Get to know the gorillas

When people talk about the great apes, they probably think of the mountain gorillas that Dian Fossey made famous. The incredible work that she did in Rwanda’s Virunga mountains, as well as her unsolved murder, captured the West’s imagination. This accounts for a good deal of the mountain gorilla’s popularity as a tourist attraction – they are probably the most photographed apes in the world. But they are a subspecies of a much larger and varied gorilla population. All in all, there are two species of gorilla (Eastern and Western) with two closely related subspecies in each:

Eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei)

Eastern lowland gorilla (Grauer’s gorilla). Population: 2,000-5,000

Image ©Fiver Löcker
Distribution
• The forests of DRC to the west of the Mitumbar Mountains and Lake Tanganyika
Population
• Hard to determine due to war. Estimated 17,000 in the 90s. Current estimates says between 2,000 and 5,000 individuals
Distinguishing features
• Largest, Stockiest body of all gorillas
• Longer faces and broader chests
• 17 to 20 individuals in a group
• dark hair
Diet
• More diverse than mountain gorillas. Leaves and pith, rely heavily on fruit which makes up 25% of their diet. When they include insects in their diet, eastern lowland gorillas prefer ants.
Range
• Their home ranges vary from 2.7 to 6.5 km², and they forage between 154 and 2280 meters a day.

Mountain gorilla. Population: about 1,063

Image ©Dave Proffer
Distribution
• The mountains of Virunga straddling Rwanda and DRC, and Southern Uganda, as well as the slopes of Bwindi forest in Uganda.
Population
• About 1,063 with a stable to growing population.
Distinguishing features
• Longest, thickest hair for warmth in colder high altitude climate
• Groups can exceed 20 individuals (largest)
Diet
• Very little fruit due to high altitude. They rely primarily on plants and roots, with protein (about 3%) from insects, grubs and snails.
Range
• Home ranges between 3 and 15km². They move about 500 meters or less on a typical day due to mountain terrain and readily available food.

Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla)

Western lowland gorilla. Population: Uncertain – less than 95,000

Image ©Pierre Fidenci
Distribution
• The forests of the northern Republic of Congo, Gabon and Southern Cameroon.
Population
• Previous assessments have focused on habitat availability to determine western numbers. The commonly cited figure of 95,000 (Harcourt) is based on the assumption that all intact habitat was based on densities typical of Gabon in the 1980s. However, recent surveys show that commercial hunting and outbreaks of Ebola have had a severe impact on numbers in otherwise intact habitats.
Distinguishing features
• Smallest of all gorillas
• Brown-grey/auburn hair on forehead of adult male
• Bigger skulls with pronounced brow ridges
• Shortest hair
• Longest arms
• Best tree climbers(for fruit)
Diet
• Plants and roots, with fruit being a central component of their diet. Termites and ants are also an important part of their diet.
Range
• Home ranges between 7 and 14km². They move on average 1105 metres on a typical day – the farthest ranging of the gorillas.

Cross River Gorilla. Population: 200-300

Image ©Julie Langford
Distribution
• A small area straddling the southern border of Cameroon and Nigeria at the headwaters of the Cross River
Population
• Between 200 and 300 individuals
Distinguishing features
• Similar to western lowland gorilla in body size
• Smaller cranium vaults and shorter skulls
• Lives in smaller groups of 4 to 7 individuals
Diet
• Not as well studied as the other subspecies. But studies of their faecal matter indicate a diet which includes fruit, plants and some invertebrates.
Home Range
• Restricted mostly to hill areas with home ranges estimated at 20km².

The Ebola Factor

It is estimated that a quarter of Africa’s gorillas have died from Ebola in the last 12 years.
The decline in western lowland gorilla populations led to a change in their conservation status from “endangered” to “critically endangered” in 2007. It is estimated that the total western lowland gorilla population in Odzala-Kokoua National Park dropped from 42,000 to 20,000.
In 2002 an Ebola outbreak killed 130 of the 143 western lowland gorillas primatologist Magda Bermejo had been working with in Republic of Congo’s forests, along with thousands of other primates and humans. Click here to read more about the gorillas with whom Magda works (Takes you to another page in this magazine)
A 2004 Ebola outbreak killed up to 95 percent of the western lowland gorillas that frequented Lokoué forest clearing in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park.
The Ebola virus does not threaten other apes and chimpanzees with extinction. Still, it has reduced the western lowland gorilla population to a point where it can no longer sustain itself in the face of hunting, loss of habitat and other influences. Gorillas breed slowly, and optimistic estimates predict it would take the population 75 years to recover from its present situation. Most gorillas that survived were young males, meaning the social structures changed, and smaller groups predominated. This affects the normally strong sense of social cohesion and protection found in larger groups. This also makes them more susceptible to stress brought on by poaching.
It is understood that the Ebola outbreaks in human populations often come from eating the bushmeat of primates infected with the disease.

Bushmeat and the influence of Logging

The commercial logging of Congo’s forests has a direct impact on gorillas, not through loss of habitat, as one would think, but due to the pressure from poaching for bushmeat.
The dense, road-less forests made hunting access extremely difficult in the Republic of Congo, and gorilla densities were high. Since the 1980’s improvements in transportation infrastructure, devaluation of the regional currency, declining oil stocks, and timber depletion in other tropical regions have led to an explosion in mechanised logging in the forests.
Calculations are that timber production nearly doubled between 1991 and 2000. Previously inaccessible forests have been penetrated by logging roads, providing commercial hunters access to previously inaccessible areas with high ape densities. Much of the bushmeat is transported to commercial markets on logging vehicles, and logging employees eat more bushmeat than the local villagers do. This encourages villagers to hunt commercially, selling bushmeat to loggers.

Gorilla Habituation

Aside from the benefit of tourism revenue directed to the conservation of gorillas, habituation is vital for proper research by scientists. An equally important factor is the education of tourists, journalists, politicians and students. Guillaume Le Flohic, African Parks manager of conservation and research in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, is running a new gorilla habituation program working with primatologist Magda Bermejo and a few other scientists.
“The work before the habituation process – tracking and monitoring a group to the point where we can walk with the group and observe them from a few meters without changing their natural behaviour – is the most challenging because it depends on several factors,” says Le Flohic:
• The right area – not too many insects or swamps, and with ease of access.
• The right population – large enough, not too affected by poaching, which has an aggravating effect on gorilla behaviour and stress levels. The more stressed they are, the riskier it becomes for the habituation team.
• The right group – the dominant male (the silverback) must be quiet and not too aggressive.
• Good human resources – trackers, managers and scientists.
One of the most important aspects of habituation is tracker training. Many trackers are recruited from the local population, and the skills they use for hunting can be put to good use. “Trackers need to process a lot of information quickly, and ex-hunters understand the work in the field very quickly,” says Le Flohic. “I recruit young and old hunters, so the young can benefit from the elders’ experience and be the future “scientific” trackers – being trained and taught to see the forest they know through scientific eyes.”

Sources: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); World Wildlife Fund (WWF); National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Things You Find in the Forest

A PHOTOGRAPHIC TOUR
OF ODZALA-KOKOUA NATIONAL PARK,
REPUBLIC OF CONGO

with thanks to
AFRICAN PARKS
and
SOPHIE SMITH

congo-gorilla-1_Michael-Viljoen — A female western lowland gorilla climbs a tree in search of fruit in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Congo. ©African Parks/Michael Viljoen

Congo-elephant_Sophie-Smith_Go2Africa_023 — A shy forest elephant wades through the river before disappearing into the forest. ©Sophie Smith

Congo-plant_Sophie-Smith_Go2Africa_028 — Musanga cecropioidesis. Odzala-Kokoua National Park is one of the world’s most botanically diverse areas, with more than 4,400 plant species. ©Sophie Smith

congo-gorillas-2_Michael-Viljoen — A young female western lowland gorilla. ©African Parks/Michael Viljoen

Great-blue-turaco-congo_Pete-Oxford — Great blue turaco. ©African Parks/Pete Oxford.

black-and-white-collubus-family_Pete-Oxford — Black and white colobus monkeys with a new addition to the family. ©African Parks/Pete Oxford

African green pigeons descend en masse to feed at the mineral-rich bai. ©Sophie Smith

Congo_flowers-shrooms-Sophie-Smith_Go2Africa_021 — Left: Cleome afrospina. Right: Delicate fungus grows from piles of elephant dung. ©Sophie Smith

African-crowned-eagle_Michael-Viljoen — An African crowned eagle takes flight. ©African Parks/Michael Viljoen

congo-gorillas-4_Michael-Viljoen — A mother and her infant western lowland gorilla. ©African Parks/Michael Viljoen

Congo — African forest buffalo are a common sight on the banks of the marshy bai. ©Sophie Smith

congo-gorillas-1_Pete-Oxford — Pygmy hunters prepare nets towards which they chase small forest animals such as duikers, hogs and rodents. ©African Parks/Pete Oxford.

Odzala — A guide photographs the gnarled bark of an ancient tree. ©Sophie Smith

Contributors

SOPHIE SMITH is a Cape Town-based photojournalist. With a background in journalism, education, and marketing, she aims to use her photography to bring awareness to humanitarian and conservation causes worldwide, particularly in Africa. She also dabbles in wedding photography and portraiture but when she isn’t taking photos she loves road-tripping adventures with her husband, rock climbing, hiking, long runs and quality time with friends (especially when there is good food involved). This photo gallery was possible in collaboration with African Parks.

Meerkat pups and a puff adder

Whilst sorting out my Kalahari photos, I came across this sequence of images I had forgotten about. Looking back, it was up there with the top wildlife experiences I had in the past year as a meerkat research assistant. I think it sums up a lot about meerkats and would have been worthy of a ‘Meerkat Manor’ episode! By: Robin Hoskyns

We had to wake up early, before sunrise, to be at the burrow of the meerkat group I was visiting before they got up and left for the day. Luckily the burrow wasn’t too far from the farmhouse and I knew the meerkats would be there because the dominant female had given birth the week before. Meerkats generally change burrows every few days depending on the group and the territory (probably as a way to reduce parasite load). As a researcher only visited each group for 3 to 4 days per week, if no one had been there the night before, you would need to radio track the group, which could sometimes mean a much longer morning!

Meerkat pups stay underground and don’t emerge for 2 to 3 weeks until their eyes have opened and they are able to react to their environment a little. They then stay at the same burrow for another week or two, just exploring the burrow entrance and the surrounding few metres. During this time, the group generally leave 1 to 3 individuals to babysit at the burrow. Babysitters can be any individual in the group, male or female, but generally, the dominant female doesn’t babysit and will often leave the day after giving birth to forage with the group. Some subordinate females start to produce milk and suckle the pups even if they have never been pregnant themselves.

On this particular morning, I arrived at the burrow and sat down to wait, and waited, and waited. I was starting to get a little worried that they had moved burrows, it could mean that the pups had died or been abandoned. After a while, I ran back to the farmhouse (only 100 metres away) to get my tracking gear to check that the group were still at the burrow and sure enough, I got a strong beep. This got me a little bit more worried as it would have been strange for the dominant male, who was wearing the radio collar, to have died overnight. I knew from the radio (we all had walkie-talkies to keep in contact) that all the other groups were up and had left long ago.

About 3 hours after the usual time for this group to be up (the time each group gets up is usually very predictable, with some groups consistently being late risers), the sunrise had long gone, and it was starting to get hot when I heard noises coming from the burrow. It was a kind of spitting call which would usually be made if a meerkat was startled suddenly, attacking a predator or fighting with a rival group. At least I knew I was in the right place, and at least some meerkats were alive.

Suddenly the group emerged. Usually, a group gets up casually one by one, and they sit about at the entrance for a while to warm up before leaving, but this time was different. It was a frenzy of meerkats coming up from different holes and popping back down again, digging and anal marking (whenever meerkats get really hyped up by anything, especially the dominant, they scent mark with their anal glands).

After about 10 minutes of this activity, I spotted a slightly purplish lump in the middle of the frenzy. At first, I thought it was dead, but I saw it try to raise its head. In the next 20 minutes, they brought up two more pups and then another two, five in total!

meerkat — A Juvenile is dragging a pup from the burrow.

The dominant female checking that the pup is being looked after.

Pups left alone in the confusion. — Pups are left alone in the confusion.

All the pups were alive, but they were being trampled, covered in sand, picked up, dropped, forgotten about and then found again. The action was frantic, but luckily I had my camera, so I was snapping away trying to capture what was happening. At some point, I noticed the dominant female’s leg was badly swollen and bleeding. Due to the swelling, I predicted that it was a snake bite, and sure enough, when I managed to get a glimpse down the burrow I saw the head of a rather angry puff adder.

The group at that time had four juveniles who were almost sub-adults who were all obviously very excited by everything that was going on and kept trying to pick up the pups, which they could only just lift, moving them a couple of metres and running back to the burrow. This carried on for quite some time. Eventually, the dominant female picked up one of the pups and made for the next nearest burrow, probably about 300 metres away! She eventually managed to carry all five pups to the next burrow almost by herself with a now massively swollen front leg whilst hindered by the over-excited juveniles.

All the pups survived their ordeal, and so did the dominant female. Meerkats are very resistant to snake and scorpion venom, and there are multiple meerkats at the project that bear scars from snake bites, even on the head and face. Not all survive, but many do. Later that week, two of the males were captured for routine measurements and hormone samples and were found to have also been bitten; however, the dominant female must have taken the main hit of the snake’s venom.

It was amazing to witness the strength and determination of that dominant female, and I’m glad I took my camera out that day!

Congo: the living forest

In Ombo village, in the heart of the Republic of Congo, pygmy goats jostle for low-hanging leaves near the remains of an abandoned house. Here people are traditionally nomadic and never destroy a dwelling in case they come back to it but the rainforest has begun to absorb the house back into itself – sticks and mud disappearing beneath vines and leaves.
The Congo rainforest is the second-largest rainforest on Earth and serves villagers as a grocery, pharmacy and hardware store. It’s even a bottle store, as demonstrated by the chief and his buddies enjoying locally brewed palm wine. It’s a shock at first, but soon a common sight, to see young men dressed in shorts and flip-flops, armed with machetes and shotguns, disappearing into the lush undergrowth to hunt for bushmeat.
The story goes that there was once a bushmeat trader who came to the village with gorilla meat. He was banished and the gorilla was buried with respect. Here in the Ndzehi region of Congo, bordering Odzala-Kokoua National Park, the killing of gorillas is not just illegal – it is taboo.

congo-gorillas-sophie-smith-header — A baby gorilla hitches a ride on its mother’s back. ©Sophie Smith

While hunting cannot be banned completely since these communities depend on it for survival, there is a growing awareness and activity around conservation. Anti-poaching units patrol the forest, and nighttime hunting is illegal. Hunting endangered species such as leopards, chimpanzees, forest elephants, bonobos and gorillas is outlawed.
Traditionally, the rainforest has been a rich source of protein for villagers – teeming with porcupines, duikers, rodents, reptiles, hogs and numerous species of monkeys – but this once harmonious relationship is becoming strained as many hunters no longer practice subsistence hunting, but instead hunt on a larger scale, either selling meat to urban communities or loggers, where the demand for bushmeat is growing, or selling illegal ivory. As logging increases and Congo infrastructure improves, new roads allow bush meat to get to cities faster, and hunters access modern weapons and technology. READ MORE about the influence of logging and hunting on gorillas.

Congo-gorllias-bush-meat-2©Sophie-Smith — Top: A young pygmy hunter with a rudimentary crossbow. © African parks/Pete Oxford. Bottom left: Scooters are the best way to navigate muddy Congo forest roads. ©Sophie Smith. Bottom right: Bushmeat – a rack of monkey ribs on a scooter. ©Sophie Smith

The villagers recognise how similar gorillas are to humans, and their reverence for these primates is the reason Spanish primatologist Magda Bermejo sought them out 20 years ago, to help her track and research western lowland gorillas.
The people of Ndzehi had seen so many gorillas hunted as trophies, poached and shipped off to zoos that, at first, they were hesitant to take this foreigner straight to them. They led Magda through the dense, green Marantaceae (arrowroot) forests for days, testing her motives and perseverance. After this gruelling trial, they realised Magda was indeed there to help, and they packed up their entire village and moved with her to Lossi, an area just south of Odzala-Kokoua NP with a large primate population. The first tracker to work with her was a talented man named Zepherin Okoko. Two decades later, Zepherin is still working with Magda, and during my visit to Odzala-Kokoua, I was fortunate enough to go tracking with him.

Congo-gorillas-kissing-Sophie-Smith_Go2Africa_018 — A pair of young gorillas play affectionately. ©Sophie Smith

Every afternoon the trackers follow the gorillas to the spot where they make their nests for the night. The following day, the trackers return to the site as early as possible with guests and follow the gorillas’ movements from there. They’ve created a network of paths that they navigate to follow the gorillas, but today the gorillas aren’t sticking to their usual territory, and we quickly move off the beaten track. Years of experience have taught Zepherin to do more than just read tracks. He has learnt to understand gorilla behaviour and anticipate their movements. Surrounded by towering trees, low-hanging vines, and the ever-present shroud of Marantaceae, I quickly lost my bearings and put all my trust in him.

200kg of charging gorilla tends to elevate the heart into the throat

After much muddy trekking, and an uncomfortable run-in with fire ants, we suddenly find ourselves at a clearing and there, spread out in the glade like performers on a stage, are Neptuno and his family. They keep a beady eye on us but spend most of their energy feeding, wrestling stubborn roots from the ground, brushing off the dirt and enjoying their breakfast. As we watch the large silverback and his group, I begin to grasp the affiliation that the people of Ndzehi have with them. Even the hour-long restriction on our sightings is enough to identify individual characters and see their personalities emerging.

congo-gorillas-sophie-smith-2 — Top: Neptuno keeps an eye on visitors. Middle: Visitors and trackers wear masks to prevent passing human diseases to gorillas. Bottom: Roma smirks at visitors after charging across the clearing to provoke a charge from Neptuno. ©Sophie Smith

congo-gorillas-tourists-sophie-smith — Top: Neptuno keeps an eye on visitors. Middle: Visitors and trackers wear masks to prevent passing human diseases to gorillas. Bottom: Roma smirks at visitors after charging across the clearing to provoke a charge from Neptuno. ©Sophie Smith

The trackers know them intimately. One of the best-known females is Roma, a troublemaker who likes to provoke Neptuno, and today is no exception. Barking loudly, she runs across the clearing towards us, her baby scurrying to keep up and, as if on cue, Neptuno rouses himself from his breakfast and comes charging in our direction.
Despite being warned that this display may happen and that it isn’t a threat, 200kg of charging gorilla tends to elevate the heart into the throat, and I’m sure a satisfied smirk crossed Roma’s face as she witnessed our silent panic.
After an hour with Neptuno and his family, Zepherin logs the day’s trek on the GPS, and we head back through the forest.

Calvin is another tracker I spend a morning with, and although he has only been working for Magda for the past two years, he’s been tracking his whole life. Calvin has a soft spot for Jupiter, the second habituated silverback that we visit. The previous evening, Calvin left Jupiter and his family not far from our camp, so we stuck to the trails where it’s easier to watch a tracker at work. His senses seem heightened as he follows Jupiter’s fast-moving family. “They are playing games with us today,” he says. Despite their size, the gorillas move swiftly and silently through the dense growth that the Congolese describe as ‘swimming through the leaves’.

Gorillas move so swiftly the Congolese call it ‘swimming through the leaves’

As we reach a clearing, Calvin points to a young male in the trees and Jupiter emerging from the Marantaceae. A newborn frolics on the ground, walloping his little chest as Calvin chuckles affectionately. The favourite part of his job is not only being able to share the wonder of the gorillas with guests but also getting to know the gorillas personally – learning their behaviour, reactions and movements, which is largely what Magda’s research is about.

congo-gorillas-sophie-smith-4 — Top: A mother breastfeeds her youngster while digging for roots. ©Sophie Smith

Magda’s initial study in Lossi focused on understanding the basic habits and dynamics of the various groups of gorillas. Magda and her husband, German Ilera, were the first to habituate western lowland gorillas to human presence, the first and essential step in the research process. Habituating gorillas is no mean feat – it entails daily human contact with a gorilla group for up to three years.

Ebola killed 130 of the 143 gorillas Magda had been working with

However, tragedy struck when an Ebola outbreak in 2002 killed 130 of the 143 gorillas Magda had been working with, along with thousands of other primates and humans. It’s estimated that the gorilla population in Odzala-Kokoua dropped from 42 000 to 20 000, putting the lowland gorilla on the list of critically endangered species and making research and conservation efforts even more critical.
In 2010, Magda and her team moved their base to Ndzehi. Their current research focuses on the interaction between gorillas and chimpanzees and, with the increase in gorilla-trekking tourism, the interactions between gorillas and humans.

Congo-gorillas-villagers-Sophie-Smith — Left: The Congo rainforest is the source of food, building materials, and medicine. Right: A grandmother weaves a basket from dried leaves.
Bottom: Time out with the village children. ©Sophie Smith

Congo_Sophie-Smith_Go2Africa_036 — Left: The Congo rainforest is the source of food, building materials, and medicine. Right: A grandmother weaves a basket from dried leaves.
Bottom: Time out with the village children. ©Sophie Smith

Leaving Ombo in the glow of dusk, I am struck again by the abandoned house – the roof has caved in as the lush vegetation quietly overwhelms it. The longer I spend in the Congo rainforest, the more I notice the abundance of life supported by a delicate ecosystem; not just the give and take between plants and insects, birds and mammals, but also the delicate balance between humans and the forest. I am dejected by the impact of humans on our world, but I am also filled with hope that the love people have for their homes, combined with conservation efforts, will create a shift in values. And as jobs are created, and families are educated, the inhabitants of this precious Congo rainforest will, in turn, become its most potent protector.

Contributors

SOPHIE SMITH is a Cape Town-based photojournalist. With a background in journalism, education and marketing, she aims to use her photography to bring awareness to humanitarian and conservation causes worldwide, particularly in Africa. She also dabbles in wedding photography and portraiture but when she isn’t taking photos she loves road-tripping adventures with her husband, rock climbing, hiking, long runs and quality time with friends (especially when there is good food involved).

A special thanks goes to African Parks, particularly Cynthia Walley, Guillaume Le Flohic, and Carien Soldatos, who helped us put this issue together by donating their valuable time, information and imagery.

Meet Barkie, the baby aardvark

Meet Barkie, an aardvark baby brought to the N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary in late February 2014. Barkie found protection and love in the doting hands of the N/a’an ku sê team.

The tiny aardvark, estimated to be no older than three months, arrived on our bushveldt doorstep after a farmer had shot his mother. Tragically this is a common occurrence in Namibia, where farmers and landowners heavily depend on their livestock to eke a living out of this desert land. The natural burrowing and digging behaviour of aardvarks, inadvertently causes holes in fences that allow the livestock to escape, making them vulnerable to free-roaming carnivores.

Sadly, aardvarks have gained an increasingly negative reputation – a reputation wholly misunderstood. Barkie’s mother herself suffered this fate, with her helpless baby thankfully being taken pity on and laid in the protecting hands of N/a’an ku sê.

baby-rescued-aardvark — © Jack Somerville

Barkie became an overnight sensation, his small pink body devoid of hair, clothed lovingly in pyjamas for the icy winter nights. Feeding pre-dominantly on termites and ground-dwelling insects, Barkie is joined by a group of volunteers on his daily bush walks. This gives him a chance to embrace his natural aardvark instincts fully. At N/a’an ku sê, we carefully consider the natural needs of every orphan, tending away from the feeling of “captivity”. Instead, we create an environment where their instinctive behaviours are nurtured and encouraged.

And Barkie has given us insight into the aardvark world – a world we have barely scratched the surface of. The behaviour of these elusive creatures has remained largely undiscovered – but with Barkie’s help, we hope to erase the misunderstood reputation of these magnificent mammals.

More about aardvarks here: 9 Amazing facts about aardvarks

Lion King or Commodity?

A wild lion is a scrappy thing. A fierce, dishevelled, fly-bitten beast with battle scars from nose to tail and a matted, grimy mane. This is a rug you don’t want on your living room floor. But the beast has been cleaned up and rebranded in one of the greatest wildlife marketing stunts ever.
Since humans painted them on a cave wall in France 30,000 years ago, lions have populated our imagination. Despite being extinct in Britain and Europe for thousands of years, they have grown in stature through myths and legends.
Tens of centuries ago, kings and conquerors of Britain and Europe adopted the mighty lion as their symbol on military shields, tunics and crests, a form of marketing if you will: Look on us in awe. Use of the symbol eventually extended to the nobility, who displayed lions “rampant” and fierce, often human-like, clutching axes and swords or wearing crowns.

lion-canned-hunting-africa-geographic-©WimVorster — ©Wim Vorster

This adulation – or should we say, lionisation – wasn’t unique to Europe. Though not native to China, lions were given to emperors as gifts and sometimes imported via the silk road as far back as 200 BC. Those few lions left such an impression on the Chinese that they are now part of their iconography and pageantry. Lion statues abound, and the famous Lion Dance imitates the beast as a symbol of power, wisdom and good fortune.
Today, we see them on national and institutional coats of arms, sporting emblems, company logos, clothing brands and family crests – even the ignoble ones. If there is one creature we aspire to, it is the lion, king of all creatures.
Of course, identifying with the king is no guarantee of prowess. But the aspiration is there, and in our minds, the king has remained indomitable until now.

canned-lion-comp-3 — Top: Lions painted in Chauvet Cave in France, dating 30,000 years ago.
Middle: Richard the Lionheart (King of England 1189-99) carrying a shield emblazoned with the three lions that make up the royal arms of England. Illustrated by N.C.Wyeth.
Bottom left: Chinese New Year Lion Dance. ©Bob Jagendorf
Bottom right: A Chinese lion statue, Forbidden City, Beijing. ©CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC-BY-SA-3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

In South Africa, a thriving industry makes it affordable to blow a lion to kingdom come. According to Campaign Against Canned Hunting, there are about 160 lion breeders in South Africa, many of whom supply lions to hunting operators or facilitate hunts on their own land. Various estimates put the number of captive lions anywhere between 6,000 and 8,000(2)(4). That’s more than double the number of lions in the South African wild, estimated at 2,743.
There are between 23,000 and 39,000 wild African lions left on the entire continent(1). So, using the most conservative estimates, captive-bred lions would make up one-fifth of the African lion population. Breeding lions for hunting is good business. And it’s getting better. 4062 lion trophies (more than South Africa’s wild population) were exported from South Africa between 2007 and 2011, compared to 1830 trophies between 2002 and 2006.

The USA is by far the largest market for trophies. The key drivers seem to be a large, wealthy hunting population and a colourful history of African big game hunting featuring iconic characters such as President Theodore Roosevelt, whose year-long African safari is the stuff of legends. In 1909, he and his son bagged over 500 big game, including 17 lions, 11 elephants and 20 rhinos.
Author Ernest Hemingway added to the allure with his 1933 safari, publishing evocative stories about men ushered into manhood by slaying African beasts. He was a romantic character with whom many American men still identify.

The American hunter has weaved his way into African hunting history despite never belonging there

The American hunter has even weaved into African hunting history despite never belonging there. In the film ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’, based on the true story of the man-killing Tsavo lions, “famous” American hunter Charles Remington (played by Michael Douglas) is commissioned to hunt the beasts. But he is an entirely fictional character, conveniently named after one of America’s largest arms manufacturers.
In ‘Out of Africa’, Robert Redford retains his American accent despite playing the Englishman, Denys Finch Hatton. In one crucial scene, he and Meryl Streep (playing Karen Blixen) come across a pair of lions. The female charges. Streep drops her with a single shot. But the male attacks from another direction, and Redford fires both barrels. The king obliterated, Redford takes charge, commanding: ‘Reload now.” They wait, rifles at the ready. Once the threat is over, they lower their rifles, and Redford notices the recoil from Streep’s rifle has split her lip. So he unwinds his sweaty neckerchief and dabs it on the bloody wound. It’s hot, heroic stuff.

Roos-and-Hem — Left: Theodore Roosevelt poses with a lion during his year-long hunting safari in 1909.
Right: Ernest Hemingway posing with a lion during his 1933 safari.

Today, killing wild lions is an expensive exercise involving many hunting days with no guarantee of success. In data collected between 2009 and 2012, the average cost of a lion hunt in Tanzania was US$76,116 lasting over 12 days, with an average success rate of 61.3%. In South Africa, you could bag a lion in 3 days with a 99.2% success rate at half the price or less. A minimum quote in 2012 was US$19,472.(1)
So why the huge price difference? For one thing, Tanzania abides by the hunting principle of ‘fair chase’. The lion has a relatively fair chance because of the size of its range. Here, lions are hunted in hunting blocks that average 1753 km². In Zambia, they average almost 6,000km². That makes for a long, difficult hunt. By all accounts, the lions hunted in these countries have lived in the wild and can use their well-honed instincts to escape from hunters.
In contrast, the hunting blocks in South Africa average 49.9km². Secondly, most lions hunted in South Africa are captive-bred, often hand-raised and accustomed to humans. Thirdly, they are only exposed to the “wild” for a short period before they are hunted in what is known in hunting circles as ‘put and take.’

The South African Predator Association stipulates a minimum of 10km² hunting area for captive-bred lions. The legally required release period for captive-bred lions in the Free State Province and North West Province is 30 and 4 days, respectively (FS and NW are where most captive-bred lions are hunted)(2). It sounds like canned hunting, doesn’t it?
In response to previous outcries against canned hunting, a 2007 ruling instituted by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism stipulated that animals be allowed to roam free for 24 months before they are fair game for hunters. But this was overturned by the high court after an appeal by lion breeders. And so the business thrives. By 2010 the number of captive-bred lion trophies exported from South Africa was double the number of wild lion trophies from all other countries in Africa put together.

Price and a 99.2% guarantee are not the only attractive things for hunters. Captive-bred lions yield larger, better-looking trophies. Consistent food supply during growth helps achieve this, as does selective breeding, which is a widespread phenomenon on South African game ranches, so there is little doubt lion breeders practise it. Of Safari Club International’s record book of trophies in 2009, South African skull sizes top the list.(1)
Selective breeding has also led to more ‘exotic’ variants, such as white lions, for which hunters will pay a premium. It’s not just Siegfried and Roy who are in the market for a platinum blonde.
They are indeed attractive, enigmatic creatures, and perhaps one of the greatest evolutions of the industry has been for lion breeders to allow tourists behind the fence. Some of the largest breeding operations also run tourism programs (with no obvious connection to hunting) whereby lion cubs can be petted, and visitors can walk with juvenile lions. The lion petting and walking industry has flourished, with most tourists under the impression they are contributing to conservation by doing so – the operators’ spin is that the lions are bred for release into the wild or for research programs that benefit wild lions. Alongside tourists are young, impressionable “voluntourists” who assist the operators by looking after the lions and tourists, often paying for the privilege.

Lion-jumping-simon-espley — A juvenile lion jumps for bait tossed by a guide during a lion walk with tourists at Ukutula Lodge & Lion Research Centre, South Africa. ©Simon Espley

But few of them consider where all those lions go once they get too old to walk with tourists. Inevitably many of them are laundered into the hunting industry via a slick and secretive network of agents and front companies. These additional revenue streams must be appealing if you consider the overheads of these large operations.
But for captive-bred hunts, SAPA stipulates:
– Minimum interaction with the human environment from birth.
– No hand rearing.
– General “hands-off” management techniques concerning feeding, husbandry, medical care and environmental enrichment.
– No trade in human-imprinted animals.(2)
The reason for this is twofold: A lion familiar with humans will be a much easier target for a hunter, and a lion with less fear of humans will be more likely to attack if wounded.
The ethical issues involved in put-and-take hunting have been widely scrutinised and led to some hunting organisations distancing themselves from the practice. Safari Club International differentiates between lions hunted behind fences and ‘free-range’ lions. In effect, if you’ve shot a lion anywhere in South Africa, no matter how big it is, it will be categorised as an ‘Estate’ lion. As prominent American hunter Craig Boddington put it: “I’m shown a picture of a magnificent lion, so resplendent in the mane that it is extremely unlikely it’s a wild lion. Of course, it’s a South African lion, so now there is little doubt about the actual circumstances.”(3)

lion-king-3-simon-espley — A typical day at Ukutula Lodge & Lion Research Centre, South Africa. ©Simon Espley

Backing up the trade in lions for hunting is the dubious trade in lion bone. Chinese manufacturers of tiger bone wine, believed by many Asians to have strong medicinal properties, reached a hurdle when trade in tiger bones was banned in 1993. But the sale of lion bones is not prohibited in China. Now the words “Panthera Leo” are printed on the wine label, indicating that lion bones are used. Research shows that the number of lion bones exported from South Africa has grown recently, indicating breeders must be capitalising on the market(2). And so the commoditisation of the king of beasts evolves and changes form to meet demand and supply.

Commoditisation of the king of beasts evolves and changes form to meet demand and supply

One argument is that the revenue from captive-bred lion hunting benefits conservation, but indications are that the trickle-down to genuine conservation efforts is marginal compared to the revenue that regular tourists bring in, often just to observe lions in the wild. It makes sense that a wild lion, with thousands of photographic tourists paying to see it over its comparatively long lifetime, will bring in more revenue than a lion bred to be hunted by one person.
Another argument is that captive-bred hunting alleviates the pressure on wild lions. But wild lions are under far greater threat from increasing habitat loss due to human population growth and land utilisation. Captive-bred lion hunting will not put a stop to that. In addition, there appears to be an offtake of wild lions from some African countries to supply new genetic material for South African captive breeding operations.
Ultimately we are not at risk of losing the species as long as there is a market for them. Like cattle, they will be bred, and they will thrive. But this is about saving a king, not a cow.
We need to protect all wild African lions and the wilderness that they depend on, or the creature that we put on the throne so long ago will have no dominion. He will cease to be king. He’ll be a rug for us to walk over and only live in our myths and legends, a reminder of what we once believed ourselves to be.

References:
(1) South African Journal of Wildlife Research Vol. 42, No. 1, April 2012
(2) South African Predator Association
(3) Sports Afield
(4) Campaign Against Canned Hunting

Contributors

ANTON CRONE quit the crazy-wonderful world of advertising to travel the world, sometimes working, sometimes drifting. Along the way, he unearthed a passion for Africa’s stories – not the sometimes hysterical news agency headlines we all feed off, but the real stories. Anton strongly empathises with Africa’s people and their need to meet daily requirements, often in remote, environmentally hostile areas cohabitated by Africa’s free-roaming animals.

Kenya’s magical forest – the Arabuko Sokoke

There is something enchanting about a road straight through a forest. The green draws tight at either end, simultaneously erasing the past and obscuring the future. The result is wonderful anticipation. None more so than at Arabuko Sokoke.

I find myself on such a road through the Arabuko Sokoke forest of the central Kenyan coastline. Our guide is David Ngala but to call him a guide is to do him a disservice. A lifetime student of Arabuko Sokoke, David, appears to be as much a part of the forest as he is human. His speciality is birds, and birds are what my family and I are here to find.

The Arabuko Sokoke forest is a birdwatchers paradise

The East African coastline was once covered with extensive forests, but like a rabid caterpillar, a burgeoning human population has devoured them, leaving only isolated islands. In these islands, there are avian treasures. Species found nowhere else on the planet; names that will make birdwatchers salivate.

We start off into the damp green. David makes the smallest impact on the spaces through which he moves, always listening. So adept is he at emulating the calls of his feathered quarry, he can fool the birds and us. Life in the forest seemed to revolve around him. He is both the conductor of the forest and every instrument in its orchestra.

Slowly, he conjures up life around us. It builds into a frenzy of binocular passing, bird-book page; flipping and the odd bit of frustrated swearing. Just as I am starting to wonder if my neck can take the continued strain of searching for specks in the canopy. David, satisfied that we have recorded the specials from this part of the forest, announces it is time to move on.

David brought the birds in faster than we could keep up with!

The soils change fast, and the vegetation changes with them. Sometimes you must blink twice to remind yourself that you have not teleported to another place entirely. In parts of the forest, the red soils support dense thicket, barely twice the height of a man. In others, a grey substrate is a foothold for gargantuan brachystegia woodland that towers high above you.

Local communities earn money through controlled butterfly harvesting and sale to international collectors. These income-generating activities are critical for ensuring the future survival of the forest.

Amani sunbird and plain-backed sunbird are added to our list of special birds, a build-up to the final prize: the endangered Sokoke scops owl. There are maybe as few as 3,000 birds left in this forest stronghold, or possibly even less. Finding one makes haystack needle-searching seem like child’s play, but David has inside information. He has spent so long with these birds that he knows their favourite haunts, and we follow him through the tangled thicket towards such a spot. There is no guarantee that the birds will be there.

We arrive, and David stands up quietly. We scan the surrounding trees with a sinking disappointment. The birds are not there. Slowly, a smile spreads across David’s face as he delights in the success of the bird’s camouflage. He points, and there, not 10 feet from us, sits a tiny pair of owls. The owls are beautiful, perfect even, huge eyes staring nonplussed at us. They sit there completely oblivious to their own vulnerability of being trapped in a forest surrounded by intensifying human pressure. We watch them for some time and then shrink back, leaving the birds in peace.

The tiny, and very beautiful Sokoke scops owl

In what feels like a heartbeat, our time in the forest with David is over. This fragile green jewel of Kenya’s coastline is a special place, and spending time with David was a privilege. For anyone that wanders into this part of the world, whether you are into birds or not, I recommend a visit. Your entrance fee will not only support the forest’s continued existence, but you will walk away a richer person.

Three years in the wild

Sometimes, I feel like I’m the luckiest person in the world. For the past three years, I have lived almost exclusively in South Africa’s national parks and nature reserves.
On a typical day, while some people sit in city traffic, I could photograph lions in the Kalahari, tracking rhinos with rangers or swimming with turtles. My good fortune is made more palpable because I once had an office job, a so-called successful career working in the cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town and London.
But I spent much time staring out the office window, pretending I could see elephants on the horizon. Perhaps it stems from my childhood. My parents regularly took my two sisters and me to the Kruger National Park. At the time, I probably took these family holidays for granted, but many years later, the memories are still clear.
Interestingly, the most visceral reminders of those holidays are not the sight of wild animals but the smells and sounds of the bush – the unmistakable scents that rise from the dry earth after the rain has fallen, the chirruping of woodland kingfishers, the barking of baboons and the rasping grunt of leopards.

wild — A breeding herd of elephants crosses the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers, Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa. ©Scott Ramsay

I only realised later that, while I enjoy the excitement of cities, I felt most alive and connected to myself when immersed in nature.
While at my desk in Johannesburg, I was conscious that I was just a few hours away from places like Kruger, the Okavango Delta and the Drakensberg mountains. It was infuriating and inspiring in equal measure.
But then, after daydreaming for several years – and no doubt annoying my successive bosses – the little voice in my head became a booming demand I could no longer ignore. So I listened.
I approached South African National Parks and proposed travelling through the country’s most important protected areas for a year. I’d write a blog, take photos and tell the stories of South Africa’s wild places, showing why our national parks and nature reserves are so important, what is being done to protect them, which species are endangered, who the people are that live and work there and what their stories are.

7Fv10Wzcco5kFJAtZ2t0rjFw_O_5C9kW1-BFSCmx8yY — Top: Cape vulture, Giants Castle, uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, South Africa. Bottom: The Author takes flight. ©Scott Ramsay

After getting SANParks’ endorsement and working for a year to raise sponsorship to cover the costs, I set off on my “Year in the Wild”. Ford loaned me an Everest 4×4 and other sponsors, like Goodyear and Cape Union Mart, were equally enthusiastic in their support.

wild places transcend social and political divisions

I found that almost everyone I approached believed in supporting conservation and that wild places generally transcend social and political divisions. On top of that, everyone seemed to love a good adventure, and the most common response I got on meeting potential sponsors was, ‘Can we come with you?’
It wasn’t all easy, though. Any wilderness can be a physical test. I’ve sweltered in temperatures of more than 50°C in the Kgalagadi, and I’ve shivered through a few sleepless winter nights in my tent at the top of the Drakensberg escarpment. And the novelty of hiking for days through thick, thorny bushveld wears off pretty quickly, especially when the animals are scarce.

SHGQ7VtQC9IlaWKWMdzipL2XTFjeqCNpKcXwumNmhLI — The author looks over the Orange River cutting through the Richtersveld mountains. To the south is Richtersveld National Park in South Africa, and to the north is Ai-Ais National Park in Namibia.©Scott Ramsay

But being in the wilderness is more of an emotional test, especially if you’re alone. You can’t hide from yourself, and at first, I was lonely. But I learned to find companionship in the land and the animals, and I became grateful for the basics: food when I’m hungry, water (or beer!) when I’m thirsty, the shelter of a rooftop tent in a thunderstorm, sunshine on a cold Karoo day, and my own health.
Often I would go to sleep feeling down, but then I’d wake up in the middle of the night and see the blazing stars. Or I’d rise in the morning to the panorama of the Richtersveld or watch elephants walk past my camp.

30ad7u5yLL6HbHz2rPMTi5UnHmjrYxCdzdtFzeijRfw — Moonrise near Rooiputs campsite in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park traversing South Africa and Botswana. ©Scott Ramsay

At these times, when the enormity of wilderness swallowed me up, I could transcend my own personal story. It was in forgetting myself that I was able to find myself. Trust me, a violent Kalahari thunderstorm directly above your tent will quickly put your emotional preoccupations into perspective.
The African wilderness is full of these experiences. Here I found belonging and contentment that eludes me in a city. To me, life makes more sense when viewed through the prism of wilderness. In the wild, I sometimes drift into a meditational state and inadvertently achieve an unexpected mental acuity. Perhaps the wilderness gives space for our thoughts and emotions to expand.

It wasn’t all deep and serious. After a few days alone, I’d sometimes find myself laughing aloud for no apparent reason. Or I’d talk to the animals. It may seem nuts, but the animals gave me a sense of community.
But I spent time with lots of great people too. It’s one of the reasons I love my work so much. Generally, conservationists, researchers and rangers are deeply connected to the earth. It’s hard work and poorly paid, but they are driven by something more than money and external validation, and I found them inspirational.
People like Sonto Tembe at Ndumo Game Reserve can imitate almost every bird species’ call, giving visitors an unforgettable experience. Or wildlife vet Dave Cooper and his associate Dumisane Zwane, who work countless hours to treat ill or injured animals, including rhinos that poachers have wounded.
I chatted to Nonhle Mbuthuma, an environmental activist who has stood up to politicians and mining corporations on the Eastern Cape’s spectacular Wild Coast.
‘I live in paradise, and it’s a paradise I want my children to inherit one day,’ Nonhle said. ‘We are not against development, but we have the right to say in what kind of development takes place. Open-cast mining will destroy our area, heritage and sense of identity.’

Not least is Lawrence Munro, a ranger and pilot who, against considerable odds, pioneered and now leads the aerial anti-poaching teams in KwaZulu-Natal after years of being told that such a service was not required.

In 100 years, people will look back and think of Africa’s conservationists as heroes

These are just five of the people I met who are doing vital work, even if our materialistic society doesn’t value their efforts. I believe that when people look back in a hundred years’ time, they’ll think of Africa’s conservationists as the heroes of this century. Human slavery was once considered acceptable, and when Abraham Lincoln worked to abolish it, many people with vested interests in its continuation railed against its abolition.
Today, everyone knows that slavery is abominable. The emancipation of the environment is this century’s greatest challenge. Still, as with human slavery, many corporations, governments, and individuals have vested interests in the sustained destruction of Africa’s natural heritage. Conservationists today are fighting a similar battle to Lincoln’s. And like society today considers slavery detestable, in the future, we will consider today’s abuse of Africa’s wild as one of the most tragic and loathsome periods of mankind’s history.

My first “Year in the Wild” went so well that it turned into two, and by the end of September this year, I will have completed three years of almost continuous exploration of South Africa’s 40 most special protected areas.
It’s one of the many tragedies of apartheid that so many people in South Africa were denied access to the most beautiful parts of the country for so long. Everyone deserves the right to engage with their natural heritage.
So I consider myself extremely fortunate. Not many people – even within SANParks – have been to all the national parks, and even fewer have been to all the other special protected areas. I have visited them several times, explored them extensively, and slept in wild places that few have ever seen.

wss4Mg8cjC8sqhXVQHzlgQFFuBcsFlQ8y_SzicwQj_A — A young white rhino rescued after poachers killed its mother in KwaZulu-Natal. The rhino is watched 24 hours a day by rangers until it can be released again. ©Scott Ramsay

Initially, I was happy just to cover my costs and to complete the journey, sharing the inspiration with others through my photos, social media and articles.
But now, my journey has become somewhat of a pilgrimage. I find myself increasingly bonded to the African wilderness and wildlife. These wild places and their animals have become part of who I am and are probably the greatest source of inspiration in my life. They have taught me that nature is far more important than I ever imagined and that humans need both wilderness and wildlife to live a full, rich life.

South African filmmaker and photographer Craig Foster, who has worked a lot with Bushmen, wrote, ‘It seems like our bond with animals is deeply rooted in our psyches, and we need them just as much as we need wild open spaces. We don’t need them just because they are pleasant – we need them for psychological survival. At a deep level, a land without life, without creatures, is disturbing.’
After three years, I find myself even more determined to make others aware of Africa’s natural treasures. My journey started out as a dream, an adventure, but it has become my vocation.
I’m sure that if other people – especially those in business and government – can see for themselves what I have seen, then they too will be inspired to care more for the few pockets of wilderness that remain.

Contributor

Scott Ramsay is still out there somewhere. But he’s not hiding. Through his work, Scott hopes to inspire others to travel to the continent’s national parks, and nature reserves, which Scott believes are Africa’s greatest assets and deserve to be protected at any cost, not only for their sake but for our own survival. His one-year journey to explore South Africa’s wild places turned into three. Perhaps as the wild places beyond South Africa’s borders lure him, the journey will continue for many years.

Tips for sketching in the field

Leaving the Boma, 11x14” field sketch by Alison Nicholls created during her stay with the African People and Wildlife Fund in northern Tanzania. — *Leaving the Boma, 11×14” field sketch* by Alison Nicholls created during her stay with the African People and Wildlife Fund in northern Tanzania.

When I’m sketching, I often have people looking over my shoulder. It doesn’t bother me now, but I remember how self-conscious I was when I started field sketching. Instead of concentrating on my sketch, I worried about what the people around me were thinking. My mind wasn’t focused; hence my sketches didn’t turn out as well, making me even more self-conscious.

I needed to find the confidence to forget about my audience, and focus on my sketch to create a piece I was happy with and thereby gain more confidence.

But how do you do this?

Where do you find that initial confidence?

One way is to be very familiar with your subject matter. For example, Leaving the Boma (above) involved a herd of cattle, their Maasai owners and the houses within the boma. It could have been very intimidating, but I drew on my existing knowledge of the subject matter to allow me to make quick decisions so I could dive straight into the sketch.

© Maasai and Cattle, watercolor field sketch. Sketching this herd of cattle allows me to decide how much detail is necessary to depict an entire herd. — *Maasai and Cattle, watercolour field sketch.* Sketching this herd of cattle allowed me to decide how much detail is necessary to depict an entire herd.

I knew that cows move deceptively fast, and they would soon be out of sight. My first decision was to start sketching from where I stood instead of searching for the perfect spot. I also knew that some men would remain in the boma and that none of the houses would be getting up and moving anytime soon. So my second decision was to sketch the cows first, then add the people and the details of the boma afterwards.

I am also very familiar with the shape of a typical Maasai cow, having sketched them several times before. Rather than sketching the beasts in great detail, I drew them as ovals: one oval for the body of each cow to show me how many there would be and where. Next, I picked three ovals in the foreground to turn into complete cows. You’ll notice from the sketch that only the grey and white cow in the foreground has its full complement of legs, horns and ears. There are two more cows which have faces (and some legs), but the majority of ‘cows’ are just very rough shapes, maybe with a hump on the back or a curve of a horn. This is something to remember whenever you sketch a large collection of people, animals or even trees – you don’t need detail everywhere, you just need detail in a couple of places, and your incredible brain will fill in the rest.

Cattle, watercolor field sketch. Sketching cattle while they are resting helps me become familiar with their body shapes. — *Cattle, watercolour field sketch.* Sketching cattle while they are resting helped me become familiar with their body shapes.

The trick is not to be intimidated by a complex, moving scene. I was confident enough to break it down into manageable parts: the cows, the people, and then the houses and trees. The entire pencil sketch was completed in less than ten minutes, so I had time for tea with the owner of the boma. I added the watercolour later that day without reference to photos or video. I was able to do this because (you guessed it) I am very familiar with my subject matter. Next time you go out field sketching, try a subject you are very familiar with. It gives you the confidence to go further with your sketching than you ever imagined.

Join Alison on an art safari in Africa. Non-sketching partners are welcome.

Ivory – the burning question

Every tusk costs a life. That was the ominous theme of a 30-second clip on a public-funded billboard in Manhattan’s Times Square. It was direct, bold and all too brief. For one month in the Autumn of 2013, there was an elephant in New York City, flashing on a large screen 24 hours a day for countless Americans and tourists to see. But like so many others fallen victim to gun, arrow and spear, this African giant was eventually taken down for its ivory.

Though far removed from Africa, many Americans are disturbed by the thought of elephants being slaughtered for their tusks. It’s a crisis that’s prompted anger, sadness and an outcry to end it.
It also compelled US federal and non-governmental organisations to act. In 2013, President Obama issued a series of orders to institute an almost complete ban on the commercial ivory trade. Various US-based NGOs, such as the Clinton Global Initiative and the Wildlife Conservation Society, bolstered funding efforts to increase law enforcement, impose stiffer penalties for wildlife traffickers, and ensure better inter-agency cooperation. And then there was the public burning in Colorado in November 2013 of roughly six tons of stockpiled ivory.
The thinking behind this united approach is simple – the only way to end the killing is to adopt a zero-tolerance policy, and the feeling in the US is almost unanimously behind eliminating the poaching. But that’s the easy part.
There are two fundamental differences of opinion in the US about the ivory trade. The first calls for temporary regulated continuation of the trade to satisfy current ivory appetites while simultaneously chipping away at demand. The second follows a more aggressive strategy of banning the trade outright, combatting wildlife traffickers through enhanced policing measures, doing away with reserve supplies, and creating public awareness in one fell swoop. So which is the better approach? I spoke with a couple of American wildlife conservationists to get their take.

Chad president Idriss Déby Itno sets ivory alight in Goza Jarat at the entrance to Zakouma National Park, 2014.
©African Parks/AFP/Marco LongariI

‘Having lived and worked in Africa since the late 1960s and Asia since the 1970s, I’ve learned that corruption is so endemic in the major ivory supply and consumption countries that law enforcement will never succeed in making even a small dent in halting ivory trafficking and the poaching of elephants,’ says Dr Dan Stiles, a Montana native and conservationist who’s spent years studying global ivory markets. He wastes no time explaining his lack of faith in recent bans on commercial sales. ‘The message of zero tolerance is not sent to poachers or traffickers; it is sent to the NGOs who sponsor it, and to the public of mainly Western countries who contribute money to those NGOs.’

The ban consumes more illegal ivory while leaving demand untouched

Stiles says that ameliorating the trafficking through increased law enforcement strategies and burning contraband stockpiles is altruistic but impractical and economically flawed. ‘To turn off supply while demand remains high is like running your house heating and air-conditioning simultaneously. It just consumes more energy and achieves no temperature change. The ban consumes more illegal tusks while leaving demand untouched. It is an extremely bad policy, as the great rise in poaching rates after the decision demonstrated. Demand reduction should come first – then start reducing supply.’

ivory-burn-gabon-africa-geographic-2 — Ivory was set alight by authorities in Gabon in 2012. ©IFAW

elephant-poaching-graph — Ivory was set alight by authorities in Gabon in 2012. ©IFAW

While he certainly sees the trade as evil and is working tirelessly to expose it through countless hours of research, Stiles will not back a complete commercial ban for the time being. ‘Demand reduction is one way, certainly the best and most long-lasting, but this approach will take many years,’ he explains. ‘Elephants can’t wait that long. The most sensible thing is to provide legal raw ivory to the factories that currently buy poached tusks in China and possibly Thailand if the latter can implement an effective regulatory system. Demand is highest in those two countries. It is imperative that the speculative hoarding occurring now in China be stamped out. Speculation and uncertainty about supply are what is wiping out elephants, not so much consumer demand for worked ivory, though that is, of course, a factor.

The message from stockpile destruction is: buy as much ivory as you can afford now, it’s getting scarcer

His arguments are not unsound. Since 2011 the price of ivory in China had skyrocketed, taking off right around the time when ivory stockpiles were destroyed in Kenya. Recent studies funded by Save the Elephants revealed a tripling of ivory prices in China over the last four years. That upswing, according to the study, is increasing the poaching of African elephants. Stiles says, ‘the message sent to ivory speculators by the stockpile destruction is, buy as much ivory as you can afford now; it is getting scarcer.’

ivory trinkets AWF Barbara von Hoffman — Ivory tusks and trinkets. ©AWF/Barbara-von-Hoffman

Chatting with African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) CEO Patrick Bergin felt like conversing with an old friend. He’s soft-spoken and articulate. His wealth of on-the-ground experience in African wildlife conservation and successful implementation of species survival programmes has led him from conservation project officer to his current role as leader of the Washington DC- and Nairobi-based organisation. His initial response to the question of the ivory trade pulls no punches. ‘Elephant poaching is not simply wildlife crime. It directly correlates with other illegal activities such as terrorism, drug smuggling and other high levels of organised crime. We must send the unambiguous message that the time for this is over.’

In July 2013, Bergin was appointed by President Obama to serve on the Federal Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking under the US Department of Fish and Wildlife Services and the Department of the Interior. The eight-member panel, co-chaired by Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary-General Eric Holder and Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, provided specific recommendations for combatting and ending the ivory trade. Since confiscated stockpiles cannot legally go onto the commercial market, the decision to destroy them was seen as a powerful public statement with the potential for spillover effects within ivory-hungry nations like China.

If you want to show off your wealth, buy a painting

To their credit, Hong Kong followed suit when in May 2014, it began burning its 28-ton stockpile of seized ivory. For Bergin, this success is attributed to the shift in global opinion and the need to work towards eliminating the ivory trade. ‘There is an amazing worldwide consensus that African elephants can no longer afford the risk of this situation. The only way to handle it is to suppress the trade completely. There is no need to buy ivory anymore. If you want to buy expensive items to show off your wealth, buy a nice piece of art such as a painting.’

ivory-trade-africa-geographic — Ivory trinkets and tusks await destruction at the Hong Kong ivory burn.
©IFAW/Alex Hofford

Bergin’s sentiments show that he has grown tired of negotiating with a bloody trade that’s existed for far too long. It was especially devastating during the 1970s and 1980s when Africa’s elephant population dropped from roughly 1.3 million to 600,000. It wasn’t until CITES banned the international ivory trade in 1989 that elephant numbers started to recover in various populations, for a short period at least. The international ban still applies but in 1997, CITES downlisted elephant populations in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe from Appendix I to Appendix II, thus permitting a limited trade. The result was a one-off sale of ivory stockpiles from these countries in 1999. In 2000, South African elephants were downlisted to Appendix II, and Cites approved another one-off sale of stockpiles from all four countries in 2008.

‘The two objectives were to put money from those sales back into the hands of environmental law enforcement to increase conservation efforts further and to provide support and revenue for local communities,’ Bergin says. The experiment did not work, he continues to explain, because no one anticipated China’s tremendous economic rise, the huge increase in disposable income in that country, and the significant level of money laundering made possible by that new prosperity.

Demand in Japan fell due to consumer awareness about the connection between purchasing ivory and poaching

Those two one-off sales are perhaps at the heart of the disagreement between conservationists. Many posit that the transactions increased the demand because it was in direct contradiction to the international ban. But, while Stiles agrees that they were a bad idea, he doesn’t view them as directly causing an increase in elephant poaching. Recent research, he claims, shows that demand has decreased since 2012. Stiles also informs me that demand in Japan eventually fell because of effective consumer awareness about the connection between purchasing ivory and the killing of elephants. This is the one issue on which US organisations and wildlife professionals from both sides tend to agree. When done right, eliminating demand through awareness and education measures can yield great benefits. But it still echoes Stiles’ warning that NGOs are fighting against a shrinking window of opportunity as elephants continue to be killed at an alarming rate.

AWF is pushing hard to eliminate the appetite for ivory through various education measures with the belief that the market will change when the people do. Through a partnership with NGO WildAid, they have issued key public service announcements in China with popular Chinese personalities like basketball player Yao Ming and actor Li Bingbing supporting the cause. Bergin is optimistic that Chinese people can and will have a dramatic change of heart. ‘A lot of push-back and speculation revolves around the idea that the Chinese have been buying ivory for thousands of years, so why would they stop now? But it’s important to understand that they are changing. I’ve travelled to China to perform public speaking lectures and have witnessed public campaigning there against related issues such as shark fin soup and using bear’s gallbladders in traditional medicine. There’s no reason to believe that attitudes and beliefs, even very old and engrained ones, are not capable of changing – and changing quickly.’
Similarly, President Obama invited all African heads of state in good standing with the US and the African Union to a US/Africa Leaders Summit this week. While the agenda is primarily focused on trade, investment and infrastructure, it is understood that the issue of wildlife trafficking cannot be ignored. ‘What must change is the willingness of these leaders to make this a topic of discussion, especially with the Chinese government,’ Bergin says. ‘Africa wants to do business with China, and that’s fine. But they need to make a noise and say that what’s happening is a problem when outsiders poach their wildlife.’

AWF photo 1 by Billy Dodson — ©AWF/Billy Dodson

Education and awareness seem to be the key to winning the hearts and minds of those likely to purchase ivory. For now, it seems to be garnering some success. But is that good enough? Are there any alternative methods we’re overlooking? And if not, which of the two contested strategies works best: a limited, regulated trade, more prosecutions, a complete ban and the subsequent destruction of contraband stockpiles? Is there some sort of compromise US lawmakers and opposing conservationists can agree on? It seems I’m now left with more questions than answers.
As an American who loves Africa’s wildlife, I, too, am sickened by the unnecessary killings. I hope that whichever direction my country goes, it will help the cause rather than hurt it. Meanwhile, on the other side of my world, what is left of Africa’s elephants resume their march toward a perilous future. The only certainty that can be drawn from this impasse is that if we allow any decrease in elephant conservation initiatives, the outlook for these magnificent animals will be increasingly dire. And much like the temporary billboard of an elephant displayed in Times Square, one thing the real ones are running out of is time.

ALSO READ: Japan – an illegal ivory trader’s heaven

Contributors

With thanks to the following organisations for their contributions of information and imagery:

MICHAEL SCHWARTZ is an American freelance writer, consultant and member of the International League of Conservation Writers. His love of Africa began early in life, and he has since travelled throughout the continent’s southern region. With a BA in Journalism and an MA in African Studies, he has worked as a project specialist and researcher for several USAID-funded initiatives in Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe. He has also volunteered as a humanitarian in Malawi. An avid outdoorsman and photographer, Michael desires to continue assisting in efforts to preserve Africa’s pristine wilderness and magnificent wildlife. You can view more of his work on his website.

The painted ape

The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is the largest and most colourful of all monkeys. Covering their lined snouts and prominent rumps, the colours are more pronounced in males, particularly dominant males, and they become brighter when excited.

Mandrills are found only in the dense rain forests of southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo and Gabon. They are social animals living in troops headed by a dominant male and several females. They have been known to gather in larger multiple male/female troops of 200 or more.

Due to hunting for bushmeat and deforestation, agriculture and human settlement, this colourful species is threatened and classified as vulnerable on the IUCN red list. Total population numbers are unknown. Giovanni Mari took these mandrill images in the 14 000 hectare Lékédi Park of southeastern Gabon where about 120 mandrills make their home in the rainforest. All images by Giovanni Mari.

Shades of Grey

The grey parrot is one of Africa’s treasures, and seeing them bank and wheel in the skies in noisy flocks or chatter in the canopies as they forage is a delight and privilege. They surely represent freedom in its purest form. But grey parrots are also the epitome of life behind bars. These intelligent, enigmatic birds are perhaps best known as the feathered entertainers that chirp, wolf-whistle and mimic their way into our hearts from cages in homes across the globe. So this is the story of a special bird vanishing from Africa’s forests as fast as morning mist under a tropical sun and how our fascination for a species can lead to its extermination from the wild.
The history of the grey parrot’s domestication dates at least as far back as 2000 BC, with Egyptian hieroglyphics depicting grey parrots as pets. The ancient Greeks also valued them, as did wealthy Romans who often kept them in ornate cages.

manet-grey-parrot — French painter Eduoard Manét’s “Young Woman” of 1866 depicts a pet grey parrot.

There are two distinct species. The one we know best is the Congo grey parrot that, as the name suggests, lives in the forests of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Its range extends from western Kenya to Ivory Coast and includes the islands of São Tomé & Príncipe‎ and Bioko.
The lesser known Timneh grey parrot is slightly smaller with charcoal grey colouring, a darker maroon tail, and a light, horn-coloured area on the upper mandible. Timneh parrots are endemic to the western forests of the Guinean shield, from Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. Not much is known about this species, and many experts fear the population has been severely depleted, placing it in an even more serious position than its better-known cousin.
The grey parrot has been heavily trapped for over a century, making it the most traded wild-caught parrot listed under CITES. It is listed in CITES Appendix II, which means that trade should be controlled to avoid utilisation incompatible with survival in the wild. The grey parrot is also classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, meaning there is a ‘high risk of extinction in the wild.’

grey-parrots-shadws-of-grey-2 — Grey parrots in their natural habitat in Ituri Forest, DRC. ©Reto Kuster

Over 1.36 million grey parrots (including Timnehs) have been legally exported since 1975, but factoring in mortality rates before export of 33-60%, the number of parrots harvested from the wild to supply the legal trade could top 3 million. The high level of trade has been fraught with violations from CITES member countries, exports from non-range countries, abuse of export permits with quotas repeatedly exceeded, wild-caught parrots falsely declared captive-bred, and continued trade despite zero quota recommendation by CITES.
Trapping for the pet trade has probably been underway in DRC since the early colonial era. Today, various officials play some role in authorising and taxing the trade here but have little impact on regulating capture or transport.
The grey parrot’s journey from a bustling forest community to a solitary existence in a living room is a long one fraught with danger and death. According to John Hart, the scientific director of Lukuru Wildlife Foundation in DRC, trappers operate at various sites using a range of methods – most commonly trapping along frequently-used fly corridors or at points of aggregation. Large numbers of birds are netted at clearings, where they come to ground to drink or ingest soil. Fledglings are often harvested from nests, and live or wooden decoys lure flying parrots in oil palms, where they are trapped on glue-covered perches as they come in to feed. Oil palms are part of their natural diet.
They are then sold to local buyers who fill orders from exporters based in Kinshasa. In a tragic irony, the parrots spend much of their incarceration in the air with other birds. They are crammed into small containers in Kindu and Kisangani, where Hart focuses most of his research, and then flown to the capital by light plane. The birds are rarely transported by boat or vehicle due to inaccessibility and the high mortality rate.

African Grey Parrot Release--Near Aviary 1a- — Top: Parrots shortly after release from captivity on Ngamba Island, Uganda. ©Charles Bergman.
Middle: Parrots are tethered to palm trees to attract other parrots for trappers in Kisangani, DRC.
Bottom Left: A wild-caught parrot is put in a small cage for transport.
Bottom Right: Fledglings plucked from tree holes for the parrot trade. ©Lukuru Foundation/TL2 Project

grey-parrots-shades-of-grey-4 — Top: Parrots shortly after release from captivity on Ngamba Island, Uganda. ©Charles Bergman.
Middle: Parrots are tethered to palm trees to attract other parrots for trappers in Kisangani, DRC.
Bottom Left: A wild-caught parrot is put in a small cage for transport.
Bottom Right: Fledglings plucked from tree holes for the parrot trade. ©Lukuru Foundation/TL2 Project

About half of the parrots captured for the pet trade die before they reach Kinshasa

Hart calculates that at least 10% of birds die on planes, 24% die while being transported over long distance or when caught as fledglings, and between 10% and 40% die in the hands of local buyers. This reveals that approximately 50% of the birds die before they even reach Kinshasa. And those survivors still have a long, perilous journey ahead.
A 2006 EU import ban on wild birds means grey parrots are no longer transported to Europe, but CITES continues to support export from DRC, Congo, and Cameroon to South Africa, South East Asia and the Persian Gulf. There is rising demand for grey parrots in China, and the presence of Chinese business interests in range countries probably creates avenues for both illegal and legal trade.
South Africa is proving increasingly irresistible to traders, with its toxic combination of excellent infrastructure, porous borders and high levels of fraud and corruption. In 2010, 731 grey parrots died en route by plane from Kinshasa to Durban. Speculation is that they were linked to the “Congo 500” – illegal parrots that had been seized in DRC and taken to a sanctuary for rehabilitation and release back into the Congo forests. They were confiscated from the sanctuary by government officials and then disappeared back into the system.

grey-parrots-captured-shades-of-grey — Wild-caught parrots in a holding cage await collection for transport. ©Lukuru Foundation/TL2 Project

South Africa plays an increasing role in the trafficking of grey parrots (and many other African wildlife species). It has, over the last few years, consistently imported more from DRC than that country’s entire export quota of 5,000 grey parrots.
Not to be overlooked is the number of grey parrots South Africa exports as captive-bred – close to 42,000 in 2012. With this level of captive breeding capacity, there is little justification for the continued import of wild parrots into South Africa, a practice with devastating consequences for wild populations. There is also high mortality in South Africa’s captive exports. The intense breeding practices are a vehicle for diseases, and a large number of the captive-bred greys are affected by the often deadly PBFD (Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease) and other diseases.
Many breeders portray themselves as saviours of wild parrots by producing captive-bred stock and thus supposedly obviating the need to capture wild birds. Yet wild populations are under even more pressure to feed the growing parrot captive breeding industry.

Wild populations are under pressure to feed the pet industry with cheap breeding stock

Wild-caught birds (especially illegal birds) are cheaper than captive-bred birds, so a wild-caught bird is quicker and easier to sell. In addition, many breeders prefer wild-caught birds because they commence breeding almost immediately, whereas captive-bred birds only reach breeding age after four years. To increase yield, breeders often hand-raise fledglings that had been hatched in incubators, thereby robbing the birds of essential life skills handed down by parents. The result is a tame parrot, suitably conditioned for pet purposes but of little use as a breeder – further increasing demand for wild-caught birds as breeding stock.

A Timneh grey parrot at a seller in Pretoria, South Africa. ©Anton Crone

Experts say the grey parrot is so smart that it can perform cognitive tasks at the level of human toddlers, which is one of the properties that makes them so attractive as pets. But most pet parrots are kept alone in cages, whereas in the wild, they are social birds – hard-coded to seek the comfort and security of their peers, roosting in groups and flying in large flocks. Many pet grey parrots end up as well-loved companions, but many more end up unwanted, misunderstood and socially maladjusted – often given away to friends, relatives or rescue centres.
A grey parrot lives for 50-60 years in captivity, which is something many prospective owners don’t fully comprehend. Every responsible parrot owner should have a succession plan – someone reliable to carry on the commitment and relationship.
I would imagine both wild-caught and captive-bred parrots struggle to adjust to a life of solitary confinement in a cage or house a fraction of the size of their natural range. There is also the constant need for humans to prod, pick up, stroke and cuddle their pets, which must be stressful to birds not used to this form of close combat. Paramount is a lack of comprehension about their diet.

Many captive grey parrots end up obese, socially awkward “problem children”

The tradition is to feed pet parrots dry seed, fleshy fruit with no nutritious kernel or “scientifically prepared” biscuits – whereas, in nature, the parrot will commonly feed off a wide array of fresh food, especially the kernels of forest fruit (the flesh is mostly discarded). Unsurprisingly, many grey parrots end up obese, socially awkward “problem children” growling, swearing and screaming at strangers, biting fingers and chewing furniture. And, unfortunately for the naïve purchaser, they don’t become well-adjusted adults at any stage of their lifetime. With the best of intentions, it’s often a lose-lose relationship for parrots and their owners.

Some wild-caught grey parrots are lucky to escape such a future. Parrots seized in Bulgaria were rehabilitated and released by the World Parrot Trust on Ngamba Island, Uganda, in July 2013. The parrots were caught illegally in DRC, shipped to Lebanon (where they were issued with fake papers) and then shipped to Bulgaria. 108 parrots arrived in Bulgaria, but only 17 survived the quarantine imposed by Bulgarian authorities who were poorly equipped for the task. The process of international bureaucracy and rehabilitation took over 3 years before the 17 survivors tasted freedom again.

AGP10 — Top: Jane Goodall, Dr. Rowan Martin of World Parrot Trust and representatives from Uganda Wildlife Authority and Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary release grey parrots on Ngamba Island. ©Sherry McKelvie
Bottom: Parrots are released into a holding pen in Cameroon before release into the wild. ©WPT

AFGR-fly-out-refined — Top: Jane Goodall, Dr. Rowan Martin of World Parrot Trust and representatives from Uganda Wildlife Authority and Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary release grey parrots on Ngamba Island. ©Sherry McKelvie
Bottom: Parrots are released into a holding pen in Cameroon before release into the wild. ©WPT

This iconic bird is clearly under pressure in the wild from habitat loss and from trapping for the pet trade. The proportion of birds dying en route from capture to the market appears very high, and we have no idea of true wild population numbers. CITES has little control over the situation, and member countries view the grey parrot as an inexhaustible harvest resource for revenue and employment.
A positive sign is that thousands of grey parrots have been confiscated from traffickers in several African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, DRC, the Republic of Congo, and Guinea. In special cases, these birds have been successfully released into their former ranges. These confiscation efforts, spearheaded by the World Parrot Trust and many other collaborating NGOs and governments, are proving a valuable deterrent and a source of birds for the restoration of the species in the wild. But much more needs to be done.
South Africa should be a conservation leader of grey parrots. There are more than enough birds in captivity to sustain a healthy gene pool for the pet trade. It should cease all imports of wild-caught grey parrots while applying stricter controls against the illegal trade. Do CITES and member countries have the political will and control over the situation to take this necessary action?

The information in this article was gathered from personal observations and experience, advice and info provided by experts and various print and online resources. Most specifically, I would like to list the following invaluable resources:
1. Rowan Martin, manager of World Parrot Trust’s African Conservation Program, for his advice, guidance and proof-reading skills.
2. John and Terese Hart, of the Lukuru Foundation in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
3. Cristiana Senni and Jamie Gilardi of World Parrot Trust.
4. Mike Perrin, whose book “Parrots of Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands” was an invaluable resource.

Contributors

SIMON ESPLEY is a proud African, of the digital tribe, and honoured to be CEO of Africa Geographic. His travels in Africa are searching for wilderness, real people with interesting stories and elusive birds. He lives in Hoedspruit, next to the Kruger National Park, with his wife Lizz and 2 Jack Russells. When not travelling or working he is usually on his mountain bike somewhere out there. He qualified as a chartered account, but found his calling sharing Africa’s incredibleness with you. His motto is “Live for now, have fun, be good, tread lightly and respect others. And embrace change”.

DR. ROWAN MARTIN has been of vital assistance in writing this issue. Rowan heads up the World Parrot Trust’s African Conservation Program. He first became involved with WPT during his doctoral studies on the breeding behaviour of Yellow-shouldered Amazon parrots on Bonaire when he was based at the University of Sheffield, UK. Between 2009 and 2013 he held a Postdoctoral fellowship at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. While in South Africa he became involved in African parrot conservation and as a co-ordinator for the Africa region of the International Ornithologist’s Union Parrot Researcher’s Group, took a lead role in reviewing the state of research and conservation in African parrots.

CHRISTIAN MEERMANN is the photographer of our Congo grey parrot cover image. Based in Germany and active since 2007, his award winning fine art black & white portraits of animals have not only built a strong and still growing reputation in the photographic communities on the web, but also caught the interest of customers like the Sporting Clube de Portugal, Maxim magazine, Getty Images and Nike. You can find his work on his website and also on FlickR, Google+ and on Twitter.

Get to know the grey parrot

There are 25 species of parrot native to Africa, Madagascar and Mauritius, according to the IUCN – with preferred habitats ranging from closed forests to arid zones. Parrots are not as diverse or abundant in Africa as in Australasia and the Neotropics. The grey parrot is found in the primary and secondary rainforests of West and Central Africa. There are in fact, two species of grey parrot.

Congo grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus)
This was the nominate species before the Timneh grey parrot was recognised as a separate species. The Congo grey parrot is about 33 cm long and weighs 400-490 grams, with light-grey feathers, cherry-red tails, and a black beak. Immature birds of up to 4 months have black irises, changing to grey and then a pale yellow by the time the bird is a year old and to deeper yellow as the bird matures, with flecks of orange in very mature birds. The Congo Grey Parrot’s range extends from the southeastern Ivory Coast to western Kenya, northwest Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. It is now extremely rare or locally extinct in several of its historic range countries.

Timneh grey parrot (Psittacus timneh)
The Timneh grey parrot is slightly smaller, at about 22-28 cm in total length and weighing 275-375 grams, with a darker charcoal grey colouring, a darker maroon tail, and a light, horn-coloured area to part of the upper mandible. Timneh grey parrots are endemic to the western parts of the moist Upper Guinea forests and bordering savannas of West Africa from Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone east to at least 70 km east of the Bandama River in Ivory Coast. Not much is known about this species, and many experts fear that the population has been severely depleted, placing it in a more serious position than its larger cousin.

Population
Little did I suspect when planning the Shades of Grey feature that I would be unable to track down an accurate population estimate for grey parrots. Phone calls and emails to the world’s leading conservation entities drew a blank, and the Birdlife International website suggested a global Congo Grey Parrot population of between 560,000 and 12.7 million individuals (Pilgrim et al. in prep.) – which seems vague at best and outdated.
Of major concern is that population declines have been noted in Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Togo, Uganda and parts of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – which seems pretty much the entire range. The same website suggests a population of 120,100 to 259,000 Timney grey parrots.

Diet
Little is known of their feeding ecology – they forage high in the forest canopy, and their presence at feeding sites is spasmodic and unpredictable as they take advantage of fruiting forest trees. Their diet is varied and seasonal, as they pursue seasonal fruiting and flowering plants. They have also been observed eating snails and even clay, the latter in pursuit of minerals and to absorb or filter toxic compounds and tannins from green fruit. They have been known to do damage to maize crops. It was feared that grey parrots would be a major pest on oil palm plantations (oil palms are part of their natural diet), but this has not transpired, and only a tiny fraction of the fruit is eaten by parrots.
Their ability to exploit various food resources has contributed to its unpredictable movements between feed sites. Grey parrots are ‘seed predators’ in that they peel off the flesh to eat the seed/pip. They also drop many fruits and seeds while eating, thus providing the ecological service of seed dispersal near the feed tree and providing food for ground dwellers.

Behaviour
Grey parrots primarily make local flights in search of food. They often roost in large groups, flying in from a radius of up to 20km, forming large, noisy flocks, the birds calling to each other with various squawks, whistles, shrieks and screams, both at rest and in flight. Calls include ultra and infrasonic components, exhibit sex and individual differences and local dialects.

cliff-grey-parrots-nests — Grey parrot nesting cliff in Lusambo forest, DRC. ©Lukuru Foundation/TL2 Project

Breeding
The nest of the grey parrot is generally a simple cavity, high in a tree with the nesting chamber up to 60cm below the entrance and sometimes in the crevices of cliffs. Two to four eggs are usually laid and hatch after an incubation period of 28-30 days, the young leaving the nest around 80 days later.

Ruaha – a walk on the wild side

A middle-aged elephant bull stands in the Ruaha riverbed – towering over five younger bulls that follow him around. It’s a spot on the Mwagusi sand river where the underlying rocks push water toward the surface making it easier for the elephants to dig. The wind has died, and a little ash shaken from an old sock drifts slowly to the ground. The elephant moves his foreleg back and forth shovelling sand away, creating a hole big enough for his trunk to siphon up the cool, sand-filtered water.

One of the younger bulls does the same, his ears waving in a desperate attempt to keep cool in the oppressive heat. The others rest, huddled together as if trying to hide their faces, the ends of their trunks relaxed and flat on the ground. A Tamarind tree provides little shade in its leafless state. Every move is deliberate.

The dry season screams for rain until the soil is hoarse and inflamed

I click my fingers softly to get the attention of the six rangers hunkered down with me behind some rocks. Simon Peterson, a fellow guide, whispers some questions to them: Where is the wind coming from? Are we close enough? Do the elephants pose a threat? Could we be in a better position? Do we have an escape route? Where are the elephants most likely to go should they become alarmed? The leading ranger shakes his ash bag again. The wind is erratic because of the stifling heat that sends swirling thermals up the river, but we judge we’re in a safe place. We watch the elephants a little longer then retreat.

Ruaha National Park in Tanzania gets under your skin. It’s intense. Magical. Extreme. The dry season screams for rain until the soil is hoarse and inflamed, only to make way for thunderstorms that turn gullies into violent torrents, and grasslands into moving sheets of water. Those who come to Ruaha usually visit in the dry season when the watering holes dry up in the surrounding hills, and the wildlife is forced down to the Great Ruaha River. Huge herds of buffalo move between massive lion pride territories creating scenes fit for sensational documentaries.

It’s common to see greater kudu, bushbuck, impala and dik-dik feeding on dark red flowers dropped by yellow baboons sitting high up in the kigelias. Giraffes maintain the browse lines on these sausage trees and, if you look closely, you may notice that one of the eponymous sausages hanging down is, in fact, a leopard’s tail. In more remote areas roan, sable and hartebeest come to drink from less lion-infested springs. But, as those who have seen the seasons change in Ruaha know, its wildness encompasses more than big game. There are more than 1,600 species of plant, and the bird list is over 600 with at least three endemics. Ruaha is also a place of elephants.

20131124_Ruaha_0100 — An elephant crushed by a fallen baobab tree, a victim of her own species’ tendency to denude baobabs in order to access moisture from wood pulp in the dry season. ©Robert J. Ross

But the elephants were so hammered by poaching in the 1970s and 80s that most of the big tuskers have been killed, effectively selecting for genetically small or absent tusks. But even these surviving tuskless matriarchs and their progeny are not immune to the recent surge in poaching. Despite all this, Ruaha boasts the largest elephant population in Tanzania at present – but that’s only because of the decimation of the Selous population by even more intense poaching.

We were here teaching a six-week-long walking safari course for government rangers. Our team consisted of a doctor, a former professional hunter with years of experience in firearms training, and four guides with experience leading walking safaris in Ruaha and other wilderness areas.

ruaha — Top: Ruaha lions are specialist big game hunters. Middle: Wild dogs make up part of a vast selection of predator species in this 13 000sq.km national park. Bottom: The region’s riverine forest is prime leopard habitat. ©Pietro Luraschi

20130707_174625_01 — Top: Ruaha lions are specialist big game hunters. Middle: Wild dogs make up part of a vast selection of predator species in this 13 000sq.km national park. Bottom: The region’s riverine forest is prime leopard habitat. ©Pietro Luraschi

The training was part of a larger project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) called ‘Strengthening Protected Areas Network in Southern Tanzania’ (SPANEST). Walking safaris in Ruaha had been severely impacted by a series of tragic accidents in preceding years. The reactions of authorities and safari operators to these incidents tended to be impulsive rather than analytical, so something absolutely had to be done to improve safety. Through the vision of Godwell Meing’ataki (Project Coordinator) and Paul Harrison (Technical Advisor to UNDP), funds from the SPANEST project were allocated specifically for walking safari guide training.

By walking you become a participant rather than a mere observer

In Tanzania rangers are government employees whose job is primarily protecting wildlife from poaching, and only occasionally protecting tourists on walks led by professional guides. Their training is limited to law enforcement, and most ambitious new guides tend to set their sights on sitting behind the steering wheel shuttling tourists around places like Ngorongoro and Serengeti. So it is no surprise that the walking safari industry is underdeveloped.

Safe walking safaris provide the opportunity to focus on the more subtle aspects of nature, which are difficult to appreciate from a vehicle. Instead of listening to an engine you hear your own footsteps, and might even realise how loud your breathing is. It’s easier to smell the wild herbs, and feel the textures of bark. You make way for a Sungusungu ant colony coming down an elephant path, and you realize how relative scales of time and distance are. You become a participant rather than an observer. The baboon bark or impala snort is aimed at you as the super-predator, not the leopard or lion. There is a vulnerability that becomes apparent, stimulating your senses to sharpen. It is also incredibly peaceful.

20131126_Ruaha_0142 — Top: Elephants cross the dry Ruaha river bed at sunset. Bottom: With its proliferation of potentially dangerous wildlife, Ruaha is an ideal place for ranger training. Here, rangers are instructed in interpreting elephant behaviour during approach. ©Robert J. Ross

Our course started with five days of first aid training focusing on identifying, managing and preventing medical emergencies in the wilderness. The American definition of “back-country” or “wilderness” for the purpose of emergency medicine is anywhere further than twenty minutes from definitive care. The southern parks in Tanzania are at least six hours from definitive care even with an efficient evacuation plan. So, action rather than reaction is the mantra of the course. Recognising and preventing medical issues is also critical in preventing accidents. For example, participants learned to recognise signs of dehydration because it can result in irrational behaviour or the inability to follow instructions at a critical moment, thereby presenting a safety risk.

The most dangerous animal is a human with a gun

Walking in the vicinity of dangerous animals, particularly elephant, buffalo and lion, is inherently risky so firearms training is an important aspect of the course. There is much truth in the statement that the most dangerous animal in the bush is a human with a gun, so the training is focused on ensuring safe, accurate and professional handling of the heavy calibre rifles.

In the extremely rare case that a potentially dangerous animal actually becomes dangerous, decisions must be made quickly. There is no margin for error when an animal is moving toward you with intent. The high calibre rifles necessary to stop elephant and buffalo shoot one bullet at a time and only carry a few rounds in the magazine. Firing a second bullet requires manually operating a bolt to eject the spent cartridge, and re-chambering the second round. So the first shot is critical.

Some of the more difficult and subtle training involves attitudes and natural history awareness. There is a disproportionate fear associated with some potentially dangerous wildlife that stems from cultural stigmas and false information. One example is the fear of snakes. I grew up in a village, and like most Tanzanian children, we were taught to be terrified of snakes.

Any snake sighting incited hysteria, and people running to kill it with hoes and machetes. Elders would embellish stories of black mambas moving so fast it was as if they were flying. It wasn’t until I was much older that I met people who handled snakes. Through study, I learned to understand that not all snakes are dangerous and that even dangerous snakes usually try to avoid people. Exploring misconceptions about the potentially dangerous game needed our careful consideration. The reason we use the term “potentially dangerous game” is because, under normal circumstances, they aren’t dangerous. We armed rangers with the knowledge and experience to guide crucial decision making.

If you don’t have some fear you don’t understand the risk

It’s a struggle for some of the rangers to reconcile their long-held fears. If your perception of elephants is built on the same sentiments as my previous fear of snakes, sitting on a ridge watching elephant feeding below, or climbing onto boulders to safely let a herd come past, can be terrifying. We spent a lot of time discussing the fact that fear is healthy because it makes you careful. If you don’t have some fear you don’t understand the risk, and this makes you dangerous.

Jane, a single mother with a young son, offers a good example of safely overcoming fear. The first woman to receive an Interpretive Guides Society Walking Certificate, she was initially hesitant to walk in areas with elephants, and the .458 rifle was heavy for her at first. But she has got used to it and, following her training, she is now better able to understand elephant behaviour, and so protect her guests, herself and her son.

Andrew Molinaro (Moli), who leads private walking safaris in Ruaha, has noticed changes in the rangers. ‘From our first course in January 2013, the difference in attitude and competency of the rangers has been extraordinary. They are now well versed in the concept and procedures of a bushwalk. Rangers understand the animals much better now and have far more confidence in themselves. They now form an integral part of any walking safari.’

There’s a long way to go. This kind of training is expensive and requires a good deal of time but it’s a start. Pietro Luraschi, a specialist walking guide and co-trainer, pointed out, ‘You can see the pride of being part of an elite team of qualified walking guides.’ These are important steps, as the neglected southern circuit of Tanzania continues to seek recognition as the world-class wildlife and wilderness destination that it is.

As we return to the vehicle from the elephant sighting, we stop under one of Ruaha’s iconic baobab trees. Brown parrots screech as they fly away, white petals of the baobab blossoms float to the ground where impala, kudu and bushbuck will feed. It’s an opportunity to talk about pollination and baobab ecology.

20131125_Ruaha_0220 — Top: This ancient baobab will soon collapse as the elephant denudes the tree in order to access moisture from wood pulp in the dry season. ©Marius Swart. Middle: Author Ethan Kinsey and trainee rangers examine an elephant tusk embedded in the bark of a baobab. ©Robert J. Ross Bottom: Wooden pegs form a ladder to access honey at the top of the baobab. ©Robert J. Ross

We feel the mud-caked marks where elephants have rubbed their hide, and we inspect the damage where they’ve ripped bark from the tree. In the bark of another baobab, we find the end of a tusk embedded. One side of the tree is covered in hundreds of small holes, a few of them bearing a wooden peg, evidence of honey gathering by humans. Some of the peg marks are recent – honey poachers, as they are now called – but some scars date back 500 or 1,000 years. How old is a baobab tree, really?

This is one of the issues we discuss. Are all these baobabs a similar age because they were able to flourish when there were enough people here that elephants stayed away? As we discuss the history of humans in the park, we notice an old grinding stone, then some shards of pottery. High up in the branches two male scarlet-chested sunbirds bicker, then a greater honeyguide arrives and starts chattering at us. He wants us to follow him to honey, and leave him some beeswax and grubs in thanks. The evidence of our reliance on, and once integral role in, the ecosystem becomes more and more apparent. By walking in the wild we are reminded of who we are.

Contributor

ETHAN KINSEYwas born and raised close to Arusha, where he and his wife now make their home. Being outside, immersed in nature, has always been a part of his life, from catching tadpoles, birding and outdoor pursuits as a child, to winter sports during college vacations. More recently, it has taken the form of sharing wildlife and wilderness experiences with guests, specialized guiding, guide-training, and personal learning ventures. Primarily occupied with designing and guiding private safaris throughout East Africa, he is also active in the training and developing of guiding standards through the Interpretive Guides Society.

Ruaha – wild inspiration

It is very hard to capture the true essence of life in Ruaha in words or paint. I am merely a silent observer of a tiny, tiny portion of what goes on, and has gone on, for centuries.

I distinctly remember when I was 12; I was on a game drive, and I vowed that when I grew up, I would make my life in the bush, and the best thing ever would be to live in Ruaha. In 1994, when I was 34, I found myself driving back to Ruaha. I was excited and curious to see how I would find it. It did not disappoint. Ruaha has been untouched since the beginning of time. It is quite honestly one of the finest wilderness areas on earth. That’s why I stayed, and I have remained here for the past 11 years.

You asked what the challenges are, but I am so used to living remotely that I don’t find it challenging at all; to me, it is ‘normal life.’ I suppose it does require you to be pretty organized, such as when you go on a shopping trip every six weeks. You have to eat fresh stuff in a sequence of what goes off first and then what keeps last – cabbage and squash keep for a long time, but soft fruit does not.

People often ask me what I do if I am sick. Most of the time, it is nothing serious I just spend a few days being quiet. However, on a couple of occasions, I have had to be flown out with a doctor, but it all worked out. The main thing is to be organized and know your mental and physical limitations.

A typical day? I am a very early riser, so I potter about in my pyjamas, before the sun is up, taking in the sounds. I fill up the water baths for the birds and put out a bit of seed for them. My partner and fellow artist, Rob, and I have separate camps, so at about 7.30, he comes over for breakfast: fruit, porridge, toast, tea and coffee. We sit on my verandah for all meals, often joined by birds and small beasts, like squirrels during the day and genets at night. We are usually in our respective studios or out sketching by 8.30 am.

In the evening, I heat up water on the stove in a kettle for a shower – the old-style bucket shower hauled up on a pulley. We eat around 7.30 pm by candlelight with the stars and moon shining above. Even simple things like going down to the river each day to collect water are magical moments for inspiration: colour on the water, a fish eagle or a dragonfly landing on a rock.

What has always fascinated me is how nature comes up with the most marvellous combinations of colour. It is these combinations of colour and design that spark many of my pictures. I have always loved painting birds; their patterns and colours are superb.

When I see something that grabs my attention, be it a sky, an animal, a person or just a combination of colours that I find interesting, I will sketch this in a journal with watercolours and keep it for future reference. Or I may be researching an animal or bird with a definite purpose, in which case I will pay particular attention to all the colours and details and spend a week or more making notes and sketches.

I paint because it is what I love to do. I paint what inspires me or challenges me. It is very hard to catch that same spontaneous ‘inspiration’ from someone else’s idea. In the few commissions I have done, I am constantly wondering: ‘is this what they had in mind?’ I concluded that it would be unwise to accept commissions as, although one might be tempted to follow this route as it brings in money, in the end, it will be detrimental to one’s standard of work and one’s own inspiration. I can afford not to be controlled by fear of not having enough money because I know tomorrow will take care of itself.

I have several things that are firing me up at the moment: I am working on a ‘coffee table’ type book that will be filled with paintings of the Miombo woodlands, a pristine yet underappreciated area of Ruaha. In addition, I am looking to create a flower and tree guide on the plants of Miombo.

I am compiling countless little stories of my encounters and observations of the wonderful wildlife using photographs and sketches. And I have many oil paintings that are simmering away in my head, waiting for the right moment to appear on the canvas. These will be done randomly in between all the other projects. I will also be exhibiting and giving a talk in Vancouver at the Artist For Conservation exhibition at the end of September 2014.

Here in Ruaha, a road network is yet to be developed, so huge areas remain unscathed by humans; there is a tangible atmosphere of peace and tranquillity here. When I am alone in the camp, I spend every waking moment sketching and painting, and with it so quiet, the animals come in very close – I feel like I might melt into the landscape, as somehow they seem to accept me as part of the scene.

A friend of the enemy

When I was 10, I had clear dreams of my future – I would be a big-cat conservationist, driving around in a shiny zebra-striped Land Rover and spending all my time gazing happily at predators. Here in Ruaha, over 25 years later, some of those dreams have come true – I am a big-cat conservationist, and our project owns three Land Rovers (although none are shiny – they are usually broken – and no one will let me paint them in zebra stripes). However, I rarely get to spend any time watching big cats. Instead, I deal with complexities that I would never have imagined, such as tribal identity, people-park conflicts, and trying to figure out how on earth we can expect grindingly poor people to bear the additional costs of coexisting with dangerous carnivores.

Ruaha is a breathtakingly beautiful wilderness supporting some of the world’s most important carnivore populations, and I feel privileged every day to work here. However, Ruaha’s carnivores are not restricted to the park, but sometimes stray into the adjacent populated areas where they cause intense conflict with local people. The Great Ruaha River runs along the southern border of the park, and in the dry season, it is a magnet for prey and predators. But, during the rains prey animals disperse so carnivores range beyond the park, often preying on poorly-protected cattle and goats.

Predators — A Barabaig girl herds the cattle her community depend on. Understanding the value of such livestock is key to to protecting predators from people.
©Andrew Harrington

When the Ruaha Carnivore Project (RCP) was established in 2009, we found that about 60% of local people had suffered attacks by carnivores. This had crippling economic consequences in an area where 90% of villagers live on less than $2 a day. Unsurprisingly, people frequently snared or poisoned carnivores – either to prevent attacks, or to retaliate for them.

Furthermore, very few people saw any benefits from carnivore presence. Usually the only people who did were young warriors who could receive gifts (zawadi) from their community if they speared a lion – one of the few ways young men could earn wealth and status. A warrior could earn 20 cattle (worth around $4000) in zawadi by killing one lion.

In the early years of the project, most of the lion carcasses we found had the right front paw missing – a clear sign that it had been killed for zawadi, as the central claw is removed and taken to prove the killing. These preventative, retaliatory and cultural killings led to the highest documented rate of lion killing in modern East Africa, with over 35 lions killed in just 18 months, the majority occurring around a single village. So we decided to base our field camp there and try to work out how we could effectively improve the situation for both people and predators.

As a long-time vegetarian, I never imagined I would be so happy to receive a huge chunk of meat

But improving the situation depended upon understanding it and gaining the trust of the local community, including the secretive Barabaig, who are notoriously hostile to outsiders. We established a field camp near the village in 2010, but for over a year, our attempts to engage with the Barabaig failed completely. Most villagers would not speak to us, and those who did approach us were beaten up. We tried everything and were almost ready to give up. But then, in mid-2011, it all changed. We installed a solar panel, and bizarrely, that was the breakthrough we needed. The Barabaig suddenly appeared at camp to charge their mobile phones. We would never have imagined that the way to reach this remote and traditional group would be through modern technology, but it provided a reason for people to come to camp, see what we were doing and talk to us. More than two years after the start of the project, the Barabaig invited us to a traditional community meeting. They slaughtered a cow and said they were ready to work with us. As a long-time vegetarian, I never imagined I would be so happy to receive a huge hunk of meat, but I was. It meant that our work could finally begin.

It became clear that the human-carnivore conflict around Ruaha was incredibly complex, involving not only the high costs of depredation but also the lack of benefits to the community, antagonism towards the park, little knowledge about the conservation reasons, and the fact that killing lions was one of the only ways for young men to gain income and status. So we started with the simplest thing – reducing attacks.

Our research showed that 65% of attacks occurred in livestock enclosures (bomas), the majority of which were poorly constructed. We introduced a cost-sharing initiative to construct predator-proof bomas made of diamond-mesh fencing. To date, we have constructed over 70, and they have proved 100% effective at preventing attacks. However, some attacks occur in the bush, so we have begun trials using specially trained Anatolian shepherd dogs to guard livestock. Although the project is in its infancy, the approach seems promising. In addition, we work intensively with village households to teach people how to identify carnivore attacks and how simple, low-tech measures can prevent such attacks from recurring. Together these measures have significantly reduced depredation, reducing economic pressures on people and the need for preventative or retaliatory killing.

Lion_Conflict1450-lores — Amy hard at work in her field camp near a Barabaig village. ©Andrew Harrington

However, living near predators will always mean costs, and long-term conservation depends upon local people seeing tangible, relevant benefits that outweigh those costs. The villagers voted on which benefits they would most appreciate from carnivore presence and chose education, healthcare and veterinary medicines. To improve education, RCP established the ‘Kids 4 Cats’ school-twinning programme, in which village schools are linked with an international school that can help raise funds for much-needed supplies.

We also established competitive ‘Simba Scholarships’ to enable pastoralist children (both girls and boys) to attend secondary school. To improve healthcare, the project equipped a medical clinic in the heart of the pastoralist area, focusing on maternal and infant health. Regarding veterinary medicines, we worked with authorities to help provide subsidised, high-quality medicines to households that had invested in a predator-proof boma. This helps to recoup their initial costs by reducing livestock loss to disease. Although these initiatives are small, significantly more villagers now report seeing a personal benefit from carnivore presence on village land.

Local people are better able to support conservation initiatives if they see tangible benefits
1. Opening of a healthcare clinic.©Ruaha Carnivore Project
2. A newly reinforced boma to protect livestock. ©Jon Erickson
3. Visitors to Ruaha National Park learn about the park’s role in conservation. ©Ruaha Carnivore Project

Despite living so close to Ruaha National Park, most local people have never legally entered the Park and knew little about its role. RCP now conducts weekly trips to the park for villagers, enabling them to learn about wildlife in a non-threatening atmosphere. These have been incredibly valuable, with 95% of people saying the experience had (positively) changed their attitude towards predators like lions and 99% saying it gave them a greater appreciation of the park’s role. Education is also provided through DVD nights, which are very popular, and we are now working with international partners to translate some key wildlife DVDs into Swahili for greater impact.

To address cultural killings, we partnered with Lion Guardians and Panthera to replicate the Kenyan Lion Guardian model around Ruaha. Under this initiative, warriors are trained as lion trackers and community guardians. Through this programme, they are given highly-valued literacy training and receive a good income to buy cattle instead of killing lions to obtain them. The Lion Guardians receive status through their jobs and, as influential warriors, dissuade others from going on lion hunts because their jobs, status and income depend on the survival of carnivores in their zone.

Despite challenges at the start, we are already seeing progress. Local people are more economically secure, are seeing real benefits from wildlife and specifically predators, and are gaining conservation awareness. Hearteningly, the largely-Barabaig community just awarded us land for a permanent camp. And let’s not forget the animals. Carnivore killings in the core study area have dropped by 80% since 2011.

There is much we still need to do as RCP works intensively in only a few of the local villages, but we are hopeful as we go forward. My experiences in Ruaha have taught me that, although real big-cat conservation differs vastly from my childhood dreams, it is richer, more complex and more rewarding than that wide-eyed 10-year-old could ever have imagined.

ALSO READ: The emotions of human-wildlife conflict

Hadza: a short history of an ancient tribe

You sit where you are, a modern man or woman connected: by the internet, airliners, the stock exchange and international trade. So it is a strange and perhaps comforting thought that in an area rich with hominid fossils there is an Apex predator, a fellow Homo Sapiens. Nestled in the Great Rift Valley on the banks of Tanzania’s Lake Eyasi, the Hadza people are among the last of the true hunter-gatherers, a connection to your pre-agrarian past.

In Hadza oral history there is no record of famine. When neighbouring countries and tribes have reported such events, they have remained self-sufficient: never taking more than they need (which is considered rude) and adapting to their environment instead of changing it.

The Hadza (also known as the Hadzabe) are historically nomadic, moving with the seasons and attending to their immediate needs. They have been doing this in the region of Lake Eyasi in Tanzania for the last 50 000 years. However, their once borderless world has become more and more confined due to the pressure of other tribes and agricultural encroachment. Ultimately the Tanzanian government were motivated to create a Hadza reservation in 2011. Although the Hadza now have land rights to 1000 square miles, it is a quarter of their original range.

The Bantu expansion which began about 3 000 years ago resulted in the loss of many of the hunter-gatherer tribes in Africa, one of the greatest influences being domestic cattle taking over the grazing of the free-roaming antelope that hunter-gatherers preyed on. Driven from their lands in Kenya by the Maasi warriors about 2 000 years ago, the pastoralist Iraqw and Datoga tribes started encroaching into Hadza territory from the North East. The Isanzu, farmers of millet and sorghum, settled to the South of Hadza territory and sometimes kidnapped them for the slave trade. Hadza women were kidnapped by the Datoga, and skirmishes would break out when cattle of neighbouring tribes were killed by the Hadza, but marriage between these groups was not uncommon. Today, the Datoga, the fastest growing tribe in Tanzania, live bordering the Hadza and in the dry season, hostility builds up as the Datoga use Hadza watering holes for their livestock, placing considerable pressure on resources in an already agriculturally challenging region.

Among a total population of around 1 200, less than half of the Hadza still adhere to the hunter-gatherer way of life. The population has grown steadily since the 1960s, along with population density, as they now inhabit a smaller area.

Genealogy

The Hadza are not closely related to any other people. Genealogists believe they are so unique at gene level that they could be one of the primary roots in mankind’s family tree. The Hadza will tell you that they originated from a tree: descending from a giraffe’s neck into a baobab and onto Earth.

Language

The Hadza language is simple, yet it has held the fascination of linguists for half a century. Hadzane is one of the oldest languages that employ click sounds, supposedly so as not to scare off prey. It was once believed that Hadzane was related to the language of the Khoisan but it has since been classified as an isolated language – meaning it is entirely unique to the Hadza.

Religion

Having chosen to ignore the holy words of the missionaries, their religion is minimalistic and their society is truly egalitarian.

Modern Influences and Challenges

Ultimately, the Hadza are regarded as an embarrassment to a modernising Tanzania when perhaps they should be an example to a society far too dependent on technology. The Hadza, armed with wood bows, hardly seem to have left a footprint on the land in the tens of thousands of years that they have lived among the megafauna of northern Tanzania.

Tourism, the one industry that could possibly protect the Hadza way of life, has introduced alcohol and alcoholism, and due to their prolonged isolation, the Hadza’s immune systems are unable to cope with western diseases like measles and tuberculosis. The Hadza youth seem to be caught between a rock and hard place: at a young age, Hadza children usually bear the scars of the bush, the harsh lessons of the wild. Increasingly, children are being sent to school and are losing the ability to survive the way their ancestors did, and Hadza children don’t flourish in the Western schooling system. The Hadza’s current situation of disease, land degradation and segregation is not far from a past already written on the Great Plains of America centuries ago.

This tribe has become an egalitarian island, lost somewhere in time. While you take business calls on your cellular phone, there is a hunter following the call of the honeyguide to the hives high up in the baobab tree; arrows dipped in deadly desert rose poison, ready for a baboon raid.

Giving life to Cape vultures

Slowly we chip away at the eggshell, revealing the two-layer membrane beneath. Starting at the site where the chick surfaced, we peel, tear, or fold the membrane, taking care to avoid ripping the active blood vessels running along the inside. This process must not be rushed and can take days. We are assisting in the hatching of VulPro’s fifth Cape vulture chick of the season. This bird and Cape vultures generally have an uncertain future, yet now this one is healthy and being cared for by its parents on the captive-breeding cliff.

The egg was laid 54 days ago. When we removed the egg from the enclosure for artificial incubation, the unusually thin shell cracked. Luckily we could repair it with epoxy glue, and ten days later, it was confirmed fertile.

The mother habitually rolled the dummy egg out of the nest, sometimes off the cliff entirely, for incubation. We routinely replaced the egg in the nest until we integrated a nest box with the natural nest, providing a barrier to stop the egg from rolling off the cliff ledge.

The chick required our assistance hatching before we could return it to the parents because the hardened epoxy was over the egg’s air cell, near where the chick would externally pip (break out of the shell), and the risk of the parents rolling the egg off the cliff was too great.

The chick hatched relatively quickly for Cape vultures, 24 hours from externally pipping to fully detaching from the egg. The chick externally pipped independently, but we helped it break the shell around the epoxy. We kept it in the incubator while all the active and final blood vessels dried up, allowing the chick to detach completely from the shell. We placed it in a specially designed dummy egg for speedy ‘hatching’ on the cliff and returned it to the parents in the nest box. It was immediately accepted and incubated by the mother.

VulPro’s captive breeding cliff now holds five healthy chicks, with another four expected by the end of August.

In Flight

A CELEBRATION OF SOARING

by
MARK DRYSDALE

“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings,” said the author J.M. Barrie. Photographer Mark Drysdale has a perfect appreciation of that faith. He masters the fine art of capturing light and balances it with the skill and patience needed to capture birds in the perfect expression of flight.

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In flight photographer

MARK DRYSDALE has been involved with photography most of his life; educated in the Eastern Cape, he lives in Johannesburg and regularly frequents his home in Dullstroom. He left the mainstream industry to pursue his passion for photography about 5 years ago. His philosophy about imagery is wonderfully insightful: “Light is the essence of all images. Its quality defines the emotional and physical aspects of photography. The subject is the vehicle, which we use to illustrate that light. It can be warm or cool, soft or harsh, vivid or muted. When the light and subject intersect, they can complement or contradict each other, and how we portray that through the lens depicts who we are. It is the perfect point when the two elements combine to form a scene greater than them individually. Birds in flight provide amongst the best examples of this” Click here to see more of Mark Drysdale’s work and here for another gallery of his work.

Hunting with the hadza

Spending time with traditional hunter-gatherers could be likened to spending time with yourself – with the clock wound back several thousand years. It brings to the fore everything we find alluring and appealing about spending time in the bush – the wild animals, the scenery and the savage beauty. And in this case, the Hadza people form part of that environment as one of the apex predators.

I recently guided a wonderful family from the USA through Tanzania. One of the highlights was spending time with one of the least-known tribes of Africa – the Hadza. I am particularly interested in hunter-gatherers, and I knew this would be a special experience for my clients.

Hadza-grouping-2-1280x1797 — Clockwise from left: Hadza steady their arrows with the same feathers of the birds they shoot. Hadza youth. Baboon skulls – common raiders of Hadza settlements. Hadza elder. ©Greg Lederle

Living near Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania, the Hadza have managed to preserve their hunter-gatherer way of life for over 30 000 – maybe over 50 000 – years. Their language was once classified with the Khoisan due to similar click sounds, but it has since been reclassified as an isolate – a language unrelated to any other. They are also not closely genetically related to any other tribe. This, combined with their location in the Great Rift Valley, only adds to the intrigue and mystique of these wonderful people. Unlike most African tribes, even their oral history does not indicate that they moved to Hadzaland from elsewhere, making them one of the oldest tribes in Africa – if not the oldest.

Our journey took us to the shores of Lake Eyasi where some of the last remaining 1200 Hadza still live as their ancestors have done for centuries. We arrived with the rising sun and soon joined three men on an early morning hunt, following from a respectable distance as they went about the – for them – routine task of hunting for food.

My greatest hope was to hear a honeyguide fly overhead beckoning us to follow. This would have given my clients the privilege of witnessing the unique bond between these interesting birds and these amazing people. The Hadza are able to communicate with the honeyguides using a series of whistles and calls, a symbiosis that anthropologist Richard Wrangham described as ‘the most developed, co-evolved, mutually helpful relationship between any mammal and any bird on earth.’

Using bow and arrow, Hadza hunters shoot tiny birds from 30 yards with deadly precision

But alas it was not to be. In the absence of honeyguides, the three young hunters were more intent on shooting birds than communicating with them. Boubous, barbets, sparrows and other small birds fell prey to the Hadza’s traditionally-made bows and arrows – from 30m away, sometimes even further! It’s not surprising they are such good shots. Young Hadza boys get their first bows and arrows at about three years of age – and so begins a life of constant practising and hunting, resulting in the astonishing accuracy and deadly precision we saw displayed.

As we continued trailing behind the three young hunters, they would split up and lose sight of one another. They did not speak, but communicated using a range of whistles that enabled them to stealthily blend into their environment with very little disturbance.

A few hours (and several small birds) later, the stealthy demeanour of the hunters changed. One shouted out from a distance, his calls echoing through the baobab-dotted landscape. The other two answered loudly and joyfully, their tone signalling that the hunt was over.

As they ran in the direction of the shouting, we followed as best we could. When we caught up, one hunter stood holding an adult Kirk’s dik-dik with a perfectly placed arrow through the shoulder. No sense of pride, celebration or achievement. He had simply done what he had set out to do, and they now had sufficient meat to return to camp. The dik-dik was slung over a shoulder, and we walked off towards a particularly large baobab.

Baobab Trees are common in the area and form a very important part of the Hadza’s existence. The fruit makes up about 13% of their diet, and the trees often conceal large beehives that provide honey for the hunter-gatherers. This one provided shade and demarcated both the kitchen and dining room. The hunters lit a fire in no time and, when it was at its highest, placed the whole, unskinned, unbutchered dik-dik on the leaping flames. They relaxed and sat around chatting, and plucking the birds they had killed. Once all the hair had been burnt off the dik-dik, it was taken off the fire and gutted. The liver, diaphragm and some cuts of shoulder were placed directly onto the now smouldering coals, as were the small birds.

We were all offered a piece of the meat, but the birds were kept for the hunters themselves. They handle different kills in very specific ways. Small birds are eaten in the bush by the hunters, while larger prey that is small enough to be carried is taken back to be shared at camp. If they kill a big animal such as a kudu or giraffe, the whole camp is moved to the food source, where they feast for days.

After being out for several hours, we headed back to camp, walking beneath the cathedral-like baobabs, musing over the day’s events, and the future of these amazing people. Authenticity and the pursuit thereof is something we all strive for, and seek to achieve in our lives. So, when we come across something truly authentic, we are faced with the dilemma of whether to share it or not. These rare gems and special discoveries are most sought after specifically because they are rare and undiscovered.

These beautiful people have remained unchanged for thousands of years, despite incredible difficulties and challenges. The wildlife they depend on and the land where they hunt face many threats. Pastoralists extending their range graze their herds on the hunting grounds, which influences the movement of the animals; and some of the land they have traditionally roamed has been set aside as the private hunting domain of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The Hadza have been kidnapped and sold as slaves. They have been forced out of their hunting areas and compelled to sow crops. And yet they always return to their simple hunter-gatherer way of life.

Birds are cooked and eaten straight after the hunt. The gutted dik-dik is taken back to share with the rest of the tribe. ©Greg Lederle

Their bows and arrows are still the same lengths as when they were first recorded, the height of the men and women are still the same, their favourite decorative colours, the methods they use to pacify bees with smoke and to collect the prized honey, and even the whistles and calls they share with the honeyguides, are all still the same. So little has changed in the Hadza’s wonderful way of life despite long contact with more powerful neighbours, but could the arrival of tourism lead to their downfall? Will the growth of ecotourism and cultural tourism be the Hadza people’s 21st-century challenge?

It’s a real possibility, and the irony is that it would be brought about by the very people who value their culture and want it to stay intact. With tourism comes money, gifts and (sometimes misplaced) generosity – and alcohol, which we know has a long history of destroying traditional cultures. The Hadza are quite aware of this from observing how some neighbouring tribes have changed – usually for the worse.

But perhaps it is tourism that may keep their traditions alive and thriving. It is, after all, largely due to the creation of neighbouring conservation areas, such as Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Maswa and Mwiba, that the Hadza can continue to subsist on hunting. These popular tourism destinations create a conservation core from which animals can move freely into and out of the Lake Eyasi region, ensuring a sustainable population of the animals so important to the Hadza’s survival and traditions.

I firmly believe that, with careful management, and with informed and educated guides, tourism can contribute to the Hadza’s survival. Is it not this sensitivity and restraint that has allowed for profound encounters with potentially vulnerable communities – both cultural and wildlife – in other parts of Africa? It would be a tragedy if an irresponsible increase in tourism leads to the destruction of a culture that has remained unaltered for the last several centuries, and for as long as their stories have been told. It’s happened before, and it can happen again. So my wish for the Hadza is that they resist negative outside influences, and continue to preserve their unique way of life.

ALSO READ: Hadza – a short history of an ancient tribe

Contributors

GREG LEDERLE is a multiple award-winning guide and the owner and co-founder of his own safari company – Lederle Safaris. Described by Forbes Life as “…a warm and effervescent personality”, Greg’s connection to and appreciation of Africa and travel is evident in his pursuit of off-the-beaten-track safari experiences.

Shelley’s crimsonwing – no photos in natural habitat

There is no known photograph of a live Shelley’s crimsonwing other than a few caught during biodiversity netting surveys. Cryptospiza shelleyi is a species of forest finch occurring in the highland forests of the Albertine Rift in East Africa. It is classified as ‘endangered’ due to habitat loss and is likely to have a small, severely fragmented and declining population.

The world’s second known photograph of a Shelley’s crimsonwing. © Colin Jackson — Shelley’s crimsonwing. © Colin Jackson

We spoke to researcher Colin Jackson who photographed a Shelley’s crimsonwing during a biodiversity netting expedition in the Mt Tsiaberimu area, in the DRC, in 1997. The only other photo of this species, also of a netted bird, was taken in 2008, also photographed in the Mt Tsiaberimu area in the Virunga National Park, DRC.

Jackson said, “Very interesting to hear of the story behind the other image of the crimsonwing – that it also came from Tsiaberimu…. We caught ours in the heart of the forest not far from where we first camped in nets going through the edge of bamboo and bordering an open area that included some swampy vegetation. The expedition was one of National Museums of Kenya staff, funded by the Berggorilla and Regenwald Direkthilfte and the Atlanta Zoo. A key objective of the expedition was to survey the surviving gorillas and Titus Imboma (whose hand is holding the bird in the image) and myself were taken along to do bird surveys.”

About Shelley’s crimsonwing

Distribution: A narrow strip of highland forest sandwiched between Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and western Uganda.

Habitat: Inhabits closed moist understory in montane forest, low secondary growth at the forest edge, clearings with Sericostachys, mixed bamboo thickets; sometimes in more open areas near streams and forest clearings.

Habits: Occurs singly or in pairs. Forages on the ground for seeds, known to associate with dusky crimsonwings Cryptospiza jacksoni. Shy, elusive, seldom seen, when flushed, flies rapidly for a short distance, dives for cover and does not reappear.

Ever since 2008 this was the only known photograph of a Shelley’s crimsonwing in the world. © http://www.gorilla.org — Shelley’s crimsonwing © http://www.gorilla.org

A Namibian’s view on hunting in his home country

I was born in a village outside Sesfontein, one of the remotest parts of Namibia. I grew up experiencing daily encounters with wildlife, so I feel qualified to enter the Namibian hunting debate.

The side against hunting reminds me of the era when the colonial government used different means to prevent local people from benefitting from wildlife. The apartheid government regarded us as too irresponsible to look after the wildlife that we lived with. It had to be protected from us, and it belonged to the government. The anti-hunting lobby is behaving in exactly the same way: they, outsiders who want the privilege of seeing wildlife when it suits them, seem to think they are needed to protect our wildlife – from the independent Namibian government and local people because we believe in sustainable hunting. I cannot, right now, think of any explanation that will make me understand why these people are blowing hunting in Namibia out of proportion. Is this a plot by some groups to ensure that rural people do not benefit from sustainable utilisation?

It is very important for people to realise that in most of Namibia, wildlife is free-roaming, outside national parks, in communally-owned conservancies where the local communities have taken it upon themselves to live with wildlife, some of it extremely dangerous such as elephant, rhino and predators. This is in areas where these same people are farming to make a living. The Government of the Republic of Namibia has given its people in communal areas who so wish to live with wildlife the rights to also benefit from it as they would do with their livestock.

I do understand that there are people out there who don’t want to see wild animals being killed. To me, this is illogical as many animals worldwide are being killed every day – be it fish, cattle, pigs, sheep and chicken. And the way most of these animals are being killed is without any respect and crueller than we can imagine. Why are these people not shouting about this? Or are their mouths too full of beef, pork or mutton?

Hunting in our beloved Namibia is a carefully thought-through business by our politicians and our local environmental scientists. We do selective hunting only after an annual game count in conservancies. This is backed up by monitoring initiatives such as routine weekly and monthly wildlife patrols by conservancy staff.

So we do all we can to ensure our hunting initiatives are sustainable. We are not perfect and make mistakes, but our aim is good conservation done in an African way.

I would think if people were so much concerned about wildlife, the focus would be on how to curb the immense poaching activities that are happening in South Africa, Kenya and other countries. Why are they picking on Namibia, where we have found our own road to conserve and increase our wildlife populations while at the same time helping rural people to diversify their local economies?

The Namibian initiative is geared toward empowering our local people. If we did not see some benefits coming from wildlife, most of us would not be prepared to go on sharing our lands with wild animals. Let us not discourage practices that have ensured that today we can proudly say that our wildlife population have increased outside national parks to the point that we have more wildlife outside our parks than inside. This has happened only because ordinary citizens regard wildlife as theirs. Take away this sense of ownership and their right to benefit, and we will lose the ground we have gained. People out there who are shouting about hunting behave as if the wildlife belongs to them, not to us.

We have come a long way to get local people on board with wildlife conservation. Let us not take them backwards. It’s our Namibian communities who help us to do better conservation.

I am asking those against hunting to put yourselves in the shoes of the local people who have to bear the costs of living with elephants, lions and other dangerous animals daily. I am a serious conservationist, but I would not be happy to ask my children to walk to school, knowing that lions roared nearby last night. And what about elephants? Which one of the animal rightists would allow their children to play soccer when an elephant herd is passing? Do they know or care how many people were killed by elephants in Namibia last year?

Our people of Namibia are amazingly tolerant of wildlife. I know of many cases where families have had to stay without water for a day just because an elephant destroyed their water point the previous night. Yet they will continue to live with elephants, even in cases where someone they love has been trampled to death by an elephant. Hundreds of farming families tolerate stock losses to lions, leopards, cheetahs and hyenas. Yet we do our best to manage our predators, not merely kill them all. Hunting is a part of our strategy.

I can argue that Namibia is doing very well in protecting its wildlife, even if we hunt some animals. Please, those of you sitting in your comfortable houses, stop doing damage to conservation in our country. We who live with wildlife are just being realistic and seeing the big picture – we want wildlife to be around for our grandchildren and their children to enjoy.

I invite those concerned about hunting to join me in some rural villages – not a lodge – for three months. Let’s level the playing field. We can only really talk about this once we all have seen what it takes to live in rural areas and how it feels to share your land with wild animals. Only then has one earned the right to comment fairly on this topic.

Lastly, let us focus on the more crucial issue of rhino and elephant poaching, which is devastating populations of these key species. If people want to help with conservation, they could contact us for ideas on how they could support us.

ALSO READ: The link between hunting and tourism in Namibia

Satao – the Giant Who Will Never Die

The battle of David and Goliath was far from a fair fight. The minute the shepherd boy entered the fray, the giant was doomed. Goliath had prepared for hand-to-hand combat, encumbering himself with heavy armour, short-range weapons and a shield. But the nimble shepherd remained at a safe distance, slung a rock and potted the giant with the same practised aim he used to dispatch sheep predators. For David, killing Goliath was no triumph. This is the story of Satao.

There was a giant in Tsavo infinitely wiser and more resilient than Goliath. His name was Satao. When he finally succumbed to a poisoned arrow in late May, he was probably 50 – above the average age for a bull elephant in this highly poached region. Indeed, there was nothing average about him.

Given his age, Satao would have been born in the mid-1960s, when elephants wandered Tsavo in numbers never seen since. It was their era. His genetic makeup would have been the best possible. The herd would have been nurturing and protective of their little protégé. But it wouldn’t be easy for him.

Satao-7 — Satao, in his prime leads a group of elephants. ©Mark Muller

He grew up during one of the most devastating droughts the region had ever experienced. It decimated the herds, taking thousands of his kind – mainly females and juveniles like him. But the little trumpeter endured like the strong bulls that towered over him.

Soon after the drought, the poachers took to killing those bulls for their immense tusks. He would have seen it, smelt the carcasses, seen the remnants of their hacked skulls devoid of ivory, and perhaps he learned. And when the bulls became fewer, and those that remained hid deeper in the wild, the poachers targeted females and then the likes of him – small tuskers yet to pass on their good genes. For two decades, he survived. By the time Richard Leakey declared war on poaching in 1989, the Tsavo elephant population, which had been as large as 42 000 in 1969, had been reduced to 6 000. Satao was one of them.

The poaching onslaught intensified, and still, he endured for two decades more, through more droughts and more poaching despite his magnificent tusks that grew and grew and weighed him down with their sheer bloody value. And he may have known that these would be his downfall – that a human would try to bring him down with devious weapons. They tried and tried. They tried again in February this year. Their poisoned weapon pierced his thick skin, despite his armour of mud. And still, he survived. And when we thought Satao might just be invincible, he finally succumbed to an attack in which the odds were stacked against him.

We have lost a giant so grand that the soil encrusting his back was a world entire. His tusks were so glorious that they stretched back to the time of the mammoth. But his legacy needn’t die. In his time, Satao would have sired many more of his kind. His strong genes live on in the herds of Tsavo, and it’s up to us to ensure that his progeny reach his incredible stature. If we don’t, we will be left with nothing but a dusty legend.

ALSO READ: RIP, Satao 2 and Death of another iconic super tusker – Wide Satao

Satao 8March14 — There are few more imposing figures on earth than Satao. ©Richard Moller

Satao: what you can do:

Support The Tsavo Trust. One of the Trust’s core initiatives is their Large Elephant Monitoring Project set up to protect Tsavo’s magnificent ‘hundred pounders’. The Trust also adopts a holistic approach to Tsavo’s challenges by addressing wildlife and community issues. Click on the logo to visit the Tsavo Trust support page:

How Charcoal Fuels al-Shabaab’s Terror Campaign

Like a good deal of the illegal ivory trade, much of the illegal charcoal trade in Kenya is said to be controlled by Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab, who use the profits to fund terrorist activities. A March 2014 report by journalist Kagondu Njagi for Thomson Reuters Foundation says charcoal worth more than US$1.7 million is being smuggled out of Kenya every month. Kenyan authorities don’t appear to be doing much to curtail it. In fact the Kenyan military have even been accused of aiding it.

In 2012, UN Monitors accused Kenya troops of smoothing the trade through Kismayo in Somalia when they took control of the port as part of the African Union Mission in that country. This was despite a UN Security Council ban on trade. A Reuters report in July 2013 says that Kenya gave their reason for defying the UN ban as concern about angry Kismayo charcoal traders undermining the security of their troops. Not only did the exports continue despite the ban, but they saw a dramatic increase in charcoal exports, said the UN monitors. Given the trading connections and taxation systems, it is believed that much of the profit would have gone to al-Shabaab.

A recent report by the UN and Interpol estimates the revenue from illegal logging at US$30-100 billion worldwide, much of it going towards funding of terror groups. “Al Shabaab’s primary income appears to be from their involvement in the charcoal trade and informal taxation at road-block checkpoints and ports,” states the report. It goes on to say that at a single Somali roadblock in the Badhaadhe District which borders Kenya, al-Shabaab have been able to make up to US$8–18 million per year for taxing passing charcoal. Al Shabaab retains about one third of the income from charcoal exported from Kismayo and Baraawe Ports constituting US$38–56 million. The overall size of the illicit charcoal export from Somalia has been estimated at US$360–384 million per year.

al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the 2013 Westgate mall attack in Nairobi in which 67 people lost their lives. They are implicated in the recent scourge of bus bombings in Mombasa and Nairobi, and claimed responsibility for a series of massacres in Lamu County and Tana County in Kenya’s north east in which over 89 people have lost their lives. No doubt the link between poaching and terrorist activity is the catalyst for the appointment of UK troops to train anti-poaching units in Kenya. But the loss of habitat through illicit logging is a potentially greater threat to wildlife than poaching. The scourge of terror attacks is also turning tourists – a vital source of income for conservation – away. Another thing Mike Chase counts as he flies over the savannah for the Great Elephant Census is the number of abandoned tourist lodges.

How to count elephants from a plane

The Tsavo Ecosystem is the most important area for elephants in Kenya and warrants concerted attention from wildlife organisations and conservationists. Before Elephants Without Borders’ plane took to the skies, a total aerial count covering 100% of Tsavo was performed by Kenya Wildlife Service using 16 planes from their organisation as well as NGOs such as The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Tsavo Trust and Save The Elephants. This resulted in a preliminary count of 11 076 elephants – down from 12 573 in 2011.

EWB’s survey differed in that it was a sample count which flew 10% of Tsavo using just 1 plane. Chase estimated the number could be around 14 000 elephants at any one time, considering that elephants are seasonal migrants. EWB’s sample survey is a valuable complement to the larger, more comprehensive method. It also illustrates the efficacy of smaller surveys, which could be simpler and cheaper for governments and NGOs. A typical total aerial count covers 100% of the target area, flying strips spaced 1 kilometre apart. A sample count differs in that it flies strips spaced further apart and covers areas chosen by factors such as the concentration of elephants and natural habitat. The strip spacing varies accordingly.

count elephants — KWS analyst Joseph Mukeka and EWB’s Mike Chase measure the distance between wands while pilot Alexi Peltier sets up the camera in the plane.

To set up the plane for counting, wands are set at a precise, parallel distance apart to delineate the strip width. The plane flies at a certain altitude which keeps the area within a designated width of ground coverage, seen between the wands. The observer counts, and photos are taken of the wildlife seen between the wands. This is important for post-analysis for the population numbers to be extrapolated, considering ground coverage that could not be flown. The system is applied on both sides of the plane with at least 1 observer per side.

ALSO READ: Spotting elephants from space

Where the giant elephants still roam

A jetliner is a wondrous thing; a spaceship: stupendous. But an unsophisticated propeller plane is far more significant. Flying no higher than a bird, this machine gives us enviable perspective on the creatures below – things invisible from jetliners, and mere concepts from space. Looking down on our planet must be incredible, but seeing the big picture depends on looking much closer to home, and what could be more incredible than gazing upon elephants – Africa’s giants.

As you read this, Dr Mike Chase, founder of Elephants Without Borders, is in all likelihood perched in a little propeller plane searching for African elephants. Nobody is really sure how many are left. Speculation puts the number anywhere between 410 000 and 700 000 – down from an estimated 27 million in the early 19th century. Surveys in the past have been area-specific and fragmented in both time and space, and some key populations have not been surveyed in 10 years.

EWB conceptualised The Great Elephant Census. Funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, 18 planes and 46 scientists are racking up thousands of air miles performing approximately 19 000 transects covering 600 000km. This extensive aerial survey, conducted in the relatively short space of eight months, will give an incredibly detailed snapshot of the African continent – in essence, it will be the ultimate ‘Big Picture’.

“It’s far more significant than establishing the number of elephants,” explains Chase. “We’re recording data on all types of wildlife and ecosystems. We’re documenting the effects of human encroachment and poaching. There’s no other data on the status of Africa’s habitat on such an immense scale.”

Chase’s first flight took off in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park in February, and so far, he’s been encouraged by the number of elephants there. Kenya Wildlife Service considers the 41 660 square kilometre Tsavo Ecosystem – about the size of Switzerland – the most important area for elephants in Kenya.

“Given what we’ve read in the press, I was expecting to see a landscape strewn with freshly poached carcasses, but we didn’t see even one after nearly a hundred hours of flying.” The carcasses Chase did see were shown to him by the park warden. “They do indeed have a poaching problem in Tsavo, but it’s not of the magnitude portrayed, and I attribute that to the diligence and commitment of the KWS. Their policing and anti-poaching patrols are paying off.” A total aerial count by KWS gave a preliminary number of 11 076 elephants – down from 12 573 in 2011. They consider this a stable figure, given the poaching problem. EWB’s sample aerial count gave a reliable estimate of 14 000 elephants in the area at any time. Learn how the aerial counts were conducted.

Leakey ignited the world’s imagination by setting 12 tons of ivory alight

Tsavo National Park, established in 1948, has gone through many cycles of success and tragedy and is the embodiment of a typical African national park. Through concerted effort, it has played a key role in reviving elephant populations that were decimated by hunting for both ivory and ‘sport’. By the early 1960s, Tsavo had essentially reached elephant-carrying capacity. In 1969 the Tsavo ecosystem supported an estimated 42 000 elephants. Sadly, a prolonged drought in the early 1970s led to the death of some 6 000 – mainly female and juvenile – elephants. After the drought broke, many surviving large bulls for which Tsavo was renowned became the first poaching victims for their incredibly large tusks. As the remaining bulls became more and more difficult to find, large females were targeted. Then, as demand grew, smaller and younger elephants were slain for their paltry tusks. This, combined with the drought, severely hampered population recovery, and by 1979 there were as few as 12 000 elephants left in the Tsavo ecosystem. By 1989, what some consider to be the height of the east Africa poaching crisis, only around 6 000 remained.

At that time, Richard Leakey, the head of Kenya’s Wildlife Conservation and Management Department (soon changed to Kenya Wildlife Service), ignited worldwide recognition of the elephants’ plight by persuading Kenyan President, Arap Moi, to set alight a 12-ton stockpile of ivory. Leaky created crack anti-poaching units that were authorised to shoot poachers on sight, and more stringent limitations and bans were placed on the international ivory trade. Elephant numbers rose steadily in east Africa. But as ivory trading goes on largely uncontrolled in Asia, and as Chinese wealth grows, poaching continues to ravage Kenya’s elephant population. It has also increased drastically in other regions, such as southern Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad.

Apart from elephants, the team is counting conservation islands. With Kenya’s growing population of 42 million, wild animals are being squeezed into isolated islands of refuge. “Sitting at 300 feet, you get a broad sense of how small these islands are and how devastating the environmental aspect is as soon as you leave the national parks,” says Chase. “You look on the African map at the scattering of parks. You imagine that these sanctuaries are protected islands of pristine nature. But they’re not. The people on their periphery cannot live off the land outside of the parks. It’s been over-utilised, and denuded. They’re crossing over onto these islands to survive, and the islands will go the same way if it’s not stopped.”

They are counting people and livestock. “We saw high densities of wildlife living alongside people and domestic stock.” In Southern Kenya, the Maasai, who were once free to range, are effectively trapped between parks and conservancies. Here they are reliant on the parks to feed their cattle and themselves. As a result, Chase counted far more cattle in Tsavo than elephants. There is also the pressure of human/elephant conflict. As elephants threaten crops and villages it is not unusual for people to attack them in retribution or to scare them off, often using poison-tipped arrows or spears that can lead to slow, painful deaths. Then there is the issue of charcoal.

Elephants are second only to humans when it comes to the devastation they can wreak on woodlands

They are counting fires. On Tsavo’s horizon, Chase saw many plumes of smoke rising from rudimentary charcoal kilns. Getting closer, he saw how vast numbers of trees had been cut down and carried to central points where compact beds of wood were laid and covered with a thick layer of soil. “The wood is set alight, and slowly the compressed wood burns – producing briquettes of charcoal, which are packed into sacks for the market. It’s a laborious process,” Chase explained in a blog post on EWB’s website. “They are marvels of African architectural ingenuity and labour. You can see the influence of their work quite clearly from my vantage point. Massive areas of acacia woodland have been denuded. I gaze down on them and their work with respect and empathy. The hard-working people I see below me must be turning a good profit to struggle like this. The depressing scale of the charcoal trade is heightened by a landscape littered with temporary living quarters constructed from colourful plastic bags fluttering in the wind. What do these hard-working souls eat out here, how many trees are cut down to fill a bag with 50kg of charred wood?”

Elephants are second only to humans regarding the devastation they can wreak on woodlands. Culling and translocating elephants is an important part of wildlife management in southern Africa, where elephant populations are much larger and have a far greater impact on woodland. In Tsavo and other parts of East and central Africa, poaching has performed a cruel service by keeping elephant numbers down – and so culling is practised much less frequently. But as it has become harder for poachers to kill elephants in Kenya, many have turned their machetes, axes and chainsaws, once used to extract tusks from elephant skulls, onto trees to profit from the illegal manufacture of charcoal. What aggravates the problem is that the militant Islamic group al-Shabaab, supposedly drives much of this illegal trade. If it continues at the scale Chase indicates, it could be more detrimental to Tsavo’s elephants than poaching due to the destruction of their natural habitat and the pressure it will put on the entire ecosystem. Learn how charcoal fuels al-Shabaab’s terror campaigns.

In April, African Parks, an organisation determined enough to manage wildlife areas on the sharp end of poaching, flew Chad’s 3 000-km2 Zakouma National Park as part of the Pan-African survey. Zakouma’s elephant population has suffered terribly during the last decade under the poacher’s gun. The estimated 4 300 elephants in Zakouma in 2002 had been reduced to 450 in 2011. Preliminary reports after the latest count suggest this number is now stable, a credit to African Parks, who took over management of Zakouma in June 2010. They have greatly increased efforts to protect the remaining elephants that move in larger-than-normal herds, possibly as a survival strategy.

Well-armed poachers are now targeting Garamba National Park in north-eastern DRC, also managed by Africa Parks. The park is effectively a war zone, with ongoing firefights between park rangers and members of the terrorist group the Lord’s Resistance Army. Equally worrying is the implication that a Ugandan military helicopter has been used for poaching activities here.

A previously undiscovered herd of elephants in paradise

As I’ve had further contact with Chase, a typically upbeat man, I detect the gravity of these observations in his voice. Reporting from Ethiopia at the end of May, he was surprised to find that people dominated the 7 000-km2 Babile Elephant Sanctuary. It was supposedly home to the last remaining elephant population in the horn of Africa but of the 300 elephants believed to be there, he spotted only a few dozen after 60 hours of flying. In contrast, other animal counts were much higher. He estimated 40 000 camels, 200 000 head of cattle and 450 000 goats wandered the park. But his spirits pick up when he mentions “an elephant paradise, a habitat ideally suited to these giants.” And in it, an undiscovered herd. Understandably, he’s reluctant to divulge the location and the number of elephants he found there, but it’s significant. It lifts his voice as he describes the excitement of an Ethiopian elephant biologist they took up to count a herd. “You should have seen his reaction looking down on those elephants. You won’t believe it, but this biologist had never seen one before.”

All the while, the survey is engaging local scientists and conservationists, training them as much as possible, giving them access to the data, and allowing them to study their environments from the air. Chase stresses that, unlike many research programs, he does not leave a country without first sharing the raw data with the local conservation authorities.

As of writing, three planes and 18 team members from the Tanzanian government, several wildlife organisations, and the Frankfurt Zoological Society are coming to the end of a joint aerial census of the entire 30 000-km2 Serengeti Ecosystem in Tanzania. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which is conducting surveys over more countries than any other census partner, is due to begin surveying elephant populations in the Central Africa Republic and Mali.

After Ethiopia, Chase and his team will survey Namibia’s Caprivi Strip and parts of Botswana, together with some of neighbouring Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe, to form the extensive 444 000-km2 Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. This part of Africa is supposedly home to more than half of the continent’s elephants. Over the next four months, a large number of planes will take to the southern Africa skies – including over the Kruger National Park.

“North of the Zambezi, more and more elephants are moving at night. Fear of poaching has changed their behaviour,” Chase says. They are far less threatened in the south. The success of the southern populations is not just a story of concerted conservation efforts. As Chase stresses, “it has to do with stable government and economy and recognising the value of tourism. The southern countries, even Zimbabwe, with all its challenges, have done a good job of protecting their natural heritage because they know that’s what people will want to come and see – that it provides income and jobs and that it must be sustained.

“The next part of the survey is going to be really interesting. There’s long been a dispute over whether Botswana is over-estimated (figures put the number at over 133 000 elephants – by far the highest of any country and more than the entire elephant population of East Africa). Angola will be an adventure of discovery. We’ll see what numbers have returned since the end of the civil war. There’s also southwest Zambia of which so little is known.” You can detect the excitement in Chase’s voice, the potential of a new discovery. A new elephant paradise, perhaps.

As busy as he is at 300 feet, Chase does have the chance to appreciate the beauty and diversity of the landscape and wildlife. In Tsavo, he was particularly struck by the sight of some of the legendary tuskers for which the park is renowned. It’s believed there are no more than 30 left on the continent. “Watching these majestic giants is a great opportunity to marvel over these behemoths with one hundred-pound tusks on either side. They are truly nature’s great masterpieces.” Chase was one of the last people to see the famous Satao alive – shortly before his carcass was discovered after poachers had killed him for his immense tusks.

In 2015 the work will continue to assess, compile and combine all the country reports into a single, impartial analysis for all conservation authorities and decision-makers to use. The story of elephants, and Africa, will become much clearer.

While these simple flying machines survey the rich earth below, we spend billions on sophisticated spacecraft to survey the dust on Mars. In doing so we deny our own terrestrial splendour and lose sight of our responsibility to preserve this planet. Paul Allen has spent a considerable amount of money funding ventures in space tourism. But while this might enable a privileged few to gaze down on the planet, this latest venture of his, conducted at just 300 feet, is far more noteworthy as it will help protect our planet’s wonders. You can’t see Africa’s giants from space.

Contributors

KELLY LANDEN threw down an anchor in 2002, abandoning a career on the oceans to dedicate herself to African conservation. Having a passion for wildlife and an affinity for photography, as Elephants Without Borders’ programme manager, she realized that she has the opportunity to use her skills to share the beauty and splendour of nature, while providing insights into the challenges of conservation. “To participate in The Great Elephant Census is a rare gift and a privilege that provides us a chance to paint a clearer picture on how we should focus on progressive solutions to conservation threats”.

RICHARD MOLLER is one of Kenya’s most respected hands-on conservation project managers. As co-founder of the Tsavo Trust, he supports wildlife, habitat and communities in the greater Tsavo ecosystem, Kenya’s largest protected area and home to most of the world’s surviving ‘hundred pounder tuskers’.

MARK MULLER was born & raised on a Coffee farm on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. He was schooled in Tanzania and Kenya and, immediately after school, came to Maun in Botswana, where he has spent the last 42 years. He has always had a passion for wildlife, with a particular love of elephants and birds. His love of photography was first sparked on a trip to Antarctica in 2006.

MICHAEL LORENTZ is passionate about wildlife, wilderness and elephants in particular. Born in South Africa, he knew early that his true vision and happiness would lie in Africa’s wild places. A passionate and award-winning photographer, Michael’s work has been featured in several publications, as well as at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

BEN NEALE and KYLIE BERTRAM are the Australian couple behind Gallery Earth. At their core is a deep respect for conservation and a love of adventure. Not everyone has the opportunity to fly or travel, but they believe everyone appreciates and is inspired by the beauty of nature. They aspire to capture this beauty on their journeys, most often suspended beneath the canopy of a paraglider.

Just hatched! One of South Africa’s rarest birds

I found out about blue swallows from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology where I completed my master’s in 2008. They put me in touch with Dr Ian Little and we tried to set up a shoot to photograph the critically endangered blue swallow, one of South Africa’s rarest birds with only 35 pairs remaining. By Zach Vincent

It was tricky as bad weather had plagued the midlands, and we had little hope of finding swallows on nests. There were only about four pairs around, and as we all know with nature that great footage and sightings are never, ever guaranteed. I wanted to cover the story as my main passion is extinction prevention and identifying and broadcasting the causes of population declines in species.

Several causes for the plight of the blue swallow are not unique to this species but are shared with other endangered grassland animals, such as the Oribi, a small antelope. Habitat loss and degradation are huge factors with the blue swallows and the tiny swallows are now described as an ‘island species’, searching for decent natural habitat amongst a sea of degraded hilltops, planted with pine for paper and maize for the beef industry.

We decided to go ahead with the shoot regardless. I had a two-day window in which to shoot, where all the relevant parties could contribute. On our first day, we did nest checks on private lands, including a Buddhist retreat and a dairy farm. We found a fresh aardvark hole at the first site, which is great as the swallows use these burrows to build their nests underground. At the dairy farm, we caught glimpses of a nesting pair making a second breeding attempt (blue swallows can parent more than one clutch of eggs per season).

I knew that this was no easy animal to film, but I had no idea how difficult it would be: they are tiny! Little metallic blue birds become black spots in a viewfinder, and they dart up and down, moving speedily, capturing their prey of flying insects.

At Impendle Nature Reserve, at our last stop for the day, the officer on duty climbed into the darkness of a sinkhole and inspected a nest. The next second we heard him say, “There are 3 eggs, there is movement, and I think one egg is in the process of hatching!”

Needless to say, my cinematographic nerves began a rattle and hum, and I was down the hole in seconds with a GoPro and a failing camera light (Murphy’s law!). Luckily I managed, in the subterranean darkness, to get a few seconds of the hatching. It was very special and beautiful to see a critically endangered species emerging from its little shell throwing all of its tiny energy reserves into getting out of its egg and into life.

We didn’t stay long, we didn’t want to cause any unnecessary disturbance, but the moment was captured, albeit a bit rough. I wanted to etch the species into the consciousness of the South African community, giving it a presence and character. This connection with the audience could save it from extinction as the community not only takes “ownership” of an indigenous species but feels connected to it and less likely to brush it aside.

I really hope that my work touches enough people and that they mobilise themselves to contribute to the conservation and protection of blue swallows and this planet’s wonderful and breathtaking biodiversity.

Read about Africa’s rarest parrot – the Cape Parrot

5 things to do in Coffee Bay

While on a backpacking trip that saw me exploring South Africa from Cape Town to Durban I simply had to make a stop along the Wild Coast. From what fellow travellers told me the Eastern Cape sounded simply incredible and boy, oh boy, did Coffee Bay come to the party.

Here are five activities you’ll definitely want to try when travelling to Coffee Bay:

1. Learn to surf

Jeffrey’s Bay may be South Africa’s most-loved surf spot, but Coffee Bay has incredibly warm water and offers surf lessons at a fraction of the price. Coffee Bay is quite small and if you’re staying at the popular Coffee Shack backpackers then your surf lessons are going to cost you a meagre R50 per hour…. or two (they’re so chilled there they don’t really watch the clock religiously). The equipment is great too – the boards are looked after and there is the option of borrowing a second skin or wetsuit if you wish. The lessons start off on the sand, firstly with a safety chat before they teach you the sequence of moves to follow for catching a wave. Then it’s time to hit the water. The instructor gives you one-on-one attention, offering pointers to correct your technique. After my fourth wave-catching attempt I was up, riding my first wave, feeling more alive than ever.

2. Take a drumming lesson

Jah Drums is a backpacker hostel and a space where travellers can sit among locals and learn their way around an African beat on a djembe drum. The evening session I joined in on carried an electric atmosphere with a few regulars treating us to a show where they whacked out trance-inducing rhythms with their mad skills.

3. Hike to Mapuzi Caves

Hike through fields, scale a cliff face on a narrow path, pass cows, dogs and small children. The jagged cliffs drop straight into the ocean where the fast-paced, angry sea folds its waves as if it were kneading dough. Depending on the tide, if you’re the kind of person who loves a good thrill, you’ll have the opportunity to jump off a cliff above the caves and plunge into the water below. Another opportunity to throw yourself off a wall of rocks presents itself later in the day on the hike back where you’ll come across a river you can bomb-drop into. Find yourself a shady tree and eat lunch under it. Take at least two litres of water, a small bottle just isn’t going to cut it on this hike.

4. Hike to Hole in the Wall

This is a three hour hike that takes you on a scenic trek through the region and delivers you to the area’s favourite natural attraction – the Hole in the Wall. The Hole in the Wall is an archway that’s punched out of a wall of Ecca shale and sandstone that’s capped with hard volcanic dolerite. After the hike to this landmark you simply cannot resist diving into the ocean and sharing the water with the rocky formation you came all this way to see.

5. Eat mussels

Every now and again Coffee Shack organises a free sundowner experience for its backpacker guests. I was lucky enough to be staying there when their staff had picked us a massive pot’s worth of fresh mussels to carry up to a view point and enjoy with a drink. Two of the fellas carried the steaming pot of mussels to the top of a nearby hill that’s green curves looked like it came from the Microsoft Windows background. We gathered around and tucked into our fresh delight with Tobasco and Worcestershire sauce close at hand. With seafood-filled bellies we all sat back and watched the choppy sea in front of us, drink in hand. The next thing we knew, we were all watching two pods of dolphins cruising their way through the rough seas below. Spectacular.

A trip to Coffee Bay is definitely recommended. Just be sure to take sunblock and an open mind.

Proteas threatened by climate change

Global warming is coming to your living room, your dining room, your kitchen, anywhere you decorate with cut flowers. And maybe to your medicine chest. Changes in climate and land use are snuffing out plants critical to the worldwide floral trade, and perhaps to new treatments for diseases: proteas.

Proteas such as the king protea, which measures 12 inches across and is the national flower of South Africa, are under fire. Researchers conducting a study of proteas near Cape Town estimate that the plants’ abundance will decrease by more than 60 percent by 2050. Some protea species will become extinct. Others already have.

Winter rains will soon fall over Cape Town. But when August and September arrive, proteas bloom in riotous color. On steep, rocky slopes strewn with lichen-covered chunks of granite, the flame-red and magenta-pink flowers dot the hillsides. They attract hordes of tourists and provide jobs for thousands of South Africans who gather proteas for the worldwide cut-flower industry.

Visitors and florists are joined in the lab if not the field by biochemists like Johannes van Staden of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Van Staden has conducted initial studies of proteas’ anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects. “It’s amazing that so little is known about proteas’ potential to produce new drugs,” he says. The results to date, however, echo what traditional healers have believed for centuries: protea extracts may be helpful in treating intestinal inflammation, food poisoning and related illnesses.

With their vase-shaped bracts surrounding pencil-thin flowers, proteas resemble nothing so much as sea anemones. The plants are named for the Greek sea god, Proteus, who could change his form at will. Indeed, there’s a protea in almost any shape you can imagine. For now.

In a region where average temperatures have significantly warmed over the past 30 years and suburbs are sprawling up hillsides, Cape Town’s most unusual flowers are besieged, says ecologist Lee Hannah of Conservation International. “In response, proteas are moving uphill themselves, to cooler spots with less development,” says Hannah, lead scientist on the Cape Town protea study.

Many species have such tiny ranges that plowing a field or building a single house can wipe out the global population. More than half the world’s several hundred protea species are threatened. Most live in South Africa. Several are found in Australia, and some have been transplanted to Hawaii’s steep-sided volcanic slopes.

Proteas are the keystone species of South Africa’s Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest but richest of Earth’s six floral kingdoms. The Cape Floral Kingdom, Hannah says, “is the size of a postage stamp, comparatively speaking. But it has the highest plant biodiversity anywhere on the planet.” Some 9 000 plant species, 6 000 of which live nowhere else in the world, are found there. Table Mountain in Cape Town, for example, supports some 2 200 species, more than the entire United Kingdom.

Earth’s six floral kingdoms © Wikimedia/Dietzel

Evergreen, leathery-leaved plants in what’s called the fynbos ecosystem cover mountains, valleys and coastal plains near the Cape of Good Hope. “Amazingly, proteas thrive in the nutrient-poor soils and high winds,” Hannah says. For a short summer season, proteas are laden with flowers that look like they might have arrived from a faraway galaxy. In fact, proteas came not from another place, but another time. They’re remnants of the distant past, when Africa, Australia, India, South America and Antarctica existed as one landmass: Gondwana. Proteas once thrived on Gondwana. Today members of the protea family live oceans apart.

The last of Earth’s proteas grow in places known as hot spots. “Hot spots are regions with large numbers of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world, and that have had more than 70 percent of their habitat destroyed,” Hannah says. “The last thing these species-rich, high-habitat-loss areas need is another threat, but that’s what climate change presents.” As Earth’s climate warms, species will try to keep pace, moving to their preferred temperature ranges. Protea seeds are carried on the wind to new locations. Those that root in cooler areas will survive.

Of the more than 300 species of proteas near Cape Town, nearly all will have to shift their ranges by 2050, Hannah believes. Conservation plans that allow species to relocate may be an answer. “Most of our efforts focus on parks, which are fixed in place,” says Hannah. “However, when a species starts to move, we need a ‘park’ not only where that species is today, but where it will be in the future.”

As part of the Protea Atlas Project at the South African National Biodiversity Institute, biologists Guy Midgley and Tony Rebelo, with the help of dozens of field volunteers, have collected extensive information on Cape Town’s proteas. “So far, we’ve discovered eight new species in the protea family,” Midgley says, “and one-third of protea species well outside their previously known distribution ranges.” New proteas include the Palmiet River sceptre, clandestine spiderhead, and Laingsburg conebush. The large-leaf sugarbush, already familiar to botanists, was found 160 kilometers beyond its formerly documented range, “and the waterlily sugarbush a stunning 400 kilometers farther afield,” says Midgley. “Proteas are full of surprises.”

The Greek god Proteus could predict the future. However, Proteus did not willingly part with the information. He simply changed his shape and escaped. Midgley says that vigilance is needed so the fynbos doesn’t witness more proteas vanish.

Sherry Moretti, a floral designer for an international hotel group, agrees. “I once wanted something breathtakingly gorgeous for a special hotel opening,” she says. “On that evening, proteas lined the entrance, bedecked the foyer, and graced every table. I can’t imagine a planet without proteas. They welcome you through the portal, and into another world.”

Drongo mimics alarm calls to steal food

The drongo deceives other species, including meerkats, by mimicking their alarm calls to scare them away and steal their abandoned food, according to a new study published in the 2 May 2014 Journal Science. Information provided by: UCT Communication and Marketing Department

However, as in Aesop’s fable about the boy who cried wolf, the drongo can make too many false alarms and cause members of the exploited species to wise up. But when one false alarm call stops working, drongos mimic a different one, keeping up the deception racket and their access to stolen food.

Author Dr Tom Flower, a researcher in the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, walked 5-15km a day, six days a week for six months every year since 2008, to observe and record drongo behaviour in the Kuruman River Reserve, which is part of the South African Kalahari Desert, close to the Botswana border. Temperatures ranged from -11ºC on cold winter mornings to 42ºC in the summer sun. Dr Flower said, “I dread to think how many sand dunes I’ve climbed, but it was worth it to get the data I needed.”

The Kuruman River Reserve is the home of a huge long-term study on meerkats that began in 1993 and was documented in the popular TV series Meerkat Manor. The meerkat project studies the behaviour of about 14 meerkat groups, all of which are completely habituated to humans walking in and among them. Dr Flower said, “The project has been running for so long that the first thing a baby meerkat is likely to see when it emerges from its birth burrow is a researcher waiting to watch its behaviour; as far as they’re concerned, we’re part of their environment and little different from a tree. Few people realise that perhaps the world’s most important field research project studying the evolution of cooperative societies is located in South Africa.”

Other species in the area are also habituated to people watching them at distances of less than five metres, including the drongos and another important species from which they steal food, a bird called the pied babbler. Dr Flower said, “That means that other researchers and I can get right into the thick of the action. We can unravel the interactions between all these animals because different individuals are identifiable by coloured leg bands (in the case of the birds), or L’Oreal hair dye marks on the fur of the meerkats (don’t worry, it’s been tested on humans).”

During his research on drongos, Dr Flower has habituated and colour-ringed about 200 birds living in 40 territories which overlap with those of the meerkats and babblers. He said, “I’ve trained the drongos to come to a call. So if I want to find drongo ‘Dave’, for example, I can walk into his territory, give a call, and he’ll come flying over to me in return for a mealworm reward. He’ll rapidly return to his natural behaviour, hawking flies or following meerkats and babblers to steal their food, allowing me to tag along and watch what happens.”

Dr Flower describes pied babblers as “the bird equivalent of meerkats, with mum and dad doing all the breeding while their offspring stay home to help raise their younger siblings”. A co-author on the Drongo manuscript, Dr Amanda Ridley, began studying babblers on the reserve in 2003, observing as many as 14 groups of babblers that are completely tolerant of people walking with them and watching their behaviour.

Dr Flower worked on the Kuruman meerkat research project in 2003 and became the meerkat research and reserve manager from 2004 to 2007. He started work on the drongo project in 2008. He said, “This kind of access to so many different animals is unrivalled anywhere in the world and was key to the observations and experiments underpinning my findings.” Dr Flower is now following juvenile drongos during their development to learn more about how they learn the mimicking behaviour.

A baby black zebra

Earlier this month a traveller came across this newborn black zebra in the north-western area of the Okavango Delta. The rather unusual dark colour is due to a small genetic abnormality linked to the amount of melanin affecting the pigmentation of the fur.

There have been at least three other dark zebras born like this in the area; however, none of them has reached more than six months old, with the last foal born of this kind facing its demise to hyenas within a few months.

Unfortunately, if you stand out from the crowd, you are a target. Due to other abnormalities of this nature some scientist’s claim that zebra’s stripes are formed from the inhibition of melanin and that the “default” colour of a zebra is black. In other words, a zebra is black with white stripes.

This black zebra is an example of what is known as ‘malinism’, which results in excess of dark pigmentation. Melanism is found in many different species, including amphibians, reptiles, and mammals – but not in humans. Pseudo-melanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pigmentation, characterised by dark spots or enlarged stripes, which cover a large part of the body of the animal, making it appear melanistic. One example of abundism is the ‘king’ cheetah.

Also read The black and white of African wildlife explained

Looking after orphan elephants

As the call of the bush baby fades and the first rays of the morning light start to dance, Suni has her foot soaked and cleaned, and the shift changeover begins at the Elephant Nursery Facility at Lilayi Game Reserve in Lusaka. Working as a team of four, the keepers briefly meet with the night shift to find out how the orphan elephants have been during the night. With all things well, two of the keepers begin to walk off into the bush followed by six orphaned elephants bubbling with the enthusiasm of life.

The two remaining keepers begin an intensive period of activity. Oliver, the deputy head keeper, begins milk prep, creating concoctions of goodness to supplement the orphans with what they would have received from their mothers. These feeds occur eight times a day.

Meanwhile, Elvis, the newest member of the keeper team, is busy mucking out the stables; elephants tend to go to the toilet every one to three hours! There is plenty to clean after ten hours spent in their stables as they rested through the night.

As the day approaches the radio crackles, and the location of the baby herd comes through to Oliver. With milk in hand, he starts his meandering walk, with Elvis cheerfully singing alongside. After about twenty minutes of walking, the quietness of the bush is interrupted by the high-pitched trumpeting of excited little elephants. Seeming chaos becomes order as the keepers take control, and the milk is guzzled with sounds of pleasure vibrating through the crisp morning air. Cheeky attempts by quicker-drinking older elephants to steal milk are quickly dealt with, and they return to browsing.

The keepers again part company as they lead the elephants back into the bush, however, Maramba, the eldest of the herd, is happy to play his role in deciding which direction the best browsing area will be found. Elephants will eat over one hundred different food sources in the wild.

The youngest Nkala, sticks close to Kavala, often sucking on her ear for comfort as they move.

By now, Oliver and Elvis have returned, and the milk prep begins again, as the bottles are cleaned. Food is also collected, and medical treatments are prepared for the elephants’ return.

At midday, the six excited orphan elephants return from the bush. Undecided on whether the water or the milk is more appealing, they hesitate before Suni leads the way, choosing the milk option. While the others continue to drink, Suni makes her way to the boma with her unique swagger due the amazing boot that has been designed to help her in her recovery from the horrific axe injuries she endured from poachers two years ago. Once at the boma, she settles down for the second of her three treatment sessions. Her boot is removed, and the wounds are tenderly treated by Louise and Oliver. Meanwhile, the rest of the elephants enjoy the water, but they never forget Suni, each taking a turn to check on her in the boma.

Back at the boma, the keepers each take their lunch in turn and prepare for a health check. Pulses are checked, Suni has her boot back on, and the herd make their way back to the bush to browse, bumping into warthogs and giraffes as they travel.

As the afternoon comes and goes, another milk feed is given, and food for the night is collected. Four of the team then turn their attention to Suni, and her wounds are treated again before she receives a neuro-skeletal integration massage to help stimulate her nervous system as she drifts off to sleep. By now, twelve hours have passed, and the night team has taken over. They continue to monitor from the boma observation deck, feeding the young orphans every three hours through the night as they snooze peacefully.

During this twenty-four hour period of care and support, ninety-six litres of milk will be drunk by the orphan elephants, three bandages, twelve swabs, three litres of foot soak, three syringes, one metre of tape and three hundred millilitres of iodine will have been used, oh and approximately six kilometres will have been walked by the elephants and their keepers.

If you would like to know more about the project and how to support: www.gamerangersinternational.org

Also read: The elephant orphans of Zambia

Water lilies of the Delta

I must admit with a certain degree of embarrassment that I once believed that water lilies were just part of the Delta’s ‘décor’. However, during a recent walking safari in the area, I was fortunate enough to be led by a trail guide who shared his knowledge of these precious plants.

Anyone who has been to the Okavango Delta will have noticed that water lilies crop up everywhere. You may even have nearly toppled over your mekoro trying to take the quintessential picture of this gorgeous bloom. Few holiday settings are more evocative and relaxing than a water lily-filled lagoon, and whilst slicing through this heavenly bloomscape with all the time in the world, I began to ask a question. “Why are the lilies either purple or white? Are they two different species?”

Witnessing all this beautiful diversity, my good guide, who had already sensed my new surge of curiosity, had pre-empted the situation and steadied the mokoro as I wriggled and turned to face him to let rip another volley of queries regarding the more intimate details of sexual encounters of the water lily kind. Fascinated by my curiosity, he continued to dish out reels of fascinating information about pollination in water lilies.

In the case of the water lily I was admiring, the pollen does not get released the day that the flower blooms. Instead, first, a fluid is secreted that covers the centre of the flower and its female parts. Insects, lured by the plant’s fragrance, land on the smooth angled petals, and slide into the fluid below. If the visiting insect had already visited a mature plant and come bearing pollen from another water lily then the visiting pollen dissolves into the fluid, and the water lily is fertilised. The fluid is absorbed and the visiting insect is free to go, carrying new pollen from this now fertilised water lily. It is during this transition that the colouration of the water lily changes from white to purple.

After pollination, the stem of the water lily starts recoiling slowly, pulling the flower underwater. Here, away from nibbling insects, the fruit starts developing into a spongy berry that contains masses of seeds – up to 2,000 seeds may be stored in each fruit.

When the seeds are ripe and ready to disperse, the fruit opens and releases its contents into the water current. Seeds float away aided by an aril (a rather clever floating device that contains air pockets to keep them buoyant). They can travel for miles in the current or reach even further if they are eaten and digested by a pigmy goose. Either way, they eventually become waterlogged, find a muddy bank and germinate into a new plant.

The leaves shade the water below, keeping water temperatures cool and thus allowing for a more oxygenated water environment underneath them. This is an environment that many critters enjoy and exploit.

Water lilies also grow and spread vegetatively by means of an ever-growing creeping rhizome. These rhizome makes delicious and flavoursome flour when dried and pounded. The flour, when baked, makes crispy delicious pancakes. The young leaves and flower buds, if well prepared, make a scrumptious vegetable side dish, and the seeds may be eaten fried or raw.

Later that day, as I sit under an ancient nyala berry tree and stare into the coals of a fire and dinner aromas fill the air, I cannot help but think about the magic and beauty of Africa. Those able to set off into the Delta in a mokoro, consciously leaving behind our woes, should spend time to wonder at the unpretentious as a water lily.

First photos of Liuwa’s lion cubs

Liuwa Park manager, Raquel Filgueiras, has captured the first clear images of three lion cubs born four months ago in Liuwa National Park. Liuwa’s lion cubs are the first to be born in Liuwa in a decade. The father of the cubs has been named Nakawa (which means the one who gives something back) and the mother has been named Sepo, which means hope.

Liuwa's lion cubs — © African Parks/Raquel Filgueiras

For nine years, the matriarch of the pride, the world-famous Lady Liuwa, roamed the expansive plains alone after massive poaching and illegal trophy hunting had wiped out her fellow felines. This led to African Parks’ strategy to re-introduce lions to the park, using Lady Liuwa as the founding prode member. The birth of cubs means that Liuwa now boasts a lion population of six.

The names of the two adults were chosen jointly by members of the Lozi people in consultation with Frans Schepers, previously International Programme Manager at WWF – The Netherlands, and longstanding donor Casper ter Kuile.

Both commented on the relevance of the names: “Nakawa has helped re-established this keystone species in Liuwa. It is a beautiful Lozi name for a superb male lion,” said Frans Schepers. “Sepo provides hope for the future of the entire national park,” said Caspar ter Kuile, a sentiment echoed by Area Chief, Induna Mundandwe. “The birth of the lion cubs has restored the dignity of Liuwa and highlighted the potential to increase tourism revenue and the living standards of local communities,” he said.

Although four months old, the cubs remain vulnerable to attacks by other predators, as they are not yet old enough to accompany their mother when hunting. Conservationists agree that their mother, Sepo, would leave Liuwa’s lion cubs in a good hiding place while she is out hunting. Given the absence of other adult male lions in the park, Nakawa is spending more time than usual with his three offspring. He tolerates the cubs’ exuberant behaviour and would protect them in the event a hyena strayed too close. The sex of the three cubs has not yet been established.

As with humans, play is an important part of the learning process for lion cubs which they are currently doing by enthusiastically exploring their environment, smelling and chewing on sticks and bark. They also recently started nibbling on large carcasses provided by their mother.

To bee or not to bee

Where there are farms along the perimeter of Serengeti National Park, there are elephants – and all manner of attempts to prevent crops from being trampled. Farmers have tried various elephant-deterring techniques, from beating tin cans to lighting fires, most of which haven’t appeared to work. Could bee colonies do the job?

Now officials in Tanzania’s Mara Region have asked authorities to construct fences to keep elephants away from villages and agricultural holdings. The Mara Regional Commissioner, John Tuppa, told the Tanzanian newspaper, The Citizen, that the move would help end the destruction of crops by stray elephants. Tuppa is asking for fences to be built as soon as possible.

The ultimate dilemma, however, may be finding ways for humans and elephants to live side-by-side. Biologist Eivin Røskaft, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology thinks there may be several answers. “The elephant-villager conflict didn’t just start,” he says. “Now there are more open discussions about it. Fortunately, elephant poaching hasn’t really reached the Serengeti, so its elephant numbers seem to be slowly growing.”

But the region’s human population has grown much faster, doubling over the last 18 to 20 years. “Elephants are raiding crops during the night,” says Røskaft. “These crops are mostly close to the park border, so elephants return to the Serengeti as soon it’s light in the morning.” Elephants are stressed when they leave the park, he says, but the crops are too tempting. “The fact that elephants are more stressed outside the park doesn’t mean they won’t take such risks.”

How to end the stalemate? Biologist Lucy King, leader of Save the Elephants’ Elephants and Bees Project, may have an answer: “beehive fences.”

Beehive fences are simple and cheap, according to King, and are made with locally sourced materials. Hives are hung every thirty feet and linked together. If an elephant touches one of the hives, or the interconnecting wire, the beehives all along the fence swing and release the stinging insects inside.

In most areas, King says, beehive fences are easily adopted. Keeping bee colonies is an age-old activity, one in which the majority of African communities already participate. Traditional communities often harvest honey from wild hives and use it as a natural food source and sweetener. Although modern beekeeping is sometimes new to farmers, they adapt quickly, says King, to the skills needed to keep hives.

With her assistance, researchers in Kenya and other African countries are testing the beehive fence concept. Biologists at the Serengeti Development Research and Environmental Conservation Centre have conducted trials of beehive fences in villages on the border of Serengeti National Park. Elephants were chased from farms and left to wander toward the beehive fences. When the elephants reached the rows of swinging hives, they diverged around them, and then continued on their way – on the other side of the villages. Since then, the scientists say, there have been no elephant crop-raiding incidents reported along those routes.

“Bees do not like elephants,” Røskaft confirms. The feeling, it appears, is mutual. A tiny bee may have more strength than a thundering herd of pachyderms.

Biggest tusker elephant in Southern Africa dies

“Isilo” is the Zulu word for king. Isilo was a king elephant in the Tembe Transfrontier Park on the South Africa/Mozambique Border – the biggest tusker in Southern Africa.

It is with deep sadness and regret that Tembe Elephant Park has announced the death of Isilo the tusker elephant. Isilo died a natural death of old age in the southwest section of the park in an area known to be his home range.

He is thought to have died in January this year; however, dense foliage and few roads through this lesser-known game reserve resulted in his carcass only being discovered about two weeks ago. Unfortunately, his magnificent tusks had already been stolen by suspected rhino poachers.

Inkosi(Chief) Mi Tembe is offering a reward of R100 000 for returning the stolen ivory/tusks to the authorities at Tembe Elephant Park.

This is a very sad and tragic time. His presence will be deeply missed.

Tuskers are elephants with tusks that reach the ground. According to Rowland Ward’s records, the heaviest tusk of an African tusker weighed an astonishing 226lb (102.5kg), the heaviest tusk of a woolly mammoth weighed 201lb (91.2kg) and the heaviest tusk of an Asiatic elephant weighed 161lb (73kg). However, it is essential to note that the longest tusks are not always the heaviest, as weight also depends on the circumference of the tusks.

Lengthwise, the longest African tusk measured around 3.5m, the longest woolly mammoth tusk measured around 4m and the longest Asiatic tusk measured around 3m.

Unfortunately, hunters very much prize the so-called “hundred pounders” – whose tusks weigh at least 45kg each. As a combined result of trophy hunting, large-scale exploitation of ivory for consumer goods in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and devastating poaching, big tuskers have almost been wiped off the African continent. Once a common sight, roaming far and wide across East, Central and Southern Africa, now there are very few big tuskers left on the whole continent.

Rhino horn – To trade or not to trade: Does it really matter?

I had yet another interesting hour or so ‘to trade or not to trade rhino horn’ debate with an avid conservationist I respect. It was an interesting discussion, however we each seemed to have retorts for one another’s views, and after a while, we realised that we needed to agree to disagree. We had both heard each other’s arguments before, and the debate was getting a bit circular – as it has become in the conservation circles in the last year. Written by: Dr. Simon Morgan

Trading is being punted as an option with the hope that we can use the ‘if it pays, it stays’ philosophy to ensure the perpetuation of a species in ‘man’s world’. This has been seen repeatedly with many aspects of the conservation of species and habitats – for example, quantifying ecosystem services and giving a value to a catchment area or calculating the carbon credits we can sell for an area of rainforest. All worthwhile approaches with resulting successes, yet perhaps not as intricate and complicated matters as selling rhino horn, it holds weight as a rhino conservation strategy.

The counterargument is that we don’t understand the market, making it difficult to play with. We would be signing the death warrant for those rhino in countries outside of South Africa that were not trading and, therefore, perhaps not able to protect them with as much metal as the South Africans could with the new-found rhino horn wealth. Ultimately should we not draw a line in the sand and ask the question, why in this day and age, should a species have to pay to stay – surely, it has the right regardless. Does man pay to stay or make a habit of taking to stay?

Each is a compelling argument in its own right.

Ultimately we divide our forces, divide our efforts and divide the rhino population while we do so.

The truth of the matter is, if a decision is made at the next CITES COP16 that South Africa gets to trade in rhino horn, we will probably have at least another two years to go before that even happens (we have to convince the Chinese state to change its laws again so that trade is actually legal there…) and even then the money will only be able to be rolled out and spent within the next year or so. So we are looking at about the end of 2017 or 2018 before we will see the income from this trade coming into effect on the ground. That’s in four years’ time.

What’s going to happen in those four years that we are sitting around debating, arguing, dividing our forces and our efforts and not applying them how we could and should be?

This is what will happen: at a rate of 66% increase in poaching from one year to the next, which is what we have seen in the last two years, we will lose 1 666 rhinos this year and then 767 rhinos the next until finally in 2017 the figure is 7 624… that’s a total of 16 650 rhino – which as you know is not far from what we have got at the moment. I know that the conservationists in the know will jump around and say that the current rate of increase will have to drop as rhino numbers decrease and the rhino densities will decrease, making it harder and harder to poach the rhino. But seriously – had we even thought what is happening now would be possible or conceivable back in 2007? We just can’t tell and just don’t know, but again – does it matter?

The point is, we need to start all talking in the same language about what we can do NOW and not what is possible in four years’ time because in four years, it might just not matter.

So let’s stop the debating and time wasting and division. Let us join forces again and forge a path to develop a stronger political will to stop this. It doesn’t help just doing that in South Africa; we need it to include the Asian states and every entity out there. Let the world, holding summits and symposiums, see that we are standing together and appreciating their efforts. We must show them our support and would like their support to help us increase the political will in this regard.

ALSO READ: Why are rhinos so important for ecosystems?

Diving with dinosaurs

Just off the Cape peninsula, close to the pretty bay of Simon’s Town, lies an innocuous short stretch of ocean. Like much of the seascape here, kelp sprouts from the kryptonite-green water lapping at boulders straight out of The Flintstones. It looks a lot like the rest of this spectacular coastline. Yet this body of water harbours a prehistoric secret: just a short hop, skip and a dive away from the shore you’ll find living, breathing dinosaurs.

The name of this astonishing creature is the broadnose sevengill shark. Yet I prefer their more palatable, less adjective heavy name: cow shark. These fish have glided through our oceans for hundreds of million of years, unblemished by Mother Nature’s marauding fingers.

All sharks originally possessed seven pairs of gill slits. A period of tweaking and refining commenced and most species drop a couple of pairs. For some reason the cow sharks kept theirs. In fact, cow sharks have very few modern adaptations, which is why they remain one of the closest links we have to dinosaurs.

For some unknown reason, the cow sharks just love this tiny stretch of water and congregate here en masse, just metres offshore. I’d read about this extraordinary site, yet before now had never had the opportunity to dive here. Shore diving remains one of my favourite methods of exploring the deep blue; there are no boats with their thumping motors, no launches, no travelling out for miles to sea. A shore dive simply features you, your breathing apparatus, your buddies, and a gradual descent into an underwater world packed full of goodies.

Unfortunately, these goodies come wrapped in a bitterly cold packaging. Even 10mm of neoprene, hoodies, gloves and boots do little to mask the freezing water. Our dive guide was free diver and photographer, Jacques de Vos. Jacques has spent countless hours underwater interacting with the cow sharks. He has built up an intimate knowledge of their behaviour and habits. He stressed that whilst the cow sharks may appear docile, we must maintain eye contact and not touch them. Attacks on divers are rare, yet it’s important to remain vigilant when dealing with toothy predators like sharks. Especially ones that can grow to four metres in length and have been found with human remains in their stomachs.

We entered the water via the rocks. The Cape waters welcomed us with an icy blast, jolting our systems, priming our senses. My first encounter with a two metre male put me at ease. In fact, I could have sworn it was smiling at me. Much like dolphins, cow sharks’ stubby faces are etched with perma-smiles. Depending on your point of view, this is either quite cute, or freakishly sinister. Either way, it’s as unusual as it is mesmerising.

The other notable thing about these sharks is their curious, bold nature. Most sharks, despite their fearsome reputations, remain skittish when encountering humans. Cow sharks, on the other hand, will boldly check divers out, flash a wicked smile and then glide off momentarily, before returning for a second look. They move as if in slow motion, their stout bodies propelled by long, elegant sweeps of the tail. The sharks are a photographer’s dream; willing posers for the camera and enveloped by the most spectacular studio imaginable.

Sadly, the fate of the cow sharks is a familiar one. They are being fished extensively in these waters. Whilst I was diving there, reports began to surface of cow sharks being used as bait for great whites by several of the operators in Gansbaai. Sharks, yet again, are falling prey to the greatest predator to ever walk the earth; man. Every year, we are responsible for the deaths of up to 100 million sharks. We kill sharks for their jaws and teeth which make tacky souvenirs. We kill them for the oil in their liver, their cartilage, flesh and fins. Now, unimaginably, we are killing them to feed their own, by those who pass themselves off as shark conservationists.

I left this magical stretch of water full of wonder at the amazing smiling cow sharks of Cape Town, yet appalled at how, once again, we are changing the face of our oceans. Cow sharks have survived five mass extinctions and due to man’s shortsightedness and greed, they now face a sixth.

Diving with Dinosaurs: The Cow Sharks of Cape Town HD from Moz Images on Vimeo.

Contact Mike at Pisces Divers for more information on diving with the cow sharks.

Rhino horn – Will supporters of trade make their case?

Organisers of a key conference about rhino conservation and the merits or otherwise of introducing a legal trade in rhino horn, scheduled for early April, claim that advocates of trade are threatening to boycott the conference because their point of view will not be represented.

But OSCAP (Outraged SA Citizens Against Poaching), the South African NGO hosting the conference, believes that their potential absence is of their own making as they have been invited to present their case. “We have never disguised the fact that the principal objective of this conference is to allow the South African public to hear, in detail, the reasons why so many conservationists oppose the legalization of rhino horn trade. Typically, their voices get drowned out in this country ” said OSCAP Director Allison Thomson. “There is no question that it is also a great opportunity for those who favour a legal trade to make their case. We don’t want to avoid debate, which is what has happened in the past, and this is why the pro-trade lobby have been invited to attend,” she added.

Commercial trade in high-value wildlife products is one of the most controversial subjects in wildlife conservation. South Africa has long implemented a policy of ‘sustainable utilisation’, which promotes the principle of using wildlife to fulfill current needs, but without jeopardising the benefits for future generations.

However, OSCAP warns of the danger of using the sustainable utilisation principle as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ concept, as this may well have detrimental long term impacts on the environment.

For example, there is a strong probability that the one-off sales of ivory sanctioned in 1999 and 2008 have significantly contributed to the devastating surge in elephant poaching across Africa, and the organization wants to ensure the same mistakes are not made with rhino.

It is public knowledge that the South African government and numerous private sector conservationists and economists, as well as many rhino owners believe that legalising trade is the solution to the rhino poaching crisis. However, this is a viewpoint that is not widely shared and is being questioned both domestically and internationally. Rhino horn trade economics is increasingly being criticised for being based on useless and discredited economic modeling methods.

Given this level of opposition, “We are offering people a perfect opportunity, on an open platform and with media exposure, to argue their case for trade,” says Thomson. “And it’s somewhat contradictory to complain that you are not being represented, but then choosing to boycott when invited” she added.

The conference entitled Assessing the risks of rhino horn trade takes place on the 8th and 9th of April at 2014, and will have a cast of well-known international and local speakers, including some from other rhino range states. Included is Peter Knights of WildAid, Mary Rice of the Environmental Investigation Agency, Francisco Aguayo an independent consultant and Ian Michler. They will address the challenges involved in rhino conservation, the risks associated with the pro-trade policy option, and actions that could help stem the current wave of poaching which has already breached the 150 mark for 2014.

Thomson confirms that her offer to those in favour of trade, including the South African government, the Private Rhino Owners Association and pro-trade economists, remains on the table. “I hope they will take this unique opportunity to challenge those who oppose trade and make their case,” she concluded.

For details of the conference and to reserve tickets please go to www.oscap.co.za or www.oscapconference.co.za.

Satellite tag could reveal more about mysterious coelacanths

The “Biology, Behaviour, Evolution and Conservation of the Coelacanth Population from iSimangaliso Wetland Park” is a project that includes the satellite tagging and monitoring of coelacanths in the world heritage site; that extremely rare and remarkable species of fish found in the deepest offshore canyons of the Sodwana Bay section of the park. The coelacanth, previously thought to have gone extinct, was discovered at iSimangaliso in 2000. Written by: Dr Kerry Sink

On the 8th of February 2014, a data-logging satellite tag was recovered offshore at Sodwana Bay. The tag released itself, as programmed, nine months after attachment and is identified as having been attached to ‘Individual 26’, fondly known as “Eric Eyelashes” after the diver who first photographed it, and referring to the eyelash-like white markings around its eye. The coelacanth, the 26th of 32 known individuals, had been tagged by a team of divers during a six week collaborative coelacanth research expedition on the 13th of May 2013.

The tag emerged about 12km north of the position where it was placed onto the fish, extending the known range of coelacanth distribution in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park by approximately 7km to a total range of approximately 60km. According to iSimangaliso CEO Andrew Zaloumis, the recovery of the tag and subsequent data retrieval is “exciting news for the park and its researchers, as this will add a tremendous amount to what we know about this elusive denizen of iSimangaliso. This tagging study is the first time that longer term data on coelacanth movement has ever been collected. The tag transmits summarised data via satellite and stores scientific information, the retrieval of which is critical to access the full set of scientific data.”

The tag is designed to continuously collect environmental data that can inform scientists about depth, position and temperature. Once the full set of data is retrieved detailed information on the behaviour and habitat of this coelacanth should be available. Scientists and divers are particularly excited to see the depth data to assess whether coelacanths move into deeper water particularly when temperature increases. Coelacanths have a relatively small gill surface area for their large body size and their blood physiology is reported to be adapted to cooler water.

Coelacanths are considered critically endangered and consequently iSimangaliso only permitted the tagging of only one animal. The tagging was an experimental move as there was a high possibility that the tag would release in a cave and not reach the surface or that it would release into the open water but not be found.

The tag will offer new insights into the movement, activity periods and diving behaviour of this coelacanth. Each coelacanth is uniquely marked and recorded in a Catalogue of Living Coelacanths of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Pressure, light intensity and sea temperature data will help determine when the coelacanth entered and left caves, diving behaviour or movement inshore and along shore movements over longer distances. This is the very first time that such data has been collected over such a long period and may reveal tidal, lunar or seasonal patterns in behaviour. More information on the thermal range and maximum and minimum depth of iSimangaliso’s coelacanths is also expected. This data can be used to guide coelacanth searches in the future.

The coelacanth has a history of surprise from its initial discovery after millions of years of presumed extinction to new insights into reproduction, evolution and distribution. There is likely at least one new coelacanth secret stored in the little grey tag.

The Lower Zambezi beneath a copper sky

Three weeks ago Zambia’s government gave the go ahead for Australian mining and exploration company, Zambezi Resources, to mine Lower Zambezi National Park for copper. Environmental groups challenged the decision and for now it is under review. When I phoned Zambezi Resources for comment I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear a voice recording saying: “访问被阻止请稍后重试.”

The Zambezi Valley at sunrise ©Morkel Erasmus

Zambia’s main export partner is China accounting for most of its copper, cobalt, tobacco and cotton. Chinese investment in the country is considerable at over US$ 2.5 billion – not enough to afford Whatsapp, but that would require Zambia’s entire GDP with only a billion left to spare.

Chinese companies run more than 2 000 enterprises in Africa and 500 of them are in Zambia. It’s estimated that more than 80 000 Chinese immigrants live in Zambia encouraged by a 2008 development in which a tax free zone was established for Chinese investors.

The ministry of education has introduced Chinese language in some schools and Chinese culture permeates life in the capital of Lusaka, a notable architectural feature being a large Pagoda housing The Great Wall Casino. The gambling overflow heads to the nearby New Buffalo Casino and as African as the name sounds the punters are mainly from the country once referred to as the Sleeping Dragon. But what does an Australian mining company have to do with all this?

Despite the recession in 2008 mining experienced a boom fuelled by Chinese and Indian growth. Not only have Australian companies benefitted from mining on their own continent, but they have increased their expansion into Africa in order to capitalise on the demand. China often invests in Africa without the conditions attached to Western finance and if foreign companies collaborate with the Chinese in Africa it smooths development. It helps especially if the minerals are heading to China.

The hills behind this elephant mark the place where the mine is planned to be located © Morkel Erasmus

Negative environmental impact assessment

“Access is currently blocked, please try again later,” was the English translation that followed the Zambezi Resources telephone recording. I was angling for a comment from company chairman, David Vilensky, on the injunction prohibiting his company from developing the mine. I wasn’t surprised the line was blocked and assumed they had been inundated with calls.

It was a very different affair three weeks previously when Zambia’s Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection made the questionable decision to overturn a negative Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the proposed mining project known as the Kangaluwi Copper Project.

One of the critics of the mining project is Zambia’s Tourism and Arts Minister, Slyvia Masebo. She said her Ministry feels that the project should not go ahead because it will put the existence of the Lower Zambezi National Park at risk. Breaking it down in monetary terms, she said, “Government risks losing safari fees amounting to over K84 million and photographic revenue amounting to over K9 million if the mine is allowed to exist.” She is on shaky ground as this amounts to just US$16 million when the Australian company plans to invest more than US$450 million in the project. And as we all know, money tends to cloud any issues in Africa.

The key issue is the potential environmental impact. Lower Zambezi National Park ranks as Zambia’s third most renowned national park after South Luangwa and Kafue. It covers an area of 4 000 square kilometres with it’s southern boundary along the Zambezi River. On the opposite bank is the famous World Heritage Site, Mana Pools National Park and Lower Zambezi is itself in consideration for World Heritage status. Chances are this would fall away if mining commenced.

“Protecting – and indeed enhancing flora and fauna,” Vilensky

Lower Zambezi is a relatively underdeveloped park with limited access. Most of the lodges are located along the Zambezi shore. But this underdevelopment means the flora and fauna remain largely undisturbed, a distinct advantage in terms of environmental preservation.

An open pit copper mine would seriously affect this. Advocates of the mining operation argue that it would take up just 6% of the park and actually increase tourism because of improved access by road. “We share the concerns of those who have so vocally expressed their opposition to the project,” said David Vilensky in a statement. “For this reason, we are keen to engage with local environmentalists to ensure we can achieve a win-win situation: bringing jobs and prosperity to local communities while protecting – and indeed enhancing – the flora and fauna of the area.”

Vilensky must take environmentalists for fools. How they could possibly enhance and protect flora and fauna is a mystery that is counter to the very concept of mining. One can only imagine improved road access and subsequent increase in tourist revenue is where the proposed enhancement would come from. If so Vilensky is glossing over the negative factors.

Better road access for tourists also means better access for poachers and people from marginalised communities who turn Zambian trees into charcoal in order to eke out an existence. Deforestation due to charcoal manufacture is a major problem in Zambia. Thousands of poor communities can be found along Zambian roads which they use to access woodland and get charcoal to buyers. They bare testament to the misappropriation of Zambian revenue and negate any promise of money from this copper mine benefitting the Zambian people.

Bags of charcoal on the way to market – a common sight on Zambian roads © Anton Crone

Vilensky issued the statement. “Kangaluwi Copper Project will be the cleanest, greenest and safest copper mine ever built, probably anywhere in the world, applying the world’s best practices and technology. Zambezi Resources is a responsible Australian company and understands the importance of conserving the environment, particularly in a sensitive area such as the Lower Zambezi National Park.”

But this can been brought into question. Where developers say the mine will be located on an escarpment 35 kilometers away from the Zambezi, scientist Dr Kellie Leigh, who worked in the area for seven years, says the site is actually 19 kilometres from the river and inside the river’s catchment area. “More importantly, that 19 kilometre distance is meaningless since the identified General Mining Activity Area, in their EIS (Environmental Impact Statement), is less than 1 kilometre from the Chakwenga river and Kangaluwi stream, both of which they identify in their EIS as draining the project site and both of which flow into the Zambezi,” says Leigh.

Australian mining record sullied

Advocates of the project say Australian mining practices are among the most ethical in the world, but their record in Africa and on their own continent is sullied. The very principle of mining in a national park might seem inexplicable to many, but Australia’s Kakadu National Park is also home to the Ranger uranium mine where more than 150 leaks, spills and licence breaches have been reported since it opened in 1981.

A result of Australia’s Asian inspired mining boom is the expansion of the Abbot Point shipping port for exporting coal. To expand the port, millions of tons of sediment are to be dredged and dumped inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The dredging project has been given the green light by the Australian government.

One of the most significant recent developments in coal production is in the Tete province of Mozambique. The area is reputed to have the largest reserves of coal in the world estimated at almost 7 billion tons. You only need travel along the province’s roads to see the devastation mining has on the environment and communities.

Practices by foreign mining companies in Tete, including Anglo-Australian giant, Rio Tinto, have been brought into question. NGO Southern African Resource Watch highlighted concerns about the way they were relocating Mozambican communities to make way for coal projects – sometimes over 40km from the main road. Among the concerns was insufficient land allocated to communities for sustainable farming and the sometimes requisition of land already claimed by communities.

Underdeveloped and corrupt governance

Ultimately the influences of foreign industry on communities and environment in Africa should be policed by local governments. But its hard to do that with underdeveloped and corrupt governance and the communities affected lack the knowledge and access to information that can help them decide what’s in their best interest and what action to take.

We should applaud foreign development in Africa, it’s just that so much of it is stacked on trucks heading for sea ports. Newly built Chinese roads in Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique are giving way under the weight of copper and coal and the trees on either side are vanishing as the people who are meant to benefit can do little more than watch the promises disappear, and scavenge wood for charcoal.

Money talks, and so do African governments. They talk of great benefits to nations. These voices reach the people, but the benefits seldom do. The only voice I hear right now is a Chinese recording. Let’s hope the voice that emerges from the injunction is one of sound judgement and reason.

Click here to sign the petition against mining in Lower Zambezi National Park.

Fight for the fynbos fish

The sun reaches its apex as the faint familiar gurgle of water over rock greets my ears. It has been a hot and thorny hike up the kloof through pathless fynbos. Before that, a long and sweaty drive through townships and farmlands, and before that, the incessant clockwork hum of modern-day city life. But now, having finally arrived at the water’s edge and the home of special fish, a different kind of rhythm starts to take over.

I pause for long enough to breathe it in and then allow my body to free fall. A thunderous splash, and then silence. I open my eyes and peer through the goggles, swimming deeper down, down into darkness. I grab hold of a rock the size of a rugby ball, flip over onto my back and peer up at the silhouette that starts to take shape above. Just the cool swirling of water at first, but as the debris settles the shapes begin to move. Appearing from nowhere and from everywhere, clusters then swarms of them start dancing, weaving and frolicking through the strings of silvery bubbles. They are the redfin minnows, the spirits of these mountains. I close my eyes, let go and savour the weightlessness that lifts me gently up, up back towards the light.

fish — Redfin minnows swimming freely in their natural habitat

This river is not like other rivers. This is one of the last large rivers in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), at the south-western tip of Africa, where native fish still swim free and untroubled, as they have done for millions and millions of years. A few hundred meters downstream there is a small waterfall, and below that there are no minnows, only introduced bass. Brought here from the northern hemisphere a century ago to provide fishermen with a respectable quarry, predatory non-native fishes like bass and trout have invaded countless rivers and pose the single greatest threat to remaining indigenous fish populations in the CFR.

All of the 12 species of redfin minnow, the most widespread group of freshwater fishes in the CFR, are endemic, and nine of these species face a serious risk of extinction. Redfin minnows evolved in the absence of large predatory fish and consequently have not developed adaptations necessary to cope with this new predatory threat. It appears that their naiveté in the presence of invasive predators renders them especially vulnerable to predation and has contributed to their rapid disappearance from many of the region’s streams.

The fate of the fynbos fish now lies in our hands. We need to focus on safeguarding the remaining populations against further devastation. To achieve this there must be a concerted effort to prevent new alien fish introductions above the waterfalls and weirs that function as barriers, especially in places where critically endangered species occur upstream. To this end, there is an urgent need to boost education and awareness around the issue of freshwater fish conservation in the CFR, and the recently launched Cape Critical Rivers project is an encouraging step in the right direction. Supported by the international Save Our Species campaign, the CCR project is working with land owners and other stake holders to protect two of the CFR’s most threatened freshwater fishes – the Clanwilliam sandfish and the Barrydale redfin.

In some cases native species have been reduced to such small sections of river that they will unlikely be able to cope with future environmental changes. In such situations the chances of a species surviving can be greatly improved by increasing habitat through the clearing of alien fishes from a section of river. A recent and exciting project coordinated by local conservation agency CapeNature has demonstrated that alien fish can be successfully eradicated, and that this conservation tool can be extremely effective in reeling our threatened fish species back from the edge of extinction. Unfortunately, management interventions like this do not come cheap, and with several species still on shaky ground, our work in this area is far from done.

Professors Peter Ryan and Graeme Cumming form the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology (University of Cape Town) marvelling at swarms of redfin in the Witte River, Bainskloof

In just one lifetime our freshwater fishes have disappeared from the vast majority of their natural habitat, but the damage has been done underwater in remote mountainous areas that fall out of site of the public eye. It is now time for us to stand up, take notice and fight on behalf of these ancient, silent creatures of the streams.

REDFIN // a conservation story from Otto Whitehead.

Rhinos: It’s time for Plan B

We do not get a second chance. If we get the economics of rhino trading wrong all the rhinos in the wild will be gone. We have to get our policies right, and there’s no room for experiments; viewing rhinos in small secure breeding farms is no substitute. The tragedy of the horn debate is that South Africa’s highly respected rhino custodians (park authorities, field rangers, anti-poaching, monitoring teams) and even politicians have embraced a failed, pro-trade economic model as the answer to the rhino crisis.

Let’s look at the economics. Pro-traders argue that the supply of rhino horn can equal demand through free-trade pricing. This may work for large, visible items like Ferraris, but it has not worked for other consumer goods where counterfeiters thrive and expand markets by attracting new buyers by selling goods at discounted prices.

With the real cost of obtaining a rhino horn being a little above the cost of a bullet and a hacksaw, there will always be too much of a price difference between the legal selling price of rhino horn and the cost of poaching that horn. To assume that free-trade pricing economics will stem demand and solve the poaching crisis is nonsense when criminal syndicates can expand markets by supplying discounted goods and perverting the legal market.

The pro-trade price theory simply has not been proven – it is pure conjecture – nor does it take into account the massive potential size of the market. What if the demand for rhino horn is much greater than the supply? With close to a billion potential Asian consumers, this could easily become a reality, especially when criminal syndicates can induce increased demand by selling at prices below those set by the central selling organisation. Then what? The horns of just 25 000 rhinos simply cannot satisfy the demand from just a few million Asian consumers.

Pro-traders cite examples of ostriches, crocodiles, and vicuñas as successes that rhino policies must copy to ensure rhino survival. These are not comparable examples as ostriches etc., breed quickly, and none show the same scarcity levels based on values attached to body parts. Tigers and elephants do, and we’ve seen what trade in their parts has done to wild populations. If trading was the simple answer for all wildlife crises, why don’t we breed and trade tigers (or wild dogs) out of their critical status?

The pro-traders propose that the way to conduct rhino sales is via a De Beers-type Central Selling Organisation (CSO). Many economists out there’ll tell you how cartels serve only their own narrow interests (rhino breeders?) rather than the majority of stakeholders. The De Beers CSO made money for their vested interests but, in the process, certainly didn’t stop ‘blood diamonds’ or illegal parallel markets. Well-organised criminal syndicates will find loopholes around a rhino-horn CSO, providing a legal platform to launder illegal horn. And, will our authorities really be able to run a sophisticated CSO system?

But here’s the crux of the matter. Current international legislation clearly states that there can be no trade in rhino horn. The onus, therefore, must be on the pro-trade lobby to prove that rhino horn trading will unequivocally work, that changing the laws will not be detrimental to rhino populations and will largely do away with poaching and illegal trade. This has not yet been proven, and current pro-trade modelling glosses over these vital areas by making basic assumptions.

We also need to factor in that South Africa has little chance of getting any application for approved seller status through CITES in the foreseeable future. The earliest SA can submit such a proposal for change is 2016, and this merely sets in motion a whole range of bureaucratic procedures and legislative measures. Any change then requires a 75% majority – highly unlikely considering our current administrative malaise – and many more years will be wasted to implement.

With this protracted process in mind, I’m surprised that SA has no ‘Plan B’ because it will need one. My suggestion is that all sides get together and create a strategy that’s a wide-ranging, multi-faceted approach covering the entire scope of the crisis to ensure that rhinos have a chance of surviving in the wild. Here are suggestions (over and above those that are already work in progress):

• To stem the poaching avalanche, we declare all forms of trade in rhino products illegal. This means we must switch mindsets from creating value from rhinos to minimising or, even better, taking away all their value to save them in the wild. It’s a big ask for pro-traders to change mindsets, but the horn must become worthless for rhinos to survive in the wild.

• Very little has been done to target the middleman. They’re the poaching syndicate’s weakest link. Middlemen pay poachers to kill rhinos, and they export the horns. There can’t be too many of them, and some are not hard to spot. Without them, the whole poaching chain would start to implode. Communities will give information if the rewards for poaching information are greater than what they earn from poaching. Lifestyle audits etc will assist. There are laws in Mozambique that allow assets to be confiscated. There are reputable people with the necessary skills, expertise and contacts who are prepared to tackle this problem if given the go-ahead and budget.

• South Africa’s tourism and wildlife policies have often not sufficiently included rural communities living alongside national parks in their business models, and it is from these communities that many poachers emerge. Our wildlife areas are surrounded by rapidly increasing rural populations and extreme poverty. Innovative policies and plans must be put into place to integrate communities into the tourism and wildlife industry’s business models. So long as these neighbouring communities remain marginalised, they’ll seek to claim wildlife, either in their cooking pots or through illicit activities.

To redress this, I propose the creation of a “Natural Capital Fund” to:

1. bolster conservation and anti-poaching work,

2. remunerate and uplift communities who live alongside parks and reserves

3. pay for information leading to the arrest of the middlemen and poachers.

• The South African tourism industry generates well over R100 billion a year. I propose that a 1% levy is charged on all tourism accommodation and related services to support this “Natural Capital Fund”. This could generate as much as R1 billion a year. Getting tourism industry buy-in would take some persuasion, but it’s possible if there was leadership. In my experience, tourists do not mind paying a small levy if they know it’s going to a worthy cause. The funds could be distributed through an impartial and respectable NGO so that the money is spent wisely and accounted for.

• Elevate the crisis to a presidential priority level with Mozambique, Vietnam and China to speed up agreements and implement effective policies.

• We need an Elon Musk/Steve Jobs type of left-field thinking to ensure technology is created to help monitor and protect vast wildernesses such as Kruger.

Some pro-traders concede that their policies may result in rhinos becoming extinct in the wild and only found on small, well-protected farms. Is this what we all want?

The bottom line is: which is the safer bet – testing the insatiability of market demand, or creating an effective Plan B with no trade, ensuring that rhinos survive in the wild? We cannot risk rhinos becoming extinct in the wild and South Africa becoming merely a “Big 4” tourism destination through high-risk economic policies. How many jobs will be lost if that happens?

ALSO READ: Rhino horn trade = extinction in the wild

Parrots and people

The lives of parrots and people have been intimately entwined for centuries, if not millennia. Given the familiarity of many of us with some of Africa’s parrots, it may come as a surprise that we still know so little about their lives in the wild. The World Parrot Trust is working hard to improve the understanding and conservation of these very special birds, and 2014 sees a ramping up of their Africa Conservation Programme, but they need your support.

Globally parrots are one of the most threatened of all bird families. Their popularity as pets and tendency to roost and feed together in large groups has left them vulnerable to trapping. In addition, the reliance of many species on large mature trees in which they roost, feed and nest makes them highly susceptible to forest loss. Rates of forest loss in parts of Africa are among the world’s highest.

Some of Africa’s parrots have the dubious distinction of having been among the most traded of all bird species listed under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora). Africa’s lovebirds and species, such as African grey and Senegal parrots, are among the most popular pet birds. Many of us have been up close to these parrots in captivity and have been enchanted by their personalities. They feature prominently in popular culture and are among the first birds many children encounter in storybooks. Indeed, it was an African grey parrot that taught Dr Doolittle how to talk to the animals!

Given our fascination with these birds and the threats they face, the dearth of information on wild populations is surprising. Some species trapped in the highest numbers have not been the focus of a single field study, and no long-term monitoring initiatives exist. The unenviable task of determining whether trapping could be sustainable can be little better than educated guesswork. Recent efforts to address this shortfall have begun to fill in some of the knowledge gaps, but there remains much to be done.

Over the past decade or so, there has been a large increase in the number of field studies on African parrots, with projects focused on Lillian’s lovebirds in Malawi, black-cheeked lovebirds in Zambia, Rüppell’s parrots in Namibia, Meyer’s parrots in Botswana, grey parrots in Cameroon and brown-necked, grey-headed and Cape parrots as well as rosy-faced lovebirds in South Africa. We now know much more about the ecology of these parrots, with information on the nest characteristics, diets, flocking behaviour and vocalisations of many. Despite these advances, there has been a strong geographical bias in research efforts, with parrots outside southern Africa receiving little attention.

Some species, such as Niam-niam parrots and Swindern’s lovebirds, are almost unknown, and our knowledge of their distribution remains little more than loosely drawn circles on a map. For other species, we know enough to be concerned. More research should go hand-in-hand with conservation actions to address likely threats. Yellow-fronted parrots, for example, are restricted to Ethiopia’s remaining fragments of Afromontane forests. Actions to address the degradation of their habitat should be complemented by research into limits on populations and current distribution. While more research and monitoring will enable conservation actions to be refined and improved, waiting until we have all the answers may mean we wait too long.

The World Parrot Trust has been supporting parrot conservation in Africa for many years and has been involved in landmark projects across the continent, such as the recent release by Jane Goodall of a group of African grey parrots back into the wild in Uganda. 2014 marks an increased focus on the special parrots of Africa, with new projects starting in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia and Uganda. The World Parrot Trust is currently raising funds to support these efforts, with all donations made up until the 31st of January being matched by some very generous donors. Visit their website to find out more about the work of the World Parrot Trust and what you can do to help.

Orange-bellied parrot © Jimmy Vangenechten

Baboon spiders: hairy monsters or furry friends?

Baboon spider! The name conjures up images of giant, hairy, eight-legged creatures that could be the stuff of nightmares or cheesy Hollywood horror movies. But to the contrary, baboon spiders are placid, enigmatic animals that would rather keep to themselves than risk an encounter with human beings. And believe it or not, some people are fascinated by them…

Baboon spiders are African tarantulas. They belong to a primitive group of spiders called the mygalomorphs, which also includes trapdoor spiders and several other families. The group is characterised by possessing downward striking fangs and two pairs of lungs. The spiders that most of us are familiar with; rain spiders, wolf spiders, jumping spiders, and crab spiders, belong to the more advanced group, the araneomorphs, which have opposing, pincer-like fangs and one pair of book lungs.

The distinguishing characteristic of baboon spiders is their size. They can reach a leg span of 12-15cm. Some other spiders, such as rain spiders or tropical wolf spiders, can rival this but baboon spiders are much stockier heavier animals. It is uncertain how they got their name, but it probably relates to their large, hairy appearance. The other theory is that the soft, sticky pads they have on their legs, which they use to climb smooth surfaces and grip prey, resemble the pads on a baboon’s fingers.

Baboon spiders will feed on anything they can kill. This includes a range of insects and other invertebrates, such as beetles, grasshoppers and crickets, millipedes, and even scorpions. They will also occasionally take small vertebrates like geckos or even rodents. They are the prey for a range of animals, including birds, lizards and mongooses. They have developed several interesting defence mechanisms to protect themselves. When threatened, they will raise up their front legs and body and strike aggressively at an antagonist. Many species possess special feathery structures on their mouthparts, called scopulae, which they rub together to produce a hissing sound. A hissing, striking spider can be a formidable sight.

Despite their posturing, baboon spiders are harmless to humans. They have long fangs, and they do possess large venom glands, but the bite is only painful; it causes no systemic symptoms. Furthermore, encounters with baboon spiders are rare. They prefer to live in natural habitats and rarely come into people’s gardens and houses.

So why a blog post about baboon spiders? The answer is simple, we want you, the reader, to help with baboon spider research and conservation. Last year the Animal Demography Unit launched SpiderMAP; a new Virtual Museum project to gather photographic records of African spiders, and baboon spiders in particular. Knowing the geographic distribution range of a species is critical to understanding its conservation status, habitat requirements, and impacts by humans and climate change. But for many animals, and particularly invertebrates like insects and spiders, we often only have a vague idea of the species’ geographic range. The Virtual Museum allows members of the general public to contribute to discovering species’ geographic ranges by submitting photographs of animals they see in the wild, along with precise GPS coordinates of where the animal was seen, to an online database. These records accumulate over time and gradually build a picture of the geographic range. The Animal Demography Unit has had great success with initiatives, producing authoritative publications on distributions for birds, reptiles, frogs, and butterflies. We hope to do the same for baboon spiders.

Baboon spiders are long-lived animals, with females living for as long as 15 years in the wild. They are threatened by habitat destruction and over-collecting for the pet trade. If you see a baboon spider in the wild, take a photo and submit it to the Virtual Museum. You can visit the Virtual Museum here or click here to learn more about baboon spiders.

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A quarter of the world’s sharks and rays face extinction

Information provided by: Save Our Seas Conservation Media Unit

A quarter of the world’s sharks, rays and chimaeras are threatened with extinction according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with ray species found to be at a higher risk than sharks. The findings are part of the first-ever global analysis for these species carried out by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG).

The study was published in the journal eLife. It is the culmination of years of collaboration between 306 experts from 64 countries around the world who volunteered their time and expertise at numerous workshops and by correspondence to analyse the conservation status of all 1 041 shark, ray and chimaera species. This has never been done before for any complete major marine taxonomic group.

The results paint an ominous picture for the chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) around the world. Only 23% of these species are considered safe from extinction. This makes them the most threatened group of vertebrate animals. This is particularly alarming considering the huge ecological value of these predators, which play a crucial role in the functioning of marine food webs.

“Sharks, rays, and chimaeras tend to grow slowly and produce few young, which leaves them particularly vulnerable to over-fishing,” says Sonja Fordham, President of the Washington, DC-based Shark Advocates International, a project sponsored by the Save Our Seas Foundation. “Significant policy strides have been made over the last two decades but effective conservation requires a dramatic acceleration in pace as well as an expansion of scope to include all shapes and sizes of these exceptional species. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that the need for such action is urgent.”

The paper also highlights the urgent need for the protection of skates and rays, which has previously been overlooked by conservation groups.

“Surprisingly, we have found that the rays, including sawfish, guitarfish, stingrays, and wedgefish, are generally worse off than the sharks, with five out of the seven most threatened families made up of rays,” says Dr. Colin Simpfendorfer, IUCN SSG Co-Chair. “While public, media and government attention to the plight of sharks is growing, the widespread depletion of rays is largely unnoticed. Conservation action for rays is lagging far behind, which only heightens our concern for this species group.”

Globally, the regions of most concern are the Indo-Pacific biodiversity triangle, as well as the Red and Mediterranean Seas, which border the African continent. In general, chondrichthyans found off the coast of Africa are faring badly. 24% of African species are threatened, compared with the global average of 17.4%. 18% are near threatened, which is 5.3% higher than the global figure.

The good news is that we are reasonably well informed about African chondrichthyans. Data deficient species are relatively low, at 38%, compared with the global total of 46.8%. This means that most African nations are better placed to make informed management decisions in an especially species-rich region. The Mozambique Channel, is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots for many coastal and pelagic species.

Of particular concern is the high number of threatened endemic species in African waters. These animals have a very restricted distribution range and, once lost, cannot be replaced by immigration from populations elsewhere. The critically endangered ornate sleeper ray for example, was first named in 2007 and has only been spotted a handful of times, along a 310km short stretch of coast between KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape.

“Threatened endemics pose a serious management challenge, particularly when they occupy a very limited habitat and depth range,” says Sarah Fowler, Save Our Seas Foundation Principal Scientist (and past IUCN Shark Specialist Group Chair and leader of the Shark Red List Assessment). Several of the southern African endemics, mostly small colourful species of sharks and rays, are threatened with extinction because their entire distribution is fished intensively, but have received very little conservation attention.”

In November last year, the South African National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks was announced. This is essentially the national shark conservation guidebook. It provides information on the status of chondrichthyans in South Africa and examines how best to manage shark fishing and the trade of shark products in the South African context. Conservation plans like these, informed by Red List assessments, are crucial for the continued existence of sharks, rays and chimaeras and healthy functioning of marine ecosystems.

“If we keep going as we are, then there is a real risk that sharks and rays will be as mythical as krakens and seamonsters to our grandchildren. Declines can be, and have been arrested; sharks and rays can be saved. We know what to do, and this is laid out in the paper and the reports of the Shark Specialist Group,” says Dr Nick Dulvy, Save Our Seas Foundation Funded Researcher and IUCN SSG Co-Chair.

Two lion cubs born in Liuwa

Two lion cubs have been sighted in Liuwa Plain National Park in Zambia, significantly marking the first birth of lion cubs in the park for well over 10 years. They were born to the protégé of the park’s famous lioness known as Lady Liuwa.

It is believed that this is the lioness’s second set of cubs and that she probably lost her first set due to inexperience. The father of the cubs is the park’s only male lion. The lioness has hidden her new cubs in thick bush, making it difficult to photograph them.

For more than nine years Lady Liuwa was a solitary, lonely lioness roaming the grassy plains of the park in search of fellow felines with whom to mate and hunt, the sole survivor after massive poaching and illegal trophy hunting wiped out the species in the park in the 1990s. The extraordinary story of how she turned to humans for companionship and how the conservation team at Liuwa Plain National Park helped to find her a family became one of the most moving wildlife films of all time.

The lioness in the front is Lady Liuwa and the lioness to the back is the new mother © African Parks/Paul Godard — The lioness in the front is Lady Liuwa, and the lioness in the back is the new mother © African Parks/Paul Godard

Lady Liuwa has dedicated social media profiles and has also featured prominently in the international media. Lady Liuwa’s protégé, the mother of the two newly born cubs, was one of two young females introduced from Kafue National Park in 2011. Her sister was killed by a snare in 2012, and she, probably traumatised by this event, ran away towards Angola. In a dramatic rescue mission, she was darted, airlifted back to the park, and placed in a fenced boma.

African Parks then decided to place Lady Liuwa in the boma to encourage the two lionesses to bond. After two months, the two lionesses were released back into the wilds and have since been inseparable.

Two male lions, which were introduced to Liuwa from Kafue in 2009, also headed towards Angola in mid-2012, and one was reportedly shot dead by villagers in Angola. His companion, who made it safely back to Liuwa, is now the resident male in the pride and father of the two new cubs.

“We are overjoyed to have sighted the cubs and will closely monitor the new offspring to minimise threats to them,” said Liuwa Park manager, Raquel Filgueiras. “The birth of the cubs will help safeguard the future of lions in Liuwa and strengthen the park’s tourism offering. It is an event in which all stakeholders including ZAWA, the BRE (Barotse Royal Establishment), the Liuwa communities and the park itself, can be proud.”

How the engagement ring proves that we shouldn’t trade rhino horn

Most Westerners know that the medicinal properties of rhino horn are nothing but an ancient Eastern myth. But poachers are decimating the rhino population as Asia’s demand for horn grows and illegal trade expands. There’s now pressure to legalise the trade and farm rhinos. The argument is that by saturating the market with rhino horn, value and demand will fall. On the surface, this might appear sensible, but there are lessons we can learn from a Western myth fabricated just eighty years ago.

Once the privilege of royalty and aristocrats, by the 1930s, diamonds were being sold to those of far more modest means thanks to De Beers diamond company and their advertising agency, N.W Ayer & Son. As the USA emerged from the depression, De Beers approached Ayer to create demand for their product. Based on a few examples set by European royalty, the advertising persuaded average Americans that a worthy man should give a diamond ring to his betrothed.

Diamonds had never harboured romantic connotations; they had always been considered symbols of privilege and wealth. Yet the campaign caught the American imagination, and the diamond’s association with romance grew. They exploited the exciting new medium of film by weaving diamonds into romantic Hollywood scenes and flaunting them on the fingers of the stars. The slogan Diamonds are Forever was spawned, instilling a sense of lasting romance while dissuading people from selling the rocks and flooding the market. To top it off, they proposed grooms spend no less than two months’ salary on an engagement ring and, as the campaign spread worldwide, British men were compelled to spend one month’s salary and Japanese men, three.

Many people reading this will have a diamond ring on their finger or will have spent a great deal of money buying one. It’s probably the greatest marketing trick of all time. So what would it take to dispel the myth about the engagement ring? At the very least, it would take an advertising campaign of equal proportion to the one that manufactured it and require funding only the likes of a diamond company could afford. Of course, diamond companies would counter with a campaign to reinforce the myth, and they have an eighty-year head start.

Now imagine how much time and money it would take to dispel the far more ancient and elaborate myth of the medical efficacy of the rhino horn. Imagine the backlash that would ensue from deeply entrenched players. In the face of this, it might appear the only course is to throw up our hands, legalise the trade and farm rhinos for their horn. In South Africa, there is a great deal of pressure to put just such a proposal before the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 2016. But then we need to look at other aspects of the diamond trade:

Diamond supplies are carefully controlled. Competing companies realise that dropping prices might kill the market, therefore, a certain amount is stockpiled to avoid saturating the market and keep demand and price at an optimum level.

The price of diamonds is so inflated that a vast criminal market operates in its shadow. We are generally aware of this, yet the bodies and abuse left in its wake do little to deter us. The film Blood Diamond opened millions of eyes to the horrors of the illicit trade, yet there was no apparent drop in sales after its release.

Reports of Zimbabwe’s recently found Marange diamond fields, reputed to be one of the greatest reserves in history, points to corruption and human rights abuse. But while the US refuses to deal in Zimbabwean diamonds, sanctions have just been lifted in Antwerp, the centre of diamond trading.

Of the legitimate mining operations on South Africa and Namibia’s west coast, estimates are that between fifteen and thirty percent of rough diamonds exit the mines illegally. But De Beers seeks out and buys up as many of these illicit diamonds as they can to control the supply, thus encouraging an illegal market.

Given the example of the diamond market, what would happen if we legalised the trade in rhino horn? The market would also be at risk of saturation (the stated goal of the pro-rhino horn trade lobby), but it’s doubtful that the already established suppliers, with their criminal roots, would let that happen. They would want prices to remain high, and the only way to ensure that would be to limit supply by hoarding stockpiles and controlling the rhino population. As demand increases, there could be as much, if not more, poaching to meet the demand and the illicit trade in rhino horn would still flourish and compete with the legitimate trade.

Conversely, if the price were to drop, it is highly unlikely it would deter poachers. At present, the price hovers between US$60 000 and US$100 000 per kilogram. Drop that to a tenth of the price or even less, and poachers would still gun them down to make a living.

A legal market would not discourage sophisticated terrorist organisations, already poaching to fund their exploits, from continuing. A legal market would, in fact, add a convenient smokescreen for their and other poaching operations.

The market for rhino horn is growing fast and will continue to grow with Asia’s booming economy. The current rise in rhino poaching is driven, to a great degree, by Vietnam’s economic rise. Here, the wealthy sprinkle horn on their food and snort it like cocaine – a sign of prestige because it is more expensive than the drug. They use it to cure hangovers and enhance hard-ons – all modern, manufactured myths.

As the demand rises, imagine the surge that would occur with legalisation. Just 1 million consumers consuming just 10g per month = 120 tons per year. At an average of 4kg per horn, that’s 30 000 rhinos per year, more than the total number of rhinos alive today. Now imagine 2 million consumers, 3 million….

A major influence would be marketing. A rumour started a few years ago claimed that a respected Vietnamese politician cured his cancer by ingesting powdered rhino horn. Such a cure has no foundation in traditional Chinese medicine; the politician was not even named, but the rumour spread rapidly. Many see it as an underground marketing campaign to drive up the value of rhino horn. If it was, it worked; measure for measure, rhino horn is now more valuable than gold.

Legalising the trade means marketers need not use the rumour mill because they can advertise in popular media. And we know how crafty advertisers can be; we fell for the diamond myth, after all.

Perhaps the greatest myth is that legalising the rhino horn trade is about conservation. But it is far more significant than that. By legalising the trade, we validate a fallacy. We legitimise the death of every single rhino slain illegally for its horn. We put this and other endangered species at greater risk by setting a precedent that could open avenues for trade in ivory, lion bone, leopard skin and more. We legitimise the corruption of African officials who are complicit in the illegal trade of endangered species and we set a terrible precedent for Africa’s future.

ALSO READ: Farmed vs wild rhino horn – what the research tells us

21 elephant calves a testimony to anti-poaching efforts

Twenty-one new elephant calves have been sighted at Zakouma National Park in the Republic of Chad, marking a significant anti-poaching turnaround in the fortune of the park’s beleaguered elephant herds decimated in recent years.

anti-poaching efforts — © African Parks/Lorna Labuschagne

The devastating poaching onslaught reduced Zakouma’s elephant population from 4 000 to 450 between 2006 and 2010, leaving the decimated herd too stressed to breed. Whilst African Parks has stabilised the elephant population since assuming management of Zakouma in 2010, only five calves were born between 2010 and 2013.

African Parks’ conservation director Dr Anthony Hall-Martin says the stress caused by the traumatic, mass killings by mounted poachers between 2005 and 2010 is the most likely reason why the surviving elephants stopped reproducing. Rian Labuschagne, Zakouma’s Park Manager, said that a lion study carried out around 2005 found that elephant calves made up an astounding 23 per cent of the diet of lions at that time. “It was a direct result of the then rampant poaching that left substantial numbers of calves orphaned and easy prey for the lions,” he said.

The flush of elephant calves sighted by Labuschagne and his team shortly before Christmas changes the status of Zakouma’s elephant population from “stable” to a “definite increase in numbers” and is testimony to the success of the intensive anti-poaching strategy implemented by African Parks since late 2010.

Anti-poaching measures have included the year-round deployment of patrols in the extended elephant range, aerial support for patrols along with the construction of eight regional airstrips, the fitting of satellite collars to individual elephants, establishing a park-wide radio communication system and central radio control room, increased intelligence-gathering and a reward system for information, advanced training for park guards, the establishment of a dedicated Rapid Response Unit and the deployment of specialised anti-poaching technology and equipment. As a result of these measures there has been no poaching of elephants in Zakouma for more than two years.

African Parks entered into a public-private partnership with the Chadian Government at the end of 2010 to manage Zakouma, one of the last strongholds for migratory herds of savannah elephants in the central African region. Given that the gestation period for elephants is 22 months, Zakouma’s elephants had settled down enough to start breeding within a year of African Parks assuming management of the park.

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Labuschagne concludes, “We are thrilled that Zakouma’s elephant numbers are now growing but are mindful of the continual challenges that we face. At the moment we are implementing major new anti-poaching initiatives to combat ongoing threats that now include the deteriorating situation in the Central African Republic to the south of us.”

Last year the Government of Chad launched a national programme to combat elephant poaching and protect Chad’s remaining elephant populations. This national initiative is a first for the Central African region where elephant numbers have declined by 62% in just 10 years. A National Elephant Monitoring Centre in the capital city of N’Djamena has been set up by African Parks and is run under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment. It includes the satellite tracking of collared elephants throughout Chad.

Scientists call for critically endangered listing for West Africa’s lions

The living dead, scientists call them: populations of animals so small their extinction is all but inevitable. At the top of the list may be West Africa’s lions, according to a paper published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Scientist Philipp Henschel of the conservation organisation Panthera is calling for the listing of West Africa’s lions as critically endangered.

Lions in West Africa are few and far between and isolated from their Central African neighbours. As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently classifies them as regionally endangered, while lions in Central, East and Southern Africa are listed as vulnerable.

“Although the status of African lions everywhere is concerning,” says Henschel, “the situation is particularly alarming in West Africa.” Only 406 lions may remain there, according to surveys the research team conducted. The species now roams in just one percent of its historical range.

An inventory of the region’s lions conducted in 2001 and 2002 revealed that 450 to 1 300 lions remained. In response to those findings, Henschel undertook a new survey from 2006 to 2012 in West Africa’s savannas and woodlands. Working alongside Panthera researchers were biologists with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Nigeria National Park Service, among others.

The scientists searched high and low for lions, padding along dry riverbeds, old park roads and game trails, and through lowland tropical rainforests. They faced the same risks as the lions they sought to find. Henschel negotiated with rebel leaders for access to lands and invited poachers to work with the team.

Among the objectives was looking for spoor – tracks, trails, scents, droppings – in 21 West African protected areas that once harboured lions. “We could confirm extant lions in only four,” says Henschel. In many of the areas, lion populations have almost bled out. Disease, poaching and habitat loss are leading to lion deaths.

The stakes are high. West Africa’s Lions differ from those in East and Southern Africa. Studies have shown that West and Central African lions are smaller in size and weight, have smaller manes, live in smaller groups, and eat smaller prey than lions elsewhere on the African continent. The differences are also reflected in their genes. If lions disappear from West Africa, according to Henschel, unique populations found nowhere else in the world will be lost.

The IUCN now manages two subspecies of lions: Panthera leo leo across Africa, and Panthera leo persica in India. But the main subdivision of lions genetically is within Africa, scientists believe, between the lions in East and Southern Africa versus all others. The two groups in Africa, the researchers say, should be listed and managed separately. If that happened, West (and Central) African lions would possibly be called Panthera leo senegalensis.

The last best hope for Panthera leo senegalensis may lie where the buffalo and antelope still roam; in Pendjari National Park in northwestern Benin, which adjoins Arly National Park in Burkina Faso. Along with W Transborder Park, which spans Niger, Burkina Faso, and Benin, the three parks form the WAP (W-Arly-Pendjari) complex. WAP is the largest protected ecosystem in West Africa.

From March 19 to May 22, 2012, Henschel and others surveyed more than 75 percent of the WAP complex. The total lion population there was estimated at 356 lions. Lions were also confirmed in three other West African protected areas; Kainji Lake National Park, Nigeria (an estimated 32 lions), Yankari Game Reserve, Nigeria (2 lions), and Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal (16 lions).

Lions have disappeared across Africa as human populations have overtaken the landscape, competing with wildlife for habitat. Savannas have been converted into farms and fields for agriculture and livestock. Uncontrolled logging and burning have led to deforestation, desertification, and declining water quality. Some places in West Africa have become near deserts.

“Weak management of lions’ habitat due to a lack of funds has led to a collapse in lion prey populations and lions,” says Henschel. One West African park’s management budget is, he says, “roughly US $20 per square kilometre; incredibly low. To reverse the declines and stabilize populations of lions and their prey, we need a huge increase in financial backing for protected areas.” He points out that the WAP complex has received sustained assistance from Germany and the European Union. Hence, there be lions.

The empty forest, or empty savanna, syndrome it’s called. Habitats that echo only silence, their lifeblood drained by a gamut of environmental problems. The savannas and forests of West Africa grow quieter with each passing year, and their lion roars fainter. Soon the only voices we hear may be our own.

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A PHOTOGRAPHIC TOUR
OF ODZALA-KOKOUA NATIONAL PARK,
REPUBLIC OF CONGO