The 2017 Africa Geographic Photographer of the Year Competition is now closed for entries. Here are the Semi-finalists that have been put together in TWO galleries this week. Click here to see PART II of the gallery.
Located within the Réunion National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), you will find Piton de la Fournaise, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Also known as ‘The Peak of the Furnace’, the volcano has had more than 150 recorded eruptions since the 17th century, with the most recent eruption beginning on 31 January 2017.
Standing at 2,631 metres in height and about 530,000 years old, this volcano is one of Réunion Island’s most popular tourist attractions. It forms part of the island’s volcanic ‘hotspot’ – which basically means that the island forms part of a gigantic volcano that rises out of the 4,000 metre-deep ocean floor and is believed to have been active for over 66 million years.
About 400,000 people visit this climbable, active volcano every year. Despite its sulphurous and active reputation, it is pretty accessible to all, whatever your age or fitness level. Clearly though, the fitter and more sure-footed you are, the more of an up-close and personal experience you are going to be get.
You can drive to the rim of the external crater and simply gaze at the peak in the distance. Alternatively, if you have the time, you can climb it, starting from the waves lapping at its base in the Indian Ocean, and ultimately reaching the summit which is often in the clouds.
If you travel by car you will eventually arrive at the Plaine des Sables, which roughly translates to ‘plain sands’, an apt description for the wasteland of highly acidic volcanic sand in which nothing grows. For our own adventure, we had originally opted to drive to have a quick look from the viewing point, but as soon as I saw Piton de la Fournaise, I knew I had to climb it!
It was Easter weekend and there were tourists of all ages, shapes, sizes and nationalities who had come to marvel at the volcano at the viewing point. We left many of these tourists behind as only the more intrepid ventured down the five hundred or so steps of the outer crater, Enclos Foucque, to the caldera floor and on to the tiny crater Formica Leo – named for the similarity of its shape to the pitfalls built by antlions – formed during an 18th-century eruption.
All around us the seemingly endless lava plateau surrounded the central crater, Dolomieu, which loomed 350m above the caldera floor. Square kilometres of black and oxidized lava encompassed us, forming amazing shapes and giving the landscape an extraterrestrial, frozen-in-time look.
Once we reached the external crater floor we were faced with two options:
To the right was the shortest and steepest route to the top, which would take us directly to the summit, Crater Bory. To the left was the less strenuous, but longer and far more popular, route to the top. My guide, Nico, informed me that the left route could take about five hours.
“Longer if you talk a lot!” he added. Since as I do talk – a LOT – we opted for the shorter, but steeper, approach on the right. The path had mostly been obliterated by eruptions the previous year, so we were charting a new route.
Scrambling over the razor-sharp and brittle lava, we made it to the top pretty quickly and had the luxury of the place to ourselves. Sitting on the lip of the crater with our feet almost dangling over the abyss, we could just make out the people who had used the slower route to the left a kilometre away on the other side of the 300m-deep crater.
Sheer cliffs fell away to the still smouldering crater below where steam rose through vents in the earth, rising up to meet the clouds that tumbled down over the rim.
We sat for an hour, silently marvelling at the dramatic, barren landscape, thinking of the raw power of the volcano that had created this entire island. I had seen photos of ‘The Volcano’ (le Volcon as referred to by the locals), but nothing had prepared me for the reality of this other-worldly experience.
Finally, we hiked our way back over frozen waves of solidified lava and crushed volcanic rocks. I realised how apt the name ‘furnace’ was for this volcano that had produced the landscape of melted rocks and glass that surrounded us in every direction.
My trip to Reunion was arranged by The Reunion Tourism Board whose website has a great deal of helpful information about the many aspects of this amazing destination and whose photos I was authorized to use. Nicolas Cyprien was my guide while trekking Piton de la Fournaise.
This extensive papyrus swamp is characterised by small channels of marsh-filled water and lagoons and is located about 57km from Kampala city and an hour’s drive from Entebbe city. Lying on the edge of Lake Victoria, Mabamba Swamp is a massive 16,500 hectares and is part of the list of Wetlands of International Importance as chosen by the Ramsar Convention.
Search for this prehistoric bird in a boat is quite an experience! You will be polled around in a massive wooden fishing boat by an experienced guide who knows where to find shoebills in this vast swamp. To prepare yourself for the birding encounter of your life, read this interesting article about shoebills
According to Ismail, a local guide, shoebills like Mabamba because there are plenty of fish – thanks to the local fishermen who are passionate about protecting this precious wetland area.
Shoebill eating a lungfish
Meet the local fishermen
There was a time when the local community used to be enemies of shoebills as they competed for the same fish resource, but today many local people have been trained as tour guides who now strive to preserve both the birds and the swamp.
They are happy to tell you how Mabamba Swamp is named after a lungfish locally known as ‘emamba‘. According to Hanington, a guide who has lived on the marsh for 20 years, the lungfish can survive out of the water for up to three days, if it is watered every now and again.
Local fisherman
Rediscover the beauty of the other birds
While on the boat and searching for shoebills, be sure to look out for other species such as blue swallow, pallid harrier, papyrus gonolek, swamp flycatcher, pigmy goose, lesser jacana, white-winged warbler, Viellot’s weaver, grosbeak weaver, black-headed weaver, northern brown-throated weaver, Clarke’s weaver, palm-nut vulture and Carruther’s cisticola.
Across the bay are little islands where the local people grow delicious organic sweet pineapples, nutritious avocados and juicy tomatoes.
Pineapples loaded at the Mabamba Bay
Enjoy the Lake Victoria sunset
Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest freshwater lake and the second-largest freshwater lake in the world, after Lake Superior in the United States/Canada.
There are other areas where you can spot the shoebill, such as at Delta point in Murchison Falls National Park, Lake Mburo National Park, Ziwa Rhino sanctuary and Semliki Game Reserve.
There are plans afoot to move 80 rhinos from Africa to Australia as an ‘insurance policy’ and for ‘safekeeping’ in grass paddocks amongst the gum trees. Is this a valid conservation project for wild African rhinos or misdirection of energy and resources by a well-meaning Western society?
A spokesperson from The Australian Rhino Project (TARP) was refreshingly forthcoming with replies to most of my enquiries, and I have no doubt at all about the good intentions of those who have donated time and money to this cause. Good intentions aside, it’s worth assessing whether this effort is likely to impact positively on wild rhinos in Africa.
At the outset, I have to admit that I am wary of the Australian government’s conservation commitment – bearing in mind that without buy-in from the government this project is dead in the water (both now and in the future, if future generations of these rhinos are ever required back in Africa). In fact, the Australian authorities have already indicated that they will not permit the import of African rhinos without them being quarantined in a 3rd country. Australia has the ‘most animal extinctions in the world’, thanks to that government’s primary rural focus on mining and large scale farming, at the expense of ecosystems and species. I believe that actions speak louder than words, and ‘saving’ African rhinos while your own precious species and ecosystems go down the plughole, is an interesting aspect of this debate.
And, as an African, I cringe at how the Western world sometimes frames the African conservation debate. Without wishing to turn this post into a political one, there is sometimes a strong flavour of neo-colonialism and the ongoing ‘Disneyfication’ of Africa in some of these campaigns and discussions. I found this video on the TARP project particularly nauseating (just imagine you are Grandpa rhino?):
My questions for TARP, and their replies (lightly edited for efficiency):
1. Dehorning: Will you consider the dehorning of the rhinos if it is in the best interest of security, and if so, would you sell these horns if trade were to be legalised?
TARP: Rhinos are generally dehorned for transportation to ensure that they do not injure themselves during the relocation process. The practice of dehorning does not generally occur in Australia, however, all facilities currently holding rhino in Australia are reviewing their security measures post recent poaching incidents globally. Under no circumstances have we considered or would we consider selling rhino horn. The Australian Rhino Project position, and the position of all individuals associated with the project, is that legalisation of rhino horn trade is not the answer to reducing poaching.
2. Security: Your website states that “A feasibility study led by a highly experienced curator from the Taronga Conservation Society supported by undergraduates from the University of Sydney Business School in conjunction with global rhino experts identified no such risks.”
To clarify, could you confirm that you feel that there is no threat of poaching of rhinos in Australia?
TARP: We take the protection of rhinos extremely seriously and we are committed to building a safe haven for threatened rhinos in Australia with our conservation partner organisations. Australia’s legislation in regards to animal cruelty has harsh penalties for any type of incident and the Australian courts will prosecute and convict for such crimes, including jail time and financial penalties. In addition, we believe Australia’s tight firearm legislation and strict border control will reduce the likelihood of a similar incident occurring in Australia.
3. Which rhinos? Your website states that “The first rhinos have been identified and the process for gaining approvals is well progressed.”
Where do/will these rhinos come from and will they be wild-caught from national or private reserves, or sourced from intensive rhino breeding farms?
TARP: To ensure the genetic diversity of the breeding population is maintained, rhinos will be sourced based on demographics, genetics and known provenance from South Africa. We will not be sourcing rhino from intensive rhino breeding farms such as John Hume.
At this stage, we cannot advise where all of the rhinos will be coming from and these discussions are ongoing. We have been approached by many individuals who are keen to move rhinos from their private game reserves due to the cost of security and their personal safety concerns for both themselves and their rhinos.
4. The rhino enclosures: Your Feb ‘17 newsletter states that “The team at Monarto has been working on the 500 hectare open plain area preparing for the arrival for the rhinos for several years. The property has been regenerated and planted with vegetation suitable for the rhino population and significant effort has been put into creating an environment that emulates the wild in Africa. The … fencing is well progressed and driving along the boundary fences definitely gives you the impression that you are in Africa.”
Could you detail the vegetation species you have planted?
TARP: The preparation of the open plain area has been conducted over the past 3 years and has been a significant process, including revegetation via 60,000 tube stock planted for ‘buffering’ the 560ha project site together with 75kms of direct seeding. Perennial Veldt Grass has been seeded in conjunction with tall wheatgrass. Extensive clean-up of existing Mallee vegetation areas on site.
5. Donations: Your website states that “Your donation goes to the costs associated with relocating and managing the rhinos. ”
The 2015 and 2016 financials provided on your website reflect that you have raised almost $1,5m (AUD) and spent almost $900,000 of that during that period. Could you provide more details on what the $900,000 was spent on, and how this reconciles to the above quote that money will only be spent on relocating and managing the rhinos? Also, your website suggests that you will need $8m (AUD) in total, and yet so far you have spent most of the $1,5m raised and have no rhinos. Will you be revising your estimated required amount?
TARP: Costs incurred during the stated financial period are for the following items: Fundraising events, Wild Africa construction costs, part-time project managers, merchandise purchases for our retail store, insurances and administrative fees such as credit card and payment gateways.
All of the directors on the board operate pro-bono and we also have a pro-bono treasurer, company secretary and volunteer team. The Australian Rhino Project is registered with the Australian Charity and Not for Profits Commission, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and the Australian Taxation Office. We submit audited accounts each year to the ACNC.
6. Expertise: The gentleman featured in the video (referred to in my introduction) claims that you have experts who ‘know everything about the way we live’ (he was speaking in the first person as a rhino!). Could you provide the names and relevant track records of those experts?
TARP: Rhino populations have existed within Australia for well over 30 years with a more concerted effort regarding species conservation happening from 1990 onwards. These rhino populations are managed under species management plans that have teams of qualified and trained conservation and species experts who have studied and worked directly with rhino populations for decades.
Many individuals who work alongside these rhino populations have been, in some cases, working with rhinos for between 20 and 30 years. There have been successful births of southern black, southern white, and greater one-horned rhinos in Australia. The expertise that has been developed in rhino conservation is now also contributing to assisting with conservation efforts in other locations including black rhino projects in Zimbabwe, operations of rhino orphanages in Africa and sharing of knowledge conservation NGO’s such as the International Rhino Foundation. We do not feel it necessary or appropriate to provide you individual names of these people and details of their employment.
In conclusion, I doubt that the export of 80 rhinos from South Africa to Australia will materially affect local populations. I also have no doubt that these rhinos will be well looked after in their strange new home. But will this project help wild African rhino populations at some time in the future? I seriously doubt it. Could the substantial cash required to fund this project into the future be better spent in Africa, keeping wild rhinos safe? Hell yes.
The 2017 Africa Geographic Photographer of the Year Competition is now closed for entries. Here is the Top 101 selection, in FOUR galleries. Click here to see PART II of the gallery.
The 2017 Africa Geographic Photographer of the Year Competition is now closed for entries. Here is the Top 101 selection, in FOUR galleries. Click here to see PART III of the gallery.
The 2017 Africa Geographic Photographer of the Year Competition is now closed for entries. Here is the Top 101 selection, in FOUR galleries. Click here to see PART IV of the gallery.
The 2017 Africa Geographic Photographer of the Year Competition is now closed for entries. Here is the Top 101 selection, in FOUR galleries. Click here to see PART III of the gallery.
I am not a hunter. Nor have I ever been. I am a vegetarian (since the age of about 11), I am part of the environmental NGO sector and I have interests in the tourism industry in Namibia. Written by Dr Chris Brown, Namibian Chamber of Environment
So, it might surprise you that I am a strong supporter of the hunting industry in Namibia, and indeed, throughout Africa. Having said that, I should qualify my support. I am a strong supporter of legal, ethical hunting of indigenous wildlife within sustainably managed populations, in large open landscapes.
The reason is simple: Well-managed hunting is extremely good for conservation. In many areas, it is essential for conservation.
There is much confusion and misconception about the role of hunting in conservation, particularly in the urban industrialised world and thus by most Western tourists that visit Namibia. Urban industrialised societies – and I include many biologists and recognised conservation organisations in this grouping – see hunting as undermining conservation or the anathema of conservation. And they see protecting wildlife and removing all incentives for its consumptive use as promoting and achieving good conservation. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The animal rights movement has taken over much of the hunting and sustainable utilisation debate within conservation. I sympathise with people who stand up for animal rights – we all should. None of us wants to see animals suffering or being treated badly by members of our species. However, the problem arises when animal rights agendas are passed off as conservation agendas. Animal rights agendas are not conservation agendas.
Conservation works at the population, species and ecosystem levels. Animal rights work at the individual level. What might be good for an individual or a collection of individuals might not be good for the long-term survival of populations, species and biodiversity.
Take a simple domestic example. When the farm carthorse was replaced by the tractor, carthorses no longer had to work long hours in the fields. But they also no longer had value to farmers. Once common, they are now extremely rare. Indeed, carthorse associations have been established to keep these breeds from dying out. The truth is, if animals do not have a value, or if that value is not competitive with other options, then those animals will not have a place, except in a few small isolated islands of protection. And island protection in a sea of other land uses is a disaster for long-term conservation.
Animal rights are important. However, wildlife must be placed within a sound conservation and animal welfare setting, where conservation decisions on behalf of populations, species, and ecosystems take priority over the rights of individual animals, but with due consideration of their welfare. Ethical and humane practices are integral to good conservation management and science.
The wildlife situation in Namibia provides a very good example of this. When the first western explorers, hunters and traders entered what is now Namibia in the late 1700s, crossing the Orange/Gariep River from the Cape, the national wildlife population was probably 8-10 million animals.
Over the following centuries wildlife was decimated and numbers collapsed, first by uncontrolled and wasteful hunting by traders and explorers, then by local people who had acquired guns and horses from the traders, then by early farmers, veterinary policies and fencing, and finally by modern-day farmers on both freehold and communal land who saw wildlife as having little value and competing with their domestic stock for scarce grazing. Traditional wildlife management under customary laws administered by chiefs had broken down under successive colonial regimes. By the 1960s wildlife numbers were at an all-time low in Namibia, with perhaps fewer than half a million animals surviving (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Wildlife numbers in Namibia, from about 1770 to 2015
At that time wildlife was “owned” by the state. Landowners and custodians were expected to support the wildlife on their land, but they had no rights to use the wildlife and to derive any benefits from wildlife. In response to declining numbers and growing dissatisfaction from farmers, a new approach to wildlife management was introduced.
In the 1960s and 1990s, conditional rights over the consumptive and non-consumptive use of wildlife were devolved to freehold and communal farmers respectively, the latter under Namibia’s well-known conservancy programme. The laws give the same rights to farmers in both land tenure systems. This policy change led to a total change in attitude towards wildlife by landowners and custodians. Wildlife suddenly had value. It could be used to support a multi-faceted business model, including trophy hunting, meat production, live sale of surplus animals and tourism. It could be part of a conventional livestock farming operation, or be a dedicated business on its own. As the sector developed, so farmers discovered that they could do better from their wildlife than from domestic stock. Both small – and large – stock numbers declined on freehold farmland while wildlife numbers increased.
Today there is more wildlife in Namibia than at any time in the past 150 years, with the latest estimates putting the national wildlife herd at just over 3 million animals. And the reason is simple – wildlife is an economically more attractive, competitive form of land use than conventional farming in our arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid landscapes. Markets are driving more and more farmers towards the management of wildlife.
This is good for conservation, not just from the perspective of wildlife, but also from the broader perspective of collateral habitat protection and biodiversity conservation. The greater the benefits that landowners and custodians derive from wildlife, the more secure it is as a land-use form and the more land there is under conservation management. Therefore, all the component uses of wildlife, including and especially trophy hunting, must be available to wildlife businesses. These uses include the full range of tourism options, live sale of surplus wildlife, and the various forms of consumptive use – trophy and venison hunting and wildlife harvesting for meat sale, value addition and own use.
It is this combination of uses that makes wildlife outcompete conventional farming. And it is the “service” component of tourism and hunting that elevate wildlife values above that of primary production and the simple financial value of protein. As the impacts of climate change become ever more severe, so will primary production decline in value, but not so for the “service” values derived from arid-adapted wildlife. And why especially trophy hunting? Because there are large areas of Namibia comprising remote, flat terrain with monotonous vegetation that are unsuited to tourism, but very important for conservation.
Figure 2: Contiguous land under wildlife management, including state protected areas, private nature reserves, communal and freehold conservancies and communal forests (Source: State of Conservancy Report 2015, NACSO)
There are some people in the tourism sector in Namibia and in our neighbouring countries who oppose trophy hunting because it is perceived to conflict with tourism and is thus not good for conservation. Some suggest that the land and its wildlife should be used for eco-tourism and not hunting. In most areas, eco-tourism cannot substitute for hunting. The loss of hunting revenue cannot be made up by eco-tourism revenue.
Indeed, we need to optimise all streams of wildlife-derived revenue to make land under wildlife as competitive as possible.If Namibia had adopted an animal-rights based, protectionist, anti-sustainable use approach to wildlife management, we would probably today have fewer than 250,000 head of wildlife (just 8% of our present wildlife herd) in a few isolated large parks and a few small private nature reserves. We would have lost the connectivity between land under wildlife, and we would have lost the collateral conservation benefits to broader biodiversity, natural habitats and ecosystem services.
Today, Namibia has well over 50% of its land under some form of formally recognised wildlife management (but probably over 70% if informal wildlife management is considered), including one of the largest contiguous areas of land under conservation in the world – its entire coast, linking to Etosha National Park and to conservation areas in both South Africa (Richtersveld) and Angola (Iona National Park) – over 25 million ha (Figure 2).
Some tourism operators and tour guides criticise the hunting sector to their guests. By doing so, they undermine an important part of conservation, an important contributor to making land under wildlife competitive, and, in the final analysis, they undermine the viability of conservation as a land-use form. The greatest threat to wildlife conservation in Namibia and globally is land transformation. Once land is transformed, often for agricultural purposes, it has lost its natural habitats and most of its biodiversity and can no longer support wildlife. Hunters and tourism operators should and must be on the same side – to make land under wildlife more productive than other forms of land use. They are natural allies. They need to work together to ensure that land under wildlife derives the greatest possible returns through many income-earning activities. And where it is necessary for both hunting and tourism to take place on the same piece of land, they need to plan, collaborate and communicate so that all aspects of wildlife management and utilisation – both consumptive and non-consumptive – can take place without one impacting negatively on the other.
Conflicts between hunting and tourism are simply failures of management and communication, nothing more profound than that. But the onus should be on the hunting outfitters to ensure that there are ongoing, good communications. The onus is also on hunting outfitters, professional hunters, and the hunting sector to always maintain the highest ethical and professional standards and to be mindful of the sensitivities of many people to the issue of hunting.
It is also the vital task and duty of tourism operators and guides to educate visitors from urban industrialised countries about conservation in this part of the world. Visitors need to understand what drives conservation, the role of incentives and markets, and what sustainable wildlife management means. The tourism sector should not skirt around an uncomfortable discussion on hunting, but face it head-on and explain its importance to conservation. This is what good education is all about. Tourists come to Namibia to be enlightened, to be exposed to new ideas and to better understand the issues in this part of the world. They come here to take back new and interesting stories. What better story than Namibia’s conservation successes? However, visitors need to understand it properly – its incentives, market alignment, strong links to the local and national economy, and role in addressing rural poverty. It is the task of the tourism industry to help visitors understand why Namibia has one of the most successful conservation track records of any country in the world.
If we look at the conservation trajectory of a country such as the United Kingdom (an urban industrialised example) through its agrarian and industrial development, the indigenous wildlife at that time had no value. Thus, it lost the elk, wild boar, bear, wolf, lynx, beaver and sea eagle – essentially its most charismatic and important species. While small-scale attempts to re-introduce a few less threatening species are underway, it is unlikely to reintroduce the bear and wolf into the wild as free-ranging populations. And yet that country and others like it, with poor historic conservation track records, are keen to influence how Namibia should manage its wildlife. Its own farmers are not prepared to live with wolves. Still, many of their politicians and conservation agencies, both public and non-governmental, expect Namibian farmers to live with elephant, hippo, buffalo, lion, leopard, hyaena, crocodile and many other wildlife species that are far more problematic from a human-wildlife conflict perspective than a wolf. And they try to remove the very tools available to conservation to keep these animals on the land – the tools of economics, markets and sustainable use, to create value for these animals within a well-regulated, sustainably management wildlife landscape.
I believe that the problem is essentially one of ignorance. People think they are doing what is best for conservation, but they simply do not understand the economic drivers for wildlife and biodiversity conservation in biodiversity-rich and rainfall-poor developing countries. And many African countries are sadly falling into the same trap. Kenya, for example, with its Eurocentric protectionist conservation approaches, has less wildlife today than at any time in its history. We need to share the message. And the message is, I believe, most powerfully explained using the simple graphic in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3: Economic returns to conventional farming (yellow line) and to wildlife management (green line) in areas of different land productivity, with rainfall being a good proxy for productivity
A second insight from the graphic above is that the greater the value earned from wildlife, not only is the gap widened on the left side of the graph over conventional farming, but the cross-over point is pushed further to the right. This means that higher rainfall areas become competitive under wildlife management, opening more of Africa to this form of land use.The yellow line represents the return to land use under conventional farming, e.g. domestic stock and crops, across a rainfall gradient – rainfall being a proxy for land productivity. The green line shows the returns to land under wildlife. On the left side of the graph, in areas of rainfall below about 800 mm per year, returns from “indigenous production systems” – i.e. wildlife, are greater than the returns from “exotic production systems” – i.e. farming.
However, this only applies if the rights to use wildlife are devolved to landowners and custodians. Markets then create a win-win situation for optimal returns from land and for wildlife conservation in these more arid areas. If utilisation rights are not devolved, then wildlife has little value to the landowner and custodian, and people will use the land for other activities. On the right side of the graph, above about 800 mm, the lines cross over and here conventional farming outperforms wildlife management. If landowners and custodians are given rights over the wildlife and other indigenous species on their land, they will get rid of these species and transform the land for farming in response to market forces. Most of the western, industrialised world falls on the right side of the graph.
Conservation agencies and organisations from countries on the right side of the graph, and areas where rights over wildlife are not devolved to landowners, are so conditioned to resist and fight against market forces having negative conservation impacts in their countries, that they automatically carry the fight across to those countries falling into the left side of the graph and which have devolved wildlife rights, not realising that the lines have switched over and that markets here are working for conservation. This is the important message that we must get across to policymakers, conservation organisations and the broader public in the urbanised and industrialised countries. And in some other parts of Africa. People need to understand the conservation drivers, incentives and markets, as well as the role of sustainable use within good conservation policy and practice. Well-intentioned but poorly informed efforts to influence conservation in this region seriously undermine good conservation policies and practices.
Namibia’s record of environmental accomplishment speaks for itself. Through the implementation of appropriate policies, it has created incentives for wildlife conservation, unmatched anywhere in the world. But wildlife must have value otherwise landowners and custodians will move to other forms of land use. And it must have the greatest possible value to be as secure a land use as possible, over the largest possible landscape. And that is why I strongly support well-managed and ethical hunting. It is good, and in some cases essential, for the conservation of wildlife, of habitats and of biological diversity. And that is why hunting and tourism must work together, in mutually supportive ways, to optimise returns from wildlife for the land. Well managed and ethical hunting should in fact be called “conservation hunting”. And conservation hunting is essentially an integral part of tourism.
Bibliography
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Seeing a cheetah hunt is rare, and photographing one is challenging, but can you sketch one? Here are my tips, with field sketches and photographs, from a hunt my husband and I witnessed in Linyanti, northern Botswana.
We found two brothers lazing on a termite mound surrounded by wonderful hanging vines. It was a perfect sketching opportunity, so I spent some time sketching them and then adding the trees, termite mound and vines. The watercolour was added later, purely from memory.
♦ Tip 1: “Look three times, think twice, sketch once.” (anonymous).
Look at animals as simple shapes, ignoring details. Start with the largest shapes first. Use feint pencil lines until you find the correct line. Always sketch the animals first. You can add the landscape features and vegetation afterwards because they won’t get up and move.
Knowing roughly where they spent the night, we headed out the next morning hoping that we would see them hunt. We found them lazing on another termite mound and although they frequently moved, I created this sketch (below), using simple shapes and very faint pencil lines.
Afterwards, I wondered why I had painted the background yellow/orange, but looking at my husband’s photos from the same day (see below), I realise my colours were close to the real thing – but in reverse. I find this often happens – I think I consciously choose colours, only to find the colours around me unconsciously influence me.
♦ Tip 2: Time spent in your chosen sketching location is never wasted.
When you are watching, listening or sitting in silence, you are inadvertently learning and taking in information about your subject and this will show in your sketches.
This photo below is one of my favourites. Look at the beautiful curves in the termite mound, the vines, and, of course, the spots of the cheetah. It is a simple yet stunning composition.
Beautiful though the morning was, the cheetahs were not content with posing for an artist or a photographer – they had food on their minds and started to head off. Although we moved every few seconds to keep up, I managed this quick sketch (below), showing the cheetahs’ long bodies and tiny heads.
♦ Tip 3: A pencil and paper are all you need. Limiting your materials allows you to concentrate more on your subject.
♦ Tip 4: Make sure you have enough paper, and don’t be afraid to start sketches you will never finish.
At one point, the cheetahs stopped for a couple of minutes, and that’s when I created the very small sketch (below). The light was coming from the left, so I had to remember not to paint over the white paper in the areas I wanted as highlights. I added some cadmium yellow to the cheetahs and some cerulean blue on top to show the shadow areas. When this was dry, I added the eyes, nose and just enough spots to indicate that these are cheetahs.
♦ Tip 5: Know when to stop.
This is one of the hardest things to learn – but is essential. I often stop when I think I’m not quite finished. Looking at the painting later, I inevitably discover that it needs nothing more.
Suddenly, the cheetahs went from motionless to trotting and flat-out in just a few seconds, becoming blurs among the bushes. Sketching was not an option.
As the dust settled, we saw that one cheetah had caught an impala ewe. His brother appeared, and the impala was quickly subdued.
Sketching predators on a kill may not be every artist’s idea of good subject matter, but killing is a fact of life in the bush, so I treat this as I would any other subject, taking advantage of the fact that the cheetahs are now stationary for a while!
The brothers ate from the rear of the carcass, so I had an interesting perspective for my sketch. I concentrated on the important details – the head of the impala, and her round belly leading to the faces of the cheetahs.
We left the cheetahs to their meal and returned to camp, where I spent a few hours adding the watercolour to some of the sketches you see above. Ah… the work of a field sketch artist is never done!
♦ Tip 6: Join me on an Africa Geographic Art Safari to learn more. I can’t promise we will see a cheetah hunt, but if we do, you’ll know how to sketch it!
Hidden in the bush, the thief is getting ready to take action. Walking slowly, he makes sure that nobody is around to notice him. He progresses silently toward the object of his desire. A few more steps and he’ll be close enough. A sudden sprint, he moves fast and goes racing toward the kitchen, raiding everything he can carry.
From kitchens to fields, baboons are the enemy number one of many local communities in East Africa. Stealing crops and sugar, they are notoriously challenging to repel and are known to be highly aggressive.
“Someone from the village has to stay near the fields, despite the summer temperatures and strong sun, and watch out for baboons to make sure they won’t destroy the crops,” explains Nancy Ingutia, community deputy manager for Ol Pejeta Conservancy, in the Laikipia district, located near Mount Kenya. “This baboon watch lasts from morning ’til late night until the crops are finally ready to harvest.”
Human-wildlife conflicts are not to be taken lightly in the region, but baboons are far from being the only culprits in these types of conflicts. Damages from elephants and carnivores involve massive loss of crops, the death or injury of cattle; and can even go as far as human injuries or death.
Mitigating the risks of living with wildlife is extremely important to avoid resentment from local communities towards conservation projects, which are there to protect the same species that are viewed by the communities as being destructive.
“For me, one of the crucial things about dealing with conflicts at any level, is that for human-wildlife conflicts, we need to agree where we want to have wildlife and where we don’t,” says Drew McVey, regional manager East Africa for WWF-UK. “And then we can work out how best to protect wildlife and how to protect people from it.”
In 2006, Ol Pejeta decided to outline the area allocated to wildlife protection by surrounding itself with an electric fence. This choice was made to both limit the occurrence of poaching and to decrease wildlife conflicts with the neighbouring communities.
“If you ask the communities now,” says Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta’s CEO, “they will tell you that the greatest benefit that they have received since Ol Pejeta was formed as a conservancy, is the reduction in human-wildlife conflicts, particularly with elephants.”
Even though financial compensation schemes for farmers exist throughout East Africa, the process is often slow and only takes into account attacks carried out by the Big Five species. The lack of recognition for the economic loss of local farmers can easily trigger a feeling of resentment toward both wildlife and conservationists alike.
“If you can provide some immediate relief to individuals affected, then most people won’t carry out retaliation attacks,” says Drew. “There has been lots of work done in India on tigers showing that if we, the greater conservation community, value people’s livelihood and try to address their concerns, we’re more likely to get a positive response.”
In addition to retaliatory killings, the resentment building up in the communities can also make them turn a blind eye to poaching operations.
“Often in the past in East Africa, the communities were marginalised and didn’t engage in protected areas management,” explains Drew. “I think in that regard you get poachers becoming proverbial ‘Robin Hoods’. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the local people will conduct the poaching themselves, but it does mean that we won’t necessarily have people reporting poachers.”
According to a 2015 WWF report, more than 30,000 elephants – of which 8,500 are from East Africa – are still killed every year. Rhinos are also heavily targeted, as Richard explains: “There are always people trying to kill rhinos. Every single day of every single month there would be people plotting to kill rhinos on Ol Pejeta, and any of the other rhino sanctuaries in Laikipia.”
When a villager cannot see any benefit of having rhinos or elephants around, he might end up thinking, “just take these animals away. We get nothing from them, and they are just a cost,” explains Drew.
Strategies that work
That’s why new strategies are now being developed to protect crops from elephants. Repellent for elephants are diverse and can include methods as odd as chilli plants or even beehive fences. According to Save the Elephants, the latter solution has a success rate of 80%. This strategy also allows farmers to get extra income from the honey produced.
Improving the enclosures used to keep livestock, also called bomas, is another important first step forward. “It’s quite easy for predators to get in,” explains Shivani Bhalla, lion conservationist and founder of Ewaso Lions. “Reinforcing these bomas, making them stronger and talking to the community about actually strengthening them can make a big difference in stopping hyenas and other predators getting in, or discouraging livestock from straying away at night.”
In northern Tanzania, Laly Lichtenfeld, Executive Director of the African People and Wildlife Fund, worked with the local Maasai to improve their bomas to reduce attacks on cattle. One of the community members came up with the idea to use a local tree, called Commiphora, as fence posts. Hence, the Living Walls project was born.
“The Living Walls Project is a good example of how we work with Maasai pastoralists to develop conservation solutions that work from their point of view,” explains Laly. “The Living Walls project was a Maasai idea. They use the Commiphora in this part of Northern Tanzania around the outer part of their homesteads, but they never actually used them for the livestock corrals. Now it’s spreading like wildfire across northern Tanzania.”
To find out more about similar programmes, continue reading below the advert
But, even though these types of projects are essential, the best way to reach out to communities and make a change on the ground is to get them directly involved.
Shivani realised, after graduating, that lion conservation in non-protected areas was critical. So, she moved to Northern Kenya and started Ewaso Lions in collaboration with local Samburu communities.
In 2010, Jeneria Lekilelei founded the Warrior Watch programme, facilitated by Ewaso Lions, the first programme in northern Kenya to actively involve warriors in a conservation project. The idea came from the realisation that by spending most of their life in the wild, Samburu warriors accumulate important information on lions. The tasks of the warriors involve reducing human-wildlife conflicts, but also raising awareness among their communities of the value of wildlife.
“It’s important to have your key ambassador and your key role model who can be out there communicating and working with the communities; someone who believes in conservation and lions himself,” says Shivani. “I think that’s the key because then it’s not so much me going out telling everyone ‘please don’t kill a lion’, it’s a warrior telling others not to kill lions.” And that can make all the difference!
Watch an APW video on their human-wildlife conflict prevention initiative below
The importance of education
By working on mitigating human-wildlife conflicts and by allowing local communities to develop an alternative livelihood like touristic activities, it’s possible to turn them into powerful allies. Educating local kids, for example, can be a powerful tool to change the perception that local people have of elephants.
To raise kids to become wildlife protectors, it’s essential first to make sure they get the chance to go to school. At Ol Pejeta, this aspect is taken very seriously, and a portion of the money gained by the conservancy is reinvested in improving the education of kids from the neighbouring communities.
In East Africa, schools also have an essential role to play in the development of the future generation of conservationists. Not only can they raise awareness and interest in environmental issues amongst their pupils, but they can also diffuse this knowledge across entire communities.
“Our most successful route to involve entire communities is via the schools,” explains Liz Bourne, founder of Nature’s Frontline. “In Uganda, we are seen as a positive link with the National Parks and the rangers, which has had a knock-on effect on the communities’ perception of the parks, the environment and conservation. The children take home this positivity, and it is passed on to the parents.”
In Kenya, primary education is free, but secondary education is not. The cost to access high schools is around $200 per trimester, which for some families is unaffordable. That’s why Ol Pejeta offers its 36 neighbouring schools a chance to earn full bursaries, explains Ian Mungai, education officer working for Ol Pejeta.
“Bursaries are given to kids who are very much in need, and who are good performers,” says Emily Lerosion, education officer for the Ol Pejeta Community Department. “We perform a background check with both the schools and the local communities’ representatives to select the kids.”
The crucial part is that by allowing children to study, these bursaries also enable a new model to emerge in the local communities: one where education becomes valued and where opportunities for children to get access to education appears.
To supplement its bursary program, Ol Pejeta also partners with a Canadian organisation called PA-MOJA to build a network of sister schools between the two countries. This cultural exchange offers an exclusive opportunity for local communities’ students to learn about different lifestyles and share theirs with the Canadian students.
“It’s an opportunity to engage with people outside the country both culturally and intellectually,” says Ian. “But Kenyan kids also get a chance to show the outside world that we are much more than the stereotypes people might have of our country.”
Even though these types of projects are essential for kids to grow and develop their perceptions of the world, a more direct way of raising the new generations of conservationists is to bring them to the field, or to bring conservation into the classroom. This can then have a broader impact on how entire local communities value conservation.
Partnerships between NGOs and schools can also take the form of environmental classes and clubs where kids are given the opportunity to reflect on particular issues and topics. WWF, for example, has launched this type of project on the Kenyan coast.
“It essentially teaches children about the environment, what it does for us, and how we can protect it,” says Mxolisi Sibanda, regional manager East Africa for WWF UK. “We’ve had some work with schools to get kids to run environmental clubs and teach the kids how to conserve the marine environment in that part of the world.”
But it’s also essential for kids to learn in the field and get out of the classroom. Visiting parks or conservancies is an opportunity for local kids to actually see the wild animals they might have only heard of. It also gives them a chance to get involved in conservation through activities such as lion tracking and camera trap placement.
However, while city kids might be quite positive about wildlife from the beginning, lots of children in northern Kenya are herders and grow up having a negative vision of wildlife. For them, an elephant is a massive beast threatening their family, while lions and leopards are cattle predators that need to be carefully monitored and chased away.
Changing this perception is a challenge, but not one to scare Shivani. She has started running ‘Lion Kids Camps’ for local herders’ kids at Ewaso Lions. The children stay in the camp for a few days to experience activities such as wildlife education, game drives and an art competition.
“We feel that with herder children, we can have an immediate impact when we’re trying to save wildlife because they are the ones who live with livestock and wildlife every single day,” says Shivani. “So when they’re herding their livestock and they come across wildlife they can immediately choose not to do something negative against that wildlife species, whatever it may be.”
One kid at a time, all these organisations and schools are slowly building up the new generation of guides, park wardens, biologists and wildlife protectors. All it takes is to change kids’ perceptions and watch them bring the message across to entire communities.
“It’s quite incredible just to see the change in these kids happening so quickly,” says Shivani. “We just really devote a lot of time and attention to these kids because they’ve never been in any educational learning environment ever, so giving them education and lessons, it’s all-new for them, and they really do soak it in, it’s quite incredible to see.”
About the author
Julia Migné is a multimedia journalist and wildlife photographer specialising in environmental issues. She has written for Africa Geographic and BBC Wildlife among others. An endless traveller, she swears that she would visit one country for each letter of the alphabet. She believes in constructive journalism and co-launched an international platform featuring positive and inspiring stories from across the world: www.the-inkline.com
Written by Rosie Fletcher, Nkonzi Camp, South Luangwa National Park
At a time when the world is facing unprecedented levels of wildlife trafficking, it can be difficult to know how to counter these threats. But across Africa, conservationists have begun developing innovative approaches to help turn the tide on wildlife poaching.
Launched in 2014, Delta unit currently has three highly trained former rescue dogs from the US, with two more arriving this month, and six dedicated dog handlers all drawn from the local community. While detection dogs elsewhere in the world are trained to find drugs or explosives, Delta unit’s dogs are specially trained to sniff out ivory, firearms and ammunition, wire snares, pangolin and leopard skins, and certain types of bushmeat.
The scheme has already proven to be an enormous success. The team undertakes at least two daytime and two overnight operations each week, in and around South Luangwa. In 2016 alone, Delta unit searched 1,778 vehicles, 619 bicycles and 50 houses, recovering nine illegal firearms, four pairs of ivory and four pangolins, along with numerous snares, bush meat, and an entire truckload of illegal and extremely rare mukula logs. Over 30 suspects were also apprehended.
We had our own encounter with the dog detection unit last week while driving out of the South Luangwa National Park Gate. Here we were stopped by the team, who proceeded with a full inspection of our vehicle. Luckily the dogs weren’t interested in the shortbread biscuits leftover from our tea break. It was fantastic to witness this proactive anti-poaching work firsthand and to see the enthusiasm of the dogs and their handlers.
It can feel as though conservation success stories are hard to find these days, but in South Luangwa’s battle of pooches vs. poachers, the dogs are coming out on top!
It is now legal in South Africa to trade domestically in rhino horn after this country’s Constitutional Court recently overturned an eight-year ban on domestic trade based on a technicality. Given the current reality in this country, trade in rhino horn will surely help drive rhinos to extinction in our national parks. Allow me to explain why I hold this view.
The author somewhere in Africa
The debates surrounding the trade in rhino horn often involve taking a side based on one’s beliefs rather than science or commercial realities. My view is driven solely by the hard realities in South Africa – my home country – which are:
South Africa suffers from endemic fraud and corruption at all layers of society – including government, parastatal and among national park employees;
rhino poaching to supply the illegal markets in the Far East is rampant – stripping our national parks of their rhino populations;
the ‘sustainable use’ industry significantly contributes to South Africa’s conservation efforts – there are greater areas under some form of private conservation than our formally protected areas. But this pressure group includes big cat petting and lion walking operators, big cat bone traders and canned hunting operators implicated in illegal, unethical or at least highly questionable activities. A very relevant example was when Vietnamese criminals, working with South African hunters, realised that they could import rhino “hunting trophies” into Vietnam with little or no oversight. These and other examples are well documented in news media and social media. And yet the industry does not self-regulate – it does not call out the wrong-doers and expel them. By not taking a stand, the venerable sustainable use industry – which, in my view, does far more good than harm – has tainted its reputation and is not trusted by the public to behave legally and ethically in matters such as these;
illegal goods are trafficked internationally at alarming rates via legal channels – lubricated by bribery & corruption, fake documentation and slack or non-existent policing.
Don’t confuse rhino horn farming with the conservation of wild rhinos in our national parks. The two have nothing to do with one another, despite what the intensive pro-trade PR campaign may have told you. Yes, private rhino populations are an important backup resource for wild rhino populations in our national parks. Yes, we must find additional ways to enable private rhino owners to benefit from their rhinos and recoup the increasing anti-poaching costs. But this model on the table purports to benefit our wild rhinos – which constitutes misinformation.
Because local rhino horn trade is now legal, the barn door is wide open for the legal siphoning of horns out of the country and into the bottomless pit in the Asian markets because of new loosely worded regulations with holes large enough to drive a tractor through. For details on how easy it is now to syphon horns out of the country, read Rhino Bombshell. Juxtapose that with South Africa’s well-earned reputation for fraud and corruption at the highest levels, and ask yourself how confident you feel that regulations will be respected.
Some would argue that the demand for rhino horn in South Africa is very low and that local trade won’t be strong. Fear not, because human nature is such that a resource in one country will soon find itself in another country if the incentive is strong enough. And we all know that international borders are notoriously porous when it comes to illicit goods. In any case, local rhino owners can now legally send two horns out for every willing foreign national they can find to carry them out of the country (only for their personal use, of course).
The pro-traders speak of plans to set up a central selling organisation, as De Beers did, to increase demand and manipulate the price. They also speak of encouraging commodity speculators to buy and sell rhino horn. This drives terror into the hearts of those who understand how financial instruments disconnect from the underlying commodity and drive processes that cannot be understood or controlled. Let’s roll the dice with our wild rhinos, then.
Contrary to the pro traders claim, selling farmed rhino horn will not reduce demand for wild rhino horn. In East Asian markets ‘wild’ horn is said to come with the bloody ear of the poached rhino – to prove authenticity and increase the price. It’s no secret that the Asian market prefers wild products to farmed products: “Farmers report a strong consumer preference and willingness to pay more for wild-sourced products”, and so there will be no let-up on the pressures that our conservation teams across the country face from the international criminal gangs that are stripping our national parks of rhinos. It’s also no secret that creating legal channels will help stimulate demand and provide a convenient channel through which to launder illegal horn.
I believe in sustainable utilisation that is transparent, well-regulated and ethical when the model holds up to stress testing and will ultimately benefit populations of animals in the wild (as opposed to small fenced farms and feedlots). Rhinos in small fenced areas are easy to protect; those in our national parks are not. Ask any SANParks ranger or anti-poaching unit member.
It boils down to this: Because of the situation in South Africa, permitting trade in rhino horn will increase the poaching of rhinos in our national parks and hasten this wonderful creature towards extinction in the wild. If our private rhino owners wish to find additional ways to monetize their rhinos (and who can blame them?), they need to develop a plan that is not so obviously full of holes.
There are records of lions inhabiting the northern Namib desert along the Skeleton Coast in Namibia as far back as 1934. Desert-adapted lions were observed to be common in the coastal regions, mountains, and rivers between the lower Kuiseb River and the Kunene River. They were believed to be plentiful in the Kaokoveld and along the Kunene valley. The Skeleton Coast National Park was proclaimed in 1967, and since then, they have been put on the map as an iconic species of this unique desert region.
However, today, their population is under threat from human influence, and human-lion conflict is the primary factor holding them back from truly thriving in their natural habitat.
Thankfully, there are good people behind the scenes fighting to ensure the survival of this magnificent, resilient species. Photographer Ingrid Mandt has been photographing the desert creatures of Namibia for 25 years, and here she provides us with a stunning portfolio of the iconic desert-adapted lions of Namibia. This gallery is an inspirational visual account of the resilience and highly adaptive nature of an iconic species facing real survival challenges, and we hope that these photographs move and inspire you to treasure the beauty and strength of one of Africa’s wildest species.
Contrary to the social media hysteria over the past few weeks, there will be no ‘Super Tusker’ ‘100 Pounder’ elephant hunted at Timbavati in the Greater Kruger. There was never going to be such a hunt.
That juicy but ultimately misleading story resulted in some pretty vicious social media attacks on lodges within Timbavati and calls to boycott Timbavati Private Nature Reserve lodges – the very lodges that represent the only viable alternative funding solution to trophy hunting, and have almost no say in the reserve’s management decisions.
The irony is that the real debate should be about the trophy hunts that do in fact happen at Timbavati (and other nearby reserves). I would like to believe that every reasonable person out there wishes that trophy hunting as a means of game reserve funding has to stop.
However, this debate requires accurate facts and proper context, in the interest of informed and responsible discourse. This issue – the use of trophy hunting for conservation benefit – is complex and emotional for most of us (me included) and it surely deserves better than what we have witnessed in the past few weeks. I ask that you please read to the very end of this long post.
THE BIG ISSUE
Four private nature reserves – Balule, Klaserie, Timbavati and Umbabat – collectively referred to as the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR), share an unfenced border with South Africa’s Kruger National Park and every year apply to the relevant authorities for their offtake permits (trophy hunting and culling). Revenue from trophy hunting pays for the management of the reserves and culling is done to reduce the impact of certain species (mainly impalas) on the vegetation, especially during periods of drought. Included in the most recent offtake application was the trophy hunting of elephants, lions, buffalos and rhinos. Leopards were also on the list, but that was a formality because there is a zero leopard hunting quota countrywide and therefore no such permit will be issued.
A journalist writing for an activist platform obtained a copy of the requested offtake figures for the four combined reserves from informal sources. He added the terms ‘100-Pounder’ and ‘Super Tusker’ to the equation, suggested impropriety surrounding the leopard issue, focused his anger on Timbavati (more specifically on Timbavati tourism lodges) and went public with a somewhat dramatic headline. The story was accepted at face value and republished by various publications and activists. One publication even added ‘canned’ hunting to their headline, to spice things up.
The two contextual matters that should frame this debate:
1. Zero poaching
Timbavati has suffered zero poaching incidents in the past 18 months, a period when neighbouring private reserves and the Kruger itself have experienced an unprecedented loss of rhinos and elephants to international wildlife crime syndicates. This rare success does not, in my opinion, justify keeping trophy hunting into the future, but it does demonstrate the calibre of management happening at Timbavati.
2. The ‘100-Pounder’, ‘Super Tusker’ elephant
Much of the uproar in social media circles was caused because the activist platform elevated the status of one particular elephant in the offtake application from ‘trophy bull’ to ‘100-Pounder’ and ‘Super Tusker’. And yet there never was going to be a ‘100 Pounder’ or ‘Super Tusker’ hunt.
Perhaps this was simply opportunistic marketing because the topic of ‘Super Tuskers’ was trending on social media and emotions (including mine) were running high after this tragic story the previous week about the loss of yet another of Tsavo’s Super Tuskers – giant elephants with tusks in excess of 100 pounds each – highly sought-after by trophy hunters.
The use of these specific terms by the activist platform demands a closer look.
Hunting any elephant is, in my opinion, just wrong – but for now, let’s focus on the facts of this particular situation. Regarding the offtake application in question, the ‘trophy bull’ requested specifically excluded Tuskers / Super Tuskers. Not only does the Timbavati protocol exclude all ‘iconic’, named, and collared elephants, management has also stated categorically that no 100-Pounder will be hunted even if one is found that is not named, collared, or iconic – as the agreed protocol and agreements with the relevant authorities specifically excludes all 100-Pounders. This information was provided to the journalist who wrote the story.
According to Timbavati management, the ‘trophy elephant’ in question will firstly be older than 50 years (they believe that these old bulls have lost too much condition to compete with younger breeding bulls and are therefore no longer contributing to the population. I disagree, but let’s move on for now), and secondly ‘tusk weight unlimited’ – a very vague and clumsy wording, but apparently meaning that they stopped defining elephant trophies by tusk size after advice by researchers that this practice was detrimental to the large tusked elephant gene pool.
During my research into this issue, I obtained the hunting records from Timbavati for the past 10 years. I discovered that no 100 Pounders were hunted during that period, and in a subsequent email discussion determined that no 100 Pounder has been hunted in the area for at least 19 years (current management memory). The heaviest tusk record I could trace over 10 years was 60 pounds in 2013. In other words, no Tuskers or Super Tuskers.
If ‘100-Pounder’ ‘Super Tuskers’ were never in the picture to begin with, why was this the headliner and main message being driven home by the journalist and activist platform? Was this a giant red herring?
Let’s now focus on Timbavati and why they use trophy hunting to fund their costs, so that we can come up with viable alternatives.
The 53,395 hectare Timbavati in the Greater Kruger National Park, South Africa, has used trophy hunting to finance the running of the reserve (including anti-poaching operations) since it was proclaimed in 1956. At the time, the land was farmed and had become degraded with very few wild animals around – despite sharing a border with the Kruger. The owners agreed to forgo farming income and place the land into permanent protected status, with restrictive title deed endorsement binding all future owners, and the ongoing costs to be funded by operations.
In the subsequent 37 years, wildlife numbers grew in this fenced reserve. In 1993, fences between Timbavati and Kruger were dropped to permit natural local migration of wildlife. Timbavati thus became part of one of Africa’s best conservation success stories, increasing the size of the Greater Kruger by 10% to 2.2 million hectares.
At Timbavati, trophy hunting is highly regulated, based on annual census and scientific assessment by external scientists, in the context of environmental factors. This leads to offtake applications and ultimately regulatory approval.
Wildlife populations in Timbavati
Over the past 20 years, annual population counts in Timbavati show stability in wildlife populations, subject to cycles associated with drought and abundance. The fact that animals can migrate freely into the massive neighbouring Kruger also adds an element of fluctuation to populations. I have studied the stats provided, conducted my own layman analysis, and asked questions with a critical eye.
Significantly, in the past 20 years, elephant populations in Timbavati have increased by 400% and rhinos by 500%. A rough, back-of-a-matchbox calculation of current densities of those two species reveals that, when compared to Kruger, Timbavati hosts many times the number of elephants and rhinos per 1,000 hectares (I am unable to reveal the precise figure, for security reasons). There are probably reasons associated with specific veld types and permanent water availability, or possibly even local migrations, at the time of year when the count occurs.
Costs to manage Timbavati
Timbavati currently requires about R20 million per year to manage the reserve. Almost 40% of that is spent on anti-poaching security (up from 15% two years ago). The security cost is expected to rise significantly in coming years as increasingly determined and well-resourced crime syndicates focus on the last remaining honey pots.
Timbavati is a privately-owned game reserve and therefore cannot rely on donors or taxpayers to fund its costs. The above annual cost is currently funded as follows:
♦ 61% by trophy hunting revenue
♦ 17% by tourism visitors (currently at R215 per visit)
♦ 22% by landowner levies
Poaching in Timbavati
As mentioned earlier, Timbavati has experienced zero poaching incidents in the past 18 months. For illustrative purposes only, let’s assume that Timbavati did not have such a strong management team, or that the necessary funding to control poaching was not available, and therefore suffered the same ratio of rhino poaching as its Kruger neighbour. Bearing in mind the relative areas under conservation and Kruger’s loss of 662 rhinos in 2016, Timbavati could conceivably have suffered the loss of 18 rhinos to poaching. If I factor in the relative density of rhinos in Timbavati, this figure balloons to a figure I can’t reveal due to security concerns. This potential loss of even 18 rhinos to poaching is in stark contrast to the one rhino that actually was trophy hunted in Timbavati in 2016.
Again, this is a back-of-a-matchbox calculation and not the stuff of headlines or bold claims, but it does provide the necessary context to the debate.
♦ Timbavati attracts approximately 24,000 photographic tourist visits to the reserve per annum, compared to 46 trophy hunters who will hunt 81 animals during the coming year (not the thousands claimed by the activists);
♦ The average trophy hunter in Timbavati brings in about 1,800 times the revenue to the reserve coffers compared to the average photographic tourist;
♦ Currently, the revenue from trophy hunting to fund reserve management and security amounts to 3.6 times that of the tourism contribution. More on how this model has to change further on.
A full comparison of trophy hunting to tourism is extremely complex, and here are just two qualitative factors to consider:
♦ Tourism generates more jobs and skills advancement than hunting, and is, therefore, more sustainable as an economic model acceptable to the all-important local communities, and to human social evolution;
♦ Hunting has a lower physical environmental footprint – buildings, roads, vehicles, power, water, sanitation, etc.
On the matter of culling
Culling is an integral aspect to game reserve management, even for an area the size of the Kruger National Park. The vast majority of the offtake figures applied for by the four game reserves in question relates specifically to the culling of impalas.
Many well-known game reserves in South Africa that market themselves as being free of trophy hunting take part in culling and/or live capture exercises. This is an inconvenient truth that is seldom discussed openly. Perhaps it’s time for the naked truth?
Comparing Timbavati and Sabi Sand revenue models
The Sabi Sand Game Reserve is a renowned safari mecca not far south of Timbavati and is host to some of this country’s top safari brands, including Londolozi, Singita and Mala Mala. They too used to derive revenue from trophy hunting, until the density and price tag of lodges was sufficient to switch entirely to funding from tourism. To this day, Sabi Sand Wildtuin management meetings host active debate about the use of trophy hunting to meet costs, but thankfully the ‘no’ vote seems to prevail.
Timbavati seems to be on that same journey, and it is my fervent hope that they achieve the same end-goal.
Revenue comparison between Timbavati and the Sabi Sands, two similarly-sized game reserves:
♦ Sabi Sand: 716 beds at a price tag of R4,000 – R23,000 per person per night
♦ Timbavati: 259 beds at a price tag of R2,000 – R11,000 per person per night
In a nutshell, Sabi Sand generates several times the tourism revenue of Timbavati because it has more beds and attracts a higher price tag, and is, therefore, able to generate sufficient management funding without the need for trophy hunting.
In simple terms, the only solution is to build up tourism revenue for Timbavati to the extent that trophy hunting is no longer required, as has been achieved by Sabi Sand. Juxtapose that end goal with the current activist campaign to boycott Timbavati lodges, and the likely consequence of trophy hunting further entrenching itself.
Based on current costs and extensive data made available by some of the Timbavati lodges and by Timbavati reserve management (two separate bodies), the following:
♦ Timbavati lodges would need to raise tourism levies by a factor of almost five times the current revenue. This could be done by a combination of more lodges/beds, and by increasing the conservation levy per visit.
♦ Too many lodges/beds would surely ruin what is a sought-after, low-density safari experience. Timbavati currently enjoys 24,000 visits per annum – a revised 110,000 visits seems very high for this particular area. Lodges cannot for logistical reasons operate at extremely high occupancies, and most Timbavati lodges already operate at almost 60% average occupancy for the year. Therefore, this solution in effect boils down to the building of four to five times as many lodges/beds as to what currently exists.
♦ Increasing the conservation levy from the current R215 to R985 per visit – more than double that being charged by the more populous Sabi Sand if one assumes a 3-day visit.
Right now, the Timbavati lodge owners are engaged in this debate and actively negotiating with Timbavati reserve management for a new model that could conceivably result in a reduced dependency on trophy hunting to fund the reserve. Note though that most lodges have very little say in these matters, as not only are many of them simply tenants, but they are also not mandated to make reserve management decisions.
This solution will I would imagine require years to implement – and in the meantime, Timbavati reserve management requires funding to continue their work.
Timbavati management
I first met Timbavati chief warden Bryan Havemann in mid-2016 when I cycled through Timbavati as part of a fundraising exercise to combat poaching. During a brief discussion, he asked if I was prepared to meet with him to discuss how best to communicate the realities of sustainable utilisation to members of the public. In February this year, he again contacted me and we arranged that I would visit his bushveld office during the time when I had planned to visit several lodges in the reserve. Two days before my visit this social media storm broke cover, and so what was going to be a casual discussion turned into an inquisition from my side as to what was really going on.
Let me be frank. I am impressed with the man, with the research-based adaptive strategy that has been implemented and what has been achieved. I have serious misgivings about their trophy hunting dependency and have communicated that in no uncertain terms to Havemann, and to a broader body of his colleagues.
But I also accept that my perspective is that of a largely desk-bound urban person. To cut to the core, Timbavati’s track record speaks for itself. I have no doubt that the management team will continue to apply themselves totally to whatever needs to be done to keep Timbavati safe from the wildlife trafficking criminals that are operating with seeming impunity elsewhere. Reality suggests that it’s unlikely that the zero-poaching scorecard will prevail indefinitely, but hopefully, the Timbavati team will react to incidents with the precision and dedication displayed so far.
Final thoughts
Trophy hunting is a colonial-era industry that celebrates killing animals for fun and ego. Surely this industry no longer has a place in Africa if there are suitable alternatives for conservation funding?
Timbavati does have an alternative, and it’s now time to evolve their funding model by increasing the conservation levies paid by tourists and eventually doing away with trophy hunting. I hope that tourists will accept this increase in price and feel proud at being part of the solution.
The journey is not a linear one – game reserve management teams all over Africa face daily realities that cannot be whisked away by a fit of keyboard warrior rage, or advice such as ‘put all the animals somewhere safe’. And activist thuggery is not the way forward either, where fake reporting, instant utopian solutions, and emotional bulldozing dominates discussion, and reasonable experienced voices are drowned out.
I, for one, choose fact over fiction, and practical workable solutions over keyboard hype. I hope fervently that enough of you agree with me to help evolve Timbavati and others from dependence on trophy hunting to tourism for that much-needed management and anti-poaching revenue. After all, Sabi Sand was afforded that freedom.
And above all, I ask that each of you go on safari somewhere in Africa, as soon as possible. And then go again.
Professional wildlife photographer Greg du Toit has photographed some of Africa’s wildest, remotest and largest ecosystems. His artwork has hung in both the London and Sydney natural history museums and his ‘Authentic Africa’ collections have been exhibited across the globe, from New York to Singapore. African wildlife is his speciality, and his preferred genre is fine-art wildlife photography, whereby his photographic works are easily recognised by the tangible mood, primitive energy and vibrant colours that they convey.
In this body of work, entitled ‘In the Footsteps of Giants‘, Greg spent three years photographing elephants around Africa in unique settings and locations – mainly from inside waterholes! Read the photographer’s note on this portfolio below:
“I hope that through this body of work people will appreciate what incredibly wonderful creatures elephants are. Sadly, Africa has lost 70% of its elephant population in the last 40 years and alarmingly, in these modern times, elephants are being hunted and poached at a faster rate than they are being born. Hunters come out to shoot elephants so that they can take trophies home to brag. Poachers kill elephants just so that their teeth can be turned into ornaments. I hope that this body of work will help create greater love and appreciation for elephants and awaken the collective human conscience so that these wonderfully intelligent and gentle giants will be around for future generations to see and enjoy. Climbing into the water to photograph them would be a minimal price to pay if this were to happen.”
See more of Greg’s work on his website and follow him on Instagram
This is a significant photograph, on a personal level, I mean. Yes, it won me the highest accolade in world wildlife photography back in 2013, but more than this, it sparked me on a three-year journey that has been simply incredible.
When I took this shot, I thought it was the end of my journey with elephants as it came after many years of trying to capture the mysterious quality of elephants in a photograph. But, as it turns out, it was only the beginning. Since taking this shot, I have spent the last three years working on my ‘In The Footsteps Of Giants’ project whereby I have spent hundreds of hours with elephants. I have flown in helicopters looking for giant tuskers, and I have descended into an extinct volcano (Ngorongoro) to do the same. I have been to the Congo basin and the Skeleton Coast in search of elephants. I have even sat inside a waterhole with them. It has been a spellbinding journey, and now I have this body of work that I can proudly share with the world.
The snowcapped peak and glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro feed the swamps at her base, and one of my goals for my ‘In The Footsteps Of Giants’ project was to capture an elephant herd making its evening sojourn across Africa’s dry plains.
Here, you see a herd in the twilight, crossing the dry lakebed of Amboseli National Park, with the base of Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. Having quenched their thirst, they are heading back to their feeding grounds for the night. The parade of elephants disturbed insects in the grass, much to the delight of the accompanying egrets. Everything in nature is connected.
Elephants fit into that special category of animals with tangible souls. They are undoubtedly intelligent; but are far more than that. When you spend time with them, you eventually come to recognise something of yourself in them, and for this reason, it was essential for this project that I capture the eye, or rather the soul, of an elephant. I took hundreds upon hundreds of photographs of elephants’ eyes, but this shot rose to the top for me. This is the frame that connects me with this magnificent beast, and I hope it does the same for you.
Young elephant bulls often wrestle with one another. This behaviour, while fun, is also critical as it prepares the young males for the more serious fights that they will one day face when they have to ward off rival bulls for mating rights.
The beauty of a photograph lies in its ability to capture a single moment in time. In a fraction of a second, the camera affords us the gift of suspending a singular point in both time and space. For this image, I tried to delay the recording of this moment, and I managed to delay it just long enough for the energy of the young bulls fighting to transfer into my camera. Any longer and the moment would have dissolved.
Seeing a Big Tusker is now an infrequent occurrence because their gene pool has been thinned out, by both hunters and poachers. But, they do still exist, and we must make sure that they always do! For to see such an animal is like seeing a dinosaur; it is a living version of the ancient mammoth and a most mythical beast. It was in Kenya that I, late one evening, came across this incredible tusker and not knowing quite how to photograph him, I chose to exclude his head and body. I wanted to draw attention to his large tusks, but more than that, I wanted to preserve the mystery of this mythical beast and to present my subject as a prehistoric giant stepping into the frame.
It was late November and the end of a drought in Botswana’s Tuli Block. On this particular afternoon in the waterhole, there had been nonstop action, and although I was in the water, I was sweating. This was partly due to the heat and partly because the largest land mammals on planet earth surrounded me! Their toenails looked huge as they towered above me!
It might be hard to appreciate looking at this photo, but the waterhole is the size of a small domestic swimming pool, so I was right under their noses – or should I say trunks? The life of a wildlife photographer can, at times, be very boring – and at other times, extremely exciting, to the point where you are flirting with the thin line that separates life and death. Thankfully, I have enough experience now to slow down and appreciate those special moments when I am right on the line. Here you see me dropping my camera and taking it all in, just for a moment.
One of the significant advantages of photographing at the waterhole was that the elephants, although they knew I was there, never saw me as a threat. Elephants are wonderful mothers and very protective of their herd, but the elephants in the Tuli Block of Botswana know that it is a safe haven for them, and the mothers are more relaxed than in other parts of Africa.
Being a professional wildlife photographer, I am often afforded a window into the world of wild animals – and this is a great delight and privilege, but never more so than when a baby elephant goes about its business of learning life’s lessons. Here you see this young elephant trying to get to grips with her trunk and how exactly she should go about having a drink. Her mother stands patiently above her.
One of the most amazing things to witness in the African bush is an elephant herd getting excited about a visit to the waterhole. Although elephants can’t officially run (they can only speed walk), it must be said that they come closest to running when approaching a waterhole.
The herd gets visibly excited as they rush towards the water, and here you see a little calf leading the charge.
With a baby elephant only two metres away, and at eye level, it splashed mud everywhere. As I focused on its eye, my camera got covered in mud. Just another day at the office for me! And a reminder to have fun and play!
Occasionally one is treated to a special sunset, the kind that glows long after the sun has disappeared below the horizon. It was when leading a predator safari in the Maasai Mara that my guests and I witnessed one such sunset, and by positioning ourselves in a valley, we had a magnificent and silhouetted subject in the form of an elephant. The pachyderm was slowly walking along the ridge, plucking grass – and in the very last light of the day, I managed to squeeze out one more frame. This is that special frame.
This big boy had swum out into the middle of the Zambezi River, where he was enjoying the cool water and the lush green grass on an island. It was late November and the hottest time of year in the Zambezi Valley. I longed to jump in with the bull and celebrate life just the way he was. I even asked my guide if I could, but he was quick to point out the danger of crocodiles!
He was right, of course.
All I could do was lie down on the boat and watch with fascination as the largest land mammal on earth frolicked in the water. The sun eventually set, and the watery foreground turned into an orange swirl. Light rays refracted, reflected and bounced onto the face of my subject. Our eyes locked, and I immediately recognised that I could potentially capture a photograph that conveyed the beauty and mystery of one of God’s greatest creatures. Moments like this are what make me feel so incredibly privileged to do what I do, and I am so grateful that the camera allows me to share them with you.
My wife and I were canoeing on the Zambezi River when out of the blue, this elephant came charging at us from beyond the riverbank. There was nowhere to hide, and so I dropped my oar and picked up my camera (much to the dismay of my poor wife, I might add). More often than not, when an elephant comes rushing at you kicking up a storm, they are ‘mock charging’ and have no intention of harming you, rather just giving you a friendly warning sign to move away.
In a remote forest clearing in the Zambezi Valley, I spent the afternoon with this elephant bull. He was most interested in the pods of the Winterthorn tree and in an attempt to reach them, he leaned in and stretched his trunk as high as he could. The soft afternoon light was filtering through the forest, creating orange and blue hues. It was a magical scene.
It had long been a dream of mine to see and photograph a Namibian desert-adapted elephant. It remains an incredible mystery to me how these gigantic creatures can survive in a harsh desert.
I was more than chuffed to finally catch up with this bull on the Skelton Coast of Namibia.
Following the bull, as he passed by a sand dune, I knew that this would be the frame that I had come here for. I had to travel all the way to the Congo to get a shot of a forest elephant and juxtaposed against this frame, I can only marvel at the adaptability of this incredible species. I believe that we will win the fight to halt elephant poaching and that they will roam deserts, forests and savannahs for future generations to see and enjoy. I must believe this, I am a wildlife photographer and an ambassador for wild creatures. It is my duty to bring inspiring portraits of elephants to the world. It was, after all, Sir David Attenborough, who once said that “images have the power to affect how we feel about the natural world and therefore how we treat it.”
At work inside the waterhole for my ‘In The Footsteps Of Giants‘ project. I hope that this body of work will be remembered, not because of the crazy photographer who climbed into a waterhole, but rather for the awareness it raised and for drawing attention to elephants. All animals are special and consequential and need to be conserved, but elephants seem to me to be extra special animals. They possess a rare kind of intelligence and cognitive understanding. They are giant, yet gentle creatures and they are also a keystone species to the ecosystem, meaning that should they go extinct, the entire ecosystem will fail. We need to continue working hard to ensure that doesn’t happen.
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The early morning phone call came into the Wildlife Works offices in Tsavo, Kenya. A baby elephant had been hit by a large truck. Written by Raabia Hawa, Founder of Walk With Rangers
Head ranger Eric Sagwe responded swiftly, using the donated anti-poaching vehicle. He set off, with numerous thoughts running through his mind, “They must be mistaking it for another smaller animal, surely not a baby elephant! What if it’s still alive?”
When he arrived at the scene, people had begun to gather around…
There he lay, an elephant not more than two or three weeks old, his young life terminated. Just like that.
According to community members who had witnessed the incident, a family of elephants crossing the busy highway that dissects East and West Tsavo turned back when faced by the barrier of the new elevated Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway – the biggest infrastructure project in Kenya since the country’s independence. Unaware of the underpasses provided for elephants, the herd turned back in the confusion and panic, and the little one was struck by an oncoming truck.
People crowded the scene, eager to utilise the calf for meat. Thankfully, Eric wasn’t going to have any of it and carried the calf’s lifeless body into the vehicle. With a heavy heart, he drove deep into the bush, where he left the baby elephant in a peaceful spot.
The controversial railway line has impacted on communities living around Kenya’s famed Tsavo ecosystem, with human-wildlife conflict cases rising significantly since the construction began; putting pressure on wildlife, and inevitably transferring that pressure to people – a fact that perhaps was overlooked during the planning process.
My regular drive to Tsavo regularly reveals numerous roadkills – from hyenas to mongooses, squirrels, giraffes and even endangered Grevy’s zebras. Even lions, the majestic symbol of Kenya’s Coat of Arms, have been forever silenced on this highway.
Tsavo’s elephants have been an iconic species for Kenya since it’s independence. They bring in much-needed revenue for the tourism industry, thereby contributing significantly to the nation’s GDP and to employment levels. We revere elephants and respect their close family structures and contributions to the ecosystem services we all enjoy, even in the cities.
We mourn the loss of such a young life, but perhaps this young elephant’s legacy is to help us inform you what is happening here in Tsavo.
Africa is untamed, rugged and breathtakingly beautiful. It offers the adventure traveller a kaleidoscope of experiences that will imprint the essence of Africa on your soul for life. From stark desert landscapes to lush green plains teeming with wildlife, Africa is unique in its diversity and sheer natural splendour. This is Elephant Ignite territory.
Sadly, Africa is also a continent mercilessly targeted by poachers, stripping it of its wildlife and threatening one of its most majestic inhabitants, the African elephant, with extinction. In the last decade, Central Africa has lost 64% of its elephant population as a result of the ivory trade. A staggering 30 000 elephants are killed every year across Africa – and sadly, it has now become a battle for survival for these majestic and gentle giants.
Enter the all-female crew of the Elephant Ignite Expedition, a group of passionate ladies from vastly different walks of life who embarked on a 16 000km, 100-day journey across 10 African countries to cast the spotlight on the poaching crisis. The expedition focussed on community upliftment, youth education, public awareness for wildlife crime and poaching, and a fundraising drive to support the organisations that are fighting the critical conservation battles on the frontline.
Travelling through South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya, the ladies visited 37 conservation organisations to get involved and to gain a deeper understanding of the work they do. They distributed 20 000 educational booklets to schools and communities along the way, and also delivered talks and performances focussed around conservation amongst the youth. The entire crew self-funded all their participation costs, and the proceeds from the fundraising campaigns were directed to the nominated beneficiary projects.
“Every one of us can make a difference, no matter how big or small. We set out determined to ignite a fire in the hearts and minds of Africans, that would ultimately help to fight the war that is raging against our wildlife. We finished 100 days later, stronger than ever and even more dedicated to doing more for our wildlife. I am exceptionally proud and honoured to have organised and led this crew of amazing ladies with such big hearts, and to have raised awareness, connected organisations and hopefully come up with some solutions for how we can initiate change ” said expedition leader, Carla Geyser from registered NPO Blue Sky Society Trust. The Elephant Ignite Expedition was one of the Trust’s conservation projects for 2016.
In true female style, the rugged-looking vehicles received some rather emotionally charged, but very apt names: ‘Courage’, ‘Hope’ and ‘Love’. Courage, loosely defined as , “the ability to do something that frightens you,” aptly named for all the courageous people out there with the incredibly tough task of living and working on the front lines to keep Africa’s wildlife safe. Also, because an all-women, African expedition – the first of its kind in the word – was an incredibly courageous undertaking and took some real guts.
Hope, because the people so passionately committed to African conservation give hope for all the endangered species on the continent. Elephant Ignite also hopes that their journey helped to ignite passion and inspire change, providing the people they met along the way a renewed sense of hope that they have what it takes to continue fighting the good fight.
Love, because without love and compassion, there would be no hope or courage for people to do what they do and make the sacrifices necessary to save Africa’s wildlife. The Elephant Ignite crew are full of love for Africa’s special places and wildlife, and on this particular journey, they came together as a powerful sisterhood in the battle for Africa’s elephants.
Travelling through some of Africa’s most scenic and awe-inspiringly beautiful regions was one of the most memorable experiences for this tough-as-nails group. Always on the move, they covered long distances under the challenging conditions expected of any real African adventure – with water crossings and heavy sand on some of the characteristic African dirt roads putting their adventure driving skills to the test!
For the team, the journey was a roller coaster of emotions, and they embraced Mother Africa with loads of laughter, the odd tear and an unwavering sense of connected sisterhood.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
Along their journey, the team had the incredible opportunity to spend time and get involved hands-on with some on-the-ground conservation efforts in critical conservation areas in Africa. Here, they detail some of the most memorable moments from their active participation in the various conservation efforts they got involved in along the way.
A hands-on elephant collaring operation of three elephants with Dr Michelle Henley from Elephants Alive in Hoedspruit. The crew was part of the immobilisation team and stepped in to assist with data collection, sampling and measurements. The expedition also funded a tracking collar for one of the female elephants and Dr Henley announced that they would be naming the female “Ignite” in honour of the expedition’s elephant conservation efforts. The team have a follow-up visit scheduled for 2017 to report back on the progress of this project.
Taking part in an active anti-poaching roadblock with Conservation South Luangwa and their canine unit in Zambia that positioned the team on the frontline of anti-poaching operations, where they truly discovered how dangerous it is for the teams on the ground.
The expedition donated funds to install a borehole and water pump in Mndanka village in Malawi – a community bordering on the Kasungu National Park where the human-elephant conflict is extreme. The community had no access to water and used to go into the park for water, putting them at risk for conflict with elephants. With access to water, their risk of elephant encounters is reduced, and they now grow crops and oyster mushrooms as the first step in a sustainable permaculture initiative. Newly installed beehive fences also help keep the elephants at bay. The expedition officially unveiled the pump and had a tour of the new agricultural initiatives.
A visit to farmers in rural Kenya where the beehive fences that EIE donated as part of the Elephants and Bees Project with Dr Lucy King are helping to mitigate human-elephant conflict. EIE sponsored hives to protect the crops for two rural farmers, Phelicia Wanyika and Josiah Kimanga in Mwambiti Village, Sagalla. This project is gaining traction across Africa and providing tangible benefits to protect the communities and elephants.
A visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust‘s release facility in Voi, Kenya. The DSWT team care selflessly for orphaned elephant calves, never leaving their sides and sleeping with the young calves at night. Once they are a bit older, the calves are allowed to roam into the wild for extended periods and taught to be more independent. This facility cares for the slightly older calves and prepares them for their release back into the wild.
A tour of Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya’s Laikipia region and meeting ‘Sudan’, the last living male Northern white rhino left in the world, destined for extinction. Standing next to this magnificent animal, everyone was overcome with deep sadness and shame at the realisation that humanity has failed the rhino as a species, as we have failed so many others before him.
Meet ‘Sudan’ in the video below.
The immobilisation and successful treatment of an injured elephant cow in Kenya with Kenya Wildlife Services. The cow was found with spear wounds, and members of the team supported KWS during the rescue mission. Just a couple of days later, on a visit to Save the Elephants research camp, yet another emergency search and rescue mission prompted the team to rush out and locate an orphaned calf “Shaba” in Samburu National Park. The mother was killed, leaving behind two calves; the older calf was reunited with the herd and the young baby, successfully darted and airlifted to safety at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. Shaba is doing very well and proved to be a real leader, already taking on a matriarch role at the sanctuary.
This expedition was a real journey with purpose, allowing the team to explore Mother Africa and experience her in all her splendour. Breathtakingly beautiful, at times brutal, but always ready to welcome and inspire. It has ignited a passion in each of the ladies to protect and commit to sharing stories of the work done by the extraordinary wildlife warriors on the frontline of African wildlife conservation.
To find out more about the expedition team, continue reading below the advert.
THE TEAM
The team consisted of six permanent crew members that completed the entire journey, and seven alternating crew that joined for shorter periods. Each permanent crew member had a stake in the planning and on the expedition, the duties were shared between all team members. A duty roster ensured that the workload was covered and that each person pulled their weight. The responsibilities included: cooking, washing up, maintenance and safety.
The maintenance involved setting up the camp chairs and tables, making fires and spraying all the tents with a special mosquito repellent. The safety person had to charge two-way radios and GPS’s for the following day’s use. She also had to remain with the vehicles during stops to ensure that no-one tampered with them, and ran extra checks on locks or items left behind. Security is critical when travelling in Africa…
THE VEHICLES
The Elephant Ignite expedition would not have been possible without the three fully-kitted safari vehicles sponsored by Avis 4×4 Safari Rentals/Overland 360. The 4×4 Ford Ranger proved itself as a reliable, all-terrain workhorse. The ladies prepared for off-road driving under the watchful eye of 4×4 instructors and braved a selection of difficult obstacles during their training sessions. From rough ditches, fearsome hills, steep declines, deep sand, mud and water – even with the added weight of carrying a ‘mini motel’ on the back of the vehicles – the Ford Rangers performed reliably and brilliantly.
View a map of all the national parks and reserves visited on the expedition below
About the authors
Expedition leader Carla Geyser (founder of the Blue Sky Society Trust) started dreaming about doing an expedition dedicated to elephants in 2012. She just loves elephants and wanted to do something special to make a difference for them, and to say thank you to the people on the ground who work continuously to ensure their survival. The Elephant Ignite Expedition was her way of paying tribute to these majestic animals.
Permanent crew member Yolande Kruger is extremely passionate about Africa, and serves as an executive board member of the Lawrence Anthony Earth Organisation. She is also a patron of the Blue Sky Society Trust. She believes that elephants are an iconic species, and that everyday individuals can do more to support and create awareness for the survival of these majestic animals. This was her motive on this expedition, and Elephant Ignite is a brand that she is proud to be associated with.
Most of us take elephants for granted.Written by Carla Geyser
They are the largest land mammal on earth and a key part of the Big Five. We often get to marvel at their beauty on African wildlife postcards or admire them while watching National Geographic documentaries. Most people think it’s the rhino that is the only animal under threat, but sadly elephants are right up there alongside them.
These magnificent lumbering giants are steadily being butchered at an alarming rate. Elephants are one of the major casualties of a poaching war against wildlife that has completely spiralled out of control. If you live in Africa and have had contact with the wildlife it is hard not to have the urge to protect them fiercely. But what can we all do about it?
The Elephant Ignite Expedition was an idea that I came up with as a way to raise money and awareness for elephant conservation projects. My idea was to bring a group of passionate and skilled women to see first-hand just what the real threats were against these mighty creatures. To harness their talents and to try and find solutions.
This epic expedition was a means to highlight in the worldwide media what is happening to these animals on a grand scale. The expedition was plotted over 15,787 kilometres over a period of 100 days.
This dynamic all-female crew left Durban on Women’s Day, 9 August 2016, and proceeded to visit ten different countries, visiting 37 projects that work tirelessly to save the dwindling elephant populations. All this was done within 100 days. An amazing achievement!
I have been asked plenty of time: why only women? Well, elephants have always been one of my passions – they seem to embody everything that is good about Africa and family. Elephants are wise old souls and they are deeply intelligent.
The herd is managed by a matriarch. There are things that we as a species can learn from the matriarch. She leads her herd with great strength and confidence, secure in any decisions she needs to make, but at the same time leading with a firm, but gentle hand. Elephants are full of compassion and empathy, and they are not shy to show their emotions. Most of all a matriarch relies on her network. She does nothing alone and has her family and all the other elephants to lean on. As a combined unit they achieve a WHOLE lot more than as individuals.
We can learn SO much from our wildlife if we just open our eyes, our ears and our hearts.
Another giant has fallen to poachers, and the remaining estimated 50-100 Tuskers survive in small pockets across East and Southern Africa, pursued by poachers and trophy hunters alike. You see, it’s their tusks, 100 pounds on each side to qualify as a ‘Tusker’, that is their crowning glory and their death sentence.
Our blog post earlier this week goes into the details of Satao 2’s death, so my team and I wish to pay tribute to him, as we did in 2014 for his erstwhile companion Satao, also claimed by a poacher’s arrow. Every time one of these gentle giants goes down to a poacher or trophy hunter, we lose another part of Africa’s soul.
In the following tributes, you will hear from some of those who had the privilege of being near Satao 2 recently, touched by his massive, gentle presence and saddened at his death. You will also learn more about Tsavo National Park in Kenya and what you can do to help.
There are, of course, many good people working under incredible pressure all over Africa to stem the tide of poaching. On this occasion, though, the spotlight falls on the good people of Kenyan Wildlife Services and the Tsavo Trust, who work tirelessly to safeguard Tsavo’s gentle giants.
Richard Moller, who runs Tsavo Trust, has called for a few Tsavo Tuskers to be granted Presidential Security Decree, as was the case with Marsabit National Park’s famous tusker ‘Ahmed’ in the early 1970s. Now, there is a campaign worth supporting!
If you feel emotional, angry or downright frustrated about the situation, consider finding out about Tsavo Trust and donating some of your hard-earned money. Every little bit helps.
“I am pretty gutted, really. Satao 2 was a good-natured elephant and very approachable, one of those easy old boys to find. Many of the others are much more challenging to see.
Satao 2 has been a film star for many film crews enjoying Tsavo and its last remaining iconic Tuskers. Most recently, Tsavo hosted the BBC “My Family and Me” shoot that took place in mid-2016 and aired in Britain in December 2016 – Satao 2 was showcased to millions of people.
During our ‘Big Tusker Project’ surveillance, we logged Satao 2 no fewer than 160 times since December 2013 – that’s once every 6.5 days on average. Although this undoubtedly did help in his security and gave us a better understanding of his home range (and that of the other impressive emerging Tuskers that he roamed with), this incident shows some gaps need to be filled. There is an urgent need to step up activities with regard to Tsavo’s super tuskers.
Many will miss him.”
Richard Moller
Chief Conservation Officer, Tsavo Trust
“I feel a strong sense of connection to the big tuskers and I made my way to Tsavo National Park in 2016 to spend a week with some of these exceptional, majestic elephant bulls that still survive in Africa. Finding them was not easy, but searching for 11 hours a day eventually ensured success, and I was fortunate to closely observe three of the remaining Tuskers on the continent. Luck was on my side, and I had daily sightings of Satao 2, watching him for hours, flanked by another large bull that seemed so small alongside him in the dry savannah. Drinking at waterholes amongst the herd, he commanded complete respect from all the other elephants. His towering presence will remain with me forever, vividly etched into my memories. His death is another immeasurable loss to the big elephant gene pool and, of course, to Kenya’s tourism industry. Now, more than ever, the last remaining Tuskers need presidential protection.”
Dex Kotze
Businessman, conservation activist and fundraiser
“After hearing about the death of Satao 1 three years ago, I visited Tsavo to look for emerging tuskers. Finally, after days of searching, we spotted a wonderful younger bull called Satao 2 from the air. As we circled over him, I snapped this shot, and I was so ecstatic. His tusks were not as big as those of Satao 1, but my guide exclaimed: “give him ten years, and he will be as big as Satao 1!” Leaving Tsavo, I was so relieved that Satao 2 was ‘in the pipeline’, so to speak, to become one of Africa’s great tuskers. As it turns out, this was not to be. On my visit, I saw many more emerging tuskers – so perhaps now is not the time to mourn.
Now is the time to act! If you want to help, please donate to the ‘Big Tusker Project’ (run by the Tsavo Trust), which not only does aerial surveillance but puts armed scout units on the ground. Every cent helps to employ more scouts. I have visited this project on the ground, and it is excellent. Seriously, every cent helps!”
Greg du Toit
Professional wildlife photographer and guide and winner of ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013.’
Note from the editor: Apologies for the grainy picture. Greg is currently guiding in Tanzania, and could not email us a higher resolution picture.
The name tuskers or super tuskers, or ‘hundred pounders’ in hunting terms, is reserved for male elephants with at least one tusk of 100 pounds (45,45kg). They tend to be larger than other elephants and stand out in a herd, even when accompanied by other large males.
Trophy hunters have sought out big-tusked elephants since the ‘great white hunter’ days; to this day, they still kill these giant elephants for bragging rights. Yet today, the most immediate threat to tuskers and all elephants is poaching to supply the insatiable demand from the Far East for ivory. Most tuskers have been wiped out after many years of poaching and trophy hunting, and the gene pool is severely compromised.
The massive 44,000 km² Tsavo Conservation Area is home to the world’s highest population of large-tusked elephants, with 6 super tuskers and 15 emerging tuskers (young bulls with the genes and potential to become tuskers). Seven cows with tusks reaching the ground are also being monitored.
Every tusker plays a vital role in the genetic stability of elephant populations and should, in the ideal world, be granted individual protection against those wishing to kill them.
Richard Moller, CEO of Tsavo Trust, has called for a few Tsavo Tuskers to be granted Presidential Security Decree, as was the case with Marsabit National Park’s famous Tusker ‘Ahmed’ in the early 1970s.
East and West Tsavo National Parks combine with the neighbouring Chyulu Hills National Park to form one of Africa’s largest wildlife areas – the Tsavo Conservation Area of 44,000 km2
Tsavo West is dominated by magnificent hills that tower over the surrounding arid plains and shelter the crystal-clear waters of Mzima Springs, where you can sit in an underwater glass chamber to watch hippos and crocodiles. Tsavo East, on the other hand, is a flat thorn and baobab savannah – ideal for spectacular views of the large elephant herds and huge bulls that are famously always covered in red dust.
The view across the arid plains to the iconic Mount Kilimanjaro is spectacular.
One way to contribute to the conservation of Tsavo and the super tuskers is to visit the area on safari. In doing so, you not only contribute to Kenyan revenue but also help lodges employ and upskill local people. For a few years now, we have offered the popular Walking with Giants safari in Tsavo to those of our guests who enjoy an authentic mobile camp safari from a bygone era.
The Tsavo Trust operates the Big Tusker Project in conjunction with Kenyan Wildlife Services. They focus on aerial and ground surveillance and data capture, backed up by the KWS’ rapid reaction teams that deal with poaching incidents.
This successful cooperative model with KWS has substantially reduced poaching in the area despite a chronic shortage of funding.
Tsavo Trust CEO Richard Moller and his co-pilot Josh Outram spend over 60 hours per month logging the movements of Tsavo’s elephants. Since their inception, they have donated more than US$300,000 worth of anti-poaching vehicles and equipment to KWS.
They also work closely with local communities, as they fully appreciate that the survival of Africa’s iconic species depends on the participation of people who live on park borders. Human-wildlife conflict is the cause of so many wild animal deaths in Africa, and no conservation project can succeed without the total involvement of communities at a meaningful level.
Giada and Gianluca Ventura from Italy visited a Maasai village during their recent Kenyan safari and had this to say:
“We had always wanted to visit a Maasai village and witness the famous adumu (‘jumping dance’) as performed by the Morani. During our stay at Sentinel Mara Camp in the Maasai Mara, our dream came true!
We had read many stories regarding the Maasai warriors and wished to understand why they were so widely employed by camps and hotels as askari (guards). Approaching the village, our first clue dawned on us when Dominic, our Maasai guide, pointed to a hyena apparently on the horizon: “Guys… do you see the blood on her face?” The blood?! We couldn’t even see the hyena!
Arriving at the village in the middle of wild Africa, we noticed the fence made of acacia branches with thorns and wondered if it was solid enough to protect the village against wild animals like lions, leopards, and hyenas.
We were greeted by the boss of the clan (who thanked us for coming to visit the village) and invited us to wait for the women coming from inside the kraal. It was an amazing welcome! Maasai women sang in front of us while wearing beautiful bangles and strings of coloured beads around their necks. Giada was especially pleased about the chance of doing some jewellery shopping at the village!
We had fun (and learned a lot) trying to light a fire in less than three minutes – using just two sticks of wood and elephant dung. Amazing! I remember trying this in Italy, but of course, without the elephant dung! And then came the ‘jumping dance’. I was invited to participate in it and lifted from the ground and jumped so high that it was impossible to take a good photo of my superb athleticism! Jokes aside, it was a privilege assisting with the adumu – a dance usually performed during the coming-of-age ceremony where adult boys are initiated into warrior men.
We also visited a Maasai hut, which was very small and had only three rooms – the entrance, a shelter for some animals, and the main room. It wasn’t even high enough to stand upright! A tiny hole in the roof let a little light into the hut, but we were told its main purpose was to let the smoke from the smouldering fire – used for cooking and warmth – escape. Exiting the hut, we had to wear sunglasses to protect our eyes from the contrasting glare!
Our visit was almost over, and we were about to leave when Giada grabbed my arm and turned me back towards the assortment of fantastic Maasai jewellery and other items that were proudly displayed for sale. How could I have forgotten?! Now was the time to buy some really special souvenirs!”
Find out about the Maasai Mara for your next African safari – find a ready-made safari or ask us to build one just for you.
SATAO 2 is dead, and another of the last tuskers left in Africa has been poached, leaving only 6 of these giants in the Tsavo Conservation Area in southern Kenya. This is a devastating blow to elephant conservation and super tusker genes.
SATAO 2 was named after SATAO, the iconic giant who was poached in 2014 and was one of the largest tuskers left on Earth. A ‘tusker’ is an elephant whose tusks each weigh more than 100 lbs / 45,45kg. The tusks of Satao 2 weighed 51kg and 50.5kg.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers discovered the gruesome kill site before the poachers had the time to remove the tusks. Although not totally certain, indications are that a poison arrow killed SATAO 2. In subsequent investigations, two people have been apprehended and weapons seized. KWS continues to work hard to rid Tsavo of poaching teams that roam the reserve.
The massive 44,000 km² Tsavo Conservation Area (twice the size of South Africa’s Kruger National Park) is home to the highest population of large-tusked elephants in the world, with 6 ‘super tuskers’ (of approximately 25-30 in the whole of Africa) and 15 emerging tuskers (young bulls who have the genes and potential to become tuskers). There are also seven cows with tusks reaching the ground that are being monitored.
Elephant populations in the area crashed due to poaching from the highs of 45,000 in the early 1970s to fewer than 6,000 in 1989. Since then the population has recovered to 11,000 (last aerial census in 2014) due to the formation of the KWS and the international ban on ivory trade – although there has again been an increase in poaching since then. For further information see our magazine issue The Silent Giants of Tsavo.
The Tsavo Trust operates the Big Tusker Project in conjunction with KWS and focusses on aerial and ground surveillance and data capture, backed up by the KWS’ rapid reaction teams that deal with poaching incidents.
SATAO 2’s death, and the recent spike in poaching, represent a significant threat to the world’s last-remaining tuskers and Tsavo’s precious elephant population. PLEASE consider supporting the Tsavo Trust in their brave battle to keep these elephants safe from the ruthless poaching syndicates.
Tsavo Trust CEO Richard Moller would like to see one or two of the iconic Tsavo super tuskers enjoy a Presidential Security Decree, as was the case with the famous tusker called Ahmed of Marsabit National Park in Kenya in the early 1970s. If successfully repeated, this will be a momentous achievement in conservation leadership by an African president.
The combined effects of drought and poaching have reduced estimated white rhino numbers in South Africa’s Kruger National Park by 18% during the past year, according to the latest official figures. See point 4 below, for more information about this specific statistic. This amid a decline in poaching statistics generally.
South African Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa last night issued a lengthy report back on the Integrated Strategic Management of Rhino during 2016. Here then are the 10 facts from her report that we think you should be aware of. Read the entire announcement here.
1. A total of 1 054 rhinos were poached nationwide in 2016 (1 175 in 2015) – a decline of 10.3%;
2. Specifically for the Kruger National Park, a total of 662 rhino carcasses were found in 2016 (826 in 2015) – a decline of 19.85%;
3. Again for Kruger, there were a staggering 2 883 instances of poaching-related activities in 2016 (2 466 in 2015) – an increase of 16.9%. These include poaching camps, contacts, crossings, sightings, tracks and shots fired. These criminal gangs are armed to the teeth, well-funded and part of transnational syndicates who will stop at nothing to get their hands on rhino horn;
4. White rhino population estimate in Kruger is 6 649 – 7 830 (corresponding 2015 estimate was 8 365 – 9 337) – a decrease of 18%. It must be noted that there was an increase in natural deaths of white rhinos due to the unprecedented drought conditions;
5. Black rhino population estimate in Kruger is 349 – 465 (corresponding 2015 estimate was 313 – 453 – an increase of 6%. The drought effect was not as noticeable on black rhinos;
6. 46 elephants were poached in the Kruger (no 2015 figure provided);
7. 11 rhinos were internally translocated away from boundaries in the Kruger for security reasons – part of an ongoing internal translocation strategy;
8. 106 rhinos were translocated from national parks to private strongholds, and none of these were poached;
9. There are approximately 38 orphans under the care of Kruger National Park and partners and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife;
10. 680 poachers and traffickers were arrested for rhino-related poaching offences nationally (317 in 2015). Of this number, 417 were arrested in or near the Kruger National Park. 148 firearms were seized inside the Kruger, and 6 just outside the park.
Earlier this year, South African Environmental Affairs minister Edna Molewa announced a ZERO quota for leopard hunts in 2017, a continuation of the 2016 ruling.
This after an alert by the country’s Scientific Authority that the number of leopards in the country was unknown and that trophy hunting posed a high risk to the survival of the species.
But in the latest development, Molewa has proposed control measures relating to the trophy hunting of leopards that will apply once the quota is reinstated. Conservation-minded people should read the summary below to better understand the situation regarding leopard hunting in South Africa and respond to the Minister (you have 30 days).
Here is a brief summary of the notice, which attempts to establish a framework for future leopard trophy hunts:
1. Most leopards are hunted by way of baiting (using a carcass to draw the leopard in), from a shooting distance of 50-80m.
2. Leopard Hunting Zones (LHZ) will be determined, based on leopard populations and hunting pressure. No individual property may be included in more than one permit application.
3. Male leopards can be accurately aged based on the dewlap size (the dewlap is the loose flap of skin on the throat).
4. Harvesting male leopards older than 7 years has the least effect on population stability because at that age they will have held their territory for long enough to allow one litter to grow to independence. Accordingly, only male leopards that are 7 years or older may be hunted. If this rule is broken, the relevant LHZ will receive no quota for the following year.
5. Each hunt requires a permit in the name of the hunting client or the local professional hunter, for each leopard to be hunted (multiple leopard hunt applications will be accepted). These permits must be applied for before September, for hunts taking place in the following year.
6. The professional hunter accompanying the client must pass a once-off ‘leopard hunting examination’. Bizarrely this website permits an unlimited number of practise exams, before the official exam is taken online. Professional hunters that can provide evidence that they have undergone approved training in the determination of a leopard’s age do not need to pass the exam.
7. Each leopard trophy must be inspected within 24 hours of the hunt by an environmental management inspector of the relevant permit-issuing authority, and DNA samples taken.
8. If any hunt contributes to the destabilisation of the relevant leopard population, appropriate action will be taken against the professional hunter to curtail their leopard hunts and/or institute criminal proceedings.
Interested parties have 30 days from 8 February 2017 to make representations or to object in writing, to Ms Makganthe Maleka mamaleka@environment.gov.za and +27 (0)12 399 8865
Download your copy of the relevant Government Gazette notice (the leopard-related content is after the rhino-related content)
As our guide brought the open game vehicle coasting to a halt, the only sound was of waves breaking gently on the sand. That morning, Sodwana Bay had been clamorous with tractors and trailers, speedboats and scuba divers. But now, late at night, the beach was utterly empty. And out there, somewhere, an ancient and awe-inspiring story was unfolding.
You see, as well as being one of the world’s top dive sites, Sodwana Bay in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park is also one of the very few places in southern Africa where sea turtles nest. Of the five species of turtles found in these seas, the two largest come here to lay their eggs. ISimangaliso is Africa’s last primary nesting site for leatherbacks and loggerheads.
Each year, from November to January, the giant tracks of female leatherback and loggerhead turtles emerge from the surf, looking like paths left by aquatic tanks. A couple of months later, the tiny, almost invisible trails of baby turtles scatter from holes below the dunes. Not all of them reach the sea.
It was mid-January, so we were just in time to witness both sides of this 100-million-year-old ritual. Our guide was Peter Jacobs of Ufudu Turtle Tours. He’s an honorary wildlife officer with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife who’s passionate about protecting Sodwana Bay’s sea turtles. The tours he runs on this 10-mile stretch of beach aren’t just for entertainment. They’re a way to create a public appreciation for these magnificent creatures – and some awareness of their plight.
After Peter gave us an introductory talk about sea turtles, we drove north along the beach, below the high tide mark. The only illumination came from our dim yellow headlights, the pale glow of a gibbous moon slipping between clouds, and the rhythmic slash of the lighthouse on the hill. Unfortunately, said Peter, this was too much light. Ideally, the lighthouse would be turned off, and so would our headlights. Nothing besides the moon and stars should shine on a beach where turtles are nesting.
That’s because turtles are incredibly sensitive to light. Female turtles navigate towards the shore using the dark outline of vegetated dunes against the night sky. Hatchlings find their way to the sea by orienting themselves to its reflective glimmer. Any artificial light at a sea turtle nesting site dramatically lowers their chances of success.
And it’s not as if their odds are particularly good in the first place. Although leatherback and loggerhead turtles usually lay around 100 eggs in a nest, and dig on average five nests in a season, it’s estimated that scarcely one in a thousand hatchlings make it to maturity.
From the moment a sea turtle egg hits the damp sand of a nest, it’s under threat. Once the female turtle has dragged herself laboriously back to the ocean, the eggs are left entirely unprotected. Dogs and jackals, ants and ghost crabs, snakes, gulls, rats, cats and mongooses all adore a tasty turtle egg.
Then, once the turtle hatches, it has to push its way up through the sand and hope for a clear passage to the sea. This, however, is highly unlikely. While adult leatherbacks and loggerheads weigh hundreds of pounds and are virtually immune to natural predators, their hatchlings are just a couple of inches long and weigh less than two ounces.
Thousands of stalk-eyed ghost crabs patrol the dunes, waiting to drag the tiny turtles away. If a hatchling doesn’t reach water before daylight, it will die of dehydration or be scooped up by gulls and raptors. Even if a baby turtle successfully reaches the ocean, there’s no respite. Squid, fish, sharks and eels are all waiting to gobble it up.
Peter stopped the vehicle a short stretch along the beach. He explained that he and a group of volunteers monitor each nest they locate. A loggerhead nest nearby was due to hatch any day now. Perhaps we would be lucky enough to see it happen. We waited while he trotted up the dune with a red torch (red light doesn’t confuse turtles) and jumped out to join him when he beckoned.
“We just missed it,” said Peter, kneeling beside a hollow in the sand, around which some rubbery egg fragments lay. “They probably came out about half an hour ago. Let’s see if there are any stragglers left in the nest.” He dug carefully. “Aaah, this one hatched but didn’t make it. It might have suffocated.”
There were no live turtles in the nest, but Peter noticed several trails leading away from it towards the dunes. He suggested we fetch our torches to see if we could find any hatchlings that had been kidnapped by ghost crabs.
Holding my headlamp close to the ground to minimise its range, I followed a pair of tracks into the hollow of a dune. “Oh! I’ve found one!” The little loggerhead had turned towards my torchlight and was determinedly forging its way onwards with three flippers.
“A crab must have dragged it by its front flipper and damaged it,” said Peter when he saw it. “It’s highly unlikely that this one would have survived anyway. It’s lost in the dunes, out of sight of the sea, and it’s injured. So I’m going to allow you to help it.”
This sounded like an odd thing for Peter to say, but he told us that people’s attempts to help turtle hatchlings could often do more harm than good. Picking them up transmits bacteria they’re not equipped to fight. And carrying them to the sea instead of letting them walk means their flippers don’t get the vital exercise they need to strengthen them for swimming.
So we scooped the little loggerhead up in a handful of sand and carried it back to the nest. Then, since we were desperate to be helpful, Peter allowed us to use torches to guide it to the water.
By now, I had named the turtle Fynn. (There’s no way to tell a turtle’s sex by sight, so I’d decided he was a boy.) I growled whenever someone shone a torch, or turned on a cellphone or camera that wasn’t directly in line with his path to the sea, because, each time, no matter how faint it was, Fynn would turn towards the light, and away from the water.
So I crawled in front of him with my torch, smoothing the sand, and saying stupid things like “Come on, Fynn! You’re a champ! You can do it!” Never has 100 metres felt so far. But at last, Fynn’s first wave washed over him. His flippers waggled with what looked like delight. We clapped and cheered. Then another wave whisked him out and away.
Beyond the beach, endless dangers waited: marlin, barracuda, tiger sharks – predators too numerous to name. And then there are the human perils of plastic, pollution, poaching, fishing lines, nets and boats. Fynn has less than a one in a thousand chance of reaching adulthood. But, at least he lived long enough to swim.
Exhilarated by this remarkable encounter, I felt that the evening couldn’t possibly get any better. Although, as we enjoyed a midnight feast on the beach, I admitted that it would be nice to see a leatherback turtle too.
Leatherback turtles are the rockstars of the turtle world. They grow the longest (up to 7 feet), weigh the most (up to almost a ton), swim the fastest (up to 22 miles an hour), dive the deepest (up to 1,200 metres) and range the furthest (from Norway to New Zealand). And they do this all on a strict diet of jellyfish, which are 95 per cent water.
So it was an immense thrill, when, on our way back along the beach, Peter spotted the massive shape of a female leatherback. She’d already reached the dunes and was looking for a place to lay her eggs. We waited quietly in the dark until she started digging. Only then did Peter permit us to approach, on condition that we kept well behind her and did not use torches, cellphones or cameras.
She was a giantess, dwarfing us all. And she was beautiful. Her soft, leathery carapace was deep blue-black splotched with white. It looked as though she had mapped the galaxies. Her dappled flippers and neck shaded down to shell-like pink. The salt glands above her large, dark eyes made it seem as though she was shedding soulful tears, and her breath hissed sharply with the effort of digging.
Patiently, methodically, meticulously, the leatherback’s rear flippers scooped and slapped the sand aside. Even though the tide was rising and our time was running out, we were mesmerised. At last, the nest was as deep as the turtle could make it and her eggs, looking precisely like ping pong balls, started to drop into it.
With luck, in a few weeks, most of those eggs would hatch. Dozens of miniature leatherback turtles would toddle towards the starlit sea. And then, perhaps, many years later, one of her offspring would emerge again on this beach – in almost the same spot – to repeat this mysterious cycle of life.
Ufudu Turtle Tours conduct turtle tours in Sodwana Bay from November to May. Tours are around low tide times in the evenings or late at night and last around four hours.
With coral reefs that boast two-thirds of the species diversity of the Great Barrier Reef in an area a tenth of the size, scuba diving in Sodwana Bay is not to be missed. Coral Divers is a PADI 5 star Gold Palm IDC Centre, offering every level of dive instruction.
Even if you’ve never scuba dived before, they’ll have you safely under the sea within a day. In just three dives, I was lucky enough to see ragged-toothed sharks, green turtles, eagle rays, moray eels and hundreds of species of fish and corals.
The Fig Forest guided walking trail in uMkhuze offers birders the chance to spot the incredibly rare Pel’s fishing owl. We weren’t in luck that day, but we did see squadrons of trumpeter hornbills, thousands of butterflies, and, of course, spectacular sycamore figs.
On a night game drive in the Eastern Shores section of iSimangaliso with SHAKAbarker Tours, we learned how to spot chameleons in the dark, and saw plenty of larger animals, including elephants, kudu, buffalo and hippopotamus.
Alison Westwood is a South African travel writer based in Cape Town. She’s written and photographed for magazines, travel websites and travel guides, and has recently co-authored a book about Secret Cape Town.
Alison has interviewed some of Africa’s most interesting travellers as well as investigating all sorts of travel-related issues, from elephant culling to carbon-offsets. In addition to travelling, Alison loves to hike. She blogs about getting lost in the mountains on 52 Cape Town Hikes.
The Tikki Hywood Trust is an organisation that focuses on the conservation of lesser-known endangered animals. Their flagship species – pangolins – has found its way into mainstream media as the most trafficked animal in the world.
What is the Tikki Hywood Trust?
The Trust is a wildlife-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) whose focus is on generating awareness based on the legislation that governs conservation practices. Founder Lisa Hywood wanted to do something that honoured the memory of her father who inspired a love of the wild and an ability to get results. It is this ethos and the determination to preserve the heritage that is our natural world, which drives the Trusts’ work with pangolins.
“We are not a zoo in any way. We are not open to the public. We do not have a volunteer program” – Tikki Hywood Trust
Lisa is adamant that, “conservation is not just cute and cuddly”. While her childhood passion and first love are the animals that she fights so hard to protect, she maintains an expansive view of conservation that reaches over and beyond the animals. “Sitting with members of different departments, developing strategies, strengthening wildlife protection, challenging legislation which protects wildlife and training different groups of people, officials stake holders… this is all part of conservation. That is the reality of conservation,” she says.
“We always wanted to be able to get these pangolins back into their wild” – Tikki Hywood Trust
In the early days…
What most people don’t know about the Tikki Hywood Trust is that the animal that launched them was the elephant. In 1994, due to the drought in Zimbabwe, the Trust was involved with the first translocation of 40 bull elephants. It was an experience that made a lasting impression on Lisa.
What is more remarkable, however, are the parallels she draws between the two species. “With elephants,” she begins “we relate to them because we can see the similarities between ourselves and them. But I can honestly say that pangolins, even though they are incredibly different, have intelligence that I don’t even think we have begun to understand.”
The lack of knowledge and understanding of the pangolin inspired so much of the Trusts’ work with pangolins. In 1994, Lisa received her first pangolin in what she describes vividly as a “foul-smelling sack” that contained a “heavy lump”. Not knowing what to do, Lisa began walking with the pangolin. Her name was Negomo and it was this intensive interaction, observation and dedication to her that enabled the Trust to help pangolins around the world.
“The government of Zimbabwe, through the judiciary have sent a very strong message to wildlife criminals. We now need countries in Africa and destination countries in Asia to follow suit if we have a hope of winning this war” – Tikki Hywood Trust
Awareness and the importance of legisation
The Tikki Hywood Trust’s approach is based on conservation, education and legislation. Lisa says that in Zimbabwe, the key species in terms of legislation is the pangolin, “when we do change legislation we don’t just change it for the pangolin. We change it for the A-Z of all species”. It is through the work that the Tikki Hywood Trust has done that legislation for wildlife has been changed and Lisa says that the challenge is to get stakeholders to focus on and to understand the laws pertaining to wildlife and prosecution within their own countries.
Many stakeholders, from conservation officials to police and the judiciary are unaware of the law. As a result of this many poachers simply fall through the cracks before they even get to court. The onus, therefore, falls on educating the various stakeholders and addressing legal loopholes that are outdated. “Don’t be afraid to address the law. If it is not working then we must address it because it is the law and the law is there to act as a deterrent,” says Lisa.
“It is only when the law acts as a deterrent that we are having a positive effect” – Tikki Hywood Trust
As an example, South Africa has the strongest legislation pertaining to pangolin protection in the world. Illegal possession of a pangolin can result in a fine of US$694,000 and ten years in jail. Despite this hefty punishment, there have been no convictions for pangolin poaching. The result, Lisa believes, of a lack of awareness from law enforcement and judiciary. It indicates a disconnection between the legislation and what is happening on the ground.
In Zimbabwe, the punishment is 9 years on the first offence, 11 years on the second offence and a US$5,000 fine. In 2015 forty-seven poachers were convicted to 9 years in jail. For people who are trying to provide for their families, this is a hefty price to pay and so acts as a real deterrent. Lisa maintains that “education is key across the board”. In 2016 alone, the Trust did 5 workshops with the judiciary, stakeholders, police and personnel that are involved from point of arrest to prosecution. In this way, through education, the Tikki Hywood Trust affects positive change.
“What is important to understand is that the demand is coming from Asia” – Tikki Hywood Trust
Trust and collaboration
In a very real way, the Tikki Hywood Trust is forging connections across different social spectrums. In December of 2016, Lisa flew to London for the launch of the Patrick Mavros collection of pangolin jewellery; a collection that was three years in the making. It was through this collaboration that Adrian Steirn was invited to document the Trust’s work. The series of images “The Pangolin Men” was exhibited alongside the jewellery at the launch. While 10% of the proceeds go towards pangolin conservation, more importantly, the marriage of the different mediums got everyone talking about pangolins!
In a way that transcends the usual conservation models, the Tikki Hywood Trust, through these collaborations, is spreading the word and generating both interest and awareness. As Lisa says, it is not about the individual, “you have to join at the hands and walk together.”
“Where and how we can we do the best we can” – Tikki Hywood Trust
And the future?
The scary thing for Lisa is that the Tikki Hywood Trust has expanded on its own. As an entity, it has grown because the policies have had an impact on the ground and this is what makes a real difference to wildlife. “One day,” says Lisa, “I am not going to be here and I want to know that the work we have done will continue, and will continue to have an impact in a positive way”.
The Tikki Hywood Trust has the potential to continue this work because it is a multifaceted team that has developed over 22 years. It is not just people that are linked directly to the Trust but groups of people, from the police to the magistrates to the public prosecutor, Zimbabweans who want a heritage for tomorrow. “We have all come together, shared the passion and the drive and the determination,” says Lisa, and what she finds incredibly encouraging is that the “strength that we have presented to one another is what creates and achieves the results at the end of the day.”
“This is a silent war and we don’t know how many tons are getting to the end-user and how many there are. The same goes for ivory, for every bust how many get passed?” – Tikki Hywood Trust
The Tikki Hywood Trust is leading by example. “Utilizing conservation and education as stepping stones towards a future where humans live in harmony with wildlife”. It is organisations like this that show us that wildlife touches everybody and that no matter who you are or where you live you can take responsibility for the world that you live in.
On Monday, three white rhino orphans were peacefully released into their new home within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.
Survivors of mothers who were poached for their horns in various other Kwa-Zulu Natal game reserves, the male and two females are around five years old and have formed a close bond while being cared by dedicated Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife staff.
According to iSimangaliso CEO Andrew Zaloumis, “We are very pleased that we can offer these three orphans a new home and brighter future. As a Park undertaking major ecosystems restoration, iSimangaliso offers an ideal habitat for them. The reintroduction of historically occurring species is a critical part of this. Despite the severe drought in KZN, there are parts of iSimangaliso that have received decent rainfall, providing good grass, water and a softer, friendlier refuge for the orphans. iSimangaliso has a long-term conservation partnership with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, which is doing an excellent job rehabilitating rhino orphans. We thank them and the Peace Parks organisation – which funded the costs of this relocation – for making this possible.”
The iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site has undergone an extensive rewilding programme over the past 15 years, and the ongoing rehabilitation of the habitat has enabled the reintroduction of all historically occurring species into the Park – lion, wild dog, cheetah, oribi, tsessebe, buffalo, elephant, giraffe, black and white rhino – with the exception of the eland. The drought placed a hold on the last of these planned relocations, but eland are now being sourced for introduction given improved conditions. This last historic step will complete the process.
Says Zaloumis, “The restocking, management and monitoring of many of our rare and endangered species is primarily supported by participants in our Eco-Series events – like the iSimangaliso MTB 4 Day bike ride in August each year. This ‘safari from the saddle’ is the largest contributor to the Parks’ Rare and Endangered Species Fund.
These events enable visitors to engage with and discover iSimangaliso in unique ways while making a tangible difference to species conservation. Runners, riders, divers and adventurers are invited to explore the options to support conservation of rare and endangered species by participating in one of our superb annual events.”
The newly described Ankarana or Sheth’s dwarf lemur is tiny, weighing just over 100 grams. Its body is only about 16 to 17 centimetres long, with an additional 16 centimetres long tail, making it one of the smallest lemurs in its genus Cheirogaleus.
The newly described Ankarana dwarf lemur. Photos taken at Ankarana Special Reserve by Richard Randriamampionona. Photo courtesy of Cynthia L. Frasier et al, in Primate Conservation, 2016
The lemur has a grey body and a white underbelly, and its tiny hands and feet are lightly colored, the researchers report in a recent study published in the journal Primate Conservation.
The researchers have named the new dwarf lemur Cheirogaleus shethi after Brian Sheth, the Chair of the Board of the NGO Global Wildlife Conservation.
“Brian is deeply committed to biodiversity conservation worldwide, and is a leading philanthropist for species and ecosystem conservation,” the authors write in the paper. “He has supported many projects in Madagascar, including research and the establishment and management of nature reserves. His passion and drive to help save the diversity of life on our planet has been an inspiration to all around him.”
The lemur was first identified in 2014, but researchers have only just confirmed it as a distinct species by analyzing its DNA. The new lemur is separated from other species of dwarf lemurs both genetically, and geographically, the authors say.
So far, the Ankarana or Sheth’s dwarf lemur is known only from northern Madagascar, along the forest corridor from Ankarana Special Reserve east to the Analamerana Special Reserve, down to the Bekaraoka forest in the Loky-Manambato Protected Area. Much of this corridor lies within Madagascar’s system of protected areas, the researchers say, and effective management of the protected areas is essential to maintaining connectivity between different populations of the dwarf lemur.
Scientists are yet to determine its population and conservation status.
“Additional fieldwork is necessary to establish baseline data on population density and the extent of the range to determine to which IUCN Red List category this species belongs,” the authors write.
The researchers add that like the Sheth’s dwarf lemur, several other dwarf lemurs likely remain to be described.
In a somewhat bewildering announcement today, South African Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa has declared that she plans to permit the trade in rhino horn domestically and, in what looks like a loophole big enough to drive a tractor through, the export internationally of horn for ‘personal purposes’. This after years of repeated attempts by her in court to resist applications by local rhino farmers to trade horn on the domestic market.
Anyone wanting to take advantage of the proposed legislation will need to acquire the necessary permits, and the rhino horn has to be genetically profiled by a suitably registered scientific institution. Non-South African citizens and residents may also apply for the necessary permits, so long as their home country provides a letter stating that domestic legislation is in place to prevent the contravention of the relevant ‘provisions of CITES’.
Those wishing to export rhino horn (for ‘personal purposes’ only) are limited to two horns per person. Not long ago similarly flimsy regulations relating to trophy hunting were famously massaged by members of the trophy hunting industry and wildlife trafficking kingpin Chemlong Lemtongthai (currently residing in jail as a result), in order to illegally trade in rhino horn – by the use of Thai strippers and prostitutes posing as huntresses, each there to bag their rhino kill and export the horn as a ‘trophy’, again for ‘personal’ purposes.
Anybody in contravention of the proposed legislation will be fined up to R5 million or sent to jail for up to 5 years, or both. Repeat offenders will receive double those punishments.
The focus in this proposed legislation on permits to control this extremely lucrative industry could be a concern for informed conservationists – in a country that has a notoriously bad implementation of permit requirements and rampant and rising fraud and corruption amongst government officials.
Interested parties have 30 days to make representations or to object, to Ms Magdel Boshoff at MBoshoff@environment.gov.za
Free-roaming wildlife populations are crashing in many areas, and natural habitat is being destroyed at an alarming rate. There is a conservation war going on, and the other side is winning hands down – why is that?
For the sake of simplicity, I refer to the two sides in this war as the ‘Exploiters’ and the ‘Protectors’. I do generalise enormously, please bear with me.
The Exploiters have money, lots of it. They also have focus and the determination to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals – they will ruin entire ecosystems and communities in pursuit of a specific hardwood or mineral and kill animals in the most barbaric way to extract specific body parts. They will threaten, terrify and kill people and bribe whoever it takes. They research, plan and execute their extraction strategies with military precision and their leaders live in financial and legal twilight zones, protected by a ring of violence, corruption and morally bankrupt government officials, bankers, accountants and lawyers. They have hoovered up vast swathes of Earth’s bounty and they will continue to do so until there is nothing left.
Some of them live amongst you, although you may not recognise them in this light. Perhaps they are not involved in poaching (as you define it), or other obvious illegal exploitations, and so you don’t see them as exploiters. Perhaps they wear suits, and work in respected companies and governments. Extraction industries such as mining, commercial fishing, hardwood logging and fossil fuel energy provide products that humans need, but many of them do so at massive cost to the environment – and leave taxpayers and rural communities to carry the cost. Great business model – bank the revenue and leave others to pay the bills.
The Protectors, on the other hand, are largely a ragtag, passionate bunch of do-gooders (myself included) all beavering away in various ways, driven by the strong belief that somehow, sometime, things will change.
Protectors are ALWAYS under-resourced. Try securing funding from banks, investment companies and the wealthy elite to save a species or wetland. On the other hand, go to the same places to fund a diamond mine or oil refinery – no problem. Why is that? In solving this riddle, perhaps you will come to better understand why we are in this mess and why the Exploiters are winning. Hands down.
Protectors often spend a good deal of time, energy and money passionately fighting each other in a glorious orgy of personal agendas. Social media has ramped up this phenomenon, providing a fertile breeding ground for Protectors to shout the odds, bicker and jockey for attention. Amongst the many committed and effective activists out there are a growing number of self-proclaimed online activists, some of whom extract precious donations to fund their lifestyles, many of whom have no clear strategy other than to pay their bills and feed their egos. At best these warriors preach to their close circle of disciples, at worst they confuse Joe Public with their emotional outbursts, and desensitize good people about the real conservation issues.
Some Protectors have organised themselves into groups and institutions – WWF, Conservation International and Greenpeace for example. Many of these do fine jobs, many on limited budgets, and are staffed by outstanding people – others have become bloated bureaucracies with high overheads. And again, these wildlife warriors fight tooth and nail for attention and funding, to feed personal careers and pay the overheads. And then there is CITES. For some reason, many Protectors don’t realise that CITES is an agreement between governments, politicians and businessmen about how much of nature can be consumed without completely destroying it. In other words, CITES represents the Exploiters, not the Protectors.
I could go on and on trying to summarise the chaotic world that is nature conservation. But I won’t. The industry is too wrapped up in personal agendas, lifestyle activists and destructive territorialism to ever be understood fully.
And therein lies the problem – Protectors operate in an underfunded environment with no industry cohesion or business model to speak of, driven largely by passion and dogged by infighting and personal agendas. Compare that to the focussed, ruthless Exploiter business model. In my experience, ruthless strategy trumps misguided passion hands down. And while Protectors run in circles, the Exploiters continue the massacre – all the time operating in the shadows, perfecting their extraction techniques and hoovering up the spoils.
As if finding the Cape parrot – Africa’s rarest – is not enough of a challenge, my wife and I went about this daunting task accompanied by our 20-month-old toddler!
Renate and I always try to fit in a bit of quality time together before heading to the coast for the greater family Christmas obligations. This year we decided on a 4-night stay in Magoebaskloof, to find said rarest parrot and do some serious birding (avec our bundle of joy and mischief).
Our birding mission for the trip was to get photos of some forest specials and to spend time with South Africa’s only endemic parrot – and to get photos of it in the process!
Cape parrots (Poicephalus robustus) are threatened by a cocktail of threats including illegal capture, disease and low breeding success due to the large scale destruction of their mist-belt forest homes (they depend on yellowwood trees for nesting sites and food). So yes, they are seriously special – and being a forest bird, really tough to get good views of.
We stayed at Kuhestan Organic Farm, a perfectly located farm if you are into birding.
After arrival, we set out from the farm to explore the immediate surroundings. The going was slow…really slow! Our daughter wanted to play with every stick, rock, creepy-crawly or whatever she could find – we did about 300m in more than an hour and didn’t even get into the forest patch! Renate and I looked at each other with large eyes – how are we going to do this?? We heard a narina trogon and a buff-spotted flufftail calling tantalisingly from the forest patch, but we couldn’t get that far. But at least our daughter had some fun!
The next morning, I headed for the forest with Paul (a bird guide from the area). My tactic was to go with a guide who would show me the productive sites, that would give me a better feel for the area, and then during the next three days bird these areas with my wife and daughter.
Paul and I enjoyed awesome views of narina trogon, African emerald cuckoo, orange ground-thrush (although high up in a tree), yellow-streaked greenbull, black-fronted bushshrike, olive woodpecker, Barratt’s warbler and the highlight of the morning – awesome views of a buff-spotted flufftail! I messed up the photo though, but was really happy with an excellent view of the bird!
We also visited the beautiful Debegeni waterfalls, where we picked up a rarity/ palearctic vagrant, the grey wagtail! It was really skittish, but luckily I was able to get a decent photo.
In the next few days we birded the area and I was able to get photographs of most of the forest specials, except the Cape parrot – although we did glimpse a few brief fly-bys…
We also visited Kurisa Moya Nature Lodge, one of our favourite forest birding destinations, and added photos of forest canary, green twinspot, swee waxbill and African firefinch to our list.
We really enjoyed our stay at Kuhestan Organic Farm. The owners provided us with fresh bread and milk daily, as well as a freshly harvested mixture of berries, which our daughter loved! The gardens and lawns are exquisite, and the cottages really comfortable. It must be one of the best located farms if you are into birding! Highly recommended.
But still, a decent Cape parrot sighting evaded us, and we were already in the post-lunch session of our last day…
Our luck changed on the last afternoon! It is crazy how often it happens that on the last stretch you get your target! A mere 10 minutes’ drive from Kuhestan we came across a huge flock of more than 40 Cape parrots – feeding in the Mexican cherry trees alongside the main road! We had checked out this area during the previous 3 days, but without luck – and now they are here, giving us a show! We spent the next hour or so with the flock, they got used to our presence and moved lower down in the trees, which of course meant better photos! Such a privilege spending time with Cape parrots – a moment we will never forget.
We did well, especially our little daughter. She enjoyed the forest a lot, and absolutely loved the Cape parrots – I think probably because it was the only forest bird she actually saw!
Magoebaskloof is on your way if you are visiting central Kruger National Park or the Lowveld from Johannesburg, so make sure to spend some time there and explore these wonderful forests and waterfalls.
The breeding of wildlife to produce unusually coloured animals, in the hope that hunters would pay a lot more to shoot them, has fallen flat in a spectacular manner — with the practice being widely condemned. Written by: Stafford Thomas for Financial Mail
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The old adage has become a painful reality for speculators who stampeded into the colour-variant game sector.
Luring them were rocketing prices being paid at game auctions for colour variants bred in captivity and not found in the wild. Described as “unnatural freaks” by Peter Flack, one of South Africa’s foremost game experts, colour variants include black impala, white impala, gold wildebeest, white gemsbok and king wildebeest.
“Buyers grabbed anything they could at auctions,” says Johan Vorster, a Vleissentraal game auctioneer.
The idea was that hunters would pay more to shoot unusually coloured trophy animals. But what the buyers were getting into had all the makings of a classic pyramid scheme: early entrants make big money. Latecomers lose their boots.
This is exactly how it played out. By early 2016 prices of colour variants were already sliding. They went on to collapse.
Average auction prices supplied by Game & Hunt of colour variants tell a sad tale. Among extreme examples, the average price paid for white impala in 2014 was R8.2m. In 2016 the average was R48,333.
Other colour-variant prices have suffered a similar fate. Of black impalas, which sold at an average of R384,964 in 2014, SA-based CIC executive Gerhard Damm says: “I doubt you will get more than R10,000 for a black impala ram.”
With colour-variant animals, a supply was created for which there is no real demand where it counts most — from hunters, says Lizanne Nel, conservation manager at the 45,000-member SA Hunters & Game Conservation Society (SA Hunters).
It is not only because of their unnatural nature that hunters shun colour variants.
“Most hunters want a responsible hunt,” says Nel. “You can’t have it when an animal is bred in captivity.”
Virtually all leading foreign hunting organisations have adopted this stance. Among them is the influential US-based Boone & Crockett Club, which has voiced strong opposition to the hunting of bred animals.
Nel believes the collapse in colour-variant animal prices is primarily thanks to advocacy work done by SA Hunters and other hunting and conservation bodies. Not all industry players fully agree.
Among them is game breeder Jacques Malan. He concedes “badmouthing by hunters” has done a lot of damage, but argues the biggest problem has been the devastating drought.
“There was no natural vegetation,” says Malan. “Breeders faced the huge expense of buying fodder.”
“The drought had a big impact,” says Vorster. “Some breeders had to sell at any price.”
Malan believes recent good rains will restore the colour-variant market’s fortunes. “The natural vegetation is back. We will see a lot of confidence return.”
Nel disagrees. The drought, she says, may have contributed to the collapse but the real damage has been done by the realisation that there is no viable market for colour variants.
“The colour-variant game is over,” says Flack. Damm agrees.
But Damm, Flack and Nel stress that the colour-variant controversy has dealt SA’s game industry another big reputational blow. It follows the huge damage done by the “canned lion” hunting debacle.
Canned lion hunting involves releasing captive-bred lion into small enclosures where they are shot with ease by “hunters”. It is a practice of which Flack has said: “It is not hunting, it is slaughter.”
The world agrees. The US has banned the import of lion trophies from SA.
The captive breeding of buffalo for hunting
There is another area of concern for conservationists: captive breeding of buffalo with exceptional horn-spread widths. Huge prices are paid for these animals. In September a new record for a single animal was set when a buffalo bull was sold for R168m. Four years earlier the record was R26m.
Buffalo ranchers claim they are breeding back top genetics ruined by reckless hunting in the past. Nel is not buying it.
“The principles are the same as those applying to colour variants,” says Nel. “Animals are dependent on humans. You can’t hunt them and then say it was a fair hunt.”
“You would think SA’s game industry is on a mission to self-destruct,” says Damm. Foreign hunter numbers coming to SA underscore his concern.
In 2014, the latest year for which data is available, 7,638 foreign hunters came to SA, less than half the best-yet figures of 16,394 in 2006.
The big winner is Namibia, a country free of canned hunting and colour variants.
“Foreign-hunter numbers to Namibia grew from 6,300 in 2007 to 23,768 in 2014,” says Flack
South Africa is about to permit the export of lion bones to produce fake tiger wine but has given the public almost no time to object. The permit will allow an annual export of 800 skeletons to Asia. Written by: Don Pinnock
The Department of Environmental Affairs made the decision without public consultation but was forced to hold a stakeholder meeting to comply with CITES quota conditions. This was clearly planned as a once-off meeting, but delegates managed to get the department to open a two-week window for public comment, ending on Thursday [February 2].
The meeting, publically announced on 25 January leaves virtually no time for popular comment or intervention, so the proposal will probably go ahead. The DEA also plans to appoint a research group to monitor the export of lion bones.
“The decision is misguided and shameful,” said Audrey Delsink, Africa’s director of the Humane Society International. “Breeding captive lions is not only cruel and contrary to the global shift against captive wildlife, but is a potential threat to wild lions.”
According to Pippa Hankinson, the producer of the film Blood Lions, the quota appears to lack the requisite scientific basis and was arrived at without consideration of proper welfare or conservation protocols. There was no formal document to support how the quota of 800 skeletons was arrived at or how it would be enforced.
“South Africa [is showing] complete disregard for the overwhelming response by key global conservation leaders calling for the termination of captive lion breeding. In addition, this shocking industry is already adversely affecting Brand South Africa.”
The move is tacit support for the canned lion industry presently hurting from a US ban on the importation of lion trophies from South Africa where captive-bred lions are something of a black hole.
The government’s 2015 Biodiversity Management Plan mentions captive-bred only in passing, saying: “there is intense controversy over the merits and ethics of the captive breeding and subsequent release for hunting of captive-bred lions, although it remains legal to do so.” A CITES report notes that trade is fine, “if the relevant authorities are satisfied that certain conditions are met, above all that trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild.”
In dealing merely with the impact of captive-bred lions on wild breeding stock, these reports ignore ethical and welfare issues and relegate lions to merely domestic farming stock. The permitting of the export of 800 lion carcases simply underlines this perspective.
According to several sources, there is a growing demand in Chinese markets for donkey pelts, and some rural areas in Africa are reportedly being stripped of free-roaming donkeys to feed the demand.
Some might view the removal of donkeys as a good thing, because donkeys are not indigenous and can cause damage to vegetation, especially in arid areas. But in fact these donkeys are most often owned by rural villagers who rely on them for transport, food and trade.
In some African countries the exporting of donkey pelts to China has led to local scarcity and driven up the price of donkeys, making them too expensive for many rural villagers. As a result, countries such as Niger and Burkina Faso have banned donkey exports, although some countries are considering formalising donkey product exports as a lucrative industry. In South Africa, the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (NSPCA) is investigating cases of cruelty, with donkeys being rounded up and kept in appalling circumstances, often leading to them being weak and emaciated – before being bludgeoned to death and skinned. The NSPCA’s Mpho Mokoena: “People are using a hammer to hit them. When they fall down, they don’t even wait to see if the donkey is dead and just start skinning it.”
Donkey hides are boiled to produce a gelatine that is said to have anti-ageing properties‚ used to combat insomnia, bleeding, dizziness and aid in improving blood circulation.
*The pictures featured in this post appeared on the NSCPA Facebook page and were taken at an illegal slaughter site in Sani Pass, South Africa, where 35 carcasses were reportedly recently found, and 2 people arrested.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (19 January 2017)—A decision to allow export of 800 captive-bred lion skeletons from South Africa is coming under fire from Humane Society International and the producer of the film Blood Lions. By Blood Lions
Yesterday the South African National Biodiversity Institute, which is the scientific authority to the Department of Environmental Affairs, announced its recommendation to institute an annual export quota of 800 captive-bred lion skeletons, traded in large part for use in traditional medicine to southeast Asian countries like Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. The decision to make this recommendation was made prior to public consultation and without the appropriate scientific basis required under South Africa’s obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The DEA has now opened a two week comment period – ending on 2 February 2017 – to collect input on the recommended quota.
Humane Society International and Blood Lions strongly urge the DEA to establish a zero export quota, thereby suspending trade in captive-bred lion parts given the absence of scientific evidence that such trade is not detrimental to the survival of wild lions, as required for export under CITES. The captive breeding of lions for the purpose of killing them to supply the bone trade is ethically unacceptable and seriously harms South Africa’s global image.
The decision follows an ongoing controversy about South Africa’s lion breeding industry that promotes cub petting, lion walks, canned lion hunting while practising euthanasia to supply lion bone and other parts.
The South African government will permit lion skeletons to be sourced from the natural deaths of captive-bred lions and also from lions euthanized, as well as remains of lions trophy-hunted by South African and international hunters.
Audrey Delsink, executive director of the Africa office for Humane Society International, said “The Department of Environmental Affair’s decision to support the trade in lion parts is misguided and shameful. Breeding captive lions is not only cruel and goes against the global shift against captive wildlife, but South Africa’s captive-bred lion bone trade is a potential threat to wild lions. Conservation efforts must focus on protecting lions in the wild, and not prop up facilities where they are bred for slaughter and canned hunting. Unless research proves otherwise, caution must prevail and trade in these parts must be completely suspended given South Africa’s commitments under international law.”
Pippa Hankinson, the producer of Blood Lions, said “Blood Lions is deeply concerned by this announcement from the South African government. The quota appears to lack the requisite scientific basis, and there has been no apparent consideration of proper welfare or conservation protocols. South Africa has shown complete disregard for the overwhelming response by key global conservation leaders calling for the ‘termination of captive lion breeding for commercial, non-conservation purposes and the hunting of captive-bred lions and other predators’ at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September last year. In addition, this shocking industry is already adversely affecting brand South Africa. We urge the public to call for a suspension of trade in captive lions and their bones, and to bring an end to the captive lion breeding and canned hunting industry.”
FACTS:
· The South African government estimates are that there are approximately 6,000 captive African lions in South Africa, bred for various economic purposes. However, other experts reveal the number is likely closer to 8,000.
· The recently appointed Chief Executive Officer of South African Tourism, Mr Sisa Ntshona, has spoken out against the petting of lion cubs and similar exploitative activities.
· A 2015 film titled Blood Lions exposed the true nature of the lion breeding industry in South Africa, revealing poor living conditions, false pretences under which breeders contract volunteers to care for the animals, misleading information provided to tourists about the conservation benefit of lion breeding, and lack of appropriate regulation.
· The African Lion Working Group has stated that “sport hunting of lions that occur in fenced enclosures and are not self-sustaining does not provide any demonstrated positive benefit to wild lion conservation efforts and therefore cannot be claimed to be conservation.”
· At the September 2016 IUCN World Conservation Congress, the world’s top scientists, government representatives, non-profit organizations, and experts adopted motion 009 on terminating the hunting of captive-bred lions and other predators and captive breeding for commercial, non-conservation purposes.
· In November of 2015, the majority of the members of the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa passed a motion that “disassociates PHASA with the captive-bred lion industry until such a time that the industry can convince PHASA and the IUCN that the practice is beneficial to lion conservation.”
Imagine the possibility of walking with pangolins. Adrian Steirn’s recent photographic series The Pangolin Men captures a unique and exceptional scenario of beasts and men. The images are captivating. The skin of the minders glows as they walk alongside these armour-plated, cat-size mammals. It is intriguing to wake up and discover the possibility of something that you never knew existed. I scratched a little to find out more about these images, about pangolins and the Pangolin Men.Written by Andrew Hofmeyer
Let’s not beat around the bush. This diminutive mammal is under threat of extinction before most people even know it is in danger. For pangolins, this is the reality. There are eight species of pangolin, four in Asia and another four in Africa. The appetite of the Asian black market has seen millions of these mammals butchered for their meat and their scales. While the flesh is considered a delicacy, the scales – made of keratin – are used in a powdered form to treat anything from stomach cramps to impotency.
In June 2016 a shipment of 4 tonnes of pangolin scales was seized in Hong Kong. Pause for a second to process this figure which represents a conservative estimate of 10-20% of the actual trade. One shipment from one place. Not of heavy flesh and blood wriggling animal but dry, lifeless, nail-like scales. While a live pangolin, bones and all, can weigh between 2 and 35 kgs, the dry weight in scales is a fraction of this. 4 tonnes of confiscated scales represents between 1100 and 6600 wild animals. In Pangolin numbers this drop in an ocean of illegal trafficking represents the demise of a species.
The Tikki Hywood Trust
Lisa Hywood founded the Tikki Hywood Trust in 1994 in the memory of her father who she says “looked to the future with optimism”. It is this ethos that drives the Trust’s work, an ethos says Lisa, that has not changed in over 20 years.
The Trust has a three-pronged approach, Conservation, Legislation and Education and they all have an important role to play. “It’s no good,” says Lisa “if the law enforcement officers don’t know what the penalties are or the judges aren’t aware of the sentences”. Education for the Tikki Hywood Trust means a focus on ALL stake-holders, the public (especially children) and conservation personal as well as law enforcement from police officers to judges.
In addition to this, the Trust focuses on changing legislation itself. Lisa pointed out that South Africa has the strongest legislation for pangolin trafficking. If caught in possession of a pangolin the fine in South Africa is a whopping US$ 694000 and 10 years imprisonment. However, she drove her point home by asking me if I knew how many convictions there had been? “None?” I ventured. “Exactly”. There is a massive disconnect between the laws, the judiciary, law enforcement and conservation. If all stakeholders are not informed and aware then criminals and poachers simply fall through the cracks.
In Zimbabwe, on the other hand, the approach of educating all stakeholders has yielded tangible results. “We have 9 years on first offence, 11 years on second offence and a $5000 fine. In 2015, 47 pangolin poachers were sentenced to 9 years in jail”. Magistrate Tendai Mahwe said, “This is a serious offence which is now prevalent and deterrent sentences are called for if pangolins are not to face extinction”. With sentences like this being passed, it results in a substantial deterrent for would-be poachers.
Lisa is adamant that conservation is all about awareness. Knowing about the plight of pangolins, who to contact and what to do translates directly into saving pangolin lives across the globe. “Conservation is about all of us, not just one animal. We need all the animals”. In addition to this Lisa says that for her, conservation is a team effort. Enter the Pangolin Men and Adrian Steirn.
“It was a moment where time stood still,” says Lisa Hywood recalling her first encounter with a trafficked pangolin. “I received this foul-smelling sack and inside was this heavy lump. When I opened it there was this one eye looking at me. It was the saddest most enduring eye that I have ever experienced. In that one look, I felt that she understood me and I had no idea about her”.
This particular pangolin, a female who Lisa called Negomo, survived the early days of the Trust’s ignorance. Through working with her, Lisa realised that pangolins, like baby elephants, needed specialised one-on-one care and attention to successfully rehabilitate them and return them to the wild. “I would spend many many hours just foraging and walking and looking and watching and studying these animals to see if I could get an inner idea as to what we were missing, why were these animals so difficult to keep in captivity”. Lisa realised fairly quickly that their best chance of recovery and survival meant being in as natural an environment as possible.
“A pangolin will forage from anywhere between 3 to 4 plus hours,” she says “so it is quite a labour-intensive job”. Rescued pangolins are often extremely compromised, suffering from stress, malnutrition and dehydration. The pangolin minder accompanies the pangolin into the bush so that they can forage without being disturbed. A relationship naturally develops between the minders and the pangolins.
The Pangolin Men are employed by the Tikki Hywood Trust who screen and vet candidates. “It is a process that is fairly lengthy and stringent and we look for specific qualities in each individual”. Individuals have then trained in all things pangolin. Every day the pangolins are weighed, observations are recorded, the temperature, weather conditions and the movement of the pangolins. Lisa, resident zoologist Ellen Connelly and local and international vets are co-authoring papers about pangolins. The data collected is being used to make a real contribution to our knowledge and understanding of pangolin behaviour.
The work that the Pangolin Men do is fundamental to the lives of these animals. It is the relationship between these men and the pangolins that is so captivating. Today there are 20 of these Pangolin Men.
Collaboration is Key
For the last three years, the Tikki Hywood Trust has been working with Patrick Mavros Jewellers to create a range of pangolin-inspired jewellery. Through this collaboration, Adrian Steirn was invited to capture the images of these men as they walked with the pangolins.
Having a natural affinity with animals naturally lead Adrian to wildlife photography and today he travels around the world capturing rarely seen and exotic animals. On shooting the Pangolin Men Adrian says “It was amazing. I’ve been shooting in the bush for many years and I have never seen a pangolin in the wild. To go in there and have an opportunity to get access to photograph those men and what they do every single day was truly something that I cherished”.
“I always wanted to tell stories that create positive change” says Adrian. To translate the world into a single image that conveys at a glance the importance of the subject matter is a huge challenge. “I wanted to ensure that people sat up and looked and watched and understood and incentivise people who may not be very green or conservation focussed to be enthralled by the beauty of the natural world and I guess, let art pull them into the space where they cared for the first time”.
The result is the series of photographs called the Pangolin Men which appeared on Steirn’s project “Beautiful News”. The photos were launched in London alongside the Patrick Mavros Jewellery collection and a percentage of proceeds from both collections will go directly to the Tikki Hywood Trust.
Looking to the Future with Optimism
Despite working with these creatures for over twenty years, Lisa says that the first time they made it into the news was in 2015 and 2016. The focus is always on the flagship species. While this is important and needed it also leaves a whole host of animals in the blind-spot of mainstream media. The pangolin is one of these casualties and bears the unfortunate title of the most trafficked animal in the world.
In October of 2016 at the CITES convention in Johannesburg, all eight pangolin species were bumped up into Appendix 1, meaning that all trade in the animals is prohibited by international law. I asked Lisa Hywood if she was pleased about this and was rather surprised and sobered at her response. “The fact that we are only doing this now means that we have already failed them”.
It is not all doom and gloom though and she continued to say that, as an African, she was incredibly proud to see the African delegates take responsibility and act unanimously in favour of protecting these animals. When I asked her what people in cities, at home, in other countries – people who are disconnected from the ‘wild’ in their day to day lives – can do to contribute towards the process of conservation, she replied without hesitation:
“wildlife touches each and every one of us, take responsibility”
This is a trip report of our five-night stay in the Kruger National Park, which included the three-night Mphongolo Backpack Trail – a trail that not only takes you into the largest wilderness area in the Kruger but also takes your soul to a deeper level than you could ever have imagined.
Our travelling group, consisting of family and friends, left Pretoria at 3 am on the day of travel. The Kruger is less than five hours drive from Gauteng, but when you are dealing with a group of people with such an intense obsession for the bush and an uncontrollable itch to get there, this is quite a late start.
We planned to enter the park at Orpen gate and take the Timbavati River road to spend the night camping at Letaba Rest Camp. At this stage, we all had ‘leopard fever’, and we thought that taking this route would maximise our chances of seeing our favourite feline creatures. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any leopards, but we did have a magnificent sighting of the notorious honey badger.
The next morning we left Letaba camp at sunrise and headed north towards Shingwedzi Rest Camp, where we met our excellent guides, Brenden and André, for the start of the Mphongolo Backpack Trail. They gave us a short talk on what to expect on this unique trail, whereafter we did some last-minute backpack checks, packed the trailer and headed further north towards Sirheni Rest Camp. En route, we veered off onto a small, dusty track – and we all unanimously got the sense that the wilderness had begun…
After about 15km on this track, the driver stopped – it was time for our trail to begin. You feel a bit vulnerable and exposed when a SANParks vehicle drops you off and leaves you there alone – in the largest wilderness area in the park (all 150 000ha of it) with nothing except your backpack.
But, after a brief safety talk by our guides, we soon realised that this is different than your usual visit to a game reserve. Brenden explained the feeling well: “Normally when you visit a park, you are only observers. You look at the wildlife, but you are not part of it. With this backpacking trail, you become a participant.
You become part of the wildlife, and are exposed.” After this touching introduction, we started our walk towards the Mphongolo River, which would be our life-line for the following four days.
Harsh reality checks in the wild
Our afternoon walk took us down the desperately dry Mphongolo River – our first reality check on the trail. We found a suitable camping spot for the evening, but there was one problem – after a lot of digging for water, there was only dry sand. This was our first taste of the rampant drought that the Kruger National Park is currently experiencing.
We made a plan and emptied our water bottles into a container, and the verdict was that we should have enough water for the night and following morning. The next day, we would continue our urgent search for water. But, the relaxed evening that we had planned developed into reality check number two…
…At 3 am that night, we heard some strange and very loud noises next to our little tents. Whatever it was, it was big! At first, I first thought it was lions, or maybe elephants. Brenden even believed that it could be black rhinos fighting at one stage. As the noises got closer, we saw that it was two hippo bulls having a full-blown fight!
In reality, this could have been a life-threatening situation, but the guides handled it in a very professional manner to ensure that we all stayed safe. Scary as it was and shocked as we were, the next morning we were able to follow the blood trail – this was a serious fight, and the closest they came was four metres from our tents! We were lucky to survive. On a positive note though: if there were hippos around, there must’ve been water not too far away!
Wilderness backpacking at its best
For the following three days, we followed the course of the river in a leisurely manner, enjoying sightings of large buffalo herds and numerous old buffalo bulls. Elephant dung was everywhere, and we saw their spoor frequently too. We saw African wild dog tracks and had many more awesome, exciting sightings – we even encountered a leopard in broad daylight on one of the afternoon walks!
We learned about the trees, the elephant teeth, the porcupine dung, and how to measure the stride of an animal by looking at the tracks and everything in between. Digging for water in the river and using the dug-out ‘wells’ the elephants had created was a memorable daily event.
The birding highlight for me was a family of Grey Penduline-Tits – they weigh only six grams! I also heard the coolest plant name ever – have you heard of a “Northern fluffy-flowered Jackal-coffee”? What an incredible name!
The trail is not a strenuous one, but what it lacks in strenuousness it makes up for in serenity. One day we had brunch at a fantastic spot alongside the river, and we promptly decided to camp there for the night. That afternoon we took our walk without our backpacks.
We also enjoyed some quiet time alone. Sitting next to the river and staring down at it watching darkness creeping closer is total relaxation. It is in these quiet moments with nature when you realise what is important in life, and how we should push not to just ‘exist’ but to ‘live’! These are the opportunities for peaceful introspection that the trail offers.
What is the ultimate highlight of such a backpacking trail? For me, it was being part of the ecosystem, without a watch or cellphone, without any human evidence anywhere, no roads, no showers, nothing – and being in the presence of big game while experiencing the wilderness. There are some hair-raising and heart-pumping experiences along the way that make you feel alive – and then there is also some much needed quiet time to reflect…
On the last morning, we were greeted by our friendly SANParks guide with a pleasant surprise. A cooler box full of ice-cold beer! A Castle Lite had never tasted this good before! Cheers to the guides for an unbelievable few days!
About the author
Anton lives in Pretoria, South Africa, and works in his family’s property development and investment business. He and his wife Renate both have a passion for wildlife, with a special interest in birds.
“Turn left. Continue along the road, through a dry riverbed. When the road forks, keep to the left.” We were 371km from home, six hours into our journey, and at the bottom of page 2 of a 3-page printout of detailed instructions for getting to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.
We weren’t taking the usual route into the park. We’d decided to take a more adventurous approach, entering the park from the north, down the Muchinga Escarpment. The directions were explicit: “The road over the escarpment requires a high clearance, four-wheel drive and low range. The road is seldom used. Waiting for help if you break down might take days.”
The 450km drive took us 8 hours. One 12km stretch down the escarpment took an hour to cover. I spent most of that time with my foot firmly on an imaginary brake as my husband negotiated the steep and rocky descent.
The Luangwa Valley marks the end of the Great Rift Valley. The Muchinga Escarpment forms the northern and western boundary of the Luangwa Valley and South Luangwa National Park. Starting in Miombo woodland, the escarpment slopes down through Mopane woodland to the valley floor. This is covered in swathes of grassland, which ultimately become the floodplains of the Luangwa River. Most of the park is on the western banks of the Luangwa River, which is its lifeblood. This diversity of landscapes and the seasonal fluctuations in water availability support annual wildlife migrations in search of food and water.
South Luangwa is probably one of the most unspoilt natural habitats remaining in Africa. Founded as a game reserve in 1938, this 9,059km² area became a national park in 1972. It has some of the highest concentrations of animals on the continent.
Home to around 60 animal species, the park supports herds of elephant and buffalo that often number into the hundreds. The Luangwa River is also home to multitudes of crocodiles and hippopotamus. There are over 400 species of bird, including 39 types of raptor and 47 migrant species.
In addition to the abundant wildlife, the changing seasons add another dimension to South Luangwa’s richness. The dry, bare winter bushveld gives way to a lush, green wonderland in the rainy summer months.
Marvellous Mfuwe
There are two main areas of South Luangwa National Park accessible to visitors: the Mfuwe and Nsefu sectors. We had the privilege of visiting both. We started near Mfuwe Gate, the main entrance to the park, which has a bridge across the Luangwa River.
This is an ideal place for less experienced safari visitors to start, as game concentrations are high. However, it’s also the busiest part of the park. At times, it can get a bit frenzied, as safari vehicles jockey to get the best views at lion kills or wild dog sightings.
Our first port of call was Track & Trail River Camp, a short distance from the Mfuwe Gate. The highlights of our stay here were the two dramatic lion kills we witnessed on our evening drives. Both victims were pregnant female impalas. They must have been mere hours away from giving birth. To see the babies being eaten before they had drawn breath was a stark reminder of the savagery of the African bush.
On the second evening, my husband decided to skip the game drive. However, he didn’t miss out on the wildlife. While napping in our chalet, he was rudely awoken by a rattle of the door handle. It was a clever baboon trying to get into the room. My husband’s shout dissuaded the intruder, but he could hear it trying all the other chalet doors, in the hope of making a raid on an unsecured room.
Abandoning his nap, my husband decided to laze by the pool, which is raised about four metres above the ground. Emerging from the water after a refreshing dip, he discovered he was almost head-to-head with a herd of elephants.
From Mfuwe, we moved deeper into the park to the Nsefu sector. The atmosphere here is remote, quiet and slightly more exclusive. Some of the most experienced guides in the Luangwa Valley work in the Nsefu sector, and it’s probably also the most game-intensive area of the park. It’s known in particular for exceptional leopard sightings.
Lodges and camps in this part of South Luangwa are open only during the dry season, from early May to the beginning of November. Because lodges here aren’t open all year, the animals don’t have constant exposure to people. They are less accustomed to vehicles and visitors, so the game viewing feels more natural.
We stayed at three stunning lodges in Nsefu, each special in its own way. Tafika Camp is on the banks of the Luangwa River, just outside the park boundaries.
We took drives into the park with co-owner and safari manager Bryan Jackson, who has been guiding in Luangwa for more than 20 years. On one of them, a group of four young male lions were happy for us to park just a hair’s breadth away while we sat watching them relax in the shade.
One evening, during dinner at Tafika, the first rains of the season arrived—a welcome relief from the oppressive heat. The next morning, we found strange sliding prints all around our chalet. Luangwa’s infamous sticky black cotton soil becomes exceptionally slippery when wet, and it appeared that hippos had been skating around in the mud while we slept.
On the west bank of the Luangwa River, inside South Luangwa National Park, are Shenton Safaris’ Kaingo and Mwamba camps. To save ourselves a long drive, we left our vehicle at Tafika Camp and canoed a short distance across the river. We clambered up the bank on the other side and into a waiting safari vehicle.
Derek Shenton, who created the camps, took us on a tour of three of his famous hides. The first was a permanently anchored boat in the river, facing a bank where a large colony of carmine bee-eaters have excavated their nests. We sat in the hide, watching the birds swoop over the water, darting in and out of their burrows to feed their young.
At Mwamba camp, we were concealed directly in front of a waterhole, at eye level with impalas, kudu, buffalo and warthogs as they took turns to drink. We were so close that we could see and hear drops of water falling from their mouths between sips. Guinea fowl, Lilian’s lovebirds and weavers darted between the animals.
At the third hide, we were almost close enough to touch the oxpeckers hopping along the backs of a large pod of hippos. As we sat watching the hippos and their nursery of youngsters, a family of elephants, also accompanied by several babies, came to drink just a few metres in front of us. Although they appeared oblivious to our presence, I felt that the piercing gaze of the matriarch occasionally seemed to look directly through the hide and straight into my eyes.
On drives at Kaingo, we spotted so many lions that we risked becoming blasé about them. To top it all, we had a fabulous sighting of a leopard stretched out on a tree branch. When we came back to check on her later, we found her feeding on a kill she’d left concealed in the undergrowth while she slept.
We paddled back across the river from Kaingo, collected our car, and drove on to Nsefu Camp. Built in 1951, before South Luangwa had even been declared a national park, it’s situated on a picturesque bend of the Luangwa River.
This spot is perfect in two ways. Firstly, a well-positioned chair in the shade makes for a very scenic location to read, relax and look out for local wildlife. Secondly, and more importantly, the camp is ideally positioned to catch a welcome river breeze on hot days at the end of the dry season.
On one early morning walk at Nsefu, we found ourselves amongst a herd of buffalo several hundred strong. Suddenly, we heard a loud and anguished bellow.
Two buffalo had been involved in an altercation. The result was that the horn of one had been wedged into the posterior of the other, producing understandable cries of distress.
Fortunately, the horn was extracted without too much delay, and the two continued on their way – although the injured party might have been limping slightly.
On our final night at Nsefu, we watched nine wild dogs demolishing the carcass of an impala, stripping it of the meat and organs and leaving only the skin, head and skeleton behind.
Our final stop was Kafunta River Lodge. The night before we arrived, a large tree had fallen over inside the camp. We were greeted by a whole family of elephants, including a tiny baby, feasting on the fallen branches right there in the middle of the camp. These elephants are frequent visitors, and we repeatedly saw them wandering through the grounds.
The dining area at Kafunta looks out over a floodplain and a waterhole, both full of wildlife from before sunrise to well after sunset. First thing in the morning come the giraffes, followed by buffaloes, elephants, and impalas. Along with the resident hippos and plenty of birdlife, you barely need to leave the lodge to see some fantastic things.
When drilling for a borehole some years ago, Kafunta struck gold, unexpectedly tapping into a natural hot water spring. This spring now flows into a hot tub that also overlooks the waterhole. However, with temperatures in the mid-40s during our stay, we hadn’t been tempted to try it.
But, as the sun went down on our final day in South Luangwa, dark clouds gathered, and thunder rumbled promisingly. When the skies opened and rain fell in sheets, the hot tub was the perfect place to sit. Up to our waists in warm water, with refreshing cold drops falling on our shoulders, a gin & tonic in hand, and hippos huffing and puffing below us, it was a truly magical end to an enchanting visit.
The fabulous hot tub at Kafunta River Lodge, fed by a natural hot spring and looking out over the wildlife-rich floodplain.The Robin Pope Safaris’ mobile walking safaris have long been known as the best wilderness experience of the South Luangwa. Guests spend five days walking through the north of the park.How many elephants can you spot enjoying Track & Trail River Camp?Special features of Kaingo Camp are the unique individual decks built out over the river in front of each chalet and the stunning outdoor bathtubs.The Jackal-Berry treehouse at Flatdogs Camp is built around three live African ebony trees with views across wetlands regularly visited by elephant and giraffe.Each year in November, the elephants near Mfuwe Lodge go in search of wild mangos. One particular family always takes the most direct route to the mango trees, calmly walking straight through the reception area, to the delight of staff and guests.Luambe Lodge is home to one of the largest hippo pools along the Luangwa River. During the dry season, several hundred hippos gather in front of the lodge.
Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, Sarah Kingdom moved to Africa at the age of 21 and is now a mountain guide, traveller, and mother of two. When she is not climbing, she also owns and operates a 3,000-hectare cattle ranch in central Zambia.
She guides and runs trips regularly in India, Nepal, Tibet, Russia, Turkey, Uganda, and takes travellers up Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro numerous times a year.
China announces 2017 timeline for its domestic ivory ban. By WildAid
BEIJING (30 December 2016) — The end of the world’s largest ivory market was announced today by the Chinese government as it released a detailed timetable for ending its legal trade. Domestic sales will be banned by the end of 2017 with the first batch of factories and traders to close their business by 31 March 2017.
Last year, President Xi Jinping made a public commitment to phasing out the trade, which may be falling out of favour with Chinese consumers. A recent conservation group Save the Elephants survey reported that ivory prices in eight mainland Chinese cities had fallen by half in a two-year period ending December 2015. Anecdotal evidence gathered by WildAid campaigners in China indicates prices may have decreased further this year: Market inquiries in May 2016 found raw ivory prices of around $450 to $900, representing a decrease of 57% to 78% compared with a 2014 high of $2,100 per kilogram in mainland China. A ban was first proposed to the National People’s Congress by former NBA star, Yao Ming, who also led documentaries on the trade for state broadcaster CCTV in partnership with WildAid.
WildAid CEO Peter Knights said, “China’s exit from the ivory trade is the greatest single step that could be taken to reduce poaching for elephants. We thank President Xi for his leadership and congratulate the State Forestry Administration for this timely plan. We will continue to support their efforts through education and persuading consumers not to buy ivory.”
With China’s announcement, international attention is now shifting to Japan, which voted against all CITES proposals to protect elephants and has insisted its trade is not tainted by illegal ivory. However, a recent report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) found that the nation’s elephant tusk registration system widely allows for poached tusks smuggled from Africa to be sold legally in the domestic market.
“Japan is the last man standing as a major legal destination for ivory.” Knights said. “If Japan joined the global community on this we could consign the abuses of the ivory trade to history.”
The international commercial ivory trade was banned in 1989, following a decade of out-of-control poaching that decimated African elephant populations from 1.3 million in 1979 to an estimated 609,000 by the late 1980s. As a result of the ban, poaching decreased significantly and ivory prices plummeted. But a “one-off” sale of ivory in 2008 and the legal domestic trade in places such as Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Vietnam and the US have allowed for the laundering of illegal shipments from recently poached elephants.
Ivory poaching continues to threaten elephant populations throughout the continent with recent census data indicating as few as 380,000 may be left in all of Africa. Poaching also threatens the last-remaining giant (tusker) elephants. Written by: Bradd Johnston for The Askari Project
The elephants of Tsavo are known around the world for their distinctive red colouring and this region is also home to some of the last great tuskers of Africa.
Tsavo has always been a special place for elephants and this vast expanse is currently home to Kenya’s largest elephant population numbering around 14,000.
The Askari Project is a not-for-profit organization specifically set up to raise funding and support for The Tsavo Trust a local Kenyan organization that works in conjunction with the Kenya Wildlife Service to monitor and protect the elephants in Tsavo with a specific emphasis on their signature program – The Big Tusker Project.
Tusker is the term used to describe bull elephants that have tusks that each weigh in excess of 45 kilograms (100 pounds).
The immense size of their tusks and the profits they bring have meant that tuskers have been relentlessly targeted by elephant hunters and poachers.
Tuskers are now incredibly rare with possibly as few as 20-30 left on the entire African continent. The greater Tsavo ecosystem containing Tsavo East, Tsavo West and Chyulu Hills National Parks is home to possibly the largest population of tuskers left in all of Africa.
The Askari Project fundraising
As part of their fundraising initiatives to help protect the tuskers of Tsavo, The Askari Project is running two exciting adventure tours in Africa in 2017.
The first being a nine-day Kilimanjaro climb (running from 31 August to 8 September) for elephant conservation which will attempt to summit Africa’s highest peak on the full moon in September. This trek up the Rongai route will be led by an expert mountaineer guide and Africa Geographic contributor Sarah Kingdom. Not only will participants achieve a personal milestone in reaching the summit but be climbing with a group of like-minded individuals wanting to raise vital funding for elephant conservation.
The second tour run with the help of RAW Africa Ecotours offers an incredible opportunity to come on safari to the elephant hotspots of Amboseli & Tsavo in Kenya. This tour will offer a rare and unique behind-the-scenes look at the conservation work of The Tsavo Trust, meet some of the hard-working staff and accompany them on the search for some of the magnificent and iconic elephants they monitor in the region.
This 10-day tour from 10 to 19 September 2017 offers some fantastic safari highlights but also contributes funding directly to the conservation work of The Tsavo Trust. The group size for this safari experience is restricted to just six lucky people.
Hunters who engage in unethical and illegal practices are largely to blame for the decline in the “overall acceptance” of trophy hunting by the general public and influential institutions across the globe says Namibian Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) immediate-past president Kai-Uwe Denker. Written by Oscar Nkala
Addressing delegates at the association Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Windhoek in early December, Denker said the global hunting industry has been under siege from a coordinated, international anti-hunting movement since the 1970s.
He said of late, the image of the industry business had been battered by numerous revelations of unethical conduct by some hunters who are motivated by greed.
“Typical of human nature and for many reasons including greed, many hunting operators have thrown into the wind, not only the generally accepted standards of ethical hunting but also the very important ecological and nature conservation linkage it has to the principle of sustainable use (of wildlife resources),” Denker said.
Further, he said because financial motives tended to over-ride any moral considerations within the hunting industry, the little public support for trophy hunting had been lost to mounting reports of illegal and unethical hunting.
Such reports exposed the “well-founded and well-meant” principle of sustainable use of natural resources to rhetorical questions such as whether it was now about the abuse of natural resources.
Denker said the Namibian trophy hunting industry could survive, but only if its members restored the conduct of ethical and morally acceptable hunting. Such conduct would include the wider observation and adherence to a strict animal welfare code in order to convince the sceptical public that the only acceptable justification for trophy hunting is that it is an “indispensable” tool for practical nature conservation.
“It is no longer acceptable to try and justify unacceptable hunting practices by claiming that ethics and morals are matters of personal opinion. The worldwide community has clearly told us that with this, you have crossed the line. It is no longer good enough for a professional hunter to just drive a Landcruiser off the road and shoot a big boar with a rifle,” Denker said.
The strategy to win back public support for trophy hunting would also involve education and awareness campaigns to teach the hunters about the basics of conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources.
The outgoing association president called for the introduction of a new professional hunter training curriculum that would prioritise conservation, with emphasis on aspects like functioning ecosystems, habitat aspects and population dynamics.
The current Namibian professional hunter training curriculum is an oral and practical course that was tailored-made to suit candidates who cannot read or write.
Denker said the reputation of the hunting industry would remain on “accelerated decline” as long as sectoral audits continued to reveal evidence of its manipulation of rules to facilitate the illegal exploitation of wildlife resources.
Should the sector fail to restore mechanisms to monitor adherence to hunting rules and moral ethics, professional hunters might as well abandon the business and hang up their rifles, Denker warned.
Addressing the same meeting, Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism Tommy Nambahu said throughout 2016, the Namibian hunting industry struggled against severe challenges which threatened it’s sustainability as a lead contributor to wildlife and nature conservation.
These included the four-year-old regional drought that has dried up water resources, killing thousands of wild animals and livestock across the semi-desert country.
The ripple effects of global events such as the attack on, and advocacy against all forms of trophy hunting following the shooting of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe in mid-2015, have negatively affected the Namibian trophy hunting industry.
The iconic Zimbabwean male lion, which was a collared subject of a continuing lion research project run by Oxford University, was lured out of Hwange in July 2015 and killed by US doctor Walter Palmer with the help of professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst.
The US doctor initially shot and badly injured the lion with a bow and arrow. However, the bow-hunt, which is illegal in Zimbabwe, did not kill the lion and he had to finish it of with a rifle, hours after the first attack.
The public outcry generated by the criminal and unethical nature of the hunt galvanised the global anti-hunting lobby with some conservationists calling for a total ban of trophy hunting of lions and other endangered wildlife species.
Nambahu said trophy hunting in Namibia had declined in the aftermath of the illegal and unethical Cecil hunt because it generated global calls for a ban on trophy hunting and forced several airlines to boycott the transportation of trophies hunted in Africa.
“It is important for us as regulators, hunters, hunting outfitters and stakeholder communities to remain ethical in our dealings to avoid some of the unbecoming criticisms that may tarnish and further diminish our reputation,” the deputy minister said.
Internally, NAPHA is struggling to get rid of the perception that it is a white-dominated industry amid reports that the country has managed to train only 350 black professional hunters since the government drive for racial inclusion in the industry began in 2001.
Denker said in the past 20 years when efforts to promote inclusion largely failed, white members of the hunters association occasionally felt unwelcome although they were citizens who loved the country like any other.
Apart from the black professional hunter training project, another initiative that sought to promote black participation in the hunting business was the provision, in 2013, of courses to help communal conservancy operators become independent hunting operators.
The year is all but done, the mountain of admin has got the better of you, and strings of last-minute things to do are being pulled from your threadbare brain like a magician’s trick. It’s now, more than ever, that you need to be sitting on a beach, staring out over the turquoise water with a tall glass of citrus-something in your hand. Mauritius, anyone?
Mauritius is the ideal place to kick off your shoes and get sand between your toes. I know this because I recently found myself doing just that at the newly renovated Constance Belle Mare Plage. Sun loungers beckoned, whispering of days spent indulging in fine French wine from a floating platform on the pool. Scents of ylang-ylang, vanilla, frangipane and sweet orange filled the air.
This dream hotel, which seems to hang somewhere between heaven and earth, is found on the northwest coast of Mauritius overlooking two kilometres of pristine beach. Behind it lies a lagoon as clear as glass. The hotel was one of the first to be established on the island back in 1975 when Mauritians began to recognise its incredible potential for tourism. The Constance Group opened Belle Mare Plage with just ten self-catering bungalows, offering a unique style of beach living.
Today, the wealth of establishments to choose from along the island’s 330km coastline clearly illustrates how the tourism industry has blossomed here. Perhaps part of the secret to its success is that hospitality seems to be in Mauritian blood. Everyone I met was always willing to lend a hand and share a smile.
Once you’ve worked your way through a few of the 200 illustrious rums at Belle Mare Plage’s Blu Bar, you may regain enough mojo to set your sights on something more than sand and sun. So what is there to do in Mauritius besides sipping piña coladas and sneaking glances at the sexy French boat boy from behind your sunnies?
Play golf with Rudolph
Mauritius is definitely on the map as a golf destination. For a small island, there is a surprisingly large assortment of spectacular courses. Notable among them is The Legend Golf Course at Belle Mare Plage. Opened in 1994, it spreads over 70 hectares of a former deer reserve. Deer still roam here, and they can be quite a surprise for golfers who don’t expect to meet Rudolph in a tropical paradise.
Javan deer were introduced to Mauritius by a Dutch governor in 1639. They flourished on the island, finding agreeable homes in the forests. Deer from Mauritius have even been sent back to Java to help restock the now vulnerable population there.
Deer motifs also decorate the hand-painted wallpaper at Chateau de Labourdonnais. Built in 1859, this colonial mansion has been beautifully restored and is now a cultural museum. You can tour the house, learning about the island’s history, flora, architecture and cuisine. And, when you are done, the tasting bar beckons with yet more traditional island rum.
This extraordinarily, peaceful nation is remarkably diverse. You’ll find Catholic churches alongside Tamil temples, and Chinese pagodas cheek by jowl with Hindu statues. Interestingly, Mauritius is the only country in Africa where Hinduism is the dominant religion.
The most sacred Hindu site in Mauritius is the Grand Bassin crater lake. It’s a tranquil spot, framed by colourful statues and food stalls where locals offer refreshments to the pilgrims. Nearby, the Mangal Mahadev rises out of the mist. This 33-metre high statue of the Hindu god Shiva is one of the tallest monuments in the world and is well worth a visit.
I was lucky enough to be on the island for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Houses aglow in a thousand fairy lights directed me back to Belle Mare Plage.
Staff dressed in traditional saris added another layer of colour to the multicoloured flowers, intricate Kolam rice drawings, and the ocean sparkling beyond.
If you love to shop, the Port Louis market has a t-shirt with your name on it. Besides the usual souvenir stalls and flower sellers, an abundance of deliciously fresh fish, fruit and vegetables will get your mouth watering.
Just around the corner, Le Caudan Waterfront offers more upmarket stalls and a duty-free store. Its indoor craft market had me bewitched with a multitude of local one-of-a-kind handicrafts which can be customised on the spot for your family and friends. Buy yourself some traditionally-pressed sugar cane juice and sip it under the colourful umbrellas that dance over the central courtyard.
Model ship making is a celebrated craft in Mauritius, and a visit to a model ship factory is a fascinating experience. You can watch the tiny boats being brought to life by artisans as they painstakingly build each miniature replica by hand.
The island’s natural attractions are no less enticing. In the southwest, the Black River Gorges National Park is famed for its gorges and waterfalls. Hike through them, and you’ll spot pink pigeons and monkeys. Nearby you’ll find the Chamarel Waterfall – which plummets more than 300 feet off a vertical cliff – and the Seven Coloured Earths. These surreal rainbow dunes are striped in red, brown, yellow, green, blue, purple and violet sand. They were created when basaltic lava from the volcanic eruption that formed the island nine million years ago cooled at different temperatures.
Mauritius boasts the oldest botanical gardens in the southern hemisphere. The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden is named after the first Mauritian prime minister but is more commonly and conveniently known as the Pamplemousses (pamplemousse are grapefruit trees, which grow in the area.) Here you can see the famous giant water lilies, sacred Indian lotus, and over 80 species of palm trees. Look out for the bleeding tree (Pterocarpus angolensis), a teak tree that leaks macabre red-black sap, as well as the erotic Amazonia Pona palms, with their suggestively-shaped roots which had me giggling like a schoolgirl.
Fruit bats, the island’s only native mammals, can be spotted flitting through the trees in their hundreds.
Weather
Mauritius has almost 300 days of sunshine a year. Daily temperatures usually range between 20°C and 35°C. However, those sunny skies are not always clear, and rain can come down at the drop of a hat. It may last a few short minutes or the rest of the day. During showers it can get chilly, so, if you are out and about, be sure to pack a light jersey just in case.
Accommodation
If you are staying at a hotel, choose an all-inclusive rate if possible. Many hotels offer several restaurants (the Belle Mare Plage has no fewer than seven), and going all-inclusive gives you the chance to try them all without worrying about your budget. It’s also worth bearing in mind that spirits and wine are expensive on the island due to high taxes. All-inclusive packages ensure you can relax with a mojito whenever your heart desires.
Food
If you are a seafood lover, go ahead and indulge. Fish is fresh and reasonably priced. Tuna and marlin are reliably delicious wherever you go. And, with great local and French chefs around every corner, you’re unlikely to be disappointed by your dinner. At Constance Resorts and Hotels, fine cuisine is one of the highlights of the experience. I was treated to a dinner with a Michelin star chef and a cooking class that was a highlight of my stay.
Getting around
Take some time to explore the island. Although your hotel will probably offer everything you could want to enjoy your holiday in Mauritius, there is so much else to see in this gorgeous country.
While it’s possible to travel by bus, they can be unreliable, and taxis are expensive. Instead, rent a car from a local company. I recommend Maki Car Rental. They offer fantastic service, are budget-friendly, and the free GPS that comes with the vehicle offers interesting information at tourist spots. A rental car also allows you to explore at your own pace, stopping off at any of the picturesque places along the way.
If you prefer to learn as you go and leave the driving to someone else, you can sit back and enjoy a guided tour with a local. Mauritours offer very informative tours of the island. Ask for Mary, the guide who became my firm friend within a matter of minutes.
Flights
Keep an eye out for flight deals, especially if you’re South African. Special offers sometimes include ‘two for the price of one’ or free accommodation. Air Mauritius, the island’s carrier, is comfortable and efficient.
For camps & lodges at the best prices and our famous ready-made safari packages, log into our app. If you do not yet have our app see the instructions below this story.
JANINE AVERY is the first to confess that she has been bitten by the travel bug… badly. She is a lover of all things travel, from basic tenting with creepy crawlies to lazing in luxury lodges – she will give it all a go.
Janine is passionate about wildlife and conservation, and she comes from a long line of biologists, researchers and botanists.
Sodwana Bay, in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, boasts the southernmost reaches of the tropical west Indian Ocean and a population of green turtles.
On 28 November 2016, two rehabilitated green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nicknamed ‘Mel’ and ‘Grotto’, were released here at Mabibi by park CEO Andrew Zaloumis and senior aquarist Robert Kyle from SAAMBR (South African Association for Marine Biological Research).
Each year, concerned members of the public take stranded turtles to local vets or into Aquaria around the country. This release was part of ongoing rehabilitation measures undertaken by iSimangaliso together with the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, uShaka Marine World in Durban and Bayworld in Port Elizabeth.
During winter, juvenile turtles are swept down from the northern coast of KwaZulu-Natal in the Agulhas current. They are often in a weak condition and could be dehydrated or hypothermic, or worse, injured in some way.
Green turtles don’t nest on our beaches, but rather on the beaches alongside the Mozambique Channel. However, they are common in the South African offshore waters. Of the two turtles that were released, little Mel is the smallest weighing 816 grams. She was stranded at the Willows outside Port Elizabeth on 16 December 2015 and treated at Bayworld for ‘shell rot’. She recovered completely. As Mel was treated medically she could be sexed.
The second turtle ‘Grotto’ was stranded on Grotto Beach near Cape Town on 29 April 2016. This turtle weighs 12.6 kg. Grotto cannot be sexed as green turtles only become sexually mature at 50 years old. This is just one of the reasons why saving, rehabilitating and releasing Green turtles back into the wild is so vital.
Both turtles were rehabilitated at Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town and then sent up to uShaka Marine World where they were observed for a few weeks before being released inside the marine protected area of the wetland park.
The Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town started releasing larger numbers of rehabilitated turtles in 2009, starting off with eight. Within only six years the numbers have increased dramatically and in 2015, 162 turtles were released back into the wild.
A proportion of the Shootout event entry fees contribute directly towards the iSimangaliso Rare and Endangered Species Fund which is used exclusively for the protection, reintroduction, monitoring and research of species such as these two turtles, within the park.
Zaloumis told me that, “this year for the first time, the fund is contributing to marine species conservation. R100 000 has already been allocated to a project on the ecological state of the coral reefs in the area.”
Zaloumis hopes both to increase awareness, and also to improve the efforts being made by the iSimangaliso Authority to protect and conserve marine areas.
Visitors to the park at this time of year (November through to March) could witness the miracle of egg-laying and the hatching of loggerhead and leatherback turtles. Watching a huge mother turtle lumber down the dunes and slip silently into the dark waves after covering her eggs in a deep sandy nest is strangely moving.
As I witnessed the release of Grotto and Mel back into the wild waters I noticed more than a few wet eyes amongst those involved. I hope my photos impart some of the emotion of that moment – a moment everyone present will remember forever.
At thirteen minutes to midnight, I looked over my shoulder. My blood temperature dropped to match the chilly night in Hwange National Park. There he was, hugely muscled with a big black mane, padding silently, dangerously under the full moon.
The fully-grown male lion stood six metres behind me. I stood, swaddled in a blanket and beanie, in an open-sided hide at Big Toms, not far from Robins Camp. I could hear my heartbeat and feel the adrenaline. But there was no way I was going to call out to my fellow counters, snoring in their roof tents, in case that big boy decided I was worth a closer look.
It’s never boring on the Hwange Game Census. This is remarkable in itself, because on ‘the count’ – as it’s better known – teams of volunteers sit as still and as quietly as they can for 24 hours. They must remain silent and motionless from midday to noon the next day over the last full moon of the dry season.
It turns out that when you’re sitting in a hide, or a vehicle in the middle of the bush, just watching and waiting, animals and birds you might otherwise disregard become reason for great excitement. On quiet counts, I’ve seen people high-five when a herd of impala strolls by.
The Hwange Game Census is organised and run by Wildlife and Environment Zimbabwe (WEZ). It has the distinction of being the longest continuously-running game census in Southern Africa. Since 1972, through war, drought, boom years and bust, and all of Zimbabwe’s economic and political instability, the count has been one constant in an ever-changing country.
The count covers about 90 pans, dams, hides, natural springs and river pools. For three nights, including the night of the actual census, Hwange is busier than at any other time of year. About 300 WEZ members, all volunteers, take over virtually all the accommodation in Hwange’s three camps: Main Camp, Sinamatella and Robins.
Although its numbers are never going to be completely accurate, the annual census report, compiled by long-term WEZ member and statistician Foster Betts, makes for fascinating reading. Two crucial things the count identifies are the location of species of interest to researchers and trends within the park.
The most notable trend in the 18 years I’ve been counting is the increasing presence of elephants. Elephant numbers on the count have reached around 30,000 in recent years. And their proportion relative to the total animals counted has risen from between 30 and 40 per cent in the 1980s to 60 per cent or higher.
Other animals’ fortunes wax and wane. Giraffe numbers are down. This is not surprising, given the toll the elephant population takes on trees. However, rarer antelope such as sable and roan are doing well in Hwange. Buffalo and lion numbers are good. My team counted a herd of 1,000 buffalo last year, and other big herds were seen on this year’s count.
In addition to my moonlit male lion – who conveniently reappeared shortly after dawn so that my fellow counters could get a look at him – we counted giraffe, zebra, reedbuck, sable, warthog, impala, spotted hyena, and black-backed jackal. Two days before the count, I had two separate sightings of wild dog. And, on the morning after the count, two dogs killed an impala just outside Robins Camp.
Birds aren’t counted during the census, but teams are issued with a bird identification sheet to tick and separate forms to record species that are rare in Hwange. These include ostrich and martial eagle, both of which our team spotted.
The game count is the only time ‘ordinary’ people like me can be out in the park alone after dark. It’s fun, but not for the faint-hearted. First-time counters are usually paired with more experienced volunteers.
I’ve had a lioness run past me just a few metres away as I was boiling a kettle. A bull elephant stuck his trunk through the window of my Land Rover. A curious hyena sniffed at my door as I drank chicken cup-a-soup. And a hungry giraffe mistook my roof tent for a tree.
Counters not in a hide generally set up next to their vehicles. They might sit under the shade of an awning during the day, but at night they keep inside their cars unless answering the call of nature. But sometimes not even that is possible.
As we headed back towards Robins Camp after our count this year, we came across friends who’d been at Little Toms, just down the road. Apparently, they’d also been visited by lions. In the middle of the night, 14 female lions and cubs had decided to lie down to sleep in a circle around their camper. The Hwange game count is not for sissies.
Every year, WEZ runs game counts in Hwange, Mana Pools, Gonarezhou, Hippo Pools and Lake Chivero. The counts give a rough indication of population sizes and show if animals are being disturbed by poachers. Counters also assess the status of vegetation and the availability of water. WEZ uses the census information to advise Zimbabwe National Parks on the state of biodiversity and to help set conservation and management priorities.
The game counts are usually done in September, October or December and are open to anyone to participate. For more information about participating in a game count, email mashwild@utande.co.zw.
About Hwange
Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe’s largest national park, covering an area of 14,651km² – approximately half the size of Belgium. The name – mispronounced ‘Wankie’ in colonial times – comes from a local chief. In the early 19th Century, the area was the royal hunting grounds of the Ndebele warrior-king Mzilikazi. Later, settlers tried to farm and breed cattle there but were deterred by the lack of water and abundance of tsetse flies and predators. It was set aside as a game reserve in 1928 and proclaimed a national park in 1961.
Although it has virtually no natural water sources (water must be pumped in), Hwange is a haven for over 100 mammal and 400 bird species. There are more than 20,000 elephants in the park, and it protects what is thought to be one of the largest populations of African wild dog. Large prides of lion and buffalo are frequently seen there, and you also have a good chance of spotting leopard, as well as cheetah and spotted hyena. The wild and woolly brown hyena occurs here too but is rather rare.
There are three national parks camps inside Hwange. Main camp, at the main entrance to the park, is close to several pans and pumped waterholes. Sinamatella, on the northern border of the park, is set on an outcrop overlooking a riverbed and plains. Robins Camp is close to the western boundary and was bequeathed, along with his cattle ranch, by farmer Harold Robins in 1939.
The camps offer self-catering cottages and camping sites, as well as restaurants, bars and basic shops. Fuel may be available, but it’s best not to rely on this. Camping is also permitted at several picnic sites within the park. Bookings for national parks camps and campsites must be made directly through national parks at kkgatsiga@zimparks.co.zw or on +263 14 706077/8.
For camps & lodges at the best prices and our famous ready-made safari packages, log into our app. If you do not yet have our app see the instructions below this story.
About the author
Bestselling author Tony Park first visited southern Africa 21 years ago as a tourist on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. That first safari turned out to be anything but. After returning every year since 1995 he and his wife, Nicola, put down roots in South Africa four years ago, buying a house in a game reserve on the edge of the Kruger National Park. The former journalist, public relations and army officer (he served in Afghanistan in 2002) now spends six months of the year in his native Australia and the balance in Africa where he researches and writes his thriller novels.
In this edition, Tony talks about his personal experiences in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, including the annual game census in the park, which Tony and Nicola have taken part in for the past 17 years.
Several of Tony’s novels, including Far Horizon, African Dawn and Safari are set in Hwange and they reflect his love for troubled Zimbabwe and its flagship game reserve. Tony’s African novels have a strong environmental bent. His 13th and latest book, Red Earth, set in KwaZulu-Natal, focuses on the plight of Africa’s endangered vultures. Read more at www.tonypark.net
Travel photographer Matthieu Rivart has spent a great deal of his time travelling to some of the world’s most remote places to document the beauty of vanishing cultures. These trips are his attempt to understand human nature, and to preserve its essence through photography before our world becomes less rich in cultural diversity. The Himba tribe is one of the first indigenous tribes that Matthieu ever heard about.
Living in the northern desert region of Namibia, the Himba are a semi-nomadic people whose population is estimated to be around 50,000. As this region is considered to be one of the wildest on the African continent, they have largely managed to resist modernisation.
Every time Matthieu visits the Himba, he drives through Namibia to reach Opuwo, the small capital of the Kaokoland region, which is close to the border of Angola. In Opuwo he meets a local guide, who shows him the way to the most remote villages, introduces him to the inhabitants, and also plays the role of translator between the photographer and the people.
From his own experience, Matthieu can testify that being accompanied by a good guide is the key to a successful trip. Before heading to the Himba villages, Matthieu and his guide buy food to show their gratitude to the tribe for welcoming and spending time with him. In every encounter he has, Matthieu first builds a strong link with the individual before taking a photo. He believes that a good photograph relies on a unique interaction between two people, so he has always been reluctant to give money in exchange for taking photos, as he believes that paying people prevents creating a genuine connection. He also fears that money earnt from cultural tourism could threaten the Himba’s traditional way of life, as the financial incentive erodes at the culture and turns the people into objects of entertainment who are merely required to re-enact traditions for spectators.
Himbas are particularly known for their beauty regime, as they cover their skin and hair with a red mixture called otjize, which is made of ochre and butterfat.
As Himba live in isolated desert regions, access to water is a daily concern, and the precious resource is reserved solely for drinking. Over time, water has even developed a holy element, and many Himba women actively avoid putting their body in contact with water.
Otjize is used to protect the skin from sun and insects, and to perfume the body. It has both a hygienic and aesthetic function, and rubbing their skin with this mixture is part of a morning ritual for Himba women. It is also used to cover jewellery, clothes and headdresses, and is re-applied to hair braids roughly every two months.
In addition to this, women also burn aromatic herbs and roots to perfume their body. On such occasions, they sit by the burning herbs under a blanket and wait for several minutes until the perfumed smoke has done its job. It’s quite the sight to see when a woman removes the blanket, as a cloud of smoke temporarily hides her!
Jewellery and headwear both play an important role in Himba culture, as they reflect the status of a person. Many Himba women fix hair extensions made of goat hair to their natural hair, which is then applied with otjize. This hairstyle shows that the girl has reached puberty and is now considered a woman, and she will keep that hairstyle throughout her adult life.
Himba women also wear a headdress if they’re married, which usually takes the form of a small hat made of leather. During one of Matthieu’s stays, he met women who were crossing the desert on foot to visit relatives. As they wanted to travel lightly, they just placed a piece of plastic bag between their central braids to make sure their status as married women could still be recognised.
The jewellery of many Himba women consists of a mix of plastic bracelets bought at the closest market, recycled wire, and more traditional necklaces. The most iconic of them, called ohumba, is made of metal beads that support a shell. This necklace, which is a symbol of fertility, is passed down from one generation to the next and isn’t always worn on a day-to-day basis.
During Matthieu’s stay in one Himba village, two young girls were particularly interested in looking at the photos that he was taking, and were complimenting each other on their beauty. They would even use their image on the screen as a way of knowing how to readjust their jewellery – before asking for another photo to be taken!
Young Himba girls have a specific hairstyle that is easily recognisable – this consists of two braided hair plaits that extend forward over the forehead. Boys, on the other hand, have just a single braid that extends backwards to the rear of the head.
Once a girl has her first menstrual cycle, her status changes and a ceremony is organised to celebrate this rite of passage. Before attending the ceremony, the girl must leave the village for several days on her own. When she’s back, the village organises for an animal to be sacrificed, which is usually a goat, and the girl receives jewellery that will show her new status. A change of hairstyle will also be part of the transition, as the girl, who is now a woman, will wear her hair in the traditional braids covered with otjize.
Meeting traditional tribes requires showing respect and developing trust for the experience to be meaningful for both parties. Nowadays, with cultural tourism on the rise, genuine encounters with tribal communities are harder to achieve and often involve travelling to remote areas that tourists don’t tend to visit. It is important to spend time with the people and to adapt to the local way of life to integrate a bit in the community. Matthieu also feels that it is important that visitors interact without disturbing the daily life of the village – even if this means refraining from taking photos at first.
During Matthieu’s first trip to a Himba village, he met the young woman in this photograph. She was living in a small village occupied by a dozen inhabitants. After several days spent in the village, she became more familiar with Matthieu’s presence, and they spent a long time talking about the meaning of her jewellery – their discussion became so natural that taking this photograph happened organically.
For many visitors, the proportion of women in Himba villages is striking. The main reason for this is that men spend most of their time looking after the cattle and sometimes have to be away with the animals for several days to lead them to areas with sufficient amounts of grass for grazing.
The women, on the other hand, stay in the village where their daily life consists of looking after their children, collecting wood to build houses, or preparing meals. Even during their demanding and sometimes physical tasks, which can even involve digging for water in the sand of a dry riverbed, Himba women still wear their jewellery, which is part of their identity.
Men can marry several women, depending on their level of wealth, which is mainly judged by how many cattle they own. But women are only permitted to have one husband. Although this may be the case, Himba society is relatively open-minded with regards to relationships between men and women, and married women tend to have boyfriends, while some single women sometimes even have children with married men.
Himbas often face discrimination due to their ancestral way of life – especially with regards to their partial nudity, as women tend to wear short skirts made of goatskin. As the modern world closes in, the Himba often have to negotiate the gap between their traditional culture and consumer society. In Opuwo, Himba women can sometimes be seen in supermarkets. To afford their purchases, many are forced to sell their cattle or their jewellery, which gradually detaches them from their ancestors and traditions. Nowadays, more and more Himbas are also leaving their villages in pursuit of a more prosperous way of life.
When Matthieu spends time with tribes, he systematically shows people the portraits and photos that he takes. He feels that this helps to establish trust, as people can see exactly what he is doing, especially if they are not used to cameras.
Three places are particularly important in an onganda (Himba village) – the hut of the oldest man of the clan, who is the leader of the village, the kraal (livestock enclosure), and the okuruwo (holy fire).
The okuruwo plays an important role in daily life and, during his last stay with the Himbas, Matthieu would spend evenings gathered around the fire with the community, sharing the traditional porridge made of flour and goat milk, while the elder would tell the children stories and the women would dance and sing.
The Himba believe that the holy fire is a medium by which they can communicate with the spirits of their dead ancestors, and when the fire is not lit, it is considered offensive for foreigners to near or cross the fireplace.
One night, Matthieu recognised a young girl called Makupuaere sitting by a fire when most of the villagers had already retired to their huts to sleep. When he was close enough, he took a photo of her. The sound of the shutter echoed in the silent night, but Makupuaere did not move as she was sound asleep.
Taking photographs in indigenous villages means sharing the daily life of its inhabitants. As they usually live in remote areas, they’re quite reluctant to see foreigners so, to be accepted, one needs to adapt to their way of life, which is part of the magic of the experience.
Social ties are at the heart of daily life in any Himba village, which is made up of relatives. Communities are quite small – the biggest village that Matthieu has stayed in was composed of a dozen huts, while the smallest was a mere group of three huts inhabited by just a dozen of people
Raised in France, but now living in South Africa, Matthieu Rivart has been passionate about photography for a decade, and he strives to achieve the balance in his endeavours between expressing creativity and preserving authenticity.
Inspired by the work of anthropologists and explorers, Matthieu Rivart travels across the world – through deserts, jungles and mountains – to witness the beauty of diversity in humans and nature. As the winner of several international photo contests and prizes, Matthieu’s work can be enjoyed online on his website and in art galleries. You can also follow him on Facebook and Instagram.
Trophy hunting in Zimbabwe’s Matetsi Safari Area is not sustainable at current levels as trophy sizes are declining, there is little scientific data supporting quota sizes and hunting management is seriously incapacitated. Written By: Andreas Wilson-Späth
A paper published in the open-access scientific journal PLOS ONE last month reveals several major problems with trophy hunting in Zimbabwe’s Matetsi Safari Area.
Investigating the impact of trophy hunting
The effect trophy hunting has had on the Cape buffalo, elephant, greater kudu and sable antelope populations of the Matetsi Safari Area in the northwest of the country was analysed by a group of researchers led by Victor Muposhi of the Chinhoyi University of Technology in Zimbabwe. Specifically, they looked at records of trophy size, the age of killed animals at the time of “harvest”, annual hunting quotas and the number of animals actually shot by trophy hunters.
The study area covers about 3000 square kilometres and forms part of the much larger Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) which straddles the borders of Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. It is divided into seven management units that have seen more than 37 years of trophy hunting.
Between 2004 and 2015, trophy hunters killed 807 Cape buffalo, 565 greater kudu and 369 sable antelopes here, while the period from 2005 to 2015 “yielded” 258 elephants.
A “dilemma” of sustainability
While they acknowledge that there has been “perpetual debate and polarity on the sustainability of trophy hunting”, the authors of the study clearly position themselves on the pro-hunting, “sustainable utilisation” side of the fence, suggesting that trophy hunting is “still considered as one sustainable way of supporting conservation in African countries endowed with abundant wildlife species” and that the use of a quota system “promotes sustainable off-takes” with “a negligible impact on overall ecology of wildlife species”.
It comes as somewhat of a surprise then that a number of their findings point to significant shortcomings of this philosophy in their chosen study area. These include the following
1. The trophy (i.e. tusk) size for hunted elephants has declined significantly from 2005 to 2015.
2. There is a tendency for the species under consideration to avoid “the hunting areas in favour of the neighbouring National Parks within the KAZA TFCA where there is no hunting”. This is consistent with earlier studies in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area between South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, which found that while ecotourism in an area caused elephant numbers to increase, trophy hunting was detrimental to transfrontier elephant populations.
3. Annual trophy hunting quotas issued for sable antelopes increased significantly during the study period. What’s of particular concern in this regard is that quotas for the area don’t appear to have been set on the basis of real scientific data. The researchers warn that their “findings cast doubt on the sustainability of […] the quota setting processes in this area” noting that “there seems to be over-reliance on questionable and subjective personal opinions in the quota setting process which in actual sense is supposed to be based on scientific evidence and ecological principles”. The severity of this matter is evident from the statement that “the viability of trophy hunting in this area over time may be compromised unless a review on the current trophy hunting policy is done”.
4. The authors argue that within the KAZA TFCA landscape current “harvesting rates” for the species under consideration “may not be sustainable from a trophy size perspective if age restrictions and trophy size limits were to be imposed”.
5. The scientists are critical of the management of trophy hunting activities in the area and emphasise that the economic decline of the country “seriously incapacitated” the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority’s ability to conduct the “periodic surveys and monitoring programs which are critical in the quota setting process”. While the Authority didn’t necessarily raise quotas for all of the hunted species, it did increase its control over hunting areas “in an attempt to increase its revenue base”. Crucially, “the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is confronted with the dual task of generating revenue”, while simultaneously playing “the regulatory role in trophy hunting and wildlife conservation issues in Zimbabwe”. In a particularly incisive statement, the researchers observe that “self-regulating is always a problem as there is [sic] often questions on ‘who will police the regulator’”.
Having exposed all of these problems, one might expect the authors of the study to call for an outright ban on trophy hunting in the Matetsi Safari Area. Yet they refer merely to “a conservation and management dilemma” and recommend the implementation of age-based harvesting policies and the use of “ecological principles in the quota setting process”, while suggesting that for some species, hunting should be reduced or temporarily stopped by “introducing fallow or resting hunting years on a rotational basis” and that “temporal and spatial refuges” should be created “to facilitate ‘trophy hunting rest’”.
With the free for all in Zimbabwe since the virtual collapse of the state and all its organs post land invasions in 1999, no one really knows the extent of the looting in National Parks and other conservation areas where the situation may be far worse.
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of meeting some of the Kruger National Park’s anti-poaching team, and I fell in love with one of them. Muscular and strong, he embodied everything you would come to expect in this line of work. A fierce protector, he also had a heartbreakingly vulnerable side. He cowered when faced with the inevitable shouting and shooting that comes with successfully tracking down a poacher; visibly upset. He required affirmation at this moment, some acknowledgement for a job well done. Because this lovable ranger had been trained a little differently and, as a four-legged, waggy-tailed member of the canine team, he stole my heart.
Man has trained dogs to help with work for generations. From security hounds and police force canines to hunting dogs, herding dogs and Anatolian shepherds that work to protect domestic livestock from predators, dogs are not only man’s best friend but have proven themselves to be some of our most valued employees and colleagues.
When it comes to anti-poaching, canine units are now all the rage, but this wasn’t always the case. Eric Ichikowitz, Director of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, whose initiatives include the establishment of one of the most substantial anti-poaching skills and canine training academies in Africa, explains: “The first canine was introduced to Kruger National Park in December 2010 to help fight poaching. At the time, the use of canines in a Big Five game environment was met with a lot of resistance, and most commentators were of the view that canines were not suited for an anti-poaching role when faced with the Big Five.”
When the PAMS Foundation in Tanzania first started talking about the amazing abilities of tracking and detection dogs, little was known about working with dogs in Africa, and law enforcement and conservation officials were sceptical. But after seeing them in action, many a raised brow turned into a crinkled one as people began to formulate plans to establish anti-poaching canine units, and criminals who observed them in action soon started to fear them.
Kruger now has over 50 working dogs spread throughout the park
After the success of Ngwenya, the first dog to be introduced into the Kruger National Park, everyone began to see the impact that properly trained dogs and handlers could have in anti-poaching teams. Says Ichikowitz: “These days, almost all big reserves have a canine unit assisting their anti-poaching units. Since the launch of Paramount Group’s Anti-Poaching and K9 Academy, we have seen a rise in national parks – not just in South Africa but in many African countries – and private reserves that are establishing canine units in their parks.” For instance, Kruger now has over 50 working dogs spread throughout the park under the guidance of the dedicated and passionate Johan de Beer, who has been instrumental in setting up the canine centre in Kruger for the continued management of this programme.
While it would be wonderful to adopt every single rescue dog and turn them into anti-poaching pooches, the reality is that these dogs need to be selectively bred for efficiency in their specific line of work. As Kirsty Brebner, Rhino Project Manager at the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), puts it: “You wouldn’t use a dachshund to cover long distances at speed – it just doesn’t have the legs. Breeds of choice are generally shepherds (Belgian and German), but other breeds include border collies, labradors, springer spaniels, beagles, bloodhounds and bloodhound crosses. Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C) works successfully with shelters, but it is difficult – it takes assessing a lot of dogs to find the right dog with drive.”
For instance, in the Detection Dog Programme, supported by PAMS Foundation, which falls under the Tanzanian Police Horse and Dog Unit, there are nine dogs in the team. Five of these are a mixed-breed of local Tanzanian dog with some German shepherd. These dogs are more resistant to disease than foreign dogs and are better adapted to the local climate. And at Big Life Foundation in Kenya, they typically work with two breeds – bloodhounds and shepherds.
However, there is a mixed breed rescue dog, called Didi, who is an exception to the rule. Jeremy Goss of Big Life Foundation explains: “She was selected because she certainly has some German shepherd in her, but that’s about all we know. Thanks to her diverse genetic background, Didi has turned out to be remarkably resilient to local diseases, and this makes up for her relative lack of scent receptors.”
When it comes to dogs with a strong sense of smell, you can’t go wrong with a hound. Foxhounds, blue ticks, and bloodhounds are all instinctively tracking dogs and can follow older tracks under challenging circumstances. It is said that one dog, together with its handler, can cover 60 times the area that a ranger without a dog could. Hounds also have great stamina and can handle extreme temperatures better than other breeds.
In Kruger, the latest additions of four bloodhound-doberman crosses have been a great success. One particular dog, Kilalo, even surprised her handler on a recent practice patrol when she led him on what he initially believed to be an incorrect detour after he lost sight of a poacher’s footprints. However, the dog was indeed still following her nose and managed to cut out a large section of track by taking a nifty shortcut. Together, Kilalo and her handler have already led to 18 successful poacher arrests in Kruger.
The rest of Kruger’s canine unit consists of a mix of bloodhounds, malinois and shepherds, with each dog playing a unique role. Specialised tracker dogs can follow spoor for up to two to three days; search dogs are used to detect species items such as rhino horn and ivory, or sniff out arms and ammunition at roadblocks, park gates, crime scenes or at suspect’s houses; and assault dogs are trained to attack and detain poachers.
Conraad de Rosner, founder and director for K9 Conservation, is well known for his work with weimaraners and Belgian malinois. Weimeraners are used to track animals, detect animal remains and snares, locate wounded animals and occasionally assist wildlife vets and scientists with their work. His malinois, on the other hand, are used for tracking human suspects, detecting firearms and bullet casings, and performing restraining functions when detaining suspects requires force. Rosner says: “While both breeds are classed as ‘patrol dogs’, their functions differ somewhat and often their skills and abilities complement and assist each other in the field. For this reason, and depending upon the situation, two field rangers – each with a different dog breed – are sometimes deployed together. All our dogs are trained in protection work, and they are capable of suspect apprehension should the need arise. These dogs are specially trained to bite or apprehend a suspect only upon command, and to detain that suspect with minimal force.”
With so many personalities around, it’s challenging to pick a favourite pooch. That said, van Straaten’s favourite breed is the Belgium malinois. The reason, he explains, “is that it’s a good all-rounder. It can track, apprehend a poacher, protect the handler, and search for evidence and illegal substances.” However, he does say that every dog he has worked with has a special place in his heart – they are all individuals.
It has not always been easy trying to convince rangers and anti-poaching teams, which have more than enough on their plate and limited access to funds, that dogs are a good idea. And, as the use of canines in conservation work progresses, new issues arise that need to be worked into budgets and training programmes.
For instance, dogs are initially often trained with rewards. Now, imagine a dog that has completed a job well done, suddenly to be faced with a situation in which the handler is in a combat zone, complete with gunshots, shouting and confusion. This is not the reaction the dog necessarily expected, and it can become frightened. Krissie Clark of PAMS Foundation explains: “Dog handlers have had to learn new skills and have to carry around dog treats and toys to reward the dogs when they detect the correct scent. One challenge is to keep the dogs productive and motivated, as they need to be finding the right scent regularly so they can be rewarded. Thus, operations need to be increasingly based on good intelligence to avoid doggy burnout (dogs sniffing for days on end without finding anything, resulting in limited rewards and playtime for the dogs).”
Handlers also need to know how to react if a dog gets injured in the bush, or how to keep their dogs fit if they can’t work for a couple of days or weeks for any reason. Sniffer dogs also don’t necessarily come across the contraband they are trained to sniff every day, such as rhino horn and ivory. Thus the dogs and their handlers need constant refresher courses to tackle these issues, often with trained professionals and specialised veterinarians, which can be challenging to arrange.
Dogs themselves also need to be protected. They work in daytime temperatures that can often reach over 40ºC on challenging terrain, with several threats to their lives. De Rosner explains: “The challenge is, of course, being on a Big Five game reserve and the dangers that come with mostly walking on foot. The heat of the day also limits the working hours of the dog. The kit and equipment used for a working dog are crucial. It must be comfortable for the dog and easy to use for the handler. For instance, there are now companies that are testing lightweight but effective bulletproof vests for canines, which have a specialised gel that can regulate the dog’s body heat. So they keep it warm when it is colder or cool it down during hot temperatures.”
Also, specialised goggles to protect dog’s eyes, booties to prevent cuts and lacerations on their feet, compactable water bowls, air-conditioned portable kennels, and high-tech electric fences to keep predators out, are now all things seen on wishlists of game reserves across Africa. A handler no longer carries only a gun and a radio, but also a canine first aid kit and a ball for his trusty sidekick. Krissie Clark of PAMS Foundation elaborates: “As with any domestic animal, the detection dogs are susceptible to disease and heat. In Tanzania, if the dogs are working in the bush, trypanosoma (sleeping sickness), which is transmitted through tsetse fly bites, can kill them if not detected and treated early. There are also many other parasites to which the dogs may be susceptible. Good quality food and regular check-ups with the veterinarian are essential for healthy, happy dogs.”
Goss echoes these sentiments: “The African bush is a challenging environment – often hot, dry and dusty. The dust, in particular, has been a challenge for the bloodhounds due to the rolls of skin that they have, and our dogs were contracting frequent eye infections. They have now had operations to remove some of the excess skin around their eyes, which will hopefully solve the problem. There is only so much equipment that is useful when working with tracker dogs – the most important skill is a timeless one, and that is the handler’s understanding of the abilities (and limits) of their animals.”
It does indeed seem to be that the biggest challenge of all is selecting the best handler for each dog. But while it may be the greatest challenge to pair dog and handler, it also may be the greatest reward. Clark says: “It has been heartwarming to see how the relationships between the handlers and their specific dogs have developed so rapidly to the point that they have truly fallen in love with their dogs and care for them as if they are their own children. Developing such close bonds with dogs is so special.”
Some of these canine units have become so successful that their operations have led to a significant decrease in poaching. De Rosner can proudly boast about one particular reserve, with an anti-poaching unit supplied by K9 Conservation, that saw the addition of 18 black rhinos two years ago. To date, all the rhinos are alive and well, and a few of the females are even pregnant.Goss echoes a similar sentiment: “When Big Life Foundation started using dogs in 2010, poaching (and particularly elephant poaching) was still a major threat in the Amboseli ecosystem. At that time, the dogs were responsible for tracking down poachers, with such success that they can certainly be identified as a factor in the huge reduction in poaching in Amboseli. But the dogs are now more important as a deterrent, as poachers know that it is highly risky to poach in these areas.”
Goss uses one particular incident to explain just how effective the dogs can be. This time it was Didi that was involved in tracking elephant poachers from a scene in Tsavo West National Park. “It started the same way that all elephant poaching incidents do – the grisly discovery of lifeless bodies, five of them in this case, lying in the bush with their faces hacked off — a family group of all ages. The Kenya Wildlife Service tracker dog was straight on the poachers’ trail. The Big Life tracker dog, Didi, and rapid response units joined the hunt where the tracks left the Tsavo West National Park, moving onto community land. The tracks ran, and the rangers ran with them. Assisted at times by expert human trackers, the dogs led the rangers to two neighbouring homes. There was no sign of the ivory, but Didi led the search to a home that contained two axes and a saw, still wet with blood. With the help of the local community, two suspects were identified and arrested. Big Life activated its informer network and, a day later, word came back on a third member of the gang, hiding out in a small town some 40 miles from where the elephants were killed. An undercover Big Life team went in that evening, and together with a back-up unit, arrested the third suspect at 4 am the next morning.”
And when it comes to arrests, the dogs are proving to play a vital role. Notable achievements include the detection of ivory in several critical cases in Tanzania involving notorious Chinese poaching syndicates. And in South Africa, according to a recent statement from SANParks, “over the past ten months, the canine units have successfully tracked and taken down over 90% of the poachers arrested in the Kruger National Park.”
Ichikowitz says: “The most notable achievement is Killer, a Belgian malinois that was trained by us and that is deployed in Kruger National Park as part of their anti-poaching unit. Killer and his handler have been responsible for the arrest of 115 groups of poachers in Kruger. Killer received a gold medal from Prince Harry for his contribution to conservation.” While another of the Paramount Group’s pooches, Arrow, made history earlier this year when he became Africa’s first skydiving anti-poaching dog, truly taking conservation efforts to new heights.
Another particularly special canine is Duma, a German shepherd puppy at the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage. He plays the role of protector and playmate for orphaned rhinos and will go and get the carers if a rhino is calling or awake. The team at the orphanage are also trying to train him to detect orphaned rhino calves in the bush.
A positive message of success consistently comes from the people involved with canine anti-poaching units. In the words of Kirsty Brebner, Rhino Project Manager at EWT: “Conservation dogs are playing an increasingly important role in tackling the scourge of wildlife crime – these animals are often the unsung heroes in this battle.”
The future looks promising but, according to Brebner, “increased and more dangerous contact with poachers, as well as smarter ways of smuggling contraband, need changes in training methods. The most valuable thing I think is networking and the sharing of successes and failures. I think that this is critical going forward – that we encourage dog programmes to talk to each other, share, and even have rangers from new projects spend time with seasoned rangers.”
Van Straaten also emphasises that, as poaching activities become more complex, so anti-poaching methods need to adapt. “New projects are on the way where dogs are going to be trained to detect poison and gunshots to take the handler to the crime scene where the shots are being fired. These skills add value to the dogs and will make the dog teams much more functional and efficient.”
Other projects include the use of canines at more points along the supply chains of illegal wildlife products, including international shipping and aircraft ports, a coordination between on-the-ground canine units and drone technology, and even a coordinated project between the National Parks Agency of Gabon and the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, to introduce an anti-poaching canine team to protect Gabon’s forest elephants.
De Beer sums it all up, succinctly: “I do think that anti-poaching units will never again work without a good tracking dog.”
There are many ways that people can help to support the canine anti-poaching units. The best way is often through a responsible monetary donation, as any funds can then be combined to spend on priority items. Unfortunately, much of the gear and medical equipment is highly specialised and can only be purchased from specific suppliers.
JANINE AVERY is the first to confess that she has been bitten by the travel bug… badly. She is a lover of all things travel, from basic tenting with creepy crawlies to lazing in luxury lodges – she will give it all a go.
Janine is passionate about wildlife and conservation, and she comes from a long line of biologists, researchers and botanists.
The Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA) is to defend its position on captive-bred lion hunting and breeding in the Pretoria High Court on 22 November. Originated by The Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa
Ironically, the court date coincides with the association’s 39th annual general meeting (AGM) to be held from 21 to 23 November this year.
A year ago, the majority of members voted in favour of the association’s resolution to distance itself from captive-bred lion (CBL) hunting and breeding until such time as the South African Predators Association (SAPA) could convince PHASA and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) of the conservation value of captive-bred lions.
Today, PHASA’s CBL resolution still stands; SAPA has failed to prove the above.
“Members engaging in CBL activities would be in direct violation of PHASA’s constitution, and would face an internal disciplinary hearing, which will end in dismissal if found guilty,” explains PHASA President, Stan Burger.
Why go to court?
Some PHASA members who wish to continue hunting CBL, and had their membership of PHASA suspended by the executive committee, have challenged their suspensions and the resolution taken at the 2015 AGM by approaching the court.
“PHASA stands by its resolution to distance itself from captive-bred lion hunting and breeding, and will defend its CBL resolution in court,” says Burger
PHASA’s concerns
“PHASA’s concern is rooted in the fact that the prevailing view amongst carnivore specialists, is that “the breeding of lions in captivity does not contribute to the conservation of the species,” notes Burger.
The above-mentioned view is shared by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the IUCN, the US Fish & Wildlife Services (USFWS), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and many more, including local hunting associations and many prominent international hunting associations (and hunters) across the globe.
The mere adherence to the minimum national and provincial legislative requirements of our country and/or the SAPA norms and accreditation process does not lend CBL shooting any credibility nor give it any social license. “No activity that is not socially acceptable is sustainable,” adds Burger.
“Captive-bred lion breeding and shooting do not uphold the moral principle that justifies responsible, ethical and legal hunting of wild lion (where the conservation value of hunting has been scientifically proven time and again) under the conditions of Fair Chase. For this reason, it is ethically indefensible and we will not support it,” says Burger.
The streets in Sudan are lined with pottery. Every few hundred meters large clay pots are placed, full of clean, drinking water. And the clay keeps the water cool, even in the desert’s baking sun.
“The Sudanese are very generous,” my guide explained when I asked about the jugs. “They’ll put water in the pots every morning for people to drink because it gets so hot.” In fact, the water in Sudan is the best I’ve ever had. It’s a touch on the sweet side and pumped straight from the Nile.
My guide explained that, “The age-old tradition of pottery making is a skill passed down through the generations. But it’s a dying tradition.”
On the main road we came across a huge clay compound. From this one location the clay is collected, mashed up by a young boy whose sole duty is to crush out all the air as though he were crushing grapes. Beside him sits the pot maker.
He sits for hours, moulding and shaping the pots and remarkably, each pot looks exactly the same as the one before. There’s absolutely no difference, yet all of the pots are hand made. Once moulded into shape, the pots are placed in the kiln which is fired by a huge fire-pit dug into the clay mound.
Each person in the compound has their specific job; the air-crusher, the clay collector, the fire controller and the pot maker. Clay is quite popular in Sudan and found abundantly. In fact, most of the houses are built of clay – clay bricks are moulded and simply left in the sun to dry, becoming as hard and as reliable as standard bricks.
“Because of the plastic coolers coming in, this tradition will soon be lost,” my guide said sadly.
Yet again, plastic seems to be taking over livelihoods and it’s a sad fate that old traditions like these are doomed. You might think of it as progress or development but really it sets us back and with the continuing consumption of plastic we continue to suffocate our planet – the one true home we really should be taking better care of.
Sibiloi National Park in northern Kenya is vast, arid, remote and miles from the capital Nairobi and wildlife areas that the country is famed for.
“Next on our itinerary is the petrified forest,” said our guide as he came by our hotel to pick us up. “That’s interesting,” I thought to myself, curious to find out what a petrified forest looked like. We were on a week-long tour to Northern Kenya’s Sibiloi National Park. The drive from our hotel to Karsa Gate (the main entrance to the Sibiloi National Park) was about an hour or so. It took another half an hour from the entrance to reach the site of the petrified forest.
Discovered by researchers in the early ’70s, this site of numerous fossilised sections of trees, dates back to prehistoric times. According to our guide, this scrubland was once covered with lakes, rivers and lush rain forest. Powerful torrential rivers carried fallen trees into a vast swampland. The trees sank deep into the morass absorbing sediment and large amounts of the minerals in the water. Over an inordinate amount of time the trees became fossilised and turned into stone.
We immediately embarked on the trek up the hill. Most of the petrified tree trunks are strewn across hilly terrain. This means the petrified forest is mainly accessible by foot. It was hot. The sun was merciless. Eleven o’clock and the heat of the day was already in the mid-30s. Plodding up, using the protruding roots and rocks as support, I steadily made my way to the top following a marked path. Interspersed with huge logs of stone and countless broken chunks strewn about the ground, the hike gives you an up-close and touchable experience with the petrified trunks.
At the top of the hill, we were able to enjoy uninterrupted views of the petrified forest, the panoramic view gives you an overall lay of the land, with some of the petrified tree trunks looking like small dots from afar. The view was well worth walking through the sweltering heat. We spend a good amount of time up close and personal with the petrified trunks taking pictures, exploring the surroundings, watching the stone tree trunks sparkle in the sunlight and simply savouring the views.
All in all, it was a fascinating experience to hike through this place that was once a forest but vanished aeons ago. I loved this unique natural phenomenon that seemed to be from another world, a place resembling a mysterious cache of natural art frozen in stone. An austere landscape where the past speaks about a history of repeated jolts of climate change.
The petrified forest in Sibiloi National Park is definitely one of Kenya’s hidden gems and I would highly recommend this place to anyone. Get to experience life in this middle-of-nowhere in Kenya’s northern frontier. The remoteness undoubtedly adds to the charm of the destination.
If you are planning a trip to the petrified forest plan to carry your camera for excellent photographic opportunities. It goes without saying that in the blistering terrain you will need to refresh and replenish yourself with plenty of water, but also probably a good idea to pack some snacks. Don’t forget to put on your sunscreen and if possible wear a hat.
A shout out to Abdikadirhe, a curator at the nearby Loiyangalani Museum, who was not only a wonderful guide but gladly shared his wealth of information about the petrified forest.
Travel in Africa is about knowing when and where to go, and with whom. A few weeks too early/late or a few kilometres off course, and you could miss the greatest show on Earth. And wouldn’t that be a pity?
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Julia Migné is a multimedia journalist and wildlife photographer specialising in environmental issues. She has written for Africa Geographic and BBC Wildlife among others. An endless traveller, she swears that she would visit one country for each letter of the alphabet. She believes in constructive journalism and co-launched an international platform featuring positive and inspiring stories from across the world: 
Expedition leader Carla Geyser (founder of the 
Permanent crew member Yolande Kruger is extremely passionate about Africa, and serves as an executive board member of the 
Alison Westwood is a South African travel writer based in Cape Town. She’s written and photographed for magazines, travel websites and travel guides, and has recently co-authored a book about 
Anton
Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, Sarah Kingdom moved to Africa at the age of 21 and is now a mountain guide, traveller, and mother of two. When she is not climbing, she also owns and operates a 3,000-hectare cattle ranch in central Zambia.
JANINE AVERY is the first to confess that she has been bitten by the travel bug… badly. She is a lover of all things travel, from basic tenting with creepy crawlies to lazing in luxury lodges – she will give it all a go.
Raised in France, but now living in South Africa, 
