DECODING SCIENCE written by Dr Julie Kern from Elephants Alive
How many large-tusked bulls remain in the APNR? How socially connected are different population members? How successful are human-elephant conflict mitigation methods? These questions are all examples of key research objectives for Elephants Alive. If at first glance you think these questions have little in common, look again, and you’ll see they all rely on a key piece of information – who’s who.
Identifying elephant bulls falls under the umbrella of the ID Study and is Elephants Alive’s longest-running project, having begun in 1996. Since then, the team have identified almost 1,500 individual bulls. Identifying elephants requires excellent observation skills and the team pay special attention to any noticeable physical features which differ between individuals, from tusk configuration and body appearance to characteristic ear patterns, such as notches, tears and holes. Using photographs collected at each sighting, identikits are drawn for each individual elephant and subsequently used to identify the individuals seen in the field. If you’re keen to hone your detective skills, read on for our selection of top elephant-identification tips and tricks to use at your next sighting.
State the obvious
Many individuals have startling body features which can make their identification quick and simple. Look out for collapsed or folded ears, missing tails or trunk tips, and the location of scars or lumps.
Also, take note of the tusks – any birdwatchers will be familiar with the acronym ‘GISS’ or ‘general impression of size and shape’, a rule which also holds true in this case. Are they short or long, thin or thick, straight, splayed or skew? Are both tusks present, and if not, is one broken at the base or missing altogether? When missing entirely, the tusk socket is conspicuously empty (below far right).
Once you’ve checked the more obvious features, it’s time to take a closer look at an elephant’s ears. If there are any tears, notches or holes, pay attention to their location, size and shape. Unfortunately, many individuals have few notches and holes in their ears, especially younger elephants, which makes them much harder to identify. In this case, you can often find a clue to their identity by noting venation patterns on the ears.
Once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s worth remembering that much like ourselves, an elephant’s physical features are likely to change over time as tusks break, another tear appears, or holes pull through leaving a notch in their place. Take Kierie-Klapper (below), a young bull first seen in 2005 and resighted in most years since. In 2013 a new hole appeared in his lower left ear, and earlier this year, another notch was added to the top of his right ear.
Elephants Alive has recently published an Elephant ID Guide in conjunction with Amarula, featuring 30 of the most iconic individuals in the APNR. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy or if you have photographs from your own sightings that you’d like to add to our Citizen Sightings database, please forward them to info2u@elephantsalive.org.
Below is a Communities Response letter by Ishmael Chaukura of the Masoka Community in Zimbabwe, along with a number of concerned parties from 4 southern African countries. It was originally published in Science Magazine in response to an article calling for trophy hunting bans and also references Amy Dickman’s answer to that same article. According to the representative of the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Zimbabwe, it “is vital to ensure that discussions on conservation are informed by those who live with wildlife and that their livelihoods are protected, and rights upheld”:
A recent letter in Science by Dickman et al about trophy hunting unleashed passionate debate in the Western media. These discussions have involved over 400 conservationists, academics and animal rights advocates from the US, Europe and Australia, voicing strong, if divergent, opinions on effective conservation strategies.
Much of the discussion focuses on Africa, but with the notable exception of Dickman et al’s letter, key voices missing from the debate are those of rural people and governments who live with and manage African wildlife, and who will ultimately determine its future. As legitimate representatives of many thousands of people from key wildlife range states (Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia), we would like to correct this and have our perspective and voices heard.
Sustainably managing megafauna is complex, and successful conservation must start with we who live directly with wildlife. Whilst many in the West view elephants, lions and other wildlife through a romantic, idealized lens, our daily reality of living with these magnificent and valued, yet often dangerous, animals requires more pragmatism.
We, who live surrounded by this wildlife, worry daily that our children may be killed on their way to school, or that our livelihoods will be destroyed. In Botswana, 36 people were killed by elephants in 2018. In Zimbabwe, at least 30 people were trampled by elephants in 2019. Every death is a tragedy, and often involves family breadwinners. Recently, two Zimbabwean siblings disappeared from their home. Only the dismembered head of the two year old was recovered from the suspected hyena attack, and the four year old has never been found. The harsh reality is that if wildlife is just a threat to us, and our incentives to conserve it are removed, its future will be as bleak as that of the wolves, bears and other carnivores of Europe and the US.
For centuries our people have lived with wildlife, and its value is deeply ingrained in our cultures. During colonial times our rights to manage and benefit from these resources were removed. This led to dramatic loss of wildlife and its habitat – a disaster for conservation, our traditions and our livelihoods. Following independence, our governments restored our rights and integrated wildlife into rural economies. This enabled the development of socio-economic incentives to live with and sustainably manage our wildlife. Whilst it varies nationally, up to 90% of these economic incentives are provided through sustainable, regulated hunting. This has led, in Southern African countries such as ours, to increasing wildlife populations and habitat, often even beyond formally protected areas, in stark contrast to most Western countries.
We acknowledge that banning wildlife trophy imports into foreign countries is within the right of those governments. We further recognize that regulated hunting may appear a counter-intuitive conservation strategy to many. Yet if your objective is conservation – not solely the recognition of individual animal rights – import bans are misguided and have important implications for our human rights. We are concerned that hundreds of millions of dollars have been gobbled up in misleading animal rights campaigns without any benefit for the custodians of African wildlife – African people. Banning trophy imports risks significantly reducing the value of our wildlife, reducing incentives to tolerate and manage wildlife as an integral component of our livelihoods. Imposing such disastrous policies on us negates our sound conservation record. Once again, wildlife numbers will plummet and our rights to sustainably manage our natural resources will again be undermined.
We recognize and respect the rights of Western conservation scientists and animal rights advocates to discuss how best to manage African wildlife. However, we request that your discussions are informed by our voices as custodians of this wildlife. Discussions should acknowledge both our conservation successes and our communities’ right to earn a livelihood through the culturally appropriate, sustainable management of our resources for the benefit of our people. Any less is to deny our human rights.
The Kruger National Park has attained international renown, but the terms ‘Kruger National Park’ (KNP) and ‘Greater Kruger’ are often used interchangeably, despite their differences. The distinction between the two is important, to understand both the tourist experience and how this conservation model has impacted the wildlife of the area.
The ‘Greater Kruger’ refers to protected land to the west of Kruger National Park that provides a more substantial area for wildlife to roam freely. Private and local community property owners own this additional land, and most is utilised for commercial purposes.
There are no longer fences between these properties and KNP, providing the animals with an opportunity to roam, thereby reducing pressure on vegetation and bringing back historical local seasonal wildlife movements. Historically most seasonal migration was in an east-west direction, from the coastal areas of Mozambique to the slopes of the Drakensberg mountains, to take advantage of seasonal food and water. Fences and human pressure now prohibit that movement, and the north-south shape of KNP is not optimal for seasonal migrations.
Luxury safaris The Greater Kruger is utilised primarily for photographic tourism and is home to some of South Africa’s best-known luxury Big 5 lodges. Relatively high prices and strict access control results in low visitor numbers compared to the neighbouring KNP, and off-road driving (by experienced guides), night drives and bush walks guarantee fantastic wildlife encounters.
Wildlife industry South Africa’s conservation strategy incorporates other wildlife industries such as hunting; a strategy that has resulted in large areas outside of national parks falling under some form of protection against livestock and crop farming and other forms of development not tolerant of wildlife. A small portion of the hundreds of landowners making up the Greater Kruger permit trophy hunting on their (non-tourism) properties, to fund their significant and increasing anti-poaching and other conservation costs. The limited trophy hunting quotas are subject to approval by the KNP, and hunting protocol strictly enforced by the management of the constituent reserves. That said, immoral or illegal behaviour by members of the trophy hunting industry does occur. Trophy hunting in most constituent reserves within Greater Kruger is gradually being squeezed out by the resurgent photographic tourism industry, and no trophy hunting is permitted in the KNP itself.
Properties making up the Greater Kruger
Sabi Sand Nature Reserve, MalaMala & Sabi Sand Game Reserve The 65,000 ha Sabi Sand Reserve shares a 50km unfenced boundary with the Kruger National Park. When the Kruger National Park was declared in 1926, the landowners of the original Sabi Game Reserve were excised and had to settle for land outside of the national park. In 1948, 14 of these conservation-minded landowners met at Mala Mala and decided to join forces and create the first-ever private nature reserve in South Africa. The eastern fence of the reserve, bordering the Kruger National Park, was removed in 1993, making the Sabi Sand Reserve part of the Greater Kruger. The land is used for photographic tourism and private leisure. For your ready-made African safari to Sabi Sand Game Reserve, click here.
The Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR)
The APNR is an association of privately owned reserves that removed fences bordering the Kruger National Park in 1993 after operating before that as livestock and hunting farms. The reserves (which in turn are made up of multiple smaller properties) included in the APNR are Timbavati Private Nature Reserve (53,396 ha), Klaserie Private Nature Reserve (60,080 ha), Umbabat Private Nature Reserve (18,000 ha), Balule Private Nature Reserve (55,000 ha) and Thornybush Game Reserve (14,000 ha). Land use varies from private leisure use to photographic tourism and trophy hunting on some properties.
Manyeleti Game Reserve Founded in 1963, the 23,000 ha Manyeleti Game Reserve is sandwiched between the KNP, Sabi Sand and Timbavati, with no fences in-between. It also has an interesting and unique history. During the Apartheid years, it was the only reserve that welcomed people of colour, and after claiming back the land, the local Mnisi people now own and manage the reserve. Land use is exclusively for photographic tourism.
Letaba Ranch
The 42,000 ha Letaba Ranch Game Reserve, just north of the mining town of Phalaborwa, shares an unfenced border with the Kruger National Park. The reserve is owned by the local Mthimkhulu community and has historically been used mainly for trophy hunting. Future plans include hunting and eco-tourism, but current operations appear to be in a state of turmoil.
Makuya Nature Reserve
Makuya Nature Reserve is a 16,000 ha game reserve near the Pafuri gate in the far north of the Kruger, and also shares an unfenced border with the Kruger National Park. The reserve is owned by the Makuya, Mutele, and Mphaphuli communities and is used for both trophy hunting and limited photographic tourism purposes.
Walking safari in Balule, Greater Kruger @ Simon EspleyGreater Kruger (light green) and Kruger National Park (dark green).
Despite ongoing challenges, the Greater Kruger is one of conservation’s greatest success stories and is the model underpinning KNP’s 10-year management plan. It is also the perfect safari destination for those looking for exclusive encounters with Africa’s Big 5.
Let’s address the recent international news-media claims that Victoria Falls is running dry
As the largest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls needs very little in the way of introduction. Even to the uninitiated, the name conjures images of breath-taking vistas, lush and verdant vegetation, thrill-seeking and, of course, water thundering down into gorges releasing spray that can on occasion be seen kilometres away. The falls are also officially known as Mosi-ao-Tunya or “The Smoke That Thunders” in the Lozi language of the area – a name that perfectly captures the almost mystical atmosphere of this World Heritage Site.
Upstream of the falls, the Zambezi River flows across an almost flat basalt plateau in a shallow valley before reaching the fracture in the plateau with a vertical drop into First Gorge, around 100 metres below. At this point, the Zambezi is 1,708m in width, creating the largest continuous falling curtain of water in the world. From there, the river narrows through a series of awe-inspiring gorges. Geographically, Zambia lies on the northern and eastern side of the falls which is topographically higher, with Zimbabwe to the south and west. Naturally, the amount of water flowing over the falls is seasonally dependent on the amount of rain that falls into the catchment upstream – typically, the rainy season begins around November/December and continues through until April when the rest of the year remains comparatively dry.
The seasonal changes in Victoria Falls water levels inevitably impact the tourism experience and perceptions. The Falls are usually at their most dramatic from late February to May, when the highest amount of water tumbles into the chams below and a curtain of spray hovers over the Falls. The flip side of this is that there is a chance that the Falls may be partially obscured by the rainbow-lit spray. After months of dry weather, the falls begin to reduce in size and reach their lowest levels towards the end of the year when bare rock faces are clearly visible, particularly on the Zambian side. This, too, presents different opportunities for visitors, allowing them unobscured views of the falls and the opportunity to go rafting.
Over the past few years, there has been a degree of social media speculation and even panic as the dry season reaches its peak and the river levels drop, particularly because the topographically higher Zambian side often slows to a minimum and occasionally stops flowing in places. However, at the end of 2019, this story was seized upon by international news media that ran with alarmist headlines suggesting that the Falls was completely dry – pictures that were taken from the drier parts of the Zambian side were used to emphasize the seeming urgency of the situation. The Zimbabwe side of the falls, still flowing and still spectacular, was largely ignored and most media outlets initially neglected to mention the seasonal fluctuations of the river.
The narrative that the falls were in danger of drying up completely and were at their lowest-ever levels was far from being supported by facts. The Zambian River Authority monitors the water levels each day and has records that go back decades. While the water levels did come close to the low levels seen in 1995/96, the improvement was already being seen as the story gained international traction-a fact that was largely ignored. At the time of writing, the water levels have been steadily increasing and are now higher than they were at the same time last year. Records going back further showed that some of the lowest-ever recorded levels were seen in the early 20th century – yet no reference was made to this fact. Nor was there mention of the water that is diverted away from the eastern cataract to supply the power station below the falls.
Scientists have not ignored the anthropogenic impact on the flow of the Zambezi – in a 2012 report published by International Rivers, Dr. Richard Beilfuss examines the numerous factors affecting the flow of this river system, including hydroelectric power, seasonal weather changes and the potential impact of climate change. While the cause for concern is clear, he also notes that “[t]he Zambezi River Basin has one of the most variable climates of any major river basin in the world, with an extreme range of conditions across the catchment and through time.” The graph below taken from his report shows the average yearly discharge at the falls. Note that there have been at least three other examples of extreme lows: 1914, 1948 and 1995, often followed by years of high flow rates.
In an area where tourism is not just a vital part of daily life but essential to the survival of the surrounding communities, it does not take a massive leap of intuition to imagine the potential effect of the fearmongering of international news media. Several tourism operators reported cancellations (our own travel team had to council safari clients that were concerned about the reports) and, while the ultimate effect on tourist statistics remains to be seen, the furious response of Victoria Falls locals is easy to understand. Many took to social media to showcase their photographs or videos taken in front of the flowing falls and the hashtag #VictoriaFallsIsNotDry became a vent for their growing frustration. In a furious response to one particular news outlet, a well-known member of the tourism community in Livingstone, Peter Jones, wrote “[f]or those of us living at the Victoria Falls, both in Zambia and Zimbabwe, we are picking up the pieces after your whirlwind visit to incorrectly inform the world the mighty Victoria Falls was in danger of drying up…We have all lost bookings and business in some way as a result of your misinformation [and] some people’s lives have taken a very definite turn for the worse.”
The impact of such reporting is deeply regrettable, not only in terms of the impact it will inevitably have on tourism revenue, but in the effect it has in polarising already divergent views. In ignoring or glossing over the facts, the message loses all credibility and fails its conservation agenda. Most importantly, the very real threat facing the people of certain parts of Zambia and Zimbabwe struggling to sustain themselves after an extended regional drought has been lost in the social media hysteria and subsequent backlash. The impact of dams and irrigation on some of Africa’s main river systems, as well as the socio-economic demand for electric power, has been ignored in favour of the more attention-grabbing “climate change” headings.
In an official statement in response to the reports on the state of Victoria Falls, the African Travel and Tourism Authority noted that “[w]hilst we are cognisant that Climate Change [sic] is a growing concern on a global level, and that it is potentially having an impact on countries throughout the world, what has been lacking in the media reports is an insight into the historic seasonal patterns and the resultant changes in water flow which are vital pieces of information to ensure a clear perspective is maintained”.
04 March 2021 UPDATE: The Court of Appeals of Zambia has dismissed an appeal to stop the proposed large-scale open-pit mine in Lower Zambezi National Park, upholding the High Court’s decision to dismiss the case.
18 January 2020:
The planned open-cast Kangaluwi copper mine in Lower Zambezi National Park WILL NOT proceed, says a minister in the Zambian government, in a dramatic turnaround of a recent announcement that the controversial mining project would indeed go ahead – based on a legal technicality.
Now, it appears, another legal technicality has come to the fore to reverse that ruling, as Tourism and Arts Minister Ronald Chitotela announced the project wouldn’t go ahead because an environmental impact report that was submitted by the environmental regulator has expired. “If this mining firm wants to go ahead with its project, we can advise them to submit a fresh report which will have to be scrutinized and approved by the government,” he explained in an interview.
As a cautionary subnote to Mr. Chitotela’s confident announcement, there has not yet been any confirmation about the cancellation of the mining permit from the office of Zambia’s president, and Africa Geographic has been informed that at least three additional prospecting permits are being considered, for mining inside the national park.
This mining project has a long history of questionable maneuvres and governmental decisions. The Kangaluwi copper mine project was initially owned by Bermuda-registered Mwembeshi Resources, which was in turn owned by Australian company Zambezi Resources (renamed Trek Metals) before being sold to Dubai-based Grand Resources Limited, a company of dubious substance, but thought to be a front for Chinese investors. It would appear that the Zambian Mines and Mineral Development Act of 2008 does not contain any substantial provisions relating to mining in protected areas and that foreign investors who face more robust legislation in their own countries are targetting this weakness.
When we mention Sudan, most people don’t react positively, either because they don’t know much about the country, or they recall negative news reports about it. Ten years ago, when we visited the “kingdom of the black pharaohs” for the first time, there were very few tourists. Nowadays, fortunately, some prejudices have disappeared, and more foreigners (khwadja) have started visiting this northeastern African country.
Though most tourists tend to stay close to Khartoum and stick to the main routes, to visit the impressive Nubian pyramids at Meroë and remnants of ancient temples. There is so much more to discover in the country of the black pharaohs, so many more archaeological sites that tell stories from ancient times.
The ‘tourist boom’ started in about 2012 when several archaeological societies began working in various locations to uncover treasures of long-forgotten civilisations. Every year we returned to Sudan on expeditions that zigzagged across the barren countryside, and every year we discovered new and interesting places.
It was during one particular trip to Sudan that we found ourselves deep within the desolate Nubian Desert, on a quest to find an intriguing-looking rock with an even more interesting name: Jebel Magardi.
Our adventure started when we came across a large poster of this rock in the national museum in Khartoum. We questioned all of our Sudanese friends and their friends to help us find this mysterious Jebel Magardi in an area called Bir Nurayet – the massive rock no one had ever heard about. We ended up spending hours on Google Earth searching for the mysterious rock in the middle of the Nubian Desert and eventually pinpointed an approximate location close to the Egyptian border, deep in the desert.
We created a waypoint and started looking into how to get there and decided to approach the desert from the Red Sea coast so that we could find a lonely beach to rest up before the strenuous journey. We picked out routes that went through wadis (dry riverbeds), as this seemed like the easiest way through the Red Sea mountain range. In the comfort of our home, it only took us a few hours to find a route on the computer, but of course, the reality was somewhat different.
With our three off-road vehicles loaded up, we travelled from Khartoum to Port Sudan, and north towards the Egyptian border. In Mohammed Qol, they already knew who we were, because in the previous year we had been arrested at the police checkpoint. The officers had no idea what a tourist was and why we would want to explore Sudan and instead believed us to be CIA spies. Looking back, this misunderstanding was actually quite amusing…
About 50 km behind Mohammed Qol, we found a remote and quiet spot by the beach and made camp. There was no phone signal and, as we set off the next day, our careful planning was all we had to rely on to get us to our destination. Heading towards a towering mountain range in the distance, we followed a wadi of deep sand that wound its way into the mountains. What a mighty river this wadi must once have been!
We passed rocks of all different shapes and colours and now and then came across small villages along the route. Green acacias dotted along the wadi helped to break up the bleak-looking landscape of sand and rocks.
There were times when we were faced with a fork in the road, and I had to double-check the GPS and radio René (who was driving the lead vehicle) to discuss which route to take. Sometimes we took the wrong turn, ending up in a dead-end, and had to backtrack. On other occasions, we got hopelessly stuck in the deep hot sand, and the whole team had to dig and push – back-breaking work.
Travelling over the golden sands of the Nubian Desert, we felt like explorers of decades long past. Sometimes we met people along the way – mostly nomadic Beja – and the way they looked at us made us think that we must have looked like aliens to them.
Often we would take a break to take photos or because our Sudanese drivers had to pray. And it is was then that the emptiness of the landscape hit home. We would stand in awe, listening to the quiet around us. We could hear the wind blowing through the wadi and felt it on our skin, the sands slightly shifting below our feet. The ‘nothingness’ was broken only by the odd acacia tree, small village or occasional goat or camel.
We were seven hours into our adventure and had only covered a mere 150 km. On Google Earth, it didn’t look that far, but then we were spending quite a bit of our time stopping for photos because there was something worth photographing around almost every corner.
Finally, we reached Wadi Oko, the biggest wadi in the area. There was more traffic here, and a gold diggers town! Our Sudanese drivers were not too happy about it, but the locals welcomed us with a smile and even pulled out their smartphones to take selfies with us.
It was scorching, so we stopped for lunch and of course jebenah – a fantastic Sudanese coffee prepared in a specially-designed flask.
There are many more of these gold digger towns in the Nubian Desert and the Red Sea Hills. This is no huge surprise, considering that Nubia was the primary source of gold for ancient Egyptians. Descriptions of the precious metal appeared in hieroglyphs as early as 2600 B.C., and by 1500 B.C. gold had become the recognised medium of exchange for international trade. Pharaohs sent expeditions to Nubia to mine the quartz lodes for gold, which Egyptian goldsmiths transformed into vessels, furniture, funerary equipment and sophisticated jewellery. Even the name Nubia is considered by some to be a derivative of the Egyptian word for ‘gold’.
Moving on from the gold-digging towns we found ourselves off-roading for about two hours when suddenly a green valley opened up before us, and as the sun started to dip below the horizon the golden light illuminated a majestic rock rising out of the valley ahead of us – Jebel Magardi! From afar, the rock looked like the head of a moray eel coming out of the ground, but in an archaeological context, Jebel Magardi represents a phallus symbol, an ancient sign of fertility. In its shadow, we found an area that the locals call Bir Nurayet to make camp.
It was quite late by the time we had set up camp. We sat around the crackling campfire and celebrated – not only because we had found Jebel Magardi, but also because it was René’s birthday. What better celebration could one wish for than sitting deep in the desert with absolutely no civilisation around us? It was just us and the desert that night.
The Sahara is a seemingly barren sea of hot sand, and yet a mere 13,000 years ago it was a thriving, lush landscape teeming with life. Wildlife such as giraffe, various antelope, elephant, ostrich and (later on) cattle once roamed this area, along with human hunter-gatherers. It is hard to believe what the desert once was, but thankfully there is evidence left behind by the ancient inhabitants, in the form of petroglyphs (rock paintings) of their life and the wildlife they encountered.
These petroglyphs are found in one of the biggest rock art galleries in the world. Discovered in 1999 by the Polish archaeologist Pluskot and his Dutch writer and photographer Baaijens during their camel caravan expedition, these petroglyphs depict scenes such as ancient hunts and cattle herding practices – lively proof of how the locals lived thousands of years ago.
At sunrise, we used the golden hour to walk around Jebel Magardi, looking for these petroglyphs. The rock looked even more majestic when we stood at its base, and we wondered what it would tell us if only it could speak. In times of the old caravans and bushmen, Jebel Magardi was used as an orientation point in the desert, easy to see from far away and with a wellpoint next to it.
But even after walking all around the rock we couldn’t find any petroglyphs. Just nothing. Where were the petroglyphs? Opposite the rock there was a dry riverbed and behind were a few rocks and cliffs, one of which looked like a camel head… and something told us we should go over to investigate.
SURROUNDED BY ELEPHANTS
We entered a little valley in between the rocks and on every rock face there were drawings of hundreds of cattle, all with very long horns, side by side with herds of camels and humans. We made our way past all these rocks paintings, utterly fascinated. In between these petroglyphs, we found a scene of an antelope hunt, then, a few metres further, elephants walking along, and even further down, we recognised a leopard.
One can see what animals lived in this area when humans settled here for the first time. Some petroglyphs were very simple; others were very intricately engraved – a good sign of the progress of human art.
The art of Bir Nurayet is attributed to the Neolithic period and mostly depicts a fertility cult. We explored, discussed and imagined the stories for each drawing we saw. In the national museum in Khartoum, one can see 63 little statues and clay pots found at Bir Nurayet.
We were fascinated and happy to have found a place deep in the desert, which only a handful of people know of and have visited. We had accomplished our mission to see Jebel Magardi and its petroglyphs! Our state of delight made the two-day return journey to Khartoum a breeze, as we left ‘our’ discovery of the ancient hidden riches of Sudan’s Nubian Desert behind.
Andrea and René met in New Zealand in 2005. Since then they have worked and travelled in various places in Europe. Their biggest adventure was crossing Africa from north to south in their vehicle in 2008/2009. During this trip, they travelled through Sudan and knew that it wouldn’t be the last time. They return to Sudan every year to discover more places, especially in the Nubian Desert. They are both tour guides, conducting trips in Europe and Africa, and write regularly for magazines, as well as hold photo exhibitions and slideshow presentations.
Our Photographer of the Year 2020 is now in full swing and open for submissions!
There are two galleries showcasing this week’s Weekly Selection. To see the other gallery click here: Weekly Selection Gallery 2
Our Photographer of the Year 2020 competition, with a stunning safari prize provided by Djuma Private Game Reserve, is now in full swing and open for submissions!
There are two galleries showcasing this week’s Weekly Selection. To see the other gallery click here:Weekly Selection Gallery 1
A third viable northern white rhino embryo was created over December 2019 in a joint mission between Kenyan Government and scientists. In a press release, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy reported that the team had repeated the procedure performed in August 2019 on the two female northern white rhino, Najin and Fatu, on the 17th of December 2019. With the support of Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife Hon. Najib Balala, the joint effort of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Avantea Laboratory and Dvůr Králové Zoo marks the next step in attempting to save the species from extinction.
31-year-old Najin and her 20-year-old daughter Fatu are the only living northern white rhino in the world and both were placed under anaesthetic in order to harvest nine oocytes (immature eggs cells) from their ovaries. These oocytes were then rushed to the Avantea Laboratory in Italy where they were matured before scientists attempted to fertilise them using a system known as Intra Cytoplasm Sperm Injection (ICSI). The procedure was successful on one of Fatu’s eggs and the resulting embryo was incubated using a highly advanced monitoring system before placed in liquid nitrogen with the previous two embryos created in the same manner.
The team hopes to artificially inseminate a surrogate southern white rhino female from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy using procedures trialled by European zoos some time in 2020. If successful, it would mean the first northern white rhino born into the wild in decades.
The project is all part of the “BioRescue” research, a consortium comprising of internationally renowned institutions from Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Kenya, Japan and the USA, with a comprehensive ethical assessment courtesy of the University of Padova and partially funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Hon, Najib Balala said of the achievement: “I urge scientists to continue digging deeper into technology and innovations to ensure that not only this concerned species does not go extinct, but other species that are faced with similar threats. The fact that Kenya is at the centre of this scientific breakthrough also makes me very proud. It’s amazing to see that we will be able to reverse the tragic loss of this subspecies through science”.
Driving on the road to Randilen Wildlife Management Area (WMA), the landscape changes dramatically from bare ground to lush waist-high grass as one crosses into the WMA from surrounding community lands. Herds of elephant wander calmly across the savannah woodlands throughout the 30,000-hectare WMA, accompanied by giraffe, herds of zebra, and rarer antelope such as fringe-eared oryx. Located adjacent to Tarangire National Park, in northern Tanzania, Randilen embodies a growing trend across eastern and southern Africa: community-managed conservation areas that are effectively managed and delivering conservation results equivalent to government parks and reserves.
Like other conservation initiatives across eastern and southern Africa that are managed by communities, WMAs originated in the late 1990s as a management response to the need in Tanzania to change the relationship between local communities and wildlife. During the 1980s and 90s, wildlife, including huge herds of elephants and nearly all the country’s black rhinos, were subjected to heavy poaching. Government agencies and foreign donors, including the US and German governments, worked to reform the conventional conservation approaches based on protected areas and anti-poaching enforcement, to also offer communities an economic stake in wildlife’s future. WMAs were intended to provide that by devolving rights to make management decisions and capture revenue from wildlife utilisation, including both photographic tourism and trophy hunting, on community lands adjacent to national parks and game reserves.
For many years, though, these WMAs languished, mainly due to the unwillingness of government agencies to devolve sufficient rights and control over wildlife revenues to the local scale. But within the last five years, there is new evidence that WMAs are finally beginning to make community-based conservation a reality in parts of Tanzania. Researchers published findings in 2018 showing that giraffe and other wildlife populations in Randilen had increased markedly following WMA establishment. More recently, another group of researchers published new findings showing that in the nearby Burunge WMA, which also borders Tarangire National Park, elephant and wildebeest populations increased from 2011 to 2018. They also found that wildlife densities between the WMA and Tarangire were overall similar, and that community conservation areas could support wildlife populations similar to national parks.
At the same time, these community conservation initiatives are delivering improved returns to local people from wildlife. Randilen’s tourism income increased by over 40% from 2016 to 2018, when it generated over $200,000 for the WMA’s management and member communities’ village governments.
Much more importantly for the future of wildlife in Africa, in the face of growing economic and demographic pressures, is that this kind of progress reflects wider regional trends in community-based conservation.
In Namibia, undoubtedly eastern and southern Africa’s leader in community conservation, the ‘communal conservancies’ that were first established in policy and legal reforms during the mid-1990s now cover nearly 17 million hectares across the country. The conservancies play a key role in Namibia’s conservation achievements including the widespread recovery of wildlife across the country over the past two decades, including the tripling in the country’s elephant population from around 7,500 to nearly 23,000 today. The scaling up of Namibia’s conservancies has also driven significant revenue to rural communities that, two decades ago, earned little or nothing from wildlife. Over 80 conservancies now capture around US$10 million in annual benefits from tourism, and other wildlife uses such as game meat while generating over US$60 million in total net national income for Namibia.
Meanwhile in Kenya, a wide range of community conservation initiatives that had emerged on the local scale as early as the 1990s have more recently coalesced into a national conservancies movement that is now at the centre of the country’s conservation strategies. A key factor has been the 2013 Wildlife Conservation Act, which gave conservancies a legal definition in Kenyan law for the first time. It has led to more significant support for community-based approaches across government, NGOs, and communal and private landholders.
Conservancies in Kenya now cover over 6 million hectares, roughly doubling the country’s wildlife estate, and are also showing significant conservation impacts as well as a wide range of social and economic benefits. For example, researchers have found that in conservancies in northern Kenya, poaching levels were about one-third lower than in adjacent community lands. In Kenya’s second-largest elephant population in the Laikipia-Samburu system, where around 7,000 animals roam across community conservancies and private ranches, poaching rates declined by 53% between 2012 and 2015, while elephant numbers increased by 12% from 2012 to 2017. Other critically endangered species including black rhino, Grevy’s zebra, and the hirola, an endemic antelope, are all being supported by conservancies.
At the same time, a new World Bank report on conservancies, titled ‘When Conservation Becomes Good Economics’, estimates that tourism income in conservancies as of 2017 was about $12 million, and concludes that “a strategic expansion of conservancies offers an opportunity to complement the government’s current focus [on national parks].”
The scaling up of community conservation – between Kenya and Namibia alone, community conservancies now cover nearly 23 million hectares, or an area roughly equivalent to the entire land area of Uganda – is one of the most important trends in African conservation over the past decade. As conservationists are faced with the urgent need to scale up effective conservation solutions further, this creates critically important opportunities to further expand the scope and impact of conservancies and similar community-based models. There are three key priorities to do this in the near-term.
First, most of the progress of community conservation is attributable to a growing cadre of talented African conservation organisations that often have emerged specifically to advance community-based approaches in different sites and countries. In Namibia, local groups such as IRDNC have played a key role in providing the vision, local facilitation, and long-term presence that has been critical to the development of conservancies. In Kenya, the Northern Rangelands Trust has pioneered conservancies in the northern part of the country. At the same time, newer community groups such as the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association are now playing a pivotal role in other key landscapes. At the national scale, the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association plays a crucial role in engaging with government on significant policy issues.
Similarly, in Tanzania, the progress made by Randilen has been possible mainly due to the recent efforts of Honeyguide, a local organisation that has brought critical business development and professional management skills to the support of WMAs in the northern part of the country. Providing external support to these key local organisations is fundamental to strengthening and scaling up community-based conservation models.
Second, funding models are needed that provide long-term support to community conservation. Funding needs to be tailored to different stages of conservancy development, from early-stage seed funding to longer-term support through trust funds and similar mechanisms. For example, Namibia has recently established a Community Conservation Fund of Namibia to provide long-term sustainable financing of conservancies that are not yet financially self-sufficient and to provide other needed services.
Lastly, conservation efforts need to continue to grow private sector investment as the core source of long-term financing for conservancies and other conservation efforts driven by communities. The growth of tourism investment in conservancies in Namibia and Kenya has been key to progress in those countries, as communities are gradually able to capture a growing share of the regional wildlife and tourism economy. But community conservation needs to move beyond an exclusive reliance on tourism as well. Significant efforts are underway to integrate livestock markets and trade with conservancies in Kenya, and to develop substantial flows from carbon credits derived from improved forest management in several community conservation areas in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.
As the new decade begins, conserving Africa’s wild landscapes faces unprecedented pressures from illegal wildlife trade, habitat loss, infrastructure development, and the effects of climate change. But conservation progress delivered by communities provides perhaps the most significant opportunity to expand the area of land under conservation, while dramatically broadening conservation’s local stakeholders. All efforts should be made to capitalise on this opportunity.
Fred Nelson is the Executive Director of Maliasili, a US-based organisation that supports leading African conservation organisations to increase their impact and effectiveness.
The tiny killifish lives in a state of suspended animation – until seasonal rains trigger the shortest known lifespan of any animal with a backbone. This rapid lifecycle has scientists scrambling to unlock secrets to our own ageing processes.
The turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) lives in temporary pools of water in some semi-arid regions of Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and, when the water dries up, the adult fish die and their drought-resistant eggs and embryos are entombed in hard mud where they enter a state of suspended animation (diapause) until the next rainfall event – months or years away.
The arrival of precious rains triggers a frenetic race against time to hatch, grow to sexual maturity, mate and lay the next generation of eggs before their puddle dries up. After hatching, the turquoise killifish only lives for about nine to ten weeks in the wild before succumbing when the water dries up and has the dubious distinction of reaching sexual maturity sooner than any other vertebrate species – at about 14 days.
Studies of captive turquoise killifish and a related species, Nothobranchius kadleci, show that their body length increases by up to a quarter every day in their first two weeks of life.
Killifish are predators, eating small crustaceans and aquatic insect larvae that co-exist in the same temporary pools of water. Captive juvenile killifish have been known to cannibalise on smaller killifish, but this has not been recorded in the wild.
Males are more colourful than females, with some species reflecting colour morphs (red and yellow morphs in the case of N. furzeri). Populations of wild killifish are female-biased, with the ratios increasing towards the end of the life cycle. Ratios of N. furzeri have been recorded as increasing from 1:2,7 at the beginning of the breeding season to 1:4,7 later in the season. The reason for the sex-bias is presumed to be that more males die due to their brighter colouration attracting a higher predation rate as well as aggressive competition amongst males for access to females.
The ways in which killifish disperse are unknown, but scientists assume that the fish are swept from their natal pools during flooding to settle into new pools and that eggs are transported between pools on the skin of large herbivores that drink and mud bath there. In his story about Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, Africa Geographic CEO Simon Espley described how it is possible that eggs are carried upstream by elephants, and that the reduction of elephant populations and restriction of their historical migration routes could conceivably impact on some killifish populations. Dario Valenzano, co-author of the attached report agrees: “I strongly believe that lack, presence, diversity and in general density of large herbivores can be key to killifish survival as a species.”
The killifishes reveal how animals can adapt to extreme environments by evolving extreme lifespans. Research on captive populations of killifish focuses on unlocking the secrets about growing old and, specifically, how to hold back the ageing process.
Full report: From the bush to the bench: the annual Nothobranchius fishes as a new model system in biology. Alessandro Cellerino, Dario R. Valenzano and Martin Reichard. Wiley Online Library.
OPINION EDITORIAL by Mucha Mkono, The University of Queensland; Jason I. Ransom, National Park Service; Katarzyna Nowak, University of the Free State, and Patrick O. Onyango, Maseno University
Conservationists don’t always agree about the best ways to reinforce the protection of nature. Debates about it can become confrontational.
But at the heart of the issue is how to include more people in nature conservation efforts. As a group of scientists, we believe it is important to steer the discussion towards a more diverse and inclusive blueprint for protecting biodiversity and ecosystems.
In a letter to the journal Science, we argue that the model of trophy hunting in Africa to finance conservation is neither sustainable nor equitable. We offer some alternatives. We suggest meeting the needs and values of a variety of stakeholders and local communities. Doing so involves empowering people to participate in decisions that affect them.
We support the following strategies for conserving natural landscapes and their ecological functions.
Connecting local needs with the wider world
One approach is to connect small and big investors directly to communities that are associated with wildlife wealth. This can be done through blockchain technology and carbon and biodiversity credits.
An example is GainForest, an app that aims to help maintain and restore forests. GainForest gets funding from the crypto community to provide finance to community members if they maintain their patch of land for an agreed duration. The GainForest team uses publicly available data from GlobalForestWatch to monitor and evaluate community success. It is also developing advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to help forecast future forest cover.
Another strategy is the United Nations programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in developing countries. The programme encourages developing economies to lower their carbon emissions through a variety of habitat management schemes and is donor-funded. The United Nations supports partner countries to run REDD+ programmes and trains them in best practices. The Kariba REDD+ project in Zimbabwe is one example. The project has protected 785,000 hectares from deforestation and land degradation. This has helped prevent more than 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
Community-led sustainable practices
Conservation practices that generate direct financial benefits for local communities have also been successful. An example is a Tanzanian wildlife project which reduces the costs of living with wildlife. It assists livestock owners with constructing “living walls”, made of plant materials, to protect domestic animals from predation. The project also supports microfinance and community enterprises such as beekeeping and a bush camp.
Another approach is to reform land use in ways that meet the values and needs of local people. In Peru, Costa Rica, Canada, Kenya, Scotland and Amazonia, local communities have been granted land titles by national governments. This has been positive for livelihoods and for biodiversity conservation. For example, when the Indigenous Tsilhqot’in Nation in British Columbia, Canada, was granted title to traditional lands in 2014, they stopped public hunting based on their own wildlife management strategy.
Agricultural practices can be made more compatible with nature conservation, as has been achieved by It’s Wild in Zambia. Farmers and former poachers came up with certain conservation principles and agreed to follow them. Profits from farm products grown sustainably go directly back into conservation efforts. Women get empowered by selling their crops and acquiring accounting skills.
Reducing negative interactions between people and wildlife
This positive coexistence happens through partnerships, participation, and fostering tolerance. The projects create incentives for wildlife-friendly actions that are rooted in science and rural economic development. Such “coexistence buffer zone” projects can promote awareness and tourism by being part of visits to national parks.
Growing the domestic wildlife-watching market is a potential strategy. Compared with international tourism, domestic tourism can have a lower carbon footprint (through less travel), foster local interest in nature, and provide a more reliable income flow. Local hospitality in the form of homestays can help reduce the environmental footprint that big hotels leave.
A more diverse model will be environmentally respectful, promote local knowledge and cultural exchange, and encourage the participation of women. Bushcraft training is one example.
Participatory science and monitoring also have conservation potential. For example, the Grevy’s Zebra Warriors earn income by monitoring endangered zebra in Kenya and Ethiopia. The illegal killing of elephants has also been successfully monitored using participatory surveys. In addition to income, such programmes provide a means for exchange between traditional ecological knowledge keepers, local naturalists, scientists and conservation practitioners.
A mix of “alternative” ways of encouraging and sustaining conservation is urgently needed now. The way forward in conserving nature is through building grassroots domestic conservation actions with direct and positive socioeconomic outcomes. Contributions to shared, interconnected ecosystems that yield a strong sense of sustainable stewardship are ones that create value, foster lasting relationships and nurture deeper connections with the living world.
This article had inputs from our colleagues Phyllis Lee, Jorgelina Marino, Hannah Mumby, Andrew Dobson, Ross Harvey, Keith Lindsay, David Lusseau and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri.
Our Photographer of the Year 2020 is now in full swing and open for submissions!
There are two galleries showcasing this week’s Weekly Selection. To see the other gallery click here:Weekly Selection Gallery 1
Our Photographer of the Year 2020 is now in full swing and open for submissions!
There are two galleries showcasing this week’s Weekly Selection. To see the other gallery click here:Weekly Selection Gallery 2
Our Photographer of the Year 2020 is now in full swing and open for submissions! There are two galleries showcasing this week’s Weekly Selection. To see the other gallery click here:Weekly Selection Gallery 1
Our Photographer of the Year 2020 is now in full swing and open for submissions!
There are two galleries showcasing this week’s Weekly Selection. To see the other gallery click here:Weekly Selection Gallery 2
Evidence is emerging of the growing threat to wild lion populations of targeted poaching for lion body parts – teeth and claws.
The Panthera study provides evidence of an emerging threat to African lion conservation: the targeted poaching of lions for body parts – specifically teeth and claws. The study warns that this growing threat could have devastating impacts on lion populations that mirror similar implications for wild tiger populations.
The study was conducted in the Mozambican portion of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area – which includes South Africa’s Kruger National Park. The targeted poaching of lions for body parts accounted for 61% of mortalities within Limpopo National Park and 35% of known human-caused mortalities across the greater landscape. The researchers also found that retaliatory killing for livestock conflict accounted for 51% of total mortalities, but body parts were removed in 48% of conflict cases, suggesting that the demand for body parts is escalating conflict killings. Teeth and claws were the body parts most frequently harvested, and there has been an alarming and dramatic increase since 2014.
We previously reported similar conclusions made by the Greater Limpopo Carnivore Program, who were participants in this Panthera study.
The study linked the escalation in poaching of wild lions and South Africa’s increasing export of captive-bred lion skeletons and body parts, which has shown exponential growth since 2007. This trade feeds a growing market among upwardly mobile Asians for luxury products, such as lion bone wine, with lion bones used instead of tiger bones as tiger parts become increasingly scarce.
The rising demand for lion body parts could exacerbate motives to kill lions in the vicinity of communities and livestock, irrespective of livestock losses or a perceived threat of losses. Incentivising the killing of lions by demand for body parts could seriously undermine conflict mitigation efforts.
Lion poaching for body parts has also increased in the Niassa reserve in northern Mozambique (C. Beggs Niassa Lion Project pers coms) and of captive lions in the Limpopo province of South Africa (K. Marnewick Endangered Wildlife Trust pers coms). Lions killed for conflict in the Caprivi region of Namibia also had teeth and claws removed (L. Hansen Kwando Carnivore Project pers coms).
Lion populations have declined across Africa by an estimated 43% over the past 21 years, and their range has declined by 75% over the past 50 years. Declines have been predominantly caused by loss of prey and habitat and by persecution from livestock farmers. The study notes that, at times, unsustainable trophy hunting has also caused decreases in lion populations.
Dr Paul Funston, Director of Panthera’s lion program, stated, “We hope this study alerts the global conservation community, and any governments participating in the lion bone and body part trade, to the serious threats it poses. We have seen the toll this trade has had on other wild cat species and must be vigilant about how it impacts lion conservation efforts across Africa.”
Full report: Everatt, K.T., Kokes, R. & Lopez Pereira, C. (2019). Evidence of a further emerging threat to lion conservation; targeted poaching for body parts. Biodivers Conserv.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01866-w
Just two days before Christmas a mass vulture poisoning incident was discovered by the Wildlife ACT rangers in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, sparking warnings that the region’s diminishing vulture populations could face extinction unless the root cause of the killings is addressed.
On 23rd December, rangers found fifteen white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) as well as a young lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotos) who all died after feeding on a poison-laced impala carcass in northern Zululand. It is the fourth vulture poisoning incident in the province this year, bringing the total recorded number of vultures harvested for body parts in this region alone to 53.
“Arriving at a scene like this with everything so fresh, but too late to assist in saving any poisoned birds is heartbreaking. Losing one vulture is always a tragedy. Losing at least 16 birds at one feeding is a crisis,” said PJ Roberts, manager of Wildlife ACT’s Emergency Response Team.
Wildlife ACT works closely with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, local farmers and communities, and other conservation groups to protect three endangered vulture species in KwaZulu-Natal.
Signs that the vulture poisoning was deliberate were immediately apparent after inspection of the first bird they came across, a white-backed vulture. “It had a full crop (still containing undigested food), contorted feet and many dead flies were scattered around its remains – all clear signs of fast-acting poison,” said Roberts.
The team swept the area, but it took an aerial search to locate more victims. “No more than 30 metres away, the morbid discovery of 13 processed and harvested white-backed vultures, with their heads and feet removed, were found very purposefully hidden in a thick bush,” added Roberts.
All of the contaminated carcasses were burned by the rangers to remove the poison from the ecosystem.
Wildlife ACT response team with the bodies of 13 white-backed vultures, poisoned for the traditional medicine trade. Image courtesy Wildlife ACT
The Endangered WildLife Trust’s (EWT) Vultures for Africa Programme manager, Andre Botha, said it was difficult to quantify how many vulture poisoning incidents relate to harvesting of body parts. According to records kept by EWT, more than 1,200 vultures have been deliberately poisoned in Southern and Eastern Africa this year. Culprits include poachers who poison the carcasses of elephant and other game in an apparent effort to conceal illegal activities from rangers. These poisonings are referred to as “sentinel poisonings”, as vultures circling over poached animals alert rangers to the killings.
In Africa vultures are under threat due to habitat loss, ingestion of lead ammunition, collisions with power lines, accidental drownings in farm water reservoirs, and the use of poisoned bait by livestock owners to kill predators like jackals. Vultures feeding off the carcasses subsequently die, often in significant numbers.
But many more are poisoned deliberately to harvest body parts for belief-based use.
“The vultures are killed for their heads and feet and other parts,” said Chris Kelly, a species director at Wildlife ACT. “This is definitely the single biggest threat to diminishing vulture populations in this province.”
In many parts of Africa, vultures are believed to have psychic powers, including an ability to see into the future. According to a fact sheet from EWT, the brains of the bird are dried, rolled and smoked as joints or simply burnt and the fumes inhaled. Users believe this improves their odds when they gamble on the lottery or place bets on sport. Students take it when preparing for exams. Other reported uses of vultures include consuming their eyes to improve eyesight, their beaks for protection, or their feet to heal fractured bones or make a person run faster.
In 2014, EWT estimated that 130,000 traders, hunters and traditional healers were operating in South Africa. This figure is believed to have increased, sparking calls from conservationists, environmental scientists and wildlife experts at this year’s Conservation Symposium for an awareness-building campaign to reduce this consumption and demand for vulture parts.
“Vultures provide critically important ecosystem services by cleaning up carcasses thus reducing the spread of dangerous diseases such as anthrax and rabies and resulting in highly significant economic and human health benefits,” said Brent Coverdale, an animal scientist for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife at the symposium. “We really can’t afford to lose them.”
As vultures are protected by law, it is illegal to possess or kill any of the six vulture species found in South Africa. Nevertheless, deliberate killings continue.
More than 1,200 vultures have been deliberately poisoned in Southern and Eastern Africa in 2019. Image courtesy Wildlife ACT
Citation: Ogada, D., Shaw, P., Beyers, R. L., Buij, R., Murn, C., Thiollay, J. M., … Sinclair, A. R. E. (2015). Another continental vulture crisis: Africa’s vultures collapsing toward extinction. Conservation Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12182
The forest elephant population in one of Central Africa‘s largest and most important protected areas has declined by 80% in 10 years because of poaching, with an estimated 25,000 elephants poached between 2004 and 2014, says a new Duke University-led study.
Gabon’s Minkébé National Park was explicitly declared to protect elephants and hosted the highest density of forest elephants in Central Africa at the turn of the century. It was thought that the large size (7,570 km2) and remoteness of the national park would keep elephants safe from poaching.
“Our research suggests that more than 25,000 elephants in Minkébé may have been killed for their ivory between 2004 and 2014,” said John Poulsen, assistant professor of tropical ecology at Duke‘s Nicholas School of the Environment. The elephant population was estimated at 35,404 in 2004 compared to 6,542 in 2014.
“With nearly half of Central Africa‘s estimated 100,000 forest elephants thought to live in Gabon, the loss of 25,000 elephants from this key sanctuary is a considerable setback for the preservation of the species,” he said.
The researchers estimated the extent of the population losses by comparing data from two large-scale surveys of elephant dung in Minkébé National Park from 2004 and 2014, using two different analytic methods to account for periods of heavy rainfall that might speed the dung’s decay and skew the surveys’ accuracy.
The report explained that portions of the national park with major roads nearby (6.1 km away) were “emptied” of elephants. In contrast, populations of elephants in areas further away from major roads (58 km) were “somewhat reduced”. The proximity of major roads makes it relatively easy for poachers to access the park and transport their illegal haul across the Gabon/Cameroon border to Cameroon’s largest city, Douala, a major hub for the international ivory trade.
Gabon was one of several African countries which burned its stockpile of ivory, in a public display of rejection of elephant poaching and opposition to countries which wish to trade internationally in their ivory stocks.
Full report: John R. Poulsen, Sally E. Koerner, Sarah Moore, Vincent P. Medjibe, Stephen Blake, Connie J. Clark, Mark Ella Akou, Michael Fay, Amelia Meier, Joseph Okouyi, Cooper Rosin, and Lee J. T. White (2017). Poaching empties critical Central African wilderness of forest elephants. Current Biology.https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqz032
In an exciting discovery, a large herd of about 250-300 elephants has been spotted in Nigeria’s far northeast corner, close to the borders with Cameroon and Chad. It is the first reported sighting of elephants in the region since Boko Haram invaded the area a decade ago.
Up until a decade ago hundreds of elephants used to migrate through the region, with three major migration routes passing through Sambisa Forest, a reserve in Nigeria’s Borno State that is the size of Belgium and The Netherlands. This reserve became synonymous with Boko Haram terrorism as the same migration routes were used by insurgents to escape military bombardment. The heavy exchange of artillery fire between the military and the insurgents drove most wildlife away from the reserve.
Up until now, it had been unclear what happened to the elephants that once roamed the Sambisa Forest and savannahs in Borno and Yobe states.
This large herd of elephants was spotted a few kilometres from Rann during a humanitarian mission carried out by helicopter. Rann has become a place synonymous with the horrors of the insurgency.
“We have dispatched our director of forests Peter Ayuba, to confirm the sighting and to carry out an impact assessment,” said Kabiru Wanori, Borno State’s environment commissioner.
Although the great elephant census did not cover Nigeria, it was estimated that there are 250 in the country with the largest concentration (100-150) being in Bauchi State in the Yankari Game Reserve. Yankari, under the management of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which operates under challenging political, economic, and security environment. This sighting of a previously unknown herd would therefore effectively double the estimated Nigeria elephant population. Nigeria’s elephant population includes scattered populations of both savannah elephants in the north of the country and forest elephants in the south of the country.
A recent report published in Oxford Academic by Trouwborst, Loveridge and Macdonald compares CITES hunting trophy export quotas for African range states to established benchmarks. The report concludes that leopard hunting quotas that have been rubber-stamped for decades by CITES are arbitrary and lacking in robust scientific basis and without regular adjustment. Further, the report suggests that CITES-approved leopard trophy hunting quotas are “fundamentally at odds with the principles of sustainable use, precaution and adaptive management”.
Editorial note: Many countries do not make use of their full CITES export quotas. For example, South Africa has access to a CITES export quota of 150 leopards (see table below), but in 2018 permitted a quota of seven leopards.
Here follows a summary of the report, titled ‘Spotty Date: Managing International Leopard (Panthera pardus) Trophy Hunting Amidst Uncertainty’. We encourage you to download and read the entire report.
There is a widespread but misplaced assumption that the conservation status of leopards is assured and, as a result, leopards do not enjoy the same level of conservation and research attention as do lions, tigers and snow leopards. Now that their numbers too are thought to be plummeting, researchers expect them to start receiving as much publicity as the other big cats.
There is a significant lack of hard data on leopard population numbers, often compensated for by optimistic ‘guesstimates’ and many stakeholders in sub-Saharan Africa rely on outdated population assessments from the late 1980s.
Leopards have been listed under Appendix 1 since the 1975 inception of CITES – which means that trade for primarily commercial purposes is forbidden. Legal international trade is limited to hunting trophies and skins under export quotas for range states, as defined in the table below. Of course, illegal trade remains a significant problem for leopard populations.
Quotas should be based on best available information, and be adjusted regularly to changing circumstances. They should reflect a sustainable leopard hunting offtake – not detrimental to the survival of the species, based on a science-based assessment and where harvests are well-managed and adaptive. Importantly, the process of setting quotas must be guided by the overarching ‘precautionary principle’: erring on the side of caution, especially in situations where scientific data is scarce. CITES quotas are not ‘targets’, and the full amount need not be met.
A closer look at CITES leopard quotas
The report touches on various countries, as examples of how leopard hunting quotas are determined, including:
1. Mozambique requested a quota of 120 leopards annually, based on an estimated countrywide population of 37,000 leopards. This estimate was derived from a 30-year-old prediction model created by Martin and De Meulenaar that assumes maximum densities across specific rainfall and vegetation types, and excludes critical factors such as prey availability and human-related pressures;
2. Tanzania and Namibia used the same model to increase their CITES quotas from 250-500 and 100-250 respectively significantly;
3. South Africa is the only African country where robust data is available – camera-trap surveys over the period 2013-2017 reflect an annual 8% decline in leopard populations. After years of unsustainable trophy hunting offtake and high pressure from illegal killing for traditional medicine and ceremonial purposes, South Africa has adopted an adaptive management framework by adjusting quotas annually based on population trends and only allocating quotas to areas with robust available data;
4. Ethiopia has an extraordinarily high CITES quota of 500 leopards when only five are hunted per year. The reason for that country’s request to retain the full CITES quota despite the demonstrated lack of available leopards possibly relates to politics and the lack of trust that most African countries have in the machinations of CITES. This situation (high quota, low available leopard population) is mirrored in other countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa.
The system does not work, so change it
The report suggests that continuation of the status quo is not an option, and indicates that the following are the three alternative ways forward:
1. Abandon the current CITES Council of Parties (COP) quota system and replacing it with a per-case permit system – an extremely bureaucratic system;
2. Retain a COP quota system, but scrutinise at every COP meeting – thus ensuring adaptive adjustments;
3. Abandon the current COP quota system, and each range state would set their own quota using a uniform blueprint based on ensuring sustainable offtakes.
The report notes that when it comes to being rigorous, science-based, precautionary, sustainable and adaptive, the approach recently introduced in South Africa seems to hold particular promise and could be instituted relatively cheaply by other countries.
Conclusion
The report concludes that “a science-based, precautionary and adaptive approach to quota-setting along the lines explored above could go some way to ensuring that trophy hunting of leopards and other species occurs sustainably even when the available information is spotty”.
Full report: Arie Trouwborst, Andrew J Loveridge, David W Macdonald (2019). Spotty Data: Managing International Leopard (Panthera pardus) Trophy Hunting Quotas Amidst Uncertainty. Journal of Environmental Law.https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqz032
A prominent hotel in Kinshasa has been offering smoked baby chimpanzee on their menu, says local NGO Conserv Congo.
Conserv Congo director and former investigative reporter Adams Cassinga was advised by a tourist that the 4-star Beatrice Hotel (website + Facebook + Twitter) in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), offered chimp on the menu, but plans for a sting operation were foiled when staff at the hotel were alerted to the situation, and removed the item from the menu.
According to the menu available at the time, a serving of smoked baby chimpanzee would set customers back US$35, and requires 24-hour notice.
The menu from the Beatrice Hotel showing smoked baby chimp (bébé chimpanzé fumé) for $35
Hotel management subsequently denied the claims on social media, stating that they no longer offer chimpanzee meat to customers, blaming the error on the cook. Cassinga dismisses this explanation, saying “How can they claim to ‘no longer’ offer chimpanzee meat? The hotel is ten years old and it has been illegal to offer chimpanzee meat for 15 years. In any case, we have witnesses who have eaten chimpanzee meat at this hotel”.
Speaking to Africa Geographic, Cassinga said that Beatrice Hotel owner Mr André Kadima has popped up on his radar a few times over the last few years, in connection with allegations of wildlife trafficking, of both dead and live animals. He is a former employee of ICCN (the parastatal in charge of DRC fauna and Flora) and owns a zoo 60 km north of Kinshasa – ‘Kadima’s Pride of Africa.’
Conserv Congo has instituted legal action against Kadima, on the grounds that it is a criminal offence to hunt, injure, kill, sell or buy, gift or detain a protected species of animal or plant, and that the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) falls into the protected species category. Potential punishment is 1-10 years in prison and/or up to US$20,000 fine.
Cassinga said that Conserv Congo recently won the first wildlife trafficking case in DRC, when three bonobo/pygmy chimpanzee (Pan paniscus) traffickers were sentenced to five months in prison and a fine of US$5,000 each. He went on to say that, at any given time in Kinshasa alone, there are at least ten great apes for sale. Red-tailed monkeys are butchered in hundreds daily as bushmeat, and many are held as pets and as symbols of wealth and status. He suggests that conservation plans are failing in Africa because of the demand for wild animals, which is based on greed, superstition and bad habit – and had nothing to do with cultural identity.
Consumption of bushmeat across the central African rainforests has escalated due to increasing commercialisation of what was previously a localised food source. Road and trucking networks provided by mining and hardwood forest logging companies facilitate easy access to otherwise remote and inaccessible areas, and meat is now being transported to major African cities and even to Europe and the United States, which host expatriate African communities.
Recently we exposed Instagram influencers Jessica Nabongo and Sal Lavallo for eating pangolin meat in a Gabon restaurant, and promoting the experience to their followers.
The Conserv Congo mission statement is to ‘preserve the biodiversity of the Congo basin’ and they do this primarily via investigating illegal trafficking and assisting the authorities in arresting and prosecuting offenders. They also educate members of the public about wildlife laws, promote alternative livelihoods to poaching and rescue trafficked wildlife, which they place in sanctuaries. In this video founding director Adams Cassinga explains more about Conserv Congo. Cassinga is a Mandela Washington Fellow, Young African Leaders Initiative Fellow, DRC honorary park ranger and a member of the Game Rangers Association of Africa.
How can you help?
Conserv Congo director Adams Cassinga has requested supporters to donate money that will be used to fund the legal action taken against Beatrice Hotel owner Mr André Kadima, who is a wealthy man with significant legal resources at his disposal. Please contact him via this email address: aminiadams16@hotmail.com
Read more about chimpanzeeshere– includes wonderful images.
Millipedes of all shapes and sizes are a common sight in Africa, particular after rain, when they are seen marching around in search of decaying plant matter to eat. Some are HUGE – easily the size of your hand, and many have brightly coloured bodies and legs – possibly to scare off predators.
We rounded up ten interesting facts about these beautiful creatures:
• The indigenous people of southern Africa call the millipede ‘shongololo’, which is derived from from the Xhosa and Zulu word ‘ukushonga’, meaning to roll up…
• The name “millipede” is derived from Latin, meaning “thousand feet”. However, no known species has that many legs, and the record for the most legs on a millipede species belongs to Illacme plenipes, who has 750 feet.
• There are about 12,000 described species of millipedes!
• Their primary defence mechanism is to release a foul-smelling toxin, which is made up of hydrochloric acid (which burns) and hydrogen cyanide (which asphyxiates). This keeps most predators at bay, except for shrews and civets, which appear to be immune to these toxins. Millipedes also curl up into a tight ball when threatened, to protect their soft underparts.
• When disturbed, millipedes escape predation by moving away in a slithering, snake-like motion, which may scare off some predators.
• Hornbills have been observed using crushed millipedes to line their cavity nests in trees – possibly to avoid mite and other infestations. Some primates have been observed intentionally disturbing millipedes to obtain the foul-smelling toxins which they rub onto their bodies, also as a repellent.
• Millipedes are some of the oldest land animals on Earth. The first known millipede, Pneumodesmus newmani, was only 1 cm long and appeared during the Paleozoic era, 252-541 million years ago. This is the oldest known creature to have lived on land, and was discovered in 2004 from a single specimen in Scotland.
• Some extinct prehistoric millipedes (Arthropleura spp.) grew up to 2 metres in length!
• The longest living millipede is the giant African millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas), reaching a length of up to 38.5 cm.
• It is thought that the bright body and leg colours of some millipedes is to warn off or repel predators.
Safaris are made all the better when you eat local food, and Swahili food dishes are delicious. With a beautiful blend of Arab, Indian and Portuguese influences, Swahili cuisine uses a variety of spices like coriander, clove, chilli and black pepper together with a range of staples like maize, cassava, rice, wheat and sorghum.
Here are a few examples of delicious East African safari food – as eaten by the local people:
Nyama choma
This “charred meat” is a rich, filling barbecue of beef, chicken or goat, marinated in garlic, lemon juice, curry powder and turmeric and slow-roasted over hot coals until supremely tender. It’s a very social food and a dish that’s enjoyed by communities everywhere in Africa.
Nyama choma – charred or barbecued meat
Wali na maharage
Swahili beans is a favourite of vegetarians or meat-eaters alike and blends dried beans with local, flavoursome ingredients to produce a filling bean stew that could be sweet or spicy. Cooked beans are sautéed with onions, ginger, tomatoes and coconut milk.
Swahili beans and rice
Pilau
Pilau is a typical rice dish all over the world, but the secret to the Swahili version is that it’s flavoured with the spices fresh from the “Spice Island” – Zanzibar. Famous for clove and cinnamon, and with the addition of cardamom, Swahili pilau is a delicate and fragrant rice dish.
Pilau – a rice dish with spices
Chipsi mayai
Think of this dish as a delicious sautéed potato omelette – and it’s easy to prepare! After you’ve sautéed your potatoes, whisk up an egg or two and add it to the pan. Mix it around a bit, and soon it’ll cook into a slab of eggy-potatoey loveliness.
Chipsi mayai – potato chip omelette
Ndizi na nyama
Got meat? Got bananas? Then you’re ready for ndizi na nyama – a meat and banana stew. For those of you who think that fruit and meat are an unholy alliance, think again. This tasty, unusual stew uses unripe rather than sweet plantains which, when added during the last ten minutes of cooking, become tender and delicious.
Ndizi na nyama – meat and banana stew
Ugali
The most ubiquitous food across all of East Africa is ugali – a starchy accompaniment made of cornmeal, semolina or sorghum flour and water. Because it’s easy to make and the ingredients are low-cost, it’s a popular food, and you’ll see it often during your safaris in East Africa.
Ugali – a firm flour porridge
And to drink?
Tea and coffee are plentiful in East Africa, as are fresh-pressed pineapple, orange, sugar cane and papaya juices – a sweet and thirst-quenching way to end your safari day. There’s also a variety of refreshing local beers available – such as Tusker, Serengeti and Kilimanjaro. Be aware though that in Muslim areas, alcohol is only sold in the tourist hotels, bars and cafes.
These are only a taste of some of the delicious Swahili food choices that East Africa offers. In the end, there truly is nothing better than watching an African sunset with a beer in hand and a full, satisfied tummy! And next time you order your safari meal, be sure to speak Swahili like a local!
The population of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), one of the world’s most endangered species, is on the rise, and now stands at an estimated 1,063 individuals (1,004 in 2018).
This after a population survey was performed in the Bwindi-Sarambwe area, one of the two remaining areas where this critically endangered great ape is still found (the other being the Virunga Massif area).
The survey results revealed that the population in Bwindi-Sarambwe has increased to 459 from an estimated 400 in 2011. When combined with the previously published figure of 604 mountain gorillas from the Virunga Massif area, the total population now stands at an estimated 1,063 mountain gorillas.
“Slowly but surely a solid future for mountain gorillas is emerging, proving that long-term, collaborative conservation efforts can pull species back from the brink of extinction. This was demonstrated last year with the IUCN reclassification from ‘Critically Endangered’ to ‘Endangered’.” said Anna Behm Masozera, Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), which provided technical and financial support to the exercise under an agreement with the intergovernmental Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration.
The increase in mountain gorillas is attributed to the effectiveness of conservation policies and strategies, regulated tourism, daily protection and veterinary interventions, intensive law enforcement, community conservation projects, and transboundary collaboration among government institutions and NGOs. Further, these results are a testament to the tireless effort of the rangers and trackers who daily protect and monitor mountain gorillas and their habitat, including those that have been killed in the line of duty.
It is also essential to recognise the role of the communities that live close to these national parks who co-exist with mountain gorillas and contribute to conservation efforts. That said, the survey findings also indicated that the threat of illegal human activities to mountain gorillas and other wildlife has not declined in Bwindi-Sarambwe since 2011, despite the positive developments in community engagement and conservation and tourism initiatives. For instance, survey teams found and destroyed 88 snares during their work.
The exercise involved more than 75 trained survey members from 13 participating institutions along with the support of local governments and communities living around the protected areas. Survey teams walked pre-determined reconnaissance trails, ensuring thorough coverage of all forest areas to sweep the Bwindi-Sarambwe and search for signs of gorillas, other key mammals, and human activities. When fresh gorilla signs were detected, the teams followed the gorilla trail to locate three recent night nest sites. At each of these nest sites, the teams collected faecal samples from nests. The process was completed twice; first from March to May 2018 (62 days), and second from October to December 2018 (60 days). A second sweep allows finding gorillas that were undetected during the first sweep and thus provides more reliable numbers of gorillas. Faecal samples were analysed genetically to determine individual genotypes. Additional scientific publications are expected from the survey.
Despite the rise in numbers, the two populations of mountain gorillas remain relatively small and vulnerable to a potential rapid decline due to factors such as their limited habitat, climate change, dependence on resources in the park by people, and the risk of disease transmission.
Swahili (Kiswahili) is a Bantu language that’s spoken by the Swahili people across and beyond East Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. Strongly influenced by and initially written in Arabic, Swahili is now more commonly written using the Latin alphabet. Visitors to East Africa should master at least a few Swahili words and phrases – and enjoy friendly banter with local people. Of course, Swahili culture has its idiosyncrasies and subtleties, which may embarrass all involved – but expect a high degree of forgiveness if you get some things wrong.
Here then are a few general guidelines to rewarding interactions with the peoples of East Africa:
Greetings are important
In Swahili culture, greeting etiquette is tremendously important, and it’s considered impolite not to greet correctly. How you greet someone in Tanzania has an impact on how they will behave towards you. For instance, if a person doesn’t greet their neighbour, it’s usually assumed that they dislike each other.
Ask questions
Key to a rewarding conversation is to spend some time asking about the other person – such as their health and that of their parents and family, and how business/farming is going. Social relationships are very important in Africa, so it’s important to take the time to understand their situation and wellbeing. You will probably not have too much Swahili in your vocabulary, so this conversation will probably be in English, after the initial Swahili greetings
Physical contact
Handshakes (right hand only) are extremely important and sometimes hands are held much longer than you might be used to – sometimes for the duration of the conversation. Your hands might meet and gently entwine fingers, or perhaps there might be some wrist-holding. There are a few variations, so don’t get hung up about what and how – relax and enjoy the moment. If you’re respectful and friendly, no one will take offence at your awkwardness.
Learning a few basic Swahili phrases will help you during that initial, sometimes awkward, greeting phase, and earn the respect of your Swahili-speaking friend. Here are a few of the most useful phrases (the syllables to stress are in bold):
♦ “Hello”: “Hujambo”, often shortened to “jambo”. You can also use “habari” which roughly translated means “What’s the news about….?”. Use any of these, and smile, as you’re going in for the handshake
♦ “Good morning!”: There’s nothing like a cheerful “habari za asubuhi!” to show friendliness and good wishes. Use “habari za mchana” for “good afternoon.”
♦ “How are you?”: Ask “habari gani?”. But if your friend gets in first with “habari gani?” then answer: “nzuri, ahsante!” (“good, thanks!”). You can also say, “poa” or “safi!” or, if you’re already on good terms, you can be less formal: “Poa, kichisi kama ndizi kwenye friji” (“I am cool like a banana in the fridge”)
♦ “Please”: “Tafadhali”
♦ “Thank you (very much)”: “Ahsante (sana)”
♦ “Goodbye”: “Kwaheri”
♦ “Good night”:“Usiku mwema” or “habari za jioni”
♦ “Enjoy your trip”: “Safari njema“:
“Habari” – the most useful Swahili word
“Habari” is a handy word as you can use it to say “hello” AND to ask what’s the latest news. You’ll impress if you ask “habari za familia?” (“how is your family?”) and follow it up with “habari za kazi?” (“how is work?”). You can also try “habari za kutwa?” (“how was your day?”).
If you invest the time to master the above smattering of Swahili, your social credibility will sky-rocket, and you will enjoy the familiarity and respect that adds layers of enjoyment to your safari. Safari njema!
These are the stories of two elephants who display enormous tenacity and will to survive, despite significant obstacles. As told by Dr. Michelle Henley – Elephants Alive Director, Co-founder and Principal Researcher.
MATAMBU
Most of the staff and residents of the Associated Private Nature Reserves – Klaserie, Umbabat, Timbavati, Balule & Thornybush (APNR) in the Greater Kruger – have come to know Matambu. He is a true gentle giant amongst elephants, in every sense of the word, often bestowing on us the great honour of contact rumbling when he senses us. This could be because we have regularly visited him since first sighting him on 16 June 2005, and so he has come to recognise the sound of our research vehicle and the scent of its passengers. You see, Matambu is almost totally blind. During our recent annual aerial census, Matambu was seen walking closely on the heels of a younger bull, tracking him as he weaved his way through the bushveld. We have often found him in the company of Whispers, who would protectively charge at us when we immobilise his ailing companion – surely a sign of loyalty and concern for his safety.
In May of this year, we thought we were going to lose Matambu after he suffered a severe infection near the base of his tail and his underparts, probably after being attacked by another bull. We turned to Wildlifevets (Drs. Ben Muller and Joel Alves) three times to treat Matambu’s wounds.
A deep sadness hung over our team at Elephants Alive when we were told during the last treatment that we needed to let him pass on. But, as we mentally prepared ourselves, Matambu had other plans and a clear will to live, and slowly but surely his condition improved. Almost six months after his injury he is still thin and has a less severe infection, but the flushing green grass will hopefully give him the kick-start he needs to boost his immune system and fight off the infection. We are delighted to be approaching the festive season and the New Year with this special elephant. Keep fighting Matambu, as we need your continued existence to bring us added joy!
RHANDZEKILE
Rhandzekile, meaning ‘loved’ in Shangaan, was first sighted in 2009 in the Umbabat Private Nature Reserve as a young sub-adult cow. Through the years since then, people who see her have expressed shock and awe that she has kept going. Rhandzekile has a large hole below her forehead, through which she breathes. Our vets suspect that her handicap is congenital. She appears on and off in the APNR and recently was seen lactating, with a calf in tow.
The hole in her forehead was recently oozing puss, and so we again called Wildlifevets to the rescue, who examined her and administered booster injections. Miraculously, only 2% of her breathing is through her trunk – the rest is via the hole in her forehead, with much audible sucking and blowing. Subsequent to this treatment she moved out of Balule Private Nature Reserve all the way down to Skukuza over the period of a month, clearly showing us that her handicap does not hold her back in anyway.
Rhandzekile has the company of her family herd, and we wonder who in that herd helps her to drink by squirting water into her mouth, as she will not be able to suck water very effectively?
So it is in the lives of elephants – they care for each other – and sometimes we are privileged enough to catch a glimpse into their world of absolute bonds and friendships that last a lifetime and allow handicapped individuals to live long and fruitful lives.
Thank you to all the landowners of the APNR for reporting sightings of this cow. We would like to monitor her more closely and fit a collar so your sightings are valuable. Thank you to the wardens and especially to Ian Nowak (general manager of Balule) for helping with the location of this cow for examination.
A collared elephant has been hunted in Botswana, and the tracking device destroyed. Four other elephant bulls were hunted by the same party. The hunts took place in a remote area near the Dobe border post between Namibia and Botswana.
The hunting party destroyed the tracking device, according to a statement by Botswana Wildlife Producers Association chairman Basimane Masire. He went on to say that the professional hunter and owner of the elephant hunting license subsequently forfeited their hunting licenses and have cooperated with the official investigation.
The Botswana Government’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism confirmed yesterday that professional hunter Michael Lee Potter and Botswana citizen Michael Sharp, a citizen who holds the hunting license, claimed not to have noticed that the large bull elephant had a research collar around its neck.
Collared elephant bulls are usually older animals with large tusks, making them attractive hunting trophies. Despite the hunting of collared elephants being contrary to most trophy hunting ethics protocols, and often illegal, incidents of this occurring are not infrequent.
Journalist Don Pinnock reported in Daily Maverick that Zimbabwe professional hunter Adrian Read had the following to say about trophy hunters claiming not to notice that their targets carried research collars: “The collar is very visible from the front as well as from the sides. And you wouldn’t shoot an elephant facing directly away from you because you have to assess the tusk size. In my opinion, anyone shooting a collared elephant and saying he did not see the collar can only be shooting after dark (which is illegal).”
The elephant hunt took place in a remote area known as NG3, near the Botswana/Namibia border post of Dobe
Included in the reasoning provided by the Botswana government when they made this decision, was that elephants would be hunted in areas with high incidences of elephant-human conflict so that the local people derive benefits from the hunts. In his report, Pinnock continues that a representative of the local San people, Dahem Xixae, explained “We have no conflict. Only the hunters are the winners here, whereas local poor people remain in sorrow… There’s no benefit to the community from the hunting of elephants and there are dangers. First of all, the Ju/’hoansi do not eat elephants, because elephants behave like human beings. The five elephants hunted were not transients but local ones. This will make the (other elephants) more aggressive and if any were wounded they will be very dangerous to the local community.” Xixae went on to say that “his community was not advised of this elephant hunt”.
For further information about the process leading up to the decision by the Botswana government to resume the hunting of elephants and other species read this compendium of articles.
Lions in Gorongosa National Park (Mozambique) are benefitting from better conservation measures, and show a population increase to 146, the nature reserve announced on Wednesday.
“It is something I have not seen in the seven years we have studied the lion population,” Paola Bouley, deputy director of conservation, who leads the park’s Carnivores Project told Lusa.
According to a statement distributed on Wednesday, 13 new young males have travelled through the central area of Gorongosa Park, underscoring the importance of a growing lion population for biodiversity.
“The lions are sentinels. When conditions are bad, they suffer the first impact, but when life goes well, they recover quickly and that’s what we’re seeing,” Paola Bouley added.
Unlike in the past, none of the new males has been caught in traps. Before 2015, one-third of the lions in the park were captured, mutilated or killed by human activities, but the Gorongosa inspectors have turned the situation around, the deputy director said.
“They provide the lions with the security they need to prosper,” she added.
African lions in the wild have fallen 70% in the last 50 years and disappeared from an area corresponding to 80% of their historically occupied space, the statement added.
Gorongosa National Park is Mozambique’s main wildlife national park, located at the southern end of the East African Rift Valley. It is home to some of the most biologically rich and geologically diverse ecosystems on the continent and is co-managed by the Government of Mozambique and the Gorongosa Project.
“The Park integrates conservation and human development with the understanding that a healthy ecosystem and healthy human communities are two sides of the same coin,” the statement said.
A total of 5,645 kilometres… That is 845 km more than the distance across the United States of America, 2,500 km further when travelling east to west across Australia, and 2,845 km more than the distance across South Africa. That distance does not even count all the little trips in between, including the time spent travelling to and from the various holding sites along the way.
Three countries and 5,645 km later, it all comes down to this moment… The gate is pulled open, and everyone holds their breath, waiting. Cell phones set to video mode are held out, GoPros and professional cameras held steady. All eyes are on the impala leg just outside the gate of the holding boma (enclosure) – a lure, an offering, one last easy meal before the uncertainty of hunting in the wild. After what feels like an eternity, a flash of spotted gold races out of the gate and passes the free meal. He then stops, briefly assessing the situation and his newfound freedom. The large male doubles back and grabs the leg before disappearing into the bush.
Smiles break out throughout the group, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. It has been a long journey of 5,645 km and now the first wild cheetah in southern Malawi in over 90 years has left his footprints in the soil.
Moments later, the sound of branches snapping and a bushbuck races past us, barking loudly, with a spotted predator in pursuit. There is a new danger on the block. The cheetah gives up his half-hearted attempt on the bushbuck and heads back to the meat that does not require chasing. He eats a portion and then heads off past ancient baobabs to explore his new home in Majete Wildlife Reserve.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, over 100,000 cheetahs roamed Africa and Asia, but by the end of that century, the wild cheetah population had reduced to 15,000. Currently, the total population is estimated at 7,100 adult and adolescent animals, with 4,297 living in Southern Africa, 2,290 in Eastern Africa and 457 in Western, Central, and Northern Africa. Cheetahs are listed as ‘Vulnerable’ by the IUCN Red List and have been eradicated from 90 percent of their historical range in Africa, while in Malawi the entire population was extirpated in the 1980s after decades of habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and poaching.
Now, in a bid to restore what once was, a collaboration between African Parks, the Malawian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) has allowed five carefully selected cheetahs to be successfully reintroduced into Malawi’s Majete Wildlife Reserve – with the hopes that this crucial founder population will help to grow the population range of this vulnerable big cat.
The cheetahs were donated by Welgevonden, Samara, Dinokeng and Madikwe game reserves in South Africa. Each individual was carefully selected via the EWT’s Cheetah Metapopulation Project, which creates safe spaces for cheetahs while managing populations across reserves to ensure genetic diversity. This reintroduction of five wild cheetahs, in conjunction with a successful reintroduction into Liwonde National Park in 2017, now increases the nation’s total population to 20 individuals. These translocation initiatives are critical for the preservation of the species – and they help to promote tourism, which generates vital funding for the parks and local communities.
The most recent move of a female cheetah – named ‘Samara’ – to Majete was by vehicle in a bakkie (pickup truck). Vincent van der Merwe (EWT Cheetah Metapopulation Project manager and National Geographic Explorer), Johann “Vossie” Vorster (National Geographic filmmaker) and I crossed three international borders to relocate her from South Africa to Malawi. The cheetah was a trooper as her transport container bounced along poorly maintained roads, waiting at border posts for all the correct documents to be checked over by officials, and travelling day and night for over 55 hours. At the border posts, people would gather around to try and get a glimpse of what was in the wooden boxed labelled with African Parks and EWT stickers. Rumours of leopards and tigers were whispered amongst the crowds.
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.
Travelling through Tete in Mozambique was the warmest part of the journey, but thanks to Vincent’s innovative thinking, we rigged up a system to deliver cool air conditioning from the bakkie directly into the cheetah’s container. This kept her from overheating during the hot portions of the trip.
Many cups of coffee, packets of pistachios and power bars later we made our way down the winding roads to Majete’s gate, where the cheetah was able to stretch her legs in the holding boma. Here she will remain for a few weeks as she acclimatizes to her new surroundings, as did the other cheetahs before their release into the wilds of Majete. We have high hopes for this female and for the four other cheetahs who have travelled such vast distances to make this reintroduction dream come true.
Read more about cheetahs here: The Cheetah, and continue reading below for information about Majete, African Parks and the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
When African Parks assumed responsibility of Malawi’s Majete Wildlife Reserve in 2003, the park was practically devoid of all wildlife, and the charcoal trade was driving the systematic removal of trees. Since then, Majete has become a case study for positive conservation development, with a pioneering rehabilitation and restocking programme that has set a precedent for similar projects across Africa. Today, Majete is flourishing, so much so that wildlife is being moved to populate other parks and private reserves within Malawi. Within five years of African Parks taking responsibility for the reserve, over 2,000 animals had been reintroduced, including black rhinos in 2003; elephants in 2006; lions in 2012, and a host of other wildlife – making this budding reserve Malawi’s only Big 5 destination with now more than 12,200 animals thriving within its perimeter.
Park management has maintained a 15-year track record of zero poaching of rhinos and elephants since their introduction; and tourism has increased 14 percent from last year, with over 9,000 visitors (half of whom were Malawian nationals) – bringing in over US$550,000 to the reserve and communities.
Although Majete is open all year-round, the weather conditions vary according to the season. The wet season occurs from November to March, while the dry season runs from April to October. Temperatures range from 11 to 40 degrees Celsius, depending on the season.
ABOUT AFRICAN PARKS
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks – in partnership with governments and local communities. Africa’s largest NGO (based on counter-poaching presence and area under protection), African Parks manages 15 national parks and protected areas in nine countries – covering over 10.5 million hectares in Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Zambia.
African Parks and Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) have been working closely together to rehabilitate habitat and restore biodiversity to the country’s parks since 2003 when a public-private partnership was formed for the management of Majete. African Parks subsequently assumed management of Liwonde (and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve) in collaboration with DNPW in 2015, following the successful track record achieved in Majete.
ABOUT ENDANGERED WILDLIFE TRUST
The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) has worked tirelessly for over 45 years to save wildlife and habitats, with its vision being a world in which both humans and wildlife prosper in harmony with nature. From the smallest frog to the majestic rhino; from sweeping grasslands to arid drylands; from our shorelines to winding rivers: the EWT is working with you, to protect our world. The EWT’s team of field-based specialists is spread across southern and East Africa, where committed conservation action is needed the most.
Working with its partners, including businesses and governments, the EWT is at the forefront of conducting applied research, supporting community conservation and livelihoods, training and building capacity, addressing human-wildlife conflict, monitoring threatened species and establishing safe spaces for wildlife range expansion.
Jo is a carnivore ecologist based in South Africa. Born in America, her passion for wildlife and conservation resulted in her immigrating to Namibia and then on to South Africa, where she currently resides. Jo has worked for Panthera’s Leopard Program, running camera trap surveys looking at leopard populations, and freelances with various projects working on cheetah, painted wolf (African wild dog) and rhino conservation, as well as working as an Honorary Officer for North West Parks Board. Jo is currently working on her Masters in Conservation Biology through the University of Cape Town, looking at the influence of camera trap deployment on serval density estimates. She enjoys sharing her passion and inspiring others through her photography and stories. You can learn more about Jo’s projects and see more of her photos on her website, her Instagram or her Facebook page.
Uganda birding offers a feast of rare and unique bird species, and the chance to improve dramatically on your species life list. More than 1,065 bird species inhabit a range of habitats – from montane forests to wetlands, agricultural lands, lakes and savannahs. Uganda is on the equator, and the endemic species-rich Albertine Rift Valley separates the country’s west from DR Congo and Rwanda, so expect impressive biodiversity.
In no particular order, here are arguably the best birding spots in Uganda:
1. Mabamba Swamp at Lake Victoria
Mabamba Swamp is one of the best places to catch a glimpse of the highly-prized shoebill. Lake Victoria is the largest freshwater body in Africa and is home to about 260 bird species. Look out for the shoebill, blue swallow, pallid harrier, papyrus gonolek, swamp flycatcher, pigmy goose, lesser jacana, white-winged warbler, Viellot’s weaver, grosbeak weaver, palm-nut vulture, black-headed weaver, northern brown-throated weaver, Clarke’s weaver and Carruther’s cisticola.
Bwindi is the heart and soul of Ugandan birding, the make-and-breaker of bird lists and the home of many endemic and rare bird species. This forested heaven boasts about 350 species, including 23 Albertine Rift endemics of which 14 are not recorded anywhere else in Uganda.
The forest trails around Buhoma are ALIVE with opportunity as you stand your best chance to catch a glimpse of olive long-tailed cuckoo, bar-tailed trogon, dusky tit, Abyssinian (Kivu) groundthrush, white-bellied robin-chat, equatorial akalat, grey-chested iladopsis, red-throated alethe, white-bellied crested flycatcher, white-eyed slaty flycatcher, the enigmatic Chapin’s flycatcher, white-browed crombec, Neumann’s warbler, black-faced prinia, handsome francolin, Jameson’s antpecker, black-faced rufous warbler, northern double-collared sunbird, Willcock’s honeyguide, black bee-eater, black-billed weaver, magpie mannikin and newly described Willard’s sooty boubou.
Scan snags and canopy contours for sooty flycatcher and forest starlings – including Waller’s, Stuhlmann’s and narrow-tailed.
Transitional areas such as “The Neck,’ between Buhoma and Ruhiza are popular areas to look out for black sparrowhawk, western bronze-naped pigeon, cinnamon-chested bee-eater, Cassin’s honeybird, Petit’s cuckooshrike, white-chinned prinia, mountain wagtail, pink-footed puffback, the rare tiny sunbird and the dapper brown-capped weaver.
Away from the indigenous forests, amongst pioneer vegetation fringing the tea estates you can strike it lucky with the highly sought-after dusky twinspot, yellow-bellied, Kandt’s and black-crowned waxbills, streaky and thick-billed seedeaters, western citril and yellow-crowned canary, noisy Chubb’s cisticola, alert Mackinnon’s shrikes, and with luck marvel at a sigh of the striking Doherty’s bushshrike.
Ruhija is your next hotspot in Bwindi, and although the walk down to Mubwindi Swamp is not for the faint-hearted, this is an obligate pilgrimage for the serious birder, since it is down there that resides the MOST coveted of Bwindi’s Albertine Rift endemics …. the rare and localised Grauer’s broadbill, one of Africa’s most sought-after birds. This globally threatened species is only known from two sites in the world, the other being a remote forest in eastern DR Congo.
Other species to watch out for in Ruhija include Carruthers’s cisticola and the localised Grauer’s swamp warbler, red-chested flufftail, black-billed turaco, barred long-tailed cuckoo, white-headed wood-hoopoe, western tinkerbird, olive woodpecker, thick-billed and the elusive dwarf honeyguide, black saw-wing, grey cuckooshrike, olive-breasted and yellow-streaked greenbuls, Abyssinian thrush, white-starred robin, Archer’s ground-robin, stripe-breasted tit, mountain illadopsis, Rwenzori hill-babbler, mountain masked, Rwenzori, and chestnut-throated apalises, cinnamon bracken, mountain yellow, red-faced woodland and Grauer’s warblers, white-tailed blue flycatcher, yellow-eyed black flycatcher, Rwenzori batis, mountain sooty boubou, the rare Lagden’s bushshrike, Sharpe’s starling, mountain oriole, strange weaver, and oriole finch. Flowering symphonias attract the incredible blue-headed, regal and scarce purple-breasted sunbirds, all highly desired Albertine Rift endemics. Dusky, red-faced and the phantom-like Shelley’s crimsonwing occur here too.
As the sun sets, Ruhija offers your best-bet Rwenzori Nightjar, African wood owl, and if you are exceptionally fortunate, the rare Fraser’s eagle-owl.
Murchison Falls is Uganda’s oldest and largest national park, named after the mighty waterfall of the same name – formed as the mighty Nile River is forced through a 7-metre gap in the rocks. The park is home to about 450 bird species, and birding can be done on a game drive, via a boat trip (on the Nile) or a nature walk. Habitat types include forest, swamp, riverine woodland, palm savannah and acacia-dotted plains.
The riverine thickets hold white-crested turaco, double-toothed barbet, red-throated bee-eater, Heuglin’s francolin, brown babbler, silverbird, buff-bellied warbler, black-headed batis, and bar-breasted firefinch. Puvel’s illadopsis can also found near the chimp researchers’ camp. There is plenty of open palm savannah, which is an excellent haunt for Abyssinian ground-hornbill, Senegal lapwing, Shelley’s rufous sparrow and the strange-looking piapiac. The Nile delta is of course home to the near-mythical shoebill stork. Night drives can produce a plethora of species such as pennant-winged and standard-winged nightjar and greyish eagle-owl.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is a birdwatcher’s haven, with about 600 bird species across a variety of habitats – from sprawling savannah to dense forest, lakes and wetlands.
Moving from Ishasha to Mweya you will do well keeping an eye out for African crake, blue-throated roller, flappet lark, sooty chat, black-and-white shrike-flycatcher, northern black flycatcher, black-headed gonolek, moustached grass warbler, red-chested sunbird, and slender-billed weaver. And along the banks of the Kasinga channel, you can expect grey crowned-crane, hamerkop, African jacana, flocks of African skimmer, gull-billed tern, and grey-headed and lesser black-backed gulls.
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is home to about 180 bird species, including some of the spectacular Albertine Rift endemics. It is located in the southern part of Uganda, bordering Rwanda and DR Congo and comprises dense highland forest on the slopes of 3 extinct volcanoes. Mgahinga offers excellent bird viewing opportunities along the gorge trail, bamboo trail and farm/community trail. The bird species to look out for include Kivu ground thrush, handsome francolin, dusky crimsonwing, red-throated alethe, blue-headed coucal, Rwenzori nightjar, Rwenzori batis, Archer’s robin chat, black-headed waxbill, western green tinkerbird and stripe-breasted tit.
Semuliki National Park, in the Albertine Rift Valley of western Uganda, has about 440 species in its riverine, forest and grasslands avian habitats. It hosts Guinea-Congo biome species in its lowland forest. The species to look out for include the Congo serpent-eagle, long-tailed hawk, African piculet, Maxwell’s black weaver, blue-billed malimbe, yellow-throated nicator, black dwarf hornbill, Nkulengu rail, piping hornbill, yellow-throated cuckoo, dwarf honeyguide, orange weaver, white-crested hornbill, red-billed dwarf hornbill, black-wattled hornbill, lyre-tailed honeyguide, capuchin babbler and swamp palm bulbul.
7. Kibale National Park
Kibale Forest is a prime birding spot with about 375 bird species, including six Albertine Rift endemics. It is an excellent birding spot with habitats ranging from wet and dry tropical forest to woodland and savannah. The number one sought-after bird in the Kibale Forest is the green-breasted pitta. This “mega” has recently become available, though finding it still takes a good measure of luck.
Kibale offers an impressive bag of goodies replete with gems such as various forest robins, scores of brown and scaly-breasted illadopses, brown-chested alethe, phantom-like black-eared and Abyssinian ground-thrushes, joyful and Toro olive greenbuls, black-bellied seedcracker, collared and black-capped apalis, grey-throated, yellow-spotted and yellow-billed barbets, blue-throated roller, black bee-eater, crowned eagle, red-chested owlet, African grey parrot, African finfoot, afep and white-naped pigeons and the comical, hulking great blue turaco.
The Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary within the park is a great haunt for specials such as speckled tinkerbird, speckle-breasted woodpecker, white-spotted flufftail, snowy-crowned robin-chat, Bocage’s bushshrike, and western nicator. Nearby patches of papyrus support the shy and cautious white-winged swamp-warbler.
The Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda are home to about 220 bird species, including 19 Albertine Rift endemics, with habitats ranging from high elevation forest and open montane grasslands, to peat bogs, snowfields and glaciers. The mountains lie in western Uganda, with snowcapped peaks reaching 5,110m. Most of the birding in the forest zone and species to see include Rwenzori turaco, long-eared owl, Archers’ robin-chat, Lagden’s bush-shrike, blue-headed and golden-winged sunbird, white-starred robin, slender-billed starling, cinnamon-chested bee-eater and bearded vulture.
Birding is one of the major activities in Lake Mburo National Park, and the best spots for birding are near the lake swamps at Warukiri and Rwonyo. Other habitats include dry hillsides, rocky outcrops and dense savannah. The park is home to about 320 bird species, which include red-faced barbet, brown parrot, barefaced go-away bird, black-billed barbet, blue-napped mousebird, Nubian woodpecker, papyrus canary, papyrus gonolek, African finfoot and shoebill.
There are a few very localised species in Uganda that only occur in Mburo, and topping that list are red-faced barbet, Tabora cisticola, green-capped eremomela, golden-tailed woodpecker, spot-flanked barbet, and grey penduline tit.
At the lake swamps, the main targets are African finfoot, papyrus gonolek, white-winged warbler, African water rail and white-backed night-heron. Yellow-throated leaflove chatter loquaciously in dense, waterside thickets and giant kingfishers wait patiently on overhanging branches.
Mixed woodlands are best for Coqui francolin, black-bellied bustard, African wattled plover, brown parrot, red-headed lovebird, barefaced go-away-bird, blue-napped mousebird, lilac-breasted and broad-billed roller, green wood-hoopoe, common scimitarbill, Narina trogon, Nubian woodpecker, trilling cisticola, northern black flycatcher, chin-spot batis, rufous-chested swallow, yellow-throated longclaw and southern red bishop.
Small numbers of the migratory brown-chested plover are regularly observed in the grasslands that access the park, in addition to the impressive Abyssinian ground-hornbill. Night drives may reveal African scops owl, marsh owl, Verreaux’s eagle owl, swamp and pennant-winged nightjars.
10. Budongo Forest
Budongo Forest has two main sections – Kaniyo Pabidi (Murchison Falls National Park), and the Royal Mile and Busingiro areas found south of Murchison. It lies at the edge of the Albertine Rift valley, protecting the most extensive natural forest area in East Africa. Budongo is home to about 360 bird species. At Royal mile look out for the elusive and skulking Nahan’s francolin, the fleeting Cassin’s spinetail, and the dainty chestnut-capped flycatcher. Also search for the stunning chocolate-backed, blue-breasted and African dwarf kingfishers. The forest is full of illadopses and alethes, and the diversity of greenbuls here is simply incredible. But for those who don’t fancy cryptic birds, there are plenty of more colourful species such as the white-thighed hornbill and black bee-eater. Other species include Cassin’s hawk-eagle, Ituri batis, black-collared lovebird and brown twinspot.
For your next Uganda birding adventure, consider these accommodation options at the best prices: private travel & conservation club. If you are not yet a member, see how to JOIN below this story.
Wildlife campaigners at Humane Society International/Africa are celebrating a South African High Court ruling that grants extended protection for Riff Raff, an elephant dubbed a “problem” animal for trampling fences erected through his range in Limpopo. As elephants and people increasingly compete for land across South Africa, landowners often resort to lethal solutions to eliminate the problem. That is unjustified, says HSI/Africa, particularly when a reserve more than 400 km away is offering Riff Raff a new home.
HSI/Africa and its partner Global Supplies have been working for more than two years to save the 40+ year-old, dominant male elephant from destruction after a landowner applied to have him shot. Riff Raff was declared a damage-causing animal by the provincial environmental government for trampling fences to gain access to land that has been his core bull zone for more than half his adult life. The fences were erected by a landowner on Riff Raff’s reserve in 2016, directly excluding him from this long-established area of land to which, as one of the oldest and most dominant bulls on the property, he was genetically hard-wired to return.
To save Riff Raff, HSI/Africa and Global Supplies relocated him to another reserve last year, but it was too close to his historical range and he walked the 64 km journey back home. When a new destruction permit was applied for, and the campaigners’ request to relocate Riff Raff to a new reserve 400 km away was rejected by the Limpopo government, they asked the High Court to intervene and review the decision. Judge President Makgoba has now granted Riff Raff extended protection at his current reserve, pending a full review next year. The new location, being much further away, in a new terrain and with new females, where Riff Raff would be the most dominant bull, mimics bull’s natural dispersal to areas outside of their natal range, and therefore has greater chances of success.
Across Africa, elephants are under threat from poaching, trophy hunting, habitat encroachment and climate change, and should be protected wherever possible. HSI/Africa believes that Riff Raff’s ranging behaviour is nothing more than normal bull elephant instinct. As current legal definitions of so-called damage-causing animals fail to take this natural behaviour into account, it has become easy for landowners to exploit this behaviour to have elephants on their land destroyed.
Audrey Delsink, HSI/Africa’s wildlife director and an elephant behaviourist who has studied Riff Raff for more than 20 years, said: “We are deeply relieved at the High Court’s decision to grant Riff Raff an extended stay of execution and the chance of a new life. He has come to symbolise an ever-increasing human-elephant conflict in South Africa that all too often ends with elephants paying the price. People and elephants increasingly compete for the same space, with lethal solutions sadly seen as the easiest and quickest option. Lethal management interventions, particularly in the case of human-elephant conflict, should be the absolute last resort and never employed where any other humane alternative exists. We share this land with these magnificent giants, it should be utterly unthinkable to kill them simply because to do so is easier than managing the land in a way that considers their normal biological drivers.”
HSI/Africa is extremely thankful to its attorneys, Lawton’s Africa, and to Advocate Mpho Sethaba and Lebogang Phaladi for their pro-bono services on Riff Raff’s case. The elephant’s final fate will be determined next year, when the 2018 decision not to allow his relocation will be reviewed by the court.
With a record-breaking, never-before-seen 29,887 entries received for our Photographer of the Year 2019 competition, our judges had an incredibly tough time deciding on our winner and runners-up. But at the end of the day, it was the pure macro-magic of Eraine van Schalkwyk’s jumping spider that caught the eye of our judges, and she was crowned our winner for 2019.
What made this image stand out head-and-shoulders above the other macro entrants was that she managed to include so much of the habitat in her capture. So often macro photography involves tight focus and shallow depth of field, where only the subject is clear. This tiny predator appears to be surfing in a tube wave, as it gazes straight at the camera. This added sense of place makes this an excellent image.
And so we launch our Photographer of the Year 2020 by sharing with you a selection of reigning Photographer of the Year Eraine’s stunning photos, along with her thoughts on photographing spiders. Do enjoy this magnificent gallery and we look forward to another successful year of celebrating wildlife photography with you all!
? The winning image: This friendly, 1cm in length, jumping spider (Hyllus sp.) was found wandering in leaf litter. Jumping spiders are curious creatures, and often intrigued by the camera flash. They are harmless to humans. Greater Kruger National Park, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/9 | 1/250 | ISO 400)
“We are beginning to learn that each animal has a life and a place and a role in this world. If we place compassion and care in the middle of all our dealings with the animal world and honour and respect their lives, our attitudes will change” ~ Jane Goodall
A few years ago, while visiting Punda Maria camp in northern Kruger National Park, I stood on the bed, shoe in hand, trying to figure out the best approach to kill the spider that was on the floor. We often fear that which we do not understand – I knew little of these tiny creatures and yet I was frightened of them. It was only when my knowledge grew that my fear diminished and was replaced with curiosity.
I’m fortunate to have grown up in a family of nature enthusiasts who frequent national parks around South Africa and had a grandfather whose passion and knowledge of nature photography inspired my parents and myself. I’ve always had a great love and appreciation for the natural world and its inhabitants, but never quite respected spiders in the same way.
?Jumping spider (Asemonea sp.), St. Lucia, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/9 | 1/400 | ISO 400)
?Male jumping spider (Harmochirusluculentus)with a brush of hair on front legs. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/10 | 1/250 | ISO 400)
?As they are already skittish, photographing spiders with prey is a gamble, getting in closer with a lens often results in spiders abandoning their food. This Tusitala sp. jumping spider allowed me to take photographs as I watched it completely shred its prey to pieces. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/9 | 1/500 | ISO 400)
?Green pea spider (Araneus apricus) with prey. These spiders build their webs at night to catch flying and jumping insects. The web is then removed early in the morning, and the spider retreats to a cluster of leaves close to the web site. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens (f/9 | 1/250 | ISO 400)
South Africa is home to about 2,200 described species of spiders, and only a few of those are known to produce a bite that requires medical attention. An individual’s response to spider venom depends on many factors including age, health and sensitivity to the venom (much like people vary in sensitivity to a bee sting). Should a spider bite you, it would be out of self-defence or when they feel threatened, such as when they become trapped between clothes and the skin, or if they are aggravated.
?Myrmarachne ichneumon male jumping spider (left) mimicking a Tetraponera sp. ant (right). Ant-mimicking jumping spiders have physical and behavioural modifications to look like ants. Some ant mimics, like the Myrmarachne, gain protection by living near ants, while others mimic them to feed on them. Taken in iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Both photographed with Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens. Left: (f/10 | 1/250 | ISO 500), Right: (f/9 | 1/250 | ISO 400)
With a taste for insects, spiders perform the essential ecological role of controlling insect populations, including those that damage wild vegetation and our crops, and insects capable of spreading diseases like mosquitoes. Spiders are a food source for a variety of animals, including other invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. The food web is very intricate, and the removal of spiders from the food chain could have a devastating effect on the rest of the food chain.
Armed with new knowledge, I set out to explore spiders and found that they’re not the malicious creatures I once thought they were. From the first time that I looked into the eyes of a jumping spider, their beauty and quizzical gaze captivated me.
?Crab spider (Thomisus stenningi) patiently awaiting its next meal on a water lily. Females of this species can change their colour and are often found on flowers of the same shade. Their cryptic colouration allows these spiders to fool their prey, ambushing them when they stray too near, as well as to escape predators. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/9 | 1/250 | ISO 400)
?I spotted this Heliophanus sp. jumping spider on a beautiful pink and white flower and thought it had the potential to make a lovely image. On my approach, it ran off into the leaves, but its curiosity of the light bouncing off my flash allowed for a few photographs. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/9 | 1/320 | ISO 400)
?Jumping spider (Langelurillus squamiger), on a lichen landscape. Cape Vidal, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/10 | 1/250 | ISO 500)
?Jumping spider (Hyllus treleaveni) with a processionary caterpillar as prey photographed against a windowpane. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens (f/8 | 1/160 | ISO 400)
?A Cyclosa insulana juvenile spider in an orb-web decorated with a circular stabilimentum. Skukuza Indigenous Nursery, Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens (f/9 | 1/200 | ISO 400)
That’s how I found myself reflecting in the same room in Pundu Maria, where I had once dispatched a harmless wall spider. I was here again, but with a different goal in mind. I wanted to photograph spiders, and hopefully take people with the same fear I once had on a journey with these spectacular, misunderstood creatures.
I started photographing spiders using an Olloclip for my iPhone and currently use a Canon 70D and Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX Flash and MagMod diffusers. All my images are handheld and single exposures (not stacked). All spiders are photographed in their natural habitat.
? Left: A well-camouflaged crab spider (Oxytate argenteooculata). Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/9 | 1/250 | ISO 400); Top right: Fish-eating spiders are found at freshwater sources where they feed on tadpoles, adult frogs and aquatic invertebrates. I watched this Nilus massajae eyeing an Argus reed frog – I wonder if it had it for dinner! St. Lucia, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens (f/13 | 1/250 | ISO 400); Bottom right: Lynx spider (Oxyopes jacksoni). Lynx spiders are so named because of the way they hunt – they run over vegetation and jump on their prey. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/8 | 1/250 | ISO 400)
?Jumping spider (Thyene sp.) on a tree trunk. Mkuze Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/11 | 1/250 | ISO 400)
?Crab spider (Thomisus granulatus) on the exposed roots of a fever tree. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/9 | 1/200 | ISO 400)
?Jumping spider (Phintella sp.) at the base of a bold and beautiful tree trunk. I’ve seen this species of jumping spider maybe a dozen times or so. My first attempts left me with no images and very disappointed as they had scampered away. This Phintella was comparatively relaxed and allowed me to get close. Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/8 | 1/250 | ISO 400)
Photography is a powerful means of communication. Macro photography allows me to capture detailed images of living organisms that are too small to be appreciated with the naked eye.
I want to thank Africa Geographic for providing the platform to show some of my images of spiders, and hope that these photographs will contribute towards an appreciation and understanding of them. Spiders and other tiny creatures are as magnificent as Africa’s bigger wildlife and are just as worthy of being respected and protected.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’m indebted to Prof. Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman for fact-checking and assistance with spider identification, and Vida van der Walt and Prof. Charles Haddad for assistance with spider identification.
?One of my very first and favourite photographs. Jumping spider (Branchus mustelus). Sabiepark Private Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens (f/8 | 1/100 | ISO 400)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Eraine van Schalkwyk
Eraine holds a degree in Microbiology, and it is during the zoology part of her course that she learned more about spiders, prompting her interest in spider photography. For the past two and a half years, she has spent most of her free time searching for and photographing these interesting creatures. To see more of her photographs take a look at her website, and her Facebook and Instagram pages.
Namibia is bestowed with many true wilderness areas where the hand of man is hardly noticeable. Spending time in Namibia’s wild nature is a true blessing for the soul and a visual feast – especially during the golden hours of the day. We’d like to inspire you with a selection of our images where we’ve captured Namibia’s extraordinary light.
The far south of Namibia is very rugged and isolated. Only the hardiest of plants, such as quiver trees, survive and even thrive in this region. During the day the landscape often appears bleak in the harsh light, but for a brief time at sunrise and sunset the scenery becomes magical with stunning colours, shapes and silhouettes.
When you sit on top of Elim Dune in the late afternoon, the view is simply breathtaking. Towards the west the dunes stretch as far as the eyes can see, while towards the east you are rewarded with a magnificent view over the gravel plains towards the mighty Naukluft Mountains.
Even though Elim Dune lies very close to Sesriem camp, only three kilometres away, it is truly part of the Namib Desert – one of the most impressive wilderness destinations in the world.
In the late dry season when thousands of thirsty animals visit Etosha’s waterholes daily, the hooves of springbok and gemsbok visiting at sunset kick up huge dust clouds from the trampled soil, which make for great backlight images against the setting sun.
The Etosha National Park in northern Namibia is one of the prime destinations for wildlife enthusiasts. Even though it is fenced and many of its waterholes are artificial, it can be considered a true wilderness area because of its enormous size (22,915 square kilometres) and the minimal influence by man (be it the park’s management, visitors, or the farmers living around the park).
In the rainy season, when dramatic storm clouds cover the sky, a rare thunderstorm over Spitzkoppe at sunset paints the landscape in pink.
Although Spitzkoppe is not a true wilderness area, you quickly get the feeling of being stranded on an isolated island when you climb up the steep granite mountain or camp in a sheltered spot.
The lilac-breasted roller must be one of the most colourful birds occurring in Namibia. Its bright shades of olive green, orange, lilac, pink and blue are in stark contrast to the earthy tones of the savannah – its favourite habitat – and make it a beautiful photographic motif for wildlife photographers.
When you stay an entire day at Sossusvlei, you’ll witness the most dramatic colour changes on the dunes. During the day, when the sun stands high in the sky, the terrain looks rather bleak and washed out. During the golden hours at sunrise and sunset, however, the sand glows in magnificent shades of orange, transforming the landscape into a magical desert world.
The vast dune sea of the Namib Desert is one of the driest desert regions on the planet. Despite the fact that the area around Sossusvlei is a tourist-magnet because of its beauty and accessibility, the actual impact of man on this magnificent, protected national park, the Namib-Naukluft Park, is negligible.
Watching a herd of elephants approaching a waterhole and spending time to drink, bath, play and socialise nearby is the epitome of a true wilderness experience.
At Halali waterhole you can enjoy this spectacle from a vantage point inside the camp 24/7. At the height of the dry season elephant herds with babies prefer to visit the waterhole at the end of a hot day. With the setting sun basking the dusty scene in radiating warm light, this affords photographers great opportunities for capturing atmospheric images.
Observing the sunrise from top of a dune is a magical experience. The radiating orange colours of the landscape leaves you speechless, and the sense of wilderness is tangible when you sit with your feet dug into the cool sand, engulfed by absolute quietness and peace.
Being out at first light in Etosha’s wilderness is equally rewarding. Watching the sun rise behind a lone acacia tree in an array of pink, lilac and orange colours is a wonderful experience. Paying attention to the large expanse of the Etosha Pan on the horizon helps one comprehend the vastness of this grand place.
As the sun sets, a herd of gemsbok moves towards the Naukluft Mountains for their nightly rest. There is a short window of time when the scenery is transformed into heavenly pastel colours just before the sun disappears beyond the horizon.
The Fish River Canyon is an area of extremes in temperatures and also in beauty. Whilst the rugged terrain appears bleak and inhospitable during noon, it looks rather mysterious and inviting around dusk and dawn.
The early morning light in the Namib Desert is not only good for rich and warm colours, but also brings out the diverse textures and patterns of the landscape. The great escarpment (as seen in the background of the above photo) runs south to north along most of western Namibia has for the most part has very rugged terrain with hardly any human influence.
Want to go on safari to Namibia? 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 wild addax antelope (Addax nasomaculatus) is perhaps the loneliest mammal on the planet. These majestic, snow-white (in summer) antelope once roamed in abundance across North Africa but poaching and industrialisation pushed the wild population to the brink of extinction. By 2016 just three remained in the wild, and they were only discovered after a 700 km ground search and a 3,200 km aerial survey led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Now the species is about to get a second chance.
The Environmental Agency Abu Dhabi plans to bring back the antelope from the knife-edge of extinction with the re-introduction of addax antelope bred in captivity. Just recently the agency flew 15 addax by cargo plane from the UAE to Chad, where they will be acclimatised in a holding boma before their release into the wild later this year.
The addax is perfectly adapted to surviving in one of the most extreme climates in the world – the desert. They have broad hooves that enable them to travel efficiently on fine desert sand and a white coat that reflects the harsh rays of the sun. The species is so spectacularly adapted to dry environments that it can get most of the water it needs from a diet of grass, tubers and desert scrub.
Over a period of six years (from 2010) the wild population plummeted from 200 to just three when its habitat became a region of drug and weapon smuggling and illegal wildlife trade after the 2011 political collapse in Libya. Oil installations by China National Petroleum Corporation wreaked havoc on its habitat, and poaching by the soldiers protecting the oil sites significantly increased in one of the species’ last safe havens in Niger, according to the IUCN.
The EAD hopes the reintroduction of the addax will emulate the success of the scimitar-horned oryx, which was reintroduced by the EAD in partnership with Chad and the Sahara Conservation Fund.
Today, 202 scimitar-horned oryx roam the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve Protected Area, following the birth of more than 40 calves this summer.
“We take great pride in the efforts being made to bring the scimitar-horned oryx back from the brink of extinction and to see our ‘World Herd’ of this species thriving once again in the desert regions of Chad,” said Dr Shaikha Al Dhaheri, the EAD Secretary-General.
Hundreds of oryx will be reintroduced over the course of a five-year programme. The programme’s success has affected the scale and ambition of future species projects, said Dr Al Dhaheri.
“Many lessons have been learnt since the inception of the programme and we hope that the valuable knowledge and technical expertise we gained will pave the way for the reintroduction of these other highly endangered antelope species into the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve.”
What is an art safari? It’s a safari where you learn to sketch wildlife quickly and confidently. It might seem a little intimidating, but it’s amazing how much your sketching can improve when you spend several hours each day practising. There are only six guests on each safari and artists with any level of experience are welcome. We sketch from our private vehicle on our twice-daily drives and I lead sketching and watercolour workshops at the lodge during the middle of the day. It’s a great way to improve your sketching, enjoy an amazing few days watching South Africa’s iconic wildlife, and meet like-minded travel companions. Non-sketching friends and partners are also welcome.
Find out about Greater Kruger for your next African safari. We have ready-made safaris to choose from, or ask us to build one just for you.
The following is a selection of guest reviews from our 2019 art safaris:
I really can’t say enough good about the art safari; it was FABULOUS! All that I had hoped for and more, and I am still revelling in the memories and reliving it through my sketches. I have no suggestions for improvement because I thought it was perfect. Thank you so much! ~ Melissa F.
I have just experienced the adventure of a lifetime. Africa Geographic and Alison Nicholls have put together a trip for Africa rookies and old-timers alike… I could not have created a better forum for Africa and my art. ~ Kelly G.
After a wonderful first two legs of my trip (Cape Town and Victoria Falls), I honestly thought that the trip could not get any better. Boy was I wrong. The art safari was one of the greatest experiences. ~ Sarah L.
Kambaku is a beautiful lodge. The staff were all wonderful and helpful. The safari drives were such amazing experiences and I will cherish those sweet memories forever. ~ Emily S.
The art safari far exceeded my expectations. The accommodations were top-notch, and the game drives were truly a lifetime experience. ~ Betsy W.
Thanks for such a wonderful workshop! I have more confidence now than before, for sure. I also love Alison’s demonstrations of watercolour painting with her unique style. ~ Emily S.
Alison asked us each individually what our goals were, and I shared that I really just wanted to try to sketch profiles of the animals and try to master that. However, by the end of the safari, I found myself enjoying sketching from life much more than from pictures, and really trying to sketch the animals from different angles. I really had such a wonderful time attempting this. ~ Sarah L.
Alison was a patient and versatile teacher. She did a great job of catering to students of different levels. ~ Betsy W.
The other members on the safari, I now consider friends. I plan to keep in touch with everyone and look forward to seeing everybody’s art. I left the art safari very sad that it was over, but also very happy because I now consider myself an artist. I plan to continue with my sketching, as well as experimenting with watercolour. The art safari is something that I would love to do again, and I would suggest to everybody I know to do something like this. ~ Sarah L.
The art safari with Alison Nicholls was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had! I grew so much as an artist and learned so much about art and African animals and birds. I really appreciated Alison’s approach to teaching art. She is very knowledgeable about the animals, birds and plants in South Africa. She was able to easily identify the areas where my sketching needed to improve. She had quick tricks and skills that made my ability to sketch moving animals much better. ~ Linda M.
It’s only one week until entries open for our Photographer of the Year 2020! We’re brimming with excitement about what gems will be unearthed this year, and to get in the mood, we’re showcasing another great gallery of adorably cute wild baby animals – from Photographer of the Year 2019. Our Photographer of the Year 2020 will officially open for entries on Friday, 29th November 2019 – details on how to enter will be available on the day!
Communities surrounding the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia often face huge losses due to elephant conflicts. The booming development of the Luangwa Valley has resulted in more farms and infrastructure being built, which has caused an increased level of human-wildlife conflict in the community. During the crop-growing season, elephants cross the Luangwa River and enter the surrounding villages, where they raid crop fields and damage property in their forage for food. This can result in devastating outcomes for local farmers who lose their livelihood, and the elephants who are met with negative retaliations.
To help mitigate this conflict, 20 volunteers from Conservation South Luangwa (CSL) have been using ‘chilli balls’ (ping pong balls filled with chilli oil) to deter elephants from crop fields. Volunteers in Kakumbi Chiefdom have been equipped with boots, rain jackets, overalls and torches to enable them to patrol high-risk zones that are likely to be raided by elephants. The volunteers patrol during the night as this is when the elephants are most active in the village.
Once an elephant begins to approach a crop field, the CSL volunteer ‘chilli patrollers’ fire a small chilli ball at the hindquarters of the elephant to deter it. The balls leave chilli oil on their skin, causing them no harm other than a mild discomfort due to the smell of chilli, which acts as enough of a deterrent.
The chilli blasters are simple devices, designed to deter but not hurt an elephant. To fire a chilli ball, the wide end chamber of the chilli blaster is unscrewed and a ping pong ball filled with chilli oil is placed inside it. Flammable insect spray is sprayed into the chamber, and then it is quickly closed. There is an igniter mounted at the back of the device which when clicked provides a spark that ignites the gas, firing the ping pong ball out of the narrow tube with a loud bang. For each round the device needs to be unscrewed and re-loaded. So the chilli patroller is careful to fire with control and make every shot count.
The ball explodes when it hits the hindquarters of the elephant, the gas quickly evaporates, leaving some chilli oil on the skin. When the elephant uses its trunk to investigate the spot, it finds the unpleasant chilli mixture. It usually takes a few attempts for the combination of the loud bang and the chilli oil to take effect, and for the elephant to decide to move on and feed elsewhere. The oil is then easily washed away when the elephant next mud bathes or sprays itself with water.
If communities are not supported in wildlife conflict zones, then they often resort to throwing rocks, fireworks, or will even use illegal firearms. All of these cause much more harm to elephants than the chilli patrollers with their blasters.
The chilli-patrolling efforts are utilised with chilli brick burning, elephant restraining fences, as well as the use of safe-grain stores which elephants cannot break into. These initiatives, combined with support from the local community, have been key to the success of the project. During this year’s farming season, over 3,000 incidences of human-elephant conflict were averted – 1,363 of these being in the Kakumbi Chiefdom.
Due to the success of the project, CSL are planning on increasing the number of patrollers to 30 for next year’s crop-growing season to continue working side by side with the community to minimise this conflict.
Emma Robinson, HWC Program Manager says: “The nine chilli patrollers achieved 1,333 man-nights, firing 839 chilli ping pong balls to deter over 1,363 elephants in four months. This real practical help makes such a difference to the farmers, who are supportive of the project. In return, they help the patrollers by clearing pathways to their fields, so they can move around easily and safely after dark. They also increase the patrollers’ effectiveness by raising an early warning when they see approaching elephants. Not surprisingly, it’s much easier to move an elephant on, before its found a plentiful supply of deliciousness.”
“Before the patrollers started, farmers could lose their entire harvest, whereas working with the chilli patrollers they will always harvest at least two bags of maize. We hope that by increasing the number of patrollers next year and adding a fourth chiefdom, we will be able to see the benefits of reduced human-elephant conflict, reaching even more farmers.”
OPINION POST by Audrey Delsink (Wildlife Director, Human Society International/Africa), Keith Lindsay (Collaborating Researcher, Amboseli Trust for Elephants), Adam Cruise (Journalist) and Ross Harvey (Independent Economist)
Despite local and international protestation, Zimbabwean authorities have gone ahead with exporting baby elephants from the country. In a clandestine act, thirty-two elephants were moved from their holding pens at Hwange National Park during the night of the 23rd of October and flown out of Victoria Falls on a Saudi Arabian Airlines Cargo plane, Saudia.
The other five (of the thirty-seven originally captured elephants) were deemed too unhealthy to travel, which in itself is an indictment on the Zimbabwean authorities for their inhumane handling of the situation. On several occasions, the Zimbabwean National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ZNSPCA) was denied access to the holding facilities, further demonstrating the lack of transparency surrounding this matter. Coincidentally – or more likely, purposefully – the elephants were flown out of the country on the same day as the ZNSPCA filed an urgent chamber application to gain access to the boma facility to assess the elephants’ condition following several delays. A legal case is currently before the courts, which argues that the export violates Zimbabwe’s national legislation. The case is yet to be heard by a judge. Therefore, the Zimbabwean Parks Authority (ZimParks’) decision to push ahead with the export demonstrates its distaste for accountability and the rule of law. The complainants are Zimbabwean NGOs whose members have shown bravery in standing up to a brutal authoritarian regime. To label them as being in the pockets of ‘animal rights’ organisations is as callous as it is inaccurate.
The young elephants were cruelly separated from their families nearly a year ago and have been held in captivity since then. They have now been sold to China, presumably to safari parks near Shanghai, the apparent port of arrival according to the cargo carrier’s flight path. As ZimParks has not provided any documentation, the final destination of the elephants cannot be confirmed, though it is alleged that the group will be further split into 12 smaller groups. In line with past form, the extraction of cash from the country’s remaining natural heritage is thought to go towards paying off debt owed to China or paying soldiers’ salaries (or both). China should know better, as it has recently initiated an ‘Ecological Civilisation’ programme, which inter alia discourages the purchase of ivory. To be consistent, this programme should be extended to discourage the viewing of wild animals in unnatural captivity, especially elephants. To their credit, Chinese activists have reacted with outrage at the new imports.
A recent fundraising event for wildlife by the Sino-Zim Wildlife Foundation demonstrates the deep tie between Zimbabwe and China. Headed by infamous wildlife trader Li Song and ZimParks, and supported by presentations from the Director-General and the Permanent Secretary of the Minister of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, with a “donations” slot, this event, held on the 29th October, is a clear attempt to persuade the world that these sales somehow benefit wildlife conservation.
It is well within the bounds of conventional science to assert that this exercise in terrifying, brutal capture followed by decades in sterile conditions of captivity is a fate worse than death, as the affected elephants demonstrably suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. Elephants are highly social beings who require interaction with other elephant companions, large amounts of foraging and roaming space, environmental richness and freedom of choice. Human removal of any of these factors is tantamount to cruelty and abuse.
For this reason, members to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) – at the 18th Conference of the Parties (CoP18) in Geneva in August this year – overwhelmingly decided that African elephants may no longer be removed from their natural or historic range except under extraordinary circumstances. This is the first time that the convention has recognised the importance of welfare in conservation. Despite detractors – mostly proponents of consumptive ‘sustainable use’ or ‘harvesting’ of wildlife – wailing that the decision reflects an ‘animal rightist’ agenda, there is no science that positively supports the extraction of a range of animals from their functional roles in natural ecosystems, akin to removing piece after piece from a jigsaw puzzle, or Jenga tower. There is also increasing legal precedent for recognising the importance of welfare as integral to conservation. In South Africa – still a hotbed for consumptive use and crude utilitarianism – the Constitutional Court ruled in 2016 that conservation and welfare are intertwined values. On the back of this ruling, the Gauteng provincial High Court ruled in August this year – shortly prior to CoP18 – that the sale of lion bones out of the country is illegal because it violates welfare considerations.
CITES Resolutions technically only come into effect 90 days from the end of a CoP, although this point is a ‘grey area’; sections of Resolutions that are not under Recommendation may come into effect immediately. In addition, the 90-day period is intended to allow time for States to confirm that national legislation or regulations are in line with the international ruling; not to allow a country to sell off its existing ‘stock’. Clearly, Zimbabwe rushed to sell its elephants before three months passed after CoP18 (26 November 2019), in direct violation of the spirit of the Convention. Being arguably within one’s ‘sovereign rights’ exhibits a mercenary mentality that undermines conservation. In this particular case, it is also immoral and obsolete.
A handful of southern African nations are crying foul regarding the CITES decision, especially because it complements another decision to maintain the international moratorium on the ivory trade. Rowan Martin has written, for instance, that CITES ‘does wildlife conservation no favours’. CITES clearly has its difficulties, but Martin’s misgivings have little to do with the governance and enforcement challenges facing the protection of species from extinction through over-exploitation. His is a philosophical misgiving, in which he axiomatically rejects any ruling that questions his predisposition towards consumptive use, something he deems to be a country’s ‘sovereign right’, whether or not it affects the survival of a species in other, even most, sovereign States across its geographical range.
It is this presuppositional commitment to consumptive use on which ZimParks has justified the sale of baby elephants to China. Hiding behind ‘sovereign rights’, the argument is that Zimbabwe answers to no one and can do with its elephants as it pleases. It further hides behind the view that there are ‘too many elephants’ which have exceeded the country’s ‘carrying capacity.’
These views must be debunked.
First, there is no such thing, scientifically, as ‘too many elephants.’ The concept is predicated on an agricultural notion that views national parks as farms that have a static ‘carrying capacity’, a term that has been applied to large mammals most commonly in the context of commercial livestock production. Martin’s perspective exhibits an aesthetic commitment to a utopian state of eternally attractive woodlands (normally with an idolisation of a perfect number of large trees). Almost any number of elephants, which forage naturally on woody plants, may thus be ignorantly viewed as marauding tree destroyers. Fluctuations of animal and tree populations, in the face of droughts, deluges or other disturbances are the prevailing drivers of highly variable semi-arid savannah ecosystems. Animal populations self-regulate in relation to their food supply through births and deaths, or dispersal. There is no basis for a fixed ‘carrying capacity’ for elephants, except in the mind of man.
ZimParks, confusingly, initially stated that the exports were not happening and that there was nothing secretive about it. They nonetheless took the opportunity to point out that the drought had killed 55 elephants, evidence somehow that there were tens of thousands ‘too many’ of them. To state the obvious, none of this adds up. As already noted, droughts are part of natural cycles that fluctuate, now exacerbated to greater extremes by climate change. Elephants, through their foraging, can change landscapes as ecosystem engineers, a keystone species. Their role is pivotal and irreplaceable. Left to disperse in large, dynamic ecosystems, they produce patch heterogeneity – uneven impact across a landscape – that keeps the system healthy.
Managing a dynamic ecosystem as if it is a farm necessarily obstructs the system’s ability to function through ecological processes. Culling, hunting and removal of baby elephants are justified as necessary management interventions under the premise that there are ‘too many’, but culling has been exposed, even by its initial proponents, as a cruel mistake. Hunting has genetically selective effects by removing the biggest and best animals and creates extensive social and ecological problems. Removing baby elephants from their families, in which they would be nurtured and taught life skills, is abhorrent. The idea that the revenue accruing from the sales will somehow be ploughed back into conservation is a deception.
Second, the ‘sovereign rights’ clarion call does not make biological sense. At least 76% of Africa’s elephants are shared across borders. The solutions to southern Africa’s conservation problems are not to be found in trying to generate short-term and unsustainable revenue from hunting and exporting the last remnants of our shared natural heritage. Rather, the solutions lie in better, regionally integrated land-use planning. Movement corridors that allow elephants to reduce local numbers and avoid conflict with people have been identified in, for example, Botswana, but these need to be actively protected by genuine community co-ownership.
Paper parks like the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) are struggling to achieve relevance because the political will to work together across its five countries is lacking at important ministerial levels. Meanwhile, efforts at the grassroots level to involve local communities both within and across borders in ecotourism value chains and conservation-compatible agriculture have greater potential for improving regional conservation outcomes and rural economic development. Blindly supporting ‘consumptive use’ of wild species on the grounds that a nation somehow ‘owns’ its elephants or that there are ‘too many’ crowds out the urgency of building viable alternatives to the status quo. Rural communities are hardly served by exporting, culling or hunting elephants. They are served by carefully crafted plans that recognise the biological and economic needs of both elephants and people, and put money straight into citizens’ pockets, particularly for women.
Zimbabwe’s decision to undermine a significant CITES resolution is indicative of the contempt it has for conservation. Equally, China’s decision to import the elephants is a violation of its own efforts to build an ‘Ecological Civilisation’. Both countries are member parties to CITES and they would do well to observe the spirit of its collective decision-making process. Instead of dismissing decisions that don’t go their way as evidence that ‘animal rights extremists’ have somehow manipulated the CoP, they should respect the independent minds of two-thirds of the Parties present. Crude utilitarianism – the willingness to sacrifice individual animals to achieve an evasive aesthetically-defined ‘carrying capacity’ – has no place in modern conservation that should strive to be both effective and ethical. We have to do better; we can do better.
He emerged silently from the gloom and ambled towards us with that gentle rocking gait that big bull elephants use to cover vast distances with minimal effort. His white tusks glowed in the moonshine, but otherwise, he was just a huge dark grey smudge that loomed larger by the second. The eight of us sat motionless on the ground and in his path, wondering if he had seen us, and felt extremely insignificant.
At about fifteen metres, he noticed the eight seemingly legless humans and came to an abrupt halt, ears outspread, inquisitive and indecisive. Silence blanketed our group and the minutes ticked by as the elephant considered his options. Occasionally, he shuffled a little closer to get a better look at us, and as he raised his tusks in a bid to appear even larger and more intimidating, he was almost comical. Almost.
Next to me, Lizz was bravely staring wide-eyed at the gentle giant towering over us. I could hear her heart beating and sense her agitation, as fear and wonder battled for dominance. The instinct to stand up and run was almost overwhelming, but we obeyed Alan’s calm hand-signal instructions and wordlessly held our ground. At one stage, the huge grey ghost took a few steps towards one member of our team who was set apart from the rest by a few metres and Alan shifted his foot slightly as a distraction. The effect was dramatic as the elephant gave an exaggerated ear-clap, hit reverse gear and shuffled off. He met up with another bull about eighty metres away, and they had a brief discussion about us; often pointedly glancing in our direction. Discretion seemed to win the day, as they turned and melted away into the moon-shadows, like spirits of the African night.
We remained seated for a while, each lost in our thoughts, before picking our way back to the game drive vehicle about a hundred metres away. Not a word was spoken during the encounter, and no photos were taken, though I doubt that our gentleman elephant would have appreciated the flash. We all agreed that the overriding sense that we got from the giant creature was one of surprise and confusion, followed by curiosity. There was no anger, malevolence or belligerence. Alan drove the ten kilometres to our surprise bush dinner location on a hilltop with the vehicle lights off – the poacher’s moon provided ample light for navigation – which was a surreal and fitting end to a profoundly personal elephant encounter that will stay with each of us for the remainder of our days.
Naturally, this is an unusual way to encounter elephants and certainly should not be assumed to be the norm or attempted. I do provide context at the end of this story.
Our 2019 Photographer of the Year winner and two runners-up had joined Lizz and me on safari in Klaserie Private Nature Reserve, along with their companions. We enjoyed five days of fantastic wildlife sightings, culinary delights, wine and gin tastings and two fascinating and informative presentations from experts in their respective fields.
What follows is a selection of images from our group, with extended captions to provide the full story behind the photographs.
A giraffe bull interrupts his drink and jerks his head up in reaction to an impala alarm snort. The lips and epiglottis of a giraffe form two valves and the pumping action of the jaw creates the push effect for the water. This allows them to counteract gravity and pump water up the neck and into the oesophagus.
A baby elephant nurses from his mother. We were parked at a waterhole when a small family group arrived to drink water. They were unfazed by our presence a few metres from where they chose to drink, although a few tiny youngsters rolled their eyes at us and positioned themselves on the other side of larger herd members. The matriarch was always watching us and frequently rumbled to her herd as if to reassure them of our good intentions.
Jumping spider (subtribe Aelurillina). Our 2019 Photographer of the Year managed to find jumping spiders in the grounds of Amani Safari Camp and was lost in her own world for hours as she planned and took this image.
Yet another stunning sunset drinks stop, after a day of exploring Klaserie Private Nature Reserve.
Jens waited patiently for about 30 minutes for this stunning sequence. The immature gabar goshawk perched patiently and in full view on a dead tree overlooking a waterhole, as squadrons of golden-breasted buntings, lark-like buntings, red-billed queleas, blue waxbills, yellow-fronted canaries and Namaqua doves pulsed back and forth from the water’s edge. This golden-breasted bunting ventured too close to the raptor and paid for the mistake with his life. Jen’s reactions were lightning-fast, and burst mode settings ensured this marvellous sequence of images.
This young male leopard spent the better part of an hour lounging insouciantly around our game drive vehicle before deciding to relieve his boredom with several uncommitted hunting attempts. A scrub hare was the first to draw his attention, followed by a Natal francolin and finally, a party of blue waxbills drinking at a puddle of water!
Surprise, surprise! During an afternoon game drive, this is what awaited us in the shade of ancient trees along a sandy riverbed. To add to the alcoholic and culinary delights, on another evening, we were treated to a delightful wine and food pairing presented by Safari Wines of Hoedspruit – which lasted well into the night!
September signals the peak of the dry season in the Kruger area and herbivores are hard-pressed to meet their nutritional needs. The versatility of the impala feeding strategy confers an enormous advantage and allows them to switch to browsing leaves when the nutritious grass is no longer available. Many of the ewes are pregnant at this time of year and early to mid-November will bring lambing season – hopefully, the first rains of the season will arrive in time!
Klaserie’s final gift. The last game drive on the morning of our departure netted this exciting encounter. This small group of painted wolves (African wild dogs) loped over the coming rise and dashed past, all business and focus. We were simply part of the scenery to them.
Our safari group, somewhere in Klaserie Private Game Reserve, under an ancient weeping boerbean tree: 2019 Photographer of the Year Eraine van Schalkwyk and her friend Keegan Schoeman; runner-up Jens Cullmann and partner Sophie Leemans; runner-up Bob Ditty and his son Luke; Africa Geographic CEO Simon Espley and his wife Lizz; private guide Alan McSmith and Klaserie Drift Safari Camps manager Dawie Jansen.
ABOUT THAT ELEPHANT ENCOUNTER, and our guide
Alan McSmith identifying spoor in the sand.
Earlier that evening, we had spent about an hour with the same two bull elephants who were feeding peacefully next to our vehicle. We left them to enjoy sundowner drinks a few kilometres down the track. Alan McSmith is a highly regarded and experienced private guide, who regularly hosts guests all over Africa. He was chosen to guide this special safari precisely due to his understanding of elephants. During the sundowner stop, Alan invited us to join him about a hundred metres from the vehicle, where we sat down, closed our eyes and zoned into our surroundings. Amidst the usual insect and bird calls as the darkness set in, the crack of a nearby breaking branch had us all glancing at Alan.
“OK,” he whispered, “the big guys have decided to join us for sundowners. We have two choices – we can either all go back to the vehicle, or we stay. If we stay, you obey my instructions. These bulls are relaxed, they are inquisitive, and they are walking into our space – all of which means that we are quite safe – so long as we all relax and let them find us and choose their way out of here.”
By deciding to stay put, we were treated to one of the most extraordinary elephant experiences imaginable.
ABOUT KLASERIE DRIFT SAFARI CAMPS
The Klaserie Drift Safari Camps are set on 3,000 hectares of prime land in the heart of the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve, offering a genuine, exclusive retreat into nature. The camps are ideally located for guests to enjoy all the wildlife Africa has to offer, in a private and secluded setting, featuring the Big 5, incredibly diverse landscapes and comfortable accommodation with all modern amenities.
Amani Safari Camp
Amani Safari Camp provides private, tranquil accommodation for eight guests in a large thatched villa. The layout of this camp is unique, comprising a central living area and four en-suite bedrooms. Each bedroom has its private garden entrance and large windows providing access to remarkable views of the bushveld. The central living area features two open plan lounges on the ground floor, as well as a library and a TV room on the open-air second level. The lounges open onto a large wooden deck which provides the perfect setting for the ultimate dining experience. A pathway leads to another outdoor lounge area with a swimming pool to allow you a moment to relax in the sunshine.
Misava Safari Camp
Misava Safari Camp is the perfect place to unwind, relax and enjoy what the Kruger bushveld has to offer. The new camp has been designed in line with nature – the name Misava is the Shangaan word meaning Earth. The camp overlooks the Klaserie River from the vantage point of a cliff. Misava has three elegant garden-view rooms and two opulent villas overlooking the river, each with its private deck area. The main building is adjacent to the dining area with casual seating and a fully stocked bar which then leads to the open-air boma/fire pit and a wooden deck overlooking a watering hole.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, SIMON ESPLEY
Simon Espley is an African of the digital tribe, a chartered accountant and CEO of Africa Geographic. His travels in Africa are in search of wilderness, real people with interesting stories and elusive birds. He lives in South Africa with his wife Lizz and two Jack Russells, and when not travelling or working, he will be on his mountain bike somewhere out there. His motto is ‘Live for now, have fun, be good, tread lightly and respect others. And embrace change.’
The soaring popularity of the social media marketplace has created a global trade where almost anything can be procured over the internet: second-hand car parts, clothing, gadgets and, somehow inevitably, illegal wildlife. Parrots are one of the most trafficked animal orders on the planet and have long been recognised as under siege due to the pet trade. As endangered African grey parrots are removed in their hundreds from the forests of their natural habitats, a new study has highlighted how social media facilitates this trade and how governing bodies, airlines and technology companies can play their part in preventing it.
In a study published in Global Ecology and Conservation, researchers set out to investigate the role of social media in the trade of wild-sourced African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus and P. timneh) and their conclusions suggest ways in which this method could be used in the fight against illegal trade. While the role of social media in the trade of wild animals has been recognised as a serious conservation concern for years, this study (jointly funded by the World Parrot Trust and World Animal Protection) was the first of its kind to examine the effect on parrots.
The authors of the study examined 259 posts on an unnamed social media site featuring trade in African greys during a period between 2014 and 2018, concluding that over 70% of them contravened CITES regulations. The authors set about analysing every aspect of the posts including the wording and origin of the posts; the ages of the birds (juvenile parrots are recognisable by their grey irises); the behaviour of the birds and the estimated number of birds visible in the included images (often over a hundred birds).
Where possible, they used the images in the posts to obtain information including the Cargo Tracking Code to identify the transit route used and cross-referenced this information against airline records, internal export and import records of the relevant countries and the CITES-published trade reports. In so doing, they were able to confirm which posts featured birds sourced from the wild and that the majority of these trades would have been in contravention of either local law or CITES regulations.
Using this method, the researchers concluded that the vast majority of the exports originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo (a country with a notably poor history of CITES compliance), with a smaller number from west Africa. The parrots were imported predominantly into western and southern Asia (notably Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan and Iraq during the study period) for an average of $203 per bird. Interestingly, in cases where the Cargo Tracking Code could be traced, all shipments of birds were flown by either Turkish Airlines or Ethiopian Airlines and transited through either Istanbul or Addis Ababa. Minimal effort was made to follow standard welfare practices, meaning that the birds were transported in overcrowded crates without perches under extremely stressful conditions.
The study calls upon both technology and social media companies, as well as airlines, to work with experts to take advantage of this newfound intel into trade routes – the former by reporting posts advertising suspected illegal activity as well as removing offending posts and the latter by reporting suspicious shipments to enforcement authorities. This has been made easier since the placement of African grey parrots on Appendix I at the beginning of 2017, meaning that all shipments of wild birds are automatically in contravention of trade regulation.
The Appendix I classification, as well as a suspension on exports from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2016 (which before that exported around 49% of the wild-sourced African grey parrots), made the time frame for the study particularly relevant in using the data to extrapolate the effect of such regulations.
Interestingly, the study did not find any significant variation in the trade activity across the study period, which the researchers suggest means that the reduced captive market did not increase illegal trade (which is often the contention put forward by those arguing against an Appendix I classification). There was, however, a spike in activity in the months before the enactment to the restriction of trade exported from the DRC which the authors advocate should be taken into account before the adoption of such restrictions or regulations.
The authors emphasise that there are limitations to this method of study, especially given the number of online scams and the inability to access direct private messages, and suggest that their findings present a “snapshot of trade activity”, rather than an accurate reflection of trade. However, this snapshot shows a global market where the traders advertising the sale of these birds do so publicly and seemingly without fear of enforcement.
“Social media has opened up a new front in the ongoing battle against the trapping of wild parrots. While providing new opportunities for traffickers to ply their trade, it also affords valuable insights into how to stop it” said Dr Rowan Martin of the World Parrot Trust and one of the lead authors of the study.
Full report: R. Martin, C Senni and N D’Cruze (2019). Trade in wild-sourced African grey parrots: Insights via social media. Global Ecology and Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00429
GUEST POST by Kim Wolhuter, wildlife filmmaker and photographer
I was walking in the sandy riverbed of the Chiredzi River in southeastern Zimbabwe towards the end of the dry season. There’s always a lot of activity along the river and I find it a special place to walk. On the eastern bank, I spotted an elephant bull feeding, but all I could see was a prize view of his rear end – an image that looks like a nappy wrapped around a baby’s bum, although this was no baby. Just to the south of the elephant, there was a steep-sided gully, so I decided to follow it in order to get a better view.
I watched as the elephant stripped his last mouthful of leaves from a mopani tree and stepped around to move past it… and that was when he saw me. Without hesitation, he charged! He was only 15 metres away from me but I stood my ground, believing he wouldn’t come down into the steep gully. Thankfully I was right and as he stopped just short of the edge. And that’s when I saw his mighty tusks! Standing in this little gully with this huge pachyderm towering over me, his ivory reaching for the skies, was my introduction to Samanyanga – a true Malilangwe icon!
I hadn’t seen such an impressive elephant since the mighty tusker Tshokwane in the Kruger National Park in the 90s. Samanyanga’s ivory was already much the same weight as Tshokwane’s, but his tusks were beautifully evenly matched in length and shape. I believe that Samanyanga was truly one of the very few African elephant icons left in the world today. I couldn’t help myself and just had to film him.
It took me several days before I found him again. He was in the company of another bull feeding on the bank of the Chiredzi River. I drove over to where he was standing in the shade of a large Acacia tortilis tree. Such a gentleman, he obliged my company and continued to occasionally drag a trunk full of cool soil to toss over his back, under his belly and across his sides. Despite the giant that he was, he did this with such elegance.
He moved with ease and the demeanour of a true idol. As he sauntered down the riverbank his head swayed from side to side under the full weight of his majestic ivory. With more reason than a swaggering football player, Samanyanga was entitled to stride in his glory. As he drank from the river his seemingly endless tusks extended deep into the water. A crocodile lay peacefully on a sandbank only metres away as the gentle giant waded through the river to the other side. As he hauled his himself up the riverbank the setting sun glowed a perfect gold on his beautifully balanced pair of tusks.
I travelled home relishing the privilege I had of spending the whole day with him.
Samanyanga remained elusive. He would be spotted every now and then, but when I actively searched I would never find him. It was only several months later when we received a report about a large tusked elephant with one of its tusks freshly broken. We immediately set off to find this elephant, and just after sunset we spotted him – it was Samanyanga. Not only was his one tusk broken but he also seemed to have lost his dignity and composure.
We sat in the vehicle in the darkness as he slowly grazed towards us. Taryn, my wife, was concerned that he was getting too close (he was only centimetres away at one point). Of that I was certain, but starting the car right then would have startled him. We sat silently as he pulled grass tufts from the loose earth, dusting them on the ground before eating them. He was very obliging and half-an-hour later he eventually moved far away enough for to me to start the car.
I followed up on Samanyanga the next morning. He was now in a very different mood and I was not about to get in his way. He was striding east towards another bull. The other bull was pretty much the same size as him but his tusks were a lot smaller. As Samanyanga approached the bull turned to challenge him. A fallen tree lay between them and in a display of strength they tossed it around. Then with their heads held high they clashed. It was an intense but brief encounter and soon both elephants backed off. That was the end of their challenge and they went their separate ways. I wondered if they hadn’t met before and perhaps that’s how Samanyanga’s right tusk had been broken.
Samanyanga spent the next few weeks hanging around this area – so much out of character – and then the rains arrived and he disappeared again. He was seen a few times to the south after that but never come back up here.
Eventually, there were no new reports coming through of his location, but then one day scouts on patrol reported a carcass of a one-tusked elephant.
Upon hearing this news I knew I had to get to the carcass. I had visions of it being Samanyanga and that was something I personally wanted to confirm or… rather not. Just getting to the location was tough, and driving the last 500 metres off-road took me half-an-hour of negotiating through thick vegetation.
Eventually, I arrived at a clearing littered with bones. One huge tusk lay curved on the ground reaching for the heavens and the other was broken about a foot from the base. There was little doubt that this was Samanyanga. His tusks were incredibly thick and truly impressive, totally dwarfing me.
Bones littered the clearing, but nothing else was left of Samanyanga. Even the smell of rotting meat was all but gone. I reflected back on the first day I met him… those massive tusks towering over me. But now, in that clearing, those massive tusks laid at my feet. I tried to find clues to the cause of his death but the scavenging hyenas and vultures had left none. For Samanyanga, I’d like to believe he died a noble death – fighting.
His legacy will live on, his ivory will be forever.
It is a year since the BBC first screened Dynasties: Painted Wolves and nearly three since they stopped filming in Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe. Since then, the dynasty has struggled. In part two of this trilogy (read part one here), Nicholas Dyer, who has followed these packs for the last seven years, continues the story with Blacktip’s tale.
The BBC, in their Dynasties film, painted Blacktip with something of the night about her. An aggressive creature that drove her mother, Tait, into the “Pridelands” and to her death. In doing so, she put her pack in great danger, driving them to the point of mutiny. The drama concludes with the dramatic death of a female called Tennessee to the jaws of a senseless crocodile.
After the attack, they ran “all through the day… all through the night,” as narrated by Sir David Attenborough, with a heavy dose of dramatic hyperbole. Given the speed and stamina of these animals, they would have reached Botswana. The reality was that they moved five kilometres upstream and found a tiny waterhole near a place called Mucheni.
What fascinated me was that they ‘camped’ here for nine consecutive days, heading off to hunt in radials at dawn and dusk. It was November and by now painted wolves (also referred to as African wild dogs) should be highly nomadic, rarely returning to the same spot on consecutive days. It appeared that Tennessee’s death shook them and Blacktip wanted a place for her subdued pack to recover from their loss near a safe supply of water.
Gradually the pack regained its confidence. It was punishingly hot as the Zambezi Valley waited patiently for the rains. In the late afternoons, as the brutal sun declined towards the Zambian escarpment, the pack would be released from the protective shade of the Natal mahoganies, descending a small slope to drink and play. As their self-assurance grew, so did their boisterous afternoon games as they splashed and danced in that tiny pool, while Blacktip looked on protectively. It was for me the most wondrous time I have ever spent photographing painted wolves – thirteen wolves with nine puppies doing what they loved best.
The real Blacktip
The depiction of Blacktip as a ruthless malevolent creature is not how I saw her, although her dusky features certainly lent themselves to this sinister characterisation. Like her mother before her, Blacktip was an incredible leader, commanding her pack with determination, discipline and even innovation.
I first saw Blacktip in 2014 when she led a pack of 30 painted wolves, 15 of which were her puppies. A pack that size requires cohesion and a strong leader. Rudyard Kipling summed it up perfectly:
“For the strength of the pack is the wolf, And the strength of the wolf is the pack.”
Blacktip and her Nyakasanga Pack were the epitome of this. As I got to know the pack over the years, I recognised that each of its members had their specialities. Her alpha male, Jiani, and three other males were spectacular hunters – swift and agile. Taku, who the BBC named Pip (after the sound her radio collar made), was a doting aunt to the pups, always attentive and willing to play. And there was Tris, a gorgeous yearling that legendary guide, Henry Bandure nicknamed “Doc” because she would always lick the wounds of the injured.
Blacktip never seemed to be an overprotective or nurturing mother. She often sat well away from the den mouth and left the babysitting to Taku. She would frequently head off with the others on a hunt, heavy milk-laden breasts swaying as she tackled fleeing impala. She loved to be in the mix on the hunt but understood the art of delegation – an essential skill in running any pack – and the un-mollycoddled pups learnt to grow up healthy.
Blacktip pioneered something that has never been recorded before – predation on baboons. The development of this critical new food source for the painted wolves of Mana Pools seemed to coincide with a boom in the baboon population.
This innovation not only fed the pack, but also helped to restore some balance to the Mana Pools ecosystem. Her pack benefited by consuming less energy on the hunt and avoided many potential injuries incurred on a long chase across rough ground. Through this behaviour, Blacktip gave me two incredible gifts: a stunning photograph which got me into the final of the highly acclaimed NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, and my first article in National Geographic, both achievements of which I am very proud. For this, I will always be grateful to Blacktip.
Like her mother, her contribution to the dwindling painted wolf population was also exceptional. Painted wolf pups have a 50% attrition rate in their first year, but Blacktip’s record far exceeded this. In 2014 all 15 pups survived until the rains arrived, in 2015 all six survived, and in 2016 nine out of the eleven made it. The following year was less successful with only four of 14 puppies surviving, but last year she had seven, and they are all still alive today.
Many of her pups have dispersed from the Nyakasanga to take their genes across the Zambezi Valley and beyond. Creatures like Tris simply disappeared, but that does not necessarily mean she met a nasty end. She could well be the mother of a successful pack as far away as Mozambique, beyond where Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) monitors resident populations.
Taku, one of Blacktip’s daughters that I knew well, dispersed with her sister Taj and met two males near the Ruckomechi River to form her own pack. Taj passed away last year, as did one of the males, but Taku is still there today with her alpha Tafara and two little pups, forming the nascent Rukomechi Pack. Last seen, she was pregnant again.
Last November (2018) I drove into Mana Pools just before the rains, hoping to find Blacktip and the Nyakasanga. The book launch had kept me in Europe, so I had not been in the park since August. They had been sighted near the Ruckomechi River, so PDC’s exceptional tracker Thomas Mutonhori and I headed out to find them. On the way, the heavens opened for the first time that season. It was torrential, and very quickly Mana Pools turned into a lake.
Alone in our convoy of two cars, we stopped regularly to tow, dig and winch each other out of glue-like mud. Thomas picked up signal some two kilometres away – coming from a newly collared female called Tray, but neither my Landcruiser nor his Land Rover could make it any further. We decided to continue on foot, Thomas with his tracking gear and I with my kikoi-wrapped camera. We jumped over small streams and walked around massive newly formed lakes. While we would have been happy to wade, it is amazing how quickly crocodiles take up residence.
After a three-hour zigzagging walk, we found them – Blacktip and the other adults huddled under a tree against the rain. Like us, they were drenched, and the puppies seemed in awe. It suddenly occurred to me that they had never seen rain before. They stared perplexed into newly formed puddles and seemed strangely subdued by this new sensation of water falling from the sky.
I was ecstatic to be with Blacktip and Jiani again, and took a few photos but spent more time watching them. I had missed them greatly, and this was the first time I had seen her pups since the den. Eventually, she rose, summoned her pack and led them deep into the sodden bush.
As they disappeared through the dying drizzles of the storm, I wondered whether I would ever see her again. Although looking fit, she was now aged nine and bordering on the maximum life expectancy of a painted wolf. I shuddered, but not because I was cold and wet. I felt the hollow sadness of a passing era but was also grateful that I had got to see her at least one last time. Tears rolled down my face, thankfully disguised by the rain, although I could sense that Thomas felt the same. We started our long walk back in silence. This was the last anyone saw of her.
When Thomas returned to the park the following April (2019), he messaged me to say he had found the Nyakasanga pack – minus Blacktip. The familiar few days of hope lingered until a few sightings later when Thomas confirmed that Blacktip did not make it through the rains. Her final fate is unknown, but old age was good enough for me.
I went into Mana a short while later and met up with Thomas to find the pack. We headed back along the road we took in November, laughing at the visible dried-out ruts and the memories of what caused them when we were last there. Thomas eventually picked up Tray’s signal deep in the mopane forests on the western boundaries of the park. We followed on foot – they were still on the move although it was a bit too late in the morning for hunting.
Eventually, we saw them under a tree. But there were only three painted wolves. It was Tray and two of her sisters, Poet and Lylie. Where were the others? There was no sign or tracks to suggest the rest of the pack was nearby.
We soon figured that these girls were dispersing from the main pack and out to form a pack of their own. I met up with award-winning writer Sue Watt in a nearby lodge. For the next three days, we followed them as they meandered around the park, while Thomas focused on finding the rest of the Nyakasanga.
I named the girls “The Three Degrees”. Tray and Poet were both three years old, while their younger sister, Lylie, was just two. Poet seemed to be the potential alpha, although all were incredible hunters. They were often taking two impalas between the three of them every day, getting their fill and leaving the rest for the hyenas. They were also covering considerable ground, marking their territory continuously, advertising for some wandering males.
Sue wrote a staggeringly beautiful twelve-page article in September’s issue of Wanderlust magazine, which is a joy to read. She became emotionally attached to The Three Degrees, and she expresses this so well through her writing.
Meanwhile, Thomas had found the remaining members of the Nyakasanga Pack, and I joined him a few days later. Jiani, now the 10-year-old widower, was still alive but looking very frail. All his older offspring had disappeared. Now the eldest were the inexperienced two-year-olds Whiskey, Gamma and Vincent. The other seven remaining wolves were yearlings, Blacktip’s pups from last year. They were all siblings, and Jiani was the father of them all.
The outlook for this pack was now very uncertain. There was a significant lack of experience and frail leadership. The pack continued to look after the old man, but it was hard to escape the conclusion that he was holding them back and possibly even putting them in danger. Despite these challenges, they remained full of energy and joy and looked healthy and fit.
While out of the park, I received another message from Thomas to say that he had watched Jiani continually humping Whiskey. My humanness made me feel a little queasy at the thought of this randy old man and his daughter, but that soon passed when, shortly after, Thomas called me to say that a lion had killed Jiani. The old man had finally passed, and with Tammy struggling on the other side of the park, the dynasty was in peril.
A month later, Whiskey was looking unequivocally expectant, despite it being well outside the regular denning season. Her late father was the only suspect. She denned where she was born, a favourite spot for both her mother, Blacktip, and grandmother, Tait. She had five healthy puppies who are bizarrely both the second and third generation of Tait’s dynasty. As far as I know, this incest is unrecorded. Painted wolves’ dispersal patterns are generally designed to ensure a high genetic diversity. There is still no male that has taken up the alpha role, although as usual, all the members of the pack are enthusiastically helping to raise the pups.
They moved onto the floodplain; ten adults and five puppies, all well and strong. In mid-October this year (2019) I returned to Mana Pools in the hopes of seeing them again. Henry Bandure and Simeon Josia (who both guided the BBC) and I eventually located the pack sleeping on the western edge of the park. We watched the tightly knit bundles of fur for half an hour, but try as we may we could unfortunately only see two pups shielded in the centre.
Eventually, the pack awoke and performed a half-hearted greeting ceremony, and the two pups started hoo-calling for their lost siblings. No reply came, though the pups continued their haunting cry until the pack disappeared into the dusk.
Their melancholic cry lingered in my soul for the rest of the night. Finding the pack the next morning confirmed the demise of other three pups, most likely to the jaws of deadly hyenas. These young painted wolves probably didn’t have the skills and experience to defend against a brutal attack. But some part of me couldn’t help feeling that while very sad, it was probably for the best. Through no fault of their own, the pups were severely inbred and carried with them potentially serious consequences for the local gene pool.
Meanwhile, the Three Degrees moved down the Zambezi and soon found themselves in Tammy’s territory. Tammy had just left the den with her ten pups, and the three females were regular visitors. These female rivals caused Tammy visible stress at first, although her three remaining males (Jimmy, Timmy and Taurai) were far more sanguine. But perhaps recognising the weakness of her pack, she soon accepted their presence, and while keeping them as outsiders, she increasingly allowed them to come and play with her pups.
After a few weeks of these growing encounters, Tammy’s pack was attacked by hyenas in which all but one of her pups were killed. Tammy herself sustained a massive wound to her right shoulder. Two days later, Tammy succumbed to her injuries and passed away. This left the three males to look after the last remaining pup, but unfortunately, the little pup did not survive for long.
It did not take long for the Three Degrees – Poet, Tray and little Lylie – to get together with the last surviving Nyamatusi members – Jimmy, Timmy and Taurai. Even more interesting is that they have recently been joined by another of Blacktip’s daughters, Tsoko, who dispersed earlier this year and went missing. It is now a new pack in the making, and it is yet to be decided who out of the seven will become the alphas. We will not know this until the start of the breeding season next year.
But one thing we do know for sure. With concerns over the inbreeding within what was left of the Nyakasanga, these seven painted wolves provide the strongest known thread from which the incredible dynasty of Tait, Blacktip and Tammy can continue.
Since the end of the filming of Dynasties, those packs made famous by the film and immortalised in my book Painted Wolves: A Wild Dogs Life, which I co-authored with Peter Blinston, have struggled. It is a time of flux, and while to the casual observer, the painted wolves continue to provide tremendous entertainment and superb photographic opportunities, underneath this, the dynasty is under pressure.
But given the terrain, the absence of people and the protection of PDC and ZimParks, Mana Pools should always remain a haven for the painted wolf and one of the most spectacular places to see them.
For me, following the painted wolves of the Zambezi Valley for the last seven years has been an incredible privilege, albeit an emotional journey. As anyone who has seen the Dynasties film will testify, they bring such incredible joy, but with that comes deep sadness when you see them suffer. They have become an integral part of my life, my feelings woven into a never-ending roller-coaster of delight, anguish and despair. But I would not stop that ride for the world.
Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe is a World Heritage Site and one of the last true wildernesses in the world. It is the only park in Africa where you are allowed to walk alone, albeit at your own risk. It is also one of the best places to view painted wolves. Many of the photographs in this article were taken at the den. Nick visited the dens under the guidance and supervision of Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) and ZimParks in preparation for the campaign to raise global awareness of this endangered species. Denning season is a sensitive time for the painted wolves and Nick, and PDC would strongly discourage den visits for reasons unrelated to conservation. They would, however, strongly encourage visitors to thoroughly enjoy painted wolf sightings but always treat them with respect and observe the sensible Mana Pools’ “Code of Conduct”.
ABOUT THE PAINTED WOLF FOUNDATION
The Painted Wolf Foundation (PWF)was set up by Nicholas Dyer, Peter Blinston and leading conservationist Diane Skinner. It aims to raise awareness about this much-threatened and ignored species and support organisations that conserve painted wolves on the ground. PWF is a UK-registered charity (Number 1176674).
THE BOOK
PAINTED WOLVES: A Wild Dog’s Life
The painted wolf is Africa’s most persecuted predator. It is also the most elusive and enigmatic. For six years, Nick has been tracking and photographing them on foot in the Zambezi Valley.
For twenty years, Peter has been doing all he can to save them from extinction. If there is one book that will let you into the secret world of the painted wolves, this is it, expertly narrated across 300 pages and illustrated with over 220 stunning images.
“Wildlife photographer Nick Dyer and conservationist Peter Blinston have crowdfunded a new book, Painted Wolves: A Wild Dog’s Life, which takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the lives of the painted wolves and what is being done to save them. It’s a beautiful book full of interesting facts and stunning photos, which I hope will raise the profile of the animals.” ~ Sir Richard Branson Buy the book here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Nicholas Dyer
Nick grew up in Kenya and after careers in finance and marketing in the UK, has found a new métier as a wildlife photographer, author and conservationist with a deep passion for painted wolves. He has spent much of the last six years photographing the packs of Mana Pools on foot while living in his tent on the banks of the Zambezi. He is a founder of the Painted Wolf Foundation and frequently gives talks around the world on this neglected species. He was an award winner in the 2018 NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition and leads specialist photographic safaris in Mana and across Africa so that people can experience this stunning creature. See more of his photography at www.nicholasdyer.com, and follow him on his Facebook and Instagram page.
OPINION POST by Susan McConnell – biologist and conservation photographer at Stanford University
Katavi National Park has a hippo problem, and according to news sources, Tanzanian President John Magufuli has ordered Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) to undertake a radical approach to addressing the issue.
Katavi is known widely, especially among photographers, for dramatic congregations of plains game and predators around the little water that remains at the end of the dry season. As the waters of the Katuma River and its tributaries recede, large numbers of hippos amass in pools thick with mud and faeces. The high density of hippos leads to dramatic interactions as they jostle for space within the pools.
Recent diversions of water from the Katuma River for irrigation by local farmers have caused hippos to stray from the national park into villages in search of water. This has led to intense conflicts with villagers and reports of injuries and deaths to both people and hippos. Several dozen hippos also took up residence in the waters of a dam earmarked for human use. In reaction, the Minister for Natural Resources announced a plan in August to relocate 10% of hippos and crocodiles in water located near villages, and some news reports suggested that TANAPA would cull 50 hippos to reduce the population.
On October 11, President Magufuli interceded, pointing out that the problem was caused by people and animals competing for water. In public remarks, he said, “Hippos too depend on the same resource for their survival, thus the complaints will never stop until appropriate measures are taken to address the problem”. He also noted that culling hippos would have negative consequences for tourism. Magufuli then directed TANAPA to supply water to the hippo pools in an effort to keep hippos within park boundaries. Water trucks arrived soon thereafter and replenished the water in several hippo basins.
Magufuli also ordered a much more radical approach: he has asked TANAPA to construct artificial hippo pools that will provide the animals with a stable and long-term source of both water and grasses.
Within two weeks of the October 11 announcement, construction of a concrete dam wall began inside Katavi National Park. The dam is being installed roughly a hundred metres downstream from a bridge across the Ikuu River, a small tributary of the Katuma River, at the heart of one of the most active game drive circuits in the park. Workers at the dam said that the wall would be about 1 metre high, allowing the river to flow over when water levels were high and thus reach villages downstream. They also planned to dredge sand and dirt from the current hippo pool to deepen it and form a permanent basin.
These actions have been taken without consideration of the broader environmental impacts of introducing dams and artificial pools to the park, including a long-term increase in hippo populations, the likelihood that Ikuu dam will affect water supplies farther up the channel, and the possibility that the entire ecology of Katavi could be altered dramatically in response.
The rapid construction of the dam is all the more puzzling in light of a news report stating that President Magufuli has directed Rukwa and Katavi regional authorities and TANAPA to conduct comprehensive research on the best way to conserve hippos in the region. The initiation of dam construction only two weeks after the President’s announcement, with no reasonable time for research, ecological analysis, or input from Katavi safari operations, gives cause for alarm. One wonders whether this decision marks a change in the management of TANAPA that will affect other national parks and reserves as well.
The Tanzanian Tourist Board promotes Katavi as offering “unspoilt wildlife viewing in the country’s third-largest national park, in a remote location far off the beaten track. The national park is Africa at its most wild – unadulterated bush settings, spectacular views, and rich wildlife”. It is hard to believe this will be true after the construction of the first dam is completed.
The Government of Zimbabwe and conservation non-profit African Parks signed a 20-year agreement on Friday 1st November for the management of the iconic Matusadonha National Park. At 1,470 km², the park stretches from the Matusadonha hills down to the shores of Lake Kariba. African Parks, in partnership with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority will implement management strategies to secure the park and restore wildlife populations, unlocking its ecological, social and economic value enabling communities to derive long-term benefits. Matusadonha is the 16th protected area to join African Parks’ management portfolio.
“Zimbabwe is among the world’s richest nations in natural resources and wildlife. These are assets which have drawn millions of visitors annually and form a vital base for our economy, requiring adequate management to enhance their contributions to development” said Mr Fulton Mangwanya, Director-General of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. “Our public-private partnership with African Parks to restore Matusadonha helps to leverage conservation further as a sustainable mechanism for growth, promoting a tourism economy to benefit people while ensuring the protection of Zimbabwe’s wildlife.”
Matusadonha is an ecologically diverse landscape in the Zambezian biome. It is flanked by the Ume and Sanyati rivers, with 700 metre-high hills descending to its northern boundary on the shores of Lake Kariba. Mixed woodlands and scrublands cover the slopes and ridges of the escarpment, the plateaus and the plains, and a forest of trees semi-submerged by the lake stretches the length of the shoreline.
The park harbours more than 240 bird species, baobab woodlands and wildlife including elephant, lion and buffalo. However, decades of poaching coupled with insufficient management resources contributed to its decline. Elephant numbers have been drastically reduced and the once abundant population of black rhinos have been largely eliminated.
“We are proud to be partnering with the Government of Zimbabwe for the first time to develop the potential of one of its most exceptional national parks,” said Peter Fearnhead, CEO of African Parks. “Zimbabwe has a strong history of conservation excellence, and our shared ambition is to ensure that Matusadonha is revitalised as one of southern Africa’s leading protected areas. If we invest in protecting parks like these today, we’re investing in assets that will continue to provide value to the nation and the continent into the future”.
The Zimbabwe Government and African Parks will fully restore the park, implementing good infrastructure, law enforcement, conservation and community development programmes. Once a stronghold for black rhino, the park will be secured and reestablished as a sanctuary for these critically endangered animals and other key species. Matusadonha holds a special place for Zimbabwe as a tourism and heritage area, with its spectacular position on Lake Kariba. A management priority will be to enhance this status, enabling local communities to benefit from sustainable tourism.
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.
Matusadonha National Park is the first protected area in Zimbabwe to come under the management of African Parks, a new milestone which expands their portfolio to sixteen protected areas, covering almost 11 million hectares across ten countries. The Wyss Foundation, Oak Foundation and Stichting Natura Africae are strategic partners of African Parks and are contributing part of the operational support for Matusadonha’s management.
Rwanda has a dark history with a civil war in 1991 and the tragedy of the 1994 genocide. Despite this, Rwanda appears to be a country that is turning itself around. There is certainly a conscious move within the country towards conservation and as a result tourism. Rwanda has a zero-tolerance of plastic bags and is considered to be one of the cleanest, if not the cleanest, country in Africa. The world could learn a lot from this small landlocked African country.
Akagera National Park, the only place in Rwanda home to the Big 5, is located on Rwanda’s eastern border with Tanzania. The park is home to 480 bird species and is the largest wetland in Africa. The reserve was founded in 1934, at which time it covered 2,500 square kilometres. As a result of the civil war and the genocide, large sections of the park were reallocated as farmland and by 1997 the park had halved in size. It now spans over 1,000 square kilometres.
Due to poaching, many species including lion, rhino and a number of antelope species were wiped out. In 2010, African Parks formed a partnership with the Rwanda Development Board and assumed the management of Akagera National Park.
Since the formation of this joint partnership, the reserve has seen huge changes. In an effort to reduce friction between humans and wildlife, a 120-km solar powered predator-proof fence was erected. In 2015 lions were reintroduced and within two years the population had tripled. In 2017 two male lions were introduced to increase genetic diversity, and in the same year, 18 eastern black rhinos were reintroduced.
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 project was such a success that this year, as part of the largest relocation of rhinos from Europe to Africa, five zoo-born black rhinos can now call Akagera home.
In 2018, 44,000 tourists visited the park, half of whom were Rwandan nationals. In eight years the revenue generated from tourism has increased by 900 percent!
It goes without saying that the success of the reserve is important for the conservation of wildlife, but it is also a valuable source of income for the surrounding communities. The community and the national park go hand in hand; each cannot survive without the other. A percentage of the park fees goes to local communities and locals are employed within the park. Those that once poached now form part of the anti-poaching team. The locals are friendly and educated in conservation. There is an understanding of the importance of protecting wildlife.
After all, conserving pockets of paradise like this guarantees not just the preservation of species but also work for future generations. For Big 5 safaris to Akagera, click here.
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?
Trust & Safety
Guest payments go into a third-party TRUST ACCOUNT - protecting them in the unlikely event of a financial setback on our part. Also, we are members of SATSA who attest to our integrity, legal compliance and financial stability.
We donate a portion of the revenue from every safari sold to carefully selected conservation projects that make a significant difference at ground level.
YOUR safari choice does make a difference - thank you!
Andrea and René met in New Zealand in 2005. Since then they have worked and travelled in various places in Europe. Their biggest adventure was 
DID YOU KNOW that African Parks offers safari camps (lodges and campsites) where 100% of tourism revenue goes to conservation and local communities? 
Eraine holds a degree in Microbiology, and it is during the zoology part of her course that she learned more about spiders, prompting her interest in spider photography. For the past two and a half years, she has spent most of her free time searching for and photographing these interesting creatures. To see more of her photographs take a look at her 
