Tag: wildlife

Balancing Act …

A national government has the responsibility for making the most of a country’s resources and sharing the benefits among its peoples. In Zimbabwe during the Mugarbage era the national wealth went down whilst the personal wealth of Mugabe and his cronies went up. A kleptocracy working just the way its rulers wanted. Across the border in Botswana things seem to have gone very much better. Botswana is considered the least corrupt country in Africa, the economy is growing healthily and per capita purchasing power is above the world average.

Botswana is essentially a dry country but with a water supply from beyond its borders. The Kalahari Desert is in the centre and south west, The Okavango Delta is in the northwest. The country is about the same size as France.

The population is about 2.7 million people, population density being 5 people per Km2. They are not evenly spread, about 69% live in a town, the largest being Gaborone, the capital in the southeast of the country, with a population of a little over 208,000. The population of Botswana is slowly increasing.

Diamond mining is the mainstay of Botswana’s economy, about half of government revenue comes from diamonds. A lot of pretty eggs, one basket. Tourism, number two in importance, accounts for a little over 10% of GDP. A large proportion of the rural population depend on subsistence cropping and cattle farming.

The tourists go mainly to the Delta because it’s beautiful, wildlife is abundant and the facilities are first class. Flying in adds to the sense of space and wilderness as does the absence of power lines and fences. The set up depends on concessions. The Government holds on to the dirt. Business leases the opportunity to build and run lodges. Do a good job, upgrade facilities and you may be granted the opportunity to renew when the lease runs out.

A World Bank Technical Report, An introduction to tourism concessioning: 14 characteristics of successful programs cites as an example …

“Okavango Wilderness Safaris has a concession for Mombo Camp in Moremi Game Reserve, in the heart of the Okavango Delta World Heritage Site.

The lodge is highly profitable, achieving an average occupancy of 70% between 2009 and 2013, with a rack rate of US$2,413 per person, per night in the high season. During this period, the lease fees and taxes paid generated US$6 million to government, and over US$3.7 million was spent on staff costs (of whom 75% are local Batswana).”

Kudos to the government. So why is this post entitled Balancing Act? In part because of the fences that you didn’t see. Cattle was culturally and economically numero uno prior to diamonds and tourists and it still is to the rural population. The market for beef is the EU. To satisfy the EU on health grounds Botswana has to keep the cattle and the wildlife apart especially the buffalo. That means Veterinary Fences. Over 10,000km of veterinary fences. Namibia next door to the west also has its share of veterinary fences. The fences cut migration routes that have existed for millennia. Water floods into the Delta in the dry season. Animals migrate to the periphery in search of pasture. As the land dries out they move back into the heart of the Delta. Unless they died against the fences.

Over all wildlife numbers have declined since the first fence was erected in 1958. On the other side of the coin, if the fences come down will the cattle move in, elephants and buffalo move out, conflict with farmers increase?

What about the water? The rain falls in Angola. They have first dibs. If it leaves there it has to cross the Caprivi Strip of Namibia, a colonial oddity that enabled the German overlords access to the Zambese. If it is diverted there to the extent that there is too little to flood the Delta then the Kalahari increases in size and the Delta dies.

And power! Botswana purchases electricity from South Africa and presently all they have to sell is rolling blackouts. That is an issue that the government of Botswana has already begun to address.

Botswana has done a great job. They need to keep it up. There’s a tricky road ahead.

WABAW …

A palindromic acronym that I just made up. Perhaps unlikely to attract many hits but who knows … curiosity. So WTF does it stand for (I tried not to do that but I couldn’t resist). What about black and white? My first experience of photography was watching the magic of black and white appear in a dish. My Uncle Ron was a professional photographer back in the day. I went on to have my own wet dark room for some years. Film, enlarger, paper. Oh the nostalgia. I’m still a sucker for B&W.

Power and Stealth …

Panthera pardus, the Leopard, the most wide ranging and adaptable of the big cats. They are solitary creatures, adults coming together only to mate. Females then spending almost two years as single mums.

Medium sized antelope and the young of large species account for most of their diet but they also take small mammals and even invertebrates. A patient and silent approach to within 5 meters of its prey is likely to be successful. Longer chases are often abandoned. We several times watched Impala telling Leopard that they had been spotted – don’t bother. And they won’t bother if they’re not within 20m.

A kill may be consumed on the spot or carried up a tree. They are powerful enough to climb with more than their own body weight in tow. On the ground dispossession by lions, hyenas or wild dogs is not uncommon.

Other predators are also a threat to the dependent youngsters. There are one to three cubs in a litter that must be left when mum goes hunting. They can climb well from quite an early age. Even so this is a particularly dangerous period in a leopard’s life.

The Story …

If you read about photography you will occasionally come across the notion that a photograph should tell a story. Sometimes it does …

But sometimes it’s just a pretty picture …

We were very fortunate to spend a lot of time with Leopards, not the first time I’ve seen them or photographed them but on this visit we had stunning views. I took many photographs and you will see some soon. This trio are not among the best. The first one makes the cut only because it does indeed tell a story. The others only make the cut because of the story attached.

The Leopard was initially lying on a low branch, a very flat cat. And that’s the way it stayed for ages. Really flat. There were two vehicles in attendance and for us to get a decent view took a bit of manoeuvring. When it was time to go it became apparent that we were stuck, a wheel had come to rest between two sizable fallen branches and it simply wouldn’t climb out. It was decided that the other vehicle would tow us to safety which meant that someone had to dismount and attach a rope to the back of our vehicle and the front of the other, under the sleepy gaze of a Leopard poised to pounce just a few meters away and above us. The moment our driver did so the flat cat quickly woke up.

Fortunately it didn’t feel the need to leap onto the driver and we were very quickly on our way.

Baboon …

Are they gorgeous or will they rip you to shreds? Yet another animal that is much misunderstood. Male baboons are much the same size as a large dog, have canine teeth that are way more impressive and sharp claws. They could do some damage. But by and large they don’t. If cornered or threatened they may fight their way to safety but they are prey animals not predators. Dogs on the other hand are a different story. Animals24-7.org keeps a log of fatal dog attacks in South Africa. They run at about two per year, about half are children. I haven’t been able to find a single instance of a human killed by a baboon. The dog you bought to keep you safe is a far greater threat to you and your family than a baboon.

Baboons are big monkeys in the genus Papio. Mammals of the World volume 3, Primates lists six species each of which is further divided into subspecies. The boundaries of the species has been blurred by hybridisation to such an extent that there are places where there’s a PhD to be had in working out which species is present. It’s generally accepted that the Chacma Baboon is the one found in Botswana but the mitochondrial DNA differs from those further south. The Kinda Baboon is present in Angola and the Yellow Baboon in Zambia and they all interbreed freely at points of contact.

Life for a Baboon is communal. Groups vary in size but are typically 30 to 40 strong. Females and their young are at the core of the group. Females spend their lives in their natal group, males leave home at about four years of age and may switch groups again subsequently. Status is important to Baboons, the females inherit theirs from their mother. The boys have to work it out for themselves.

The group as a whole has the job of keeping other groups off their turf and keeping individual members out of the jaws of predators.

Conflict with people arises because Baboons raid crops and will enter houses in search for food. The response tends to be tinged with fear and spite.

The answer to the initial question is Baboons are gorgeous. They are never cruel to people.

Nature Red in Tooth and Claw …

In 1850 Alfred Lord Tennyson published the poem In Memoriam A.H.H. It commemorated the life of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam who had died at just 22 years of age 17 years earlier. It was at a time when science and religion were posing different answers to the fundamental questions. It was an immense work (2,916 lines and getting bigger in subsequent editions). Tennyson wasn’t the first or last to wonder if God is the great and good creator of all why He is so careless with individual lives …

Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life;

Darwin’s Origin of Species came in 1859. One of Tennyson’s 2,916 lines, perhaps the most memorable of them all, came to sum up the implications of the survival of the fittest.

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d against his creed

Bad Boy …

I once went on a walking safari. You can read about it. Day 1 is <HERE>. The safety briefing was a gem. In it I learnt that most charges that I could expect to face would be mock charges. But if it was a buffalo it would be for real.

Our pick up point was 20 km away. It soon became apparent that there was a very strung out herd of buffalo in between. This meant a significant detour. Late lunch that day.