Okavango Game Drive

Hyena

During the night, we heard Hippopotami grunting.  In fact, while we can’t see them during the day, we can still hear them. We started our day by finding a bull elephant in must with its extended penis (not a baby elephant whose trunk is extended for air from the mother’s womb as our guide joked). During this period, their testosterone levels can be 60 times greater than normal, and the elephants can be quite aggressive. Then we spotted two leopard tracks and started tracking them. In the bush, we briefly saw one before we lost it in the thickets. We continued into a public part of the delta (our camp is on a concession area of the delta, rented from a local tribe). Here we got close to a hyena near it’s den. Then we came upon 6-7 jeeps surrounding a female leopard and its cub. Since they had a kill there, Paul, our guide said we would come back later when it was less crowded. We went on the visit an African Wild Dog Den, and found quite a few dogs sleeping with the alpha male patrolling the area. When he peeked into the den, we could hear pups. We stopped for lunch hear a parade (herd) of elephants crossing the water.

We revisited the leopard on our way home and could see her gnawing on an impala. As we continued we started hearing strange noises from one of our tires – a ball bearing was going. We stopped the vehicle and radioed for help. While we were waiting to be rescued, Sanction gave us a lesson on termites. The termites here take plant material and grow a fungus for their food. A new termite nest is started by a king and queen with many alate (winged) termites flying out to a new location. The queen begins laying eggs which develop into worker and soldier termites. The soldier termites bite ants, snakes, and other animals to protect the mound. The Aardvark is impervious to these bites. In fact, he lays out his tongue to attract the soldiers and then swallows them. Most mounds here are near trees. Which came first the tree or the termite mound?  A mound is often started near a tree because the termites use the dead plant material to feed the fungus. Birds and other animals defecate on the mound and may plant a fruit tree on the mound from the seeds they’ve swallowed. So, the tree or the mound could have come first. It took 75 minutes for our rescue jeep to arrive. As we went home, our rescuer stayed to fix the wheel bearings on location. He got back just about dark. During our drive we also saw African Fish Eagle, Pygmy Geese, Spur-Winged Geese, Hamerkop, Kudo,  and Hippos.

Termite Mound towering above Sanction

Human Wildlife Conflict

Our evening discussion was on human-wildlife conflict using lions as the example. Today there are about 40,000 lions, but only 10,000 live in national parks. In the Okavango Delta area, they’ve lost 500 lions in the last five years, primarily in the farming-ranching area south of the park. What are causes of the conflict? Animals have a shortage of prey and lack of space. Meanwhile, we want to develop the land and use its resources: grass for ranching, trees for firewood, building materials, and medicine. African Wild Dogs kill goats and chickens. Elephants trample gardens. Lions hunt cattle and goats. Cape Buffalo spread hoof and mouth disease to cattle. What solutions have been tried? To separate the buffalo from the cattle, Botswana built a fence around the delta, but this fence disrupted the local wildebeest migration. They couldn’t follow the rains to eat grass and over 80,000 died. A solution that hasn’t worked very well. To keep the elephants out of gardens, they’ve circled the garden with chili pepper, which works well. Whistles and flashlights as well as guard-dogs are used to deter lions and wild dogs. The cattle are better able to fend off lions when they are corralled for the night.  What’s the situation today? Wild dogs used to be in 39 countries and numbered 30000 ten years ago. Now only 5000 exist in just five countries. While elephants are declining across Africa, Botswana has 150,000 elephants on land that can only support 45,000. We saw the devastation of over-browsing in Chobe, here, and Zimbabwe. Should we open up the ivory trade again in these countries? But that would just encourage poaching in other countries. There are not any obvious solutions.