Hier ein aktueller Bericht unserer Agentur aus Botswana/ David Dugmore,
www.kalaharikavango.com
THE RIVER IS ALIVE AGAIN!
The Boteti River deep in the Kalahari Desert dried up in 1993! A hundred thousand zebra and wildebeest perished, other animals died or had to leave the area. The river went into a coma, to support just a fraction of the life that it once nurtured. Incredibly, thankfully the remnant survivors of those great herds managed to hang on by a thread, getting their sustenance from a few small seeps and holes dug by elephants, and some artificially created waterholes. The more miserable the situation there seemed, the more we hoped for a miracle. I always believed the river would flow again, it was just a question of time. And now it is time! There are a number of influencing factors that determine the flow of the river, or not. Seismic activity, the ever changing delta landscape, and most importantly the regional rainfall occurrences. We are apparently in for a few decades of higher rainfall in the region and that means the Boteti River will be flowing for a while.
The Boteti River drains a small fraction of water from the Okavango Delta to flow two hundred kilometres into the saltpans of the dry Kalahari. Meno A Kwena Tented Camp is located where the river flows into the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. This is the dry season range for Southern Africa’s largest remaining wildlife migration. The water from the Angolan highlands, hundreds of kilometres to the north, that fell during the 2007/2008 summer rains arrived at Meno A Kwena for the first time since 1993! It was Tuesday the 25th November that water flowed down the dry riverbed for the first time in fifteen years! The river awakens from her dry coffin in the desert.
I cannot put into words what this feels like, what it means, my words right now cannot convey the immense relief I am experiencing. I am in a state of shock. Amazing how I have expected and hope for this so much for so long, that when it finally happens, it is almost unbelievable to comprehend. I am overwhelmed, that’s the word. So I am going to hand you over to Spot, AKA Kevin Ryan, AKA friend, AKA my Brother. He wrote these beautiful words below as a tribute to the river, and our Mother who died last Christmas day.
“This water, this lifeline to the dwellers and creatures along the Boteti, this is a gift from our Mother. These are the tears we shed. She does not want them. She gives them back to us. This is her offering so that we all may drink and bathe, frolic and gambol like new born wildebeest. This is her Christmas gift so that we will arrive, be happy and busy on the anniversary of her departure. Our Mother has been busy …Thank you Cookie!”
Cookie loved to sit in camp and be a part of the wildlife coming to drink from the waterholes, even if it was distressing at times. She understood. Her ashes, scattered in the dry riverbed at the beginning of this year have been swept up by the river, she is now a part of the new order that our Mother Nature has created to bring new life. Incredible numbers of fish came with the water, the new birdlife moving into the area is dramatic, already hippo have been seen nearby, crocs on the way, or perhaps already here lurking beneath the rippling surface – sinister submarine stealth. Meno A Kwena!!!
LIONS GET THEIR PAWS WET!
The new environment we have since the water arrived has changed dramatically, positively in all ways and we have to adapt. We have gone from one extreme to the other, there is so much water in the lagoon in front of camp. The wildlife has to adapt too. I had hoped the lions that frequent the waterhole and camp area would find them selves on the park side of the river, not trapped on our side. It turns out the females and dominant males are in the park opposite camp. My guide Max enjoyed his walk with safari guests along the riverbed filled with water a few days after the river flowed through the area. New birdlife in the area to show people – herons, egrets, storks, cormorants, bitterns, shrikes, babblers. Lion tracks! Jeez! JEEZUS!!! Max looked up from the lion spoor to see two young male lions dissolve into the thick acacia woodland ahead. JEEZ!!!
I shouldn’t laugh but it is quite amusing how people react to extreme potential danger. They stumble, fumble, stomachs rumble, overwhelming concern about not doing the wrong thing as instinct rushes through the body and soul to run screaming like a mad person. Max hesitates and quickly assesses the situation. Lions trapped between the water and riverbank cliffs. Jeezus! Not good to be close to cornered animals, even a cute little cornered squirrel will cause great pain and discomfort when threatened. I went to look for them later in the day to find they had hidden themselves in the thickest of thorny acacia amongst the branches of an elephant-felled tree. Naturally I was concerned about the dangers this posed to us and ultimately the young male lions. We built a bridge of gum poles across a narrow section of the river in case they didn’t want to swim. There was a herd of wildebeest in the area for the lions to hunt if they got desperately hungry. The bewildered wildebeest eventually braved the river and headed east to join the rest of the migration. There was nothing else substantial for the young lions to eat here, except the huge population of catfish that flipped and flopped through the shallows. But these are desert lions, they don’t know about that. Or there was of course the livestock beyond the cliffs. Danger bells rang over there so the lions stayed, strangely with no desire to cross the river even if it was narrow and shallow enough in places to wade chest deep through. Lions do take to water if they have to, and get used to it …with a deep resentment. We all know cats harbour some sort of resentment. It’s a cat thing!
I’m not up to date on the dynamics of the pride at the moment with all these new changes in the area. I did notice after about a week of the young lions being trapped in the area that they very possibly are young males from the Meno A Kwena pride. They are at an age when, should a pride male take over be occurring or has already, be extremely weary of the new pride lords. They will be killed if they cannot get away from the area as a new order is established. That new order does not include any other males, especially those not related to the new landlords. I am assuming this is the case as one evening when these two young males were outside my tent as I left to go for supper and showed little concern about me, they were focused on something else more urgent. A full grown male was asserting his presence on the other side of the river opposite camp. Penetrating roars …rumble in the jungle. The young lions’ attention was on avoiding a rumble in the jungle, they moved away from the threatening gesture, back towards their thorny hiding place.
The longer the young lions stayed the more concerned I became about the situation. Not a big area and camp right in the middle of it. Lots of people walking around camp. When big cats sort out big cat politics they are at their most fearsome, focused fearsome. Nothing else matters. Not even collateral damage. It’s these situations all those lion horror stories come from, ask professional hunter - Soren Lindstrom about that! So naturally I wanted to alleviate a lion battle around camp, and hoped they would resolve the volatile situation sooner than later. We kept our ears and eyes open wide, we looked for the young lions in their hiding places every morning, evening and night. They were dug in for just over a week. The threatening roars from the opposite river bank persisted through the nights, like the roar of a Zulu army’s war cries, stamping feet and bashing spears against shields, preparing to attack. Still, it was all quite exciting despite our concerns.
Fear, and eventually hunger, got the better of the young lion brothers who finally made an exit from their hideout. It was time to face reality and accept that this area, once their safe nursery, is now not a place for growing young adults. It was time to go to boarding school, to learn to face the raw challenges of life. If ever they return to Meno A Kwena it will be to stock this nursery with their own cubs. Chances of that are pretty slim, the Kalahari is quite a challenge.
RESEARCH EXCITEMENT
Carnivore researcher Glyn Maud arrived at camp accompanied by veterinarian, Dane to see the river flowing through the riverbed. All the more reason to collect data on the predators of the area. They based themselves at Kumaga, thirty kilometres down river from Meno A Kwena, to put tracking collars on brown hyaena and lion. The immediate information from these transmitters would show us their movements, especially now the migration has moved away to the saltpans.
Predators are forced to frequent the livestock farming areas on the other side of the fence. Of course the urgency to cross the fence despite the dangers from pissed off farmers is there. Not much in the way of an easy meal when there aren’t thousands of zebra and wildebeest about. When we have all this important behaviour and movement information it is more likely getting the government’s attention to take the necessary steps to solve the wildlife/human conflict problems along the boundaries of the wildlife protected areas. I do believe this research is increasingly important for the development of sustainable tourism to reduce the confrontational encroachment issues we face.
Glyn told me they had great excitement while immobilising a brown hyaena. Lions appeared around them that night as they were fitting the tracking device collar to the hyaena’s neck. They had to work fast with no distractions but the lions persisted. Difficult to concentrate on high tech equipment and dangerous drugs when a lion is breathing down your neck! In human perspective, a stressed anaesthetist monitoring a dangerous medical operation while a pride of hungry lions prowls the corridors of the hospital, drawn ever closer by the strong sweet smell of blood!!! Glyn and Dane managed to deal with the hyaena successfully and then proceeded to dart one of the hungry prowling lions to also successfully place a tracking device on her too. Not a bad night shift.
SOUTHERN AFRICA’S LARGEST WILDLIFE MIGRATION
The zebra and wildebeest migration incredibly sense when is the right time to head to the saltpans, their wet summer season breeding range. The hundred kilometre move is long and dangerous as there is no water en route and especially traumatic for the mothers of early newborn foals, often unable to keep up with the rest of the herds. This will slow the family down to a point when they have to make the decision to leave the mother and foal behind. This is dangerous as predators are often not far away to target the young and weak. Foals are often abandoned by mothers in their desperation to get to the saltpans to drink.
The migration had already left by the time the river flowed through Meno A Kwena so they have no idea they will be returning to lots of water at the end of the rains, and onset of the next dry season. I am so very excited about their return as the riverbed will still be holding more water than we have seen in almost two decades. No twenty-four-hour-days pumping, no stress of too many animals and too little water. And the view of the migration coming and going will be even more spectacular as cliffs either side of us will channel all the wildlife within full sight of the camp.
Ein schönen dritte Advent wünscht
Michael
