RHINO DE-HORNING – A SAD STORY

The helicopter taking off..

It was early one morning when the sky was just turning red with the rising sun.  The nocturnal animals were giving their final call for the night and the birds singing in a new day, when the peace was disturbed by the noise of a helicopter coming in to land.  The pilot and two vets alighted from the machine and came over to ask if we were interested in witnessing the de-horning of a rhino.  We all readily agreed.

                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                    

Poaching of rhino got to epidemic proportions in the early 1900’s mainly by poachers hacking off the horns and selling them to the Far East for exorbitant prices for several uses including: an alleged remedy against fever, gout, rheumatism, and many other non life threatening ailments, an alleged cure against aggressive cancer, ornamental use, an aphrodisiac (this is denied by the Chinese themselves), and Yambiya handles in Yemen. Amid  controversy it was decided that having this valuable horn going around on four legs was not easy for National Parks anti-poaching teams to protect, so was decided that by de-horning the rhino there would be a better chance of the survival of these prehistoric beasts.

We were given a two-way radio so that we could communicate with the pilot, and he could inform us as to where to go.  With a whirr of the blades and a cloud of dust the helicopter took off, so we all rushed off and grabbed cameras and hats and piled into the vehicle and headed in the direction that we were given, down one of the two lane tracks, with our hearts hammering not sure what to expect. 

The pilot suddenly informed us that they had located a large male rhino and gave us direction, so we then headed off the tracks and ‘bundu bashed’ through thick vegetation until we arrived at the location.  By the time that we arrived one of the vets had already darted the rhino from the helicopter and he was lying peacefully on the ground unaware of what was about to happen to his masculinity, they had placed a cloth over his eyes for protection from the sun.  The vets were busy measuring the beast, checking his blood and checking his heart rate.  All of a sudden the National Parks vet started up the chain saw and started sawing off the sleeping patient’s horn.  The smell was horrendous, as it smelt like burnt nails.  The team worked exceptionally fast even though to us it seemed to take forever listening to the sawing and smelling the horn.  The National Parks Scouts then painted a number on his side and he was tagged in the ear.  We all then had to clear out and get to the safety of our vehicles while the vet gave an anti-dote for the rhino to wake up.



Checking the heart

Sawing off the horn

Putting tar on the after the horn taken off

Number the rhino

Measuring the anti-dote





Unfortunately, by de-horning as many rhino as they could it did not really help the population, as the poachers continued slaughtering the rhino and instead of a horn now they hacked off the tagged ear to given to their dealers to prove that the rhino has been de-horned and maybe they would still get some money for their efforts, and also if a de-horned rhino was killed, bit would save time in tracking these hornless mammals.  Poachers are prepared to remove any amount of horns, including the small stubs on rhino calves, and therefore dehorning is unlikely to be an adequate deterrent. Dehorning will only reduce the temptation to potential poachers if the re‐growth is cut regularly to ensure that the horn mass remains very low. Zimbabwe reported that their dehorning effort was successful, but only if used in conjunction with traditional anti‐poaching measures such as regular patrols and population monitoring. Where we used to going out and seeing a rhino every day, it got down to you being lucky if we saw one at all!!

 

                                                                             The Team



                                                                                                                         



 



 









PHOTOGRAPHS OF NATIONAL PARKS STAFF

Sorry everyone, this week I am just going to post a whole lot of photographs of staff of National Parks as some folk are interested in them.  I know to some it will be a bore, as they have no idea who these people are, but to others who have been in the department, will find them very interesting.  Next blog I promise to get back to some stories, I have just been a kinda lazy lately.

I have decided today just to share some photo's with you as there was alot of interest on Face Book for some old National Parks people and stories.  So sorry to bore the folk that are not interested, but will get back to stories next time.

FOLK TALES

Dad had had a complaint from a local village of a man-eating lion that was causing undue stress to their settlement and had already eaten two people. The first was a truck driver that had spent the night on the side of the road and the second was one of the villagers who had been sitting around the fire when someone had thrown a log on the fire causing sparks to fly up into the night sky.

Dad and two game scouts went to the village to try and kill this man-eater. When night fell the two game scouts sat with their back against the wall and they had a bicycle propped up against the hut next to them, while Dad sat in the vehicle. They had heard the lion calling on and off during the night. In the early hours of the morning the one game scout decided to have a cigarette and as he lit his match the lion attacked the bicycle. In the morning they saw the pug marks of the lion and the bicycle was a bit mangled.






So the next night they decided to set up a bait, and they bought a goat and tied it to a very heavy log ( it took both game scouts to carry it). They build a platform in a tree and one of the game scouts sat in wait there while the other joined Dad in the vehicle, so that he could quickly put the windscreen down and put the head lights on, and Dad would then shoot. They sat quietly anticipating every second that ticked by . Finally the game scout put his hand on Dad’s knee and whispered “It’s here!” The game scout put the windscreen down, Dad got his rifle ready and when they switched on the head lights the goat and the log had gone. Hmmmm….. The game scout on the platform heard nothing.

Dad then decided to get some traps and torches from Head Office. He explained to the Chief of his intentions and the Chief said that they would never get the lion as a man from the village had slept with his sister. Dad then enquired about the truck driver and the Chief explained that he was a distant relative, and the other chap was a closer relation and this was a warning that the culprit would be next. The Chief explained that the man had to pay ZW$10 to the Spirits of the Lions before it would end. Dad asked why this had not happened yet. The Chief explained that it was too far for him to go to pay the fine. Dad said that he was going in that direction and he would take the guilty man to the Spirit of the Lion to pay his fine.

When Dad got back to Head Office he was immediately sent off on another errand so a fellow colleague took over. They went back to the village and spent four nights there. They heard the lion nightly, but each night further away until eventually there was nothing and no-one else was eaten.

ANNUAL GAME COUNT

One year we decided to participate in the annual game count, which means you have to sit at an allocated pan from 12 noon on the Saturday of the full moon till 12 noon on the Sunday, (normally during the months of September or October when the rains have not yet begun in full) and count all the game and bird life that you see. We invited two friends from Australia, Cathy and Tom, to join us on this particular count.



We had been given a pan in the far north of the Park, so we load up the open back bakkie with our entire essentials for a night of camping. Mum, Dad and Cathy were in the cab and Tom and I lay on a mattress on top of all our gear. We left home early to enable us to get to our pan by 12 noon. It was a very uneventful trip until we got to about an hour from our destination, when we came across a pride of about 13 lions being chased off their zebra carcass by a pack of 16 hyenas. We stopped and watched the fracas going on for a while, as it was very interesting. Suddenly Cathy hears a crack on the left of the vehicle and we all notice that the hyenas had chased a lioness up a spindly Mopani tree right next to us. Cathy was now more concerned about the two of us on the back of the vehicle and worried that we were going to be added to the zebra carcass and managed to persuade my father to drive on.

We got to the pan and found a suitable place to set up for our 24 hour game count. The rules were that we had to stay in the vehicle for the duration, but Dad always erected a canvas from the vehicle out, so that we could sit under it to record the game that came down to drink and the back of the vehicle was used for the people that were off duty during the night to catch up on a few hours sleep before their next shift. Of course my father always had to pick an elephant path to camp on as his reasoning was that it was the flattest ground around! By now Cathy had refused to get out of the vehicle, so my father told her that if she did not get out of the vehicle there would be no dinner for her! She reluctantly got out of the cab and joined us under the canvas for some warming stew and coffee.

 

Once dinner was over, Cathy now figured that it was quite safe to be out of the vehicle and was quite relaxed. We had counted a number of species of game come down to drink, among the lot a herd of elephant cows and calves. One female had obviously just given birth to a baby and so was very protective of her offspring and was not happy with the intrusion at her water-hole. She decided to mock charge us, at which my father calmly puffing on his pipe just tapped the side of the vehicle, which sent her away. But then she decided that we were a real threat to her young and came charging towards us in a serious charge. By now Cathy had grabbed hold of both my mother and I and was trying to get all three of us in the cab of the vehicle at the same time!! While my father carried on casually puffing away and telling the cow to go away that we were no threat. She finally decided to back of once she was within a few metres of us.

Pastel Picture of Elephant by author

Once the herd of cows and calves had finished their bathing and drinking and had meandered off, which was about 11pm, Cathy and I decided that it was our turn to do the next few hours shift, while the others caught up on some sleep.

All was quite except for the call of a Giant Eagle Owl and some nightjars joining in the melodies to break the  night silence.  We were having a hard time trying to keep awake during the our watch so we were eating chocolate and doing leg exercises in the hope of keeping awake. Suddenly a bull elephant came wandering down towards the pan to have his evening drink and bath.  In the moonlight we could just make out his shape, and hear his splashing and sucking of water which made silver ripples on the muddy water.  When he decided he had had enough he started ambling off in our direction. Cathy got a bit worried and started tapping on the car door as Dad had done earlier to let him know wer were there, which he seemed not to hear being an elderly male, or he just had selective hearing.  So she started banging on the door frantically, which woke the whole camp and certainly broke the silence of the night.  Thankfully with all the clatter he took off at a hasty pace in another direction.  Well that woke us up and  managed to keep on counting with hammering hearts, eyes wide open and ears listening for any crunch of kalahari sand or leaf breaking. 

Lilac Breasted Roller in pastel by author

ANNUAL GAME COUNT

One year we decided to participate in the annual game count, which means you have to sit at an allocated pan from 12 noon on the Saturday of the full moon till 12 noon on the Sunday, (normally during the months of September or October when the rains have not yet begun in full) and count all the game and bird life that you see. We invited two friends from Australia, Cathy and Tom, to join us on this particular count.

We had been given a pan in the far north of the Park, so we load up the open back bakkie with our entire essentials for a night of camping. Mum, Dad and Cathy were in the cab and Tom and I lay on a mattress on top of all our gear. We left home early to enable us to get to our pan by 12 noon. It was a very uneventful trip until we got to about an hour from our destination, when we came across a pride of about 13 lions being chased off their zebra carcass by a pack of 16 hyenas. We stopped and watched the fracas going on for a while, as it was very interesting. Suddenly Cathy hears a crack on the left of the vehicle and we all notice that the hyenas had chased a lioness up a spindly Mopani tree right next to us. Cathy was now more concerned about the two of us on the back of the vehicle and worried that we were going to be added to the zebra carcass and managed to persuade my father to drive on.

We got to the pan and found a suitable place to set up for our 24 hour game count. The rules were that we had to stay in the vehicle for the duration, but Dad always erected a canvas from the vehicle out, so that we could sit under it to record the game that came down to drink and the back of the vehicle was used for the people that were off duty during the night to catch up on a few hours sleep before their next shift. Of course my father always had to pick an elephant path to camp on as his reasoning was that it was the flattest ground around! By now Cathy had refused to get out of the vehicle, so my father told her that if she did not get out of the vehicle there would be no dinner for her! She reluctantly got out of the cab and joined us under the canvas for some warming stew and coffee.

Once dinner was over, Cathy now figured that it was quite safe to be out of the vehicle and was quite relaxed. We had counted a number of species of game come down to drink, among the lot a herd of elephant cows and calves. One female had obviously just given birth to a baby and so was very protective of her offspring and was not happy with the intrusion at her water-hole. She decided to mock charge us, at which my father calmly puffing on his pipe just tapped the side of the vehicle, which sent her away. But then she decided that we were a real threat to her young and came charging towards us in a serious charge. By now Cathy had grabbed hold of both my mother and I and was trying to get all three of us in the cab of the vehicle at the same time!! While my father carried on casually puffing away and telling the cow to go away that we were no threat. She finally decided to back of once she was within a few metres of us.

Once the herd of cows and calves had finished their bathing and drinking and had meandered off, which was about 11pm, Cathy and I decided that it was our turn to do the next few hours shift, while the others caught up on some sleep. We were having a hard time trying to keep away so we were eating chocolate and doing leg exercises in the hope of keeping awake. Suddenly a bull elephant came wandering down to have his evening drink and in the moonlight we could just make out his shape, and hear his splashing and sucking of water. When he decided he had had enough he started ambling off in our direction. Cathy started tapping on the car door, which he seemed not to hear. So she started banging on the door frantically

Learning to drive in a Land rover station wagon was no easy feat for a short person, never mind in a National Park where there were lots of BIG animals. I had to have a pillow to sit on and another pillow behind my back, or else I would not be able to reach the pedals. Thankfully I had a very calm, relaxed father to teach me, even though inwardly he was probably saying many prayers and keeping his teeth firmly clamped down on his pipe.

On one occasion we came to an ‘S’ in the road and I could see that there was a huge bull elephant ahead standing right beside the road feeding and quite unperturbed about us coming along. Unfortunately, I was absolutely terrified of elephants and whenever we came too close to them I would be on the floor of the vehicle with a pillow over my head and tear flowing down my cheeks. If I could fit in a glove compartment I would.

I slammed on breaks and pleaded with my father to take over until we had passed the massive grey beast. My father’s reply was a casual “If you want to learn to drive, then you have to drive past the elephant!” So after sitting for a while with a hammering heart and trembling, clammy hands I put the vehicle into first gear, closed my eyes and drove. I really have no idea how I managed to stay on the road, but I did get passed the elephant much to my relief.

SAVING A BABY ELEPHANT

We were travelling back to Main camp from the safari camp at Linkwasha. On arriving at Ngweshala pan we saw from a distance a black lump in the trough (a man made reservoir with fresh water piped into it for the game to drink from, with the overflow running into a pan).

The pump attendant ran up to us and asked if we could assist him in getting a baby elephant out of the trough. On closer inspection we found the terrified baby was only a few months old as he still had pink on his feet, ears and trunk and his mother was hanging around not far off. The pump attendant and Ross jumped into the trough and tried to give it a shove from the rear end and lift it up over the lip of the trough – but with a weight of approximately 100 kilograms at birth this just proved too much effort. Ross stayed in the trough to give it a shove from the rear while the pump attendant got out and pulled it by its trunk.

Once out the poor little fella then thought that Ross was his mother and started to follow him back to the vehicle. We decided that that was not such a good plan, as we did not want the mother to come charging us, so we persuaded Ross to lead it to the pump and rush back to the vehicle.

The frantic screams of the mother were futile as the noise of the engine was drowning out her desperate calls and the calf now refused to leave the pump. We then decided to switch the engine off and make a dash for the car and drive away a little distance so that it would not follow us. Finally the mother came closer to the pump and the baby managed to distinguish who was mother and who was not and they were reunited.

IS THIS MY MUMMY?



REUNITED AT LAST!!!

CAMPFIRE STORIES
(some of the experiences of the late Boyd Reese and his family, while he was employed by National Parks and Wildlife in Zimbabwe)


Supper was over and we were sitting in a circle around the camp fire. The sky was dark, studded with stars and the flames mesmerizing, sparks shooting up and disappearing into the blackness. “Mr Reese,” my friend broke the silence, “please tell me a story.”
Dad leaned back in his chair and took his time filling his pipe. “OK,” he said, lighting a match and drawing the flame down into the bowl of his pipe. We waited in anticipation. He took another puff, the smoke drifting upwards, before he began.

We were on our way back from Savuti and decided to stop at Sinamatella for the night. As we entered the park I asked the gate attendant if any lions had been seen recently and was told that a report had come in of lions on a nearby elephant culling site, so we decided to go and investigate.

We set off on our way along a dirt road to the site with dust billowing out behind us and the afternoon sun in our eyes. On arrival we unfortunately did not see anything from the vehicle, so I decided to get out and have a closer look.

I walked over the small rise to see if there were any lions feeding on the elephant carcasses. The air was hot and still and the stench caught at the back of my throat. I had only walked a few more paces when a slight movement caught my attention in the long yellow grass, I suddenly spotted a perfect, sleek female lion crouched down feeding off an elephant carcass, and my skin began to prickle with fear. The world became silent and I couldn’t take my eyes off her penetrating yellow glare, as thoughts whirled around my head. I clamped down the fear, tried to swallow, but my mouth was too dry, and think of how I could get out of the situation.

I glanced back over my shoulder and realized, to my terror, that the vehicle was no longer in my sight, so trying to run back was out of the question. A sense of vulnerability settled on my shoulders. I could try and find a tree to climb, but unfortunately I was in mopane veld, with no decent enough tree to hold my weight. So my only other alternative was to quell every emotion that I had and charge her. As I charged forward I held her gaze until I was about 3 metres from her, when thankfully she decided to give up and leaped up and turned tail. I kept my eye on her as I walked backwards in the direction of the vehicle.

Mom interrupted then, saying how pale and shaken he was on his return. We all let out our breaths and none of us really wanted to go to bed after that story!

I am now going to share with you some of my photographs and life in National Parks.

A visitor to National Parks enjoys his comfortable accommodation, drives along on well maintained roads and gets information from friendly staff. His view of the parks is on the animals and birds he sees and the countryside that he passes through.

Before the arrival of Europeans to Africa the wild life would move with the seasonal changes. When National Parks were formed and fences put up the whole scene changed and these areas had to now be managed. Management now had to have regard to fauna, flora, seasonal rains and limited areas for game to move together with over grazing, fires and draughts. When one decision is made then another has to be made to preserve the habitat in which both can survive. There is a school of thought that favours no interference with nature, whatever the consequences. This can lead to a collapse of the habitat and massive mortality among all species that may be acceptable to nature, but not to conservationists and ecologist.

The overall administration is occupied by the Provincial Warden who has responsibility for the whole national park and some of the adjacent area, together with a large staff consisting of a Warden, Rangers, research team, game-scouts, management unit and maintenance staff. All incidents are discussed and if it is minor then it is dealt with by the respective people, and if it is of a complex nature then the Provincial Warden has to step in and discussion then have to include Head Office, which was situated in Harare. The staff is regarded as monitors and are there to prevent degradation of the habitat, over-population, erosion and game water supply.
Boyd Reese was the fifth person to occupy the post of Provincial Warden of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, since it was established in 1928. While his staff was considerably larger than that of the first warden, Ted Davidson, Mr Reese had to manage the park with less than one person per 100 square kilometres.

Life Growing up in National Parks

I was working in a safari camp based in Hwange National Park and I remember a time when it had just rained and we were at Ngamo, which is a vast open area bordered by acacia forests and some ilala palms dotted around. The dry kalahari sand was lightly sprinkled with new green grass and came across a termite mound where all these flying ants were emerging from. We sat and watched the eagles, kites, and various other birds swirling around us like a whirlwind catching some protein for supper. It made you quite dizzy after a while

Well I have only been on my site for one day - but really excited about sharing my photos with the world. Here are some more of my photos which I hope that you will enjoy and hope that you will send me any comments that you have.

In my early life I grew up in the bush in Zimbabwe, as my father was employed by National Parks, and lived in several of the countries best parks. I just love the outdoors and nature and take every opportunity I can to photograph nature. Even stuck in a walled in garden in the city there is still so much beauty around, if one take time to stop and look at all God has created. I hope that you enjoy some of my photographs.