Animal GO

I guess that the use of apps in African game parks was unavoidable as I am sure these already exist in parks in the “developed” world. Well, they have now arrived to the delight of the bush snobs (please note the space between the words) and bush executives that, not happy with looking at the sighting boards in the South Africa’s National Parks lodges and camps, required something more efficient.

A couple of years back I got the first indication that times were changing when a friend gave me -for my birthday- the app for Roberts VII Multimedia Birds of Southern Africa iPad Edition, 2012-2013. Although I have misgivings about using a tablet for bird identification rather than my loyal Sassol guide, I tried it. The result is that the Sassol guide is collecting dust in a recess of the car!

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I have to announce that the same did not happen with the newish apps that -like with Pokemons- show you where the animals are so that you do not waste your valuable time driving around and can go to the hot spots straight away while the normal (or now abnormal?) game viewing enthusiasts “sweat the fat drop” (as we say in Spanish) to find interesting animals!

On a previous visit to the Kruger National Park I had heard that visitors were communicating interesting finds among them through a cellphone system. So, this time I searched the apps store and found a few and even some free. I downloaded one that looked popular called “Kruger Sightings” before our visit to this park.

Choosing a park.
The results of the search.

The app is very straightforward to use and its information comes from what the users themselves feed in. After entering the park you are visiting and the kind of animals you wish to see, the programme will give you live updates with details of what is being found, where and other details of the sighting. It reminded me of a similar app from Brazil where users enter information regarding the location of speed traps and Police check points so that motorists can avoid them!

We followed the information it provided and easily found several other people watching what was alleged to be there! A leopard was the animal to be watched at the time and, after a long wait, we managed to progress through the traffic jam until we saw some spots up a tree!

The “find” following the app’s directions!
What we saw after vying for position and an enlarged view for your benefit. It was really a case of “spot the leopard”!

After that first experience, we switched off the app for the rest of the safari. However, many visitors seemed to be using this and/or another similar app. We observed them drive from sighting 1 to sighting 2 at the maximum allowed speed and, as with our first trial, we found them “en masse” at the different locations where animals were supposed to be! I imagine that they did not wish to waste their lunch or dinner times?

Luckily for us and other “purists”, every cloud has a silver lining! The producers of the apps had, unintentionally given the no users a great advantage. The app groups its followers around a few of the big five, mainly lion and leopard, leaving the rest of the park for us to drive around in relative solitude and being able to find animals without cars around them. Luckily, with patience, luck and good eyesight, we managed a few good sightings of our own. Of course, our they remained incognito!

Some of our findings (not reported!).
Another “non-app” find.

I promised myself only to use this kind of apps the day I become so important that I need to jet to parks with a few hours to spare and wish to impress some important client. I think that there is no fear of this so our game spotting will continue to be done the hard way!

The future worries me though. Rocket science is not required to see the gradual decline in animal numbers that elaborate and costly surveys and studies will confirm three years from now, three years too late to take any meaningful action! I know this sounds negative but it is what we observe.

Regrettably, the present generations had not really seen how it was, as I did not see how it was either but I guess it was better than what I saw!

 

See also: https://bushsnobinafrica.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/pachyderm-go/

 

Daring parents

It seems that the Three-banded plover (Charadrius tricollaris) has a knack for living dangerously or rather incubating dangerously.

I rarely find ground birds’ nests. In fact, I have only found two so far and both belong to this little plover!

The first nest I found was at the Maputo Special Reserve in 2011 near Milibangalala while driving through a stretch of road between the woodlands and one of the swampy areas. There, by the shore and almost on the road, we noted the nest as the bird stayed on its eggs up to the last minute until we almost drove upon it and only then it moved a couple of meters to wait for the danger to pass so that it could return.

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The first nest in Mozambique.

We spotted two eggs (the normal number) rather large for the bird’s size that looked very much like round pebbles and melted very well with the ashy background.

We found our second nesting bird at Mana Pools this past August and I have already given an advance of it at an earlier post[1]. This time the nest was about one kilometre from the Zambezi River but probably nearer some of the pools. As with the nest in Mozambique, the bird would run off a couple of metres away when we drove past and return to the nest soon afterwards.

Again, there was no nest to speak of and the two dark grey eggs had been laid on the ground in a small area of about 7-8 cm across, among some stones at the very edge of the road. After watching the nest for a while we noted that there were two birds taking turns to sit on it. As soon as its shift was over, the relieved bird did not stay and flew off, probably to feed and drink although we did not see where it went.

Although the birds sat on the eggs, they were also seen standing over them as if shading them from the direct solar heat. At some stage we observed the absence of both birds for a few hours and became concerned that we or other cars passing had disturbed them. The following day we saw them back. In the absence of the birds the eggs are extremely difficult to spot among all the small stones.

It appears unlikely that such a seemingly unsafe choice of nesting site would be successful as the eggs were completely exposed in the absence of the birds. Further, the birds themselves do not seem to offer much protection to the many predators, scaly, feathered and hairy that roam around the area, not to mention the stones thrown by passing cars. Despite these apparently large odds against them, the strategy must work as they are fairly common!

As a note of interest, searching the web I found an account of this bird’s nesting habits in Eritrea written by Stephanie Tyler while she and her husband -Lindsay- were kidnapped by guerrillas in the north-east of the country [2]. Her interest on the birds and the observations she made while being held captive are remarkable. She also stresses the bird’s tolerance to the approach of humans, their failures with the incubation and rearing of the chicks as well as the first observation that the Three-banded plovers are multiple brooded or able to raise more than one brood of young in quick succession. We can say that Three-banded plovers are tough parents!

A video that shows the nesting behaviour of the birds and the “change over” their nesting duties.

 

[1] See: https://bushsnobinafrica.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/spot-the-beast-12/

[2] Tyler, S. (1978). Observations on the nesting of the three-banded plover Charadrius tricollaris. Scopus 2, 39-41. If interested on the details, the original communication is here: https://archive.org/stream/scopus2197east/scopus2197east_djvu.txt 

 

Nature’s design fault?

Last year, we noted that one of our calves in Salta, Argentina, was grazing on its knees. So I -being a veterinarian- was asked what was wrong with it. I had no clue so I diagnosed it as suffering from the “Warthog Syndrome” as it reminded me of the African pigs. It was only a few days later that my wife realized the origin of the “condition”. The calf got used to kneel down to be able to graze further while tied to a stake! It soon recovered but by then the warthogs’ feeding technique had already sparked my curiosity.

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After some thought I decided that warthogs suffer from a rare Nature’s design fault: their neck is too short to reach the ground hence the need to genuflect to feed! As this was a rather strong conclusion, I decided to follow up and “Google” it.

I read that warthogs graze but also dig bulbs and tubers during the dry season. They do this on its calloused and padded knees using its snout and tusks. They have extremely short necks and their limbs are somewhat long so, assuming this position helps them root and graze more efficiently. However, warthogs are often more susceptible to predator attacks when they adopt these vulnerable feeding stances!

Still unconvinced I dug deeper and consulted the well known and knowledgeable zoologist Jonathan Kingdom[1]. He explains that warthogs have rather long legs that enables them to run faster than other pig species and this increased the distance of the mouth to the ground hence the need for kneeling to feed as it has not evolved an elongated snout! I quote: “Kneeling is an in-born behaviour pattern as even new-born piglets kneel to feed. However, it is not only the behaviour that is in-born, because the callosities characteristic of the carpal joints of the warthog’s forelegs are present on embryos”.

I was now confused as I could not understand the difference between having a short neck or longer than needed legs! Further, it appears that warthogs evolved longer legs to run fast but compromised their safety by feeding on their knees running the risk of not seeing their predators!

Desperate to find an explanation, I looked into the African wisdom and found a traditional Zulu story on the subject. It says that at some stage the warthog was inside its burrow when a lion approached it and, when the latter roared, the trembling warthog knelt down to beg the lion not to eat it! The lion had already fed and forgave the warthog. However, it told the pig to stay on its knees forever. That is the reason that it eats with its bottom up and its nose in the dust!

So, having checked general information, science and folklore I am still convinced that the warthog is the casualty of a design fault by Mother Nature!

 

[1] Kingdom, J. (1982). East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution in Africa, Vol. 3, Part B. The University of Chicago Press.

Hungry crocodiles

On arrival to Lower Sabie camp, we saw more than the usual number of cars on the bridge near the camp. So, after checking in, we decided to investigate as the cars were still there.

It was easy to see the reason for the presence of the onlookers: a dead zebra was in the water and a number of crocodiles were feeding on it.

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There was a particularly large specimen that at some point almost totally encircled the zebra with its body!

Below I present you with a few pictures of what we saw. I trust that, by comparing with the zebra, you will get an idea of the size of the crocodile!

 

NOTE: I am working on a video that I will probably post in the next couple of days as it still needs some editing that requires time that I do not have while traveling.

 

Spot the beast 11

dscn9951-copyI know, this is a difficult one. I give you a closer view below to see if you can spot it…

dscn9951-copy-3Still, all you can see are the two bush tracks joining , dust and trees? What about below?

dscn9951-copy-2You should be able to spot it but here it is:

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A Three-banded lapwing (plover) sitting on its nest and quite well camouflaged. I will expand on this finding on a future post.

 

The “hoo” call

After watching Big V and the other elephants until the light faded, we decided to get back to our lodge, as you are not allowed to drive in the dark. Shortly after the turn off to our lodge my wife heard a strange call. As it was unusual we stopped and listened.

At first we thought that it was an owl or some other large bird. Whatever its origin,  we were sure that we had not heard it before so we decided to retrace our “tyre marks” and see if we could spot the originator.

We returned to the main road and, immediately, my wife spotted three ghosts that, as they got closer, gradually became  African wild dogs (painted dogs) walking in the dry bush. We stopped, watched and listened. Suddenly, one dog crossed the road in front of us and started emitting the sound we have heard earlier. It was a plaintive sound repeated three or four times. The call was repeated a few times and then the dogs got together again and walked into the darkness.

Wild dogs seen on another occasion in Mana Pools during the day.

The only option I had to record the sound was to take a video and hope that the sound if not the image will reflect what we heard. The results are a dark video with the wild dog call repeated three times.

Later on I learnt that when wild dogs get separated from their packs they get very concerned and in these situations they emit the call we heard that aims at getting a reply from the pack in order to reunite with them. This call is known -rather appropriately- as a “hoo” call.

So, what we saw were probably three dogs trying to re-join their pack by hoo calling. Later on we learnt that there was indeed a pack of about twenty dogs roaming around Mana Pools at the time so we probably saw three members of that group.

After that, we lost them but their plaintive call got “recorded” in our minds.

The hoo call (and the bad video!):

I am sure that you will agree with me that you do not expect such a sound to come from a wild dog!

World Days

The post on the World Elephant Day happened to be the 200th contribution to my blog so I thought that, on reaching one thousand -if ever-, I will propose a “World Bushsnob Day” to commemorate the event, at least among its readers.

I thought that, before I got too carried away with the idea, I would investigate if there were still dates available for such a new World Day. Having a “blog post queue” from past history as well as more recent safaris, I decided to do a fast and dirty check in the web to ascertain what the chances were of having my own day.

Results were, to put it mildly, very discouraging!

Wikipedia[1] indicates the existence of 259 World Days with an average of 22 days per month! March, May and October are almost fully booked with 26 days each, being the highest months. I thought that a glimmer of hope still existed for new celebratory days in June and December with 15 and 16 days respectively. However, my hopes were dashed when I learnt that there are also 27 other World Days commemorated on moving dates and an additional ten listed as “other”.

As the information from this source had a strong influence from the USA, and thinking that I needed to get my day eventually approved by the UN (being a former employee!), I checked the UN World days. There are 130 International Days currently observed by the world body, an average of 11 days per month. As this gave me some hope, I looked at some examples of World Days that I could emulate.

I found that almost anything you could think of has its day and, to enrich your knowledge on commemorative days, I will mention a few notable ones.

21 January is National Hug Day or National Hugging Day, an annual event dedicated to hugging created by Kevin Zaborney (?).

7 February is Rose Day, the start of Valentine Week that ends with Valentine’s Day on February 14.

13 February and 21 November are World Radio Day and World TV Day respectively. As I am a radio lover, I find the former amply justified!

22 February. World Thinking Day is celebrated by all Girl Guides, Girl Scouts when they think about their “sisters” (and “brothers”) in all the countries of the world, the meaning of Guiding, and its global impact. (I think this should be an important day for all humanity, particularly politicians!).

14 March. Pi (π) Day. Pi Day is observed on this date as it is 3/14 in the month/day date format. Pies are eaten and π issues discussed! Closely related to this day is “π Approximation Day”, again as 22/7 was the fraction used by Archimedes to calculate the constant.

The World Sleep Day (Friday of the second week of March) aims to celebrate the benefits of good and healthy sleep among other issues. As a siesta lover, I also wholeheartedly endorse it.

20 March is World Sparrow Day and it is devoted -you guessed correctly- to raise awareness of the house sparrow and other common birds to urban environments and the threats to their populations.

World Laughter Day takes place on the first Sunday of May and I also support this day as I am convinced of the benefits of a hearty laugh!

4 May is Star Wars Day, observed by the film fans. The date was chosen for the easy pun on the catchphrase “May the Force be with you” (May the Fourth be with you).

25 May. Towel Day is celebrated as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans that openly carry a towel with them, as described in Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that I had not read!

24 June and 2 July are two dates that World UFO Day is celebrated depending whether you go for the date that aviator Kenneth Arnold reported what is generally considered to be the first widely reported unidentified flying object sighting in the United States while or the supposed UFO crash in the 1947 Roswell UFO Incident.

20 August. World Mosquito Day is a commemoration of Indian doctor Sir Ronald Ross’s discovery in 1897 that female mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans.

15 October is, suitably, Global Hand-washing Day, a campaign to improve this routine event. A well-chosen date as the following day (16 October) is World Food Day, commemorated by FAO of the UN!

5 July is World Toilet Day, a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world on issues of sanitation. It was originally established by the World Toilet Organization(!) in 2001 and later -in 2013- the United Nations made it one of its international days.

Finally, as I drink both, I am pleased to see that International Tea Day is observed on 15 December and 1 October is International Coffee Day!

While on the issue of hygiene, food and drinks, I looked for possible related days and I was further amazed by what I found. I will only give you some selected examples that are observed worldwide and/or some countries[2].

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Seeing the humongous number of World Days currently on offer and the little I -and I guess many of us- knew about them made me thing twice about proposing my own. Further, it emphasized that, because of this celebratory overkill we forget the important issues that we should remember, not just one day per year but every day!

I have decided that the impact and relevance of a new World Day would be really negligible so I will need to think on something else to commemorate my 1,000th post, that is if I get to 1,000 posts in a condition to celebrate…

 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commemorative_days

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_days#cite_note-14

[3] Interestingly, in 2014 Uruguay was second in per capita whisky consumption with 1.77lt after France (2.15 lt). Higher than the cradle of the drink, the UK!!!

 

 

Big V – The videos

In my haste to publish the Big V post I forgot to add a couple of videos we took at the same time we took the pictures I used for the previous post. Here they are.

The first video shows Big V reaching for the high branches while one of his askaris wait for an opportunity to feed. When Big V drops a piece of the branch from his mouth the other elephant tries to steal some but Big V does not allow it to approach. The video ends when another of the askaris approaches.

 

The second video shows Big V’s permissive behavior towards the female and her calf while the others are resigned to pick small bits from the ground. Regrettably I stopped filming before the female got really close as shown in the earlier post’s pictures.

Big V

Boswell and Big V[1]  are the best-known elephant bulls in Mana Pools National Park. I recently reported about Boswell’s skills to feed on his hind legs[2], a rather unique trick. When we witnessed an elephant feeding on Acacia pods overhead and I reported in an earlier post[3] was Big V so I have already introduced both to you.

Mana Pools this August was extremely dry, as last year the rains were not good. For this reason the area looks more as it does towards the end of the dry season in November than it should be in August: a dust bowl! I believe that the animals are in for a tough two to three months until new rains arrive, if they do as these days weather patterns have changed.

Luckily for most of the animals in Mana the Zambezi River is there and, together with the pools that lend the name to the park, they provide water and fodder to keep the grazers going while the trees such as the apple-ring acacia (Faidherbia albida) will supply elephants with browsing. The animals that seemed hardest hit at the moment were the hippos that need to consume large amounts of grass so it was common to see them walking about during late afternoon already far from the water.

While checking in we learnt that lions had been spotted around an area known as Mana mouth. After recovering from the six-hour journey from Harare and, after unpacking and organizing our lodge, we decided to go there as it is close and the sunsets there are usually beautiful, even without lions! We never reach our destination as on our way we found Big V!

With him were, in addition to his usual young male retinue, a young female and its small calf, something unusual as large bulls tend to hang out on their own or with a few askaris[4]. He towered over the lot and he was clearly the undisputed leader of the group.

In an interesting contrast to his dominance over other elephants, Big V is an extremely relaxed elephant that allows the human observer to approach him either in the car or on foot. In contrast, the younger males can be more boisterous and occasionally perform threatening displays and mock charges that remind us that we are dealing with wild animals!

On this occasion it appeared that Big V was doing some “community” work by pulling down branches from an apple-ring acacia. Clearly, for the elephants this was the equivalent of eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant!

Although Big V was not standing on its hind legs “Boswell style” it stretched and reached high up the tree, to a height the others could not. As a result of its efforts large branches were brought down showing a great dexterity with his nose (it is easy to forget that he was breathing while doing this!) as well as the damage elephants can do to trees!

He will then fed on them, including the main branches, some of which were really thick! While Big V was eating, the other elephants were eager to collect any fallen pods or small branches but from a distance as Big V’s belly rumblings were sufficient to keep them all at bay! Well, not all…

The small female and her calf approached the feeding giant ignoring his rumblings. Expecting some rebuke we were surprised to see that they slowly got closer and closer  she started to steal bits of the branch to feed. The calf was also allowed into Big V’s inner circle and managed to pick some scraps. The large bull completely ignored them!

 

DSCN0022 8.49.54 PM copyAt one stage, the female even took bits of the branch from Big V’s mouth!

The reasons for this closeness I ignore but it was unexpected and we spent a few minutes watching how it developed. Spellbound with these interactions, we forgot about the lions and when the light was fading we returned to our lodge still talking about what amazing creatures elephants are!

 

[1] This elephant has a large v-shaped notch on its left ear.

[2] https://bushsnobinafrica.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/boswell/

[3] https://bushsnobinafrica.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/elephant-overhead-and-it-was-not-dumbo/

[4] From Arabic, an askari was a local soldier serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in Africa. It is also used for security guards and the young bulls that accompany large bull elephants.

Fish eagles

A visit to Lake Chivero Recreational Park, just over 30 km from Harare, does not sound like a grand outing when you have just come back from a family trip to Mana Pools and Hwange National Parks. However, it was a Sunday and our good friends Tom and Chizuki had time to share so we decided to explore the area and have a picnic lunch there.

Lake Chivero had some influence on our daughter’s life, the Senior Editor of this blog. My wife and I visited the area on 27 October 1990 and she still remembers that I had to help her to climb over the rocky terrain to see some of the San (Bushman) paintings as she was heavily pregnant. She claims, possibly with some justification, that this accelerated the arrival of our daughter the following day!

It was also at Chivero a few years later, when we were living in Zimbabwe, that our friend John invited our daughter -about eight years old then- to join him as part of a crew of two on a sailing regatta. We all went there and watched the race and also the moment when they capsized in the middle of the lake. We watched the events from the shore with great concern! Luckily, they managed to straightened the sailing craft and continued racing! This probably had something to do with our daughters’ love of the water and her keenness on sailing!

During the present visit we aimed for the game park area of the park as it was still unknown to us. We were aware that the park is somehow too close to the city so we did not have high expectations.

The total area of Lake Chivero Recreational Park is 6,100 hectares including the 16 km long lake. The animals that populate the game park, of about 1,900 hectares, came from Hwange National Park. Additional animals were brought in from Lake Kariba during the game rescue operation better known as “Operation Noah” that took place between 1958 and 1964.

We enjoyed watching several impala, tsessebe (Damaliscus lunatus lunatus), wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, wild pig and a slender mongoose as well as a number of ostriches and other birds. Busy watching animals we were, very soon it seemed, faced with our lunch! We decided to stop by the lake where the lodges are. The area was clean and the personnel very friendly. They pointed us to a viewpoint on the lake where we could have our sandwiches.

As soon as we stopped the car we were pleasantly surprised to hear a fish eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer), a call that we regard as the quintessence of the African wilderness. Usually fish eagles occur in pairs and their territories are large so you find them a good distance apart. What we saw in this area of the lake was different. There were many eagles and we estimated the number at between 40 and 50 birds, both adults and immature. They were all over the place, at the lakeshore, flying about and perched on the trees above and around us!

Picture credit: Tom Milliken.
The fish discarded under the eagles. Picture credit: bushsnob.
A view of the lake shore from our picnic site. Picture by bushsnob.

At some point we noted fast forming ripples on the surface of the lake and,after a while, we realized that shoals of fish were responsible for them. The latter would take place spontaneously or when the walking marabous or the eagles scared them by either wading or flying over them. We observed lots of interaction between eagles and between them and the marabous, particularly when fishing.

Picture credit: Tom Milliken.
Picture credit: Tom Milliken.
Picture credit: Tom Milliken.
Picture credit: Tom Milliken.

An area among the trees seemed to attract the attention of the eagles and, on close inspection, we found several dead fish that looked like Tilapia. Judging by the amount of guano present the spot was probably used for sleeping by some of the eagles.

Clearly there was a lot of fish at the lake and the eagles were profiting from it! It was by far the larges concentration of fish eagles I have ever seen and we were pleased to be able to watch them at close quarters. However, as this was the first time where we had seen such a congregation of fish eagles, I made a point to follow up the subject later.

Our lunch over we left the eagles thinking that a return visit to watch them at leisure would be justified. On our way out of the game park we were surprised to spot three white rhinos grazing placidly about 100 metres from us, a rare sight these days that added another justification for a re-visit!

Back home, searching the internet, I learnt that lake Chivero showed high levels of pollution in the 1970s but that the toxic levels had since declined. However, the lake is now highly eutrophic[1] and this, through the abundance of fish feeding on the increased amount of nutrients, has had a positive impact on the fish eagles’ increase in numbers[2].

Although the increase in nutrients may benefit bird populations -in our case the fish eagles- this may be at the expense of other species that require other -more fragile- resources that may be altered by nutrient changes and/or pollution and the overall environmental health may be in fact poorer[3].

So, what in principle appeared as a good thing, it may turn out badly for the lake habitat. It will be interesting to come back to the lake in a few years to see how things develop.

Below you will find four videos of what we heard and saw so that you can get the atmosphere at the lake that day.

 

A fish eagle flying over the lake shore and attempting to catch fish a few times. The response of the fish every time the bird approaches them can be seen as ripples on the water surface.

 

Fish moving ahead of the walking marabou storks.

 

Listen to the calls of the fish eagles!

 

Spontaneous fish runs indicating the large fish population in the area.

 

[1] Euthropic (From Greek eutrophos = well-nourished). Eutrophication of a pond or lake arises from the oversupply of nutrients of various origins, which induces explosive growth of plants and algae.

[2] Mundy, P.J. & Couto, J.T. 2000. High productivity by Fish Eagles on a polluted dam near Harare. Ostrich 71 (1 & 2): 11–14.

[3] MacDonald, M.A. (2006). The indirect effects of increased nutrient inputs on birds in the UK: a review. RSPB Research Report 21. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 204p.