December 2, 2010
Hello hello!
I trust that not everyone on this list is sick of reading my electronic novellas, so I'll fire off another dispatch from the booming megalopalis that is Mongu. A town of 30,000 that feels more like a refined village than a city. The same size of Juneau or Bozeman, yet it still feels like there are only a few thousand folks around these parts, pushing their tomatoes and kerosene in the market nearby. There are some incredible furniture builders in this town, and they display their finely handcrafted chairs, tables, bedframes, and doors along the side of the main road. I'm not sure if Mongu is known for its fine furniture builders. But it should be.
Anyhow, for those I've talked to in the last week and a half, you're quite familiar with the frustrations I've had. For those that I haven't spoken with or emailed, I'll relate some quick backstory. The pace of efficiency here is simply different than what I've known in my own hometown. I mentioned it in my previous email, but it truly is noteworthy. It's a fine line of being deflating and completely humorous. And for a while, I was allowing myself to dive deeper and deeper into the former. It got to the point where I had my bags packed and was ready to head out. I felt like I wasn't helping to accomplish anything in the grand scheme of things, and I was just another hand on deck, bailing out the constant wave of problems breaking over the bow. However, my supervisor and his comrade Meagan, both from Bozeman, helped me make the transition of being frustrated with myself to being downright amused. These two have spent years and years in the Ugandan, Botswanan, and Zambian bush, and they know that when you're in the bush anywhere, nothing goes to plan, and nothing works. They have a saying that makes me laugh harder and harder every time I hear it when we make a plan for the day: "what could possibly go wrong?" Every time I hear it, I burst out into laughter, harder with each subsequent time it's mentioned. Having those two around to laugh with, to daydream about hash browns from the Cat Eye Cafe or dark coffee from Rockford in Bozeman has been quite the medicine.
One thing I have noticed in the face of all of these constant, repetitive amounts of regular problems is the camaraderie that people here develop. Everybody helps everybody. Is it because nobody has anything to do at that specific moment, so they might as well help? Perhaps a little bit. But also because everyone is so used to dealing with problems that they understand a helping hand is much appreciated. And they're offered without question. You have a problem? You have two or three people in there to help you resolve it. That's a new phenomenon for me, and I'm liking it.
On the other hand, Matt, my supervisor, described how we actually are making big strides in Liuwa Plain, despite all the obstacles. Liuwa Plain is home to the second largest wildebeest migration in the world, yet nobody knows anything about it. Nobody has ever studied it, nobody knows where the wildebeest go/come from, how big the migration is, and how expansively their migrations range. It's estimated that there are between 30,000 and 40,000 wildebeest in the park, and four of them have GPS downloadable collars that track their movement, report that information to a satellite high in the sky, and store it all in their neat little unit around their necks. We managed to find all four of those wildebeest, four amongst potentially 40,000, on the ground without air support. We downloaded the information collected from the past four months, and now we have a map of where some of these wildebeest travel after they leave Liuwa. A first! A contribution to science; information regarding the second largest wildebeest migration. And we're the ones doing it. Not bad.
We've also recently managed to determine that there are not two, but three packs of African wild dogs in the park. We managed to follow the Sausage Tree pack (the most easily found pack) again for two days. Another four wildebeest taken down, followed by hours of puppy-play. It was interesting to see the yearlings at work in the pack. They look after the pups, regurgitate mass quantities of meat for the pups (as if the pups haven't eaten enough already with their fat ol' bellies), and teach the pups essential hunting behavior through play. I watched one yearling wild dog play keep away with the pups with a stick for over an hour. The yearling would taunt the pups with the stick, much the same way you and I do with our own dogs when we have a toy it wants. The pups go wild, bark and tweet incessantly, and chase the yearling in circles. Eventually, the yearling will allow one of the pups to snatch up the stick, chew it for a while, and then it's back at it again with a different stick. It's interesting to see that the yearling is teaching the pups to not only chase, but to chase as a collective unit. A pack. And he rewards them with the prize. These pups are going to be great hunters!
It's also hilarious to see the dogs stalking each other. Anybody with a dog has played the game in which you slowly, ever so slowly, stalk up to your dog who is watching you with a secret service style eye. Eventually your dog can't take the built up excitement any longer and springs up like a rocket and goes crashing into the nearby table with a big grin on its face. These wild dogs do the same thing, but with each other, without any humans playing the game with them. So next time you play keep away with your dog, or stalk up on it like a sly ol' trickster, just know that you're teaching them how to behave like wild dogs on the African plain!
Apart from the wild dogs, I managed to go on a few flights over the park last week. Our goal was to find a few specific animals, including one wild dog that dispersed a few months ago and hasn't been seen since. We saw huge herds of wildebeest running wildly at the approach of our little Cessna, herds of zebra doing much of the same, big old eland lurking around on the woodland fringes, and wild dogs and hyaenas sleepily sharing a big wet pan in the baking midday sun. The pilot of the plane is a filmmaker. You've seen his work if you've watched Planet Earth. He was the camera man for the African wild dog sequence (a very cool sequence). If you watch the behind the scenes, he's one of the main guys talking about the difficulties of finding these animals and actually filming them. He's filmed all kinds of animals for the BBC, most recently a film called "Elephants Without Borders," tracking elephants across Zambia, Angola, Namibia, and Botswana. A pretty savvy dude, and as humble as they come.
I'd like to write more, but I have to jump into the back of a Land Cruiser and cruise three hours into the driving rain, over the potmarked "road" back to Kalabo in thirty minutes. Didn't forget my rain gear this time! Halfway through, we'll cross the Zambezi, the place where I huddled with the family in their reed hut a few weeks ago fending off a tropical grassland dose of hypothermia... It's crazy to see how much the Zambezi River has risen in the last four weeks with the rains we've had. We're getting more and more, and before long, the roads will be inaccessible, and it'll be swampthing amphibious vehicles for the duration..
Hope everyone is well and not entirely insane with Christmas music already! I heard "Feliz Navidad" in the supermarket yesterday afternoon and it made me laugh. Yet it was comforting to hear a familiar old tune in such an otherworldly grocery store... Have a great week everybody, and hopefully next time I'll finally have some photos, eh?
Cheerio,
Daven
Flying overhead with the camera crew, we caught a few good glimpses of herds of wildebeest munching their way through the freshly sprouted vegetation.
Although hyaenas and wild dogs will fight over the tasty remains of a carcass, they decided to share the cool environs of a wet pan this afternoon. The hyaenas are to the upper left in the water and mud. The wild dogs are toward the right and the bottom of the image, lounging in the cool mud or green vegetation.
At play with full bellies.
If you've ever played fetch with your dog, or wrestled with it for what seems like hours, you've probably thought, "this dog could play all day and never get tired!" These wild dogs are the same. After a successful hunt and a good feed, some of the dogs wrestled and played keep away with each other literally for a full hour or more.
Somewhere in this landscape is the Angolan-Zambian border. It is believed that the wildebeest migration travels outside the Zambian border and into Angola. If we can prove these movements using the information obtained from the four wildebeest GPS collars, it could mean further habitat protection not only for wildebeest, but for all other prey and predator species that depend upon the same land.
Hello hello!
I trust that not everyone on this list is sick of reading my electronic novellas, so I'll fire off another dispatch from the booming megalopalis that is Mongu. A town of 30,000 that feels more like a refined village than a city. The same size of Juneau or Bozeman, yet it still feels like there are only a few thousand folks around these parts, pushing their tomatoes and kerosene in the market nearby. There are some incredible furniture builders in this town, and they display their finely handcrafted chairs, tables, bedframes, and doors along the side of the main road. I'm not sure if Mongu is known for its fine furniture builders. But it should be.
Anyhow, for those I've talked to in the last week and a half, you're quite familiar with the frustrations I've had. For those that I haven't spoken with or emailed, I'll relate some quick backstory. The pace of efficiency here is simply different than what I've known in my own hometown. I mentioned it in my previous email, but it truly is noteworthy. It's a fine line of being deflating and completely humorous. And for a while, I was allowing myself to dive deeper and deeper into the former. It got to the point where I had my bags packed and was ready to head out. I felt like I wasn't helping to accomplish anything in the grand scheme of things, and I was just another hand on deck, bailing out the constant wave of problems breaking over the bow. However, my supervisor and his comrade Meagan, both from Bozeman, helped me make the transition of being frustrated with myself to being downright amused. These two have spent years and years in the Ugandan, Botswanan, and Zambian bush, and they know that when you're in the bush anywhere, nothing goes to plan, and nothing works. They have a saying that makes me laugh harder and harder every time I hear it when we make a plan for the day: "what could possibly go wrong?" Every time I hear it, I burst out into laughter, harder with each subsequent time it's mentioned. Having those two around to laugh with, to daydream about hash browns from the Cat Eye Cafe or dark coffee from Rockford in Bozeman has been quite the medicine.
One thing I have noticed in the face of all of these constant, repetitive amounts of regular problems is the camaraderie that people here develop. Everybody helps everybody. Is it because nobody has anything to do at that specific moment, so they might as well help? Perhaps a little bit. But also because everyone is so used to dealing with problems that they understand a helping hand is much appreciated. And they're offered without question. You have a problem? You have two or three people in there to help you resolve it. That's a new phenomenon for me, and I'm liking it.
On the other hand, Matt, my supervisor, described how we actually are making big strides in Liuwa Plain, despite all the obstacles. Liuwa Plain is home to the second largest wildebeest migration in the world, yet nobody knows anything about it. Nobody has ever studied it, nobody knows where the wildebeest go/come from, how big the migration is, and how expansively their migrations range. It's estimated that there are between 30,000 and 40,000 wildebeest in the park, and four of them have GPS downloadable collars that track their movement, report that information to a satellite high in the sky, and store it all in their neat little unit around their necks. We managed to find all four of those wildebeest, four amongst potentially 40,000, on the ground without air support. We downloaded the information collected from the past four months, and now we have a map of where some of these wildebeest travel after they leave Liuwa. A first! A contribution to science; information regarding the second largest wildebeest migration. And we're the ones doing it. Not bad.
We've also recently managed to determine that there are not two, but three packs of African wild dogs in the park. We managed to follow the Sausage Tree pack (the most easily found pack) again for two days. Another four wildebeest taken down, followed by hours of puppy-play. It was interesting to see the yearlings at work in the pack. They look after the pups, regurgitate mass quantities of meat for the pups (as if the pups haven't eaten enough already with their fat ol' bellies), and teach the pups essential hunting behavior through play. I watched one yearling wild dog play keep away with the pups with a stick for over an hour. The yearling would taunt the pups with the stick, much the same way you and I do with our own dogs when we have a toy it wants. The pups go wild, bark and tweet incessantly, and chase the yearling in circles. Eventually, the yearling will allow one of the pups to snatch up the stick, chew it for a while, and then it's back at it again with a different stick. It's interesting to see that the yearling is teaching the pups to not only chase, but to chase as a collective unit. A pack. And he rewards them with the prize. These pups are going to be great hunters!
It's also hilarious to see the dogs stalking each other. Anybody with a dog has played the game in which you slowly, ever so slowly, stalk up to your dog who is watching you with a secret service style eye. Eventually your dog can't take the built up excitement any longer and springs up like a rocket and goes crashing into the nearby table with a big grin on its face. These wild dogs do the same thing, but with each other, without any humans playing the game with them. So next time you play keep away with your dog, or stalk up on it like a sly ol' trickster, just know that you're teaching them how to behave like wild dogs on the African plain!
Apart from the wild dogs, I managed to go on a few flights over the park last week. Our goal was to find a few specific animals, including one wild dog that dispersed a few months ago and hasn't been seen since. We saw huge herds of wildebeest running wildly at the approach of our little Cessna, herds of zebra doing much of the same, big old eland lurking around on the woodland fringes, and wild dogs and hyaenas sleepily sharing a big wet pan in the baking midday sun. The pilot of the plane is a filmmaker. You've seen his work if you've watched Planet Earth. He was the camera man for the African wild dog sequence (a very cool sequence). If you watch the behind the scenes, he's one of the main guys talking about the difficulties of finding these animals and actually filming them. He's filmed all kinds of animals for the BBC, most recently a film called "Elephants Without Borders," tracking elephants across Zambia, Angola, Namibia, and Botswana. A pretty savvy dude, and as humble as they come.
I'd like to write more, but I have to jump into the back of a Land Cruiser and cruise three hours into the driving rain, over the potmarked "road" back to Kalabo in thirty minutes. Didn't forget my rain gear this time! Halfway through, we'll cross the Zambezi, the place where I huddled with the family in their reed hut a few weeks ago fending off a tropical grassland dose of hypothermia... It's crazy to see how much the Zambezi River has risen in the last four weeks with the rains we've had. We're getting more and more, and before long, the roads will be inaccessible, and it'll be swampthing amphibious vehicles for the duration..
Hope everyone is well and not entirely insane with Christmas music already! I heard "Feliz Navidad" in the supermarket yesterday afternoon and it made me laugh. Yet it was comforting to hear a familiar old tune in such an otherworldly grocery store... Have a great week everybody, and hopefully next time I'll finally have some photos, eh?
Cheerio,
Daven
Flying overhead with the camera crew, we caught a few good glimpses of herds of wildebeest munching their way through the freshly sprouted vegetation.
Although hyaenas and wild dogs will fight over the tasty remains of a carcass, they decided to share the cool environs of a wet pan this afternoon. The hyaenas are to the upper left in the water and mud. The wild dogs are toward the right and the bottom of the image, lounging in the cool mud or green vegetation.
At play with full bellies.
If you've ever played fetch with your dog, or wrestled with it for what seems like hours, you've probably thought, "this dog could play all day and never get tired!" These wild dogs are the same. After a successful hunt and a good feed, some of the dogs wrestled and played keep away with each other literally for a full hour or more.
Somewhere in this landscape is the Angolan-Zambian border. It is believed that the wildebeest migration travels outside the Zambian border and into Angola. If we can prove these movements using the information obtained from the four wildebeest GPS collars, it could mean further habitat protection not only for wildebeest, but for all other prey and predator species that depend upon the same land.
1 comment:
Hi Daven.
Please get intouch ASAP. Am doing research to make a map of the migration route.
mriehl@ppf.org.za
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