#some oryx just left and now there is a wildebeest!

[irrealisms]

hey. don’t cry. livestream of a watering hole in namibia, ok?

#therapists dni #some oryx just left and now there is a wildebeest! #creature tag

[animalistauntamedblog]

Imagine a Forbidden Area, left to slumber for 100 years, in which lies a ‘Fairytale Valley’,“where diamonds were once so common they could be picked up in handfuls as they gleamed in the light of the moon.”

“The most unspoiled large plot of land left on the planet, and the only arid biodiversity hotspot.” A unique wilderness almost the size of Belgium, of “towering dunes, sea cliffs, soaring inselbergs¹, panoramic views, lonely gravel plains, the fourth largest meteorite crater in the world, and mass flowerings that follow spring rains.” A dramatic landscape of desert, grassland, coast and mountains.

This is the Sperrgebiet National Park. The park surrounding a diamond mine is an industrial exclusion zone where Nature holds sway.

(More about the Sperrgebiet shortly)

We humans have found a million ways to deface the planet. Our expanding cities devour the land, we crisscross it with highways, we strip away forests, and crush it under factories, we gauge out mines. We disfigure it with scars of a magnitude visible from space.

But do our worst, we cannot keep unstoppable Nature at bay forever. And when large industrial complexes for example, set up heavily protected security zones around them to keep unauthorised humans out, Nature seizes the slightest of chances to move right on in. Her healing hands transfigure what we have blighted into havens pulsing with life. Life finds a way to flourish in the most unlikely of places. Not least in industrial exclusion zones.

Introducing the Industrial Exclusion Zones

Possibly the most infamous of them all – the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

In 1986, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl exploded and deadly radiation spread for hundreds of miles in smoke and dust, air and water. Every human being was evacuated from within a 30 km radius of the plant, and forbidden to return. An exclusion zone of 4000 km² was created. Fences and radiation warning signs were erected.

But wildlife is no respecter of fences and doesn’t read signs.

CEZ fence and wild dog inside the zone

30 years after the event, John Wendle made a visit to the CEZ for the National Geographic magazine, and wrote of finding “the tracks of wolf, moose, deer, badger, and horses. I counted scores of birds: ravens, songbirds, three kinds of birds of prey, and dozens of swans paddling in the radioactive cooling pond.”

And Ukrainian scientist Sergey Gaschak confirmed, “We have all large mammals: red deer, roe deer, wild boar, moose, bison, brown bear, lynx, wolves, two species of hare, beaver, otter, badger, some martins, some mink, and polecats.” And a score of other mammals including bats, as well as ten or more species of big birds: hawks, eagles, owls, storks, and swans. What a wealth of wildlife!

Wolf in Chernobyl – Sergey Gaschak

That was 2015. Now a bang-up-to-date 2019 study agrees – wildlife is abundant in the CEZ. Nature is thriving. Nature has taken over. Because we are not there. 

“In the exclusion zone, humans have been removed from the system and this greatly overshadows any of those potential radiation effects.” 

But the CEZ may be shrinking. Professor Jim Smith from Portsmouth University has been monitoring its radiation levels since 1990. In the outer regions of the CEZ radiation levels are lower than we would get flying on a plane or having a CT scan. And lower than the natural background radiation in many other parts of the world. In the decades to come, as people start to move back into the zone, what will happen to the fabulous wealth of wildlife that has so flourished in their absence?

Even in active industrial installations Nature finds a way

The Secunda Synfuels Operations plant, South Africa 

The securely-fenced compound of the Secunda Synfuels Operations plant has become an unexpected haven for servals. The servals have found Secunda’s exclusion zone such a great place to live that the ratio of serval numbers to area is “far greater than any other site on record across the entire range of the species.”

Happily for the servals, the compound intended to keep people out, encircles a large area of wetland. Wetland means a plentiful supply of rodents, and no prizes for guessing servals’ favourite food!

Secunda Synfuels scars the South African landscape but servals thrive – credit Daan Loock

Jwaneng, Botswana

There is little more commercially valuable and well-protected than diamonds. The Jwaneng diamond mine produces 11 million carats of diamonds per year, making it the richest diamond mine in the world. To get those precious stones, nearly 47 million tons of rock and ore are dug out every year. That is one big ugly scar on the face of the planet.

Jwaneng mine – Wikimedia

But the Jwaneng exclusion zone also encompasses the Jwana Game Park, home to the globally threatened lappet-faced vulture. Red hartebeest, impala, springbok, steenbok, duiker, wildebeest, gemsbok (oryx) kudu, eland, giraffe, zebra, warthog, baboon, cheetah, ostrich, leopard, caracal, and many other smaller animals are thriving in Jwana.

Venetia, South Africa

The Venetia diamond mine tells a similar story. South Africa’s biggest producer of diamonds, Venetia’s exclusion zone, all 360 km² of it, became the Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve, notable for those most ancient of trees, the baobabs.

Pic of the life-giving baobob from Facebook (Prince Syeed)

Three of the ‘big five’, lion, elephant and leopard live there in safety, as well as “a broad array of large mammals such as African wild dogs, and cheetahs”.

Humans out, wildlife in.

Now to the Sperrgebiet, Namibia

German speakers will know that ‘Sperrgebiet’ means ‘Forbidden Area’. It lies within what was in 1908 – when diamonds were first discovered there – the colony of German South West Africa. The Forbidden Area, closed to the public for a century is now a national park extending over 26,000km². A national park with a difference, since nearly all of it is still forbidden to visitors. Though to this day diamonds continue to be mined there on a small-scale ,“the habitat is largely untouched and pristine.” It is a true wilderness.

Ancient signs still remain: “Warning. Penalty £500. Or One Year’s Imprisonment. The Public Is Warned Against Entering The Prohibited Area.”

Namibian springbok

“Exclusion of humans has helped preserve the natural biodiversity of the region which is now a hot-spot for exotic flora and fauna. The Sperrgebiet has more biodiversity than anywhere else in Namibia, supporting animals such as the gemsbok, springbok, and brown hyena, and bird species such as the African oystercatcher, the black-headed canary, and the dune lark. Some 600,000 Cape fur seals live here, representing 50 percent of the world’s seal population.”

80 terrestrial mammal species have been recorded there, and reptile species are abundant.

As for the flora:

There are 776 types of plants in the Sperrgebiet

234 of them are only found in southwest Namibia, an area known as the Succulent Karoo.

The Succulent Karoo holds the world’s richest flora of succulent plants, with one-third of the world’s approximately 10,000 succulent species

40% of its succulent plants are endemic to the Karoo

With 630 recorded species, the region is also exceptionally rich in geophytes²,

284 of the Sperrgebiet’s plants are on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species

The Sperrgebiet is in the world’s top 25 biodiversity hotspots. Man out, Nature in with a vengeance!

The problem is of course that where there are wonders of Nature, people want to see them for themselves. In 2007 the park management were “plotting ecologically sensitive guided driving and hiking trails. Given the importance, but also the fragility, of this ecosystem, tourism planning must out of necessity be carefully and sensitively addressed. Some areas with a high endemicity and range-restricted species are to be designated as Strict Nature Reserves and will never be generally accessible. Other areas will have access limited to visitors on foot, horse or camel back.”

Fine words, and let us hope they will always be born out on the ground³. Otherwise the Sperrgebiet may not remain the forbidden, undisturbed paradise it has been for so long.

But let’s end on an up note. I love this story – Elephant seals reclaim Drake’s Beach in California during the US government shut down. No heavy industry here, but normally lots of humans, including the 85-strong staff of Point Reyes National Seashore. The government shutdown left only 12 staff there, not enough to shake blue tarps to frighten the seals away as they normally would. Every cloud, as they say …

“In January 2019, elephant seals occupied the section of Drakes Beach adjacent to the Kenneth C. Patrick Visitor Center, and, at times, the parking lot and wooden ramps leading up to the visitor center”. The elephant seals – nearly 100 of them – are mostly females with their pups, but there are a few males too.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1090105097957376000

When the seals showed up, staff promptly closed off the entire area to the public. Now they are experimenting with weekend opening of a small part of the car park, just enough for 20 cars, for supervised viewing only. If the scheme is a success, weekend viewings will continue until early April when the pups will be weaned and the seals will move on.

Drake’s Beach is a far cry from Chernobyl – or Secunda and the diamond mines if it  comes to that. But the moral of the story in all cases is the same:

In the words of Point Reyes’ chief seashore wildlife ecologist Dave Press,

“If you just get out of the way, wildlife will find its way in.”

Never a truer word.

¹Inselbergs are rock hills/mountains that arise steeply from a surrounding plain. Inselberg translates as ‘island mountain’.

²Most geophytes are plants that store water and carbohydrates underground  – think tuber or rhizome such as the ginger we buy in a store. This underground organ helps them to withstand extremes of temperature and drought and protects them from grazing animals.

³Nowadays there is a strictly controlled guided day tour to Pomona, a ghost town abandoned at the end of the diamond rush, and the famous Bogenfels, a 55 metre high arch of rock on the Sperrgebiet’s Atlantic coast.

Related posts

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What Happens to Animals When People Disappear

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The Wildlife Haven that’s the UK’s Best Kept Secret

Sources

Chernobyl: The end of a three-decade experiment

How a South African industrial site is providing a safe haven for wild cats

Discover Namibia’s Sperrgebiet

Travel News Namibia

The Sperrgebiet – Wiki

        The Unspoilt Eden Let’s Hope We Will Never Get to See Imagine a Forbidden Area, left to slumber for 100 years, in which lies a ‘Fairytale Valley’,

#AmazingPlanet #Animals #Bears #BigCats #Biodiversity #Birds #Conservation #Dogs #Ecosystems #Elephants #Endangered #Environment #Horses&Donkeys #PlanetEarth #Wildlife #Wolves

[theopenroadbeforeme-blog]

My interest in Namibia began with nature documentaries.  For some reason, deserts fascinated me  — I think it was the utter foreignness of it.  I’d never seen a place that was seemingly so barren, so devoid of life.  But I quickly learned that these dry places that seem so desolate on the surface can be home to a whole host of life, hidden beneath the sands.  Perhaps my favorite desert to read about was the Namib.

Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. But how do you begin to describe its magic to someone who has never felt it? How can you explain the fascination of this vast, dusty continent, whose oldest roads are elephant paths?” — Brian Jackman

I loved learning about the Namib dwarf sand adders, tiny buggers with highly toxic venom.  I was fascinated by the way they burrow down into the sand to lie in wait for prey, with only their eyes and tail tip peeking above the sand.  The odd-looking antlions, neither ant nor lion, but rather an insect whose larvae digs sand traps to catch other insects on which to feed…

Needless to say, when the opportunity to go to Namibia and explore the Namib — as well as places like Etosha National Park — with Acacia Africa came up, I couldn’t say no.

Day One: Arrival

We arrived in Etosha after a brief stopover in Windhoek, the country’s capital.  A large national park in the north of the country, Etosha is characterized by a massive salt pan in its center, covering an area of 4,760 square kilometers.  Despite the arid nature of the area, a number of water holes (one of which is directly next to Okaukuejo Camp, where we stayed) sustain the diverse population of wildlife which calls the region home.

Perhaps the most common species — at least of larger fauna — to see is the springbok, South Africa’s national animal and a denizen of my dinner plate the night before.  It was midday and stiflingly hot, so the ones we saw were clustered under small trees and bushes, making use of whatever shade they could find.

We got our first up-close and non-rushed look at an ostrich as well, pausing to watch one strut away from us while fanning its plumage.   Far from useless, an ostrich’s wings help it balance while it runs and are also used in courtship rituals and other displays.  Now either this ostrich had something for one of those springboks, or its display was one from the ‘other displays’ category.

By the time we saw the giraffes, I was beginning to get a really good feeling about our time in Etosha National Park.  Seeing several of the ‘dainty dorks’ — as my sister so eloquently calls them — feeding on the trees was awesome, as we’d mostly just seen them far off in the distance while exploring the Okavango Delta and during our river cruise in Chobe National Park.

A little closer to camp, we found one last surprise: a herd of zebra, first crossing a side road, then paralleling the main road as we drove slowly past.  Several young foals regarded us warily, while more inured adults seemed barely to notice us.

We rolled into Okaukuejo Camp, at last, setting up our tents over several spots and making camp.  Then it was off to the watering hole at the edge of the grounds, where we’d heard we could almost always see some sort of wildlife.  There were some elephants there, but I’m going to save my pictures from the watering hole for a little later. 😉

Day One: Evening Game Drive

We left the confines of Okaukuejo and set off into the depths of the park, keeping our eyes open for wildlife.  We spotted a few familiar species — kudu, oryx, and the like — but nothing much of note until Khumbu swerved off the main road and along a dusty path towards a cloud of dust in the distance.  It was a trio of elephants in the middle of a dust bath.

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We managed to peel ourselves away from the elephants (despite seeing so many at Elephant Sands, we still weren’t sick of them) and had only just made it back along the main road when Pili Pili’s keen eyes spotted something in the grass.

“Lions, look!”

We did, and there were — three of them passed out in the middle of the open plain with nary a care in the world.  A black-backed jackal lingered daringly close, digging, scratching and doing other jackal-y things while the alpha predators behind him slumbered.

We saw another jackal further on at the first of several watering holes maintained by park authorities.  Zebra and springbok jostled for water as the jackal trotted through their midst.  Some of the animals seemed ambivalent to its presence, but others started and bounded away in alarm.

Jackals aside, the coolest sighting of the night was our first close-up rhino sighting.  It was coming towards us through the brush, plodding unhurriedly along.  An oryx loitered a short distance away, content to let the bigger animal pass.  That feeling wasn’t shared, however, and the rhino mock-charged the oryx, sending it fleeing through the shrubs.

Rhinos are not to be trifled with.  Noted and remembered!

The drive had one final surprise for us as dusk drew near and the threat of the gates getting closed on us became more and more real.  “Hyena!” someone shouted, and there one was, just to the side of the road in all its awkwardness.  Hyenas have a bad rap (thanks, Disney), but they’re really interesting animals and don’t always feed on carrion.  They hunt as well and are known to bring down zebras, wildebeest, and more.  And, despite their stubby little back legs, they can actually move quickly — up to 60 kilometers per hour!

Just as we were about to pull away, our presence unnerved the lone hyena, and it trotted on across the road with its derpy lope, and I had my squee moment for the day.

We made it back to the compound just in time, as the gates were about half-closed already.  A weary cheer sounded in the bus as we rolled through and into camp.

Day One: Around the Watering Hole

But the advent of dusk is by no means the end of a day of game watching in Africa, and we made our way to the watering hole after dinner.  The atmosphere there was muted; the tension level, high.  The whole viewing area was filled with tourists waiting with bated breath for animals to come for a drink.  Anything uttered at more than a whisper was shushed immediately, and all you could hear was the click, click of camera shutters and the hissing of whispers when something drew near.

There were already some giraffes around the pool, but we didn’t have to wait long for something else to join them — a female rhinoceros and her calf materialized out of the gathering darkness and made their way to the pool’s edge.

Watering holes are like the United Nations of the savanna.  Species of all kinds gather in one spot, for one purpose, though they are often at odds elsewhere.  There is a fragile peace that exists there, balancing on a knife’s edge, the threat of violence constant.

There was none that night, but the following night would see two rhinos — normally solitary animals — dueling at the pool’s edge.

We were just about to leave when one of the giraffes — which until then had been lingering some distance away from the pool — approached, looking as if it wanted some of the luscious liquid in the pool.  “C’mon, c’mon, go for it!” we whispered, urging it onward until, at last, it splayed its legs out and stooped down to sip out of the pool.

Dainty dorks, indeed.

Day Two: Morning Game Drive

Our second day in Etosha National Park was to be a long one, with a 4-5 hour game drive in the morning and a 2-3 hour drive in the evening hours before dusk.  Little did we know that, despite the awesome sightings from the previous day, our second day in the park would have some of the best individual moments of the entire trip…

One of these was a huge rhino we saw moving through the brush just off a side-road.  Khumbu got ahead of it and stopped the vehicle, allowing the beast to lumber past us, then cross the road just ahead.

Just epic.

Once the rhino wandered off, we made our way back towards a watering hole, only to be delayed by a herd of zebras filing past in single file.  There were several lions lounging in the bushes nearby, and a few of the zebras stopped to — presumably — stare them to death.  By the time we made it to the watering hole some minutes later, the staring zebras hadn’t moved.

But then, neither had the lions, so… mission accomplished?

The morning drive was long and seemed to drag on forever, I couldn’t even guess how much ground we covered over the course of five hours.  After a seemingly endless stretch of barren landscape as far as the eyes could see, we came upon a grove of withered and dry trees.  Behind them, something moved, its patchwork markings making its body difficult to make out behind the branches.

This camouflage was spoiled, however, by the giraffe’s neck and head jutting up above the tree like a watchtower as it silently regarded the humans it was definitely fooling with its top-notch concealment.

Shortly after, we experienced another one of those trip-defining moments.  It started innocuously enough, with Pili Pili calling out, “Oh hey, look, some dik-diks!”  Sure enough, two of the little antelopes were standing in the shade of a nearby tree as we came to a stop.  “Dik-diks are very unique because when they mate, they mate for life,” Pili told us.  “Very romantic.”

As if to lend credence to his words (or disprove them entirely, take your pick!), this happened…

Very romantic, indeed!

Another long drive took us to the edge of the Etosha Salt Pan, which looked for all the world like a sheet of ice stretching to the horizon.  Near its edge, a herd of wildebeest grazed — our first up-close sighting of these animals.

We’d finally reached the end point of the drive, and turned back towards Okaukuejo along the long, dusty road, stopping at another watering hole on the way.  There, a zebra and oryx scuffled as some springbok and ostrich scurried to get out of the way.

Watering holes really do seem like the UN, sometimes…

Day Two: Evening Game Drive

Our evening drive was just with Khumbu, as Pili Pili stayed behind to work on dinner.  The drive was mercifully short compared to the beast of a drive we’d done earlier, but we spotted a pride of lions napping by the roadside, so that was okay.

At first, it seemed to be only a couple of lionesses with their accompanying cubs.  One of them got up and plodded languidly in our direction before flopping down in the dust and grass for another nap.  A different lioness seemed to have an uncontrollable bout of yawning and bared her fangs for us on multiple occasions.

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But then someone spotted the male, a few meters removed from his pride and under the cover of some brambles.  He stirred, seemed about to rise, then did so.  Injured, he limped out from his lair and proceeded to defecate in plain view of us.  The yawn which occurred during the proceedings was photo gold, though I like to think it was a roar of effort.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder after taking a picture.

When we arrived back at camp, Pili Pili had a braai nearly ready.  Soon, the meat was crackling and spitting over red coals, and the smell of it was enough to set our bellies to rumbling.

Day Three: Departure

When we left Etosha National Park the next day, we squeezed in just one more game drive — a short affair that consisted of a small loop on our way back out of the confines of the park.  It was sad to be leaving — we’d seen so much wildlife over the previous two days, it had been insane.  But more adventures lay ahead, and Pili Pili assured us that the place we were headed is one of his favorite places in all of Africa…

How about you?  Have you ever done a game drive in Etosha or elsewhere?  What were some of the animals you encountered on the way?  Did you get any awesome or hilarious photos?  Share your stories in the comments below!

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Game Drives in Etosha National Park with Acacia Africa My interest in Namibia began with nature documentaries.  For some reason, deserts fascinated me  -- I think it was the utter foreignness of it. 

#desert #endangered species #epic #great view #lake #namibia #national park #tour

[tagamark]

What is the Best Botswana Safari?

New Post has been published on https://tagasafarisafrica.com/what-is-the-best-botswana-safari/

What is the Best Botswana Safari?

Wilderness Safaris Product Manager, Tina Kennedy, highlights Botswana’s diversity of fauna and flora and why it is important to include a combination of different areas and camps into each safari.

For a land-locked country, with a relatively small population and vast tracts of seemingly uninhabited landscape, Botswana offers a large diversity of fauna and flora. Bearing this in mind, the best Botswana safari would include a combination of different areas and camps. In the central and southern parts, the Kalahari Desert hosts a multitude of species that are not as common in other areas – herds of oryx and springbok, the inimitable honey badger (toughest character in the bush!), elusive brown hyaena and of course cheetah – where this vast flat expanse proves to be the ideal hunting ground.

To the north-east, the Makgadikgadi salt pans were once an inland lake and are now just miles and miles of “nothing”. Yet when the rains arrive, one may be lucky enough to witness Botswana’s own mini-migration where huge herds of zebra make their way south, along with other animals and birds such as flamingo, to take advantage of the nutrient rich water and grasses. The Okavango Delta is the lifeblood of many and visiting this wetland paradise seems surreal when a few days before, you might have been traversing fossil dunes in the Kalahari or sleeping out under the stars on the pans. One of the largest inland delta systems in the world, this unique area offers a variety of experiences – from fishing in the deep channels of the panhandle, to boat cruises in the lily-filled waterways and getting up close and personal with tiny frogs and beautiful birds from a mokoro. On the islands and drier land surrounding the Delta, game drives present the opportunity for some amazing wildlife sightings – not only the larger species such as hippos, giraffe, lions, leopards, wild dog but also jackals and genets or perhaps even a pangolin!

Or – witness this World Heritage Site from a hot-air balloon or helicopter with the doors off…just for some added spice! Heading north-east to the Linyanti fault line and the ephemeral Savute Channel, there is yet another facet to Botswana to experience. The mopane woodlands, the riverine forests or the ancient watercourse of the Savute Channel are havens for elephant, sable and roan as well as kudu, wildebeest, spotted hyeana, lion, leopard and wild dog. Boating on Osprey Lagoon, spending a night in a Star Bed or getting up close and personal with wildlife from a number of hides are just some of the wonderful experiences that would round off your safari, making it a truly memorable adventure!

Post courtesy of Wilderness Safaris

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African Safaris with the Pioneers