Day # 3 Impala
Safari Camp ~ How to Help Endangered Species, Watching
Lions Sexual Activity and Fly Camping
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| Our 3rd amazing breakfast |
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| English Breakfast |
So far we
have not seen any elephants, leopards or cheetahs and we are beginning to
wonder about Tanzania’s problem with poaching elephants for their tusks or
horns, or hunters who want animal head trophies or leopard skins in their man
caves, or the Chinese who want Rhino horns because of the money they can make
from what is thought to be an aphrodisiac (No evidence for this!). In
1982, the United Nations made Selous Game Reserve a National Heritage Site.
There is no hunting in the northern part of the reserve but in the southern part
of hunting is allowed (for a price). The
Great Elephant Census of 2016 funded by Paul Allen estimated 352,271 elephants
in 18 African countries. The yearly loss
of elephants, mostly due to poaching, is estimated at 8% per year. Tanzania and Mozambique are the countries with
the greatest declines with an estimated of loss of 73,000 elephants over 5
years due to poaching. There is also
some loss due to habitat destruction.
Africa
appears to be a bit of an illusion of wide desserts and wide stretches of
unpopulated land forgotten by man, and an inexhaustible supply of nature. Yet
we learn that every patch of land is claimed by government, or parks, and human
demand. There is not enough free space for animals. Hunting these endangered
species is a billion dollar business which is sometimes overseen by corrupt
governments who make huge sums of money by charging up to $80,000 per day for a
hunting trip. I am told Botswana has
had government controlled hunting since 2014; in 1977 Kenya banned trophy
hunting and South Africa no longer allows hunting leopards. Efforts have been
made but every African country appears to have different rules.
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| Festo |
Festo, who is the son of an African ranger,
once worked on a trophy hunting expedition and was so disturbed by this that he went back to school to become a safari guide. He seemed genuinely upset by the loss of animals in
his lifetime as well as the shrinking habitat. He was a great guide and could answer any of our questions in great detail. I also wonder about the impact
of global warming and lack of water on the animal population. It is clearly a
complex issue and I resolve to try to learn more about this when I return.
In
addition to poaching and habitat loss, elephants and leopards ae sometimes
killed by local farmers to prevent them from eating their produce and cattle.
We learn about several approaches when we visit a village guide school while in
Ruaha National Park.
One
approach has been to make laws to prevent poaching and hunting and imposing big
fines when poachers are caught. Our guide says that in Botswana if a person is
caught poaching he will be shot. It is not clear whether this approach has
helped the problem.
A second
approach is to offer hunters very expensive hunting licenses and use the money
to promote conservation methods for protecting animals. A third approach is to
help villagers understand the impact of poisoning these wild animals on their
future livelihood and train them in other ways to keep animals away from their
cattle grazing and to protect their livelihood.
In another blog I will talk about how ‘bee fences” and video technology
have been used to help farmers live in harmony with elephants and get rewarded
for not colluding with poachers who are making a fortune out of the ivory
trade. We learn that South Africa keeps their animals fenced in so they cannot
roam outside their game parks. Tanzania has not done this.
Each day
we continue to spot new animals. On our third day we see herds of at least a
hundred cattle-like cape buffalo. They have large heads with large horns that
spread outwards from a broad base and arch upwards. The male horns are joined
in the middle while the female horns are not joined and covered with hair. They
have Oxpeckers or Tick Birds sitting on their backs removing ticks and insects
from their hide. They seem to stand together staring at us. The old male
buffalos with massive horns are pushed away by the stronger males and may live
together in geriatric, bachelor groups like the elephants and impalas. While
their eyesight and hearing is poor, their smell is astute so apparently they
are not to be underestimated.
Dazzling Zebras
We search the area for almost an
hour following foot prints but do not find the elephant. There is something
exciting about our hunt process as it is not necessary to be successful to feel
the adrenaline of the chase and there always seems to be some unexpected
finding. This time we are very luckily do see a Honey Badger, one of the
most feared animals in the bush! It is said to have a body 6 times stronger
than a human and is very clever with robust claws. It is rare to see these as
they are nocturnal animals. I think of Badger in Winnie the Pooh who I adored
and did not seem fearful!
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| Honey Badger |
While tracking the elephant we come across a herd of impalas jumping across a river. I felt we were in circus as these beautiful animals gracefully stretched across the river.
More Lazy Lions
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| How many lions do you see in this picture? |
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| Grandmother Lion with Battered Ear |
Wow! We spot a pride of lions lying together
under a tree. A grandmother (14 years of age) and another older female are out
front looking for opportunities to hunt while one of the three females with a
stripe on her back is in heat. We are amazed to see the male lion get up and
copulate with her. This is a 15 second event, doesn’t look particularly
exciting for the female and then they rest for 18-20 minutes and begin again.
We watch this several times and learn they will have sex 55 times a day for the
5-7 days she is in heat. How exhausting.
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| Should this be private? |
There are several other younger female
lions in this pride sleeping nearby. The females stay with the pride for life
(15 years) and the male lions leave at 3 1/2 years and by 6 years are ready to
fight to conquer a pride. It is possible
for 3 young males to cooperate to push out an old male lion and take over a
pride. Depending on the strength of a pride they can specialize in hunting
different animals. some go for wildebeests while others go for baby giraffes or
zebras. This will depend on how strong and how many are in a particular pride.
At this time the lions seem very relaxed and sleepy although looking a bit
thin. We watch them for at least 30 minutes and are amazed that we are only 6-8
feet away.
We
continue on seeing another tower of giraffes near the water. Here we are able
to see how they bend down to drink water. It looks very cumbersome. Apparently
when they bend their neck to drink there is less blood to the brain but somehow
the blood is released in small amounts so they won’t faint. They need 30-40
liters of water a day.
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| Add caption |
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| Southern Ground Hornbill |
Fly Camping
On this
afternoon we gather up a small back pack and go “fly camping” where 3 small
tents are set up next to the lake. Not sure why it is called fly camping---we do
not fly there and there are not many flies.
There is a Forrest ranger with a rifle for protection. Nice to know
given we have just seen a pride of lions looking a bit hungry. We have a
campfire and lovely dinner in front of the lake, identify more birds and watch
the sun set. We tuck into bed listening to the birds and hippos. Our guides
have put mattresses in our tents and cook us dinner so this is pretty luxury
camping. Moreover, we are provided with long-drop toilets and bucket showers.
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| Flat topped Acacia |
In the morning we start with a forest hike learning about dung beetle,
identifying tracks of zebras, hyenas and lions and learning about skulls,
warthog holes and trees such as baobao, acacia, sausage, candelabra, lead wood
and mahogony.
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| Whistling Acacia |
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| Flower of Acacia |
Fascinating to understand
how baobab trees provide water for elephants in drought conditions, or how the
flat topped Acadia, sausage tree and coconut palm provide either shade for
savannah animals as well as fruiting pods as a valuable source of food and
drink.
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| Baobab fruits |
We pass by several skeletons of
giraffe heads and necks examining their vertebrae and look at an elephant’s
teeth learning how there are 4 sets with the jaw pushing teeth out the front.
By 50 years of age elephants stop growing new teeth.
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| Foot of Giraffe |
Searching for Elephants and Leaping Leopards
Peter,
Steve and John go back to Impala Camp while Marie, Barbara and I want to continue
as we have learned female animals are prone to do! We go back to watch the
pride of lions once more.
We see some vultures circling so know something has happened.
Will it be our family of lions who got food the night before?
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| White-headed Vulture |
Sure enough a very content looking family. This time we learn that the grandmother only has one
incisor left in her mouth and our guide believes they have just eaten a zebra after
a successful hunt. However, apparently
one zebra is not enough food to feed this pride.
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Grandmother with Missing Incisor
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We see a huge termite house and learn how these insects headed by a king and queen make these dome-like conical mounds with a ventilation system achieving high humidity. The queen can lay a many as 35,000 eggs a day for years. Termites provide a food source for insects, birds, Aardvarks and may even provide housing for warthogs and mongooses.
The next
morning we drive to our next Cessna airplane ride to Ruaha Park and to our
astonishment we come across a leopard on the road! What a send off. I can't take it all in and will blog about leopards from Ruaha Park
where we may see more of them.
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| Leopard |
We search the area for almost an
hour following foot prints but do not find the elephant. There is something
exciting about our hunt process as it is not necessary to be successful to feel
the adrenaline of the chase and there always seems to be some unexpected
finding. This time we are very luckily do see a Honey Badger, one of the
most feared animals in the bush! It is said to have a body 6 times stronger
than a human and is very clever with robust claws. It is rare to see these as
they are nocturnal animals. I think of Badger in Winnie the Pooh who I adored
and did not seem fearful!
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