinos in small secure breeding farms is no substitute. The tragedy of the horn debate is that South Africa’s highly respected rhino custodians (park authorities, field rangers, anti-poaching, monitoring teams) and even politicians have embraced a failed, pro-trade economic model as the answer to the rhino crisis.”
Last year he posted his detailed rebuttal on the trade debate in a 52-minute YouTube video.
He strongly disputes claims that South Africa can supply sufficient volumes of legally-held rhino horns to dampen the illegal demand and believes that re-opening trade will simply put more pressure on national and private rhino reserves.
Bell also denies that the 1977 CITES ban on international trade has not worked, arguing that it had a major impact on reducing poaching levels, especially from 1993 – but the effectiveness of the global ban has been undermined by loopholes that allowed limited trading via South African pseudo-hunting.
Pointing to high levels of corruption and Treasury restrictions on how government revenue can be spent, he scoffs at suggestions that income from legally-traded horns would in practise be ploughed back into rhino protection.
Bell also disputes claims that private rhino owners no longer have a financial incentive to protect rhinos unless they can sell their horns, noting that there are still major incentives to keep rhinos for Big 5 tourism viewing and a limited number of trophy hunts.
Instead, the government should aggressively target the rhino poaching kingpins rather than low-level poachers, clamp down on corruption and stop the “mixed messages” where the public is warned that rhinos are on the verge of extinction, yet simultaneously encouraged to support a new legal trade.
Michael ’t Sas-Rolfes, a resource economist and doctoral researcher at the Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade, rejects as too simplistic, suggestions that the domestic trade moratorium and stricter hunting restrictions were solely to blame for the sudden poaching flare-up in 2008.
Without pinning his colours to either the pro or anti-trade mast, ’t Sas-Rolfes says: “This a monumentally-complicated topic…”
Rather, he attributes it to a “perfect storm” of events, including the involvement of Asian wildlife traders who came to South Africa originally in search of lion bones, but discovered that rhino horns were also available.
The Asian economy was booming at the time and affluent consumers had disposable income to invest in luxury products. ‘We also need to consider the political changes that took place in South Africa at that time and the related surge in organised crime. What started out as some wildlife ranchers bending the rules rapidly morphed into an opportunity for informal economic transformation.’
On the issue of re-opening trade, ’t Sas-Rolfes says it is impossible to predict the future, and notes that in a worst-case scenario the price of rhino horns could sky-rocket to the benefit of private rhino owners, but put State reserves under further poaching pressure.
He also believes that several Asian range states would be very concerned about the potential risks of resuming legal trade, especially Indonesia, which was custodian to two rhino species now on the verge of extinction. ’t Sas-Rolfes believes it is critical for the government, private sector and other parties to start working together for solutions – and not to assume that any single interest group has the correct answer.
“But if the status quo continues, with the option of future trade unresolved either way, rhinos will remain under threat … and I fear that fatigue will set in. Private owners have been eating into their capital (because of increased security costs and the Covid-related decline in tourist income) while State parks have been losing ground. Our largest populations are already in trouble, so the trajectory towards little pockets of rhino in well-fortified areas will continue.”
Is the sun setting on free-ranging rhino?
Les Carlisle, a wildlife consultant with a 40-year career in private-sector conservation, paints a much bleaker picture: “I don’t think rhinos will ever become extinct – but within five to ten years they will not exist in a free-ranging situation. In five years, it will be extraordinary to see them in the wild. In ten years, you will no longer find them in the wild. We are heading towards a point where you will only see them behind electrified fences with machine-gun posts at every corner.”
“Rhinos are getting hammered in Kruger. The actual number of rhinos killed by poachers has gone down (because there are fewer rhino left), but the number of incursions has not because the poachers are having to work harder to find animals to shoot.”
Carlisle says the number of rhinos poached in Kruger is “staggering” and he fears that the window for re-opening trade is closing slowly.
“Once rhino numbers drop below a certain point it’s almost too risky to talk about trading”, he says, suggesting that over the last five years, the national proportion of rhinos in State reserves has declined from around 75% to 35% of the total population, with the majority of South African rhinos now privately-owned.
“Within the next few years, the private sector will probably own 90%, with just 10% in State reserves. And as the State reserves are depleted, the syndicates will be coming hard against the private sector. The challenge is that the seven main rhino range states currently have no say against 170 other CITES members – and that’s where the problem lies.
“The State conservation agencies cannot afford the continued level of high-security costs required to protect the species – and you also have to ask why senior rangers doing the most to fight poaching in Kruger are getting shifted to other areas where there are no rhinos. The game has changed completely. The amounts of money are just so big that anyone, including rangers and police station commanders, can be bought off.
“The voices of the people who protect the most rhinos have to be heard and trade has to be tried, otherwise we will see the remaining animals being shifted into increasingly smaller enclosures or zoos.
“Conservation is not uniform and we need local solutions for local problems. Rhino horn is a completely renewable resource – so I don’t think this is a difficult debate. Re-opening trade is a no-lose situation. If the horn price rises, it benefits rhino owners – and if it drops, the costs of poaching will outweigh the risks. Either way rhino will benefit.”
Somewhere on the plains of the Serengeti, a cheetah sprints after her terrified prey. It is a magnificent sight as muscles bunch and release, propelling her at speeds around 100km/hour. Yet there is a largely overlooked element to this evolutionary equation: the terrified Thomson’s gazelle staying just ahead at every turn, jinking and dodging until its pursuer runs out of steam. The sheer magic of the little gazelle’s athleticism is often overlooked in the excitement of a big cat sighting.
Across the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, tourists flock to admire the hordes of wildebeest and zebra and the predators that plague them. The Thomson’s gazelles that dot the grasslands do not attract the same enthusiasm. Even the term “gazelle” is widely misunderstood and misused. Indeed, lots of people still consider the name to be a blanket term for antelope. In actual fact, while all gazelles are antelopes, not all antelopes are gazelles, but we will address that later.
Tommies
The Thomson’s gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is probably the most well-known of all gazelle species and is named after Joseph Thomson, a 19th-century geologist and explorer. They are often referred to as “tommies” and are spread throughout the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem of Tanzania and Kenya.
Thomson’s gazelles are relatively small, standing under a metre at the shoulder, but they are phenomenally fast. Anecdotal evidence suggests that they may reach speeds of up to 94km/hour, though most researchers suggest a more conservative 80km/hour. Either way, they are among the fastest terrestrial land mammals. What’s more, they can sustain these speeds for much longer than most predators. Their small size confers exceptional agility, and their sharp hooves allow for sufficient traction to perform hairpin turns at top speed.
Their coats are fawn-coloured and decorated by a mixture of black and white markings on the face, flank, and tail regions. The rams and ewes have horns, but those of the females are almost ludicrous. They are spindly and short and often grow in bizarre directions or curl to grow close to the skull.
Two rams sizing each other up
The great horn debate
Some have theorised that the reason behind the gender horn difference is that the Thomson’s is an example of evolution in action. That is, the females are gradually losing their ability to grow horns at all. This, in turn, ties into the theories on why some female antelope grow horns while those of other species do not.
There are several explanations offered for this phenomenon. The first is a strong positive correlation between females growing horns and a preference for open habitats with minimal cover. Thus, the antelope is more conspicuous, and horns will serve the female well to defend both herself and any offspring. The same idea applies to large-bodied antelope that would struggle to hide. On the other hand, horns in a dense habitat are cumbersome and detract from the individual’s ability to hide. There is no survival advantage in expending energy to grow horns. A further explanation is that in species where the female has horns, it is harder for mature males to identify and chase young males away from the group, thus increasing the chances of survival for young males.
There is no consensus on exactly why the horns of female Thomson’s gazelles are so dramatically reduced, but it does fit neatly with the theories. Though they prefer mostly open habitats and are known to fight valiantly against predators, their main defence is speed.
A fleet-footed fawn
Hide-and-seek
Fortunately, the tiny Thomson’s gazelle fawns are not entirely reliant on their mother’s horns for survival. They are highly camouflaged and genetically programmed to remain still in the absence of their mothers. So powerful is this instinct that fawns have been observed to remain frozen even while being pawed by predators – often to the intense confusion of the attacker. It is incumbent on guides to be extremely cautious when driving off-road, particularly when birthing peaks.
The behaviour of a mother returning to feed her fawn is easily spotted. She will creep cautiously towards the hiding place and circle around it, stopping to scan for predators every few minutes. She may even pretend to feed at intervals. An astute and patient observer will be rewarded by the sight of their reunion and nursing.
If their secretive approach fails, the minute fawns are highly vulnerable and are preyed upon by everything from eagles to lions. Despite the aspersions cast about their horns, the mothers are courageously defensive and have been known to chase baboons and jackals away from their fawns successfully.
The terrifying gauntlet of the Mara River
Migrating
Another underappreciated fact about the Thomson’s gazelle is that it is part of the Great Migration. While the zebras and wildebeest generally take centre stage, smaller numbers of tommies also migrate, occasionally bearing the bemused expression of a small animal caught up in an irresistible tide. The journey is believed to be primarily motivated by access to water, and their migration pathway does not extend as far as that of the wildebeest or zebra. In some parts of the Serengeti, Thomson’s gazelles may form up to 90% of a cheetah’s diet. The research shows that the movements of the gazelles also affect those of the female cheetahs and non-territorial males.
The complicated phylogenetic tree of the gazelles (in green) and their nearest relatives. Note that the branch lengths are not to scale.
Family resemblance
Unfortunately, the nitty-gritty of unravelling which antelopes are gazelles is quite complicated. So, what is a gazelle, and why is the term not specific to any one genus or species? Let’s start with the basics: family, subfamily, tribe, and clade are all tools devised by scientists to convey the complex relationships between the various antelope genera. With over 90 species and a great deal of convergent evolution, this is not a simple process and involves tracing lineages backwards through time towards a common ancestor. Sometimes corrections have to be made as genetic evidence contradicts morphological similarities. If the following explanation gets a bit befuddling, feel free to skip to the final two sentences of this section.
Gazelles are part of the Antelopini tribe, which also includes the bizarre-looking gerenuk and the springbok. Geneticists have only unravelled the specific phylogenetic relationships within the tribe in the last decade. A full explanation of the genetic analysis and classification is beyond the scope of this article (and the range of most peoples’ interest). However, such research has resulted in the splitting of the Gazella genus into three: the Gazella, Eudorcas (including the Thomson’s gazelle) and Nager (for example, Grant’s gazelle). To make matters more complicated, three Asian species of the Procapra genus bear the common name “gazelle” but are not true gazelles.
Clockwise from top left: Dama gazelle; Soemmerring’s gazelle; rhim gazelle; dorcas gazelle; Grant’s gazelle; Cuvier’s gazelle; Speke’s gazelle
For the sake of simplicity: if it belongs to either the Gazella, Eudorcas or Nager genus, it is a true gazelle. If not, but it looks vaguely gazelle-shaped, it is probably closely related. For now, anyway.
Other African species of gazelle include:
Cuvier’s gazelle (G. cuvieri) – found along a strip of North Africa in Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara and Tunisia. They are currently classified as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List.
Dorcas gazelle (G. dorcas) – widely distributed across most of North Africa and a strip along the Horn of Africa. They are currently classified as ‘Vulnerable’.
Rhim gazelle (G. leptoceros) – another of the North African species, rhim gazelles are found in isolated pockets in the Sahara Desert in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. They are currently classified as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN.
Speke’s gazelle (G. spekei) – found in increasingly fragmented sections of a strip of the Horn of Africa, the Speke’s gazelle is currently classified as ‘Endangered’.
Red-fronted gazelle (E. rufifrons) – distributed across Africa in a narrow strip south of the Sahara Desert (the Sahel region) and currently classified as ‘Vulnerable’.
Dama gazelle (N. dama) – also known as the addra or mhorr gazelle, the Dama gazelle occupies isolated pockets in the Sahara and Sahel regions.
Grant’s gazelle (N. granti) – the range of the Grant’s gazelle overlaps considerably with Thomson’s variety, and they are often confused. However, Grant’s gazelles are almost double the size. They are listed as ‘Least Concern’.
Soemmerring’s gazelle (N. soemmerringiii) – closely related to the Grant’s gazelle, the Soemmerring’s gazelle is found across the Horn of Africa. A dwarf population is isolated in the Dahlak Kebir Island. They are listed as ‘Vulnerable).
Not a springbok
The body shape and thick black flank stripe account for the fact that tommies are quite regularly mistaken for springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) and vice versa – even though springbok are not true gazelles. The two antelope are strikingly similar at first glance in terms of both looks and behaviour but can be readily distinguished by their distributions, which do not overlap in the wild. Springbok are isolated to the more arid areas of Southern Africa, while Thomson’s gazelles prefer the short grasslands of East Africa. Springboks are taller and heavier than tommies and display a very characteristic pronking behaviour not seen in other antelope.
The primary distinguishing features of Thomson’s gazelles and springboks are their horns. The springbok’s horns grow upwards before curving inwards towards the midline of the head, while those of Thomson’s gazelles grow upwards and then curl slightly backwards.
Springbok
Conclusion
As we admire the flashy speed of a cheetah, it is easy to forget that the cat’s fleet-footedness is the result of a continuing evolutionary race to be the fastest and, on this racetrack, the Thomson’s gazelle is the stiffest competition.
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We have HEART-WARMING news in our first story below. Nature’s resilience against our onslaught is a constant source of soul food for me – and, I am sure, you. There is so much going on behind the scenes at ground level in Africa – and this success story is just one indicator of immense conservation efforts by dedicated people.
And then we have a new bat species! And it’s ORANGE with black wings. How sad that some commentators on our Facebook page immediately focused on the link between Covid and bats and expressed fear and concerns about this beautiful creature. Oh boy, isn’t it concerning how we often fixate on the wrong end of the problem?
Finally, our third story below gives us a boy’s perspective of a few days in the life of a Madikwe game ranger. I know this kid; he is an excellent example of the benefits of a BALANCED upbringing with plenty of time outside.
OK, that’s it from me for 2021. Phew, what a year. Here’s hoping that your 2022 is better than the last two years. JUST LOOK UP
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
My favourite view in the entire world: the Abel Erasmus Pass lies between the two small towns of Ohrigstad and Hoedspruit, where the road winds through the Manoutsa section of the Limpopo Drakensberg Mountains. The views at this time of year are beyond breathtaking – the air washed clean by afternoon thunderstorms, the rocks golden and the vegetation verdant. One dares not take one’s eyes off the road for more than a split second, but there are plenty of places to stop and take in the vista.
As I weave the tight corners that negotiate the precipitous decline, I always feel a sense of peace, as though a weight has been lifted – the magic of the wild. Below me, the Olifants River snakes its way through the bushveld, which stretches as far as the eye can see. To a now bush-starved city-slicker like myself, it is such a joy to know that the bush will always be there, waiting for me to return…
And the wild will await your return as well when the time comes to travel to Africa once again. Because nothing can match the miraculous effect that it has upon the soul.
• If this awesome video does not get you in a safari mood, nothing will! For the BEST PRICES at these and other lodges visit our travel & conservation club via your mobile phone app or desktop and search under ‘lodges’
• CEO choice: Simon loves this glamping safari because there is enough comfort to chillax but not so much that you feel disconnected
DID YOU KNOW:Heaviest wood in the world? The black ironwood tree Olea capensis, found throughout sub-Saharan Africa. One meter weighs roughly 1,300kg. The wood sinks in water, unlike other wood
My name is Luka, and I am ten years old. I was lucky to recently spend ten days of my school holidays in Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa, where I spent the first eight years of my life. My mom was a guide in Madikwe, and I had my first game drive when I was just days old. Some of my stories here are about dead animals, which can be upsetting. But I have lived in the bushveld for most of my life, and I am used to seeing dead animals.
It was go-go-go from the first morning I woke up! An early start with my ranger friend, with whom I was staying for the first while. We headed off on patrol to check the anti-poaching cameras. Mostly, this means checking and replacing batteries and fixing any cameras that animals have damaged. We found one camera with a cracked screen from an elephant tusk. After about five hours of checking cameras, it was time to head back home for some banana bread – yum yum.
Early the following morning, one of the Madikwe guides radioed that he had found a dead lion. It was the big male, Monamogolo (this means ‘old man’ in English). He was the biggest and most dominant of the Madikwe lions.
We immediately drove to the carcass. The first thing we noticed was the awful smell….worse than rotten eggs! He had probably been dead for about four to five days.
The male lion killed by other lions
We had to do a post-mortem to find out what caused the lion’s death. Only the head and the front legs were still there; hyenas must have eaten the rest. There was a broken bone in the neck from a hyena, but the clue that the cause of death was other lions came from the facial bites. We could see the tooth marks on the skull. It seemed as if the lionesses of the Jamala pride killed the old male. Monamogolo had killed three of their cubs before he died (they weren’t his cubs).
The lionesses didn’t kill him straight away but instead fought with him and then left him to die. It was weird that there were no bite marks on the neck. This is where you would expect to find killing bites. Also interesting to me was that there were no injuries or cuts on the lionesses, which we bumped into later. We removed the lion’s head and paws to prevent poachers from getting hold of them and trying to sell them.
Enjoying an elephant sighting during our coffee break – glad our vehicle was just behind me
Two hours later, we received a call about a badly injured rhino bull that had been in a fight with another bull. We met with the vet and went to the injured rhino’s location. Luckily, we found the rhino easily and didn’t need to call in a chopper to look for him. The vet carefully approached the rhino on foot and successfully darted him. After the drugs took effect, we gave him some medication for his injuries. It seems the other bull hooked and stabbed the injured one behind his front legs and around his scrotum! We then drilled into his horn and inserted a microchip. The vet gave him the antidote to wake up, and then the bull peacefully went back into the bush.
It was a hectic and exciting day that I will never forget.
This is me, Luka, helping with the injured white rhino bull
The next day, I went to a lodge on the western side of the game reserve for a couple of days. On the first day, we had to do the shop run to a tiny town called Derdepoort. I went with my two ranger friends. On the way, we got a call to shoot a zebra to feed some male lions in the boma. (Editor’s note: These boma lions are part of a project to maintain the Madikwe lion population’s genetic diversity. They will be released into the reserve when they have habituated sufficiently. The bomas do not contain any other animals, and food is provided for the lions). We searched for about three hours to find a suitably sized stallion. After loading the zebra on the back of the car, we headed to the boma.
When we dropped the carcass off the back, the lions fought over the meat. The youngest male seemed to be confused about what the zebra was and played with it for about 20 minutes. These are new lions, two young males and an older lion that will be released into Madikwe, hopefully as a coalition. This will also be good for the park, seeing that one of their biggest lions has just died.
Me and my guide Evan
My next stop was more relaxing – a private lodge on the eastern side of the reserve. We enjoyed some nice game drives and relaxation after all the conservation work we had done. We had an excellent, experienced guide, Evan. I had a lovely time with him as we got on very well. Evan is a fascinating guy, and there was so much to see. We had elephant dung tea, rubbed our backs on rhino rubbing posts, and ate VERY nice game-drive snacks. We also found two lionesses one morning. One of them had blood on her face. We followed, and it turned out they were on their way to fetch their cubs. With the cubs following them, they led us to a fresh kudu carcass.
It was nice to revisit Madikwe, and to remember the places I have memories of. I will visit again – hopefully often.
A large nomad lion has settled in the remote Zinave National Park, Mozambique, and there is evidence that a lioness has joined him. This extraordinary story of Africa’s apex predator recolonizing a former range is being hailed as a conservation success story.
This park was ravaged during the Mozambique civil war that ended in 1992 and subsequent poaching. Then, ten years ago, an intensive restoration and rewilding programme was launched. The inspirational programme included reintroducing more than 2,300 wild animals (14 species) – including 200 elephants – into a sanctuary within the national park.
A camera trap recently captured the image of this large lion which has since settled in the park, along with his female companion. The photographed lion is a young adult male estimated at 4 to 5 years of age. Male lions are usually pushed out of a pride at between 2 and 3 years old, becoming nomadic and attempting to establish their own territories and prides. The image was taken on a camera trap set up by park warden, Antonio Abacar. The camera trap was set up near the sanctuary fence close to one of the entry gates. Momentarily startled by the flash, the lion charged the source of the disturbance and broke the camera, but fortunately, the memory card remained intact, and the photograph was retrieved.
The first lion to roam Zinave National Park – Mozambique – in 30 years
Incidentally, this momentous occasion comes amid an exciting new phase in Zinave’s translocation programme – the introduction of predators. A clan of four spotted hyenas were settled into the park at the end of 2020 and have already produced two cubs. Two leopards, male and female, were successfully introduced in late 2021.
The populations of reintroduced herbivores have already blossomed to more than 9 000 animals, rapidly restoring the ecological balance in the park and attracting the first free-roaming lions.
Bernard van Lente, Peace Parks Foundation’s Project Manager for Zinave National Park, explains that: “With the abundant prey and safe environment available, the fact that the park can sustain large carnivores is very encouraging, and it will not be too surprising if more lion, leopard, wild dog / African painted wolf and cheetah start to make sporadic appearances, over and above the carnivores that are set for reintroduction in the coming years.”
The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park; including Zinave NP (top right)
Zinave National Park is the easternmost anchor park of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA), which also comprises Banhine and Limpopo national parks in Mozambique, Kruger National Park in South Africa, Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and various other state and privately-owned conservation areas across the three countries. Wildlife monitoring has shown that multiple species, including lions, elephants, and wild dogs, use this crucial cross-border migration route to access water, food, and breeding grounds through the ecological corridors connecting the different conservation areas.
With the assistance of several donors, the reintroduction programme has been accelerated under a 20-year co-management agreement signed in 2015 between Mozambique’s National Administration for Conservation Areas (ANAC) and Peace Parks Foundation, with the eventual goal of rewilding the entire 408,000 ha park and developing it to sustain its operating costs through ecotourism.
The last hundred years have seen lions disappearing from up to 95% of their historic range. Over 200,000 lions once roamed across Africa’s wild places; now, only an estimated 23,000 to 39,000 mature individuals remain due to habitat destruction, human-wildlife conflict, poaching and poisoning.
With bright orange fur and black wings, Myotis nimbaensis is unlike any other bat on earth.
In 2018, an international team of experts climbed into the Nimba Mountains of Guinea in search of the Lamotte’s roundleaf bat. The species is exceedingly rare—known from just a single mountain and considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Little did the scientists know that in searching for the dwindling mammal, they’d soon come face to face with something even more extraordinary—a bat species no one had ever seen before.
While most people would reach for the black or brown crayon when sketching a bat, the new species sports rusty orange fur reminiscent of an orangutan and ink-black wings streaked with auburn veins and finger bones.
Nimba Mountains, Guinea
“The bat is just particularly spectacular,” says Dr Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International and an associate research professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
In truth, it’s not all that uncommon for scientists to discover a new species these days, nor even a new mammal, but a lot of these findings are actually what you’d call “taxonomic revision,” says Frick. In other words, sometimes two animals look so superficially similar, they were originally thought to be the same. However, advances in genetics are allowing scientists to make finer distinctions between species than ever before.
For example, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences described more than 200 new species of plants and animals in 2020–and that’s just a single institution! All told, some scientists estimate that 86 percent of all life on earth has yet to be described. But of all the animal species on earth, around 97 percent are invertebrates, with 1.25 million species described so far and perhaps as many as another 30 million species out there waiting to be discovered. And while North America and Europe have been pretty thoroughly documented, the tropics still teem with undescribed plants and animals.
Of course, this is why the case of the new bat is so striking. Called Myotis nimbaensis, and described for the first time in the January issue of American Museum Novitates, this bat started raising eyebrows from the minute it flew out of an abandoned mine and into a harp trap. (Harp traps look like the musical instrument, but allow scientists to safely capture bats using a row of fine strings.)
There are other orange bats in the world, but something about this new specimen was off. Several of the scientists spent all night sifting through resources called taxonomic keys that can be used to identify one species from another. When they met the next morning for breakfast, they agreed that the specimen did not fit the description of any other species. It was time to call in backup.
The new bat species – Myotis nimbaensis
“At that point, I started getting text messages from Africa,” says Dr. Nancy Simmons, curator in charge of the Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History in the United States.
While the researchers in the field continued trying to collect more specimens, Simmons started scouring her museum’s records for anything that came close to the new bat back in New York City. She also travelled to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and the British Museum of Natural History in London to see if they had anything that might be a match. But in the end, nothing compared.
“When it came down to it, I was sure it was a new species,” says Simmons, who is also Chair of the IUCN’s Global Bat Taxonomy Working Group.
In addition to the bat’s physical characteristics, the researchers also compared the animal’s DNA and echolocation calls to other closely related species. “Those are three completely different lines of evidence that all converge on the same answer, which is that this is a different species,” says Simmons.
Not much is known about M. nimbaensis yet, though the researchers believe the species is only found in the Nimba Mountains, a range that straddles Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and Liberia. At just 40 kilometres in length, the Nimba Range is known as a hotspot for biodiversity—its high altitude peaks serving as “sky islands” for other rare wildlife, from West African lions and pygmy hippos to the zebra duiker and western chimpanzee.
Sunrise over the Nimba Range
Based on the bat’s closest cousins, the scientists suspect it preys upon small insects and roosts underground in caves. And because it was found flying out of an old mining tunnel, it seems likely that these human-made habitats may be crucial to the species’ continued existence. Around a dozen exploratory mineshafts already exist in this area, drilled in the 1970s and 1980s in search of iron ore deposits.
“It is well known that the biodiversity of the Nimba Mountains is under severe threat,” says Bakwo Fils Eric Moise, a zoologist at the University of Maroua in Cameroon and coauthor of the new paper, alongside Frick and Simmons.
Fortunately, the mining company that owns the land the bat was discovered on has been a willing partner in taking stock of and working to protect species endemic to this area. In fact, the scientists’ work in Guinea has been done in conjunction with an outfit called Société des Mines de Fer de Guinéa. And because many of these tunnels, called adits, are now beginning to collapse, the company is also partnering with Bat Conservation International to excavate new shafts. The idea is to create a habitat for the Lamotte’s roundleaf bat—which the scientists did manage to relocate on the fateful expedition—but the project will likely benefit the new orange bats, too.
“A discovery like this can be used as an additional argument to develop sustainable in-country programs for research and conservation,” says Moise.
So not only is the new bat a super exciting breakthrough for science, but the attention it’s garnered might just do some good for its neighbours too.
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So I was lying awake last night with monkey brain; pesky mosquitos going through their gears like F1 racing cars adding to my malcontent. Mind racing, I wondered about humankind’s fascination with cryptocurrencies, the metaverse and space travel. And how coming on SAFARI in Africa is the ideal way to get back in touch with real-life 🙂
Thanks to all for the responses to my editorial of last week. Whether you are pro- or anti-trophy hunting or in denial about that industry’s self-imposed slide towards extinction, I enjoy hearing from you. And now the EU has SUSPENDED TRADE in raw ivory on the EU market. My concerns about the loophole relating to ‘ancient ivory’, and whether this update will have much of a dampening effect on poaching aside, this is yet another sign that the wheel is turning, albeit slowly.
Speaking of ivory, our first story below is both sad and a celebration that this big boy lived a full life and his genetic legacy endures. Every big TUSKER remaining is a natural heritage and should be afforded protection from all who covet those tusks.
Our second story is vital because it speaks to the battle between human and animal rights and the use of MISINFORMATION to pressure Africa’s conservation industry to adapt to ideological frameworks that often don’t make sense at ground level here in Africa.
And finally, we all want to know how to travel in a post-Covid era of heightened awareness about our impact on EARTH. Find out how in our third story below.
Have an exceptional festive season y’all. Peace out
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
My grandfather was something of a character. He once, for example, enjoyed the hospitality of the Pilgrim’s Rest jail cell (of which there was only one) after being found with a nugget of gold in his pocket. He swore blind forever after that he found it just “lying around”. He hated shopping malls and would mutter loudly about Sodom and Gomorrah if forced to visit one.
When I found myself doing the same thing yesterday, I realised that I may have inherited more than just his love of the bushveld. In all fairness, everyone knows that the absolute worst way to get into the holiday spirit is to visit the shops just before Christmas, especially during a pandemic. But my camera charger packed up, and I was desperate.
The sheer volume of “stuff” – sometimes useful, sometimes fairly useless, all in excess – bore down on me like a relentless analogy for humanity’s overindulgence. Rows of plastic, stands of gimmicks, over-priced (and hideous!) clothing and garish decorations beneath forever-burning lights – no sign here of a world barrelling towards a climate collapse. Though not yet at the point of muttering aloud, I confess the words of Wordsworth ran through my head: ” The world is too much with us…”
But let us not end on such a note. In southern China, scientists have discovered “the best dinosaur embryo ever found in history”. Its name is Yingliang, and it was just about to hatch some 66 million years ago before tragedy struck. You can read more here.
Tsavo Trust has announced with great sadness that one of Tsavo’s super tuskers, known as ‘Wide Satao’, has died of natural causes
Wide Satao was an old bull who lived a full life. He will undoubtedly have passed on his great tusker genes to future generations of elephants, and he gave many visitors to Tsavo great pleasure with his presence.
Tsavo’s “Big Tusker Project” is carried out jointly by Tsavo Trust and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Save the Elephants (STE) monitors elephant movements through a joint collaring program. Wide Satao was first identified and named as an emerging tusker in August 2013. Over time his ivory grew immensely, and he was elevated to the super tusker elite category in February 2018. Since naming, he has been observed 376 times, an average of once per week over nine years.
Last week, Tsavo Trust received a call from STE advising that Wide Satao’s collar was sending immobility alerts; aerial & ground units were dispatched immediately. On arrival at the site, Wide Satao was found alive but weak, with poor body condition. He attempted several times to stand but failed. He died at 9 pm that night.
Wide Satao died of old age, but his condition had deteriorated during the extended drought that has ravaged Tsavo in recent months.
EDITORIAL NOTE:A recent report compiled by investigative journalists and publicised by a Daily Maverick article has slated Namibia’s much-vaunted community-based wildlife conservation program. This has incensed a significant portion of the Namibian conservation community. 76 entities/people have responded by way of three separate posts below – correcting factual inaccuracies of the report and questioning the motives of the journalists. To better understand the situation, please read the above links and the three responses below. The list of compilers appears below each response.
Summary of allegations made in the three responses below:
There are factual inaccuracies in the report, as detailed below
The critical report, while purporting to convey concern for people and wildlife, is based on a thinly veiled anti-hunting agenda
The Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) has never been touted as a silver-bullet solution to Namibia’s socio-economic challenges yet is blamed for several external factors that have little to do with the CBNRM programme itself
There is no evidence that the interview “data” was gathered with the necessary permits and ethical clearance. To conduct fieldwork and social research without permits is illegal in Namibia. The methodology and scientific rigour of the report are severely wanting
There is no mention of obtaining free, prior, and informed consent from interviewees. Some of the individuals interviewed have later claimed that their responses were misrepresented or distorted to suit the report’s conclusions. In essence, the investigative process was conducted in bad faith
There appear to be conflicts of interest regarding the research funding and personal biases of the journalists
The report uses disingenuous comparisons to analyse and compare hunting revenue data to that generated by other forms of non-consumptive tourism
The report cherry-picks the challenges facing specific areas, focusing on wildlife declines in regions severely affected by drought, and socioeconomic issues in areas where wildlife populations are healthy and thriving
Conclusions regarding wildlife populations and human-wildlife conflict (particularly concerning elephants) appear to have been based on drive-by observations over a few weeks rather than substantive scientific data produced by previous studies over a more extended period
While the difficulties faced by rural Namibians highlighted in the report are accurate, the report inaccurately extends the blame to the CBNRM and, in many instances, fails to include vital context that might otherwise contradict the author’s conclusions
Response 1: Why false sympathy will not help Namibian people or elephants
Animal rights organisations seem to be strangely fixated on Namibia’s community conservation model. The reason for this fixation is obvious – Namibia includes hunting as part of its broader wildlife economy and has made greater efforts to include rural communities in conservation than most other countries in the world. Recently rated second in the world for conserving megafauna (i.e. large mammals) in a peer-reviewed scientific paper, Namibia’s strategy that includes the sustainable use of wildlife is clearly working, much to the annoyance of animal rights organisations.
It, therefore, came as no surprise when a coterie of such organisations – Animal Survival International, Animal Welfare Institute, Born Free Foundation, Fondation Frans Weber, Future for Elephants, Humane Society International and Pro Wildlife – funded this reporton Namibian conservation, despite none of these organisations funding any real conservation work in the country. Since animal rights positions are effectively countered by the success of human rights-based conservation, they specifically targeted the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme.
CBNRM was established in southern Africa during the 1980s and 1990s when several newly independent countries were looking for more inclusive conservation models than those practised by the colonial regimes. In Namibia, one of the major issues identified by rural communities was the discrepancy between wildlife ownership on freehold land (then held exclusively by white farmers) compared with communal land. While freehold farmers were granted rights to use wildlife occurring on their land a few decades before independence (leading to impressive wildlife recoveries on these lands), people on communal lands were still locked out of the wildlife economy. With no incentive to conserve wildlife perceived as belonging to the government and white people only, poaching was rife, and the human-wildlife conflict went unchecked, making some communities openly hostile towards conservation officials.
That all changed with an amendment to legislation in 1996, which allowed self-identified communities to apply for their lands to be gazetted as communal conservancies that they would manage following their own constitutions. This opened the door for people on communal lands to obtain similar rights to wildlife as freehold farmers, which soon resulted in wildlife populations increasing on land where it was formerly pushed to the brink of local extinction.
National wildlife trends in Namibia from an early rough estimate in the 1700s to today (more accurate data obtained since the mid-1900s). The turning point in the late 1960s came with changes to government policy allowing wildlife ownership on freehold land. Source: Dr Chris Brown.
In practice, operating a communal conservancy is a complicated task, as these groups of people choose to work together to conserve their resources for the common benefit. Further, the wildlife species that live on these lands are notoriously difficult to live with – elephant, lion, crocodile and hippopotamus occasionally take human lives, while these and other species (e.g. spotted hyaena, leopard, cheetah and African wild dog) frequently threaten livelihoods by destroying crops and killing livestock. Furthermore, communal conservancies are unfenced, which on the one hand makes them particularly useful as wildlife corridors but on the other introduces the difficulty of keeping unwanted visitors or illegal settlers out. Finally, these community institutions are nested within a larger socio-economic and ecological landscape that inevitably affects their operations and members’ lives.
Journalists Adam Cruise and Izzy Sasada use the complexity of CBNRM and broader societal issues that have little or nothing to do with CBNRM to create a thin veil of feigned concern for people and wildlife that does little to conceal their primary objective – to attack trophy hunting. Cruise is on record comparing the sustainable use of wildlife for the benefit of people to parasitism, where humans are the ‘parasite’ and nature is the ‘victim’. Their report would never pass any form of peer review due to its almost information-free methods section. Besides that, there are apparent conflicts of interest relating to funding, and the lead author has previously expressed extreme bias against the object of investigation – African communities using their natural resources for their benefit.
Cash flow in conservancies in 2019 with income from tourism and hunting (left). Cash flow in the same conservancies without income from hunting (right). The removal of hunting income would push most conservancies in the northeast into the red, particularly in the Zambezi Region. Conservancies for which there was either no income or no data for that year are not shown. Source: MEFT and NACSO (2021) The State of Community Conservation in Namibia (2019 Annual Report)
Regarding the methodology, nothing is said of the total interview sample size, how interviewees were selected or what kind of questions they were asked. Furthermore, there is no mention of obtaining free, prior and informed consent from interviewees or of any ethical clearance or research permits received prior to this fieldwork. Omissions of this nature are not permitted in scientific literature because they are easily used to hide interviewer bias and unethical procedures. By publishing this report without any of the relevant information described above, the interviewers effectively sidestepped all ethical requirements or the need for scientific rigour. In order to work in Namibia, foreigners must apply for permits from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, while research permits must be obtained from the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology. Conducting fieldwork and social research without such permits is illegal in Namibia.
Meanwhile, the “on-site assessment” of issues relating to elephants appears to have been based on drive-by observations lasting a few weeks in each of the regions they investigated. These random observations are then used throughout the report to cast doubt on data collected through well-established scientific methods (e.g. aerial surveys), extensive government consultations regarding human-elephant conflict, and long-term data collected by the conservancies. Elephant sightings from the ground, gathered without systematic methodology, inevitably underestimate elephant population numbers, which is why aerial surveys (and counts of individually identifiable elephants, where possible) are used to generate more accurate estimates in Namibia and elsewhere in Africa. Yet Cruise emphasises casual drive-by observations or elephant sightings recorded by the conservancies from ground-based counts, thus implying that these are more accurate than systematically collected data.
Elephant population trend in Namibia based on data collected using systematic, scientific methods. Source: MEFT (2020) Draft Elephant Management Plan.
Cruise and Sasada’s initial description of the economic benefits of trophy hunting is a telling glimpse of the bias that runs throughout the report. Comparing the contribution to the GDP from a niche sub-sector of tourism that requires free-roaming large mammals (i.e. hunting) with that of tourism, in general, is disingenuous. The entire tourism industry includes hotels, beach resorts, scenic tours, etc., which does not require any wildlife to be present; most of this tourism revenue accrues to urban areas. Dividing hunting income by land surface area is even more bizarre, especially for a vast desert country such as Namibia – hunting income is not used to cover every hectare of the country in money.
More relevant statistics that focus on the relative contributions of these two industries to communal conservancies reveal that hunting (which includes trophy and meat hunting) contributed 30% of the total revenues generated by communal conservancies. In contrast, tourism contributed 66% in 2019. Additionally, many conservancies rely solely on revenue generated through hunting for their income.
Income from all forms of consumptive wildlife use (including the value of meat distributed and fees from trophy hunters) and joint-venture tourism (including the employment of conservancy members). The impact of COVID-19 was more significant on tourism in 2020 than it was on hunting. Source: MEFT and NACSO (in press). The State of Community Conservation in Namibia (2020 Annual Report).
The authors’ other biases are visible in their treatment of conservancies located in three different regions of the country – Kunene, Otjozondjupa and Zambezi. In the Kunene Region, which has suffered a severe, prolonged drought in recent years, the focus is on wildlife declines. Drought is the ultimate cause behind the wildlife declines and the increased poverty reported among Himba people (who lost most of their livestock due to drought), yet it is barely mentioned.
Cruise, the journalist who tackled the “elephant ecology” part of the report, fails to explain that wildlife migrates extensively and/or die-off during times of drought, only to return and reproduce quickly when conditions are favourable. Therefore, his random observations at the end of a long drought period are not an accurate portrayal of wildlife trends since the start of CBNRM (these trends are publicly available here). He also appears to be unaware that these arid areas are at the extreme margin of elephant range (even without conflict with people), making this sub-population particularly vulnerable to drought. This situation further exacerbates conflict with farmers, which led to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) taking steps to reduce elephant numbers in the eastern parts of the Kunene Region through a live elephant auction.
The state of vegetation in the Kunene Region in May 2021 at the time of Cruise and Sasada’s visit (darker red = further below-average vegetation growth; darker green = further above-average growth; yellow is close to average). While some parts of the region received better rainfall at the start of this season, the ten-year drought continues unabated in many areas. Source: namibianrangelands.com.
In eastern Otjozondjupa, where elephant populations are healthy and increasing, Cruise and Sasada shift the focus from wildlife management to marginalised rural communities. Like other journalists who have dropped in to interview these communities with false sympathy for their plight, they present the many socio-economic challenges San people face today, most of which have little or nothing to do with CBNRM. Everything from alcoholism to the price of food at local shops is described in detail, while even conservancies are cast as some form of oppression.
The uninformed reader might be led to believe (deliberately, it seems) that the government appoints committees to manage these conservancies, yet this is not true. Conservancy management committees are elected by their own communities following democratic processes. One of the CBNRM-related complaints from this region was the inequitable distribution of meat – interviewees clearly wanted more meat more frequently. One wonders if the interviewer revealed that their ultimate goal was to cut off the game meat supply to these communities entirely?
Four conservancies compared in terms of their sources of returns (data from 2018). Nyae Nyae Conservancy, one of two conservancies investigated in Otjozondjupa, relies most heavily on hunting-related income and meat. Without this income, Nyae Nyae would not be able to function or distribute any meat to its members. Salambala is in the Zambezi Region, while Torra and ≠Khoadi //Hôas are in the Kunene Region. Source: MEFT and NACSO (2020) The State of Community Conservation in Namibia (2018 Annual Report).
The third region – the Zambezi (formerly Caprivi) – also has healthy wildlife populations. The journalists quote fewer people in this section compared with the other areas (which leaves open the possibility that most of the responses they received were not to their liking). They, therefore, shift their focus once more to include the failed secession attempt by some Caprivians in 1999 (what that has to do with CBNRM remains unclear), plus human-elephant conflict that is a real challenge in an environment where both human and elephant densities are high. The Zambezi Region is home to over 90,000 people and is located in the centre of the larger Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area that supports an estimated 220,000 elephants.
A common complaint reported both here and in the other regions was that not enough money is provided through the government’s conflict offset scheme (which is topped up by conservancies). What Cruise and Sasada fail to mention to their readers is that the current scheme would not exist without funds generated from the sustainable use of wildlife (via the Game Products Trust Fund). What they failed to mention to their interviewees is even more egregious – that their ultimate desire is to eliminate the current source of funding for human-wildlife conflict offsets entirely.
Expenditure by the Game Products Trust Fund (GPTF) in Namibian dollars for the period 2012-2018 – N$ 16.7 million was spent on human-wildlife conflict. All of this revenue is derived from the sustainable use of wildlife – both hunting and live sales income that the government receives. Data used with permission from the GPTF.
Taken as a whole, this report looks distinctly like a “hit-and-run” job aimed at trophy hunting, with community conservation as a secondary casualty. Now that the interviews are over, perhaps the authors would like to return to Namibia to present their results to their interviewees – with honest conclusions and detailed consequences of their recommendations. A fair presentation would include the following points:
You (interviewees) wanted more meat and other benefits from your conservancy; we want your conservancy to stop the sustainable use of wildlife, which means there will be no more meat to distribute, while other benefits will similarly decline in future.
You desired more money to offset the costs of living with wildlife; we want the current source of funding (i.e. sustainable wildlife use) for the offset scheme to be eliminated, thus leaving you with no offset scheme at all.
You complained about people who come in from outside and settle on your land illegally; we would like to weaken further the grassroots institutions in your region (conservancies) that have fought legal battles for your cause.
Unfortunately, expecting such an honest report is unrealistic since the whole investigative process was done in bad faith. Having spoken to an interviewee quoted in this report, we know that the journalists did not introduce themselves as such and obtained no consent whatsoever to use any of the quotes they obtained. Indeed, this interviewee recalls giving a very different response to the one that is attributed to her in this report. The people who provided their honest, off-hand opinions to a passing stranger would have had no idea that their words would be twisted and used against them – to worsen their current situation.
The journalists and their financiers will no doubt use this illegal and unethical report to further their animal rights agenda while not spending a dollar of their lobbying budgets to alleviate the plight of the people left in their wake. In fact, a worse situation for both people and animals would prevail if their dream of dismantling community conservation came true. Over 1,000 people who are directly employed by conservancies will lose their jobs, the meat currently being distributed will no longer be available, and the voices of marginalised rural communities will be silenced. For the animals, poaching and the associated illegal wildlife trade will skyrocket in the absence of community game guards. Unchecked human-wildlife conflict will result in more deaths (of wild animals, livestock and people), and the wildlife corridors in the Zambezi Region will be effectively closed by agriculture.
The difficulties faced by rural Namibians and reflected in this report are real, yet CBNRM has never been presented as the silver bullet that would fix every problem in society. As it stands, this democratic system of wildlife management is not perfect, and solutions to the multiple challenges that conservancies face are far from simple. If COVID-19 has taught us anything, however, it is that everything becomes much more difficult when income from wildlife-based industries is summarily cut off. The ultimate goal of this report – to effectively remove 30% of all conservancy revenues and 100% of revenues for hunting-reliant conservancies – should therefore be treated like a viral infection that would significantly weaken Namibia’s conservation efforts.
The following institutions and people supported the above response:
The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) + The Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) + 66 members of the Namibian Chamber of Environment, as follows: Speiser Environmental Consultants + African Conservation Services + Africat Foundation + Agra ProVision (Agra Ltd) + Ashby Associates + Biodiversity Research Centre, NUST (BRC-NUST) + Botanical Society of Namibia + Brown Hyena Research Project Trust Fund + Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) + Conservation Association of Namibia (CANAM) + Desert Lion Conservation Trust + Development Workshop Namibia (DW-N) + Eco Awards Namibia + Eco-Logic Environmental Management Consulting cc + EduVentures + Elephant Human Relations Aid (EHRA) + Environmental Assessment Professionals Association of Namibia (EAPAN) + Environmental Compliance Consultancy (ECC) + EnviroScience + Felines Communication & Conservation Consultants + Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) + Gobabeb Research & Training Centre + Greenspace + Integrated Rural Development & Nature Conservation (IRDNC) + Jaro Consultancy + Kwando Carnivore Trust + LM Environmental Consulting + N/áan ku sê Foundation + Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET) + Namibia Biomass Industry Group (N-BiG) + Namibia Bird Club + Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) + Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) + Namibia Scientific Society + Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) + Namibian Environmental & Wildlife Society (NEWS) + Namibian Hydrogeological Association + NamibRand Nature Reserve + Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia (NNDFN) + Oana Flora and Fauna + Ongava Game Reserve & Research Centre + Otjikoto Trust + Rare & Endangered Species Trust (REST) + Research & Information Services of Namibia (RAISON) + Rooikat Trust + Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) + Scientific Society Swakopmund + Seeis Conservancy + SLR Environmental Consulting + Southern African Institute of Environmental Assessment (SAIEA) + SunCycles Namibia cc + Sustainable Solutions Trust (SST) + Tourism Supporting Conservation Trust (TOSCO) + Venture Media + Black-footed Cat Research Project Namibia + Bell, Maria A + Bockmühl, Frank + Desert Elephant Conservation + Irish, Dr John + Kohlberg, Herta + Lukubwe, Dr Michael S + Namibia Animal Rehabilitation, Research & Educa on Centre (NARREC) + Sea Search Research & Conservation (Namibian Dolphin Project) + Seabirds & Marine Ecosystems Programme + Strohbach, Dr Ben + Wild Bird Rescue
Response 2: We will not be bullied
The report by Adam Cruise and Izzy Sasada on the Namibian Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme is based on highly unethical and illegally conducted research, the results of which were twisted to suit their agenda. This pair of journalists entered our conservancies and spoke to people without obtaining a research permit from the government or even informing our conservancy offices of their intentions. Those of us who recall speaking to them and are quoted in their report were misrepresented, as our statements were taken out of context and used to tell an untrue story about Namibia.
As representatives of Namibian conservancies, we hereby condemn both the methods and the outcome of Cruise and Sasada’s report in the strongest possible terms. The authors and the organisations that financed this research have broken Namibian laws and shown extreme disrespect for Namibian people and their rights.
CBNRM is a critical mechanism for linking nature conservation with rural livelihoods and development needs. We, therefore, resent the deliberate use of the challenges we face – including widespread poverty, terrible drought conditions and human-wildlife conflict – as a means of dismissing our conservation efforts. We are the custodians of the last free-ranging black rhino population on earth; we live among dangerous wild animals that have been eradicated elsewhere, and we zone significant portions of our land for wildlife conservation. Yet, in this report and others driven by the same agenda, we are unfairly judged and punished – for the sole reason that we defend our right to the sustainable use of wildlife.
The challenges associated with rural development and poverty alleviation in Africa are not limited to Namibia. Yet, our progressive constitution and flagship CBNRM programme have included wildlife conservation within our development goals. Many countries in the developed world like to talk about Sustainable Development Goals. In Namibia, we live Sustainable Development. From first-hand experience, we can tell you that it is not easy balancing our people’s current, urgent needs with our desire to protect wildlife for future generations. Especially when that wildlife includes dangerous wild animals like elephants that trample our crops, destroy our water points, and even threaten our lives.
The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) and the support organisations that fall under the auspices of the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) are trusted partners who assist us with overcoming these challenges. By contrast, none of the animal rights organisations that funded Cruise and Sasada’s report has ever provided any assistance towards conserving elephants or other wildlife in Namibia. They, therefore, have no right to criticise our conservation efforts or undermine our financial viability. Furthermore, without our active participation in anti-poaching patrols, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and awareness creation within our respective communities, there would be no wildlife on communal lands in Namibia. Yet, the eradication of wildlife appears to be a desirable outcome for Cruise and Sasada and the organisations that funded their illegal activities.
Many of the social problems highlighted in their report are beyond the scope of communal conservancies or beyond our ability to control. Nonetheless, as community-based institutions, we have an essential role to play in bringing our members’ concerns to the attention of government and other stakeholders. While we cannot eliminate all social problems on our own, we aim to use the limited budgets we have to create tangible benefits for our communities. Cruise and Sasada dismiss these benefits as being unworthy of consideration, yet they do not offer alternative or better forms of income that we could use to increase member benefits. It is clear that they have no interest in improving the lives of the people they interviewed but rather seek to impoverish them further.
While in Namibia, Cruise and Sasada used trickery and deceit to obtain their interviews. Having stolen our words without our consent, they are using their report to bully us into submission. But we will stand by our goal of sustainable rural development; we are proud of our conservation achievements. We remain the rightful custodians of free-ranging wildlife on communal lands, and we will continue to expand our natural resource-based industries to increase benefit flows to our members. African people have been denigrated, misused and misrepresented for far too long for us to accept more of this appalling treatment at the hand of foreigners. We will not be bullied.
The following people signed the above response:
Max Muyemburuko (Chairperson of the Kavango East- and West- Regional Conservancy and Community Forest Association + Stein Katupa (Secretary-General of the Kunene Regional Community Conservancy Association) + Brisetha Hendricks (Chairperson of the Kunene South Conservancy Association) + Wesam Albius (Chairperson for the Zambezi Chairperson Forum) + Gerrie Ciqae Cwi (Chairperson of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy) + Visser N!aici (Chairperson of the N#a Jaqna Conservancy)
Response 3: Setting the record straight
≠Khoadi //Hôas Conservancy recently featured in a report by Adam Cruise and Izzy Sasada that sought to undermine Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in Namibia. We strenuously object to the way in which our conservancy was portrayed and wish to correct the many errors and misleading statements made in this report. These individuals came into our conservancy without informing us of the true purpose of their activities, and although one of them (Sasada) claimed to be doing ‘research’ on human-wildlife conflict, no research permit was presented.
The reporters deliberately distorted a casual conversation (not a formal interview) they had with our conservancy manager, Ms Lorna Dax, which leads us to believe that most if not all of the people they quote in their report were similarly misrepresented. In this conversation, Ms Dax responded to questions about the income generated by ≠Khoadi //Hôas Conservancy, saying that most of the revenue came from tourism, while hunting was a second important source of revenue. This is not a secret since Grootberg Lodge is well known as our primary source of income in normal years (COVID-19 significantly reduced international visitor numbers).
In their report, Cruise and Sasada distort this simple statement by saying that Ms Dax implied that hunting generated little or no income for the conservancy. They support this distortion by misusing statistics presented in the 2019 audit report for our conservancy that is kept on the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisation’s (NACSO) website. This information is presented on a public website in the interests of transparency, yet it was misinterpreted (deliberately or otherwise) by Cruise and Sasada.
The audit report they refer to quotes “Potential Trophy Value” figures for each of the species that we have on our quota, with a note stating that these are average figures that are not indicative of actual income to the conservancy (which is based on a contract with the hunter that includes more than just the trophy fee). They use these figures to claim that ≠Khoadi //Hôas Conservancy generated N$ 45,000 from trophy hunting in 2019, which represented 34% of our total income for that period. For the 2019/20 financial year (running June to May), the actual amount was N$ 783,232 – over 17 times higher than their figure.
Had the reporters formally requested information from our conservancy office and provided us with a full explanation of their reasons for using this information, we could have provided the correct data. However, they would not have succeeded in their goal using an honest approach since their research was illegal, and their ultimate purpose was to discredit our conservancy.
Their report on benefit distribution among our members is also misleading, which must be deliberate since this information is contained in the 2019 audit report that they quote. Cruise and Sasada only list 7 of the 18 benefit categories that we recorded in 2019 (Table 1).
Women receiving packets of meat provided by hunting in the conservancy
Five predator-proof livestock kraals were built in 2019
A reservoir protected against elephants by the conservancy during 2019
Cruise and Sasada further misrepresent the state of our wildlife populations. Our conservancy and our neighbours in the Kunene Region have experienced a severe drought since the last good rains fell in 2011. By the time these reporters visited us in May 2021, we had endured ten years of below-average rainfall, during which time many livestock have died, and wildlife migrated to areas that had more grazing. This desperate situation was further compounded by loss of income since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2021. We cannot control the climate (which is getting worse due to climate change) or prevent the outbreak of a global pandemic. Yet, Cruise and Sasada blame communal conservancies for problems created by these external forces. This is simply unjust.
The rangeland condition in the Kunene Region in May 2021, when Cruise and Sasada visited ≠Khoadi //Hôas Conservancy (boundary outlined in black), measured using satellite technology. Darker red means that the vegetation is in worse condition than the long-term average (since 2002) at this time of year. Green patches are areas that received recent rainfall and therefore had more actively growing vegetation than the average (shown in yellow).
Human-elephant conflict remains one of our biggest challenges. We work with our farmers to provide water for elephants and prevent the destruction of critical water points. Our environmental shepherds (known elsewhere as game guards) have kept records of these problems for many years, and elephants are a frequent subject of debate at our community meetings. Yet, according to “a pair of goat herders” that Cruise and Sasada happened to meet while conducting their illegal research, elephants are ‘not a problem’. We do not even know if these herders are long-term residents of our conservancy – many people come in for emergency grazing purposes that are not residents or members. How would they know about the long-term struggles with elephants across our whole conservancy?
Other basic errors in their report were the number of people in our Conservancy Management Committee – there are 15 (9 men, 6 women), not as they report 17 (14 men, 3 women). We employ 9 environmental shepherds and not 7 as they report. They claim that 6.4% of our revenues are spent on community benefits, yet the actual benefit proportion for our 2019/20 financial year was 27%. This excludes the salaries paid to our staff (who are also community members) that constituted a further 24% of our budget. The authors speak of the number of jobs created by our conservancy with disdain, yet if we employed more people, there would be less money available for broader community benefits. We simply cannot employ every member of our conservancy, which is a false expectation. The jobs we do create nonetheless support several families and are linked directly to the conservation of wildlife.
Our operating costs, which accounted for the remaining half of the budget in 2020, include essential activities such as anti-poaching patrols, human-wildlife conflict mitigation projects, game counts and other wildlife monitoring activities, vehicle running costs (including to distribute benefits) and meetings to ensure good governance. Without these activities, the conservancy would not be able to conserve wildlife or run our affairs effectively.
In their report about our conservancy and others in Namibia, Cruise and Sasada use poverty, lack of sufficient benefits and funds for conflict mitigation as reasons to attack CBNRM. Yet, they also want to prevent us from generating revenue through sustainable wildlife use. It is clear to us that the authors of this report and the organisations that funded this investigation do not have the best interests of our communities at heart. Our community democratically elected our conservancy committee to govern the conservancy while our employees work for our people. Our members are our family and friends; we suffer with them when they suffer. We do not need outsiders who barely understand what CBNRM means and who clearly prefer animal rights over human rights to tell us how to conserve our wildlife or provide for our community.
The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated international travel. Hopefully though, it has also given us time to reconsider how we travel and the opportunity to evaluate how we might rebuild tourism in a more sustainable and equitable way.
As tourism (hopefully) re-opens, some exciting trends in market research show the changing priorities for potential post-pandemic travellers. These often include health, hygiene and social-distancing measures, sustainable tourism, social wellbeing, benefiting local economies, adventure and trips to natural destinations¹.
Luckily for those involved in ecotourism, wildlife safaris and nature-based experiences provide for all of these.
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So. The UK government has banned the import of hunting trophies of thousands of species – including Africa’s Big 5. The impact of this move will be significant, and you can expect a range of implications at ground level here in Africa – some positive, some negative.
In theory, the practice of the surgical removal of genetically gifted individuals from dwindling wild populations could benefit biodiversity and local people. BUT in practice, this industry (and associated government officials) has too many rotten eggs where corruption, lack of transparency and over-exploitation are de rigueur. The cases of well-managed trophy hunting concessions are to be recognised and respected for their effort – but unless the industry self-regulates to weed out the evil ones, we will see more countries follow the UK example. Times have changed – public awareness is amplified, and populism pressure is organised. Politicians that overlooked or rubber-stamped unsustainable offtakes and unsavoury practices in the old days are now being swayed the other way. Every vote counts. This outdated industry will evolve or go extinct.
The great news is that our club membership is growing fast. 2022 will see even more user-friendly tools added to help you plan your safaris and make impactful donations to worthy projects. Thanks to all that have booked safaris and donated so far 🙂
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
A few years ago, I went white water rafting on the Nile. Obviously, at several points, we capsized and found ourselves at the mercy of the water, tumbling and rolling in the power of the current. I confess I was somewhat terrified when I realised I couldn’t work out up from down.
The last two years have felt a bit like that in some ways. We’ve all been plunged into the current of Covid, helplessly dragged along in its wake. As a result, tourism and travel have floundered, livelihoods and jobs (and lives) have been lost, and dreams have been shattered.
I think that to some, our fuss and indignation over the knee-jerk travel restrictions of the last few weeks might have seemed an overreaction. Still, the knock-on effects are enormous and not necessarily immediately apparent. In the last week, South Africa’s rhinos have been under siege, brutalised in the worst way imaginable. The experts say that there is always a spike in poaching around the Christmas season, but this appears to be particularly bad and carries a very sinister feeling.
Now I’m not saying that this is a direct consequence of the travel restrictions, but there is an obvious correlation. Protecting rhinos costs money. Tourism brings money and helps to conserve wild spaces and wild animals. Without tourism, the organisations tasked with keeping rhinos safe cannot fund the resources that they need to do so, and rhinos die. As economies struggle and more people dip towards or beneath the poverty line, new generations of potential poachers are created.
Africa desperately, urgently needs visitors to keep travelling to her shores to revel in her wild magnificence. Yet for two years, lodges, reserves, private owners and companies across Africa have been battling to keep their heads above water. For many, the long-lasting effects of the Omicron stigma will be the final wave that breaks them.
So thank you for removing us from the Red List but forgive us if we fail to fall over ourselves in gratitude. I know the whole world has found themselves tipped into this river of Covid together but let’s face it, the quality of the life jackets are just not the same.
• The UK government has removed all 11 African countries from their Red List and acknowledged that the selective travel restrictions did not prevent the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid. Other nations are expected to follow the UK example.
• Africa is sending anti-vaxxers packing! Botswana and Kenya are introducing regulations to restrict entry to holders of valid vaccination certificates. And so it begins …
Imbar Golt is blind. Sensing Kenya, she experiences the wonders of Africa through the smells, sounds, tastes and feels of a camping safari.
The smells of Africa – wet earth and vegetation greet me even on the short layover in Adis Ababa on the way to Nairobi.
The procedures at the airport take little time and we are soon on our way. The smell parade begins as we clear the city limits. Animals – in the rural outskirts of Nairobi, I can already smell them. Fire and smoke from a controlled burn, a dusty scent on the long roads to Mount Kenya. This is our first stop – the smells of the forest, elephant dung and the log cabin where my friend and I spend our very first night in Africa.
A bright morning in Samburu. We are travelling parallel to a river, I hear people saying there are elephants crossing. I go to the front of the truck and hold my head out of the window to listen better. Everybody else is suddenly aware that they have to be very quiet so that I can hear. And I do! I hear the calves squealing with joy, the splashing. It sounds as if the elephants are churning the river into a froth. I am in the river with them in spirit.
‘Hey, Imbar, you want to hear wells sing?’ Avner the guide asks.
My initial thought is that he is pulling my leg. But I humour him.
‘Well, let’s hear them,’ I tell him. We get off the truck and walk on a path of soft sand. I hear people talking in the distance. Not English, so I cannot understand what they are saying. Further on, there are children playing, goats bleating and women talking. We arrive at a spot, after a very short walk. Now I hear water and men in it.
‘Well, what about your wells?’ I say, smiling at Avner.
‘Seems like they don’t want to sing today.’ he replies.
‘Yes,’ I tell him, ‘ it seems like they just want to argue about the fare for their performance.’ So, alas, we heard the non-singing wells of Sarara.
In Lake Turkana, I get my chance to swim in the alkaline water. It is almost like swimming in the dead sea of my Israel.
‘Watch out for the crocs,’ says my friend.
I am a bit apprehensive but keep lying in the water, enjoying its coolness after a long drive. To me, it is magical – the energy here is special. With the rough, sharp grass on the bank, the mosquitoes and midges at night and the crocs in the lake, I feel so much at peace here. We have a gathering with the guide after dinner. I don’t remember what he talked about – I was busy listening to a fishing owl in the distance. No hyenas tonight, they have been our auditory companions most nights, before and after Turkana, but here it’s the insects and the owl.
Birds, also, are everywhere. From the first day at the airport, until the last day in Nairobi, I hear so many new ones. Some I recognise by comparing their calls to ones I have heard in the wild and in films and some I learn through the other keen birders in the group.
In the morning we go on a boat to visit the El Molo tribe on their island. They welcome us warmly and start singing and dancing. I am enchanted – such wonderful, warm people. We clap the rhythm of the song and I feel a hand taking mine and leading me into the circle of dancers. I dance with them, with men and with women. I feel one with them and one with Africa at that moment. No separation of colour, ability or race exists. We are all people with love in our hearts for each and every one. I sing the refrain with them, or as much as possible – I cannot understand a word they are singing. But that does not matter. What matters is the joy of the song and the dancing and the total acceptance between us all. I leave Turkana with a great taste for more, but another sensory experience awaits me.
A childhood fascination of mine was volcanos. I have read everything I could about them, and toured some of the volcanic areas in the north of Israel, but I never imagined the experience I have at Marsabit.
We stop near a crater, I can hear the locals chiselling and breaking blocks of basalt from the slopes. We climb higher and I can feel a void in front of me. I bend down and touch the soft soil, the eroded basalt – oops, it’s a bit slippery underfoot! I walk back a pace. My friend lets me feel some pumice. I experience the lovely lightness of the stone and how perforated and rough the texture is. We depart down a steep slope, me walking sideways, to avoid slipping. It always works.
The Maasai Mara is where we spend our last three nights in Kenya. We stop for lunch on the first day, in the middle of the wildebeest herds. Their unique sounds, the ones I have heard on countless documentaries, are now all around me. There is also a bunch of men from our group trying to imitate them.
‘What does that sound like Imbar?’ Avner the guide asks.
‘It sounds like a bunch of crazy guys!’ I say smiling. They laugh with me.
I do not hear the leopard my group sees jumping from a tree. I do not see a crossing of the Mara River, though I hear the zebra and other animals near the river. I do not see the crocs. But I hear the hippos call in Lake Baringo and the Mara. I hear so many flamingos on Lake Naivasha and enjoy the boat rides both on Turkana and Baringo. I have experienced all that I can through the senses available to me. Yes, including taste – the fruits in Africa taste sweeter, or maybe I am biased. The vegetables are fresher and the rest of the food I enjoy with the unique flavour of Africa.
These two weeks in Kenya are a magical time. The experience is spiritual. The closeness I feel to the people and to our planet Gaia is mystical and my senses, heart and soul are all a part of it.
About the author
Imbar Golt is a blind public speaker, writer and radio presenter from Eilat, Israel. She has travelled the world and visited five continents. She loves nature and is a keen birder. She recognises birds and other animals by their calls.
Another year largely defined by the COVID-19 pandemic bombarded us with negative stories. For the world’s tallest mammal, however, 2021 will end on a relatively positive note. Giraffe are still in trouble and they need our urgent help – but numbers are showing a positive upward trend. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation’s (GCF) latest estimate, based on numbers collated from all over Africa, stands at just over 117,000 individuals in the wild.
While this is still a precariously low number – particularly when compared with African elephant (there is only one giraffe for every three to four elephant) – we can see encouraging signs.
In 2016, giraffe, as a single species, were categorised as ‘Vulnerable’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. Now, with the new taxonomic classification of four distinct species, we can better define the conservation status of each species and understand the diverse challenges they face in Africa.
The good news is that overall giraffe numbers are on the rise. The conservation efforts of GCF and many partners appear to be showing success. Estimated at a total of 97,562 individuals in 2015, our 2020 review shows a 20% growth to 117,173 individuals in the wild today. Most importantly, these numbers are increasing across all of the recently defined four species. This is the first time that such trends have been reported in recent history. The following is a brief overview of GCF’s findings.
Northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)
Consisting of three subspecies – Kordofan (G. camelopardalis antiquorum), Nubian (G. c. camelopardalis) and West African (G. c. peralta) giraffe – northern giraffe remain distributed in small, fragmented populations across East, Central and West Africa. It is important to note that the formerly recognised Rothschild’s is genetically indistinguishable from the Nubian variety, and has, therefore, been subsumed into this subspecies. While numbers remain precariously low, their increasing population is positive, particularly in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger.
Native: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, South Sudan, Uganda
Northern giraffe
Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi)
Masai giraffe are now the second most populous taxon with a widespread distribution throughout East Africa, including large parts of southern Kenya and central and northern Tanzania. A small, possibly extra-limital (introduced and therefore out of the historical range) population also exists in the Akagera National Park, Rwanda. Note that the Luangwa variety(G. t. thornicrofti) is a subspecies of the Masai species, and as such this species’ range extends throughout parts of the Luangwa Valley in north-eastern Zambia. The increasing number of Masai giraffe is a very positive trend, which can be attributed to a combination of improved and targeted surveys, and localised successful conservation interventions.
2015: 31,611
2020: 45,402 (increased by 44%)
Proposed conservation status: Vulnerable
Country occurrence:
Native: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia
(Re-)Introduced: Rwanda
Masai giraffe
Reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata)
Historically, it is likely that reticulated giraffe had a relatively limited distribution in northern Kenya, southern Somalia, and southern Ethiopia. Today, their numbers and range in Ethiopia and Somalia remain essentially unknown. Kenya, especially outside of formerly protected areas in the northern Kenyan rangelands and the Laikipia Plateau, remains their stronghold. In 2015, the first-ever IUCN Red List assessment for reticulated giraffe underestimated their total number, which was subsequently amended. As such, the large increase can be attributed to more accurate survey data rather than substantial population growth. Additional targeted surveys are required to better assess the status of the reticulated species in the wild.
2015: 8,661
2020: 15,985 (increased by 85%)
Proposed conservation status: Endangered
Country occurrence:
Native: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia
Reticulated giraffe
Southern giraffe (Giraffa giraffa)
Consisting of two subspecies – Angolan (G. g. angolensis) and South African (G. g. giraffa) – the southern species is now the most abundant. They are distributed throughout most parts of Southern Africa and more widely through extra-limital introductions. During the early 20th-century, southern populations were decimated, but over the past few decades, they have recovered. Increasing habitat in protected areas and swathes of private and communal land combined with intensive management and translocations may not only have helped to increase their numbers but have also potentially resulted in hybridisation of the two subspecies. This may threaten their genetic distinctness (biodiversity). Targeted conservation science is needed to better understand the impact of the hybridisation.
This reduction in numbers is based on a combination of better counting, a better understanding of hybridisation and natural predation. Most major and important Southern giraffe populations are stable or increasing – except for Zimbabwe but that is a very complicated case that we are trying to understand better. It is linked to a significant increase in the lion population which has a devastating impact on giraffe.
Extra-limital: Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Senegal
Southern giraffe
About the Giraffe Conservation Foundation
The GCF is the only organisation in the world that concentrates solely on the conservation and management of giraffe in the wild. GCF currently implements and/or supports conservation efforts in 16 African countries. Their work has an impact on over 400,000 km2 (100 million acres) of habitat.
Resources
To donate or support the GCF’s work, visit their club page in the Africa Geographic app
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Early morning, and first light is barely breaching the heavy mist that hangs over us like a cold, wet blanket and mutes the first attempts at an avian dawn chorus. This is the Mountains of the Moon, where DRC & Uganda meet and legends are born. I sip my mug of heavily-gingered milk tea and quietly discuss our plans for the day with my trusted friend and fixer Benson Bamatura (sadly now deceased). Our objective is simple – find and photograph a bird that has never before been photographed in the wild (aside from a few fortuitously netted during biodiversity research). Shelley’s crimsonwing Cryptospiza shelleyi – a rare endemic to the dense highland forests of the Albertine Rift – mountain gorilla territory.
We never found the stunning forest finch, despite six visits to parts of its mountainous paradise and operating a two-year netting programme in collaboration with the Ugandan authorities. Subsequent attempts to plan another personal sojourn into southern DRC to find this feathered jewel were stymied by unrest and then Corona. Unfinished business.
I mention this because right now, we all need to hang on to our dreams and trust that this crisis shall pass. Keep believing, dreaming and planning. See you in Africa – soon.
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
I have a particular fondness for the meaning and etymology of scientific names, something that the eagle-eyed among you may have picked up as a common theme in many of my articles.
I love that some convey a wealth of information or provide a snapshot of history. Others are either unintentionally funny or a sly wink (or wonderfully childish humour) from the scientist describing the species. Our fact of the week is one of my favourites -the memory of a somewhat ridiculous misconception of nightjar feeding habits now forever branded into ecological history.
I am always on the lookout for fascinating or humorous additions to my list of scientific name gems, so feel free to send some suggestions by joining the club and commenting below!
From our Editor-in-Chief
This will be my final ramble in the editor’s chair at Africa Geographic. It is time for me to detach myself from my desk and (hopefully) head back out into the wilderness. Obviously, this is a privilege many of us wish for in the year to come – along with wisdom from our so-called leaders. Thankfully I live in a country blessed with an astounding natural and cultural diversity so even if crossing borders is difficult, I can find solace in South Africa’s mountains, oceans and wild lands. Smiles will come from her resilient, beautiful people.
Next week, South Africa’s major inland centres will disgorge large proportions of their residents to the Western and Eastern Cape provinces. Cars full of dazed adults, their over-sugared offspring and mounds of paraphernalia they’ll never use, will travel the major arteries. Most will head for sleepy coastal villages but others will explore the wildlife in these gorgeous provinces. As our first story below explains, a Cape safari is a brilliant, malaria-free alternative to the more traditional Southern African safari destinations.
In our second story below, we explore yet more of the fascinating social goings-on in a hyena clan. This time researchers have discovered that young hyenas inherit their mothers’ social networks in much the same way as humans (and other primates) inherit the social networks their families fit into.
That’s it from me. It has been a privilege to talk to you every week over the last 11 months. With any luck, you’ll be able to read stories from me in the AG club in the not-too-distant future. Perhaps we’ll meet again over a tipple as the last embers of the day fade at some magical spot in the African wild. Until then, stay safe and please come to Africa as soon as you are able – she needs you and your soul needs her!
• Covid update: Analysts at JPMorgan have asserted that early data points to a more contagious but less severe Omicron – which would crowd out other severe variants and speed up the end of the pandemic
• United Airlines has resumed its 3 x weekly non-stop flights between its New York/Newark hub and Cape Town
The intricate social lives of the spotted hyena have fascinated researchers for decades, and scientists have recently added another piece of valuable information to our understanding of their lives. New research shows that not only do high ranking hyena cubs inherit their rank from their mothers, but they also inherit a social network of allies that may persist throughout their lives. And, like any individual born into privilege, it serves them well.
Spotted hyenas have one of the most intricate social structures of any apex predator. They live in social units called clans of anything from a handful of individuals to over a hundred – consisting of related and unrelated females and their offspring (matrilineal lines), as well as immigrant males. The clans function within a strict matrilineal hierarchy where high rank correlates to increased life expectancy and reproductive success.
Friend or foe?
Previous research has shown that, for the most part, spotted hyenas inherit their rank from their mothers. Cubs born to high-ranking mothers (including males) will assume a high ranked position in the hierarchy and those born to low ranked mothers will assume a lower rank. The cubs learn their place at an early age, mimicking their mothers’ dominant or submissive behaviours around the den site. Dominance in spotted hyenas is not related to strength or size – a young cub will readily dominate and even bully an adult of lower rank. Naturally, this confers a massive advantage in terms of access to resources. But while the agonistic realities of hierarchy life are now relatively well understood, researchers wanted to know how affiliative relationships are established and persist. In other words, how do hyenas make and keep “friends”?
Two of the authors – Professor Erol Akçay and Dr Amiyaal Ilany – had previously developed a sophisticated theoretical modelling technique based around social evolution to develop some general principles of hyena social networks. To test their model out under natural conditions, they relied on observational data gathered by field biologists at the Michigan State University Mara Hyena Project, established by renowned hyena-expert Professor Kay Holekamp.
They painstakingly analysed the social interactions between clan mates, examining the proximity, duration, and regularity of interactions between individuals. Using complex statistical analysis, they were able to quantify social networks and compare those of mothers and offspring. The results show that even once young hyenas reach independence, their social networks remain very similar to those of their mothers. This similarity remains high even after the mother has died, persisting for over six or more years in some instances.
Furthermore, this pattern was most clearly seen in high-ranked individuals, and, importantly, these mothers and offspring with shared social networks lived longer. Several different factors likely contribute to why this pattern is not as clearly demonstrated in lower-ranked individuals. Firstly, low-ranking hyenas appear to associate with a greater variety of individuals – possibly attempting to compensate for their disadvantageous position through increased socialising. Another possible explanation (or contributing factor) is that low ranked mothers tend to spend more time on their own to avoid agonistic interactions. As a result, their cubs have fewer learning opportunities.
This all points to the conclusion that this socialising behaviour, as with rank, is learned at a very early stage in a young cub’s life. The behaviours established at this formative time will go on to have a profound impact on their lives for years to come, ultimately influencing their chances of survival and future reproductive success. On a larger scale, this social inheritance likely plays a pivotal role in clan stability.
The authors ultimately conclude that this research supports “Ilany and Akçay’s hypothesis that in species with stable social groups, the inheritance of social connections from parents is the cornerstone of social structure”. This applies not just to spotted hyenas but potentially to many other species as well, including both primates and elephants. The authors suggest that this emerging body of evidence suggests that social inheritance may be central to the development of social structures in social species.
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I’m back. Miss me?
The gormless idiots (James refers to the same type below) that make big decisions have once again punched South Africa (and our neighbours) in the mouth for doing the right thing – sounding the alarm on Omicron – by immediately imposing harsh travel bans. What an excellent strategy to silence future alarms bells. Side note, make of it what you will: Absent from the banned list is the Netherlands, where the new strain was found (but strangely went unnoticed) before the warning from my government. Xenophobia, much?
Of course, every decision can be justified if you dig deep enough. For example, Germany has an ageing population heading into deep winter, and its hospitals are already stretched to the limit. To avoid the systemic collapse of their health services, their priority is probably to flatten the curve by reacting early. A total ban on all travel would surely be more effective – but that would piss off powerful allies and damage their own economies. That these gestures to selectively ban only a few African countries have floored Africa’s wildlife and tourism industries will be of little concern in the battle for votes and approval in the corridors of power. The inconvenient truth is that these icons of health and wellness have infection rates that far exceed those of the African countries they are fingering.
Here’s the thing: These ridiculous knee-jerk reactions by the buffoons will keep coming – for the foreseeable future. This is what happens when we routinely elect clowns, celebrities and weak-kneed bureaucrats into positions of power. Get used to it. Plan your safaris with care, be agile and flexible about timing, and help this wonderful African safari industry get back on its feet. Africa Geographic is here for the long run – ours is a 100-year plan. We will be here for advice and epic safari plans when you decide to visit.
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
Human beings are good at shaping animals. We have created dairy cows capable of producing over 60 litres of milk in one day, piglets that pack on more than ten kilograms of lean muscle every week and brachycephalic dogs that fall over when they get too excited because their noses have all but disappeared into their skulls. And in Gorongosa, nearly twenty years after the Mozambican Civil War and poaching crisis, elephants without tusks still make up half of the population. The process seems simple: we decide which individuals get to reproduce – we create selection pressures to drive “evolution” at hyper speed. It’s just good (or terrible) breeding.
Of course, nothing is ever that simple where genetics are concerned. Why are the vast majority of tuskless elephants female? Could the situation ever be rectified? Read our third story to learn more about what scientists have discovered about the “tuskless” genes.
Don’t forget to keep checking our club forum for some fascinating discussions and updates on conservation and travel from our AG community. Our friends at the World Parrot Trust recently posted an update on their work in keeping African grey parrots out of the illegal pet trade. Join the club to help support the endeavours of the World Parrot Trust and other phenomenal conservation initiatives.
From our Editor-in-Chief
Human beings are good at breaking records. We once thought that no man would ever run a mile in under four minutes. Now that’s been achieved by more than 1400 athletes. Every time the 100 m record is broken, we think no one could possibly go faster. And then they do. So it is with our capacity for moronic behaviour. Just when you think the human species has reached the apogee of gormless idiocy, we manage to confound expectation and reach greater heights of stupid. This time, we can thank the weapons-grade half-wits running Shell.
These icons of depravity have, with the connivance of the bottomless well of vacuous humanity that is the South African government, decided to search for new sources of fossil fuel off South Africa’s precious Wild Coast. Yes, fossil fuels less than a month after the end of COP26. They are going to do this by blasting shock waves through the ocean floor.
There are two major issues with this. Firstly, no matter what some overpaid spin doctor (aka bald-faced liar) tells you, it is simply psychotic to be seeking more fossil fuel deposits. The planet is cooking thanks to our relentless use of precisely the chemicals Shell wants to extract.
Secondly, the science on whether or not these seismic blasts will affect marine life is lacking. Surely it is up to Shell to prove that they will do no harm rather than on activists needing to prove the opposite? The damage could be irreparable, and that’s before Shell starts drilling, spilling, extracting and generally fouling a once magnificent piece of the world’s natural heritage.
Undaunted, Shell says they have met all legal obligations. In the manner of so many corporate earth pirates, Shell has equated legality with morality. Great. Well, it used to be legal to trade slaves – doesn’t make it right.
It is time that the cretins at Shell and their equally nitwitted counterparts in the SA government moved with the times. It is time to move away from fossil fuel extraction for short term gain. Only a record-breaking imbecile would argue otherwise.
Phew, let’s now be more cheerful. In our first story below, take a tranquil trek through the forests of Gombe Stream and Mahale Mountains National Parks in search of Tanzania’s wild chimpanzees
In our second story below, Daniel Nelson, a young photojournalist and conservationist takes us down the Tana River, Kenya, on a fascinating quest to photograph two of Africa’s rarest monkeys.
With many safaris on temporary hold, while world leaders mismanage the Covid crisis, we all need to ponder and celebrate what makes Africa so awesome!
• If this drool-worthy video from Duba Plains in Botswana does not get you dreaming about your next safari, then nothing will! Watch out for the conservation message near the end ❤. Club members get the best available prices at these and other superb camps and lodges.
• And this, an inspirational collection of clips celebrating four years in the extraordinarily diverse Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, is pure heaven.
Most safari enthusiasts associate Tanzania rolling savannas, herds of wildebeest mowing extensive grasslands and a plethora of iconic predators. It does not, however, immediately conjure images of chimpanzees swinging through forest canopies. Yet, there are two national parks where visitors can combine the safari experience with chimpanzee trekking: Gombe Stream National Park and Mahale Mountains National Park. For those in the know, these two remote sections of one of the wildest parts of Africa are something of a primate mecca – where a pilgrimage to meet our forest kin takes place in the verdant forests along the shore of one of the continent’s Great Lakes.
The shores of Lake Tanganyika
For 600km on the western edge of Tanzania, the long strip of Lake Tanganyika marks the country’s boundary with the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. Both Gombe Stream National Park (Gombe) and Mahale Mountains National Park (Mahale) are positioned on the lake’s eastern shores, with tiny Gombe the northernmost of the two, not far from the town of Kigoma. Further south, situated midway along the lake’s length, is the much larger (and even more remote) Mahale. Both parks are accessible only by boat, and there are no roads within the parks – exploration can only be undertaken on foot.
Though most visitors are drawn here to view the chimpanzees, this is a remarkably biodiverse part of Tanzania, situated at the gradual transition between Central Africa’s rainforests and the savannas of East Africa. Lake Tanganyika has played an enormous role in shaping this ecosystem, and its long white beaches and crystal-clear waters (and cichlid populations) are attractions in their own right. As part of the Albertine Rift of the East African Rift Valley, it is the second oldest and longest freshwater lake in the world. The wildlife of the surrounding forests regularly descends from the mountainous surroundings to drink at its shores. The sight of a troop of chimpanzees or perhaps a slinking leopard on Lake Tanganyika’s beaches is not readily forgotten.
The mountains of Gombe, sloping down to Lake Tanganyika, blanketed in forest.
A word on chimpanzees – our forest kin
Anyone who has spent time with one of the planet’s great ape species will be able to attest to the fact that it is world’s apart from, say, an elephant or lion sighting. This could be partly due to the rewarding process of finding them – after long treks along muddy forest and mountain paths, through biting nettles and motivated by anticipation. However, there is something undeniably spiritual about their company and the intelligence, much closer in kind to our own, in their eyes.
This is especially true of chimpanzees which are, of course, our closest primate relatives. Unlike the relatively congenial gorillas with their vegetarian diets, chimpanzees are social, intelligent predators. They have their own social complexities, dramas, and escapades. Their body language and facial expressions seem to convey a wide range of emotions we so typically associate with humanity: melancholy, envy, shame, disdain, savagery … chimpanzees use tools and wage coordinated wars. As a result, many aspects of their wild lives can be viewed through the lens of our evolutionary history.
The chimpanzees in Tanzania are Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) – the most common subspecies of chimpanzee found throughout the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. In Tanzania, they are found only in Gombe and Mahale. Like any safari experience, there is always an element of luck involved, but the viewing in either location can be extraordinary. A caveat to this is that if the chimps decide not to hang out near the beaches, the search through the forests can be physically demanding, and a certain level of fitness is essential.
Chimpanzee mum and baby in Gombe Stream National Park
Mahale Mountains National Park
The enormous Mahale Mountains National Park extends over 1,650km² (165,000 hectares) of craggy mountains and rolling hills. It encompasses (and is named for) the forested Mahale Mountains, where the highest points of Mount Nkungwe reach elevations of over 2,400 metres. The verdant forests along the western slopes are home to a substantial population of chimpanzees (over 1,000 individuals). The chimps of Mahale are part of an ongoing, 50-year-old study. The other side of the mountain range opens up into savannas – home to lions, elephants, zebras, giraffes, and roan and sable antelope. Keen birders can also keep their eyes peeled for the park’s many bird species (over 230 species recorded so far, but the number is likely substantially higher), with specials like the palm-nut vulture and Livingstone’s turaco.
Of course, the vast area and dramatic scenery can make for a challenging search for chimpanzees, should they decide to move away from the more accessible beach areas. Crawling through dense vegetation on hands and knees is not out of the question, but the more intense the search, the more rewarding a chimpanzee sighting will be. While searching for chimps, visitors will find themselves enthralled by some of the other forest creatures, including yellow baboons, vervet, red-tailed, and colobus monkeys (both the red and Angolan black-and-white colobus species). Really fortunate visitors may even witness (or hear) the chimpanzees hunting their smaller cousins, particularly the red colobus monkeys. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, though potentially a curiously chilling one.
Despite being about 1,000km away from the nearest ocean, there is a definite tropical, paradise island feel about the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Mahale. The turquoise waters stretch as far as the eye can see and warm waves lap gently onto the shores of unspoilt sandy coves. The park’s lodges are situated on the beach, and guests can opt to rinse away the chimp-trek sweat with a dip in the lake (content in the knowledge that crocodiles only rarely visit).
The forests of Mahale Mountains National Park
Gombe Stream National Park
In contrast to the massive Mahale, Gombe is one of Tanzania’s smallest national parks, a fragile and precious patch of chimpanzee habitat of just 56km² (5,600 hectares), 16km north of the city of Kigoma. Despite its small area, this intimate park sports excellent biodiversity and, in the world of primate research, is celebrated as the home of chimpanzee study. It was here that Jane Goodall first set up her now-famous research centre during the 1960s. Arriving without any “formal” training, Dame Goodall was free from the scientific dogma of the times, which allowed for very little insight into the workings of the minds of wild animals.
Left: a yellow baboon enjoying the beaches of Lake Tanganyika; top right: great white pelican; bottom right: a red-tailed monkey calling to companions
Having named her subjects, Goodall set about observing them in earnest. Here, she first observed chimpanzees using tools to “fish” for termites and learnt to reconcile the more affectionate aspects and behaviours with the darker sides of their lives. These included systematic primate hunting techniques and extraordinary potential for intraspecific violence and conflict. Today, the 60-year study is the longest-running field study of an animal species in its natural surroundings. It has supplied us with a vast amount of what we now know about chimpanzee behaviour. The famous chimpanzees have been the subjects of many a thesis, film, and documentary series.
As in Mahale, Gombe is open to day-visitors in possession of a 24-hour pass and guide. However, the park is best experienced over a couple of days spent at one of the lodges. There are many other species to be appreciated, including over 200 birds and a similar variety of primate species to Mahale. One particularly habituated troop of yellow baboons spends its time close to the shoreline and is a constant source of enjoyment and entertainment for guests.
The gorgeous beaches and forests of Lake Tanganyika in Gombe Stream National Park
Explore & Stay
Want to go on safari to Gombe and Mahale? To find lodges, search for our ready-made packages or get in touch with our travel team to arrange your safari, scroll down to after this story.
The savanna habit on the eastern side of Mahale stretches to Katavi National Park – one of Tanzania’s best-kept safari secrets. The upshot of this is that chimpanzee treks in Gombe or Mahale can be easily combined with a more “traditional” safari in either Katavi or Ruaha National Park.
Away from the tourist centres and the northern/southern safari circuits, self-travel through western Tanzania is suitable only for the more adventurous, experienced, and patient traveller. It is very rural, with few roads and little in the way of infrastructure. Travel to Mahale and Gombe can be a little arduous but interesting. Long flights and scenic boat voyages offer scenes of Crusoe-like bandas and thatch on paradise beaches. Ultimately, this remoteness and simplicity is a significant ingredient in the magic of a stay in Tanzania’s chimpanzee forests. The fact that it can be enjoyed in one of the high-end lodges with every need provided for is an added bonus.
Trekking for birds and primates in the forests of Gombe and Mahale
The best time to visit falls between May and October, which corresponds to the dry season in this part of Tanzania. The high rainfall levels from November until April can make the paths extremely slippery and challenging, with the added disadvantage that the chimpanzees prefer to spend less time on the ground and more in the canopy. As is the case with any primate trekking safari in Africa, a good pair of boots (preferably two) is essential, and waterproofing for all photographic equipment and belongings is always a good idea!
If God were to grab a wilderness reserve, pull it on both ends, and stretch it into a thin line – it would be the forest of Tana River. This riverine forest winds deep into the drylands of east Kenya, near the border of Somalia. You can walk across it in ten minutes – that is how narrow this forest is. Yet, it is over three hundred kilometres long. Scrunched into this linear forest are elephants, hyenas, bushbucks, waterbucks, kudus, lions, giraffes, and more. I have never seen such a uniquely laid-out piece of nature.
The Tana River flowing through the Tana River National Primate Reserve (TRNPR) Kenya.
Endangered primates
I am a young photojournalist and I had a specific goal for this project. I wanted to create a high-quality photo story of the Tana River’s two critically endangered primate species – the Tana River red colobus and the Tana River mangabey. Both are endemic to the forests on the banks of the Tana River. The colobuses are folivorous (feeding on leaves), consuming up to three kilograms of leaves per day, in small groups high up the forest canopy. The mangabeys are semi-terrestrial monkeys, rummaging across the forest floor in large troops for seeds, fruits, and insects. Both primates are dependent on this narrow band of forest which is a remnant of a continuous forest that stretched from Central to East Africa 25,000–30,000 years ago. They remained under-photographed for so long because their home range was inaccessible for many years due to Al-Shabaab related insecurities in the region. Luckily, that has changed.
My camp is dappled in afternoon sunlight. Two bungalows, two containers, and an outdoor kitchen – simple, but comfortable. Two researchers welcome me with open arms. They are glad to finally have a visitor. Above us are scores of trees including beautiful doum palms and a massive sycamore fig. Both honeypots for primates. At night, the local wildlife moves along the riverbanks. To them, this band of forest is a highway. A highway with no exits, given that there are parched drylands on both sides. For safety reasons, I am not allowed to leave camp after dark – I hear the sniffles and stumbles of elephants and hyenas crossing through forest camp at night.
A Tana River mangabey rummaging through the TRNPR on 01 October 2021
Success and failure
I spot both my primates on day one. The colobuses are curious about me, but stay high in the tree canopy. The mangabeys are bolder, and march past me like I do not exist. I successfully photograph both species – a personal milestone. With the pressure gone, my guide takes me downstream. He has something to show me. I am expecting more beauty, more of this green forest highway. But alas, my guide, a local man called Said Rova, takes me to a series of farmlands. It appears that the line of forest below our camp breaks into fields – barren and sunbaked. The forest highway is thus interrupted. ‘Such clearings occur everywhere along the river’, Said confesses. I ask how this came to be.
He explains, ‘The Pokomo people use these riverbank forests for agriculture. The human population is growing fast, and in the past twenty years some 50% of forests have been razed’. Imagine a dusty plain, endlessly vast, and curving through it, a band of greenery. Moving up and down this line are animals. But then humans come and clear parts of that line for agriculture. The continuous band of forest now becomes a dashed line, broken and patchy. The monkeys cannot cross these barren gaps, they are marooned on the loose cuts of greenery – unable to migrate, unable to reproduce. That is why the primates are critically endangered.
A Tana River red colobus in the canopy of the TRNPR, Kenya, on 02 October 2021.
Surely these forests are protected? During the course of the following days, Said takes me to the Tana River National Primate Reserve and the Ndera Community Conservancy. These are two stretches of the forest set aside for protection. We boat down the river, slaloming through an obstacle course of hippos and crocodiles. I spot storks, rollers, and pelicans on the shores. We also pass riverside villages and farms. At the conservancies, I discover how this protected land is heavily underfunded. Just a dozen rangers are tasked to protect over 100km² of wilderness. The locals in the area seem not to condone their efforts.
Said explains the predicament,
‘The Pokomo people are in a human-wildlife conflict with the primates’, he tells me. ‘If we only protect the monkeys, the villagers are ousted into the drylands. If we prioritize human development, then forests get razed. This is a delicate dance.’
I ask whether people and wildlife could live harmoniously? ‘Yes they can’, Said believes. But sustainable agriculture and good infrastructure need to be implemented. But who will fund this? If you half-raze the forest and protect the other half, you get half the profit and half the food. Try explaining that to villagers living on under a dollar a day. They need compensation to comply.
A group of Tana River red colobuses in the canopy of the TRNPR, Kenya, on 30 September 2021.
Solutions
One local activist has found a solution. His name is Omar Bahatisha Dhadho and I meet him in a village on our way back from the conservancies. A kind, smiling man, Omar had arranged that the small amounts of aid money destined for conservation would skip the wildlife and go directly into the community for irrigation, housing, fencing. This seemed illogical to me. But in return for this human-first approach, the community promises to leave the forests and its animals alone, dousing the human-wildlife conflict. So far, this strategy has worked, but it could be better.
Clockwise from left: Tallboy star chestnut (Sterculia appendiculata); rangers of the Ndera Conservancy; The village of Amani showing how deforestation comes with human settlement at the TRNPR, Kenya
‘Tourism would be a true lifesaver’, Said exclaims. Imagine visitors at the Mchelelo Camp (where I stayed) sitting in an armchair, seeing all kinds of wildlife pass through the camp. Elephants, buffalo, hyenas, and more; plus of course, two rare primate species not found anywhere else in the world. Who would not come to this wonderful oasis? The visitors’ money would go directly to the well-being of the animals. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), only $78,000 is needed to revive the local conservancies. I agree with Said, but visitation has been scarce. So, the next day back at camp, Said comes up with an idea. Tell your people to visit our wildlife refuge. Have them raise awareness and donate. Write an article about our forest. I sit in that armchair – half-photographing the colobuses foraging above my head – and start to write.
Resources
For more about adeventuring on the Tana River see here
About Daniël Nelson
Daniël Nelson (22) was launched into the spotlight in 2017, after winning the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award from the London Natural History Museum. During the following years he worked freelance for the African Parks, the Peace Parks Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund. Then, Daniël moved to London to read for a B.A in Photojournalism at the University of Arts. The pandemic struck during Daniël’s first year, leaving his degree covidized. Frustrated to know that the global environmental crisis lingered on with the world waiting, he repacked his rucksack and hit the road. His new goal:
Photograph critically endangered species before extinction.
There are 3,553 critically endangered animals in the world. Apart from the more iconic species such as leopards and rhinos, the majority of these are described as plain scientific texts in databases. Turning these texts into aesthetic, visual reports – for both awareness and conservation – is what Daniël’s mission is about. Connect with Daniel on Instagram and his blog
Research has confirmed what many experts have been suggesting for decades: ivory poaching selectively drives the evolution of tuskless elephants. The new study, published in Science, methodically demonstrates the devastating effects of poaching on the elephants in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. In essence, the article confirms that elephants had been “genetically engineered” to be born without tusks.
During the Mozambican Civil War from 1977 to 1992, the elephants of Gorongosa National Park and the rest of the country were indiscriminately poached. Ivory sales were used to fund weapons for armed forces on both sides, and the wholesale slaughter resulted in the loss of around 90% of the region’s elephants. Tuskless individuals (of no interest to ivory poachers) were more likely to survive and began to pass their genes on to their offspring as the park stabilised.
Intensive poaching in Africa has long been associated with increasing numbers of tuskless elephants. However, prior to this paper, no research had quantified the phenomenon, and the exact mechanisms behind the tuskless characteristic had not been investigated.
Researchers compared historical video footage and contemporary records to demonstrate that the frequency of tuskless females in Gorongosa increased nearly threefold from 18.5% to 50.9% over 28 years. To test whether or not this was due to a chance event and a population bottleneck, they used a simulation based on the assumption that tusked and tuskless females were equally likely to survive. The outcome of the simulation concluded that this was extremely unlikely to have occurred due to chance. Instead, the authors calculated that the survival chances of tuskless females were five times those of tusked females during the war.
Tuskless elephant cows are common in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa
Tuskless elephants are found in most (if not all) savanna elephant populations, always in small proportions under natural conditions and, importantly, almost always in females. So, the next step for the researchers was to examine the genetic basis of the trait and the effect of selection on future generations. The proportion of tuskless elephants in Gorongosa (a total population of around 700) has remained significantly elevated long after the war. This shows that the trait is clearly heritable and an evolutionary response to poaching-induced selection.
Further investigation revealed that the gene for tuskless elephants is likely dominant, sex-linked (on the X chromosome) and male-lethal. Simply translated, this means that the mother will pass the gene to some, if not all, of her daughters, and it will be expressed in their phenotype (physical appearance). The fact that it is male-lethal means that male zygotes that inherit an X-chromosome with the gene will not be viable and will not develop to term. Consequently, the long-term prevalence of the tuskless gene could potentially skew the sex ratio of an elephant population.
The genetics are complicated slightly because some of the females express a mid-way phenotype, with only one tusk. It would be overly simple to expect that a complex trait like tusk growth to be controlled only by the complete dominance of one gene. It is highly likely that genes on other chromosomes also have an effect. The researchers believe that they have identified at least one X-linked gene (AMELX) and one autosomal gene (MEP1a) behind the genetic selection in Gorongosa, but further research is needed. They also point out that there are some anecdotal reports of tuskless male savanna elephants. While this is likely due to injury or observer error, they cannot rule out alternative genetic mechanisms that may play a role.
Every organism alive today has at least partly evolved due to “standing genetic variation”, where some individuals in a population possess a different type of gene that confers a distinct physical trait. Under certain environmental conditions, this characteristic may be disadvantageous (as in the case of tuskless elephants in protected areas), but a change in circumstances may come to favour the alternative form. In this case, rampant poaching has driven the selection of the tuskless genotype in the space of a generation.
The authors conclude that their research “shows how a sudden pulse of civil unrest can cause abrupt and persistent evolutionary shifts in long-lived animals even amid extreme population decline”. Though tuskless elephants can survive and thrive without them, tusks are multipurpose tools used in ways that shape the environment around them. A massive increase in the number of tuskless elephants could have substantial and unforeseen impacts on local ecosystems. Fortunately, the researchers believe that if Gorongosa National Park continues its phenomenal recovery, this process will abate.
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From our Editor-in-Chief
Late one August afternoon, I was watching a leopard draped over a marula limb. Around me in the clearing, the remaining grass turned a mixture of gold and red as the sun nestled behind the Drakensberg. It was warm and peaceful. Then, faintly on the north-west breeze, came a sound not normally associated with safaris in beautiful game reserves – cowbells. ‘Tink tink tink,’ they went in the distance as the herd of cattle belonging to someone in Dixie village outside the Sabi-Sands Game Reserve, drove his livestock home. Many might be aggrieved by this human invasion into the atmosphere of the wilderness. Personally, I found the gentle tinkling to be a calming herald of another day’s closing in rural Africa.
Cattle and other livestock are culturally and economically crucial to many rural Africans. Yet many people see livestock as anathema to wildlife conservation and healthy rangelands. Is there a balance? All around the African continent, conservationists are working to ease the tensions where protected areas and rural people meet.
I would urge you to read our second story below to learn how some brilliant people are integrating traditional livestock husbandry with conservation objectives for the benefit of people, livestock and wildlife. Herding 4 Health is a profoundly important Peace Parks Foundation initiative.
In our first story below, we travel to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and surrounds in Kenya. Here is an exclusive wilderness playground in the shadow of Mount Kenya. It was once a cattle farm, then a rhino sanctuary, and now it is one of East Africa’s premier safari destinations.
As we head into the hottest part of the year, it’s only appropriate that we consider the effects of heat on our fellow creatures – especially as we, seemingly inexorably, make things warmer for them. Our third story below discusses how a sunbird’s dazzling colours make life tricky under the African sun.
From our Scientific Editor
One of my favourite things about this time of year is the return of the woodland kingfishers, (usually) marking the return of the rains and the rejuvenation of the bushveld. I sat and watched a pair trilling to each other on the tree outside my bedroom and marvelled at the way their feathers changed colour in the dappled sunlight.
Bird feathers are one of nature’s captivating works of art. Whether the subtle, earthy tones of a ground-dwelling francolin or the flash of red of a turaco streaking through the forest, these intricate structures are marvels of engineering. This is especially true of iridescent feathers, which use light refraction to transform a drab-looking feather into a shimmering masterpiece. Even a homely city-dwelling pigeon can find itself with a flashy collar in the right light. And the tiny sunbirds that zip from aloe to aloe? They become little glimmering gems.
However, new science suggests that this extravagant display may well come at a cost for sunbirds—one which will be become even more pronounced as our planet warms. Read our third story to find out more.
• Here we go again, as UK bans flights from 6 African countries. The United Kingdom has temporarily suspended flights from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini due to the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant. Anyone who has been in these countries in the previous ten days has been banned from entering the UK. UK and Irish nationals who can make it back to the UK will have to quarantine in hotels from Monday. Read more here.
‘Herding 4 Health is a community development activity that promotes conservation outcomes while supporting people living in rural areas to find their way out of extreme poverty. It does this by teaching community members to make use of what they already have – cattle and other livestock.’ Peace Parks Foundation.
Livestock herding and wildlife conservation are often seen as anathema to each other. A combined Peace Parks and Conservation International initiative called Herding 4 Health (H4H) is changing these perceptions while improving livestock health and wealth for local people living on the fringes of protected areas. The programme is also restoring rangelands and increasing biodiversity.
Cattle at dawn on the borders of the Greater Kruger
Livestock and protected areas
Rural village landscapes are multifunctional and play a critical role in providing essential ecosystem services such as food production, grazing, rainwater absorption and carbon cycles.
In many parts of Africa, livestock animals are massively important to rural people. They provide milk, meat and a form of banking for people living on the borders of protected areas. Yet increasing numbers of livestock, grazing without coordination close to villages has caused extensive rangeland degradation which, in turn, has resulted in poor livestock health, decreased food security, and increased poverty.
Another problem community livestock owners face is access to markets for those who want to sell their animals. Livestock is generally in poor condition and live animals cannot be sold across veterinary cordons. Foot and Mouth disease is a major problem around many Southern African protected areas. The disease is carried by free-ranging buffalo, and cloven-hooved livestock are extremely susceptible to it.
Many of the problems can be put down to herds not being managed optimally. Historically, herds would have been looked after all day – drop and go herding did not happen. These days, kids go to school and modern life makes it very difficult for herds to be monitored full time, especially in areas that are not fenced (a situation that brings its own set of problems). As Mike Grover, Project Manager of the H4H programme in the Mnisi Tribal Authority (Mnisi TA) on the borders of the greater Kruger National Park says, ‘Livestock are not a problem. Unmanaged livestock are a problem.’
A predator-proof boma in the bushveld
An innovative solution
Jacques van Rooyen, Director of the Herding 4 Health Programme who developed the H4H model grew up on a cattle farm where he developed a love for nature. He went on to study animal science, rangeland science and then wildlife management before helping to plan and set up game reserves in various parts of Southern Africa. His experience and work in veterinary science drew him into the people and protected areas interface where he felt there were a lot of specialists doing good work in human-wildlife conflict, rangelands, animal health and production, ecology and tourism. Few, however, were taking an integrated, systems view of the complicated situation.
Van Rooyen realised the problems on the borders of protected areas were based on rangelands, community politics, land use clashes (conservation versus farmers), development, disease control and market access. In other words, he realised the need for a delicate balance between ecological and social priorities. He also saw, however, that these complex problems needed a simple, community-driven solution that could be modified for local conditions and priorities.
Herding 4 Health uses skills already in the communities – herding and kraaling predominantly – and the introduction of new technology. It enables regenerative livestock production and enhances social equity through training and enterprise development.
The model facilitates and integrates four pillars:
healthy rangelands;
healthy animals;
thriving livelihoods; and
good governance and the development of policies that incentivise the adoption of sustainable, climate-smart and wildlife-friendly livestock management practices.
Eco-rangers
One of the key features of the Herding 4 Health solution is the eco-rangers. These are people selected by their communities to be the custodians of the H4H programme at the local level. The eco-rangers are taught professionalised herding techniques. They learn planned grazing, animal production, primary animal care, tracking, security and various applicable administrative skills. This is facilitated by the SA College for Tourism’s Herding Academy in Graaff-Reinet and the Southern African Wildlife College. The eco-rangers are streamed according to their strengths – e.g. digital reporting, communication, vegetation surveys etc.
H4H eco-rangers are not just cattle herders – they are communicators, record keepers, trackers, cattle health assessors and vegetation surveyors. After four or five years, a herder can become an eco-trainer.
A good example is Cliff Nkuna of the Mnisi Tribal Authority near the Kruger National Park. Cliff wanted to be a field guide because that was how he saw himself making the best living. Now, however, with the training and experience he has from H4H, he is on a career path that allows him to stay in his village, make a living, and contribute to the long-term well-being of his community. He is an eco-trainer.
Through the eco-rangers, community livestock owners have a sustainable, traceable supply of animals to the grass-fed red meat market. This is hugely important as farmers in communal areas currently only supply 5% of the South African red meat market despite owning 47% of the livestock.
Clockwise from top left: working in the predator-proof boma; a herder tending his livestock in the bushveld; a collective herd grazing close to the home village; a herd leaves the predator-proof boma to go grazing
Case study – Limpopo National Park, Mozambique
Limpopo National Park (LNP) is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA). The Herding 4 Health programme in LNP, consists of six communities with 12,000 cattle in an area of 150,000ha. Two of the communities are in the park and the other four in the buffer zone. Before H4H arrived, the cattle were moving 20 km from the village before they reached the first grass – every day! The herders were also losing up to 20 animals a month to predators. Since the advent of H4H in the area, the cattle do not return to the villages during the summer months and not one animal has been lost to predators.
For rangelands, the ecological plan is based on science and best practice, where community livestock are grazed together in large herds in a coordinated manner such that their effects on the rangeland are positive and restorative.
In essence, this is how the programme works.
The community brings their livestock together into large herds.
Grazing is planned around available water sources
In summer, when water is relatively abundant, the herds do not return home every night.
In the evening, the herders erect predator-proof bomas. Each one takes about an hour to set up and can house 600 cattle. The herders carry the bomas with them and stay with their respective herds for around a week at a time.
Over this summer period, land close to the villages rests and regenerates.
In winter, when the crop fields are fallow and the grass close to the village has recovered, the herds move closer to home, taking advantage of the summer forage growth that has accumulated. The animals drink from more permanent water sources.
Bomas are placed in degraded areas so that the dung and urine of the 600 snoozing, ruminating cattle can fertilise the land and help it recover.
Hooves break the surface, urine and dung fertilise the soil, denuded areas are left to rest and recover. This is very similar to the natural movement of wild ungulates such as the wildebeest of the Great Migration.
The first eco-rangers in this area were trained in January 2020 and the community mobilised another 100 volunteers. H4H provided rations for all. The government is supportive of the programme because it makes their job easier. Extension officers don’t have to work nearly as hard to have cattle treated for disease or dipped because the animals arrive for treatment in collective herds. Diseases are more easily contained and treated.
Clockwise from top left: Cattle in a communal dip; veterinary intervention; helping community farmers with access to market; checking fences; a communal herd moving into a dip
Case study – Mnisi Tribal Authority
We spoke to Mike Grover, Conservation South Africa Landscape Director of the Herding 4 Health programme in the Mnisi Tribal Authority (Mnisi TA) on the borders of the greater Kruger National Park. In this area of South Africa, the same conditions that prevail in the LNP of Mozambique, do not exist. The H4H model, however, is designed to be flexible and work with local knowledge and local conditions.
Of the national cattle herd – i.e. all the cattle in South Africa, only about five per cent are available to the formal meat and dairy markets. The reasons for this include veterinary cordons and poor animal condition (because of poor grazing and untreated diseases). In the Mnisi region, the major issues are:
Cattle raiding crop fields
A lack of collective herding
Animals left unmonitored for lengthy periods because
Fences have reduced predation.
Children who used to herd the cattle go to school.
Water provision is such that owners of cattle can simply leave their animals in the communal grazing lands for the day without having to lead them to and from water.
Few cattle owners are actively involved in looking after their animals. For example, there are some people who own more than 150 cattle but are employed and not involved in community agricultural structures.
At the moment there is an underlying structure for governance and organisation, but it is very challenging to capacitate and there are few active farmers involved.
The lack of continuous herding results in poor disease reporting and monitoring, which in turn means that overall herd health is reduced.
Another significant challenge is building trust. H4H has been working with the Mnisi TA for eight years now. The programme began with the construction of an IT centre and a bush thinning initiative – relatively easy interventions. The processes involved in the H4H programme are natural but complicated and it takes a great deal of input to change people’s perceptions around managing livestock.
The local solution
As mentioned, the problems, and therefore the solutions that apply to the LNP do not apply to the Mnisi TA. In the LNP, the major objectives are improved rangeland, intensive herding and the reduction of human-wildlife conflict. In the Mnisi TA, the high-density herding practised in LNP would be almost impossible to achieve because of the fencing already in place.
Herding 4 Health is not a cookie-cutter system and it is not just about herding. It is about optimising agricultural practices for the area in question to the benefit of rural farmers, their animals and communal rangelands. The programme aims to create resilience through adaptability, collective bargaining and saving money.
H4H in the Mnisi area, therefore, aims to bolster and capacitate agricultural structures so that cattle owners are better able to keep records on their animals and maintain good herd health. H4H also hopes to improve access to market for beef cattle owners.
The Mnisi area is not as remote as some H4H target zones and it is intensively researched by tertiary organisations. It is therefore a great testing ground for H4H concepts. One of these is the mobile abattoir – which is an abattoir that travels through rural areas negating the need for cattle owners to transport their animals to slaughter. It conforms to all health and safety standards required by law for the commercial sale of meat.
The aim is to supply local markets – tourism operations, small scale retailers and businesses with grass-fed, ethically raised meat (cattle, goat and game). The meat will be largely for niche markets, promoting the idea that consumers should know what they are eating and where it comes from.
After eight years in the Mnisi area, the first H4H eco-rangers are now becoming community leaders, pushing the H4H values, with years of local, applied knowledge. Perhaps one of the greatest testaments to the success of the H4H programme was that during the COVID lockdowns, people stuck to the H4H stewardship agreements because they have begun to see the benefits. The community and the programme just carried on with minimal, virtual support. This was a pivotal moment in the history of H4H in the Mnisi TA.
Now, with the experienced eco-trainers on the ground, mentorship can take place over the internet which means the programme can be expanded elsewhere because there is a critical mass of trained and passionate people on the ground in the Mnisi TA. As mentioned above, Cliff Nkuna and the Dixie community have a great story to tell.
The future
Herding 4 Health is expanding and its current project sites include:
Mnisi Community (South Africa) – Great Limpopo TFCA
Limpopo National Park and surrounds (Mozambique) – Great Limpopo TFCA
Greater Lebombo Conservancy (Mozambique) – Great Limpopo TFCA
Succulent Karoo (Namaqualand) (South Africa) – /Ai/Ais-Richtersveld TP
Mzimvubu Catchment (South Africa) – Maloti-Drakensberg TFCA
Maputo Special Reserve (Mozambique) – Lubombo TFCA
Simalaha Community Conservancy (Zambia) – Kavango Zambezi TFCA
The programme is expanding in Botswana with a multi-million dollar programme underway that will see Botswana funding and deploying 6000 eco-rangers. Over 20,000 unclaimed cattle have been found in parts of Botswana, some wandering several hundred kilometres from their owners – a direct result of ad hoc herding.
H4H allows the government to control the masses of rural cattle. They can mitigate disease and it is hoped that controlling disease will become much easier and with this, access to markets.
A number of major safari operators in Botswana have indicated a willingness to buy local, grass-fed beef as long as it can be shown that herders adhere to the H4H principles. Successful implementation of the programme may also see herds allowed onto wildlife concessions in tough times or for ecological reasons (simulating the grazing effects of large wild animal herds).
Conclusion
One of the greatest challenges facing wildlife conservation in Africa is the nexus between people and protected areas. Herding 4 Health is proving a viable way to improve the livelihoods of people living in rural areas near conservation reserves and popular tourism areas such as Victoria Falls. It is making a significant difference to the reduction of human-wildlife conflict. Through effective herding methods, predators have far less impact on livelihoods which in turn reduces revenge killing and a general resentment for wild predators. At the same time, improved rangelands are increasing the number of cattle that land can support while improving rangeland health. This is a hugely important project and it will be fascinating to see it rolled out further, hopefully with increased support from local people, NGOs and government.
Resources
For more about the H4H programme and the Peace Parks Foundation see here
There exists a wilderness in the highlands of Kenya where love, labour and a little luck created a conservation model so successful that it has shaped the fortunes of the land and communities around it. Today, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy is a haven for the rare and wonderful wildlife of the region while simultaneously offering one of the most exclusive and individualised safari experiences in East Africa.
Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and surrounds
The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy covers 250km² (25,000 hectares) in the corner of Kenya’s Meru County, bordering Laikipia and Isilio counties to the west and north, respectively. Though technically situated in a separate county, Lewa is a part of the wider Laikipia landscape. Most of the conservancy lies on the Laikipia Plateau at altitudes of over 1,500 metres. Just 40 km to the south, the jagged figure of Mount Kenya looms on the horizon, its rolling foothills imparting a dramatic topography to Lewa.
This spectacular visual contrast between the lush montane forests at the base of Kenya’s tallest mountain and the arid grasslands and sparse woodlands of Lewa is a significant ingredient in the conservancy’s wild magic. Another is, of course, the abundant wildlife. Unusual for this part of the world, Lewa is fenced but with tactical gaps left open based on animal movements. This allows the animals to move between the various surrounding ecosystems, including the vast Laikipia conservancy network and the Samburu ecosystem to the north. Lewa is also open to the neighbouring Borana Conservancy to the west.
Visitors to Lewa’s lodges are granted exclusive access to this wilderness playground. They are afforded opportunities that go far beyond the average game drive (though these are, of course, still an exciting aspect of any visit, given the wildlife on display). Despite the conservancy’s burgeoning success in conservation and tourism, the atmosphere remains down-to-earth – a perfect blend of homely warmth and world-class luxury guest experience.
Endangered Grevy’s zebra
The story
Lewa’s conservation journey is an integral part of the guest experience because it adds to the depth of understanding of the land, as well as her people and animals. The story is deeply rooted in Kenyan conservation history. It was once an operational cattle ranch owned by the Craig family who partnered with philanthropist Anna Merz to create a rhino sanctuary during the height of the poaching crisis in the early 1980s. Rhino numbers had been decimated, and their future was hanging very much in the balance. The remaining rhinos in northern Kenya were quickly gathered and sequestered safely away in the fenced and guarded Ngare Sergoi Rhino Sanctuary. As the numbers grew, the sanctuary was expanded to include the rest of the ranch. Thus Lewa started its journey to becoming one of Kenya’s premier safari destinations and conservation pioneers.
Cognisant that the future of any conservation mission depends on the fortunes of the surrounding communities, the Lewa approach has always been one of inclusivity and tangible contribution to rural livelihoods. With the support and encouragement of Lewa CEO Ian Craig, community-owned and managed conservancies began to spring up around Laikipia and Isilio. So successful was the multi-pronged approach to land management, security and tourism that Lewa Wildlife Conservancy was constantly called upon to support and guide the surrounding protected areas.
The result was the formation of the Northern Rangelands Trust (as a separate entity from Lewa), which now oversees over 30 different conservancies and community lands. Its mission: to develop resilient community conservancies to “transform people’s lives, secure peace and conserve natural resources” through providing funds, advice, training, and support.
A tribute to the success of Lewa’s conservation efforts came in 2013 when UNESCO declared both Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and neighbouring Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve an extension of the Mount Kenya World Heritage Site.
A Lewa leopard waking from an afternoon nap
Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve
Just south of Lewa is the Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve, part of the Mount Kenya forest ecosystem. This fairytale forest is one of Kenya’s hidden gems – frequented mostly by locals and Lewa guests. Thick ferns line the lush forest trails, and the trees are draped in thick vines to the point that one might be forgiven for expecting to see a yodelling Tarzan swinging in the canopy overhead. Though the forest lacks any large primates (apart from the visitors), there are plenty of elephants and black-and-white colobus monkeys hidden in and among the trees!
There are two main attractions in Ngare Ndare: the waterfall tumbling into an azure pool and the canopy walk. The first of these can be found in a spectacular rocky grotto, where swimming is permitted for those able to brave the cold of the mountain spring water. The canopy walk consists of a hanging walkway ten metres above the forest floor. This is the perfect place to take in the beauty of the forest, particularly at sunset when the trees are burnished in shades of gold and green.
The elephants went in two by two (Hurrah!)
One of the primary justifications for expanding the Mount Kenya World Heritage Site to include Lewa and Ngare Ndare was the 14km wildlife corridor linking the Mount Kenya National Park to Ngare Ndare. The narrow strip of fenced land runs between farmlands and has proved to be of immense value to the elephants of central and northern Kenya (as well as the surrounding farmers and their fields). From a conservation perspective, this elephant migration corridor is one of the greater Lewa landscape’s most fascinating features.
We know from recent research that elephants are now restricted to just 17% of their historical range, forced to navigate human-dominated landscapes and no longer able to follow traditional migration routes. The elephants of this ecosystem would have moved between the forests on the slopes of Mount Kenya (and, of course, the readily available streams fed by glacial runoff) and the more arid regions of the north (Samburu and the Matthews Range) depending on the seasons and rainfall. This migration corridor, created in 2010, allows the elephants to continue to do so, connecting the habitats while reducing conflict with the rural communities occupying the space between them. The underpass beneath the main highway was the first of its kind in East Africa and allows the safe passage of elephants and an assortment of other animals. Astonishingly, it took the first elephant just 12 hours to discover the completed underpass.
A young male lion contemplates his future
Wild Lewa
Lewa’s deep conservation roots have ensured a thriving wildlife population, including the Big 5 (though leopard sightings are still relatively unusual), rarities like the Grevy’s zebra. Naturally, both black and white rhinos are one of the main drawcards, and Lewa is one of the best places to view the two African rhino species. Not much compares to the sight of a critically endangered black rhino out in the open on Lewa’s grasslands, with the singular outline of Mount Kenya in the background.
The northern “specials” are all present, including the reticulated giraffe, common beisa oryx, gerenuk and Somali ostrich. The conservancy is a population stronghold of the endangered Grevy’s zebra, and the growing numbers have been translocated to bolster populations in surrounding conservancies. Lions and cheetahs abound, and packs of African painted wolves occasionally make a fleeting appearance.
To protect and to conserve
Have you ever wondered about what goes on behind the scenes in keeping a reserve operational and safe? Lewa’s phenomenal guest experience offers a transparent insight into the day-to-day realities of reserve management and even allows guests to join its various conservation initiatives where appropriate. This includes everything from visits to the local community schools and clinics to anti-poaching demonstrations and a chance to meet the tracker dogs. Rather than presenting a sanitised safari disconnected from reality, the Lewa approach is one of absolute authenticity.
Hospitality and accommodation in Lewa
Explore & Stay
This freedom of experience is a trademark of the central and north Kenyan tourism mantra, and the wealth of activities on offer makes the Lewa safari unlike any other. Game drives form the backbone of sedate exploration, but guests can opt to join the guides tracking the wildlife on foot or even rock their way across the landscape on the back of a camel. The conservancy is home to several exceptionally well-trained horses and offers rides for both beginners and more advanced riders. The joy of viewing wildlife from horseback is that the wild animals respond differently to the horses than they might to people on foot. The result is a safe and close encounter with wildlife that does not affect natural behaviour. Guests wanting an even more immersive experience can request a night out under the stars, and the lodges will set up a fly camp. From bush breakfasts to sundowners, nothing is ever too much trouble in Lewa…
This region of Kenya experiences two rainy seasons, which fall over April/May and November. At the height of the rains, the treacherous black cotton soils make navigation almost impossible and the lodges close operations in April and November. The dry season between June and September offers the best wildlife sightings. This does fall over the high tourist season, and the lodges are busier than normal. However, it is worth bearing in mind that this is by conservancy standards, and the experience remains exclusive.
There are several different lodges scattered throughout the conservancy, ranging from high-end to ultra-luxurious. Those wishing for more budget options can stay in the Mount Kenya National Park or the neighbouring Il Ngwesi Community Conservancy. However, as previously mentioned, only guests staying in Lewa will be granted access to the conservancy.
Want to go on safari to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy? To find lodges, search for our ready-made packages or get in touch with our travel team to arrange your safari, scroll down to after this story.
A recipe for success
Protecting Africa’s remaining wild spaces in today’s world is no easy task and requires juggling security, conservation, community relationships and local livelihoods in a competitive tourism environment. There is no such thing as a perfect recipe for securing the future of Africa’s protected landscapes but the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy stands out as one of Kenya’s most illustrious success stories.
The iridescent feathers of birds are one of nature’s greatest marvels. The dazzling, shimmering colours on certain birds play an essential role in visual communication between individuals, including the sunbird species. New research on these tiny birds demonstrates that this beauty comes at its own cost, in the form of increased heat absorption.
There are essentially two different types of bird colouration: pigment colours and structural colours. Black, brown and grey colours are created by melanin, produced by the bird. The warm colours like yellows and pinks come from a family of chemical compounds known as carotenoids, found in the bird’s diet. Bright reds and green both come from specialised pigments unique to certain bird families. The turacos, for example, have both a vibrant red pigment called turacin and a rich green pigment known as turacoverdin. Parrots also have a particular group of pigments: psittacofulvin pigments.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, so to speak, blue colours and iridescence are structural colours created by light refraction caused by microstructures in the feathers. Keratin protein and specialised organelles called melanosomes in the feathers. They act as a kind of prism, scattering light into different wavelengths and producing an array of colours. The colours observed depend on the angle of the light and the position of the observer. Whether as a result of pigments or structural design, these colours communicate the physical fitness of the individual – a brightly coloured bird is likely healthy and strong and, therefore, a suitable potential mate.
Sunbirds are tiny nectar-feeding birds found across Africa, Asia and Australia. Their feathers are decorated in a bright array of different colours that use both pigments and iridescence. The males of all sunbird species are always more brightly coloured than their female counterparts, many of which are drab in comparison.
Researchers wanted to test how this iridescence affects the thermoregulation of the birds. In order to accomplish this, they exposed 15 different sunbird specimens to a lamp that mimics sunlight. They then measured the temperatures of the feathers and the underlying skin. The results showed that iridescent feathers heated up over 10˚C more than those with yellow/red pigments, while the skin underlying the iridescent feathers was 5-8˚C warmer than that beneath pigmented feathers. Scientists attribute this to a combination of melanin pigments and the arrangement and shape of the melanosomes that store these pigments. Thus, iridescent feathers likely heat up even more than black feathers.
Male sunbirds use their iridescence during courtship displays, which suggests a trade-off between sexual selection and thermoregulation. However, a significant limitation of this study is that it was not conducted on living birds in realistic situations and thus cannot account for active thermoregulation measures. From a simple behavioural point of view, sunbirds spend little time in one place in direct sunlight. Instead, they flit from flower to flower, often in dense vegetation. Birds can also pant to lose heat. Given that iridescence has evolved independently in multiple different species, the cost of this increased heating is unlikely too high.
Why then is this research necessary? It provides another important facet in evaluating the foreseeable effects of rising temperatures due to climate change. Although often underreported, birds are already severely affected by climate change, and extreme temperature events have resulted in several mass die-offs across the globe. The hotter it gets, the more energy sunbirds will have to invest in thermoregulation. This could reduce feeding times on hot days and, in turn, increase competition with each other and other bird species during the cooler hours.
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From our Editor-in-Chief
It’s around this time of year that my body starts to anticipate the holiday season. This has nothing to do with cretinous businesses that insist on erecting Christmas decorations sometime in late August. Rather it has to do with nature’s glorious cycle. I am in the lowveld of South Africa currently, absorbing the wonders of the Greater Kruger. The impala ewes have dropped their lambs, the tiny, spring-loaded antelope cavort around on the new carpet of green forging out of the dry season dust. The afternoon skies are pregnant with storms, the cicadas are singing (if you can call it that) and the cuckoos are in full cry. The smell, sounds and sights of new life are a balm to the human soul, as is the sense of comfort that comes with nature’s endless cycle.
Speaking of that holiday feeling, the Garden Route of the southern Cape in South Africa offers some of the country’s most picturesque and exciting destinations. Have a look at our first story below to find out more and contact our Travel Team to book your adventure.
Despised by some stock farmers and adored by nature lovers, the caracal is an enigmatic, mysterious and stunning cat somewhere between a tabby and a lion. Our second story below celebrates this resilient and legendary felid.
Back to that holiday feeling – Our travel team is offering a brilliant Kenyan safari special. It’s a 7-day safari in Kenya’s most spectacular wildlife areas – Maasai Mara & Samburu. From US$3,640 per person sharing. Note that the cheapest options are for our club members. Have you joined?
From our Scientific Editor
Many years ago, when I was but a callow teenager embarking on the beginnings of my career in the bush, I met a “tame” caracal. She had been rescued as a kitten after her mother was killed by a passing car (sadly, an all too common occurrence). The caracal was initially raised by a well-meaning farmer but was given the wrong nutritive balance in her first few weeks. This resulted in growth deformities and she was moved to the care of more experienced guardians to live a half-wild, half-domestic existence in the heart of the Green Kalahari.
She was utterly entrancing – for all the world like a giant house cat that curled up on the couch, purred and looked out upon the world with Cleopatra eyes. Until one day she stole the steak off my plate. When I went to grab it (I’ve never been a fussy eater), she turned upon me a look so utterly wild and feline cold that I stopped dead in my tracks, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I backed off, she ate the steak.
Medium-sized cats like caracals and servals are becoming increasingly popular as exotic pets, usually with disastrous consequences for them and their ill-prepared owners. Fortunately, this has not yet had a major impact on wild populations (as it has with cheetahs) but I still feel it is grossly unfair to take an animal with wild instincts and force it into a cage of domesticity. The fact that it is undeniably ego-driven makes it all the more repugnant to me, however popular these exotic pets may be on social media. Let’s leave rehabilitation to the experts and wild animals where they belong.
If the whole world is indeed a garden, as Frances Hodgson Burnett once wrote, then the Garden Route of South Africa was cultivated by a maverick horticulturist. In truth, the name is somewhat misleading because the Garden Route is about as far from the average garden as could conceivably be imagined. Here, myriad landscapes culminate in a dramatic meeting of mountains, gorges, forest and the Indian Ocean, interspersed by quaint towns and bustling beach cities. Not for nothing is this glorious stretch of coastline one of South Africa’s most popular tourism hotspots – it is a region best explored at leisure, taking every moment to appreciate nature in her wildest glory.
In truth, neither “garden” nor “route” is particularly accurate, though the moniker has proved such an effective marketing tool that nearby towns clamour for (or simply claim) inclusion. Although the exact boundaries differ depending on the source, the Garden Route generally refers to an area that extends from Mossel Bay in the Western Cape, east to the town of Stormsrivier in the Eastern Cape – a straight-line distance of around 200km. Inland, it encompasses the town of Oudtshoorn right up to the Swartberg Mountain Range. This magnificent region includes rugged coastal areas, pristine sandy beaches, forests, mountains, gorges, lakes, and rivers, all easily and quickly accessible. At the right time of year (August/September), many sections are covered in a glorious carpet of flowers, only adding to the beauty of the surroundings.
Visitors can select a base in an Olde Worlde town and explore the extraordinary scenery day by day, before rewarding themselves with an evening of fine dining or perhaps an afternoon at a picturesque wine farm. With the added advantage of several malaria-free nature reserves and national parks in the vicinity to tack on a safari adventure, a trip to the Garden Route can be individually tailored to every need – from families with small children and sedate couples to intrepid solo travellers and adventure seekers.
The Storms River gorge
Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay is a town steeped in history and marks the spot where the very first European set foot in South Africa. Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias stopped here in 1488, searching for fresh water to replenish his ship’s supplies. As he was to discover, the land was already occupied. In a sad portent of this region’s future race relations, one of Dias’ men shot a Khoikhoi herder with a crossbow. Unsurprisingly, the locals reacted with anger and sent the mariner and his scurvy-riddled sailors scuttling back to their ship in a hail of stones. Human history in the area predates Dias’ misadventure by considerably more than a century. The caves below Pinnacle Point contain some of the earliest artefacts of modern man, believed to be about 164,000 years old. These Middle Stone Age people could not have chosen a more picturesque home; the caves look out on the turquoise of the Indian Ocean below.
These days, visitors to Mossel Bay visit the cave networks and admire the view before visiting the museum complex to explore the full-sized replica of Dias’ ship. Though the coastline here is relatively rocky, a couple of stunning beaches and sheltered coves are perfect for swimming in the warm sea. The quaint St Blaize Lighthouse is a popular attraction and serves as a landmark for some of the region’s popular hiking routes. There is also a Seal Island (smaller than the one close to Cape Town) where Cape fur seals gather in enormous numbers.
Clockwise from top left: Wilderness beach; view of the Swartberg mountains near Oudtshoorn; Mossel Bay in the evening
George
One of South Africa’s oldest towns and once a historic timber hub, George is nestled in the sublime Outeniqua Mountains, just eight kilometres from the ocean. As one of the Garden Route’s largest towns, it is sometimes nicknamed the “Gateway to the Garden Route” and sports a curious mix of big-city vibrance and small-town atmosphere. There are several historical landmarks to appreciate, including the ancient English Oak tree known as The Slave Tree, the King Edward VII Library, the Outeniqua Transport Museum, and several old churches. The Garden Route Botanical Gardens, which exclusively showcase the unique vegetation of the southern Cape fynbos, are also situated in George.
The various scenic drives around the town, including Montagu Pass, will reveal unexpected antique shops, art galleries and craft stalls, while golf enthusiasts can enjoy a round at some of South Africa’s premier courses.
Clockwise from top left: Tsitsikamma; Groot Brak beach; the bridge at Bloukrans; a view of the Outeniqua Mountains from George
Oudtshoorn
To the north and inland from George, the town of Oudtshoorn marks the northern boundary of the Garden Route region. Here, the vegetation has changed from the iconic fynbos of the Cape coastlines to the sparse Klein Karoo, at the meeting point of the Swartberg and Outeniqua Mountain ranges.
Offering the usual rural town charm so characteristic of the Garden Route’s urban areas, Oudtshoorn is also home to the largest farmed ostrich population in the world. This tradition goes back to the days of the Ostrich Feather Booms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which saw the rise of “feather barons” and dynasties that built the mansions lining the Grobbelaars River. Before World War 1, ostrich feathers were South Africa’s fourth-largest export and worth almost their weight in diamonds. Today, ostriches are farmed for their meat and feathers and continue to be a major tourist attraction.
Just outside Oudtshoorn are the Cango Caves, enormous limestone caves with massive stalagmite formations, some of which date back 4,5 billion years!
Tremendous fun to be had on the Garden Route. Clockwise from top left: Cango Caves; paragliding; a steam train experience; some of the most beautiful golf courses in the world
Wilderness and Wilderness National Park
In keeping with Garden Route naming tradition, Wilderness is less “wilderness” and more a tranquil seaside town situated on the banks of the Touw River Lagoon. It is, however, surrounded by true wilderness in the form of the nearby Wilderness National Park, which protects over 2,500 hectares and encompasses forests, five rivers, five lakes, two estuaries and a stretch of coastline. Though usually still referred to as Wilderness National Park, since 2008, it is technically the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park, which also includes the Knysna Pools and Tsitsikamma sections (see below).
Wilderness National Park is a paradise for campers, hikers, kayakers, mountain bikers, paragliders, abseilers and kloofing enthusiasts. The magical forest paths wind through various waterfalls. They are filled with the calls (and occasional glimpses) of kingfishers and the colourful Knysna turacos (or ‘loerie’ if chatting to a local). The coastline section comes to a head at Dolphin Point, which, like much of the Garden Route, is a great place to look for southern right whales during their annual migration (from July until early November).
Not far from Wilderness, en route to Knysna, is the seaside village of Sedgefield – an excellent spot for families looking for a quieter seaside holiday – and the Goukamma Nature Reserve, which protects an extensive vegetated dune field.
The stunning Knysna Forest
Knysna
The original route between George and Knysna is the historic Seven Passes Road, which crosses 10 rivers and 7 gorges and offers a taste of the exquisite scenery awaiting keen explorers. As beautiful Southern African towns go, Knysna is near the top of a very long and competitive list. Situated on the banks of a picturesque lagoon that is part of a protected marine reserve and surrounded by lush indigenous forests, Knysna is renowned for its dynamic charm and genial hospitality. The Knysna River feeds the warm water estuary. It passes between two prominent headlands –The Heads – creating an occasionally treacherous narrow strip for boats to pass through as they head for the open sea.
The town is surrounded by temperate forests that hide what ecologists believe to be the last remaining elephant of the Knysna/Tsitsikamma region. The cow is thought to be around 45 years old and is the sole survivor of the effectively extinct southernmost population of elephants in Africa. Centuries of persecution have genetically programmed her to be understandably wary of humans, and actual sightings of her are few and far between. Most of what we know about her movements comes from tracks, dung and camera traps as she haunts the ancient trails of the fairy-tale forests and surrounding farms – a lonely and poignant figure.
Clockwise from top left: Knysna turaco; Knysna woodpecker; an ostrich trying to stay cool near Oudtshoorn; southern right whale; humpback whale; cape fur seal with cephalopod meal
Garden Route National Park and the Tsitsikamma Forests
Her ancestors, who experts estimate numbered around 3,000 in the 18th century, would have wandered far and wide through the dark, mysterious forests and surrounding habitats. Though the elephants are long gone, parts of their historic range are protected by the Garden Route National Park: a disconnected amalgamation of the existing Tsitsikamma and Wilderness National Parks, the Knysna National Lake Area, and various other protected tracts of state land.
The Garden Route National Park covers patches of the south coast between George and Port Elizabeth. Its magnificent forests are characterised by giant Outeniqua yellowwoods, stinkwoods, and Cape chestnuts, blooming upwards from thick ferns on the forest floor. From west to east, the topography becomes increasingly dramatic, culminating in the plunging cliffs and steep gorges of Tsitsikamma and Storms River, which mark the “end” of the Garden Route.
Here, visitors can test their head for heights by crossing the bridge over the Bloukrans River. Adrenaline junkies can get their thrill fix by leaping from the bridge at one of the highest bungee jumps in the world – an astonishing 216 metres (roughly 70 stories) above the base of the gorge. The suspension bridge over the Storms River mouth, further east, offers a more sedate and less vertiginous approach to taking in the spectacular scenery.
Plettenberg Bay
Plettenberg Bay
The town of “Plett” is known for its expanses of white-sand beaches and a glorious cerulean sea, making it one of the best choices as a base to explore the rest of the Garden Route. Nature lovers will find themselves enthralled by a circuit of the Robberg peninsula at the Robberg Nature Reserve or watching the Cape fur seals navigating the surf. Southern right (July to November), Bryde’s, humpback (May/June and from November to January), killer and sei whales are regular visitors, and dolphins are permanent residents.
Country living on the Garden Route – from backpackers to ultimate luxury
Explore and stay
Want to head to the Garden Route? To find lodges, search for our ready-made packages or get in touch with our travel team to arrange your safari, scroll down to after this story.
The weather along the Garden Route is temperate and idyllic, with temperatures seldom dropping below 10˚C or rising too far above 29 ˚C on the coast. Unusually for South Africa, there is no set rainy season, and rain can fall all year round (and it does – the Garden Route receives some of the highest rainfall in South Africa, which explains the verdant foliage). There is a slight peak in rainfall from June to August, which coincides with the arrival of migrating whales. The flowers celebrate the arrival of spring in September.
As already discussed, this is not a “route” but rather an exploration and visitors can make the best of their stay by choosing one or two places to stay and travelling to the various attractions from there. Careful planning and research will ensure the best from a trip, and even when time is limited, it is better to make the most of specific areas rather than cram in every attraction.
It’s hard to encapsulate the magic of the Garden Route – there are many beautiful coastlines in the world. Yet, this special patch of Africa stands out as a truly extraordinary destination. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the Garden Route offers everything from dramatic scenery, hiking and wilderness adventures to beach holidays, scuba diving and wine farms, all in the same vicinity. The eclectic collection of local artists, writers, musicians, retirees, and big-city escapees who have chosen to live there adds to the vibrant atmosphere. Whatever it may be, it is undeniable that the Garden Route casts a kind of spell over those fortunate enough to explore its many wonders.
All felids are beautiful. It is a shared trait made even more appealing by the uncanny impression that they are fully aware of their own allure. However, with its luminous eyes, bold facial markings and dramatic ear tufts, the caracal is arguably Africa’s most exquisite cat. Our appreciation of the caracal’s beauty goes back thousands of years, and historians believe that caracals were of considerable religious significance in ancient Egyptian culture, with sculptures guarding the tombs of pharaohs.
Introduction
The caracal (Caracal caracal) is a medium-sized wild cat found throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. They are slightly stockier than their serval cousin, and their robust bodies are covered in a uniform coat of burnished red. Their bottle-green eyes are lined by the kind of natural eyeliner that would make Elizabeth Taylor jealous, with thick black lines running down the sides of their noses, emphasising the elegant jawline. The name “caracal” was inspired by their most distinctive feature, with the Turkish word “Karrah-ulak/coulac” roughly translating as “cat with black ears”. The outlandish ears combine with the caracal’s overall aesthetic to emphasise the impression of a proud and no-nonsense cat.
The tufted ears have led to the obvious comparison with the various lynx species, and the caracal is sometimes called the desert lynx. Phylogenetically, however, caracals are only distantly related to lynxes. Their closest relatives are the African golden cat (Caracal aurata) which inhabit the rainforests of Central Africa. Together with the serval (Leptailurus serval), these cats are all descended from the caracal lineage. Though not yet fully recognised on the IUCN’s Red List, the IUCN Cat Specialist Group suggest a tentative division into three subspecies: C. c. caracal of Southern and East Africa, C. c. nubicus of North and West Africa and C. c. schmitzi of Asia. Like the subspecies divisions proposed for the serval in the same report, these distinctions are based on a trend observed within other widespread mammal species. They could easily change with future genetic evidence.
The solitary and secretive caracal is found in a wide variety of habitats but shows a preference for more arid areas with suitable cover. In wetter areas, it is primarily outcompeted by the serval, while golden cats hold dominion over the central forested parts of the continent. Like servals, the caracal is usually classified as nocturnal, but in reality, they can be active at any time of the day, especially when the weather is cool.
The caracal’s distinctive ear tufts, bold facial markings and red coat make it unmistakable
Quick Facts
Shoulder height:
40-50cm
Mass:
7-19kg
Length (not including the tail):
71-100cm
Social structure:
solitary apart from mothers with kittens
Gestation:
62-81 days
Life expectancy:
around 10 in the wild, up to 20 in captivity
Caracal coats blend beautifully into the arid vegetation they prefer to inhabit
Setting the cat among the pigeons
Like all members of the cat family, caracals are efficient and deadly predators. They typically prey on small mammals and birds but can take down animals an astonishing two to three times their mass. Small they may be but beneath the sleek red coats are muscles of steel, capable of launching these agile cats more than three metres into the air. This prodigious pouncing power is shared with the serval but, while servals generally use these leaps to catch ground-dwelling rodents by surprise, caracals are experts at snatching up birds in flight. This is accomplished by a combination of exceptional depth-perception, an ability to twist and turn in the air, and proportionately enormous paws which spread open to expose needle-sharp claws.
The expression “to put the cat among the pigeons” may well be attributable to the caracal’s bird-hunting prowess. Until the 20th century, they were kept and trained by the Indian elite to hunt small game. In keeping with the human competitive streak, this inevitably resulted in a desire to test whose caracal was the better hunter. Caracals were set in arenas filled with pigeons, and bets would be placed on which caracals would kill the most. Unfortunately, like most wild animals caracals have been hunted for sport – even today.
Caracals continue to be hunted for sport and as livestock farming pests
Not just pigeons
Caracals are extremely versatile and adapt their hunting style to the habitat and type of prey. While the ambush approach typifies most hunts, they are adept climbers and exceptional runners. In fact, the caracal is probably one of, if not the, fastest member of the smaller cat species. They have been clocked at 80km/h, and while they are not endurance runners, their stamina is usually more than sufficient to chase down the prey of choice.
Small birds and rodents are dispatched by long canines and consumed immediately in their entirety. Larger birds and prey are killed by a bite to the throat and then carefully plucked. Caracals may stash exceptionally large kills for later consumption. They can extract most of their moisture needs from their food and are relatively water independent, though they will readily drink if water is available.
Caracals are largely independent of water but will drink when it is available
Catcalls
Though caracals’ social and sexual lives are still relatively understudied, they are known to be solitary and territorial. There is a considerable degree of overlap between territories, the boundaries of which are marked with urine and claw scratching. Like leopards, it seems that the territories of males are far more extensive than those of the females and encompass the territories of several different females. Territory size and caracal density are dependent on the resources available to them. When the habitat is suitable, and prey is abundant, the territories will be smaller, and the population density higher.
The bold facial markings and ear tufts are believed to play an essential role in visual communication within the species, but caracals also display a wide variety of vocalisations. These include a kind of twittering meow as well as growls, hissing and purring. Adult males and females only associate when the female is in oestrus, which the female advertises through frequent urination.
Caracal kittens
Caracals breed throughout the year, but most litters coincide with the arrival of the rainy season when prey is most abundant. The litters consist of anywhere between one and six kittens. The female will seek out an appropriate den site in dense vegetation or abandoned porcupine or aardvark burrows. Though born blind and helpless, the kittens rapidly transform into adorably fierce, tiny predators and start attempting to hunt around the den as early as three to four weeks old.
They are fully weaned by six months and reach sexual maturity early – between seven and ten months. However, they will likely only breed successfully after leaving their mothers at around 12 months.
Persecuted felines
The IUCN’s Red List currently classifies the caracal’s overall conservation status as “Least Concern”, but this is highly variable. Habitat loss and human expansion threaten most Middle Eastern and Asian populations, and caracals are thought to be close to extinction in North Africa. They are frequent victims of vehicle collisions and regularly come into conflict with livestock farmers.
Caracals are considered mesocarnivores/mesopredators – a loose grouping of medium-sized predators that include species such as foxes and jackals. These animals often prove to be highly adaptable to and tolerant of human encroachment. With the removal of competition from the bigger predators (who, by virtue of their size, are less resilient to human presence), such midrange carnivores seem to flourish. Unfortunately, this places them at a much higher risk of conflict with farmers. Caracals can and do kill livestock, though research shows that they prefer natural prey and that livestock is only utilised as a supplement.
As a result, in many parts of Southern Africa, particularly South Africa and Namibia, caracals are considered “problem animals” and are persecuted extensively in certain areas. As caracals are exceedingly challenging to count, the effects of this conflict are not fully calculated or understood. The Cape Leopard Trust currently has several research programmes to understand the extent of the problem and find solutions to mitigate it. Interestingly and almost counterintuitively, some farmers in parts of South Africa have been introducing caracals to their farms in the hopes of reducing stock losses. This is because caracals and black-backed jackals (also responsible for livestock loss) operate in direct competition, so the presence of one controls the numbers of the other – balancing out the system, essentially. The effectiveness of this approach has not yet been thoroughly evaluated.
Caracals are NOT good pets
Pet Caracals
Caracals are beautiful, they tame easily and are naturally expressive, which has led to surging popularity in the pet trade. Keeping pet caracals is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years in many parts of Asia, but today exotic pet breeders are flourishing. It should go without saying that caracals do not make good pets. Without thousands of years of domestication, the instincts of any wild animal remain close to the surface, and most end up in a rescue centre when the owner realises just how difficult to manage they genuinely are.
Where to find one in the wild?
Though they are widespread throughout Africa, the best places to see caracals are the more arid parts of Southern Africa. Here they are the dominant mesocarnivore, and sightings are far more common due to reduced vegetation cover. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and Central Kalahari Game Reserve boast excellent sightings, as do many of the parks in Namibia.
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The adventurous amongst you will already know this. The latest update to our club app for computers and mobile phones is that you can now search for the best lodges and prices on both a list and map view. The map view is our latest update – you all know how I love maps! AND you can now select from a range of currencies, and voila, all lodge prices update to your currency of choice! Stand by for more in the months to come – as we build THE platform for the best-priced safaris that make a difference. Thanks for the enquiries already flowing through from the club – this is the fuel that drives our mission. And please keep the donations coming – we hand those over unblemished to the beneficiary projects.
As you read this I will be loving the first day of a 3-day mountain bike stage race that spans the mountainous vineyards and coastline near Cape Town – the ‘Wines2Whales’. And then I will be out of action for two weeks, hiding out on a farm in the gorgeous Garden Route – my first break since Covid descended on us all. I leave you in the capable hands of my STELLAR team. See you in a few weeks.
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
While most of South Africa has been up in arms over Stage 4 load shedding (rolling blackouts resulting in over six hours a day without electricity), I’ve been celebrating the return of power to my flat after a five-day outage.
The long hours in the dark (without phone signal, as there is none here) gave me plenty of time to think about how desperately reliant on electricity and technology I am. Most of us like-minded souls love to escape to the wild somewhere to detox from the modern world, but, truth be told, we also like to come home to our modern conveniences. More than that – we need electricity to prosper.
As the 2021 Climate Change Conference draws to a close, the disparity between the “First World” and developing nations could not be more apparent. The average person in Ghana or Tanzania consumes less electricity than a US family’s fridge. Studies show that Africa has contributed the least to the current climate crisis but is likely to bear a disproportionate burden as climates shift. With the fastest growing population in the world, Africa needs the same opportunities to grow and develop infrastructure – which will take power and contribute to emissions. So, where is the balance, and who gets to judge?
From our Editor-in-Chief
COP 26 draws to a close today. It is difficult not to look at the expositions of concern and commitments from the great and the good without eye-rolling cynicism. My prediction? We will make almost no progress towards changing our inexorable march to self-annihilation, and the annihilation of countless other species, if we rely on politicians or the CEOs of multinational industries. In the first, we have (and yes, this is a generalisation) a breed of a human being (or vacuous parasite) whose raison d’etre is predicated on staying in power and, therefore, on pleasing whichever lobby will keep them there. In the second, we have a smooth-talking operator with strong opinions that say nothing, beholden to an invisible blob of unaccountability known as ‘shareholders’.
Very few of our so-called leaders demonstrate a deep-seated calling to navigate us away from our self-inflicted climate catastrophe with compassion, openness and honesty. So what to do? Well, it really is up to each and every one of us who care. Be more aware of your effect on our fragile planet – use less, give more, learn more, act more. Put the needs of our species above the needs of self or country. Hold the politicians and CEOs to account – they work for you, not the other way around.
After that, you might feel the need for a positive human tale. Our first story below will rekindle some faith in the human spirit to overcome against the odds. It is a story of one of the most profound 24 hours in South African history set in the majestic gorges and mountains of KwaZulu.
In our second story below, Dr Hayley Clemments describes an inspirational mission to quantify and enhance Africa’s biodiversity with local knowledge. (Club members only)
Lastly, we take a look at the least-known and most enigmatic of the four hyena species – the marvellous striped hyena.
• Wanna see the ‘elusive 5’ species of the Kalahari?This wonderful video by Tswalu Kalahari provides a brief peek into the lives of a few highly sought-after safari species. Did you know that club members get the best available prices at Tswalu Kalahari and other superb camps and lodges?
• The Government of Zambia has announced a 50% reduction in tourist visa fees from January 2022 in a move that is expected to boost the number of tourist arrivals and help boost the recovery of the tourism sector.
• Namibia has adopted the Trusted Travel System – an online digital platform for the verification and authentication of COVID-19 test results from a network of participating COVID-19 testing laboratories, port health authorities and transport industries.
About 14 kilometres southeast of the, to be polite, tumbledown settlement of Dundee, we turned east off the potholed tar road into the rough, hill country. We wound our way through farmland and rural Zulu settlements. The lowlands were blanketed in golden winter grass and pimpled with termite mounds. Copses of green and patches of shale fringed the drainage lines. The slopes were on fire with aloe flowers.
My enjoyment of the scenery was briefly interrupted by a homicidal farmer who had not the patience to deal with my slow appreciation of the landscape. He came haring up the hill in front of us, his giant pick-up hooting angrily. I took evasive action and ended teetering on the edge of a precipice in a cloud of dust. As the fine clay cleared from the air, the strange sphinx-like mountain of Isandlwana appeared in the distance.
We were travelling on a road that, historically, led to nowhere in particular – between Isandlwana and another mountain called Ishiyane. In the lee of the latter lies the mission station of Rorke’s Drift, where one of the most remarkable 24 hours in South African history took place.
It is a testament to the abominable teaching of history in South Africa that by the time I’d finished school, I’d learned incessantly about the Boers and their Great Trek, the Russian Revolution and something about Japan’s economic troubles in the wake of the 1865 rice shortage (I may have made that up). I had only vaguely heard of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Yet it was a war, the origins and consequences of which still reverberate through South Africa with lessons, warnings and parallels.
Aloes in flower on the Fugitives’ Drift farm, Isandlwana in the background
Fugitives’ Drift
Just past Rorke’s Drift, we turned due east. Down a hill and halfway up the other side, we arrived at a gate, and a guard quickly materialised at my window. I greeted him in Zulu. He rolled his eyes slightly and asked for my name in English, and then smiled. He opened the gate. As we crested the hill, the sphinx mountain appeared again in the distance. Much closer, giraffe, blesbok, wildebeest and a few zebra dotted the woodland and grassy slopes leading to the precipitous gorge of the Buffalo River.
Fugitives’ Drift is owned and run by the Rattray family (not to be confused with the Rattrays of Mala Mala fame). Although the beautiful farm has been in the family for a few generations, the lodge was started by the late David Rattray and his wife, Nicky. Together, they pioneered history tourism in South Africa through a unique combination of Nicky’s natural hospitality, David’s mesmerising story-telling, and the lodge’s location midway between Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift – the two sites of the famous battles on which the fantastical legend of this area is built.
Fugitives Drift’s 31-year history very nearly ended before it began.
But for brave history aficionados, visitors to this remote part of KwaZulu were few and far between in 1990. There were a few historical guides in ropey straw hats taking intrepid buffs to the battlefields. Some school busses filled with bored kids and more bored teachers passed by from time to time. The battlefields did not resemble a tourism hotspot.
Firm in self-belief and the captivating power of the stories leaping from a countryside littered with the bones of long ago, David and Nicky took a colossal, courageous gamble to build a little lodge in a place on the road to literally nowhere.
Clockwise from top left: A room at the main lodge; the deck at the main lodge; lunch on the deck of the Harford Library; the Buffalo River gorge
The experience
In the beginning, David took all the battlefield tours – Isandlwana in the morning, curry for lunch, 40 minutes on his back, Rorke’s Drift in the evening. He fixed the plumbing, and he cut the flagstones that make up the floor of what is now the gorgeous little museum. While he was doing this, Nicky was supervising miraculous meals, ingredients sourced from god-knows-where. She was checking in the guests, making bookings, doing the accounts.
The Rattrays were also raising three sons.
Fugitives’ Drift is set on an idyllic 2000 hectares of undulating bushveld, acacia woodland, and rocky viewpoints over 22 kilometres of Buffalo River frontage. To the east, over the rough country where the fugitives from the battle of Isandlwana fled, the sphinx mountain rises. To the northwest, the view is dominated by the Ishiyane mountain, behind which Rorke’s Drift nestles.
The farm takes its name from the third great story of the 22nd of January, 1879 – that of the Fugitives’ flight from the battle at Isandlwana. The river widens briefly not far from the lodge, and it is here that some of the fleeing British soldiers managed to cross the raging torrent. Two of these, Lieutenants Melville and Coghill, were to earn the first two posthumous Victoria Crosses in history. They died in a futile attempt to save the Queen’s Colour of their regiment and, with it, regimental honour. The graves of these two men are a gentle 15-minute walk from the lodge.
The wildlife of Fugitives’ Drift
Where to stay?
Want to go on safari to Fugitive’s Drift? To find lodges, search for our ready-made packages or get in touch with our travel team to arrange your safari, scroll down to after this story.
There are three accommodation options- all of them excellent. For the more budget-conscious, there is Mzinyathi House, a lovely old stone and corrugated iron farmhouse. There’s a fireplace, three en suite bedrooms and a kitchen for self-catering. For those who do not wish to feed themselves, meals at the main lodge are easily arranged.
The Guest House is the site of an old general store. The original building has been altered into a stunning dining and lounge area where guests can sit around a fire in the winter or on the verandah of a summer’s evening, as they marvel at the day’s stories and listen to the faint whispers of history floating on the breeze. The en suite rooms boast views of the Buffalo River valley and Isandlwana rising in the east.
The five-star lodge is where the Rattrays built the original, humble Fugitives’ Drift Lodge. Now it is a gorgeous testament to the Rattray legacy and a tastefully luxurious way to soak up the history and natural beauty of the area. Each suite is individually decorated, opening onto views of the plains, often dotted with antelope, above the Buffalo River gorge. Scrumptious meals are served in the communal dining room or on the deck beneath a colossal fig tree where the birds hop about, squabbling over the fruit while cheeky monkeys watch to see what’s on the menu. You might have tea and while away an afternoon in the Harford Library or browse the artefacts in the museum – the floor stones of which I mentioned earlier.
Tearjerking historical stories. Clockwise from top left: Isandlwana; The church at Rorke’s Drift; the graves of Lts Melville and Coghill; the British memorial at Rorke’s Drift; Douglas Rattray in full flow.
Tear-jerking epics
While Nicky set about creating an atmosphere of homely luxury at the lodge, David (with his photographic memory, passion for history, and Zulu language skills) sallied forth into the countryside with his childhood friend, Satchmo Mpanza, to find the Zulu side of the Anglo-Zulu war story. He spoke to the children and grandchildren of the warriors who fought at the battles of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift.
Armed with this knowledge, a booming voice and a knack for theatre, David spawned an industry in historical storytelling. He took the initial, irregular trickle of guests onto the battlefields and told the jaw-dropping story of the Day of the Dead Moon. Those guests told their friends of the tears they’d shed on the bones of the brave, dead men of both sides. That trickle of travellers turned into a torrent.
The first battle took place in the eerie quarter-light of a solar eclipse on the slopes of Isandlwana. On the 22nd of January 1879, the Zulu army, inspired by their king Cetshwayo and led by their 70-year-old general Ntshingwayo, inflicted the heaviest defeat ever suffered by a colonial British army. They did so to repel a massive British invasion of Zululand and defend the old Zulu order.
Later on the same day, a small band of some 150 British soldiers, many injured and sick, defended Rorke’s Drift from 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors. They fought through the night behind barricades of biscuit boxes and bags of maize, their Martini-Henry rifles turning red as they fired round after round into their attackers. More Victoria Crosses were awarded for valour at Rorke’s Drift than at any other battle in history.
The magnificent museum
David sadly died in 2007, but his legacy as the country’s premier historical storyteller lives on in the guiding team at Fugitives’, lead by his son Douglas. Indeed, there are any number of storytellers knocking about South Africa making a living from talking about our country’s rich and turbulent history. Just about all of them have borrowed inflexions and style from the master himself. (Do yourself a favour and listen to David tell the Anglo-Zulu war epic here).
I have had the privilege of hearing David and his sons, Andrew and Douglas, tell the stories of these battles. On this trip, Douglas delivered the Rorke’s Drift epic on-site at the little mission station. As the sun turned carmine in the dusty west, Douglas extolled the courage of the British soldiers and Zulu warriors. As the dusk closed around us, he removed his peaked hat, placed it on the end of his stick and finished with Laurence Binyon’s immortal words:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
I have heard Douglas deliver this talk twice. Both times, I have had to turn away as the tears rolled down my cheeks.
Fugitives’ Drift is a rejuvenating getaway for heart and soul, where the hills breathe history and ghosts whisper in the moonlit gorges. The lodge is a haven of family hospitality in a breathtaking natural setting.
Memorial to the Zulu fallen at Isandlwana
Resources
Fugitives’ Drift does a lot of work in the communities surrounding the farm, mainly in education and sustainability. To find out more, have a look at Khulu Education
How much biodiversity can we lose before it starts impacting our quality of life? We all depend on well-functioning ecosystems, whether we are aware of this or not. Yet measuring how much biodiversity we are losing across the African continent, and what that means for our well-being, is a difficult task. To address this challenge, we are mobilising hundreds of African biodiversity experts to produce a continental map of ‘biodiversity intactness’ that is credible and useful to African decision-makers.
Biodiversity and human well-being
Biodiversity is fundamental to human well-being. A recent assessment of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found that biodiversity and its contributions to people in Africa are ‘essential to providing for the continent’s food, water, energy, health and secure livelihoods’. The report highlights biodiversity as ‘a strategic asset for sustainable development and achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals’.
As the sun dips to the horizon, burnishing the plains of East Africa in shades of gold and orange, spotted hyena whoops and cackles fill the air. Burning with fierce intelligence, they band together in groups to hunt and patrol territories or set out on solitary foraging missions. As darkness descends over the rocky outcrops bordering the plains, another hyena watches – a silent and mysterious cousin. Seldom seen and poorly understood, the striped hyena lurks in the shadows, shy and elusive.
The basics
In Africa, the timid and retiring striped hyena is eclipsed almost entirely by its bolder and more conspicuous spotted and brown cousins. So much so that few people even realise that this hyena species occurs on the African continent . Even the aardwolf is more readily recognised. Unusual for a large carnivore, the exceptionally secretive habits of striped hyenas have resulted in piecemeal research, particularly in Africa. However, this air of mystery makes them decidedly intriguing, simply because we know so little about a species in one of the major carnivore families.
The little we know about striped hyena ethology stems largely from the populations found throughout Asia (the striped hyena is the only hyena species found outside of Africa). There are only a handful of published papers on the behavioural ecology of striped hyenas in Africa. Much of what is inferred comes from a handful of observations or second-hand anecdotal evidence.
Despite this dearth of information, the striped hyena is widely (but patchily) distributed across most of North and East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and sections of West Africa, albeit at low densities. They have a preference for semi-arid regions and avoid deserts or thick forests. In places where striped hyenas overlap with spotted hyenas, they are outnumbered and largely outcompeted. Unlike their spotted counterparts, striped hyenas are almost exclusively scavengers, though they occasionally hunt small and manageable prey.
A striped hyena comes for an evening drink
Quick Facts
Social structure:
solitary or small family groups
Mass:
between 22-55kg (average 35kg)
Shoulder height:
60-80cm
Gestation period:
90 days
Litter size:
1-5 cubs
Life expectancy:
probably around 12 years in the wild but over 20 years in captivity
Family resemblance?
There are four extant species of hyena: the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), the brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea), the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) and the aardwolf (Proteles cristatus). Despite their dog-like appearance, all members of the hyena family (Hyaenidae) are more closely related to the genet (Viverridae) and mongoose (Herpestidae) families, as part of the Feliformia (cat-like) sub-order of Carnivora.
Though the striped fur and thick mane of the striped hyena most closely resemble the aardwolf, careful observation reveals a closer similarity with the brown hyena. Indeed, take away the fur, and one can see that the two share an almost identical body shape, though the brown’s skull is more robust. Unlike the rounded ears of the spotted, both the brown and striped sport more dog-like and expressive ears. Both are mainly scavengers with bone-crushing jaw strength and massive carnassial molars but lack the spotted’s head and neck power. Their short torsos and reduced hindlimbs emphasise the sloping posture so characteristic of the hyena family.
The physical similarities are reflected in the phylogenetic relationships within the Hyaenidae. The aardwolf (a specialised termite-eater) is only distantly related to the other three species; the spotted diverged over 10 million years ago, and the brown and striped evolved from a common Hyena ancestor. Like spotted hyenas, striped likely evolved in Africa before spreading north and east into Europe and Asia. However, unlike the spotted, which disappeared from these regions due to reduced habitat and competition with wolves and humans, the smaller striped hyena survived. The answer to why and how goes to the heart of survival strategies and, most likely, differences in social structure.
The face of the striped hyena is distinctly dog-like
Private lives and social tendencies
The evolution of social versus solitary approaches to survival is just as important as the anatomical features of a successful species. Though many factors determine the development of sociality, it is influenced by resource and spatial use, and competition with other predators. One of the aspects of the Hyaenidae that is a source of endless fascination for researchers is the diversity of social structures within the relatively small family. As a highly social apex predator, the spotted hyena is well known for its complex hierarchies and cooperative hunting. The (mostly) monogamous aardwolf lives in pairs but forages alone, while the brown hyena lives in small groups but usually hunts/forages alone (behaviourally solitary).
The striped hyena was long believed to be entirely solitary, apart from mothers and young offspring. However, in the last two decades, detailed fieldwork and camera traps have revealed that striped hyenas are somewhat more complicated than initially thought and probably have a social structure not dissimilar to that of brown hyenas. We know that groups of up to seven individuals have been observed resting, feeding, and travelling together. Individual reports exist of sub-adult youngsters helping their mothers raise the next litter of cubs, and males (on occasion, more than one) have been observed attending cubs in rocky cave dens. One striped hyena in Israel even appeared to join a wolf pack, indicating the possibility of a strong social drive.
The study of the behavioural habits of any animal is a never-ending process, and we are still very much in the early stages of understanding the nuances of the striped hyena. This is not just an academic process – it has a considerable impact on their conservation because the more social an animal, the higher we should expect their densities to be. This, in turn, means viewing population assessments through a different lens.
A striped hyena on the prowl
It’s just a phase
Female spotted hyenas have gained considerable notoriety for their unique genitals. They are equipped with an extended clitoris that functions as a pseudo-penis with a fused vaginal and urethral opening. This design comes at a considerable cost: the death rate for whelping females is exceptionally high, and first-time mothers regularly lose their first litters during birth. A universally accepted theory behind why this is the case has continued to elude researchers.
Striped hyenas add to the mysteries of hyena sex in a slightly different way. In young striped hyenas between one and 18 months of age, the genitalia of both sexes converge in appearance. In other words, they display traits that mimic the characteristics of the opposite sex. The females develop swellings resembling a scrotum (the only other example of transient masculinisation in mammals is the fossa). In contrast, young males develop swellings similar to labial folds. This is temporary, and adults develop typical mammalian genitalia upon reaching sexual maturity.
What this tells us about the evolution of the Hyaenidae is open to interpretation, but indicates that theories surrounding the functions of genital anomalies have to be broadened beyond Crocuta to include the Hyena genus. Anatomical evolution can only be understood in combination with an intimate understanding of the social structure and selection pressures of every species in the family – including the striped hyenas.
An incredibly rare sighting of mating striped hyenas (follow photographer Chelsea Zhu)
Bad omens and fertility symbols
Throughout history and across cultures, human beings have assigned an astonishing variety of superstitions and beliefs to animal parts in the hope that they will increase reproductive prowess. In today’s troubled times, rhino horns (and tiger bones and pangolin scales and so on) have fabricated powers. In Ancient Greek and Rome, the unfortunate striped hyena attracted this attention. It became a symbol of fertility, with any number of uses for striped hyena parts, including an amulet that would make a man irresistible to the person of his dreams.
Either way, it would not make much of a difference to the striped hyena, but this positive association with hyenas was a rarity. Most cultures across Africa and Asia assign negative mythology to the hyena. They represent everything from evil spirits to witches’ mounts. The striped hyena has found itself persecuted at every turn – a problem compounded by their tendency towards grave robbing.
Nowadays, the striped hyena is classified as “Near Threatened” on the IUCN Red List, and their numbers (known to be decreasing) are estimated at less than 10,000 mature individuals. The truth remains that this estimate is openly based on scientific guesswork drawn from outdated assessments. The striped hyena, with its preference for rugged habitats and secrecy, is exceedingly challenging to count. The task of blindly conserving them is even more difficult because they are not yet divided into recognised subspecies – despite the significant size differences between Asian and African specimens. Striped hyenas occurring in the Middle East, Asia Minor, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent are larger than those found in East Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
Find striped hyenas on safari
Few people ever have the chance to glimpse the elusive, forgotten, fourth hyena of Africa. The striped hyena remains shrouded in secrecy yet could quite possibly hold the key to unanswered questions on hyena evolution that have vexed experts for decades.
For those intent on seeing an African striped hyena in the wild, you are more likely to see them on a safari to a dry region such as Laikipia than on a Maasai Mara migration season safari.
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Summer in the Lowveld has arrived with a vengeance – with several days exceeding 40 degrees Celsius and deciduous trees pushing out green shoots to replace the waning explosion of spring flowers. Cuckoos call frantically, and large songololos trundle around in anticipation of delicious rotting leaves. No dung beetles yet, but tortoises can be seen hunting down succulent early buds.
Life is now a smidgeon easier for the browsers, but there is still no respite for the ribby warthogs and other grazers as the first deep rains and grass shoots are still awol. Rotund female zebras and impalas look likely to drop their babies soon – good news for local young leopards looking for easy kills. We have enjoyed a few thunderstorms but with disappointing rain, and so we gaze in hope at the daily build-up of cumulonimbus clouds.
Seasonal blessings, special ones, thanks for your support over the years.
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
There is something akin to childlike excitement on Christmas day when checking the memory card of a camera trap (a motion-sensor camera often used to monitor wildlife). Of course, sometimes it yields 5,000 images of a twig blowing in the wind or 200 pictures of impala legs (or worse, clear evidence of something happening outside of the field of view). But there is always the chance of capturing something extraordinary. Imagine how the folks at Panthera and Birdlife felt when one of their camera traps set up on De Hoop Nature Reserve yielded an albino honey badger!
From our Editor-in-Chief
Yesterday, I was tapping away at my keyboard when I heard a high-pitched whistle from outside. It was an unfamiliar sound; definitely a bird and a bit like the start of a sunbird call. There are limited options for wilderness discovery in springtime Johannesburg so I dispensed with my email, grabbed my binoculars and dashed outside. After a few minutes, I discovered the source of the whistle was an adult Cape robin-chat trying to coax its young fledgling into flying. I returned to my labours with a great sense of peace and satisfaction – this is what wild discoveries do for me (and many human beings!).
Our first story below is about the rescue of five white-bellied pangolins from the markets of Lagos, Nigeria. It’s also about selfless dedication to the welfare of the earth’s wild creatures.
In our second story, award-winning photographer, traveller and storyteller Marcus Westberg delves into the pros and cons of tourism – especially the luxury kind – as he seeks a greener future for travel post the pandemic. (club members only).
Finally, our third story below is an exposition of the romance and wildlife wonders of Samburu – one of two destinations on our brilliant Kenyan travel special.
This is Kenya’s Samburu County – an arid land steeped in culture and traditions, where people, livestock, and wildlife walk side by side, sharing precious resources. Like the relationship between the Samburu and elephants, a visit to the county is as much about the colourful, resilient people as the weird and wonderful wildlife and fascinating scenery.
A Samburu legend tells of a young girl leaving home for the first time with her new husband. Though her father commanded her not to look back, the girl’s heart was aching with sadness, and she turned to glance at her family manyatta (home). Angered by her defiance, the god N’gai punished her. That night she began to swell before eventually bursting out of the hut as the first elephant and running off into the night. Thus, the Samburu people say that elephants are related to them by blood. Elephants are revered, and, to this day, every time a Samburu elder encounters an elephant skull, they will place green grass and saliva on it (representing water and good growth) as a sign of respect.
Samburu County
Samburu County in north-central Kenya stretches from Laikipia and Isilio counties in the south all the way to the southern shores of Lake Turkana in the north. It marks the dramatic transition from the lush savannas of south Kenya and the vast deserts that extend through the Horn of Africa. Situated at a much lower altitude than the neighbouring Laikipia Plateau, the weather is usually hot, and rainfall levels low. The resultant scenery is beautiful in a way unique to arid areas – rugged and austere, overlooked by magnificent outcrops and rolling hills.
The exception to this can be found on the banks of the Ewaso Ng’iro River, situated on Samburu’s southern boundary, and surrounded by the Samburu National Reserve. The Ewaso Ng’iro arises from the streams flowing off the slopes of Mount Kenya, fed year-round by the mountain’s glaciers. It flows all the way to Somalia and, in otherwise dry surroundings, has been key to the survival of wildlife and people. Water always equates to life, and, in Samburu, the transition to the verdant green oasis is startling. Even during the driest times of the year, when the river slows to just a trickle or dries out completely, the underground water sustains the groves of doum palms and dense riverine forests along its banks, attracting a plethora of wildlife.
The silhouette of doum palms lining the river, as dawn breaks over Samburu
Samburu’s Wild Spaces
Samburu National Reserve is northern Kenya’s most popular park, and visitors often combine the more “traditional” Laikipia safari experience with Samburu’s astonishing scenery and wildlife oddities (see below). Though just 165 km2 (16,500 hectares), Samburu National Reserve packs a significant biodiversity punch and forms part of the much broader Ewaso ecosystem. In fact, Samburu National Reserve is one-third of a trio and is contiguous with the slightly smaller Buffalo Springs National Reserve in neighbouring Isiolo County. Shaba National Reserve, further to the east, completes the trifecta, and an entry permit for any one of the three will provide access to the other two reserves.
The entire Samburu National Reserve is surrounded by a mosaic of operational conservancies that expand the habitat available to wildlife (and the experiences available to tourists). These conservancies are not exclusionary wilderness areas – the local communities reside here and raise their livestock alongside the wildlife while simultaneously offering tourism pursuits. This model has been vital to the conservation of vast swathes of land. Given that 65% of Kenya’s wildlife is found outside formal national parks and reserves, conservancies are vital to the conservation of the country’s wildlife.
The major protected areas within Samburu County are:
Ltungai Community Conservancy:
190 km2 (19,000 hectares)
Nkoteiya Community Conservancy:
157 km2 (15,700 hectares)
Meibae Community Conservancy:
125 km2 (12,500 hectares)
Westgate Community Conservancy:
362 km2 (36,200 hectares)
Kalama Community Conservancy:
500 km2 (50,000 hectares)
Sera Community Conservancy:
3,400 km2 (340,000 hectares)
Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy:
3,940 km2 (394,000)
Matthews Range/Lenkiuio Hills
(part of Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy)
Kirisia Forest:
920 km2 (92,000 hectares)
Ndoto Mountains Forest Reserve:
932 km2 (93,200 hectares)
Mount Nyiru Forest Reserve:
454 km2 (45,400 hectares)
Under the direction of the Northern Rangelands Trust, many of the above conservancies offer their own intimate safari experiences and, where contiguous, are managed as one ecological entity. The conservancies have faced tremendous challenges, yet the majority are shining examples of how community involvement can transform conservation through inclusivity and tourism.
The Samburu ‘Special 5’, clockwise from top left: Beisa oryx; reticulated giraffe; Somali ostrich; Grevy’s zebra stallions locked in combat; a gerenuk foraging.
The Samburu Special 5
Catchy phrases like “the Big 5”, “the Secret 7”, and “the Ugly 5” in reference to certain wildlife species are tremendously effective marketing tools that sell everything from t-shirts and curios to safaris. In the case of Samburu, the “Samburu Special 5” is a fitting moniker for an exclusive wildlife checklist in this arid region of Africa. Included in the Special 5 are the gerenuk, the reticulated giraffe, the Grevy’s zebra, the Somali ostrich and the common beisa oryx.
Nothing can really prepare a person for their first sight of a gerenuk in the wild. Looking for all the world like a stretched-out impala, these peculiar antelope are one of Africa’s genuine oddities – designed to stand on their hindlimbs and use bizarrely elongated necks to nibble on hard-to-reach leaves. They are in equal parts graceful and hilarious.
The endangered Grevy’s zebra is the largest of the three zebra species and quite possibly the most attractive. They can be easily distinguished from their plains zebra cousins by their large, round ears, neat and close-set stripes, white bellies, and fawn-coloured muzzles. The majority of the remaining wild Grevy’s zebras are found in northern Kenya, with small, isolated populations in Ethiopia. Equally geometrically easy on the eye are the reticulated giraffe, the rarest of the giraffe species after the Northern giraffe.
The Somali ostrich was only recently identified as a separate species, rather than a subspecies of the common ostrich found throughout most of Africa. They are native to the Horn of Africa and are also sometimes referred to as the blue-necked ostrich – during courtship, the necks and legs of the males turn blue instead of flushing pink! And finally, the common beisa oryx is one of two subspecies of the East African oryx found in Kenya.
Clockwise from top left: Vulturine guineafowl; white-fronted bee-eater; orange-bellied parrots; Von der Decken’s hornbill
…and their equally special compatriots
While Samburu is not necessarily at the top of the list for many first-time safari-goers, it offers an astonishing abundance of wildlife, including iconic species. Thanks to concerted conservation efforts, elephants abound, and the population increases significantly during the two rainy seasons when they migrate north from Laikipia. Samburu is home to the headquarters of Save the Elephants, founded by Iain Douglas-Hamilton, making the elephants here among the most extensively studied in the world. Buffalo are common in the wetter areas and riverbanks. Apart from the aforementioned gerenuk and oryx, other dry-country antelope include the lesser kudu and the adorable (and ubiquitous) Kirk’s and Günther’s dik-diks.
Samburu is also a predator haven for the three big cats, African painted wolves (wild dogs) and even the rare and elusive striped hyena. There is always an element of surprise in wildlife viewing in Samburu, with the added advantage that it is far less crowded than the more popular southern Kenyan safari areas.
Though rhinos are almost entirely extinct in Samburu, visitors to the Sera Community Conservancy can spend time tracking newly introduced black rhinos on foot in a massive 540 km2 (54,000 hectares) sanctuary. Given the notoriously cheeky nature of these remarkable animals, this is guaranteed to be a thrilling experience within the safe parameters laid out by expert Samburu guides.
As it occupies such a unique position between desert and savanna, it is only to be expected that the birding on offer in Samburu would be sublime. There are several coveted endemic and arid specialists to be found across its heterogeneous landscapes. Some bird species to watch for include the charismatic vulturine guineafowl, Somali bee-eater, golden pipit, white-headed mousebird, D’Arnaud’s barbet, and rosy-patched bush-shrike. Have a look at AG director Christian Boix’s Samburu National Park’s top 10 birds list, as well as our CEO Simon Espley’s account of his birding adventures in Samburu.
Hospitality and fun in Samburu
Samburu’s colourful people
From the reserves to conservancies and from budget accommodation to the ultra-luxurious lodges of Samburu, everything is almost exclusively operated, managed and staffed by local Samburu people. The Samburu people refer to themselves as the Lokop/Loikop people and were traditionally semi-nomadic pastoralists, following the rain to provide food for their livestock. Their nomadic lifestyle has been largely phased out, but cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, and camels (a more recent addition) are of tremendous cultural importance. The Samburu language is a dialect of Maa, the language of the Maasai people, with whom the Samburu share many lifestyle similarities.
The Samburu people are known in particular for their beautiful and intricate beadwork (which is always on sale for entranced tourists) and vivid traditional outfits. However, their wisdom and deep connection to their homeland add to the depth and wonder of the Samburu experience. Expert Samburu guides will freely share their knowledge and traditions with fascinated tourists, and visitors to the Namunyak Conservancy can visit the local “Singing Wells”. Here, the warriors gather in the dry riverbeds to dig wells to satiate their livestock, singing haunting traditional melodies as they work.
A leopard cub practising her climbing skills
Explore & Stay
Wild and remote, Samburu is the perfect combination of stark, untamed wilderness and a luxury safari destination. Here, visitors can choose to view the wildlife on a guided walk, horseback or even on the back of a camel. There are several public campsites within Samburu National Reserve, as well as budget chalets and fixed tent accommodation, mostly situated near the Ewaso Ng’iro River. Like the Laikipia approach, the surrounding conservancies offer high-quality, low-density tourism. Many are home to extremely luxurious lodges and greater freedom for novel experiences.
There are two rainy seasons – one between April and May and the second between October and November. However, due to its relatively low rainfall, Samburu is largely accessible year-round unless unexpected floods occur. Wildlife viewing is at its best during the dry seasons, but it tends to get quite dusty and hazy, which can obscure the spectacular scenery somewhat.
An African painted wolf; a cheetah contemplating the Samburu dawn
After a year that brought us record high temperatures, a pandemic facilitated by international travel and the lowest tourism numbers in three decades, it is difficult to imagine that the tourism industry can, or indeed should, simply return to business-as-usual. Despite the ever-increasing threat of climate change, however, I would argue that tourism is an asset we cannot afford to lose, often a powerful conservation tool in its own right, and that Africa is ahead of the game.
Travel, Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss
The looming threat of anthropogenic climate change is one that is and will continue to force us to re-think many of our habits and choices, especially in the affluent parts of the world where per capita carbon emissions are the highest. Tourism, by its very definition something we do for pleasure rather than because we have to, is undoubtedly deserving of close scrutiny in that regard, not least because of the environmental impact of air travel.
I run an animal charity called the Rare & Endangered Species Trust (REST), which focuses on the rescue and re-release of wild animals. My speciality is the raising, rehabilitation and research of ground pangolins (Smutsia temmickki). In mid-2021, I found myself with no pangolins under my care for the first time in a decade. Politics and COVID-19 seemed to be delaying new animal permits, and I had taken time off to write a book. Then, one day I opened up my email and found a plea to help raise five white-bellied pangolin pups in Nigeria.
Soon I was in touch with Mark Ofua, who runs the St Marks Animal Rescue Foundation in Lagos. It is the only animal shelter in a city of 24 million people and accepts any animal for rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming – domestic or wild.
St Marks Animal Rescue Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria. My room is top right.
A long way to go
It was intimidating. Nigeria is very far away, REST’s funds are extremely limited, and I had never worked with white-bellied pangolins before. They are tree pangolins found in northern and central Africa. They’re highly adept climbers with all four feet and their long tails operate as hook, hoist and anchor.
When I asked what to expect on arrival, Mark calmly explained that I should bring everything I might need and expect “ground zero”.
No one in the world had ever tried to raise five pangolin pups of any species simultaneously. The few of us who have successfully raised pups of any species will tell you these scaly mammals are some of the hardest animals to raise. They need complete devotion, while veterinary and dietary needs are sketchy, and there are no established protocols for the release, tracking and monitoring of tree pangolins.
One of REST’s donors jumped in, and within weeks I had a visa and plane ticket and was packing a few clothes and as many veterinary items as possible.
I arrived in a different world – full of people, traffic, noise and pollution. I knew heat from Namibia, but mixed with humidity, the hours going through immigration were stifling. I walked with my trolley full of bags to the pick-up area, followed by ten chancers offering to help for a fee. Once in Mark’s car, I was introduced to the traffic of Lagos, which is incomparable to anything I’d seen before. It was rather overwhelming, but I instantly felt at home when we arrived at St Marks’ tiny clinic and met the pangolins.
The tiny white-bellied pangolin pups
Very little sleep
Upon arrival, I was especially concerned about the health of two pups. Numbers 3 and 5 were weak – refusing to take the bottle. As a result, Number 5 had a lung infection and almost died soon after I arrived.
It is a horrible experience to watch an animal weaken, especially in the absence of a proven treatment protocol. We had to rely on gut feel, the equipment available and experience. Treatment began with antibiotics, rehydration and vitamins.
Number 5 needed constant care and coaxing to eat as many small meals as often as possible. I also had four other pups to feed and so quickly designed a schedule that allowed each pup one hour, four times a day. That took up to 20 hours, and number 5 needed extra care throughout the night. Needless to say, I was sleep-deprived and amazed the St Marks staff by being able to fall asleep instantly and deeply for short periods whenever I could!
Results and data
Soon, Number 5 started to recover, Number 3 strengthened, and the others continued to feed well. Eventually, feeding would begin at 08h00, and the third and final feed would end around 01h00. As they grew, exercise also became a key need and since we were in the middle of a large city, going outside was not possible.
We designed a playpen in my room, furnished with sand, artificial grass and tree branches. Soon, each pangolin was spending time developing the coordination they would need in the wild.
Having five pangolins raised under the same conditions at the same time by the same person allowed us to collect valuable data about veterinary care, diet, and exercise requirements. This will be very useful in setting up protocols for the rescue and rehabilitation of the white-bellied pangolin.
The dedicated workers of St Marks and the five growing pangolin pups
Life in Lagos
I rarely left the babies, as their care schedule did not allow me to be away for more than a few hours at a time. Once a week, Dr Kalista and I would go food shopping. I also ventured out to walk the dog named Tongo I’d adopted from Mark’s shelter. The pangolins were thriving under my care, preparing for release and providing invaluable data for the species.
Unfortunately, in August 2021, disaster struck on a personal level. Food poisoning soon had me barely able to move, and I was having difficulty caring for the pups, so it was decided that I should recover in a nearby, inexpensive hotel. After two days, I was beginning to recover and then suddenly, my health deteriorated. I tested positive for malaria and was hospitalised. What followed was a fight for my life and, finally, the tough decision to return to Namibia to heal with my family.
I was heartbroken but too weak to protest, and Dr Kalista took over the care of my pups. We are in constant touch, and I have used the time in Namibia to heal but also source and buy camera traps and pangolin trackers in preparation for the white-bellied pangolin releases.
A pangolin pup in his homemade exercise space
Success
The heaviest, named Sunny after a special donor and the only female, is ready for release (as of October 2021). Aiden (Number 5), who was so sick, should be ready sometime in early 2022, with others leaving in between.
I intend to spend at least three months a year at St Mark’s, helping with pangolin rescue and rehabilitation. The facility receives animals daily and pangolins at least once a week, so we have big plans for the future. Currently, there is a small, dedicated staff of six and resources are pushed to the limit. We hope to soon offer internships and sabbaticals for vets, biologists, and others with a passion for conservation while raising funds for a dedicated pangolin rescue centre – Nigeria is now the world’s leading pangolin trafficking country.
There is a wealth of engaging pangolin information and stories here
About the author
Maria Diekmann established the Rare & Endangered Species Trust in 2000 and has been the director for the past 21 years. She is most well known for her work with Cape griffons and Cape/ground pangolins. Maria remains passionate about combining conservation with research and education and is now continuing her work with pangolins in other countries to better understand and train others in raising and rehabilitating these fragile species.
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HUGGING LIONS – suitably drugged & de-weaponised – has really taken off as a tourism product in the murky corners of this glorious planet. How proud South Africa’s ‘sustainable use’ wildlife industry must feel for having spawned this wretched commercial exploitation of our lions. Thanks to Brian Sugden for posting this appalling video on our club forum. How happy these tourists appear – playing their part in the ongoing abuse of lions and other big cats. Please have a look and let us know your thoughts.
We all feel sorry for ourselves now and then – it’s a human condition. For me, the ongoing preference by social media algorithms for emotional linkbait and misinformation is a source of enormous stress. But I console myself knowing that YOU support our focus on fact and considered opinion. Thanks so much for the support over so many years. A luta continua!
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
The process of creating a systematic, logical way of grouping the planet’s vast number of different yet related organisms is an ongoing exercise, greatly aided in recent years by advancements in genetic research. Of course, these techniques were not available to the naturalists of ancient Greece. Thus, the story goes that Plato once gave a tongue-in-cheek definition of man as a “featherless biped”. The philosopher Diogenes the Cynic promptly burst into Plato’s Academy carrying a plucked chicken and cried out, “Behold, I’ve brought you a man!”
And so, “featherless biped with broad, flat nails” was added to the Academy’s definition of the human race. How far we have come…
On an entirely unrelated note, thank you very much to those who have added some fascinating thoughts to our club conversation about interfering in the lives of wild animals. I have thoroughly enjoyed your input.
From our Editor-in-Chief
I have just returned from the most marvellous self-drive camping trip to the iconic Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe. We camped on the banks of the Zambezi River and spent lazy days exploring the blue-lit woodlands of ana, sausage and mahogany trees where elephants, eland, buffalo, wild dogs and baboons foraged in the heat, waiting for the first storm of summer. What a remarkable place – made all the more so by the relative lack of other campers at this time of year. The best part? You can buy a permit to walk – nowhere else do I know of where you can walk in big five country without a guide. (This is obviously not to be done by punters with no bush experience!).
In our first story below, we take a deep dive into one of the most beautiful cities in the world – Cape Town. It is a must-stop travel destination for anyone coming to magnificent South Africa – full of ocean wilderness, unique ecosystems, delicious cuisine and quirky people.
Up in Zambia, we still have hope that the new government will halt some of the environmentally ruinous developments that their predecessors allowed in or near precious national parks. In our second story below, Kasanka National Park (home of the world’s largest mammal migration) is sadly still being threatened by industrial agriculture.
More cheerfully, bees are not only playing a part in pollinating Africa’s indigenous plants and agricultural produce. They are also, with help from NGO Nikela, helping to mitigate human-elephant conflict with some success as our third story below celebrates.
• Ancient rainforest surrounding a working tea plantation: expect soul-food experiences including gastronomic picnics, wild chimpanzee tracking and indigenous open-air spa treatments. Check out this exquisite video by Rwanda’s One&Only Nyungwe House and feel the stress peel away …
Remember that club members get the best available prices at this and many other camps and lodges.
• Planning your next safari but worried about the kids?. Find out how to make the most of your time on the ground and keep the whole experience relatively stress free for you and the kids. Safari tips: Going on safari with kids.
Human-elephant conflict is a major threat to African wildlife. Many conservationists and local people are trying to develop innovative, non-lethal solutions that benefit people and elephants.
Imagine a herd of 50 elephants visiting your maize field. This crop is your livelihood. It feeds your family and earns much-needed cash for other necessities. You watch, helpless, as the elephants trample and devour your harvest. Last year the same thing happened. But your neighbour couldn’t stand it. He grabbed a club and chased a huge elephant feasting on his ready-to-harvest maize. It didn’t end well.
Imagine Elizabeth, a subsistence farmer trying to eke out an existence by growing vegetables for her family of five. The rains have been good, she’s toiled in her field, and her plants are growing nicely. Then, one warm summer’s day, an elephant matriarch and her twenty closest relatives come calling. Months of hard work is eradicated. Elizabeth stands there heartbroken. Where once she saw a promising harvest, only a few ragged stalks remain.
Jino Moja
Jino Moja! Mention of the bull elephant called One Tusk spreads fear among the villagers. Mr Gere, a farmer in northern Tanzania, tells of his first encounter with this legendary pachyderm.
“I was inside the house at around eight pm when I heard my wife scream. I took my machete and ran outside. There I saw sugar cane in my farm knocked down. A herd of elephants was inside my farm. I had heard stories about this herd. They invaded a neighbour’s farm and ate half of his maize crops. Everyone knows that Jino Moja is the stubborn one of the herd.
“One farmer tried to chase him away. He was struck by the one tusked elephant. The man went down, and the elephant herd went over him. He was crushed to the bone! In our village, we know better and stay away when we know it’s him.
“So even this night, my machete was no match for Jino Moja. I just stood and watched while they trampled and destroyed my crops.”
Elizabeth and Mr Gere are just two of many farmers living along the border of the Arusha National Park. This reserve is near Arusha, Tanzania’s third-largest city, with a population of over 700,000 (when you include the surrounding sprawl). The national park covers 137 square kilometres and is home to elephants, buffalo, giraffe, antelope, and some leopards.
People vs Elephants
Where humans and wild animals live in close proximity, conflict happens. As human populations expand and wildlife habitat shrinks, the problem grows. This is especially true when villages surround unfenced protected areas. Other than in South Africa, most African protected areas are unfenced and surrounded by buffer zones intended to form a natural barrier between wildlife and farms. However, elephants and other wild animals never got the memo. But then, neither did most farmers whose cattle and goats wander freely through buffer zones into protected areas.
It is difficult to see how human-wildlife conflict isn’t inevitable. After all, you can’t expect an elephant to stay out of a delicious field of maize or sugar cane forever. And, you can’t expect an irate farmer to stand and watch his livelihood being destroyed time and again.
Construction of beehives destined to form part of a beehive fence
One man, an idea and the humble bee
Fortunately, a young man from Arusha, Moses Ryakitimbo, heard of the plight at Lendoiya village (home to around 1,500 souls). Moses, the founder of Alert for Endangered Wildlife Species (AFeWiS), was already actively engaged in protecting elephants. After interviewing farmers and doing some research, he thought he might have a win-win solution to protect crops and elephants. Not only that, the solution was natural, sustainable and quite simple… bees!
Elephants are afraid of bees. Why? An elephant’s trunk is rich with nerve endings, and this extraordinary sensitivity makes for excruciatingly painful bee-stings. Because of this, elephants tend to stay clear of bee swarms and hives. (Bees have been used in parts of Tanzania for a while now).
Moses learned that by placing beehives to create a fence, one could redirect elephant corridors. In early 2019, Moses approached us at Nikela for support. We funded the pilot project (Phase One) of what Moses envisioned to be a massive beehive scheme. He projected safeguarding multiple village farms around Arusha National Park and other areas where human-elephant conflict occurs.
Erection of the hives on the fenceline
Phase One – a temporary success
The construction and installation of the first beehives went smoothly. It was surprising how quickly wild bees found the hives. Moses reported that within days of installation, half the beehives had residents. Within a few short weeks, the elephants adjusted their routes, bypassing five farms. The farmers were predictably delighted.
Mr Baraka, one of the first farmers impacted by the bee project, said: “Over 50 elephants used to cross boundaries and destroy food crops like maize, potatoes and banana plantations. Since the beehives were mounted four and a half weeks ago, I have seen a big difference in elephant numbers encroaching.”
This success led to many more requests for hives. Fast forward to mid-2021, and 100 beehives later, farmers are harvesting the best crops of maize, sugar cane, bananas and other vegetables in years.
The human-elephant conflict success didn’t happen without challenges along the way. During a maintenance run, several months after the completion of the ten pilot beehives, problems occurred. One, other insects were finding their way into the hives and negatively impacting the bees. Two, the beehives themselves weren’t holding up structurally.
Moses, ever the problem solver, went looking for solutions. He discovered that a different, more complex beehive design was necessary. The ten original beehives were torn apart. What materials could be salvaged were used to construct replacement hives.
A beehive funded by donors Jim and Lisa
A long-term solution appears to be working
The next 90 hives (completed in several phases) were patterned after the new design. To date, they have remained intact, even when pushed over. Again, Moses is on it. Every month he and his team check each beehive fence. Periodically a beehive is found on the ground, and the support poles need to be reinforced or replaced. The poles supporting each beehive also require regular painting to keep the invading insects away. Grasses and vegetation need to be cleared along each beehive fence. And, most importantly, honey must be harvested regularly. Honey has been a very welcome bonus, not only to eat but to sell.
All in all, the elephants are staying away, and Moses’ mission to protect them is accomplished, at least in this once conflict-ridden area.
Bees bring peace to the land
The individual stories from the farmers say it all:
Mr Elidaima: “We actually didn’t believe that bees could make such a big difference chasing away almost 50 elephants and bringing the number down to zero. We now harvest our food crops in large amounts and live in harmony with elephants.”
Mr Baraka: “Nikela has been a blessing to our village here in Lendoiya. I have witnessed a peaceful coexistence between man and this big mammal called ‘elephant’. Staying in peace with elephants and bees helping out the process. It’s a miracle.”
Elder Balozi: “At my old age, I thank God to have seen this miracle of bees protecting our farms from elephants. We now don’t have elephants disturbing us in the nighttime; we just hear them in other neighbouring villages.”
Mr Nanyaro: “I have ten beehives on my farm…since then I have never even seen elephant dung around…this means elephants don’t come here anymore…this gives me a feeling that elephants are good mammals because they don’t disturb my maize farm anymore.”
Elder Wella: “It’s now almost one year since I’ve seen the one tusked elephant. We plant, we harvest, and we eat what we planted in the soil. Beehives are just a blessing.”
Mr Emanuel: “I am new to the project but very happy to be part of this major accomplishment – seeing elephants stepping out of my farm in a peaceful manner. Thanks to Nikela for supporting us with beehives that keep our crops safe and at the same time protect the elephants from the human-wildlife conflict.”
A completed beehive fence
Building beehives
It takes a specific design to attract the bees and provide the right environment for a colony to thrive. The 100 beehives were constructed and installed in several phases allowing for refinement and calibration along the way.
The hives are professionally built with a shiny metal roof, and the necessary partitions placed perfectly inside for the bees. Each gets a coat of paint and a label. If sponsored by an individual or company, the name is proudly displayed. The completed hives are erected using a system of timber stands and support wires. Within a few weeks, the bees are quietly going about their ‘peacemaker’ duties.
Looking to the future?
With 100 beehives in place, the major elephant corridors through Lendoiya village have been disrupted. Moses has assessed that another 64 beehives will protect the remainder of the village. Eighteen of these are anxiously anticipated by Ester and Tumaini, two adjacent women farmers. In September 2020, three elephants entered their banana plantation, not leaving much behind. Now their maize is growing, and they fear the elephants’ return.
Completed hives with the craftsmen who made them
Can this be scaled?
With this human-elephant conflict model proving successful over the past two and a half years, Moses is ready to expand. Most recently, he has had requests from villages surrounding the Tarangire National Park – not too far from the Ngorongoro Crater and the famous Serengeti National Park.
Will this model work anywhere there is human-elephant conflict? Not necessarily. Only where the climate and habitat are suitable for such beehive fences and where wild bees readily populate the hives.
As with many such grassroots projects, the problem is not the ideas, skill or expertise, but funding to operationalise a vision, and even more than that, funding to maintain a project. Moses is off to a grand start. He is knowledgeable, thorough, consistent, admits mistakes and is ready to learn. All traits are essential for long term success.
A final note
We at Nikela have had nothing to do with the plans or designs of this beehive project. It has all been grassroots. We have provided (thanks to individual donors) the funding to make Moses’ dream a reality. (Nikela is an AG Club project partner – visit to donate safely and easily. Please note the Moses (from Uganda) mentioned in the AG club write up is not Moses Ryakitimbo, the designer of the beehive project in Tanzania ).
Resources
Learn more about Nikela and this human-elephant conflict beehive project here
UPDATE: The Zambian High Court has ruled in favour of the communities and wildlife of Kasanka National Park, granting an injunction that restrains Lake Agro Industries and Gulf Adventures Limited from carrying out any more damaging activities in Kafinda Game Management Area. The ruling, delivered on 25th January 2022, will halt the deforestation of protected land and water abstraction within the area.
Up until this ruling was made, Lake Agro Industries, a Tanzanian company, continued to clear forest within the Kafinda Game Management Area (GMA) in the Kasanka National Park buffer zone. The Kasanka National Park is home to the world’s most numerous mammal migration – that of the straw-coloured fruit bats. (For background to this story, see here). Since our previous report, satellite imagery shows the company had, between August and September, illegally cleared more than 80 hectares of additional, protected forest within Kafinda. This is despite the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) ordering them to stop all clearance in July 2021.
For more than two years, Kasanka Trust has been working closely with DNPW to fight this illegal development that threatens the internationally important biodiversity of Kasanka National Park. Other government ministries, departments and regulatory authorities contacted regarding this matter include the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Lands, Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA), Zambia Water Resources Management Authority (WARMA), Central Province Administration, Office of the President, Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU), Office of the Public Protector Zambia, Chitambo Local Council, and the District Commissioner’s Office Chitambo.
Everything culminated in a petition to the President of Zambia, signed by more than 6000 people who want to stop this illegal activity. Yet Lake Agro Industries continues to ignore all orders to desist clearing the land, demonstrating disrespect for Zambia – her laws, her natural heritage and her people.
Lake Agro Industries claims to have title to the land, but the DNPW director (who has to authorise land allocation in the GMA) knows nothing about it. It is a rather confusing and distressing situation, not least because the government departments don’t seem to be talking to each other.
Lake Agro Industries submitted an EIA report to ZEMA in May, and as far as we know, ZEMA has not made any formal response or comment on the issue.
Separately, there have been four Stop Orders issued over the past two years. The most recent was in July 2021 when DNPW issued a Stop Order saying that Lake Agro Industries could continue to farm the seven pivot circles already cleared, with the proviso that they obtain the relevant water abstraction permit and clear no other land.
Lake Agro Industries maintains that they have not cleared any new land at all in 2021 and is respecting the latest Stop Order. On the 4th of August, Kasanka Trust was present at a meeting in which the manager told DNPW that no more land would be cleared until receipt of the formal decision from ZEMA.
This latest satellite evidence (see below) is significant. It shows that Lake Agro Industries is not truthful and strengthens the argument that it can’t be trusted. They began clearing the eighth pivot circle three days after that meeting with DNPW.
Their practice destroys protected habitats and seriously threatens important ecosystems, critical to the survival of both wildlife and local communities.
Timeline of events
July 2019:A subsidiary of the Tanzanian Lake Group illegally occupies land in the Kafinda GMA. It clears 160 hectares of pristine forest to set up two centre pivot circles for agricultural irrigation.
August 2019:Department of Forestry issues the first Stop Order instructing that no further clearance takes place.
October 2019:Lake Agro Industries continues clearing, creating a total of seven pivot circles, representing over 560 hectares of illegal deforestation.
November 2019: Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Arts (P. S. MOTA) issues a second Stop Order after field verification.
March 2020:The Director of DNPW issues a third Stop Order. This time, DNPW follows through and closes the farm. Urgent meetings are held between Lake Agro Industries and DNPW, and permission is granted for the farm to re-open to harvest crops only – but no further activity is permitted.
April 2020 to November 2020:Lake Agro Industries continues to farm the seven established pivot circles.
December 2020:P. S. MOTA and the French Ambassador to Zambia fly over the farm to confirm the development. P.S. MOTA demands that Lake Agro Industries submit documentation and follow legal procedures.
April 2021:The Director of DNPW visits the farm and instructs the developer to stop all activity.
May 2021:Lake Agro Industries submits an Environmental and Social Impact Statement (ESIS) to the Zambian Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) requesting permission for a commercial agriculture development over a 7,000-hectare footprint (3,000 hectares of arable land plus associated infrastructure).
Lake Agro Industries begins clearing a new land area for cattle farming (apparent from analysis of satellite imagery).
June 2021:Kasanka Trust submits a 21-page statement summary outlining how the ESIS fails to meet even the most basic principles of EIA and must be rejected. The statement is supported by over 40 organisations from Zambia and beyond, representing the tourism industry, community groups, conservation NGOs, filmmakers and researchers. At least 500 different representations are also made to ZEMA by organisations and members of the public objecting to the scheme.
July 2021:DNPW issues a fourth Stop Order, allowing Lake Agro Industries to farm the cleared 560 hectares (but advising that the relevant water abstraction permits can only be granted by WARMA), and prohibiting any further clearance.
Kasanka Trust works with WWF Zambia to deliver a letter to the former president, urging him to save Kasanka.
4th August 2021:DNPW visits the farm and reminds the Lake Agro Industries manager that no further clearance is permitted.
7th August 2021:Lake Agro Industries begins clearing a new area of land for arable crops and continues clearing the cattle farming area (apparent from analysis of aerial imagery).
28th August 2021:Kasanka Trust prepares a petition for delivery to the new president, having obtained more than 6000 signatures from all over the world.
9th September 2021:Aerial imagery shows that since May 2021, over 100 hectares of additional land have been cleared for cattle, plus almost 80 hectares to install an eighth pivot circle since August 2021.
25th January 2022: The Zambian High Court grants an injunction restraining Lake Agro Industries and Gulf Adventures Limited from carrying out any more damaging activities in Kafinda Game Management Area.
Caption: Aerial pictures of land clearing in the Kafinda GMA (near Kasanka National Park) in 2021. The 3rd of April shows the clearing (five of the pivot fields visible were cleared post the first Stop Order). The 1st of May shows a new clearing had begun. On the 5th of July, the April clearing had been expanded; this continued through July until the 3rd of August, the day before DNPW arrived to inspect whether the Stop Order had been respected. Lake Agro Industries denied clearing any more land (against the obvious satellite evidence). Three days after the DNPW visit, on the 7th of August, clearing for the eighth centre pivot began. The clearing of the 8th pivot can be seen progressing until the 9th of September. Clearing for a 9th pivot began just before the 17th of September.
About the author
This story was prepared by the Kasanka Trust, a wildlife charity based in Zambia, the UK and the Netherlands. It manages the Kasanka National Park in Zambia’s Central Province. The Trust’s main objectives are to secure the future of biodiversity of Kasanka National Park and to stimulate, as well as sustain the local economy through its mission of “Tourism for Conservation”. The Kasanka Trust relies entirely on donor funding and income received through tourism to run and manage its projects.
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So. Jamie has raised a few eyebrows with her CANDID thoughts on rescuing a duiker from a lingering death in sticky mud. Read what she has to say in her editorial below and join the debate in our club. Park the emotions, please, and debate the issue.
Our new app is cooking and thousands have already signed up – thanks so much! Watch this space. We have a 100-YEAR PLAN to host the most important people in the African safari and conservation space, and you are invited. Our travel & conservation club is for those who wish to debate the issues, donate to worthy projects and travel responsibly.
With so many of our safari clients now travelling again or at least booking for what will be an epic 2022 safari year – YAY! – we shed light on travel opportunities across Africa in the coming few months. Our second story below refers.
And our final story below is about that most striking of African gladiators – the oryx. A farmer once told me that if you flick a coin at a gemsbok it will easily smack it aside with those rapier horns. I pity the desert-adapted lion that ends up on the sharp end of these handsome creatures.
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
A few years ago, several lion prides in a reserve in South Africa contracted mange. As the images of scabby, miserable lion cubs made their way onto social media, the reserve management was bombarded with abusive messages about how heartless and cruel it was not to treat them. Some pleasant missives even found their way into my inbox, despite the fact that I was totally removed from any kind of decision-making power. Management stood firm and many of the lions died.
And I believe that was the right decision. Yet fast forward a few years later to a duiker struggling in the drying mud of a manmade dam. With the previous furore in mind, I recruited a couple of willing volunteers, we pulled her out (in a true comedy of errors known only to those involved) and kept our mouths shut. In that moment, I had absolute sympathy for the management’s decision not to interfere. Every decision to intervene has to be judged on the nuance of circumstance but a public decision to do so creates an expectation and fury when that expectation is not met in the future.
The point is this – social media frenzy and the rise of the armchair activist have added a new dimension to the age-old debate on treating wild animals. With the current challenges facing our wild spaces, it may seem trivial. But our perspectives on it go to the heart of the ethics governing every decision – from human-wildlife conflict (and the shameful lack of consideration afforded to local people living with wildlife) to trophy hunting. What is the “‘Greater Good” and how do we balance the utilitarian needs of a living, balanced ecosystem?
I’ve penned some of my thoughts in our first story below (for club members only), but it only just touches the surface of a deeply complex issue. Now we want to hear your opinions!
Finally, one of our main objectives in the creation of our private travel & conservation club is to provide a platform for trusted organisations involved in practical conservation and research to present their work and ask for support when needed. Our friends at Elephants Alive are asking for your help – have a look at their club forum post.
Story 3 https://africageographic.com/stories/oryx/
DESERT GLADIATORS
The four oryx (gemsbok) species are robust, dignified and courageous – icons of the desert & perfectly adapted to their arid environments
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Intervention, interference – should we or shouldn’t we?
A few years ago, I decided to pull an antelope out of the mud of a drying, man-made dam (I was not alone, but my fellow conspirators will have to remain nameless). Until now, only a handful of people knew about this because we were given strict instructions not to help the antelope as per the reserve’s policy. We claimed it had escaped on its own and hid the mud-splattered evidence. We intervened. Quite possibly, we interfered.
From a human perspective, there are times when nature seems abominably cruel. For instance when young animals are allowed just a brief glimpse of their new world before being snatched up by an opportunistic predator. Or when hundreds of wildebeest are crushed beneath the hooves of their fellows crossing the Mara River during the Great Migration and wretched elephants are eaten alive by hyenas while trapped in the dried, cracking mud of dry season Mana Pools. Not for nothing has the phrase “circle of life” become such a popular refrain – for wild animals, death begets life and life almost invariably means a painful, frightening death.
Heraldry, Renaissance artworks, animated films, cutesy toys, and the national animal of Scotland all bear testament to mankind’s appreciation of the mythical unicorn. Of course, most of us over the age of ten are aware that there are no horned horses in real life (a great disappointment to many). However, the ancient Greek scholars of natural history were entirely convinced of their existence. Ctesias describes them as fleet-footed wild asses, red, white, and black and sporting a one and a half cubit (around 70cm) horn. Aristotle took it one step further and described this particular creature as the unicorn’s ‘prototype’. He was, in fact, referring to the (admittedly two-horned) oryx.
While certainly not unicorns, there is something mythical about an oryx. Robust, dignified and courageous, the majestic sight of a spear-tipped oryx cresting a red dune, silhouetted against the setting sun, is iconic. In moments like these, this antelope is an embodiment of Africa’s desert spirit.
The Oryx family
The oryx refers to four large antelope of the genus Oryx: the Arabian oryx (O. leucoryx), the scimitar-horned oryx (O. dammah), the Beisa oryx (O. beisa – also referred to as the East African oryx) and the gemsbok (O. gazella). All four are well-adapted to life in arid areas and can survive for several weeks without access to surface drinking water (more on this below). Black and white markings adorn the faces of all oryxes, but their coat colours vary from the white and cream of the Arabian and scimitar-horned oryxes to the tan of the almost identical Beisa oryx and gemsbok.
Another family trait is the formidable pair of horns that can reach over a metre in length. These sabre-like weapons are carried by both sexes and are used in battles for mating rights (or to ward off unwanted attention from enthusiastic males), and in defence from predators. Like other horned animals, oryx display exceptional proprioception when it comes to the tips of their horns. Even lions exhibit trepidation when tackling the scything weapons of a desperate gemsbok.
The Oryx genus is part of the larger Hippotraginae subfamily, also known as the grazing antelope. This subfamily includes the addax, as well as sable and roan antelopes.
Clockwise from top left: Gemsbok (Oryx gazella); Beisa oryx (O. beisa); Arabian oryx (O. leucoryx); Scimitar-horned oryx (O. dammah)
Scimitar-horned oryx (O. dammah)
Like the Arabian oryx, the once widespread scimitar-horned oryx was hunted to extinction across North Africa, and they were officially declared extinct in the wild in 2000. They remain listed as ‘regionally extinct’ by the IUCN, as all populations in North Africa are fenced and managed such that they are not considered “wild” populations.
These striking antelope are almost entirely white, apart from their russet chests and necks. Unlike the other members of the oryx genus, the horns of the scimitar-horned oryx curve backwards towards their shoulders. Several captive populations are kept in research centres – most notably the Smithsonian National Zoo – so a fair amount of research into oryx morphological adaptations and social structure has been conducted on scimitar-horned oryx.
Scimitar-horned oryx (this animal is wearing a tracking collar)
Beisa oryx (O. beisa)
The East African oryx was once considered a subspecies of the gemsbok, and the two species are physically very alike. However, genetic and morphological studies have proved their separate status. The Beisa oryx as a species is listed as ‘endangered’ by the IUCN.
There are two recognised subspecies of Beisa oryx. The common Beisa oryx (O. b. beisa) is found north of Kenya’s Tana River and into the Horn of Africa while the fringe-eared oryx (O. b. callotis) is distributed south of the Tana River and into parts of Tanzania. Both subspecies have been allocated their own IUCN classification, with the former considered ‘endangered’ and the latter ‘vulnerable’.
Beisa oryx (these are the fringe-eared subspecies)
Arabian oryx (O. leucoryx)
In the early 1970s, the Arabian oryx was declared extinct in the wild. The wild populations in Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE today owe their existence to intensive reintroduction projects from zoos, breeding programmes and private collections. There are now an estimated 1,600 Arabian oryxes in the wild, and while they are still listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN, their population is considered stable.
The Arabian oryx is the smallest member of the Oryx genus, and the species name leucoryx refers to their almost luminously white coat.
Arabian oryx
Gemsbok (O. gazella)
Also known as the South African oryx (though its range extends across Namibia, Botswana and southern Angola), the gemsbok is the only oryx that is not vulnerable, endangered, or extinct in the wild. It is the largest species of the genus, with males standing about 1.2m at the shoulder and weighing up to 240kg.
As the most common of all the oryx, the information below relates to gemsbok unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Quick facts
Social structure:
Herds of 10-40 animals, occasionally accompanied by a dominant bull
Mass:
150-240kg (males heavier than females)
Shoulder height:
1.2m
Gestation period:
270 days (9 months)
Number of young:
1 calf (twins extremely rare)
Average life expectancy:
around 18 years in the wild, longer in captivity
The gemsbok is a large antelope, around the same size as a sable or roan and only fractionally shorter and lighter than a greater kudu. Their hooves are disproportionately large, and the two halves are flexible, preventing the antelope from sinking into the soft desert sand. They have been recorded reaching speeds of up to 60km/h.
They are highly nomadic, following rare seasonal rains and subsequent green flushes. Where drinking water is unavailable, gemsbok feeding habits become more selective. They target succulent plants such as tsamma melons and cucumbers and dig to access roots and bulbs.
Gemsbok
Keeping a cool head in the face of great thirst
All oryx species are adapted to living in arid areas where daytime temperatures can easily exceed a sweltering 50˚C. A human exposed to such scorching weather would soon be awash with sweat in an involuntary physiological effort to cool down. However, the oryx does not have the luxury of wasting precious water on sweat unless absolutely necessary.
Instead of fighting a losing battle, oryx metabolisms are adapted to run at higher temperatures than most other mammals (something they have in common with camels and other desert-dwelling creatures). The internal temperatures of gemsbok have been recorded rising by over 4˚C during the day. Research conducted on scimitar-horned oryx showed that their body temperatures could increase to over 46˚C before they began to perspire. This is primarily due to the carotid rete – a network of blood vessels that essentially “trick” the brain’s hypothalamus into thinking the animal is cooler than it is.
Contrary to misconception, this selective brain cooling does not seem to protect the brain, nor is the brain more sensitive to rising temperatures than any other part of the body. (In fact, it is the digestive system that is most vulnerable to internal temperature changes.) Instead, selective brain cooling is a water conservation strategy. Many animals, including most of the artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates), have an operational carotid rete. Blood travelling from the carotid artery divides into fine blood vessels that run parallel to a network of veins carrying cooler blood from the oronasal passages. The arterial blood is cooled as it passes the cooler venous blood and then flows into the brain, cooling it slightly. The thermoreceptors in the hypothalamus typically respond to increased internal temperatures by triggering sweating and panting, which results in a loss of moisture due to evaporation. Even a small cooling effect on the receptors can conserve considerable amounts of body water. Thus, selective brain cooling is closely correlated to dehydration or lack of available water rather than external temperatures. This process is complex and is regulated by different physiological factors, including the salt concentration in body fluids.
Oryx are brilliantly adapted to staying cool and minimising water loss in their arid ranges
In addition to the carotid rete, the kidneys of the oryx are specialised to reabsorb as much water as possible from the urine and oryx show greater water reabsorption levels from the colon. These methods, along with certain behavioural modifications (shade-seeking, for example) and specialised feeding, allow some oryx species to survive without drinking for up to 10 months at a time!
All’s fair in love and war
Gemsbok males are loosely territorial, and while fights are rare and generally short-lived, the horns are sharp and occasionally deadly at close range. However, a victorious male still has to face the ire of his intended mate, and female gemsbok are equally combative in their approach to love. Thus begins the “mating whirl around” phase of courtship as the female turns to meet her intended head-on, presenting him with a literal barrier of spears (and, from his perspective, the wrong end). Her eventual submission may well reward a persistent male, but only once he has proved his mettle in battle.
Nine months later, the cow moves away from her herd to give birth to a tan calf that initially looks nothing like the striking antelope it is destined to become. The tiny calf is highly camouflaged and will spend the first six weeks of its life in hiding, emerging only to suckle when its mother visits roughly twice a day. As the black facial markings and budding horns emerge, mother and calf reunite with the rest of the herd.
Enemies beware
Lions, cheetahs, spotted hyenas, and African painted wolves (wild dogs) all prey on gemsbok, though all do so with a considerable degree of caution. Renowned naturalist Jonathan Kingdon records instances of lions dying from gemsbok-inflicted wounds. Though the gemsbok will almost always flee if it has the choice, a trapped antelope will turn on the offensive, swaying, whirling, and stabbing at attackers with the grace of a fencing champion.
Beisa oryx at war – all oryx species are formidably equipped to deal with challenges from predators or pretenders
Conclusion
Whatever the Ancient Greek naturalists may have thought to the contrary, the oryx is about as far from a fairytale, horned pony with a penchant for maidens as conceivably possible. Instead, these mighty creatures with their fearsome horns and black warpaint markings exude an unmistakable “don’t mess with me” aura. This rugged design has allowed all four species to survive in some of the most inhospitable habitats on the planet. Yet for three of the four, it has done little to save them from a human fascination for their horns and pelts or from human-introduced diseases like rinderpest. Though the gemsbok is relatively common, the sad fact is that we have come disconcertingly close to losing the other three spear-tipped species.
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There I was, slaving away WHEN the Whatsapp ping comes through: Debbie is walking a pangolin nearby – wanna go see? Grabs mobile, car keys and bolts out the door …
I spent the next hour trundling along behind the determined Lilly (and her human minder – respected wildlife vet Debbie English) as the pang sniffed out and devoured delicious ants in their thousands. At times her entire head was down a hole, eyes screwed tight in blissful rapture as she hoovered up the tasty morsels. I, on the other hand, spent much of the time bouncing around, swatting at the savages as they swarmed over me and attacked with vicious intent.
Lilly, twice poached and confiscated, is again undergoing rehabilitation and eventual reintroduction to the wild. Handling is kept to a minimum and according to strict protocols, and best left to experienced professionals. This is a time-consuming and expensive process. Pangolins are the world’s most trafficked animal, and their worsening status is of massive concern. There is a steady procession of these precious creatures into the care of Debbie and the Provet team, as demand in the Far East drives poaching. To donate much-needed funds to help Lilly and her kind, please email ProVet.
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
While taking a break from the formalin-infused aroma of the dissection hall earlier this week, I sat alone beneath a fever tree and watched a flock of tiny bronze manikins. (I am a veterinary student when not working for AG). My head had been reeling with what felt like a thousand different things and an encroaching sense of panic at my week ahead. Yet five minutes in the company of the tiny birds, so engrossed as they were with their seed search that they came less than a metre from my feet, was enough to bring balance to my world. Time spent with wild creatures, no matter how fleeting, is a powerful restorative.
From our Editor-in-Chief
I recently travelled to the Maasai Mara – my first international trip since Covid imprisoned us at home. Regulations are easing, but many remain hesitant to travel, especially to Africa. They are justifiably afraid of the virus but also cowed by idiotic fearmongers in the media and Afropessimists in general. In this forum post in our club I’ll tell you that if you’re thinking about travelling to Kenya, you should book now. The Kenyans have strict but seamless Covid protocols in place and travellers can feel as safe there as they can anywhere.
In our first story below, Sam Turley tackles the tricky ethics and potential pitfalls around human beings developing tactile relationships with wild animals. Sam takes us through three fascinating case studies.
Then, in our second story below, Dr Anna Spenceley summarises the devastating effects of the Covid pandemic on African tourism, conservation and local livelihoods. It’s not all doom and gloom, there are some inspiring options for sustainable recovery. (For club members only).
Chad in central Africa…not a country many people would associate with epic safaris. Zakouma National Park, run by the NGO African Parks, is helping to change that perception. See our third story below for an exciting deep dive into the adventure safari of a lifetime.
Acknowledgements: This article is drawn from a recent report from the Luc Hoffmann Institute by the author, “The Future of Nature-based Tourism: Impacts of COVID-19 and paths to sustainability” and other resources.
What impacts has the COVID-19 pandemic had on nature-based tourism in Africa?
In 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic, over a third of all direct tourism contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) in Africa, and 8.8 million jobs were attributed to wildlife tourism. The UN World Tourism Organisation estimates that entrance, gate and park fees from all types of protected areas in 14 sub-Saharan African countries were an estimated USD 142 million per year, and safari tourism in Kenya alone generated USD 1.1 billion in 2019.
Revenues from tourism generate a substantial proportion of conservation area budgets in some countries. Many wildlife tourism operators base their business models on sustainable development principles. They have actively contributed to biodiversity conservation, including species and habitat conservation, directly through their operations or by channelling donations towards them (see Figure 1). Local people also benefit from nature-based tourism, including through tourism jobs, by selling products and services that
Zakouma National Park is one of Africa’s most recent examples of a park pulled from the brink that has rapidly returned to a vibrant and spectacular wilderness teeming with life and bursting with biodiversity. Africa’s remaining intact ecosystems are a marvel of circumstance, both ancient and modern, wild and human. They are often described as fragile – a label undoubtedly apt but overly simple. For although the survival of the continent’s wild spaces is never certain, they are fragile in the way that new leaves of a sapling are fragile. Given a chance, with the right resources and protection, history has proved nature to be remarkably resilient.
Complicated though its story may be, the complexity is compelling. Zakouma’s extraordinary recovery only adds to the appeal of a journey through this magnificent landscape. It doesn’t offer the most conventional safari experience, but for seasoned travellers looking for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure off the beaten track, Zakouma is perfect.
Zakouma National Park
Zakouma National Park safeguards 3,000km2 (300,000 hectares) of savanna habitat, marking the transition between Africa’s central rainforests to the south and the inhospitable Sahara Desert to the north. It is situated in the southern part of Chad. As the country’s oldest national park, Zakouma’s fates and fortunes have been inextricably linked to human politics, bad neighbours and civil war. It was the arrival of African Parks at the invitation of the Chadian government that prompted the park’s gradual return to its former glory. The non-profit conservation organisation took over management in 2010 (in partnership with the government). In keeping with what is rapidly becoming an African Parks tradition, they set about protecting the remaining wildlife and working closely with local communities (which has been fundamental to Zakouma’s success) to the lay foundations for the park’s long-term survival.
For tourists, this means a safe visit to one of North Africa’s most precious ecosystems to revel in vast numbers of wildlife and spectacular scenery. The greater Zakouma landscape includes the national park and extends over an enormous 30,693km2 (over 3 million hectares) of Sudano-Sahelian vegetation (characterized by shrubland, tall grasses, and Acacia – now Vachellia – woodlands). This ecosystem includes the Bahr-Salamat Faunal Reserve (13,000km2 – 130,000 hectares), which surrounds the park, as well as Siniaka-Minia Faunal Reserve (4,260km2 – 42,600 hectares) and a further 10,000km2 of adjoining wildlife corridors. African Parks manages all of these protected areas. The reserves act as vital buffer zones while adding to the space available to burgeoning numbers of wildlife.
DID YOU KNOW that African Parks offers safari camps (lodges and campsites) where 100% of tourism revenue goes to conservation and local communities? Find out more and book your African Parks safari.
This vast ecosystem is primarily flat, with perennial river systems and marshy floodplains lined by patches of verdant gallery forest, woodlands, and savanna grasslands. The only exceptions are the granite inselbergs located in the southwestern section of the park. The vast area of available land allows the animals to survive the dramatic differences between the distinct dry and wet seasons – with a seasonal migration seeing many animals returning to the heart of the park when water is scarce.
On a canoe safari in Zakouma
Protected pachyderms and journeys of giraffe
It is the return of the park’s elephants that is perhaps most symbolic of the rehabilitation of Zakouma. Once whittled down by ivory poaching to fewer than 460 individuals, the elephant population has increased slowly but steadily over the last decade. This is a remarkable achievement in a part of the continent where most elephant populations are either extinct or in terrifying freefall. Perhaps even more astounding is the elephants’ capacity to offer what, to the human interpretation, looks somewhat like trust. The atrocities committed are easily within living memory for most herd members yet, while still occasionally nervous, they are sufficiently relaxed in the company of rangers and tourists to allow for intimate glimpses into their world. The elephants are breeding again – there are over 560 elephants in Zakouma, and the population is predicted to reach over 1,000 in the next few years. A baby elephant is always a joy to behold no matter the circumstances, but knowing the history of the park and the value of each youngster is guaranteed to make a sighting even more heartwarming.
Six black rhinos were also reintroduced to the Zakouma area in 2018. These population pioneers were the first to set foot in Chad since rhinos were exterminated over half a century ago. Sadly only two survived their first few months, the rest succumbing to the various strains of relocation. The remaining cows are constantly monitored and thriving. If Zakouma continues its upward trajectory, both white and black rhinos could once again move through its savanna habitats.
In addition to the growing number of pachyderms, Zakouma is also a population stronghold of the Kordofan giraffe, a critically endangered subspecies of the northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Experts estimate that there are only around 2,300 of these giraffe left in Africa, and around 60% are found in Zakouma. Read more about Kordofan and Africa’s other giraffe species here.
An elephant bull enjoys respite from the heat
Hundreds and thousands
Though the elephants are a highlight for most visitors, equally entrancing are the enormous herds of antelope and Central African savanna buffalo that roam the park’s plains. The antelope include rarities such as the northern greater kudu, red-fronted gazelle, Lelwel hartebeest, tiang (a type of topi), roan antelope and Buffon’s kob. You’ll also find Defassa waterbuck, oribi, Bohor reedbuck, duiker, and warthog.
Of course, this profusion of prey (and any number of suitable hiding places) makes Zakouma a predator haven. The three big cats – lion, leopard, and cheetah – are all present in increasing numbers, while a visitor might also see smaller species such as serval, caracal, jackal, and pale fox. Though African painted wolves (wild dogs) have yet to settle in the park, they have been glimpsed passing through it. Spotted hyenas are present in small numbers, their whoops and cackles a warning to their rare and silent striped hyena cousins also found in Zakouma. Few guests glimpse these shy, nocturnal creatures, but there is always the chance of becoming the first to snap a photograph of one inside Zakouma.
Vast flocks of birds gather at the wetland areas of Zakouma
Birds of a feather
The mammal life is matched and possibly eclipsed by the park’s avifauna. Zakouma has 373 recorded species. The wetlands form part of the RAMSAR site “Inundation Plains of Bahr Auok and Salamat”, one of the largest RAMSAR sites in the world. These habitats are vital for migrating birds, which use them as stopovers or breeding grounds. The wetland areas attract enormous flocks of pelicans, storks, geese and black-crowned cranes, especially as the water starts to recede during the dry season and life concentrates around the remaining pools.
Away from the water’s edge, the arrival of the northern carmine bee-eaters decorates the skies in pink as they search for appropriate nesting sites in the sandbanks. The black-breasted barbet is at the top of the ‘Most Wanted’ list for most birders, the Abyssinian ground hornbill a close second. The latter can be heard at dawn, serenading visitors with a deep booming call that carries across the Sahel.
Zakouma is also home to what experts believe is the largest number of North African ostriches – a subspecies that is all but extinct in most of its historic range.
A young male lions stalks the plains of Zakouma
Seasons
In Zakouma, the ebb and flow of life and animal movement is powered by the pulse of the wet and dry seasons. During the wet season from June to October, the park receives an average of 850mm of rain which inundates much of the park and floods the roads. Zakouma is closed to visitors during this period because it becomes almost inaccessible. The early dry season offers the best scenic photography as the surroundings are still green, but the later dry season ensures the best wildlife sightings. The temperatures regularly reach over 40˚C during the dry season, and there are sections of the park where tsetse flies congregate.
African Parks run accommodation – top left: Tinga Camp; right and bottom left: temporary mobile camping sites
Visiting Zakouma
Want to go on safari to Zakouma? To find lodges, search for our ready-made packages or get in touch with our travel team to arrange your safari, scroll down to after this story.
Tourism remains a vital part of African Parks’ strategy for Zakouma’s future. Visitors with a taste for adventure can rest assured that they are playing a role in protecting one of the continent’s most important ecosystems.
There are currently limited accommodation options in Zakouma: a couple of basic campsites and Tinga Camp – a basic and budget-friendly camp originally constructed in 1965. African Parks is currently working on tourism development options in Zakouma to improve the diversity of accommodation options available for both local and international travellers.
A Zakouma safari is not necessarily the best option for first-time safari-goers or families with young children. Yet, for some, the rustic accommodation, remote location and hot weather is exactly what make Zakouma sought-after – a truly unique, off-the-beaten-track adventure where their visit directly contributes towards an ongoing conservation success story. Zakouma’s Lazarus-like recovery is nothing short of remarkable and has set it on the firm path to becoming one of the continent’s top (and most unusual) safari destinations.
Forming a relationship with a wild animal (i.e. not a dog, cat or horse etc.), or crossing the human-wildlife barrier, requires tremendous patience, motivation, knowledge and expertise – not to mention consideration of a whole host of ethical concerns.
Humans in nature
Humans have always been linked to wild animals through hunting and domestication for work, transportation, pest control, food, and, more recently, companionship. Having said this, modern humans are now so far removed from nature that many of us long to rekindle that forgotten connection – to cross the human-wildlife barrier. This desperation can often lead to confusion. What we may think is a special connection with an animal may not be – especially for the animal.
As the human population grows, wilderness areas do the opposite. Competition for space and resources is at an all-time high resulting in increased human-wildlife conflict. Although we have implemented a wide range of social, technological and behavioural approaches to reduce this problem, most of our interactions with wildlife (outside of ethical tourism) have become negative. We must find ways to coexist with wildlife, for if we don’t, it will lead to our ultimate demise.
Yet, as wildlife becomes rarer, many of us are drawn to it like a moth to a flame. However, how close is too close and when do we end up getting burnt? Wild animals are, after all, just that, wild.
Top left and bottom right: an orphaned blesbok; top right: an orphaned, hand-raised pangolin; bottom left: filmmaker Kim Wolhuter with wild spotted hyenas
Human-animal relationships
When I think about crossing the human-wildlife barrier, I struggle to think of positive examples. Poaching or “pets” that turn into problems, spring to mind. For many, nature is a place to be feared, with many species viewed as dangerous pests. So how can we shift this perception, and is it possible to form relationships with wild animals without it being detrimental to them?
During my time working with wildlife in Southern Africa, I have been fortunate enough to witness several human-wildlife relationships. Over the past year, I have made it my mission to document, analyse and, where possible, celebrate the human-wildlife connection.
Wildlife interactions can be controversial, depending on the unique circumstances of each animal and the motives of the organisation or individuals involved. There are positives and negatives to be considered when crossing the barrier between humans and wild animals and the best interests of the animal should always be of paramount importance.
In this story, I feature three unique and extraordinary human-wildlife relationships that I have been lucky enough to photograph. I discuss the often controversial ethics surrounding each.
Mateo (dedicated handler) and Marimba (pangolin orphan)
Mateo and Marimba
Marimba, a ground pangolin, was around a year old when her mother was poached for her scales. Marimba was simply too young to fend for herself. Her rescuers took her to Wild is Life sanctuary in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she met her full-time carer Mateo.
Pangolins are notoriously difficult to look after in captivity, requiring particular and personal care. Mateo’s gentle nature seemed like a perfect fit, and a remarkable relationship was born.
Pangolins are naturally nocturnal; however, for their safety, Marimba and Mateo go out in the day so she can satisfy her insatiable appetite for ants and termites. Marimba and Mateo have spent ten hours a day together for the past 13 years, and it shows – they are inseparable. Many attempts have been made to rewild Marimba, but she always finds a way back to Mateo. She is simply too attached to him and has never learnt the essential skills required to survive in the wild – perhaps because she was orphaned so young.
As Marimba cannot be released, she will now live out the rest of her life at the sanctuary as an ambassador for her species so that others do not succumb to the same fate as her mother.
Do not be fooled by their reptilian appearance – pangolins are affectionate, gentle, sentient creatures. And they are rapidly disappearing from our planet. As the most trafficked animals in the world, most human-pangolin interactions end in another pile of lifeless scales.
In a perfect world, the close connection between Marimba and Mateo would have never existed. However, this relationship has elements of what all humans should strive to emulate in our relationship with pangolins if we are to save them from extinction—one of trust, love, and compassion.
Like me, I am sure many would rather see Marimba released into the wild than live an unnatural lifestyle with Mateo. However, even if Marimba could be released, the reality is that pangolins are being poached all over Africa at an unprecedented rate, so where could she be released safely? Her habituation to people means that releasing her at this stage could be a death sentence.
Vera (carer) and Meme (orphaned blesbok)
Vera and Meme
Meme is a blesbok – a beautiful, medium-sized antelope characterised by a striking white blaze. They occur at Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservancy in Zimbabwe, although they are naturally endemic to South Africa.
I played a significant role in this particular rehabilitation. Meme was only two weeks old when she was found roaming Imire without her mother. On the third day of searching, we found a dead cow, her enlarged teets indicating that she’d recently given birth. After much deliberation, we decided to catch Meme and raise her.
Why were we interfering with nature? Why did we cross the human-wildlife barrier? It seems to go against Darwin’s survival of the fittest. There were, however, some unique circumstances surrounding Imire that we considered carefully. At the time that Meme was orphaned, there were no predators on Imire. There is no doubt that if she’d been left alone, she’d have died a long and painful death – without predators, a total waste of life. For me, hand-raising any wild animal should only be considered almost as a last resort.
Vera was tasked with the rehabilitation and ultimate release of Meme. She spent hours on end trying to convince the tiny calf to drink milk from a bottle. Sometimes force-feeding was required, but eventually, Meme took to drinking from a bottle with ease.
This example highlights some crucial points pertinent to crossing the barrier between humans and wildlife. Raising Meme was a constant internal battle between doing what was right for the animal versus doing what made us happy. I mean, let’s be honest, how amazing is it to have a blesbok following you around wherever you go? It is an entirely natural and almost unavoidable feeling to become attached to an animal you have raised.
A considerable part of that connection from the animal’s side was, of course, the food. It was tricky to judge exactly when to stop feeding her, and it became more difficult as both parties enjoyed the process. We probably fed Meme for at least a month longer than necessary. Luckily feeding her for longer than required wasn’t to her detriment, and she remained fit and healthy throughout the process.
Meme on the day she was released and joined a herd of wild blesbok
Throughout the entire process, the goal remained to release Meme back into the wider reserve. The rehabilitation would have been pointless if we had simply kept her as our pet and denied her the right to live as a blesbok should. Meme was released at eight months old. Remarkably, she’s joined a herd on the reserve, leaving her human parents behind for a life in the wild. This was the perfect outcome for her and for our crossing of the human-wildlife barrier.
During our time with Meme, we gained a newfound appreciation for this often overlooked antelope species. Although the life of one antelope is just a drop in the ocean for conservation, it is everything for that individual. Many successful conservation projects rely on compassion, and rehabilitation stories like Meme’s can have profound and far-reaching effects. Teaching others to care about nature is half of the battle for, as Jane Goodall said, In the end, we will conserve only what we love.
Kim Wolhuter and a completely wild but habituated spotted hyena
Kim and the hyenas
Kim Wolhuter is a renowned wildlife filmmaker and conservationist from South Africa. What distinguishes his work from all other filmmakers is the incredible bonds that he forms with his subjects. Kim spends a minimum of eighteen months on each project and this extended period ensures that the animals he works with are completely relaxed in his presence. Through gaining unprecedented access to his subjects, Kim’s goal is to dispel myths that cloud certain species and ultimately restore our connection to nature.
There are very few mammals with a worse reputation than the spotted hyena. Kim has made it his mission to change that. Disney started villainising hyenas with The Lion King – smelly, dirty, ugly, devious scavengers.
Kim is based in the Sango Wildlife Conservancy in Zimbabwe, where he has formed a remarkable, tactile relationship with completely wild hyenas.
He works with three basic but critical rules:
He never carries a weapon – being armed can lead to arrogance which some animals might detect (although not as arrogance obviously but possibly as overbearing dominance).
The hyenas come to Kim apparently purely for affection. He NEVER feeds them. When food is involved, Kim will often remove himself from the situation.
They make the rules. Every interaction happens on their terms. Kim positions himself near the hyenas and waits for them to come to him.
Many people regard Kim’s work as unethical, interfering with wildlife and changing their natural behaviour. There is an element of truth behind changing their behaviour because, of course, if Kim wasn’t there, the hyenas wouldn’t walk up to him. However, this can also be said for safari vehicles. Just because an animal has become used to vehicles does not mean they enjoy the interaction. I have seen countless examples of safari vehicles having adverse effects on animals, yet far fewer people think of these as unethical.
Is Kim’s interaction with the hyenas harming them? From my experience, not. As pictured here, the hyenas appear to love the affection, and after all, the interactions are strictly on their terms. If they didn’t want it, they wouldn’t approach him.
The other often raised concern is that the animals habituated to Kim will be more vulnerable to poaching. There is no doubt that animals pick up on our body language, and a poacher will move very differently from somebody with innocent motives. The hyenas also know Kim individually; just because he has got the clan used to him does not mean that they will be comfortable in the presence of others. I experienced this firsthand.
To get these immersive, eye-level images, I also had to be low to the ground in and amongst the hyenas. Many of the cubs approached me in a familiar setting for the clan out of curiosity but with extreme caution. None of the adults came to within five meters of me, whereas they were more than happy to receive scratches from Kim.
I think most of the opposition to Kim arises because he is doing what no others are. It is in our nature to fear the unknown and to question different practices. A lot of people discount his work as unethical without ever researching what he does. Kim has dedicated his life to protecting wildlife, and by showcasing the relationships that he forms with his subjects, he allows others to feel what he does. A love of wildlife. The value of that alone to wildlife conservation is impossible to quantify.
Potential pitfalls
Apart from the concern that habituation makes wild animals more vulnerable to poaching, there are a number of other pitfalls associated with crossing the wildlife-human barrier.
Habituation can be potentially catastrophic for both people and the animals involved – animals that lose their fear of human beings could become a risk to people and property. It is important to remember that all wild animals pose a risk, no matter how “fluffy” or “cuddly” they appear to be. In my opinion, that risk increases tenfold with the introduction of food. Animals close the gap in order to enjoy whatever morsels we have to offer. I have witnessed it many times whilst working with wild animals, things can change quickly. When we introduce food, we are often too close to the animal to react in time and this is when accidents happen. More often than not, strong food-related habituation ends in disaster. It is hugely important that a holistic view of the risks associated with habitation be taken before any attempt to cross the human-wildlife barrier is made. Could the animal become a danger to human beings? Could it become a danger to property?
There are, however, different levels of habituation and I assume that with our ever-growing human population and the resultant pressure on habitats, most animals on our planet are now habituated to some degree. Whether they have become used to game drive vehicles, people, or our infrastructure, habituation is now unavoidable. For the safari industry, some level of habituation is necessary for good sightings of animals. You wouldn’t want to pay $20,000 on your dream safari just to see the backsides of animals running away from your vehicle but equally, you wouldn’t want to spend that amount of money to be charged by an expectant elephant whose lunch is late.
It’s a fine balance, but there certainly are different levels of habituation and not all are bad. Having said this, wildlife should never become reliant on humans for food. Food-related habituation should only be explored in rehabilitation or wildlife management scenarios, and even then, it should be undertaken with the highest level of care.
There is also the fear that people might try and mimic situations they do not understand, resulting in injury or death and the subsequent euthanasia of the animal involved. Caution should therefore be taken with any publicity associated with human-wildlife interactions. Warnings and ‘do not try this at home’ admonitions should always accompany careful explanations of situations where the human-wildlife barrier is crossed.
Conclusion
Each scenario is unique. Before working in conservation, I was sceptical of almost all interactions that crossed the human-wildlife barrier, and I would dismiss them as unethical. In today’s social media culture, I think it’s essential to do your research before judging organisations and individuals that get close to wildlife. Still, I think it’s equally important to ask those difficult questions. Why is the animal there in the first place? Is the interaction necessary? Does it negatively affect the animal? What are the long-term goals, and can the animal eventually be released? If not, why not?
Crossing the human-wildlife barrier is not something that should be taken lightly. Wildlife is, after all, wild, and although I have highlighted what I believe are three success stories, it does not always go that way. I have heard of a wildebeest disembowelling a horse, a warthog killing a child and a cheetah mauling someone. No matter how cute or cuddly wild animals may be, they are all potentially dangerous.
Having said this, when done correctly, there are substantial potential benefits to crossing the human-wildlife barrier. As modern-day humans, no matter how far we remove ourselves from nature, we will always be a part of it. Wherever you live in the world, every action affects the natural systems of our Earth. With our ever-expanding population, we have no choice but to interact with wildlife. With the current state of our planet, we also have no choice but to interact positively.
About the author:
Sam Turley was born in Staffordshire, England, in 1992. Growing up in the countryside, Sam’s fascination with the natural world started at a very young age and has never left him. He has since dedicated his life to wildlife conservation, and after studying zoology in the UK, he went on to qualify as a field guide in South Africa, where he worked for three years. During a trip to Namibia in 2016, Sam’s passion for wildlife photography ignited, and he has been obsessed ever since. He was the overall winner of the 2020 Wilderness Safaris People’s Choice Award and was a three-time finalist in the highly prestigious 2020 Natural History Museum’s Photographer of the Year competition. His work has also been featured in many magazines, including The Telegraph, Getaway and Travel Africa. Sam is moving back to the UK in October to start a family. He is available for photographic and videographic conservation-related projects. You can contact Sam on sturleyphotography@gmail.com
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HOW CAN I HELP? is a question seldom asked in today’s self-absorbed society as we barrel along our evolutionary journey to algorithmic subserviency. Even just asking the question seems to change the chemistry of our minds, nudging us towards being decent, caring creatures. Is it too late to recalibrate to an earlier form of us?
We hope that once our new travel & conservation club has evolved out of its ‘beta’ development phase, it will be a tool to find African people and conservation projects to support. To get there, we need you. Yes, YOU. Go on, I dare you, join us on this journey and help teamAG make a difference where it matters – here in Africa. Some early-adoptors have already donated to the carefully selected projects via the club – yay!
I leave you with this thought, totally unconnected to my ramblings above: “The more chopped and packaged the animal in your freezer is, the more socially acceptable it gets.” (unknown source, altered)
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Scientific Editor
Is it a bug or a beetle? If its front wings are hardened into a solid pair of wing cases (elytra), then chances are you are looking at a beetle, a member of the Coleoptera order. This is the largest of the insect orders – so far, over 400,000 different species have been discovered, about 40% of all insect species described. They range in size from the smallest free-living insect (Scydosella musawasensis just 0.3mm long) to some of the heaviest and strongest insects on the planet. Have a look at our “Did you know” fact of the week below to learn more about the astonishing size of Africa’s largest Coleoptera member.
From our Editor-in-Chief
One of the benefits of having worked in the safari industry for so many years is my body’s natural desire to wake with the dawn. A tar-thick espresso with rusk as the birds begin their morning oratorio is the perfect way to begin the day. For those not from South Africa, a rusk is a bizarre piece of confectionary that might be confused for a small brick or piece of diamond-hard, stale sweetbread. Here, it is a safari delicacy – go figure.
In our first story below, we plunge into the chasm of Mosi-oa Tunya with the raging waters of the Zambezi River. Victoria Falls is a tourism mecca boasting wildlife, adventure and stunning hospitality on both the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of the river. Chat to our safari experts to book your Vic Falls experience.
For many people, fencing protected areas is the best way to secure them. For others, fences represent the devastating closure of corridors for migratory animals. In our second story below, Gail Thomson gives a succinct and brilliant overview of the debate for and against fencing our wild spaces (club members only).
I love lying on my back in the wilderness, staring up at the sky. There is something profoundly peaceful about watching eagles soaring overhead – floating specks in the endless blue vault. In our third story below, we bring you the first part of our two-part series on Africa’s majestic apex predators of the sky.
• Fantastic news as 21 African countries have been hauled off the UK’s red list – meaning that travellers returning from these countries will no longer need to enter hotel-managed quarantine on arrival in England. The steps to be taken following arrival will be determined by the traveller’s vaccination status. Read here for more information. The 21 newly removed countries include Botswana, DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia & Zimbabwe. Note that Kenya was previously removed from the red list.
• The awakening continues: Uganda Airlines is now flying from Dubai to Entebbe three times a week, and British Airways is flying from Heathrow to Nairobi four times a week.
Conservationists working throughout Africa have recently engaged in a fascinating fencing debate about how best to conserve wide-ranging wildlife, such as lions. The debate centred on a single important question: should protected areas in Africa be fenced? As human populations on the continent continue to increase, this timely debate provides food for thought as we contemplate the future of Africa’s wildlife under growing human pressure.
The debate centres around lion conservation, yet has important implications for many other wildlife species. As Africa’s largest predator, the lion is seen as a key species for conservation. Because they roam over large areas, require large numbers of prey, and are especially feared by humans, it appears that if we can conserve lions effectively, then we can conserve their associated ecosystems and a host of other species. I present the cases for and against fencing, as expressed by Africa’s top predator conservation scientists, and look into some of the implications of this debate for Botswana.
Africa’s iconic terrestrial predators – the three big cats, the African painted wolf, and the spotted hyena – are all wondrously proficient predators that fit neatly into place in their ecosystems. Tourists flock in their droves to admire the unique hunting styles that include coordinated killing, stealth and ambush, high-speed chases and remarkable displays of stamina. In the skies above these dramatic scenes, the avian apex predators soar. Sharp-eyed and fierce, African eagles bring unexpected death from above.
Birds of Prey – The Accipitridae
When distinguishing between African eagles and other birds of prey, most guides (and likely most safari guests) are taught that the “true eagles” have feathers that extend to the foot. While this would certainly simplify matters, the exact definition of what constitutes an eagle is simultaneously broad and somewhat vague. It is a definition usually based on size and a rough description of “power”. Fish eagles, bateleurs, and snake-eagles lack the feathered legs of “booted” eagles, but ornithologists still consider them eagles.
The term ‘eagle’ encompasses several different genera of large birds, some of which are not particularly closely related but all of which belong to the Accipitridae family. This is an enormous family with over 230 species of raptor, including eagles, kites, hawks, buzzards and Old-World vultures. At present, eagles can be informally divided into four subfamily groups:
Aquilinae – “booted” eagles (not to be confused with the booted eagle Hieraaetus pennatus/Aquila pennata, this grouping encompasses multiple species such as the martial, steppe, tawny and crowned eagles) and hawk-eagles
Circaetinae – snake eagles
Harpininae – harpy eagles
Haliaeetinae – sea and fish eagles
With ever-improving genetic technology, our understanding of phylogenetic relationships between species is changing. Many eagles will likely be shifted to a new genus or grouping as research continues. In Africa, they range in size from the relatively small snake eagles to the stocky martial eagle, the fifth heaviest eagle in the world.
Whatever the definition used, most people associate African eagles with hunting proficiency and strength – a well-earned reputation. These sleek masters of the skies are efficient and intimidating predators that use a combination of skill, speed, and power to survive.
Juvenille Verreaux’s eagle
“Two eyes with wings”
The description of “two eyes with wings” was coined by Rochon-Duvigneaud about the pigeon but is no less applicable to eagles. They are sight-hunters, capable of spotting potential prey from several kilometres away. Most bird species have exceptional visual acuity, but eagles are probably at the top of the list. The reason behind this is two-fold: the physical structures of the eye and the brain’s ability to process visual information. These physiological adaptations confer eyesight that experts estimate to be between four to eight times sharper than humans.
Like other raptor species, the eyes of eagles are approximately 1.4 times larger than birds of equivalent size and weight. The eyes are so large that there is little room for muscles to move the eyeball, which is the case in most birds. In addition, a sclerotic ring of bone holds the eagle’s eye in place, and thus eagles need to turn their heads to view anything outside the peripheral range.
Though the eyes are forward-facing, eagles can use both monocular and binocular vision, meaning that they can see straight ahead and to the side simultaneously. This is made possible by two foveae (humans only have one) in each eye – focal points consisting of clusters of specialised cells known as photoreceptors. On average, the retina of an eagle has roughly twelve times the number of cone cells as a human – photoreceptors that are associated with clear colour vision at high resolutions. They are also able to see ultraviolet light, which helps them detect urine trails on the ground.
Muscles in the eye itself can contract rapidly to change the shape of the lens, allowing the bird to focus on prey while diving. Their brains are able to resolve moving stimuli far faster than mammals, and they process that information exceptionally quickly. This is how birds of prey can navigate a forest hunt at speeds that would simply be a blur to the average human.
A bony projection above the eye, known as the supraorbital ridge, is responsible for the typical raptorial scowl. Absent in owls, this ridge is believed to provide support and protection to the eye socket, as well as shading the eye while the eagle is in flight. The spin-off is that eagles give the distinct impression that they are deeply annoyed by everything and everyone in their vicinity.
An adult (left) and a juvenile (right) African fish eagle scrap over a fish (follow the photographer here on Instagram)
Formidable weaponry
Eagles generally use razor-sharp talons backed by the considerable momentum of their bulk to dispatch prey. Hurtling out of the sky at speeds of over 100km/h, they collide with their unsuspecting quarry, often breaking the neck and spinal column instantly or penetrating the skull with a curved talon. The four-toed feet of eagles are specifically designed for this purpose, powered by strong muscles and covered in a thick, protective coating of scaly skin. The talon is solid bone, the distal phalanx (final joints) of the foot enclosed by the protective layer of keratin similar to fingernails.
Three talons are forward-facing, while the fourth points backwards and secures a solid grip on struggling prey. This hallux claw is the first digit and is sometimes referred to as the “kill claw” because it may be used to spear prey or grip tightly enough to cause asphyxiation. Naturally, there are variations in its size depending on the habitat and hunting style of the African eagle species concerned. For example, crowned eagles (Stephanoaetus coronatus) are believed to have the largest hallux claw of any eagle. This may relate to the restrictions of the forest habitats they prefer. There are also anecdotal accounts of a martial eagle breaking a man’s arm with its talons. (This account is chronicled in old hunting records and, as such, should probably be treated with the same scepticism given to fishermen recounting catch size.)
The talons of eagles will be used during territorial battles, where two opposing eagles clasp their talons together and cartwheel through the sky, pulling out of the freefall at the last moment. This cartwheeling display was once believed to be courtship behaviour, but recent research suggests it is more likely related to competition.
Long-crested eagle (follow photographer Graeme Gullacksen here ( here )
Leading ladies and doting fathers
Like most birds of prey, African eagles exhibit considerable sexual dimorphism, which is relatively standard in the avian world. However, unusually in the animal kingdom, the females are heavier and stronger than their male counterparts. No one is entirely certain as to why exactly. Still, several theories have inspired what one scientific paper refers to as a “passionate debate” that goes back centuries.
Explanations include reduced food competition between the sexes (seldom born out by research and failing to explain why the male is not bigger) and the female being able to protect her nestlings from the male’s predatory instincts. More recent theories lean more towards the fact that the female does most of the active guarding of the nest and young. As such, a heavier, stronger female has been evolutionarily selected. However, no one theory has received universal acceptance, and every approach has exceptions.
African eagles are monogamous, and most species are known to form lasting pair bonds, where the males share much of the parental load. Even migratory species will reunite after a long journey to breed, though a missing or delayed mate will be summarily replaced. Mating pairs build the messy nest of twigs, formally referred to as an eyrie, and regularly reuse the same nest site (known as strong “nest site fidelity”). While the female incubates the eggs and guards the nestlings, the males will see that they are kept well-fed.
A tawny eagle considering a wasp (follow photographer Lars Roes of Lifejourney4two here)
What’s on the menu? (Us?)
African eagles hunt and feed on a wide variety of prey. Naturally, the size and the exact breakdown of prey are extremely species-dependent, but almost all eagles can tackle animals heavier than themselves. For example, Africa’s three prodigious eagle species – the martial, Verreaux’s and the crowned – have been observed catching and killing adult antelope. Certain eagle species maintain a specialist diet (such as fish eagles), while others have adopted a much broader palate.
Fascinatingly, the Taung Child, a young Australopithecus africanus whose remains were discovered in South Africa, is believed to have been killed by an eagle. According to Professor Lee Burger, the damage to the skull’s eye sockets matches that of monkey specimens collected from crowned eagle nests. The crowned eagle shows a particular preference for primates, and there have been a couple of isolated incidents in modern times where crowned eagles have killed or injured small children. However, this is highly unusual behaviour, and an eagle is far more likely to target a small dog or cat.
Wahlberg’s eagle
The inevitable descent
Unfortunately for African eagles, humans present a far more significant threat to their survival than they do to ours. In recent decades, most eagle populations have suffered at our hands in one way or another. The dramatic fall in vulture numbers has been relatively well-documented in recent years, but conservationists are also raising the alarm for many other birds of prey, including eagles. The distressing decline has been particularly pronounced in West Africa but is widespread throughout the continent and has affected most of the larger raptors. The reasons behind this drop are likely diverse and can be linked to habitat loss, power lines and poisoning. Large eagles, particularly martial eagles, are also targeted by farmers who blame them for killing their livestock. As a result, a 2020 Red List update saw the bateleur, martial eagle, and secretary bird raised to the higher threat level of ‘Endangered’.
Persecution at human hands is exacerbated by the fact that the larger, territorial eagle species naturally occur at low densities. Their reproduction rates are slow, and a breeding pair may only raise one chick every two years. It will then take a young eagle between six and eight years to reach sexual maturity. This makes it extremely difficult for African eagle populations to bounce back once their numbers begin to fall.
Conclusion
It is little wonder that African eagles are associated with powerful symbolism in religion, mythology and even heraldry. They are silent and deadly killers, devoted parents, and fierce combatants.
Travel in Africa is about knowing when and where to go, and with whom. A few weeks too early/late or a few kilometres off course, and you could miss the greatest show on Earth. And wouldn’t that be a pity?
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DID YOU KNOW: The largest living turtle ever discovered? A leatherback that weighed 650kg – roughly the mass of a female buffalo
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