Africa Travel Journal » Wildlife

Cats and their innate memory of water

James Weis — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:34:53 +0000

It is often said that cats don’t like water. Undoubtedly, this has some truth in it, but for cats living in and around the wetlands of northern Botswana these days, coping with water is a reality.

The Okavango Delta in particular is an area that is well-known for sightings of big cats moving through water. What I find most fascinating though, is seeing the behavior of big cats in a place that once was completely dry, and is now again a wetland. The return of water to the Savute channel provided us with this opportunity.

The Savute channel dried up in the early 1980’s, and the only water around for years was that found in pans and rain-fed pools.

In 2006 it showed some very sporadic signs of revival, with water just beginning to push down into the old grassland covered channel bed…, but then a year later the water came back in earnest. Today the once-dry riverbed is a deep, flowing channel, and a home to catfish, papyrus and hippopotamus.

The local lion pride, known as the DumaTau pride, had their territory neatly bisected by the revived channel. This provided us with a chance to see just how quickly the big cats are able to adapt to such a change. One could have expected young lions here to have been very nervous of entering deep water, as they would have had no prior experience of it.

Instead, these lions have shown this to not be the case at all. The photographs here show lions from the DumaTau pride, crossing the Savute channel. Not only are they clearly not afraid of the water, but they are actually chasing and playing with each other, and appear to be enjoying it. Instinct never ceases to amaze me!

Text by Grant Atkinson
GrantAtkinson.com

Southern Africa’s Big Three Eagles

James Weis — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:15:37 +0000

Africa’s “big three” eagles are the bird equivalents of the lion, the leopard and the cheetah.

The southern part of Africa is a place that is rich in its variety of habitats. Deserts, wetlands, mountains, grasslands, forest and woodland are all represented somewhere in the region. This diversity of landscapes also brings with it a diversity of animal life. The big mammals that occur here are iconic and many people travel to parks and reserves to see them.

Less well-known are southern Africa’s eagles. There are fifteen different species of eagle resident all year-round. No other continent comes close to rivaling Africa when it comes to the variety of birds of prey that can be seen.

Martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus)

For me as a trip leader and safari guide, this is something to get excited about. Frustratingly though on typical safaris, it can be difficult to share with people just how imposing and impressive some of these eagles are and that is because our sightings of them are often quick or distant. The true presence and power of the birds can only be appreciated when one gets a good view and that can be difficult to obtain unless you travel to specific localities to seek out the birds.

With this in mind, I visited a raptor rehabilitation centre located in the Eastern Cape of South Africa and run by a dedicated couple, who have a number of birds of prey that have been recovered from farmers. These birds were trapped or injured or are in some other unfortunate circumstance. Big eagles sometimes eat livestock, either after killing it themselves or as carrion and they still suffer from heavy persecution in some parts of southern Africa.

Verreaux’s eagle (Aquila verreauxii)

At the rehab centre I photographed the three big eagles of southern Africa. They are the Martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), the Verreaux’s eagle (Aquila verreauxii), and the African crowned eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus). These birds are the flying counterparts of the lion, the leopard and the cheetah.

They are three of the most imposing birds of prey to be found anywhere. Each has it’s own favoured habitat. The martial is found in open country, grassland, savanna and especially in dry woodland. The Verreaux’s eagle is found where there are mountains and it is the master of the winds that blow in such places. The crowned eagle is slightly smaller than the other two eagles, though no less powerful, and it lives in forests, nesting on the tallest trees.

All three eagles take large prey including mammals and these include antelope species such as impala, bushbuck, suni, mountain reedbuck and duiker. Monkeys and immature baboons are also taken, as are monitor lizards. Birds such as Kori bustards, young ostrich and any other game birds such as guinea fowl or francolins may fall victim to one or another of these powerful predators.

African crowned eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus)

Although it is not always easy for a casual observer to find all these eagles, there are still many places in the region where they can be found. Raptor conservation organizations have worked tirelessly with hundreds of farmers to help develop a more tolerant approach to these eagles and in many areas, it is working. There are both farms and game reserves in South Africa itself where it is possible to see all three of these magnificent eagles in one day.

The eagles shown here were captive and unable to be released back into the wild. Hopefully their stories and their pictures will help remind us what we need to continue working to protect in our world.

Grant Atkinson
Specialist Guide
For more of Grant’s photography, check out his website.

Saving the Last Lions

James Weis — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:06:04 +0000

Just 50 years ago there were close to a half-million lions in Africa — about 450,000 in all. Today there are between 16,000 and 23,000. And yet, unlike elephants (a far more numerous species), lions have no protection under the international accord governing such matters.

Big cats are in trouble everywhere. The number of tigers has dipped below 3,000. Indeed, as we look at the lion population today, it’s the shadow of the tiger’s history that scares me the most. Tiger bones are used extensively in the East for medicines and mythological (read nonsense) cures for ailments or limp libidos and the demand is increasing. A growing demand and a disappearing supply is a formula for disaster.

The solution we are seeing play out is a switch from tiger bones to lion bones, which can be easily sold off as tiger bones. It’s ironic that the most famous animal in Africa, perhaps in the world, can’t even be poached on its own value, but only as a “mock tiger.”

Last week the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) met to decide whether lions, whose numbers have declined by 50 percent in the past 20 years, are worthy of protection under Appendix I to the convention: the listing of the most endangered animals. The problem is that the safari hunting industry and buyers in Asia are opposing it, because such a decree would limit what they can do with the trophies.

Fact: Appendix I does not mean you cannot shoot a lion — it means you can’t import the skin to hang on the wall. And the answer to the question we are asked a thousand times is: Yes, you can still go to Africa to kill a lion.

[JW note: the vote did not pass and lions will remain a CITES Appendix II species... for now].

CITES needs a country to sponsor the motion for lion protection. We can’t, so far, get one to put its hand up first, to take on the issue and save lions. No one will risk offending big safari hunting lobbies. It would seem that many are just not thinking this through. Extinction threatens by the year 2020. Then there will be no lions to hunt or to protect.

We don’t have much time. The biggest threat isn’t hunters, poachers or poison makers — it is our own complacency, the lazy hope that someone else is taking care of the great beasts of Africa.

Meanwhile another ominous development poses a further threat to wildlife. A pesticide is being used by poachers to kill lions and many other animals. Sprinkled on meat, it kills lions, hyenas, vultures and other creatures in minutes.

Lions and other large predators are disappearing even as we learn more about the collapse of entire ecosystems. The $200 billion a year reaped from ecotourism will be lost, causing suffering among communities all over Africa that rely on this trade.

Dereck and Beverly Joubert are helping save the last of the big cats.

As explorers in residence at National Geographic, Dereck and Beverly Joubert are calling on everyone with even a remote interest in big cats, or in Africa, to make sure that these wild systems keep working well. Scientists, conservationists — everyone — must come together, work together and support this effort now: the Big Cats Initiative. It’s a movement that doesn’t want to exclude a single soul or leave out any idea on how to reduce the conflict. We have a short window of time in which we can remedy this. It is closing very rapidly.

Wildlife filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert.

Dereck Joubert and his wife, Beverly Joubert, are National Geographic explorers in residence. They have spent years making films and writing about the big cats of Africa.

Dereck and Beverly Joubert at work in Botswana.

To view some of the Joubert’s photos and films, visit their website.

For more information, visit the visit Big Cat Initiative website.

African Wild Dogs (part 1)

James Weis — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:58:35 +0000

This is the first of several posts on African wild dogs, which will include information on this often misunderstood species. Among safari enthusiasts, a wild dog sighting is highly coveted and justifiably so, as this species is one of Africa’s most endangered animals, with less than 5,000 dogs remaining. Northern Botswana has an estimated 700-800 wild dogs and is one of only three populations containing more than 350 adults (the other two being Kruger National Park in South Africa and Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania).

The scientific name of the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), means “painted wolf”, a reference to their patchwork fur of black, brown and white.

Wild dogs live in permanent packs, with the common size being 5 to 15 adults and yearlings. Within a pack, there is a clear dominance hierarchy among males and another separate hierarchy among the females. Only the dominant female is assured of breeding, though subordinate females do occasionally become pregnant. Reproduction is also largely monopolized by the alpha male, but the pups of a single litter can have more than one father, as in most carnivores.

The non-breeding subordinate dogs of both sexes help to raise the pack’s young, which, as mentioned, are normally produced by the dominant pair. The most important role of the subordinates is to help feed the pups. Wild dog pups begin eating meat at 3-4 weeks of age and are weaned after 5 weeks, but for the first 3 months after the pups are born, they are not strong enough to move with the normally far-ranging pack on a hunt and are confined to a den. Dogs have a high rate of metabolism, which makes it necessary for them to feed often, sometimes more than once per day.

A hunt is always precipitated by a ritualized social greeting frenzy or canine pep rally, with considerable whining and twittering, physical contact, energy, general excitement and sometimes including much play and chasing.

When the pack leaves the den to go hunting, one or more dogs remain behind as a guard or “babysitter”. The alpha female normally guards the pups by herself while the pups are very young, but sometimes another dog (usually a female) will remain with her. As the pups grow older, the mother will begin joining the hunting forays, but an adult or yearling dog always remains behind with the pups. The responsibility of the babysitter appears to be to ensure that the pups remain down the hole should a predator such as a lion approach.

After a successful hunt, wild dog packs can easily finish off an entire adult impala in just a few minutes, an adaptation which reduces the chances of the kill being stolen by another predator. After consuming the kill, the hunting party returns directly to the den to feed the babysitter(s) and pups.

Upon arrival at the den, there is much excitement and commotion, as the pups jump up against the returning adult dogs, whimpering and nipping at their mouths and lips. This is the signal to regurgitate some of the food from the kill, which is eagerly snapped up by the youngsters.

In addition to feeding the pups, non breeding helpers take part in protecting the pups from lions, leopards and spotted hyenas. The combined efforts of the entire pack to look after the pups’ safety and survival is crucial as mortality of pups up to one year of age, mostly from lions, averages more than 60 percent in northern Botswana.

The images shown here are from my December 2008 safari in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.

More info and images in part 2…
-JW