Baraza

For some reason this hasn’t hit the mainstream press, but according to the East African newspaper,  the KWS have given up Amboseli National Park.This story goes back to  2005 when the president in his wisdom gave away the reserve to the local Maasai in what many believe was an attempt to buy support  for constitutional referendum. They accepted the land which overlooks Mt Kilimanjaro, and voted against him anyway.

Local NGO’s Nature Kenyaand Eastern African Environmental Network took the government to court to squash the ministers decision to actually gazette the presidents declaration. The case is still in court. Despite this KWS have apparently given up and the newspaper claim that they have a copy of an agreement to that effect. It seems that the agreement puts KWS in a contracted position to manage the park on behalf of the council who can boot them out if they are not happy.

Why does this matter?

Amboseli is iconic of Kenyas’ wildlife protection and conservation success. It is one of the most important protected areas in Kenya  - and the combined attraction of mountain and elephants generates more revenues than most of the others combined! It is where the elephants and lions have recently been speared. The local council is unlikely to have relevant competence to manage the site and Kenya may lose one of its greatest and most famous wildlife refuges.

It’s not surprising that the locals want the land, KWS has been raking in millions for years, with little to show for its contribution to the local communities. Nevertheless, this decision is likely to see the invasion of the park by pastoralists, the killing of elephant and lions and tourism is unlikely to recover.

I suspect that this is the beginning of something interesting, KWS releasing a stranglehold on parks and reserves especially where communities are ferocious (they are very averse to aggression). They will let go  back down and take on managerial roles only - like the private sector. Can KWS survive this way? I’m curious - it is quite a bloated organization.

I wonder what would happen if we engaged more private sector interest in conservation directly (not just hotels) in Kenya that way Kenyans could invest in wildlife and nature protection and earn dividends.

……perhaps I”m dreaming again.

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Tags: Amboseli, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS

Well, I’m back and it was a MEGA adventure. First let me tell you how it all ended – 65 km later, up and down an elevation of over 2,500m and from temperatures of 35 degrees C to minus 15 degrees! I returned with one big blue toe and a wonderful sense of achievement!

Hard to think that this mountain straddles the equator. The peak, Batian is named after Mbatian, the Maasai paramount chief. Its sister peak, Nelion is named after Nelieng his brother. Two other peaks Lenana and Tereri were his sons, while Sendeyo was a headman. All other peaks, valleys, lakes and points of interest carry the names of the British explorers and armers in the area (not a single Kenyan explorer or climber is recognized on the plaques at the peak! It’s rather sad. I apologise for this venting but not a single peak is named after the Kikuyu, the tribe that lives around the mountain, to whom the mountain symbolizes God. Strange! You can read the colourful history of the ‘discovery of Mt Kenya on Wikipedia‘

Climbing Mt Kenya is not a cultural norm in Kenya. Only 10,000 visitors enter the park and attempt the climb each year – that is compared to 22,000 visitors going to Tsavo East National Park per month! I don’t understand why it is such an under appreciated park? It’s stunning as you’ll see from these photos.

Alpine moorlands dotted with giant groundsels, silvery cabbage gruondsel, and amazing sunbirds and other rare yet tame creatures everywhere. My decision to go was rather impulsive and I expected huge regrets. I let myself down on that one, it was simply amazing and for several reasons. First there was nobody else on the mountain but Peter and me plus our team of porters and a guide. Yes, we did it the easy way – first we didn’t even know the way up, and secondly there was no way in hell I was going to lug 15 kg of kit up a 15degree slope for 5 days…. And survive. So we splashed out and contacted a firm called Go to Mt Kenya who sorted us out with some very grateful local guides and porters to do the work. Since tourism has all but collapsed they were really happy for the income so while Peter felt horribly guilty - I accepted that were it not for them I’d not be trekking.

The hike up Mt Kenya started at the Sirimon Gate on the north western side of the mountain in the forest Zone about 2,800m. Setting off almost went belly up – I’d forgotten my identification and the rangers at the gate argued with me for 45 minutes – was I really a Kenyan or not (Kenyans pay daily park fee of only 20$ vs 40$ for tourists so they didn’t want to lose any money). I had to make many phone calls, answer too many funny questions, and even my Swahili was not convincing. Eventually someone high up told them off, apologies were accepted and we set off on something of a walk and a scramble…..

Bamboo zone - incredibly dark and mysterious full of elephants!

Alpine meadows

Everything is wierd on Mt Kenya - and beautiful. Our first day, Saturday, was easy – only 3 hours of uphill on a road – we stopped frequenly, observed insects, hugged trees and enjoyed the sunshine. The forest zone thins out to Bamboo and then giant heather before it’s suddenly moorland – open tussocky grasslands …

Giant groundsel at higher altitudes form forests! This one is over 100 years old

Everything there was tame, even these Mountain Chats wantd to hang out with us. as we walked the blue sky turned white as clouds and mist crept up and overtook us… then it started raining.

My first thought was ‘rats, what were we thinking climbing in the rainy season’. Luckily we were near Old Moses hut which was very dry, offered good beds with mattresses and that was when we first realized just how spoiled we were. Within minutes of changing into dry clothes we had mugs of hot chocolate, cookies, and local donuts. We were told to eat up- we needed the energy for the next day, an 8 hour hike to the next camp. At 3,200 m it was cold at Old Moses but not freezing.

Old Moses hut is managed by this guy who was absolutely amazing. It was clean, warm and perfect in that rainy weather

At 7 am on Sunday we set off for Shipmans camp 4,300 m – the walk continued up hill, until there was no more heather, everything shrank … until it was just grass, and then all of a sudden everything was giant again – giant cabbage plants and other rosette plants, giant lobelias, huge hyraxes, mosquitoes!

I’m glad I didn’t touch this but - it’s a blister bug, one touch and you end up covered in disgusting warty blisters according to Dino. We were collecting bugs for Dino in streams – it wasn’t easy, the water was freezing and every time we stopped the cold would chill us to the bone.

I even looked for bugs in hyrax poop. We had such enthusiastic support from the guide Nicholas Njuguna that I’d filled almost all the jars by the end of the day.

Nothing we did could shock our seasoned guide Nicholas Njuguna who had a great sense of adventure. Shipmans camp at 4,200m altitude sits at the base of the main peaks of Mt Kenya which tower over the beautifully sculpted Mackinders Valley.

We arrived after the 14 km uphill hike in the afternoon, tired, cold and hungry. As the afternoon wore on it got colder and colder but at least it was dry. We chatted to the guide Njuguna at length, about his love for the mountain and the kinds of people he has guided up as we ate donuts.

It’s almost impossible to imagine how the chef (Yes had a chef!) produced such delights in these conditions!

The hyraxes on Mt Kenya are also giants - seriously!

Njuguna revealed to us that many Kenyans climb, but they are only porters and guides. Not the likes of myself basically. What a shame!

The next day was an acclimatization day – necessary if we really want to make it to Pt Lenana. We planned to use the day going for walks around the peaks. We set off at 7 am to climb up only 370 m scree slopes – sounds easy? Well I promise you, it was much tougher than anything we had done. I knew it wasn’t nearly as bad as the last days climb, and so my doubts began to plague me….when we got to Oblong and Hausberg tarns, only about 3 km from Shiptons, it began to rain, then hail! and we had to abandon any plans to go up and down the next 3 around the peaks (thank you God!).

Call this acclimatization? To what? Hell?

We returned to more hot chocolate and cookies at Shitpons, hiked around the streams, photographed hyraxes, and enjoyed a night of photographing the peaks in the dark. We tried to get off to sleep early but the guides, chef, and porters seemed to be in a terrible argument, on top of it all they were playing really loud Kikuyu music (which I hate). I asked them to keep the noise down - it softened for a few minutes before the pitch rose again. Later I asked what was the cause for such animated discussions - they said politics, but truth is it was nothing, loud is just how these guys communicate! Everyone shouting at the same time!

Until this point we felt like we were the only people on the mountain, and then the doors flew open and an icy gust blew in, with three more tourists. Ug! Two of them were unlikely to be going anywhere but one, a loud over confident athlete was bragging about the final assault, and asking for aspirin (I have to forgive her because she was obviously already suffering from altitude having ascended much to fast).

We began strategizing how to avoid being with her for the last and most spiritual part of the climb. We woke up at 3 am to leave before her, but she was already up, greeted us loudly and bragging about herself. We let her and her guide go first. Half an hour later we left in pitch black, the hike from Shiptons to Pt Lenana is serious, I’m not joking. They say it’s a 3 am start so that you reach the summit at dawn… but I suspect it’s to prevent you from realizing the full stupidity of the final ascent – it is so steep and apparently dangerous that I appreciated the darkness and the amazing starry sky.

The peaks at night

We had a full moon night that revealed the harshness of the peaks against the night sky. It was also absolutely freezing - juice in our drinking bottles froze! I could see her torch on the higher slopes – were it not for her annoying bragging I might have sat down and refused to continue climbing. My muscles were tortured but I had to do it!

At 6.30 we watched the sunrise and light up the icy scree slopes and peaks. Whatever bad thoughts I had until then vanished, the beauty of Gods mountain just overturned all thoughts. The hiking up hill was bad but the scrambling was terrifying one wrong footing and I could have gone hurtling down hundreds of meters into a glacier – or rocks. I know I sound like a terrible wimp but the truth is that Mt Kenya is one of the most dangerous mountains in the world (so experienced climbers say).

Anyway, I don’t feel at all embarrassed that I had to be assisted with a pull at the very final point to climb a rock that seemed impossible at that altitude. It was icy and slippery but once up I had my balance. The weather was perfect, the sunrise stunning and the peaks of Batian and Nelion were absolutely spectacular.

At the top of Point Lenana is a flag placed by Kiseo Munyao - the only Kenyan mountaineer I’ve ever seen recognized(!) who planted this flag on Kenya’s independence.

It was very very cold!

After half an hour bathing in the sense of achievement, we had to start the descent – it was actually much harder than you can imagine.

For Peter and I this was a lifetime achievement, we’d been talking about doing it for years.

Once the sun was up, the ice had started to melt, stones were slippery and legs were wobbly.

The truth is - I was in pain. But breakfast beckoned…our itinerary said

‘Descend to Minto’s hut for full breakfast. After a short rest descend further to Mt Kenya bandas lodge through the gorges valley for dinner & overnight. You can enjoy log fires, hot showers and bed at the lodge.’

It left out the part about the descent being 12 hours of really tough hiking! Hence the painful blue toe

The worst part is that you can’t give up on that track - there’s nothing out there… just total wilderness

Still, it was worth it for the views - these are the Vivian falls (yes named after some guys girlfriend or something)

We actually detoured to view the beautiful lake Michaelson (named after a colonial farmer I think).

Day 4 was certainly the most difficult, I had changed shoes as my hiking boots were destroyed by the scree, and ended up in a pair of hiking shoes that were far from ideal – hence the blue toe.

Though it was 12 hours – it was a glorious 12 hours through some of the most spectacular country I’ve ever hiked. Ever!

The so called Mt Kenya bandas lodge was a bit of a joke – we expected to have a noisy smoky bar full of Yahoos, and all that goes with ‘lodge’ but in fact it was just a rather poorly maintained set of cottages – but there were clean beds, hot water and a wonderful fire.

The next day we slept in, and had to be roused for the final 10 km hike to the car and then drive to Chogoria – and matatu (public minibus transport) back to Nanyuki. This part was an adventure in itself – suffice it to say that we made it (high speed, lots of shouting and banging,Bob Marley music blaring, watching the driver bribe police, crazy overtaking….). Getting back into my car was tough, my muscles had all seized into theat cramped position in the matatu – all other customers must have found it rather amusing to watch me.

The dashboard of one of the cars we ended up in! We drove all the way back to Nairobi and our house on the edge of the rift Valley getting home at 9 pm feeling really smug as we settled into our beds. We did it. What a great feeling!

Having done the mountain once, we’ve decided to do it again early next year. And, we’re planning to do something about the poor access to information about how to get there, and how amazing the local porters and guides are. We will do an online and printed guide book for the visitors like us to the Mountains of East Africa, for peopel who want to know about the people, local climbers, the flowers, the animals, the routes, geology and the mountain itself for ordinary people like us, to inspire everyone to go hiking. That means I have to do more hiking… got to replace those darned boots!

PS. the noisy athlete made it to the peak but appeared to be in considerable trouble on going back down (and I thought I was scared of heights!)

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Tags: Climate change, climbing, glaciers, Kenya, Mount kenya, mountains

I spent the long weekend examining a potential WildlifeDirect partner and blogger- William Kimosop, the chief game warden of the local authority of Baringo Keiyo, Kiotabek and Marakwet. This photo essay hardly does the trip justice….. I am privelaged to have been invited on the pineering expedition across the Mid Rift Section of the Great Rift Valley which comprises of the Tugen Hills ranges of Koibatek and Baringo.

The plan is to manage this vast area as one conservation unit which includes the famous freshwater Lakes Baringo and the alkaline Bogoria with it’s flaming shores of flamingoes and steaming geysers. I had to see it and experience it to believe in what William has committed his life to.

We met at the equator at a place called Mogotio - it is the gateway to the region. William is the third from right. He is and has always been a big dreamer, to prepare for his big opening of the mid rift tourism circuit, he’s building a center at Mogotio, a one stop shop for all visitors.

He invited a group of us to participate in this pioneering safari with a simple instruction – “meet me at the equator”.

So the ten of us left Nairobi in 4 different cars most of us didn’t know each other. Someone was supposed to have done the food shopping…I wasn’t disappointed, we had a chef in the group, an ecologist, an anthropologist, a film producer, three photographers, an entomologist, and two young boys! While we stretched our legs at the equator we were greeted by laughing ladies all offering us their local craft - creative soap stone carvings. This set just the right tone.

The drive onwards was into the Tugen Hills which rise from the bottom of the rift valley ( 2700ft asl) to a over 9,185ft at Kapkut peak. This landscape presents some of the most dramatic landscapes in Kenya, with views of both sides of the rift valley from these hills that rise in the middle. The drive through these hills was on amazingly good roads – I should not have been surprised this is the home of the former president of Kenya, Mr. Daniel Arap Moi. The winding roads through the hills revealed how this fertile land is carefully cultivated on terraced slopes.

If drive was spectacular arriving at our camp was amazing. We immediately set up our tents and from mine I could see Lake Baringo, flamingo fringed Lake Bogoria and it’s steaming jets, and the Eastern escarpment of the Rift Valley about 25 km away. Just a short walk across the back of the hill and one can see the western escarpment of the rift valley – another 25 kilometers away. A short walk from camp was a clearing with the most incredible view, this spot was perfect for sundowners (read wine or gin and tonics), is called Gods Window.

This is a view from Gods Window!

I’m so jealous that William grew up here. He said that he had always believed that the two escarpments represented the edges of the world, and he felt enormously lucky to be in the center of the world atop of the Tugen hills! His dream is to establish walking trails across the rift valley taking advantage of traditional trading tracks and moving between protected areas, through communities and over dramatic landscapes. Within minutes of arriving we found this lovely fellow - according to my book he’s an Albertine rift tree frog - that’s weird, if it’s true he’s in completely the wrong rift valley! I’ll have to ask herpetologist Bob Drews of the Biodiversity race blog and Kim Howell of Dar es Salaam University.

Possibly (hopefully) a new species of frog! ( I thought it was a toad at first until I looked at some pictures of the Albertine frog)

Our camp is particularly special– it is the site that was set up for the Queen of England during her 1952 tour of Kenya. She was a princess a that time, but her trip was cut short when her father, the King, died. She arrived in Kenya a princess and left a queen. It comprised a simple clearing in the forest where trees had been left untouched, only the undergrowth cleared creating a lovely grassy shaded area. The view from the camp is awesome.

Sunrise over Mt. Kenya. What the queen missed!

Sadly, she didn’t visit any of the camps that had been set up especially for her. So Williams plan was that we do the tour for her - and so her official flag came everywhere with us!

William was so pleased that we took the Queens official flag on the front of one of the cars! Nobody recalls how we came to have this flag!

Over the four day stay we visited several of the 38 forest patches that have been set aside for conservation. These are interspersed with human settlements many of the people have preserved an old way of life amongst these forests. The plants were lovely.

We were told of three plants used for paint-this little thing looks green until you rub it on your palm - it’ turns bright orange! Another plant locally called lipstic tree - is used by young girls to paint their lips bright red.

…and this montane aloe turns deep purple when damaged. It’s a beautiful colour that is used to dye the local wool and for baskets.

The mountain protea was a joy to see as well… but

it was the giant ancient giant podo trees that we found most humbling. We gave this one a group hug.

In the middle of the hug we realised that this tree was colonized by an interesting and very well camouflaged day gecko. Funnily (or not) this gecko looks suspiciously unlike any other gecko in the book! Two new species in one day (I hope) - not bad hey?

We saw 9 leopard tortoises on the roads, one had been hit by a car and was dead - so we rescued any that we found on the road.

When he wasn’t rescuing tortoises, Dino was catching bugs. He told us fascinating stories about how the male carpenter bees ride on the females while mating - he hold on with specialised arms a that completely cover her eyes. In this position he can direct her flight while mating. Talk about multitasking!

Everything was weird and wonderful. Look at this spiderweb - built by a communal species - we saw more than 20 of these massive creatures in there -and the best part was having Dino Martins, Kenya’s top entomologist and author of Dudu diaries blog (everything about insects) with us to give us the inside stories about these critters.

We only had time for one proper hike to the top of Morop hill, a local peak. On arrival at the base the entire village arrived to greet us – it turns out that our safari was rather special, the first of it’s kind in decades. They had prepared a walking stick for each of us to help us up the steep rocky peak.

Though poor the people of this area are not suffering - they are successful farmers and only produce what they need.

We struggled up the winding path to the peak and any sense of achievement was killed, the barefoot kids had raced us up and were there with their dogs waiting with slightly amused expressions on their faces. It’s no wonder that in these hills grew some of the worlds most famous athletes Paul Tergat, Ishmael Chelanga and others.

Local boys found us fascinating

Children ran like mountain goats up the rocky slopes completely bare footed

Apart from an attack of a rather nasty stomach bug (picture witheld!), the only other drama was the rescue of a tiny puppy that was surely going to die. We named the tiny terrified pup Morop after the hill and Anderson, our guide took him home to Bogoria.

Not exactly handsome, Morop was thin, scared, tired and desperate for love when we took him. Dogs in this region are extremely stunted and may even represent a new breed.

Tiny Morop with his new dad Anderson, an amazing guide and bird expert, and a wonderful dog lover.

Local legend says that nobody can climb Morop hill only once …I can’t wait to go back and to continue the tour with William, Anderson and Nicholas - and this time to explore caves, fossil sites, seasonal forest pools, hidden waterfalls and other peaks and view points.

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Ephrem just received a report that three more elephants were killed in Virunga, bringing the total to 17 in the last two weeks. This is unprecedented. Every single one had its ivory hacked out. The price of ivory is believed to be at around US$150 per kg on the local market. At this rate, Virunga could lose all of its elephants before the end of the year. We are working on deploying the Advance Force of rangers in the area, although they are quite badly overstretched in Southern Sector of the park, on the efforts to stop the charcoal trade.

This was an interview given on Voice of America on Thursday night, following the killings.

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I was sent this extract by Samira, my sister in law, who lives in Mozambique.  It made my blood boil.  I don’t know who the author is, but the story speaks for itself.

Emmanuel.

A family holiday should not encompass the sights that we saw in Zimbabwe this last December.  We decided to go north-west of Hwange National Park to Kazuma Pans after bitter disappointment in Hwange’s poorly maintained campsites with no electricity or running water, the relative exorbitant park fees, rangers openly drying game meat even in the public toilets and seeing nothing more than a few very skittish animals fleeing from the sounds of our vehicles.  Sometimes the animals fled so fast that we were uncertain as to what it was we had seen “Was that a cheetah or a baboon?” one of the kids would ask.  No one was certain.

One of the Hwange Wardens, however, tried to discourage us saying “You’ll never make it, the road is treacherous, I got stuck 7 times on that road only yesterdayŠ.. anyway, there are no animals there, go up to Zambezi National Park, it’s better”.  According to an old brochure, it states that “Kazuma Pans is a 30 000 hectare sanctuary for animals outside of the private hunting concessions” and so we thought it would offer more than what we had seen thus far and decided to go regardless of his warning.

Well the road to Kazuma fell short of his description.  We wondered what the Warden was trying to do ­ chase us out of the area or cover something up.

Kazuma Pans is like no other park we’ve visited in Africa with massive expansive pans filled with newly sprouted bright green grasses with patches of water and the occasional palm tree.  One can see for a kilometre or two across the pans and it is a birders paradise with various storks, ducks and birds of prey including Crested Eagles.  Yet at night, it is eerily silent with no animal sounds at all, except for the rain frogs.  No people and strangely no animals.  We felt like the last people on earth.

We decided to drive across the pans to other side on a morning game drive. The only significant sighting was a herd of some 400 buffalo grazing on the pan but as we approached they took fright and they heavily galloped off with their little tails curled up.

We came across an elephant skull and skeleton that had been blanched white in the scorching sun.  The magnitude of the skull, the length of a rib and size of the femur bones was astounding and something none of us, especially the children, had ever seen close up before.  Maybe this sighting was rather unusual.  Don’t elephants cover up their dead?

We continued down the road, but within a short period you could smell the sweet stench of a carcass.  Another elephant.  This time it was more recent with most of the skin still intact, but again no tusks.  The positioning of the twisted body looked peculiar with its head wrenched away from its body, its mouth gaping open as if calling out in pain.  It was horrific and the children became quiet as the adults looked knowingly at each other.  This elephant did not die naturally.  For then we saw the bullet hole in this once majestic giant.

It was time to move on.  As we turned the next corner, we all gasped as before us is a scene from “The Killing Fields”.  In this green field of bush with young sprouting Mopani trees were twenty plus elephant carcasses and bones scattered everywhere.  Lots of bones.  Carcasses with beautiful yellow butterflies sitting on them.  Added to the sweet decaying smell was an oily odour.  The bones are blackened as if they have been burnt with diesel. Perhaps it is to discourage scavengers or else to hide the evidence.  That distinct smell haunted us all for days after.  Just how many dead elephants were there in this field?  Who did this?  The children stayed in the cars looking forlorn with tears falling and only a few of us had the courage to walk through the field. I had mistakenly taken a tail for an infant’s trunk.  Where were the babies as there was no evidence of them?  What had happened here?  Were only the adult elephants taken out and the remainder of the herd fled?  Who did this? Who would allow this to happen?

This killing field is no more than a few hundred metres from Kazuma Hunting Lodge.  Kazuma Hunting Lodge?  But there is not supposed to be any hunting in Kazuma.  Well that’s changed.  The Lodge was unoccupied as the hunting season is over for the year.  In the middle of the lodge is a thatched structure incorporating the reception, lounge and bar with two elephant skulls at the entrance.

Behind the bar, we found the visitors book.  The vast majority are Americans boosting of their successes:
“Shot the big four in 10 days”

“An 80 pounder on the first day”

“We came to the place of the elephants.  Secured a 65 pounder, 43″ sable and a 7′ 6″ leopard was the icing on the cake.  Hope to be back soon”.

“Meals prepared from our game were superbŠ We wish we could bring all our new friends home with us.  I guess we will have to be happy with Jim’s leopard, eland, kudu, sable, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, hyena and baboon”.

The last recorded hunt was in August 2007 with three hunters from Utah, Minneapolis and San Diego.

I feel deeply saddened at the trophy hunters’ brazen bragging and their evident lack of understanding, but it was this entry that turned my sadness to rage:

“169 elephants in 8 days.  Nowhere comes close”.

 
Not a wonder then that we did not see any game and the few buffalos ran away.

Rob and Barry Styles of Buffalo Range Safaris are frequently mentioned as the professional hunters.  The brothers have been linked with Mugabe cronies and it appears that the Zimbabwe Government has sanctioned these activities for financial gain from the American trophy hunters’ fees as they plunder the last remaining game from Zimbabwe’s national parks.

Zimbabwe has long had game watchers and game hunters together in the same vicinity.  However, the game hunters have now claimed this land and game watchers are no longer welcome.  This is not “the place of the elephants” for we never saw a single live elephant.  It is an elephant graveyard.  We won’t be back soon.

I guess the game is over.

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I was recently asked about my opinion regarding the use of armed forces in conservation. Afterwards I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The question was something like this

“Do you advocate for the use of arms by wildlife conservation personnel”

“Of course I do!” I shot (easy, next question)

I reminded the interviewer that over 150 Congo rangers have lost their lives in the line of duty. Rangers in Congo face poachers and rebels all the time. Their jobs are extremely dangerous. How could you send a ranger un-armed into rebel infiltrated regions? It would be suicide.

I don’t know what it’s like in USA, Australia or Europe, but in most parts of Africa, poachers are armed with AK47’s to hunt elephants, rhinos, hippos and other big game. Sometimes they are only after meat, often they are going for valuable trophies. It’s a no brainer. Of course the rangers must be armed to defend themselves and yes, sometimes the poachers get shot and sometimes they die.

But the next part of the conversation made me wonder if I’d been too quick to answer. Maybe I’m not seeing things clearly, from all angles. Is it right to send armed men out into the wilderness or does this up the ante?

The interviewer turned to a topic that I found particularly hard to digest. The concept that we Africans are doing such a bad job in conservation that a number of charismatic species in Africa may be on the brink of extinction because of the threats posed by poachers. :

“African rangers, armed or not, were obviously not effective to stop the killings of gorillas” that’s what I thought he was implying.

“What do you think about the possibilities of employing foreign paid mercenaries to come in and clean up?”

“What?” My mind spins. “What on earth would mercenaries do in Africa?” I asked

“Well, protect the wildlife against armed militias like in Congo, don’t you think they could save the last mountain gorillas?”

My brain was screaming but I kept a cool voice

“No, not at all, in fact any organization that thinks sending mercenaries to Africa is a solution, obviously does not have a clue about the situation on the ground”.

I turned the image upside down.

“Imagine African mercenaries deployed in USA to save the last few wolves. Would THAT be acceptable? Of course not” – or at least I don’t think so.

At WildlifeDirect we come across some weird people and weird thoughts all the time. Here are some hair brained ideas – or are they?

There’s a plan afoot to create a mountain gorilla sanctuary in Hawaii where they claim it “is a vital step towards saving the species from imminent extinction”.

David Attenborough is involved in a 50 million dollar project to save Britains butterflies - I love him but isn’t Britain going to be too warm for these species in a few years?

A doomsday ark is being built on the moon - or is at least planned.

A doomsday vault of frozen seeds has been built in a mountain side in Norway

I find it s rather depressing, all this doomsday talk and planning. Should we really be investing so much in doomsday scenarios? Shouldn’t we be doing our damnest now - investing in the natural ranges where these species occur?

Is there really NO reason for hope?

Before you leave a comment, check this out … http://www.breathingearth.net/

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Tags: 122, 33, 447, 728, 771, 772, 83

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.

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I’m back from Botswana after a 3,5000 road trip and “NO”, I didn’t get lost in the Kalahari and resort to desperate versions of bush craft……

In fact, I’ve had a spectacularly exciting time, seen many amazing interesting creatures and this post is about one of those, so much to tell you all about the new upcoming blogs…over the next few days - rhino’s, wild dogs, lions, brown hyenas, elephants… and amazing places, the Okavango, impossible to pronounce parks, and the great Kalahari …

Todays’ post is about the incredible mopane worm - which is one of the Africa’s most strange and valuable insects.

I was hungry but I didn’t eat it - really!

I first met mopane worms years ago as crinkled up dried black sausages in Zimbabwe - they were being sold in little bags like popcorn on the streets. I turned my nose up at them and had no idea how important they were. Later I met some at the bottom of my bowl as I neared the end of my meal in an up-market South African restaurant! It was a delicious traditional dish until I noticed little legs, crunchy head and colourful spots along the side (why didn’t anyone tell me?)… I politely left this last spoonful to avoid a generous refill…. And hoped REALLY HARD that there was only one in my serving.

The mopane worm is actually not a worm at all, but a large colourful caterpillar which feeds on the mopane tree, Colophospermum mopane. These trees that are common in the northern border region of South Africa and the southern borders of Zimbabwe and Botswana and northwestern Namibia. The worm is locally known as as Mashonzha, Masonja or Amasonja. The adult stage of this caterpillar is a large and attractive Emperor moth (Family Saturnidae) but it’s the larva that’s worth millions.

I don’t think I’ve ever met an insect that is such an important source of cash and protein to many people – in fact, it is one of southern Africa’s economically important insects.

This dog wouldn’t eat it raw either - its gotta be cooked to bring out the flavour!

Traditionally, Mopane worms are collected, prepared, and consumed by local people in southern Africa. After harvesting the caterpillars which sit on trees, the guts are removed by squeezing (nice!).

The worms are then boiled and left for a day to dry out in the sun. Once dried they can be used at any time for cooking. They say that when cooked the worms are juicy and salty or if eaten dried have a dry, gritty texture and slightly meaty taste…. Caterpillar biltong…simply delicious! I know you’ll enjoy this recipe…

Mopane stew

Ingredients

1 cup of dried mopane worms
1 onion, chopped
2 green peppers, sliced
6 tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon curry powder
½ litre water

Preparation

Wash the worms and boil them for 30 minutes. Drain, then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about an hour.

Yummy!

Gritty but Healthy

These worms are comprised of 61% protein, 17% crude fat, and 10% minerals - a highly nutritious supplement to the diet of people indigenous to these regions.

I can’t help feeling sorry for them (the people and the works) but entomologists insist that a diet supplemented with edible bugs and worms could help Aids patients boost their nutrition levels, “For many it offers a cheap way to stay healthy. A nutritious diet for an Aids patient might cost over 1,000 rand (about 80 dollars) a month but if you live in an area where mopane are abundant, you could pick them off the trees yourself,” Dr. Toms said.

Ok, as a scientist I agree, science doesn’t lie…. but it still sounds disgusting to me. But, compared to some other critters, these worms are not as frightening.

Things you wouldn’t want to eat - or would you? Can you guess which of these bugs are also eaten frequently in Africa?

No doubt one of the biggest millipedes in the world -probably doesn’t bite but I wasn’t going to test it

Hairy! edible?

Tiny, not so scary looking … but are they munchable?

Really really crunchy…but can you eat them?

Save the mopane worm
The over-collection of these beautiful caterpillars for trade and the destruction of mopane woodlands is threatening the species and mopane worms are now rare or extinct in some areas where they were once common. In order to safeguard the next crop, it is vital to leave at least 10% of the worms to complete the life cycle by forming moths and laying eggs, thus ensuring the future of the species and the mopane industry. Droughts are another cause for devastating declines so climate change is going to be a big problem here.

Saving the mopane worm is going to be tough. You could just stop harvesting them but natural re-colonization is a slow process because the moths only live for two to three days and must complete their reproductive processes in this time – this leaves too little time for dispersal. The fat caterpillar can hardly move far at all. However, local people could assist natural dispersal by reduced harvesting in sensitive areas and managed re-introductions of larvae. That’s what Toms of the Transvaal museum is planning….

“The mopane worm is one of our most spectacular well known insects and was chosen as one of the BIG 12 African Insects for study at the Transvaal Museum” - Dr. Toms. Toms and his team are using this colourful worm as an icon in the teaching of indigenous knowledge, sustainable harvesting, conservation and food security.

In my next few post are about predators, people, and amazing places - the Okavango Delta and the Great Kalahari Desert.
I was knocked off my feet with it all - totally! I bet you can’t guess what she has been hunting ..

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