Is Commercial Conservation South African Wildlife's Hope for the Future?

There on the right appears this huge net. As we get closer it only gets larger and we see the birds. The wire netting rises high over 2.1761 hectares and encloses 375.372 cubic meters and is the world's largest free flight multi-species bird aviary. Housing around 2,000 birds of over 160 different species living in a variety of different habitats. Wow! 

The photo cannot in any way capture the magnitude of this fabulous place!  Birds of Eden

 "Birds of Eden" is such an appropriate name. Lee (the manager) leads us through the special doors and we step into paradise. My camera is immediately pointed at a spectacular Golden Pheasant working hard at impressing "his lady". Before I can take that all in I see a green and red parrot and the prettiest cream colored Dove I'd ever seen.


Golden Pheasant... amazing artwork of the Creator!

 I spend the next hour in absolute awe as Lee guides Russ and I along the walk ways and bridges from one habitat to the next. Small birds, large birds, ground birds and water birds. Some endemic to South Africa and others from all over the world. Each bird is accounted for. Each bird has a story. Many rescued from pet shops or brought in by people who no longer could care for them. It really is a glimpse into what Eden must have been like!

Endemic Lourie... a spectacular bird!

 On most days 1,000 people visit Birds of Eden. Bus loades of school children, photographers, birders from around the world, and curious tourists from South Africa and abroad step into this fascinating world of free-flying birds.

Crowned Crane.  I saw these as a young girl while out horse riding in South Africa

 Immediately next door is Monkeyland. After chatting with Tony the mastermind behind both sanctuaries we move into the world of the primates as we join a walking safari. Have you ever heard a female Lemur call? It sounds like a chorus of a couple of cats, a dog and a monkey! This beautiful creature has a double tongue!



Fascinating Lemur

 Here in Monkeyland land troups of various primate species coexist on 27 hectares of indigenous forest. Walking with monkeys! A troop swings through the wet trees overhead showering down rain drops. We stop to watch a Lemur enjoy apple pieces at a feeding station. All the while we're learning why some tails curl in and other don't have tails at all (those are the apes) from our knowledgeable guide.


Monkeyland and Birds of Eden like the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center up north are self sustaining conservation projects. Unlike the others we visited who rely on donations and grants for funding these three market themselves well and bring in money via tourism.

In the conservation realm there is great controversy around this. The purests see making money with wildlife as exploitation, while those like the three thriving projects we visited argue they reach far more people and will more readily survive long term.

In my finite wisdom I believe both have their place. The huge drawing card for commercial conservation is the sustainability and the masses of people enjoying a wildlife experience. This creates awareness in a big way.

Conventional conservation is essential to protect not only the wildlife, but the wild places needed for their survival in their natural environment. In an ideal world that means preserving harmonious ecosystems with no human interference.

My hat off to Tony and people like him who use their business savvy to do good for wildlife. And my admiration is unending for those like Karin (more about her soon), Rodger and Natasha (their story coming too) who devote their lives to the wildlife and wild places they love.

A Peek into Where we Sleep

"It's quite rustic," is a phrase we hear frequently. Which means: we built it ourselves, or it hasn't been updated in a while, or it doesn't have much of anything. It's been 25 days of touring and we've slept in eight different Backpackers or B&Bs with at least two more locations to go. 'Backpackers' are called 'hostels' in many other countries and of course 'B&B' stands for 'Bed and Breakfast'.

As a nonprofit we need to keep costs at a minimum (and because we're funding this ourselves and we are not independently wealthy). When we first planned this South African Wildlife Conservation Tour we considered camping. Our daughter in-law spent six months travelling in South America and reminded us about the hostel route.

Russ got online and started plotting out Backpackers... we have yet to stay at one of them! Our first night we deviated and stayed close to the Black Eagle Project so we could return to the beautiful gardens the projects housed in.

There in Krugersdorp we found our selves in a small room gazing up at a two story ceiling and the bathtub was surely the longest I'd ever soaked my body in.

On the road to Pietermaritzburg we called Sleepy Hollow, it was so well situated we stayed for five nights. This was our first real backpackers experience, meeting young people from France and other parts of South Africa all in town for a conference. We spent hours chatting. Avril , the owner and her husband, are international cyclists. Finding Spain the best place to tour on a bike. Actually Clyde was tripping across Australia at that very moment raising money for a local charity.

Then there was the cabin in the midst of the 'jungle' in the Umlalazi Reserve. It was a real treat sitting on the deck with birds and monkeys chattering in the trees above and the small Duiker grazing beneath. Not to mention the walks on the beach just a stones throw away.

Probably the most memorable is the bamboo hut at the backpackers near Hazyview just outside the Kruger Park. If you've ever stayed in a bamboo hut you know that you can't fart on the toilet if you're prim and proper. Waiting on dinner in the main area was not a problem. Francis is a creative decorater, with T-shirts and foreign bank notes from travelers hung and pasted on ceilings and walls. Along one hallway both sides, including the doors, are 'decorated' with thank you notes in a variety of languages.

Of course there was the rondavel near Hoedspruit where a flash of blue flew through the door while we were working (a Kingfisher). With a little careful manuevering we caught this exquiste creature with limited trauma and gently released him back outside.

Only twice so far have we needed to regroup. Once near Umtunzini, where we had quite a time finding the small white entrance gate between the bushes across from the old railway station in the middle of a forest. The tiny huts had no windows, the showers were open air and it just didn't feel safe. The other time the location was fantastic. Just outside of Knysna on a pristine white beach and the ocean almost turquoise in the late afternoon light. A grouping of jagged red rocks creating huge white spray just a few feet away from the backpackers. Talk about waking up and rolling out onto the beach for a morning jaunt! But it didn't feel right, so we made a phone call and found an inland alternative.

From spacious to tiny, from well equipped to minimal, from quiet to busy... what a ride for two 'old folks' like us!

Overall we've kept our costs manageble, though unlike some may think, South Africa ain't cheap even when you rent the tinyest of tiny cars, basically a SMART car with four doors, go the backpacker route and live on yogurt, granola cereal, fabulous fruit, peanutbutter and honey with a meal out every other day. If you feel inclined to help with the costs we'd be very appreciative.

When it's your turn to visit this beautiful country, give me a shout and I'll put you in touch with some fabulous people and some interesting places to stay.

 

South African Wildlife: Who Really Cares? South Africa? Me and You?

South Africa is only 1% of the world's land mass, which is quite insignificant. However, it is home to 10% of the world's mammals, birds and reptiles, now that puts South Africa on the "take notice" list.



My most favorite raptor, the Bateleur

How much does South Africa care about it's wildlife. In talking to locals like Avril who owns and operates Wylde Ride (a cycling tour company) and Sleepy Hollow Backpackers (a hostel) in Pietermaritzburg, KZN in years past wildlife was the main South African tourist attraction. From an economic point of view wildlife was on top of the list as people thronged to the game parks. Today, with the population explosion and never ending poverty the wildlife has slipped way down in priority. Which puts it at risk not only because of less funding, but more critically less protection. Protection not just of the various species themselves but their ever shrinking habitat.

However, take a look at most any advertisement from South Africa. Be it for a car or a vacation you can almost count on seeing one of the Big Five included. Pick up a South African coin or rand note and you'll see one of wildlife's beauties.

Leon, a banker and avid bird watcher, thought that with as little homage that is paid the wildlife (especially the rhino right now) maybe the powers that be need should replace these icons that better reflect current reality, "the one with the most stuff wins".

It's so easy not to care! After all the lions don't organize a strike that impacts the car we drive. Nor do the elephants launch a huge campaign that makes a difference to our pocket book. The rapidly disappearing vultures don't have the slights effect on our garbage pick up. So why care?

It took me many years to start listening to what is happening to the wildlife in South Africa and I was born in South Africa! So I can't point any fingers.

What made me care?

Nature, the marvels of it have always been the greatest source of fascination for me. As I write this sitting on the patio of our cabin in Kwalala Nature Reserve, KZN a large woodpecker size bird I'm unfamiliar with flies into the tree above me, while a small Duiker (buck) with a hoof missing (probably caught in a poacher's snare) forages below, and vervet monkeys call to each other in the jungle like forest to the left.

Sunrise found us on the beach watching sea snails, shore birds and crabs along the magnificent South African coastline. All this in contrast to our drive here yesterday through miles of hills and vales that were totally void of any natural habitiat. Sugar cane and tree farms stretched for miles interuppted by about 30 miles of rural housing dotting the hills and valleys for as far as the eye could see. Trees and vegetation was almost gone leaving little but parched earth and rough brick homes. Livestock was sparse seemingly limited to a few skinny cows and herds of scrappy goats.

Why do I care? Because so much has changed since I was a girl here more than 40 years ago. The natural habitat is shrinking much too fast and with it the wildlife. More than half of the large mammals have disappeared from the African game parks since 1970! Disappeared from the very refuges that are meant to protect them!

2002 thru 2007 found Russ and I in the Philippians. On our flight over there I read a National Geographic article that only 5% of the rain forest in the Philippines remained and that by 2010 it would be gone. The Philippines could be an absolute tropical paradise for both wildlife and humans, but it has been devasted and exploited (or eaten, every thing that moves is either eaten or strung upside down and sold on the road side.)

A friend, Brother Reyes, told us how when he was a boy 40 years earlier their were eagles in the sky and monkeys and buck in the forests. The only Filipino eagles remaining (about 120 in 2004) were in two poorly financed sanctuaries south of Manila and in Mindanau. What a magnificent creature! What a loss not to see it soaring in the skies above the Philippine Islands any longer.

That five year experience seeing the lack of understanding for the part wildlife and it's habitat plays in our lives was a fast-forward of South Africa if we don't care now.

What makes you care? Wildlife's hope for a future is you and me.

My other most favorite bird of prey, the Secretary Bird

Keep 'Em Wild or...

After an inspiring visitors' tour of the Moholoholo rehab center Brian took us behind the scenes. A couple of days earlier they'd been called out to a mass snaring. Must have been awful! An entire lion pride (six), a wildebeest, two hyenas and a vulture had been brutally caught. Only one lioness with huge neck wounds and broken teeth hung to life the rest had died a slow painful death.

We were now heading to the injured lioness' secure rehab unit. Along the way Brian gently pulled back a tarp ever so slightly to let us peek in on a jittery Brown Hyena almost fully recovered and soon to be released. He beackoned us to follow him inside this small dimmly lit corridor. He spoke softly as we approached the second cage. I was stealing myself to see this poor lioness just laying there with her horrific wound.

Roooooaaaaaaar! My heart leapt into my throat as this huge animal with glowing yellow eyes loudly hurled herself towards us. She swung around and crouched in the corner facing us with those menacing eyes. It took every bit of courage I had not to retreat and dash out the door to safety. Here before me was this beautiful creature snatched from the jaws of death. Her recovery still percariously in the balance as the gapping hole in her neck can not be stitched and needs to heal from the inside out. Staving off infection being her rescuers biggest challenge.

We lingered for the longest few minutes in recent history. What a contrast! But an hour or so earlier we'd been led past the ambassedor animal cages. We'd watched two lions languish in their camp. Watched the cheetah lay in the grass and even the leopard didn't seem terribly threatening. We'd even put on a handlers glove and hand fed the vultures. But this lioness... now she was truly fresh from the wilds! Her fear of humans was intense and her defenses were on red alert.

She can never be released to the wilds again. Why I asked? For two reasons: Her fangs are gone so she can no longer fend for herself. Her pride is dead and another would never accept her.

Her options are therefor either death or life in captivity as an ambassedor. Which would you choose? Is there a right or a wrong? This is the difficult dilemna Brian and conservationists like him face every day.

He's not that heavy!  Or ugly for that matter.

From the Field: Helping People Saving Wildlife - There is Much More to Wildlife Conservation Than You May Think

Here I am in the middle of writing this blog entry when Russ walks in. He's just talked to Les in a cabin next to ours. Les is a national anti poaching expert. He's in this part of the country to do training. 294 Rhino have been poached this year in Southern Africa! 100 of those in Mozambique. Apparantly this whole poaching epidemic started with the issue of illegal permits. After an outcry that was stopped, however,the market in Asia was already established and the cruel sawing off of horns continued. When there's the ridiculous sum of $1,000,000 to get for just 8kg of processed horn you can understand why. It seems like a lot of money for little effort tends to bring the savage and crazy side out of humans. How narrow minded is the current adage: If it doesn't pay it doesn't stay!



Boabab Tree near Hoedspruit

Back to my original blog entry...
[Pics at the end... somehow couldn't get them inbetween! Go figure!]


It's been two weeks since we arrived and met with Libby who protects the habitat of her urban Black Eagles west of Johannesburg. Unfortunately as our flight out of Paris was delayed by a passengers medical emergency we missed chatting with Christo (who is a wildlife hero I wrote about before).
We left the big city and the High Veld and dropped down Van Reenen's pass into Kwazulu-Natal. Roz who within only two and a half years has organized a first response wildlife rescue and rehab center is our first stop. Her center has become a hub for country wide rescue and rehab information already. Not that the center tauts to address every wild birds or animals need, but they know the specialts and experts to get involved. Like Ben at the African continents largest and most advanced raptor rescues and rehab facility who we visited next.


Ben and Shannon are not only a create match as husband and wife, they established both the rescue and rehab center, with it's main objective to return these magnificent birds back to the wild, but also a sanctuary to house those that can't be and are used as ambassedors and trained free flying birds for Shannons marvelous educational demonstrations. There's nothing quite like having a Horned Owl soundlessly skim the top of your head in flight. Or watching the Lanner Falcon soaring high only to return to catch the lure in full flight with his talons.

I still can't help but chuckle as I think of our visit to the Jan and James and their Vervet Monkey project. This elderly couple is preparing for the thirteenth year to care for this springs injured or orphaned Vervets. They've not lost one of the 15 plus that arrive at their doorstep every season.

Along the way we meet ordinary people like Leon (banker), Shaun (health care administrator), Avril (outdoor adventure business owner), Thoko (high school teacher), Caroline (newly graduated conservationist), Andries (looking for job in conservation), Terry (Methodist pastor) who share their diverse experiences and understanding of what's really happening with South African wildlife today. The puzzle pieces are different than we had imagined! (You may want to read: Wildlife Conservation: Does One-Size-Fit-All? and The Catch-22 of Protecting South African Wildlife.)

Will and Carol, retired from their former lives, are dedicated to researching the behaviors of the only free roaming preditor that remains in South Africa, the leopard. Their bush home is on a 5,000 hecter ranch. So Russ and I forfitted showers and took off shortly after first light to explore at the waterhole below and by following game paths to the hill above. We were richly rewarded by: Kudo, grey Duiker, Vulture, Impala, Zebra and numerous song birds. Sure beats a morning walk in the suburbs!

Then while eating breakfast on the deck a baboon troop and then a small herd of wildebeest pass by. What a life? However, Will and Carol don't sit around much, the leopard project, safari TV (live online interactive educational program) and so many other protection efforts that would make anyone else's head spin, keep this entrepreneurial couple hopping. Will is not only creating the first free roaming leopard database ever, he also grows the young people he surrounds himself with. Nothing stagnant about what Will does!

Down the dusty road we travelled. Climbing one hill and avoiding one pothole after another in our little car with tiny wheels. Michele and Ian's bush school is really way out there! She wasn't kidding me. Surrounded by nothing but bush and wildlife the kids and volunteers are invited into a once in a life time experience. It was a gift for us to spend half a day with them. Risette, a volunteer from Holland, said it's amazing to see how at the beginning of the week the children arrive very quiet and heads bowed with little interest in the wildlife around them. By the time they leave their hearts are transformed and they cannot only name the wild animals but are excited to see them.

Off one of the main roads near the famous Kruger National Park is Donald's reptile center. Now Russ doesn't like snakes, but after talking to the enthusiastic Donald and getting our own private behind the scenes tour he had a change of heart. Donald's center is full of rescued reptiles that cannot be released. Those that have been dropped off there or he and his staff have rescued from behind peoples cubboards to those about to be killed by an angry farmer.

What a ride! Each day is a new adventure as much of who we meet are those that are put in our path! This amazing tour of meeting such wonderful people beats any vacation I could wish for... except to go relax on the beaches of Hawaii maybe... not!



Volunteers teaching the kids at the Bush School

Russ and Will at their Bush Home

Rescued Albino Python

A Black Headed Heron approaching the nest on a small island in an urban lake. Ermelo SA

Would love to add more pics but out of battery and out of internet time... till next time thanks for following.

Catch 22 in Protecting South African Wildlife

Remember being at the Zoo standing in front of a majestic enclosure in awe of the lion in front of you? With visions of a Discovery Channel Special you were enchanted by this magnificent animal of the wild.

Yes he is serving mankind as an important ambassador not only for his species but the whole animal kingdom. Yet it is a sacrifice he has not chosen to make. Sadness comes as you look deeper at the lethargic King of Beast in front of you. How long has it been since he roamed, hunted, bred… lived?

A rancher has the right to safely raise his livestock; a Leopard has the right to hunt and eat.

An injured bird of prey has the right to follow nature’s course and become food; a researcher has the right to capture the injured bird to understand so he can help.

The millions in poverty have the right to eat; endangered species have the right to survive.

A natural habitat has the right to exist for its interdependent environment of thousands of species; a farmer has the right to clear the land to provide for many of his kind.

Unlike the extremists on both sides, I do not claim to know the answers to the many paradoxes seen in our visit to Africa. But like a very wise 24 year old Leopard researcher said yesterday, “We have to take the situation as it is and do what is right by all”.

Extremism does no one any good. As an example the “bunny huggers” (let live at all costs), the Eco-scientist, and the politicians have created a horrendous situation in Kruger Park by not allowing the conservationists and rangers to do their job.

The Kruger elephant herd cannot be thinned by culling or transporting some to other places where their genetics may not match. And few want to risk looking bad or uncaring to the rest of the world.

As a result the maximum population of 9000 elephants in this magnificent Wildlife Reserve is now over 19000 causing major environmental destruction effecting all other plant and animal species.

Similar to party politics, the bickering and rhetoric continue while the best interests of the species are compromised.

Stay tuned for some interesting solutions to impossible problems by those willing to take a stand, consider all involved, and do their part large or small.

Impossible Made Easy at the Hampton's

What a privilege to be in South Africa and see where we can help. The projects we are evaluating are exactly what we hoped for; wonderful people accomplishing amazing things for wildlife and educating along the way.


It is so hard to choose which one to write about today... Russ picked this one...
 

Impossible Made Easy at the Hamptons


I knew this was going to be an interesting visit. When I called for directions Jan had me smiling in the first few sentences, called me ‘Love’ three times, and said I would have to get directions from her husband because she gets lost finding the same bathroom twice.

After we arrived interesting turned to fun, fun to amazement, and amazement into total awe of who the Hamptons are and what they are accomplishing. What a fascinating marvelously dedicated couple they are with a powerful sense of caring for animals for proper release back into the wild.

James does get in a few words edgewise but mostly it is Jan’s nonstop heartwarming conversation punctuated with pertinent knowledge, caring stories and down to earth reality. No injured beast is turned way but the Hampton’s specialty is saving neonatal Vervet monkeys orphaned by their mother’s death most often caused by humans.

When Jan said they take in 15 to 20 “tinies” each year from all over South Africa I had visions of the shut-in with 45 cats that never leave the house. Nothing but stench, filth and pandemonium…

But then she took us into their spotless intriguing home and nursery where the delicate process was revealed. Over 250 “tinies” have been rescued and reared over the past 12 years and they could hardly contain themselves for this year’s “crop” of 15 to 20, “It is the start of the season and we should be getting the first calls very soon.”

When the “tines” are 7 months old they are weaned and independent. Now ready to forget “mom and dad” they are put in a large enclosure and carefully mixed with older vervets to form a troop that is capable of surviving as a colony in the wild. The forgetting and adapting takes over 2 years and the Hamptons have one troop preparing to be released this year with another progressing well for the following year.

Presently they are in need of another troop enclosure as there will be an overlap in the troops this year. This wonderful couple has all the proper permits and accomplishes this major effort mostly on their retirement pensions and some help from the locals.

The funds to meet the urgent need for the enclosure are out of reach and they need help before this year’s “tinies” are weaned. James just wants help with the material as he intends to build the enclosure himself with some friends.

A closer glimpse into the Hampton's...

 
Sorry this one is turned side ways... have no idea why it did that!!!!
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