Meeting Anthony
Category: Lions | Date: Jan 31 2008 | By: admin
Tuesday was cut short due to a hasty office evacuation due to riots following the murder of one of the opposition memberes of parliament. The trouble ended quickly but everyone is still very edgy. So yesterday I had alot of catching up to do with Brian on our plans to help save the Mara Triangle and I also had the pleasure of meeting Anthony Kasanga of the Lion guardians! I can confirm that he is as charming in real life as he is on the blog! We had a good chat and laughed a lot and talked seriously about his ideas for the lion guardians blog…..I’m sorry, I can’t finish what I was going to write about.
I started this blog post with a light heart, recalling a fun day yesterday, the first day of late in which we have felt ’safe’ and free to go about our work freely. I’ve just been informed that another member of parliament has just been murdered, shot. Recall that one MP was shot just two nights ago. We were afraid it was politically motivated but the police insist it was a ‘normal’ shooting (What on earth is a normal shooting? He wasn’t even robbed?). Now riots have started afresh in five big towns across Kenya. We are about to close the office for the second time this week to ensure we all get home safely. I can’t describe how low I fee at this moment, I feel disgusted and ashamed but mostly confused at what is going on.
Violence continues - operations normal as possible in Nairobi
Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Jan 27 2008 | By: admin
Things aren’t quite back to normal, we’re all affected differently by the continued violence rocking Kenya after the disputed elections on December 27th. I’m Kenyan and for the first time in my life, I’m suddenly aware that my surname reveals my tribe and that this simple fact could put me in danger if I go to certain places! It’s Crazy!
Like many I’ve been safe only because of where I live and work. Those in the lowest income levels were affected as riots were restricted to the slums …. until last week. Two days ago, my brother fled our dairy farm in one of the violence hit areas after his neighbors and friends of 30 years tried to burn it down! My other brother, his wife and children have refused to leave, they believe they can defend the farm. We are all feeling quite helpless and a rescue mission has been mounted to ‘get them out’. To find out more Dipesh has started a blog to raise awareness and funds for those affected in the worst hit town, Kisumu. I hope you’ll visit to read more about how this affects him and those around him.
Some time ago I posted a cartoon of part of out ream by Kevin, an intern artist, and nobody knew who we were! I thought it only fair that I introduce us and tell you what it’s like in the day in the life of the staff at WildlifeDirect in Nairobi.
Its a daily adventure starting with getting to work – we all come from different directions – but the traffic is the same, bumper to bumper, and the public transport ‘matatu’s’ behave badly wherever you are in the city. I’m going to apologise for a stupid gap that appears randomly in this post - I think it’s a poltergeist, because every time I move it, it just appears somewhere else.
Most drivers wait patiently in queues, but not matatu’s (which translates to three - it used to cost 30 cents a ride), they overtake causing traffic jams, cut in to lines, drive off road, and frequently cause accidents (I saw 2 on my way in yesterday). Why do they behave this way? Simple, because they can! Colorful, like so much in Kenya, matatu owners often adorn their vehicles with provoking statements or names and art work on the back. And because the customers don’t stop them, other drivers are scared of them, and sad but true, the police are often easily persuaded to overlook dangerous driving with a small cash incentive called ‘chai’ which means tea (it’s even said that some matatu’s are owned by influential policemen). They often push pedestrians and cyclists into gutters, spraying mud or dust on them, and often putting them in line of danger.
Here’s an overloaded cyclist trying to balance produce for shops –battling for road space with a matatu bearing down on him. Though bicycles are common, Bicycle lanes do not exist.
My first stop is to get the newspapers from a friendly corner to and read on the 45 minute drive in (20 minutes if I leave at 6 am). It’s hard to ignore the bizarre, bazaars along the highways - you can buy or rent practically anything from a lawnmower, water, house furniture, to garden flowers and flower pots, a pet rabbit or puppy.
or a life sized scrap metal giraffe, crocodile or elephant!
We call this road side craft ‘Jua Kali’ which literally means ‘Hot Sun’ as the crafts men and women work in the sun (not in factories or offices).
I digress here into a Kiswahili lesson because as I write this I realise that Swahili is an odd but fun eclectic language - Jua Kali literally translates to Sun hot not Hot sun, because jua =sun, kali=hot or aggressive. Kali can be used in other contexts too like hot food (chakula kali) or something expensive (bei ghali) and aggressive dog (mbwa mkali). When I’m upset with my my son I get really kali and he always retorts ’stop getting so whisky’! I have no idea what that means but it always diffuses the situation (which come to think of it, is what our politicians need right now). Some English words have no translation in Kiswahili for example bicycle is bisikeli and motorbike is piki piki which literally is the sound that motorbikes make. I could go on and on …..
We start the day officially at 9 am but the truth is that most of us start the day from as early as early as 5am and we work in teams on different things – apart from supporting all our bloggers and website visitors, we’re developing major themes to stop wildlife poisoning, saving the Maasai Mara, stopping illegal trade in wildlife in Africa, and stopping the charcoal trade in Congo. Everyone is busy with plans to make these campaigns work. We will soon be telling you how you can help us create a campaign around these important issues.
Here’s Dipesh and Amir who is based in Congo but visits Nairobi from time to time.
….and Jonathan, on his way into the office on a matatu!
Emmanuel, Will and David were skyping with Australian social networking guru’s as we develop new tools for Wildlifedirect supporters.
We visited the Lusaka Task Force, Africa’s interpol for wildlife trade, to talk about the alarming scale of trade in gorillas, parrots, and chimpanzees in Africa (we’ve been bringing you some news in the gorilla protection blog as well as Limbe). We met with Clement and Bonaventure (from right Clement, Emmanuel, Ephrem (our Country officer in Congo) and Bonaventure. We were told impressive stories about seizing ivory and tracking traders and dealers, we were very impressed with what they are doing and felt it needed to be brought to global attention. So watch this space, we’ll be bringing you their news regularly.
Back at the office, though it may not look like it from this shot, Joy really is the heart and soul of the office, she handles everything and looks after everyone – she’s working on logistics and administrative issues and though she has a beautiful smile, this photo captures her normal expression….serious!
Masumi, every cheerful, brings the party to the office and provides bloggers support and much much more.
And here’s the most critical person to work productivity – John – he brings laughter and piping hot coffee
After work we sometimes get together especially if we have visitors from our Congo team.
Here’s Diddy and Will during his an Innocents visit last month.
Here’s Kevin and Maya (office mascot and Dipesh’s daughter) – Kevin is back at art school now after completing designs for our shop (check out the incredible T-shirt designs), he spent a month on internship with us and became a very popular member of the team. Here’s one of my favourite sketches he did – it’s called ‘Urban Samurai Heroes’ and represents Kevin, Josh (my son) and a friend of theirs on a quest to save the world. Apart from the aggressive expressions and blood thirsty weapons, the idea of urban heroes reminds me of what we’re trying to do for wildlife.
At the end of the day we join the endless snake of traffic back to our homes.
So…. does anyone feel they can identify who’s who in this cartoon now?
We must prevent a crisis in the Maasai Mara!
Category: Mara Triangle | Date: Jan 25 2008 | By: admin
The post election violence caused by the disputed outcome of December 27th presidential elections has completely rocked Kenya and everyone is hurting. We have had to close the office many times to avoid getting caught up in riots. Some people are scared and are just moving altogether.
This family used a cloth donated by USAID to cover their pick up as they moved away from a trouble spot in Nairobi
Hundreds of children, women and men have died violently as neighbours and even familes have turned on each other, hundreds of thousands are suffering after being displaced, losing property and their livelihoods.
Only a few businesses have from the trouble 
People are tired, scared and desperate.
I pass this billboard everyday - it was erected in happier times, its so out of touch now!
Everyone here in Kenya is pinning their hopes on Koffi Annan’s mediation genius. It seems has made a major breakthrough by getting President Kibaki and the main opposition leader, Mr. Raila Odinga to actually meet over the crisis. We’re yet to find out what actually transpired in those meetings …. But at least they are both talking peace.
Today’s front page news that Koffi Annan had succeeded in getting Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga together has brought smiles back to faces
You’d think something catastrophic had happened - newspaper stands were crowded this morning
While peace may soon return to the violent hotspots around the country, it will be years before the vibrant tourism can recover which has direct implications for wildlife conservation. The scenes of violent demonstrations and confrontations with police which have been frequently screened on international TV networks have wrecked untold damage to the tourism industry. I met with the head of KWS Mr. Julius Kipn’getich this week, he told me that visitation to the parks had dropped by 90%. Hopefully the parks which include Amboseli, Tsavo, marine parks, Lake Nakuru and Mt. Kenya will get some promised government support but I’m personally a bit skeptical that government will come through with significant help, they have a reputation of not following through with promises. For example, only this week showed that they would be unable to follow through with free secondary education country wide as promised.
Things are slowly returning to normal. Most schools are now open - this little girl’s father gives her a ride on a specially adapted chair
Trade is going on and this guy was weaving dangerously through traffic to get his produce into the city!
Jake Grieves Cook, the Chairman of the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) told me that the disruption to tourism is the worst disaster for industry that Kenya has ever faced. The KTB and related organizations are working overtime to reverse the negative image of Kenya and lure tourists back because the parks are actually not affected by the trouble in the country.
The British Travel Advisory was amended on Saturday so that it is no longer a blanket “non-essential travel” warning against the whole of Kenya and applies only to specific locations which his on similar lines to the US and German government advisories. This may bring slow relief – we expect it over coming months or years, but with only 10% visitation at a time when over 85% occupancy in hotels was expected has driven the industry to take extreme measures. Some hotels have even closed down and all businesses are hurting.
We are already seeing a cascading effect. Tourists have stop coming, hotels are closed, staff have been laid off, transport, supplies and other service contracts are canceled.
With no tourist plying the roads, all the roadside business will lose out, women who supply farm produce lose markets, and nobody has money to send home to rural areas. Tens of thousands have fled cities for rural areas where there are no jobs and no food. We predict that the protected areas will be unable to sustain anti-poaching activities and poaching will escalate.
Brian Heath of the Mara Conservancy, has raised an alarm and we are compelled to respond. The Mara has always been close to Richard Leakey’s heart - it is, after all, Africa’s greatest nature preserve . We believe that there is a looming conservation catastrophe that can only be averted with a well prepared program to raise funds. In response we intend to launch a major program to save this wildlife spectacle which was voted the worlds 7th Wonder just two years ago.
The Maasai Mara is home to the worlds most famous wildlife spectacle and beautiful people
Yesterday we launched a press release which was picked up by some papers here. We are going to ensure that the Mara Conservancy blog raises 160,000 dollars in the next 5 months. To achieve this we urgently need 16,000 dollars immediately to set up a sub station in the Mara that will enable Brian Heath to produce materials for blogs that will be as effective, if not more so, than gorilla protection blog. In 2007 we established camps in Bukima and Mutsora to enable blogs to operate from the bush. These blogs raised 350,000 dollars which has tremendously improved the protection of mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park. We are certain that we can replicate this for the Masai Mara to avert a wildlife disaster of similar magnitude to losing mountain gorillas.
In our press release yesterday, we stated ‘The damage to the local economy means many people are expected to turn to poaching wildlife for the bushmeat trade, causing irreparable damage to the ecosystem. With its millions of animals, the Maasai Mara is especially vulnerable; over 900 poachers were arrested in recent years. In 2007 alone nearly 500 wire snares were collected, 15 animals rescued and 46 animals were found either dead in snares or recently butchered. The tourism crisis has lead to reduced manpower for surveillance which will lead to an immediate rise in poaching’.
Wire snares like these are made from any source of wire - fences
Traditional means of poisoning and shooting wildlife is also a threat
As are modern weapons
Snares are indiscriminate and cause unimaginable suffering to many species
Dr Kashmiri (center) responded to an alarm from Brian Heath (right) and with help from the Ann Kent Taylor Foundation saved this lioness and this baby elephant below
He now has a permanent limp but is fine
We know that the Mara depends on tourism because the entrance fee contributes to the protection of wildlife and management of the conservation area. We’re hoping that would be visitors will still be willing to contribute the equivalent for a 4 day safari, about 80$ to ensure that the Mara is protected and therefore survives this crisis.
We need to raise Ksh 10 million in 5 months to protect the wildlife in the Mara. That translates to 158,000 dollars. We can raise this with only 2,000 people donating 80 dollars or with 615 people give us 50 dollars each month for 5 months. We’d appreciate your help with circulating this information and helping to raise this money.
The mara is home to the worlds most famous wildlife spectacle, losing it because of political unrest in Kenya would be a global tragedy. Please help us. Paula
Where Have All The Vultures Gone?
Category: Emergencies | Date: Jan 24 2008 | By: admin
Almost two years ago now, in one of the most beautiful parts of Kenya, Laikipia district, a group of biologists were sitting in the middle of the savanna grassland listening to each others presentations about research we would do had we an unlimited supply of money. Mine was not as outrageous as most of the others but I do see why it could have been important now. I wanted to conduct a nation wide investigation into the apparent loss of vultures in all the national parks. I had no factual backing to this ‘loss of vultures’, it was just something that had almost slapped me in the face when I went on a safari. Where had all the vultures gone? As a child I remember seeing countless numbers of all species of vultures, circling the skies, perched on trees with such sinister looks but at that age I was influenced by the evil vultures from the Disney movie of Robin Hood.
This is me with the long hair and orange top, giving my ‘vulture presentation’ and some of my fellow conservation biologists
The point I am trying to make here is that I found my answer to a question I silently pondered over for many years. Another threat to remaining African Wildlife: Poisoning!
It might not be the only reason to affect vulture populations but it certainly is a tangible and severe threat.
So what exactly happens? It’s mostly people that live near wildlife that are setting deliberate traps of poisoned carcasses to deter predators and keep them away from their land and livestock. Unfortunately poisoning causes vast numbers of deaths to most of the top predators and birds of prey alike, being the indiscriminate killer that it is. The poison accumulates in the tissues of whatever feeds on it thus making birds of prey vulnerable to secondary poisoning. There have already been reports from some of our blogs about this problem. Simon Thomsett had written a post about it last year, Lion guardians reported the loss of two of their lions and the Northern Rangelands Trust as well.
I recently read an article about the worst case of poisoning in years in Namibia where 25 birds of prey had been killed by feeding on the carcass of a poisoned dog. The dog had fed on poisoned bait and died. The targets of the baiting were jackals. This shows how indiscriminate the poisoning can be. It’s not a method just restricted to Kenya but occurs all over Africa and elsewhere in the world.
In Uganda, Queen Elizabeth National Park 80% of the hyenas have been poisoned and the at least 15 lions and this information is from June last year.
In a study conduced by one of our bloggers Seamus Maclennan in the Tsavo-Amboselli region in Kenya states that over 108 lions may have been killed in the region either through Masaai cultural act or poisoning.
Are there solutions? Someone like Seamus (Lion Guardians) or Sam Maina (The Water Hole) may be in a better position to tell you the answer but the immediate thought would be to educate people about the effects of the poisoning but how many animals will fall victim in the meantime…it’s a long term solution and those take a long time to see results. More immediate solutions would be to pass laws to ban chemicals such a carbofuran commonly used for the poisoning. For such action we need to get the message out.
If something is not done at this stage it may lead to the extinction of some of our birds of prey in the immediate future.
I had to use Sam’s photos from the Water Hole blog as I’m not out in the field but it is where I want to be.
Japan calls off whaling!
Category: Amazing facts | Date: Jan 23 2008 | By: admin
Hello everyone, it’s Paula here again
I have great news - after ten days of harassment, the Japanese are finally so frustrated that they have apparently given up the hunt! I’m struggling to believe that Green peace, Sea Shepherd and others who have been so bold as to board one ship ‘to deliver a letter’, throw stink bombs on to the deck to prevent work for days, gone to court and tried to prevent ships from refueling and just trailing and interfering with the hunting. Richard Leakey spoke about the ethics of whale hunting in his blog earlier.
“Greenpeace said its vessel Esperanza had driven the Japanese processing ship Nisshin Maru out of the hunting grounds after a high-speed chase over hundreds of miles.
Without the factory boat, Japanese harpoon boats have ceased activities, as they have no way of processing their catch”.
Sea Shepherd claim that no whales have died to date. There are some amazing photographs and more stories about this great news here and here
I’m so excited I’m going to break my new years diet and have a burger for lunch!
Kalahari desert - predators and prey
Category: National Parks and protected areas | Date: Jan 05 2008 | By: admin
After two incredible days in Selinda we drove to the great Kalahari conservation area - the worlds second largest conservation area – second to Selous National Park in Tanzania. This was described to us as the least visited, and wildest corner of Botswana that was made famous by the couple Mark and Delia Owen through their best selling book ‘Cry of the Kalahari‘ - they studied black-maned lions and brown hyenas in an area so remote that the animals had never before seen humans. Cry of the Kalahari, their best-selling book, is their account of their research and adventures. According to people in Botswana, the book revealed the threat that the veterinary fence posed to migrating wildlife and as a result, “apparently” this public revelation led to their eviction from Botswana although they continue to do research and support conservation through their foundation The Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation
We arrived at the gate of the Kalahari after driving down one of these nearly 100 km veterinary fences and were met with a stunning surprise
Gemsbok were everywhere … we were advised to camp at Deception Valley in the desert which is where the Owens did their research. Well, I can see why they chose the location …look at these photos and tell me if you think it’s a desert … or even a valley!
Males were testing females
It had rained recently and the animals were getting ready for breeding - the males especially were very frisky
This is the valley! Some springbok had started calving
Massive flocks of quelea were everywhere
As were these ‘crazy’ birds which spent the entire day making ridiculous raucous calls…I hve no idea what they were
None of the animals were particularly worried about us … this is a HUGE monitor lizard that walked right by us flicking his bright red forked tongue around as he/she went
Some of the smaller animals were just adorable
And everyone was enjoying the flush of green grass - these are striped ground squirrels
And I was thrilled to meet one of my most favourite animals, really close up…. meerkats
I hope I’m not getting repetitive, but these animals are stunning - and very well behaved for an amateur photographer like me!
I also personally adore jackals - there were hundreds of these black backed jackals around … often alone or in pairs
Others saw lions but we missed them, the only evidence was their deafening roars at night (I could swear they were in our camp!) - and this….
We missed witnessing the lion kill the night before, but got one scavenger trying to get something off the remains
In Selinda we witnessed lions killing a wild dog which many think is simply a case of a predator getting rid of it’s competition
Well check out this
These Jackals walked right up to the cheetah but didn’t seem at all bothered with it, and neither did the cheetah
They both lay down within 30 m of each other
and then the jackals started making these amazing cat like calls
Well, as you can see, it was a feast, wildlife photographic candy…
We celebrated our Christmas under the stars in Deception Valley in the Kalahari Desert - wondering about the name.. I think it’s a deception that its a valley or a desert.
They say that the Kalahari Desert is about the most dangerous place to go to in Botswana because it’s HUGE and you rarely see anyone else. … which is a big part of the attraction for me. But, if you break down you’re scr*wed!! Nobody is likely to find you for days! We had to rescue a group of young rather intoxicated people whose battery died on them in the park. They were desperate and we had to use our battery to start their car. Being there for Christmas day only, they had little water or food… (but lots of booze!). We thankfully got them out with help of other visitors after an hour or so… and then we discovered that we had brought no water for bathing… so it was 4 days in the bush without a bath… nice! It certainly kept the bugs at bay!
We did achieve something important, a realisation that a blog about this surprising place is definitely of interest to WildlifeDirect if it can help to raise funds to save this spectacular part of Africa.
Big cats and wild dogs
Category: Amazing facts, Lions | Date: Jan 02 2008 | By: admin
Let me start by saying I feel a bit guilty writing this blog as the trouble in Kenya rages. Yesterday over 35 women and children burned to death in a church they had sought refuge in. Thank you all for all your comments. We are all safe, Dipesh has been rescuing friends from Kisumu where over 100 have been killed by police - it’s an opposition area. I’m struggling to focus but will try….
My trip through Botswana in search of new blogs was quite an adventure - and a successful journey.
Botswana is a wild country so we (Peter my partner, Josh my 15 year old son, and I) planned thoroughly… or so we thought … we bought the guide books, talked to ‘experienced travelers’, checked the car, made calls and bookings, wrote endless checklists, did shopping more shopping and even more shopping … for camping gear, food, and gadgets for the 3,500 km trek through deserts and swamps. Proudly and highly organized we took off … but we had one last thing to do…
The last thing we had to do, was buy Botswana currency to pay for the border crossing which absolutely must be paid for in Pula (no not Paula’s, Pula’s). We dashed to the bank and discover that despite the fact that Botswana is an important neighbour, one has to ‘order’ the currency 24 hours in advance. WHAT?????? you can’t just go and buy Botswana currency over the counter of a bank or exchange bureau. And, why didn’t anyone tell us?
We couldn’t wait til the next day, instead we did an extra 6 hours driving to Polokwane with fingers crossed. Polokwane should be familiar to everyone. It’s where Jacob Zuma recently trounced the president of South Africa, Mr. Mbeki at the ANC Party elections causing a major upset, ……or not, depending on whose side you are on. It was BIG because this vote is likely to decide the next president of South Africa – it may well be Zuma, if he can dispose of the small matter of charges of racketeering, tax evasion and corruption amongst others …. But that’s politics, lets get back to wildlife
Josh and Peter in a very civilized camp in Khama
Arriving late in Botswana we drove straight to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary where we set up camp for the night.
“The Khama Rhino Sanctuary Trust is a community based wildlife project, established in 1992 to assist in saving the vanishing rhino, restore an area formerly teeming with wildlife to its previous natural state and provide economic benefits to the local Batswana community through tourism and the sustainable use of natural resources”
At Khama I met with Moremi the warden/manager and Ompatile (Opie)
It’s a wonderful place. Some years ago local members of the Serowe community decided to convert this local cattle post into a wilderness area – it had been a local hunting are that teemed with wildlife once. To restore the biodiversity, cattle and settlements were relocated and wild species protected. The government supported the community and assisted with the translocation of 14 white rhino into the Sanctuary. The first four in February 1993, from northern Botswana. Botswana has virtually no wild rhino’s, all wild rhino’s were removed from the wild and placed in sanctuaries for their own security due to poaching for their horns.
All the rhino settled well and soon began breeding. With further translocations, some sad deaths, and many happy the total number of white rhino at the Sanctuary is now 32 plus two black rhinos. This is now one of the most important rhino sanctuaries in Botswana and the landscape is enormously valuable to many other species.
I just had to go check it out. As a community trust Khama is reliant on donor funding which is why they are interested in wildlifeDirect. So I looked up the local warden Mr. Moremi Tjibae and Ompatile Galaletsang who’s initial suspicion at my request for a meeting turned to mighty relief that we were here to try and help. So look out for a new blog about this interesting sanctuary.
From Khama we set off for Maun, it felt like a million kilometers away, but driving these long distances was n0t the toughest part,
Now I know its not wildlife but I HAVE to tell (warn) you about the donkeys
Botswana is the same size as Kenya (about Texas) and has a population of 1.6 million people (vs 35 million in Kenya) and I swear there are MORE donkeys than people over there. Here’s one of them in the Makgadikgadi pans (don’t worry, I can’t pronounce it either) en route to Maun…..I took this photo because this donkey was unique, it was NOT on the road where all the other millions were. They all just stand on the road – as if waiting for something. There aren’t that many cars but the roads are incredibly smooth and almost everyone is challenging the speed limit of 120kph (80 mph),…. We were blaring horns up to a kilometer away and the donkeys just stood there, heads hanging looking dejected… not moving, or sometimes they move from the edge ONTO the roads…resulting in wild swerving, foul language and heart tremors.
It was awful for us and I’m sure the donkeys too - we did only see one dead donkey – but many others had various stages of healing from collisions. I noticed that most donkeys couldn’t move even if they wanted, in Botswana donkey owners ‘control’ their donkeys movements by tying their front legs together. Yes… the poor things can only hobble – and do so at a very lethargic pace.
Nevertheless, the drive and the Makgadikgadi pans were spectacular. Mainly because there were amazing wide open spaces and few people (Botswana’s population growth rate is enviable - a mere 0.4%).
Maun is on the edge of the great Okavango Delta but I can tell you that the town is not a place to write much about…We had to get to Maun to fly to Selinda … a magical place near the northern border of Botswana. A private conservancy run by Derek and Beverly Joubert, better known as the Jouberts of big cat documentary fame and National Geographic - you can read about them here and buy their amazing book The African diaries here.
I met the Jouberts in Washington at the National Geographic offices, and we’ve been talking about the possibility of doing a blog about Selinda and big cat conservation in Africa. I wanted to see the place …
Here are some pictures that I hope tell the story themselves …
We had to fly to Selinda from Maun -over the edge of the Okavango Delta - and into rain storms
Derek warned me it as kind of wet at this time of the year - kind of ??? This is the Selinda spillway that connects the Okovango Delta to the Chobe River ecosystem - it was a major flood.
We landed late in the afternoon on a bush strip in the middle of nowhere- nobody had come to pick me up!
Sunset was spectacular … but there was not even the hum of a vehicle coming to pick me up! - the pilot wanted to go back to Maun before it got too dark to land…
We took off again to ‘buzz’ the camp - look at the horizon - the way this bush pilot was flying seemed -more intended to frighten the daylights out of me - we’re talking low level near vertical approach … totally gratuitous and terrifying but probably served to satisfy his adrenalin needs. I couldn’t help wondering why is it that all the bush pilots in Botswana seem to be 21 year old Australian or New Zealander fright freaks?
It’s been my life time dream to see wild dogs an extremely rare, intelligent, social and beautiful animal
The wildlife spectacle made me forget the flight and I did see a wild dog - but that was after the lions spotted it… it wasn’t happy.
We found these two lionesses lying lazily atop a termite mound. After an age tehy got up slowly and sountered off into the bush stopping for a drink on the way. They looked so beautiful, calm, natural -gentle, almost huggable - we were only a few meters away from them.
We followed them for an hour and they didnt’ seem to be going anywhere specific, just strolling lazily, we knew that one had 8 kittens, our hope was to see the cubs. Then witnessed this killing…
I know it’s nasty and was very difficult to photograph, but this IS what happens. These lionesses bumped into the wild dog and then suddenly their mood changed from lazy stroll to chemically induced trance. The dog was alone - not hunting - he was probably looking for his pack. They spotted him as they came over a rise, and were on top of him before he could even begin an escape. The lions had him in their grasp for 45 minutes, but they didn’t kill him, just left him debilitated then looked at us as if ‘What are you looking at?’ and swaggered off.
Though in the clutches of the lions was looking directly up at me. I felt sick. He was still alive when they finally left, I wanted to end his suffering but we couldn’t do anything … I’m still in shock about it. I’d appreciate your thoughts on why you think the lions behaved this way and do let me know if you think these pictures are too graphic.
The rest of the day had a very somber feel… and the next morning we had another great drive and breakfast in the bush.
Sadly the Jouberts weren’t able to come meet us as a minister had asked them for an impromptu meeting on the same day they were to fly to Selinda So we had a wonderful two days at the worlds most amazing dreamy camp in the middle of the bush with an amazing guide called Bibi. He took us out for 2 of the best game drives I’ve ever been on. This is my son Josh on the right, Bibi in the middle. Next we drove to the Kalahari Desert….where we saw more big cats interacting with jackals….
Here’s our species list
MAMMALS
Chacma Baboon
Cheetah
Common duiker
Elephant
Giraffe
Hippopotamus
Impala
Black backed Jackal
Greater Kudu
Red lecwe
Lion
Common reedbuck
Serval cat
Steenbuck
Tsessebe
Warthog
Waterbuck
Wild dog
Wildebeest
Zebra
BIRDS
Bateleur
Carmine bee eater
Kori bustard
White browed coucal
Wattled crane
Pied crow
Water dikkop
Cape turtle dove
Namaqua dove
Knob billed duck
White faced duck
African fish eagle
Booted eagle
Tawny eagle
Black egret
Cattle egret
Great white egret
Little egret
Lanner falcon
Red billed firefinch
Paradise flycatcher
Red billed francolin
Swainsons francolin
Egyptian goose
Pygmy goose
Spurwinged goose
African goshawk
Gabar goshawk
Helmeted guineafowl
Hammerkop
African marsh harrier
Grey heron
Squacco heron
Grey hornbill
Red billed hornbill
Yellow billed hornbill
African jacana
Pied kingfisher
Blackshouldered kite
Yellow billed kite
Grey laurie
Ostrich
Yellow billed oxpecker
Grassveld pipit
Blacksmith plover
Crowned plover
Threebanded plover
Wattled plover
Red billed quelea
White browed robin
Lilac breasted roller
Common sandpiper
Wood sandpiper
Secretary burd
Greyh headed sparrow
Burchells starling
Greater blue eared starling
Open billed stork
Saddle billed stork
European swallow
Common wax bill
Shaft tailed whydah
And many many others that I couldn’t identify
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Donations Received
- Sep 16th Said A. USD110.00
- Sep 15th Ward K. USD110.00
- Sep 12th Paula K. USD11.00
- Sep 10th Anouk Z. USD110.00
- Sep 7th Jennifer C. USD50.00
- Jul 8th Roaney G. USD30.00
- Jun 24th Gerhard B. USD20.00
- May 4th Cynthia C. USD50.00
- May 3rd Robin C. USD50.00
- Apr 17th Theresa S. USD100.00
- Apr 15th Nicola A. USD100.00
- Apr 15th Theresa S. USD100.00
- Apr 15th Dana J. USD100.00
- Mar 31st Nicola A. USD100.00
- Mar 20th Theresa S. USD30.00
- Mar 19th Beth T. USD20.00
- Jan 27th Tim W. USD15.00
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