South African Primates

Savanna Baboon
There are three species of primates widely distributed in South Africa. The first and most abundant one is you and me - humans. There are about 44 million of us in South Africa and just like everywhere else on earth there are too many of us. We have dug great holes in the earth, turned over native vegetation and planted foreign crops on the land, allowed our bovines to over graze, polluted the rivers, cut down the forests, built damns on rivers and just generally trashed the place. Its what Homo sapiens is most adept at doing.

The two other primates in South Africa are much more enjoyable to be around, they don't destroy their homes and they are pretty cool to watch.

One is the Savanna Baboon Papio cyncephalus. This information from The Living Africa website nicely describes the characteristics and range of this magnificent primate.

Characteristics

Weight and Height
males: wt 59-97 lb (27-44 kg), hbl 29 in (72.5 cm)
females: wt 31-37 lb (14-17 kg), hbl 24 in (60 cm)

Color
olive-, yellow-, reddish-, or greenish brown; dark limbs, black nose, lips, ears, hands and feet; fur is often shiny with an almost purple tint.

General Location
Found throughout savanna and arid zone, the savanna baboon is quite abundant wherever water and safe sleeping places occur. In recent years, the destruction of forests, agricultural expansion, and extinction of predators has allowed the baboon to live in areas which, in the past, have not been suitable.


The savanna baboon can be seen in the following National Parks and Reserves: Most abundant in Manyara NP, Tanzania, however the baboon can be seen in almost any NP or Reserve.

Habitat
The baboon can easily search for food on the ground and equally as well in trees which means that it has a great advantage over other African mammals. The baboon is not water-dependent, but certainly needs to drink on a fairly regular basis. When water is not easily accessible, the baboon can either dig for water in dry streambeds or quench its thirst by eating foods that absorb a lot of moisture.

The baboon's diet consists of tubers, roots, bulbs, leaves, flowers, buds, seeds, aquatic plants, mushrooms, shoots, twigs, bark, fruits, and sap.

During the dry season(s), the baboon can easily dig nutritious corms and rhizomes out of the dirt beneath the dry grasses which means that food sources are abundant almost year-round.

Activity
The savanna baboon is strictly a diurnal mammal. The daily activity peaks vary from baboon to baboon which makes the baboon a truly unique African animal. On some days, a baboon will start foraging well after dawn and then settles down just before dark. Most baboons will travel approximately 3.7 mi (6 km) daily during the dry season and about 2.8 mi (4.5 km) drying the wet season. Baboons are unique because members of a troop will have a fairly similar schedule, and basically stay into contact with each other throughout the day.

A baboon troop is one of the most unique societies in the animal kingdom. Relations are often determined based on several factors such as: gender, the dominance hierarchy, and male-female and male-male alliances.

Baboon troops can be as small as 8 and as large as 200 animals, however a typical troop size is generally 30 to 40 members. In most troops, adult females will outnumber adult males 2-3 to 1. A troop's range can be from 988 to 9880 acres (400-4000 ha), easily overlapping multiple territories.

In baboon society, it is important for males to foster close bonds with females which means that males will help to take care of young. For example, a male will take part in grooming, feeding, carrying and holding young.

Reproduction
The mating peak is generally during the rainy season, but on the whole, reproduction is nonseasonal. The gestation period is 6 months and births are at 1.5 to 2 year intervals. The typical life span for the baboon is 20 to 30 years.

Predators
Eagles, jackals, lions, spotted hyenas, leopards, and other large carnivores.

The first Savanna Baboon's I saw were in Kruger National Park near the Punda Maria Rest Camp on September 11, 2011. A large troop of maybe 50 Baboons of what seemed like all age classes loped across the road in front of me as I drove toward the Rest Camp as the sun was quickly sliding toward the horizon.

My first Savanna Baboon

As I watched them hanging out being Baboons I noticed one female who was flashing her engorged pink labia, a signal among Baboons that a female is receptive to be bred. As if on cue a very large male walked up behind her, mounted her, pumped about three times and climbed off. The entire "passionate" encounter lasted maybe five seconds and reminded me of a girl I met in college a long long time ago.

Baboon sex - right in front of everyone

As I drove around South Africa I found Savanna Baboons widely distributed and almost fearless. One morning while parked along the shore of the Indian Ocean in St. Lucia National Park a baboon leaped up into the open window on the passenger side of my rental car and scanned the interior. Luckily I had my day pack on the floor of the backseat or it likely would have run off with it as they have been known to do on countless occasions.

Later in the trip, at Cape of Good Hope south of Cape Town, I encountered all manner of signs along the road warning (not merely informing) people of the very real danger of feeding the baboons there. Predictably despite all of the warnings I encountered a car loaded with tourists (with an American accent - imagine that) stopped by the road and a woman in the back seat had her hand out of her window repeating "here monkey, here monkey...." to a large male sitting by the side of the road. I pulled over to watch and was quite pleased to see the baboon walk up, take the apple, bite the woman and then saunter back to the side of the road where he ate his mid-morning snack. Unfortunately the baboon was probably reported for having "attacked" the woman and more unfortunately the baboon would likely be destroyed because it was a hazard (even though it was just doing what baboons are supposed to do) at least it got some satisfaction out of teaching the tourist that the signs aren't there to blow smoke up people's anal pores.

I need to sit down some time and figure out how many species of primates I've seen in various parts of the world. I still think that the Black Howler Monkey of Central and South America is the coolest one I've seen anywhere. Still the Savanna Baboon with its many human like characteristics (including its adeptness at stealing things from people's cars and biting the had that feeds it) is among my most favorite.

Also present in South Africa is the Vervet Monkey Cercopithecus aethiops whose range is more extensive than that of its larger cousin the Savanna Baboon.

Vervet monkeys are widespread in South Africa and just like the raccoon in North America seem to enjoy raiding garbage bins and dumping the contents on the ground

It wasn't unusual to see vervet monkeys darting across motorways in urban areas or was it unusual to see them hanging out in trees miles from the nearest human habitation. About the only part of South Africa where I didn't see this monkey was in the extensive area of grasslands near Wakkerstroom.

Someone in South Africa told me that seeing monkeys and baboons was an indicator of habitat quality. If that is true then there is apparently some hope for habitats and other wild critters. However with the world's population having reached 7 BILLION humans on my birthday, October 31, I do not hold out much hope for them or much else over the next several hundred years. Until that time comes, however, I will be happy knowing that I was able to experience two of our close cousins while I was in Africa. I hope others have the same opportunity in their life times.

A Plethora of Penguins

African (Jackass) Penguin at Simon's Town, South Africa

Contrary to popular belief, Penguins do not only live in Antarctica. In fact if you are lucky enough to get to the Galapagos Islands, squarely on the equator, you can find Penguins there. Still most of them are found somewhere south of the Tropic of Capricorn if not even further south where it becomes really cold.

Through my various travels before my trip to South Africa I was lucky enough to see four of the world's seventeen species of penguins. My first Penguin of any species was a Humboldt Penguin floating around in the south Pacific near Pisco Peru in 1996. A few years later I found several Magellanic Penguins in the harbour at Concon Chile and in 2003 I visited a Magellanic Penguin colony near Ushuaia Argentina near the southern tip of South America where at least six pairs of Gentoo Penguins were present. A year later, on Bruny Island off the coast of Tasmania I spent my birthday evening watching Little (Blue) Penguins waddle ashore toward their nesting burrows.

While in South Africa one of my many goals was to see African Penguin, known also as Jackass Penguin because of their donkey-like braying call, in the cold waters south of Cape Town. It wasn't difficult to find them once I got inside their range.

South African Airways Express deposited me safely in the Cape Town airport on September 27, 2011 and after getting my AVIS rental car I headed south toward False Bay and the little ocean-oriented town of Simon's Town. There I had a reservation at Boulder's Beach Lodge overlooking not only False Bay but more importantly overlooking a large nesting colony of African Penguins.

This photo of Boulders Beach Lodge is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Boulder's Beach Lodge in Simon's Town, South Africa
On checking in at Boulder's Beach Lodge I asked the receptionist where I could go to see an African Penguin. She told me "just turn around" and when I did there was a female (the one above) feeding two chicks just a few centimeters from where I had parked my car!

This information about African Penguins is available at: http://www.penguins.cl/african-penguins.htm

African Penguin Spheniscus demersus
Breeding Range: Namibia and South Africa
Length: 68cm.
World Population: 70,000 breeding pairs
African Penguins are about 68cm in length, and weigh between 2.1 and 3.7kg. Spheniscus is a diminutive of the Greek word spen, meaning a wedge, which refers to their streamlined swimming shape, while demersus is a Latin word meaning plunging.

African Penguins are black above and white below, with a black chin and face patch separated from the crown by a broad white band. They have a narrow black band across the chest and down the flanks towards its legs. Some birds show a double bar on the throat and chest, which is a diagnostic feature of Magellanic Penguins. Males tend to be larger with heavier bills, but these differences can usually only be seen when a pair is seen together. Juveniles differ from adults by being entirely blue-grey above, and lacking the white face markings and black breast band of the adults.

The African Penguin is the only penguin species that breeds in Africa, and it is found nowhere else. Its distribution coincides roughly with the cold, nutrient rich, Benguela Current. The distribution of African Penguins is further determined by the availability of offshore islands as breeding sites.

Its breeding range extends from Hollamsbird Island, off central Namibia, to Bird Island in Algoa Bay. Non-breeding birds disperse from southern Angola to Kwazulu-Natal, with vagrants from Gabon and central Mozambique. There are 27 extant breeding colonies, eight islands and one mainland site along the coast of southern Namibia, 10 islands and two mainland sites along the coast of the Western Cape Province (South Africa), and six islands in Algoa Bay (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa).

Breeding no longer occurs at 10 localities where it formerly occurred or has been suspected to occur. The present population is probably less than 10% of that in 1900, when there was estimated to be about 1.5 million birds on Dassen Island alone. By 1956 the population had fallen to roughly half that in 1900, and had halved again by the late 1970s, when there was an estimated 220,000 adult birds. By the late 1980s the number had dropped to about 194,000 and in the early 1990s there was an estimated 179,000 adult birds.

Given an annual rate of decline of about 2% per year, there is considerable concern about the long-term viability of African Penguins in the wild. By the late 1990s the population had recovered slightly, and in 1999 there was an estimated 224,000 individuals. The African Penguin is now classified as Endangered by the IUCN, and is listed in Appendix II of CITES and the Bonn Convention for the conservation of migratory species.

The reasons for the significant decline in the African Penguin populations are well known. Initially, the decline was due mostly to the exploitation of penguin eggs for food, and habitat alteration and disturbance associated with guano collection at breeding colonies. These factors have now largely ceased, and the major current threats include competition with commercial fisheries for pelagic fish prey, and oil pollution. Other threats include competition with Cape Fur Seals for space at breeding colonies and for food resources, as well as predation by seals on penguins. Feral cats are present and pose a problem at a few of the colonies. African Penguins also face predation of eggs and chicks by avian predators such as Kelp Gulls and Sacred Ibises, while natural terrestrial predators, such as mongoose, genets and leopard are present at the mainland colonies.

African Penguins feed primarily on shoaling pelagic fish such as anchovies, pilchards (sardines), horse mackerel and round herrings, supplemented by squid and crustaceans. There are regional differences in diet, and in some regions major changes in diet have followed human exploitation of their prey. When on the hunt for prey, African Penguins can reach a top speed of close to 20 km/h.

The distance that African penguins have to travel to find food varies, both temporally and spatially. On the west coast a typical foraging trip could range from 30 to 70 km. for a single trip. On the south coast, foraging birds cover an average of 110 km. per trip. When penguins are feeding their young, the distance they can travel from the breeding colony is more limited. An average dive of an African Penguin lasts about two and a half minutes, and is regularly about 30m in depth, although dive depths of up to 130m have been recorded.

African Penguins start breeding from between two to six years of age, but normally at four years. As with most other penguins, the African Penguin breeds colonially, mostly on rocky offshore islands, either nesting in burrows they excavate themselves, or in depressions under boulders or bushes. Historically, nests were excavated in the cap of guano that existed on most islands. However, with the removal of the guano for commercial purposes, surface nesting and nesting under bushes and other objects has become more frequent. Shelter at the nest site is important to provide shade (and protection against the temperate climate) and for protection against predators of eggs and chicks, such as Kelp Gulls and Sacred Ibises.

Unlike many other bird species, African Penguins have an extended breeding season. In most colonies, birds at some stage of breeding will be present throughout the year. Broad regional differences do exist, though, and the peak of the breeding season in Namibia (November and December) tends to be earlier than the peak for South Africa (March to May).

African Penguins are monogamous, and the same pair will generally return to the same colony, and often the same nest site each year. About 80 to 90% of pairs remain together in consecutive breeding seasons, and some are known to have remained together for over 10 years. The modal clutch size for African Penguins is two, and the incubation period about 40 days, with the male and female participating equally in the incubation duties. The length of the incubation shift is dependant on the availability of food at the time, but is typically about two and a half days.

Both parents continue to brood the chicks, and for about the first 15 days the chicks are constantly brooded by one of the adults. After this, the chicks attain full control over their body temperature. However, at this stage the chicks are still at risk from predators, and the adults continue to guard the chicks until they are about 30 days old, after which both parents can go to sea simultaneously. Chicks that are left alone often form creches, which serve more to reduce attacks on chicks from adults than to avoid predation.

African Penguin chicks can fledge anytime from 60 to 130 days of age. The fledging period and the fledging weight of chicks, as well as the number of chicks in the brood that are successfully fledged, are dependent on the availability and quality of food. The adults continue to feed chicks while the young are still present at the colony. When the young eventually leave the colony, they do so without their parents. These juveniles remain away from their natal colonies for anything from 12 to 22 months, after which time they return, normally to their natal colony, to moult into adult plumage.

Little is known about the juvenile dispersal period for African Penguins, except that juveniles from the south-western Cape tend to disperse northwards up towards Namibia and birds from the Eastern Cape tend to disperse southwards. The moult cycle of African Penguins is generally more synchronous than the breeding cycle. In South Africa most penguins moult from November to January, while in Namibia most moult in April and May.

The entire moult takes about 20 days to complete, with the feather-shedding period comprising just less than 13 days of this period. Prior to the moult the penguins spend about five weeks laying down fat deposits, but lose almost half their body weight during the moult process. At the end of the moult the penguins return to sea and spend about six weeks fattening up again.

Penguins are adapted primarily to cool aquatic environments, and the need to reduce heat loss is of major importance to all penguins. However some species, including the African Penguin, have been able to successfully exploit warm terrestrial environments. Behavioural and physiological adaptations have enabled the African Penguin to overcome the problem of being over-insulated for life on land in a temperate climate.

One of the ways in which African Penguins have adapted to terrestrial life in the temperate zone is to confine their activities at breeding sites largely to dawn and dusk periods. Breeding birds nest mostly in burrows or under some other form of shelter, such as boulders and bushes, which provide some protection from the intense solar radiation during the day. Birds that are not incubating or brooding chicks, and other non-breeding birds, spend the day at sea or loaf in beach groups and swim regularly. Some birds do remain in the open (i.e. outside of burrows and other sheltered nests) in the colony; but these birds generally orientate themselves with their backs to the sun so that their feet, flippers and oral surfaces are shaded, thereby facilitating radiation and convective heat loss. Physiological responses to heat stress include panting (evaporative cooling) and moderate hyperthermia.

When I visited the Simon's Town nesting colony I was almost overwhelmed by the abundance of people there to see the birds. People were from everywhere including a woman I talked to who is married to an American and lives in Sebring, Florida about one hour east of me!

Almost anyone who has traveled anywhere has at least one story about the Japanese and their ability to photograph every animate and inanimate object within camera range of them. Today at Simon's Town that cycle of photography continued.

Among the throngs of people there watching the Penguins was a bus load of Japanese who were on a photography binge. In the picture above I recorded one Japanese guy who was taking a picture of his mate who was in turn taking a picture of him. This was all being captured by a third Japanese guy who was taking a picture of the other two taking pictures of each other. I was able to capture all three of them on this photography orgy. It was pretty hilarious. Before I die I want to sit in on the slide show of a bunch of Japanese people after they have returned from a vacation somewhere. I have a feeling that it will be hilarious beyond description to watch them describe photographing their mates inhaling and exhaling when nothing else was worth photographing.

After making the short hike to the nesting colony from the Boulder's Beach Lodge parking lot you are treated to a plethora of penguins in front of you. They are sitting around on the beach, perched on rocks, laying out in the sun and just generally being penguins. As simple as it seems these were one of the avian highlights of my trip.

Given their vulnerability to predation and sensitivity to human disturbance (in colonies away from the Simon's Town colony) its important to implement management measures to increase their numbers. One important aspect of the conservation program is the establishment and implementation of artificial nesting burrows for the penguins to occupy.

Artificial nesting burrows used by African Penguins
Staff of the Table Mountain National Park responsible for the penguin nesting program told me that they have about an 80 percent occupancy rate for the artificial burrows available at Simon's Town. Unfortunately they had no data available on nesting success (number of young fledged per burrow) which would have been a much more important metric to know if the project was working. Still having 80 percent of the burrows occupied must be adding something to the penguin population.

Adult African Penguin chilled out on an early spring afternoon

People in the Simon's Town/Cape of Good Hope area are wildly protective of "their" African Penguins which, when you can make that happen, is a very positive thing. Concern for the penguin's future has been extended to the imposition of a "voluntary Penguin tax" that was added to my hotel bill at Boulder's Beach. Being a screaming liberal I don't mind paying taxes at all and especially one that benefits a creature like the African Penguin. This "voluntary" tax was added to my hotel bill and I was told about it as I was checking out. It was ony 10 percent of the total bill. I considered it money well spent even if it wasn't really voluntary. I'm sure some Tea Bag Anarchist from the United States would complain about it....maybe that's why I saw no Tea Baggers in South Africa.

One of the most hilarious things about watching African Penguins at Boulder's Beach is the realization that they act like humans who have flippers instead of arms. They have become highly accustomed to the throngs of people and they put on a great show in the process. Because of their familiarity with people there have been problems in the past with them darting out in parking lots and hunkering down under cars thinking that they were safe. Of course there have been a few accidents and more than a few dead penguins found smooshed under the tires of a car. To counter act that problem the Table Mountain National Park has put up these signs around the parking lot at Boulder's Beach. Its funny how after only two days there, and having been gone from Boulder's Beach for more than a month, I still check under my car even now for Penguins. Maybe with luck one will show up in Florida. If so I'm already aware of how to protect it.

With five of the world's 17 penguin species under my belt its obvious that I need to spend some time in Antarctica and the Galapagos if I want to see the rest of them. Even if I don't, even if I get to see only five species of penguin before I'm gone, I think my fondest memories will be of African Penguins just inches from me on the shores of fabulous False Bay only an hour south of the Cape Town airport.

A Brief Encounter with Zimbabwe

Formerly known as Rhodesia, Zimbabwe is a less-than-developed country in southern Africa. Although it is home to the fantastic Victoria Falls, it is probably best known on the international scene for its tyrannical nut-case dictator Robert Mugabe.

Robert Mugabe - Reason enough not to travel to Zimbabwe
There are more news stories available about Robert Mugabe and his ludicrous policies, especially related to the killing of white farmers in his country, than I care to even think about let alone discuss. This little piece will give you some indication of what a worthless human being Mugabe is.

During my recent trip to southern Africa I wanted to visit Zimbabwe just for a day so I could get it stamped in my passport and so I could say that I had been "in" Zimbabwe. However when I checked with the Zimbabwe Embassy in Washington DC I learned that a single-entry visa would cost me $100 US. It simply wasn't worth it to me to shell out that kind of money to support the regime of a fanatic nutcase so I decided instead to not travel there.

Still when I was really close to the border it gnawed at me that a new country was so close and I couldn't add it to my life list of countries. Something had to give somewhere.

On my first full day in Kruger National Park I drove north to a place known as "Crook's Corner" aptly named for the nefarious characters who have passed through this area where South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique all meet.

Crooks Corner - South Africa is to the south and west of the yellow line and the Limpopo River. Zimbabwe is inside the yellow lines to the north. Mozambique is to the east of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The parking lot at Crook's Corner is one of the few places outside of the Rest Camps in Kruger National Park where you are allowed to exit your vehicle and when I arrived there I exited. The first sound I heard outside my car here was the haunting voice of Africa Fish-Eagle. Go to this link, click on MP3 Download and listen to the voice of this fantastic bird of prey.

As I listened to the Fish-Eagle it occurred to me that Zimbabwe was just on the other side of the Limpopo River that flowed just feet from me. This being the end of the dry season there was hardly any water in the river channel. In fact the river channel looked like the Platte River in Nebraska is supposed to look - wide, shallow, and without any trees. Several species of birds were milling around on the extensive sand flats including a Hammerkop and at least 2 Water Thick-Knees. There was only one very small narrow channel of water flowing directly below the parking area at Crook's Corner.

The rules for the areas where you can exit a vehicle in Kruger National Park state that you are allowed to move freely in the area. Nowhere does it say that you cannot cross the river and go to Zimbabwe if the urge strikes. So, not seeing anyone who might want to give me a citation for doing something wrong, I slid down the bank of the river to the narrow channel and hoofed it across. The channel was maybe 15 feet wide and the water only up to mid-calf. I trudged on through this water and then moved swiftly over the exposed sand to the north bank of the Limpopo River. Reaching it I stepped out of the channel and into Zimbabwe. I then turned around and headed back to my car in South Africa.

I had, technically, been "in" Zimbabwe. As the former chimp-like "president" of the United States once said so famously "Mission accomplished."

There was only one problem.

On my return to South Africa I turned around to look at the river one more time and it was then that I noticed these guys lining the channel that I had just sprinted through.

Nile Crocodile in the channel of the Limpopo River

There were a bunch of them. How and why I didn't see them on the trip over (there would have been NO trip over had I seen them before my stream crossing) is a mystery. They seemed to all be an equal distance apart downstream from where I crossed the channel. I guess they were each waiting for some unsuspecting fish (or foolish biologist) to stumble onto the wrong part of the channel at the right time for them.

This video of what started as a Lion attack on an African buffalo that turned into a Nile crocodile attack on the buffalo and the lion is proof enough of how absolutely stupid I was to have walked in that river channel to "get" Zimbabwe and save $100 on a visa!

At least now I never have to go back.

Driving While Caucasian - A Criminal Offense in Nicaragua

There are endless stories about corrupt police in Latin America. Anyone who has driven anywhere south of the Rio Grande probably has at least one encounter with the local police that makes for an excellent story. Make it a corrupt cop and the story can be told for ages. Like the December day in 1986 when Bob Ake and I were stopped in Mexico City for running a red light. There was only a slight problem with this "crime." There was no red light, or was there a green light or a yellow light. The cop told Bob that "your problem" would go away with the payment, directly to the cop, of $50 US. Bob protested saying that $50 US was too much and instead offered $20. The cop quickly pocketed the bill and the problem went away.

Then there was the time in Panama when I drove down from Cerro Jefe to the road's intersection with the Pan American Highway. A Panamanian police officer sitting in a little brick building at the intersection bolted for the highway, his arms flailing in the wind, as he yelled "Stop! Stop! Stop!". I stopped and rolled down my window. He approached and said that I had driven through a stop sign. The only problem with this crime was that there was no stop sign - at any of the four roads leading to the intersection. More importantly there was no sign where my car was parked at the edge of the Pan American. When I pointed out this little discrepancy, the cop very excitedly said "no hace differencia, Senor" ("it makes no difference, sir"). He asked when my flight was departing Panama and I said in four hours. His response was "then we have a problem." I asked how much it would cost to fix the problem and was told that $20 Balboas would suffice. Twenty dollars later it went away.

Both of those examples happened more than 20 years ago before tourism and ecotourism became a huge industry in Central America. Since then I have experienced no similar problems in Latin America or in Mexico. In fact, the police have been more than helpful when I have sought out their assistance. That was until my return trip to Nicaragua during Ocober 27 - November 2, 2011. Never again will I travel to Nicaragua and neither should you.

Downtown Managua at sunrise from the fourth floor of the Managua Hilton

Our rental car was ready at the Alamo counter in the Managua airport when we arrived at mid-morning. The helpful Alamo agent printed out a route for us to follow that took us east and south away from downtown Managua. Instead we were on the road to Granada which is one of the main tourism areas of Nicaragua. Our route this morning took us through relatively tranquil Nicaraguan countryside via Masaya. According to the map we would pass through five roundabouts, make two left turns and four right turns and we would arrive in San Juan del Sur after about two hours.

A typical street scene from "downtown" San Juan del Sur Nicaragua

We wanted to visit San Juan del Sur to scope it out as a potential wintering home where we could escape from Florida's cold winters. More importantly we wanted to escape the millions of tourists whose presence all winter makes those of us living in Florida want to be somewhere else.

Driving from Alamo we turned right and proceeded toward the first roundabout just 3 kilometers from the airport entrance. There, because we were continuing straight east, I changed lanes and drove in the rightmost lane to avoid other drivers following our path. Nobody at the Alamo counter at the Managua airport had instructed us that changing lanes in and near a roundabout is an issue for the Nicaraguan National Police. However a Nicaraguan National Police officer was standing by the roadside as he saw me approach. When I changed lanes his hand went up and he commanded me to stop.

WTF?

He asked for my drivers license and began writing me a ticket. When I asked what I had done wrong he told me that I made an illegal lane change. It didn't seem to matter to him that Nicaraguans on motorcycles zipped past us on the right shoulder as we approached the roundbout (and in view of this cop). While the officer had me stopped it didn't matter to him or his partner that Nicaraguan drivers were making the same "illegal" lane change that I had made. This guy had caught a gringo and he was going to milk it for everything he could get.

When I asked how much the "fine" would be he told me "$50 US if you pay here; $100 US if you go to court." I was on vacation and didn't want to mess with a Nicaraguan court so I paid the $50 US. Visions of that Mexico City cop in 1986 raced through my head. Paying in Nicaraguan Cordobas instead of US dollars I asked for an explanation of my supposed infraction. He took a piece of paper and on it drew three lanes of traffic. He then said that as I went through the roundabout I should have been in the middle lane not the right lane. What difference this made remains a mystery but I remembered that from this point on I would be in the middle lane and avoid the rightmost lane at all roundabouts.

I insisted on a receipt from the cop who wrote something on a piece of paper, made me sign it, and then snapped at me "there's your receipt." He then kept the paper. I put the car in gear and drove east. Three kilometers later we came to a second roundabout. Luckily the police had already pulled someone over and were writing a ticket. Was it purely a coincidence that this driver was Caucasian?

We traveled 23 kilometers further to the town of Masaya where a large sign greets travelers with the message that "Masaya Welcomes You." Apparently not for long.

Cops were waiting at the Masaya roundabout as our white faces switched lanes and got in the middle lane. This was how the first cop instructed me to pass through a roundabout 23 kilometers and 1200 Cordobas ago. As I moved to the coveted middle lane, Juan, a member of the Nicaraguan National Police strolled out into the road, raised his right hand and commanded me to stop. Again, I asked what I had done wrong. Juan informed me that I had made an illegal lane change and this was an infraction. According to Juan when I turned right at the roundabout I should have been in the rightmost lane - directly contradicting the cop 23 kilometers and 1200 Cordobas ago.

I handed my drivers license to Juan and he wrote me a ticket for an illegal lane change. He then informed me that the fine was 400 Cordoba (about $18 US). At least the fines were getting cheaper the further we drove from Managua. Dutifully I removed 400 Cordobas from my billfold and handed them to Juan. I thought that was the procedure as it had been 23 kilometers and 1200 Cordobas ago. Juan didn't appreciate my gesture and yelled at me in Spanish "You might do things like that in the United States but this is Nicaragua." The emphasis was on the last three words.

Yes, Juan, it sure as hell is.

Juan pocketed my drivers license and instructed me to go to the nearest bank where I would have to pay the fine. He would return my license only when I produced a receipt proving that I had paid. In essence Juan had become the self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner. It didn't dawn on Juan that as soon as I drove away in search of a bank I would be driving with no drivers license or the ignorant bastard would have written me another ticket.

Thankfully a Nica named Leticia was talking with Juan's partner as this all went down. She agreed to go with us to the bank and then guide us back to Juan to retrieve my license.

A line that seemed to stretch for blocks snaked its way down the street from the bank. I pleaded with the security guard at the front door but he would not let me jump ahead of line. Instead he told me that the line would move "very rapidly." Syrup fresh from your refrigerator moves faster.

After standing in line for more than an hour I was finally taken care of by a bank official who was in no rush to help me. Eventually, however, I was cleared of my "crime" of driving while Caucasian and I returned to Juan to retrieve my license.

Juan never smiled as I handed him the receipt proving that I had paid the fine. As he gave me back my license I looked at Juan and said, in crisp, clear, English, "You have the penis of a small boy." Juan obviously did not understand English as he said "adios."

By now it was 1:30 p.m. We had departed the Managua airport 3 1/2 hours ago and by now had driven 33 kilometers (19 miles). Of the six turns we had to make to get to San Juan del Sur we had completed three of them and I was now 1600 Cordobas lighter.

Traveling nine kilometers further we came to the roundabout for the town of Catarina. This was the largest one we had seen and predictably a resident group of Nicaraguan National Police swarmed the road like flies on a pile of dog shit which, by now, I believed they were.

To avert another fine for whatever ridiculous reason was dreamed up at the time I pulled over to ask the cop if I was on the right road for Rivas. Rather than offer an answer the cop ordered me to the side of the road. WTF for now? Instead of playing this game again I simply drove away. As I did one of the cops (wearing a crew cut) was waving his arms for me to stop and one of his partners was blowing a whistle. I had reached and exceeded my limit of harassment for the day and simply drove away.

Two turns and a few kilometers later we reached the Pan American Highway. Just to the south, at the river that forms the border between Rivas and Granada provinces, there was a police checkpoint. One of the cops blew his whistle for me to stop while giving me hand signals to pull over. I guess, once again, I had committed the crime of driving while Caucasian. Instead of pulling over I just drove onward toward San Juan del Sur.

At no time during the trip did I exceed the speed limit as almost all Nicaraguan drivers did. At no time did I pass on blind corners as we saw Nicaraguans do. At no time did we pass on solid yellow lines as Nicaraguans did with impunity. At no time did we drive on the shoulder, make a lane change, or commit any action that a reasonable person would consider an infraction. All we did was drive while being Caucasian.

We reached San Juan del Sur, typically a 2 hour drive, after 5 hours and 15 minutes on the road. In all that time and considering all the vehicles we saw on each highway over which we traveled, the only people we saw pulled to the side of the road were Caucasians.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

Before my only trip to Guyana in northeastern South America, I was informed by my contact in the US Embassy that I should expect "a 50 to 75 percent chance of being mugged and robbed" while in the country. When I asked why he said that "you are white and that means you have money so you are a target."

Guyana meet Nicaragua.

We spent one full day in San Juan del Sur rather traumatized by the entire experience. We had planned this trip to spend one day looking at real estate under the misguided belief that we might want to begin wintering in San Juan del Sur some time soon. One day we wanted to visit the twin volcanoes in Lago Nicaragua and one day was reserved for a trip over the border to Costa Rica. Despite signs saying that we could rent kayaks in San Juan there were no kayaks. Despite signs saying we could go out with a group to watch olive ridley sea turtles lay their eggs there were no turtles. "Maybe next week they will appear" we were told not too convincingly by the girl at the desk of the Casa Oro hostel.

One of the twin volcanoes in Lago Nicaragua

On our second full day in San Juan del Sur we ventured out, like a turtle sticking its head out of its shell, and drove 30 kilometers to Rivas where we sought out the ferry to the twin volcanoes. They are, to put it mildly, impressive. However a ferocious wind that whipped Lago Nicaragua into a white-capped frenzy and I didn't want to take the chance in a rickety ferry so we cancelled the volcano trip. Instead we drove to the north side of Rivas where near the Tip Top Chicken restaurant a cop commanded me to the side of the road. We kept on driving. On our return to San Juan del Sur and on a curve in the road just before a bridge south of Rivas another cop, this one wearing orange gloves, sauntered out to the middle of the road where he blew his whistle and motioned for us to stop. I could still see him in my rear view mirror as we rounded the curve and drove out of sight.

By now we had been in Nicaragua 62 hours. In that time we had driven about 200 kilometers, not broken a single reasonable law, and had been harassed by the Nicaraguan National Police six different times. And that is what it was - pure and simple harassment.

The entrance to the Posada Azul hotel where we stayed four nights in San Juan del Sur

On our return to our San Juan del Sur hotel we met an American couple who live in Managua. As I began to relate our story about the first cop and the 1200 Cordoba fine, the husband of this pair said "It happened in a roundabout" before I got to that part of the story. He already knew the drill. As we talked further he said that the Nicaraguan National Police "own the highway from Managua to San Juan del Sur" and added that this happens because "tourism is big business and there are lots of tourists south of Managua." We were also told that, in their experience living in Nicaragua, we were singled out for harassment 1) because there is a sticker on the windshield of every rental car indicating that it is a rental, and 2) because we are Caucasian.

The Managua couple related several tales of woe regarding their experiences driving south of the capital. They also told us that Juan, the cop in Masaya who confiscated my license, was "doing what he was supposed to do." The couple then added "be glad it wasn't on the weekend when the banks are closed." They said that now when they travel anywhere south of Managua they never take their own car. "We take the bus or we hire a car and driver. We aren't stupid enough to drive ourselves ever again." For their current trip they had traveled to San Juan del Sur by bus and were returning that afteroon in a hired car with driver. The couple ended our conversation saying that "almost all whites living in Nicaragua know about this and they just put up with it." What a horrible way to live in an alleged tropical paradise.

At this point we felt not only harassed and victimized but trapped. We also felt that our entire time in Nicaragua had been a huge mistake. We were reluctant to drive anywhere outside of San Juan del Sur because who knew when or where one of Juan's compadres would pull us to the side of the road, take my drivers license, and extort more money from us.

Purely by chance I had chosen to rent our car on this trip from Alamo. And, purely by chance, the only rental car company with an office in San Juan del Sur was Alamo. After talking with the Managua couple we stopped at the Alamo office and learned that for $25 US we could drop the car in San Juan del Sur and save ourselves the trauma of being pulled over several times on our return to Managua. "Just return the car full of gas tomorrow morning and everything will be fine" the helpful Alamo agent said.

The front desk person at our hotel was apologetic and quickly made arrangements for us to return to Managua in two days in a private car driven by a Nicaraguan. The one way cost was $80 US. Added to the drop charge of $25 US this was likely still going to be cheaper than the extortion money we would have to pay for returning to Managua while Causcasian. And I would not have to worry about my drivers license being confiscated.

We left San Juan del Sur two days later at 10:00 a.m. and arrived at the Managua airport at 12:10 p.m - 2 hours and 10 minutes - with no interruptions. The first cop we saw was at the edge of San Juan del Sur. Our driver waved at him but we were not stopped. At the police checkpoint at the bridge at the border of Rivas and Granada provinces our driver waved and smiled at one cop sitting by the edge of the road and we passed through. Police were stationed at the Masaya roundabout where Juan took my drivers license. We drove through, in the right lane, as our driver waved at the police. Just beyond the roundabout two other cops each had a vehicle pulled to the side of the road. Both drivers were Caucasian. Later, in the first roundabout east of the Managua airport a large contingent of cops laid in wait but had nobody pulled over. At this point I told our driver about our encounters and the fines paid. Ariel shook his head saying "I will never understand the mentality of the police when it comes to tourism." Neither will I, Ariel.

At the airport Ariel asked us to return to Nicaragua some day. He recommended that we hire a car and driver when we do so we don't encounter problems with the police. The way he explained things suggested to me that the drivers know exactly what they cops are doing and why. In the 2 hours and 10 minutes it took to return from San Juan del Sur our driver exceeded 100 kilometers per hour several times, passed on solid lines, passed in tandem with other vehicles, and once passed on a blind curve. To top it off he proceeded through a roundabout in front of the Nicaraguan National Police in the same lane, on the same roundabout, where I had my license confiscated. He never encountered a single problem with the police. All he did to avoid these problems was to not be born Caucasian.

Whenever I travel out of the country I always read the US State Department Contry Information Sheets. They are always filled with examples of crimes being commmitted in whatever country I am about to visit. However no mention is made on the Nicaragua pages about the extortion being exacted by the Nicaraguan National Police toward visitors. Each Lonely Planet guide to almost every country on earth contains a section called "Dangers and Annoyances" but nowhere in the Nicaragua guide is there a word written about the extortion being committed against Caucasian travelers by the Nicaraguan National Police. The Nicaragua Living website is a treasure trove of information for travelers and especially for San Juan del Sur. However nowhere on that website is there a single syllable about the extortion being committed against Caucasians by the Nicaraguan National Police.

If Nicaragua and its President Daniel Ortega want to join the 21st century, the country and its government need to develop its tourism potential and its tourism infrastructure. Already San Juan del Sur and the Corn Islands are big time retirement areas for Americans and Europeans. However if Caucasian visitors and residents are the target of corrupt police officers, I hope nobody ever plans another trip to Nicaragua. I know for certain that I will never be back.

Rental car companies operating in Nicaragua (all of the majors are here) should be up in arms with the Nicaraguan government over the extorition that is being committed against people who use rental cars. Likewise airlines serving the country (Delta, American, United, TACA and Spirit fly from the United States), and hotels in popular visitor locations should be in the face of the Nicaraguan government because of the way visitors are being extorted by the Nicaraguan National Police. Travel editors at major North American newspapers should be doing pieces on Nicaraguan corruption to alert potential visitors to what they can expect if they rent a car in Nicaragua. I am going to contact each of the groups mentioned above and request that they take some action to wake up the corrupt Nicaraguan officials.

I have now traveled to 107 countries on each of the six inhabited continents. Before this trip to Nicaragua I had concluded that there were only two countries to which I would never return. They are Guyana and Haiti. I have no desire to step foot in either one because of the corruption that abounds in both. Now, after this trip, I can add Nicaragua to the list of countries to which I wilil never return and in which I refuse to spend another penny.

After this trip I will no longer conjure up visitoins of pretty beaches or awesome volcanoes or verdant tropcal forest when I think of Nicaragua. Now my vision of Nicaragua is a police officer who, like his country, is in my rear view mirror.

Zebra - Its More than the Largest Size

Steve Erickson was one of the class clowns (if not the) class clown) in my seventh grade class. If ever there was a time when levity was needed Steve seemed to know instinctively what to say and how to say it to make everyone around him laugh. Steve and I were the acolytes for Faith Lutheran Church in the seventh grade. That responsibility meant that not only did we light the candles on the altar before a service started but we also extinguished the lights after the service. And, once a month, we were responsible for filling all of the little wine glasses used for communion. I remember one February Sunday morning in the seventh grade when we were filling the wine glasses and Steve said, straight faced, "You know Craig, wine can go bad. I think we need to test this wine to make sure its safe for everyone to drink." Not knowing any better I believed Steve and we tested the wine. We "tested" about one half of a bottle of red wine to confirm that it was safe and even broke into a second bottle of wine to make sure it was safe just in case. We had an uproariously good time bringing the wine glasses out to the altar for Pastor Vocke to distribute. And nobody came down ill that day. We had made sure they wouldn't.

On the day in September 2011 when I saw my first wild zebra I instantly thought of Steve Erickson (who, unfortunately, died of some form of cancer almost 3 years ago). There was a girl in our class (who will not be named but everyone from that class reading this knows who I am talking about) who was, let's say, at the front of the line when breast development was first handed out. Making matters worse, when boys are in the seventh grade our entire existence is controlled by raging hormones that seem to drip into our blood streams at the most inopportune time.

Like the day we found a crack in the window to the girls locker room where Steve, myself, and a couple of other classmates (who will not be named to protect the complicit) had staked ourselves out hoping to get a glimpse of not only her but of "them." As the tension grew to a crescendo Steve knew how to put everyone at ease when he asked "So, do you know what a zebra is?" Foolishly I said "Its kind of a horse that lives in Africa." Steve flashed his silver front tooth, snickered, and said "no you idiot, its what (she) wears. Its the largest size there is."

Plains zebra may not be the largest size there is but it is one of the species that upon seeing it you have no doubt in your mind that you are in Africa. My first wild plains zebra was a group of them foraging on a grassland near Polakwane, South Africa on September 9, 2011. They were the second large mammal I saw in that country and on my trip (Sable Antelope was first).

The discontinuous range of plains zebra in Africa
Plains zebra was fairly common throughout Kruger National Park and in other areas like Sani Pass, along the Indian Ocean from Durban to St. Lucia Wetlands National Park, at Addo Elephant National Park and on some private wildlife preserves near Cape Town. There is another species of zebra called Cape Mountain Zebra that is protected in an isolated national park that I never visited. I would have enjoyed seeing that species as well.

Like so many other savanna species, the coat of the plains zebra is perfect for helping the animal hide from predators. Look at these zebras photographed in Mozambique that are standing in a mopani forest that has yet to leaf out.


The black and white barring on the zebra coat blends nicely with the black and white background of this forest before it was completely leafed out. Predators would likely have to look twice to see a zebra standing still in this habitat. In fact, the most noticeable adaptation of plains zebras is its stripes. The stripes of the zebra may help to visually confuse its predators, mainly lions. There are other theories of why zebras have stripes; one being that the stripes may help regulate its body temperature.

One of the sources I read about zebras mentioned the propensity of young males to run around kicking their heels in the air for no other reason than they can. One morning at Satara Rest Camp I was stopped from traveling by a large herd of zebra who were crossing the road at their own speed. In the herd was at least two young males who were doing just that - kicking their heels and braying. This went on until an obviously older member of the herd walked over and bit one of the young males on the neck. The kicking stopped immediately.

Zebra are one of the principal prey items for lions and leopards. Their anti-predator defenses are simply to run (with their fingers crossed) and to kick or bite. Biting at lion that is hell bent on making you into lunch is definitely a career-limiting move but kicking a lion might send a message. Not only are the young zebra blowing off steam when they run around kicking the air I think they are also learning how to defend themselves from being lion fodder.

My most favorite plains zebra picture. This was taken at the St. Lucia Wetlands National Park north of Richard's Bay
As with so many other wildlife species in Africa it was refreshing to see plains zebra in as much apparent abundance as I did. I found them before I arrived in Kruger National Park and in many places outside of that huge park as well as other private areas. One day near Sani Pass when I was watching a herd grazing on the side of a mountain I had a fantasy that they were actually American bison and I was actually on the prairie in North Dakota and all around me was nothing but native grassland. The zebra-bison grazed from dawn to dusk in an almost endless parade across the prairie finally disappearing at sunset.

None of us will ever see that spectacle again on the great plains of North America because bison have been relegated to second class citizenship and are tucked away on national wildlife refuges and national parks and some private conservation areas. Now what they used to roam freely on has been converted to hard-red spring wheat, or sunflowers, or corn or soybeans.

However you can still get a feeling for what it was once like back before plows and European settlers spoiled everything by heading to southern Africa and finding herds of zebra and herds of impala and other species that still live sort of as it used to be. I hope they always do.

Giraffe - Evolution Run Amok

Have you ever sat around contemplating why a Giraffe has such a ridiculously long neck? Biologists will tell you that it gives them an evolutionary advantage to be able to eat leaves from the tops of trees that other species can't reach. That may be true however they also graze on grasslands that impala and kudu and a whole host of other antelope feed on. Some suggest that the long neck is an advantage in seeing predators in the distance. Yet there are a bazillion impala on the African savanna and they seem to survive just fine with all the predators out there and an impala is much shorter than a lion or a leopard.

And why is the giraffe built so off-center? Look at its front legs. They are several feet longer than their hind legs. Is that an adaptation for holding up their massive neck so they can eat those leaves at the top of the tree? And why are their hind legs so much shorter? Maybe that is an adaptation to balance out their gargantuan neck?

And what's up with those wimpy horns? They seem to serve no purpose at all. Certainly any marauding lion is going to laugh itself sick if a giraffe takes a swipe at it with those wimpy horns. And why is a Giraffe's tongue black? Do they think it will serve as camouflage while they eat those tall leaves at night?

I started thinking about these things seven weeks ago today when I saw my first giraffe in the wild near Punda Maria Camp in Kruger National Park.


My first wild giraffe
Predictably it stood in the scrub forest with its neck and head towering over the trees beneath it. He/she was perfectly situated to gorge on as many tree-top leaves as it could swallow.

I sat and watched the giraffe for maybe 15 minutes as it poked around in the forest. Later in the day I found more giraffe including one that was splayed out across the savanna trying to get a drink of water. I almost felt sorry for it having to go through all of the contortions just to get its mouth close enough to the water to have a drink.

Giraffe drinking - or trying to drink - water

As with my elephant experiences looking at a giraffe made me feel like I was watching the movie "Jurassic Park" one more time. They simply defy logic when you see one loping along (and they can lope pretty fast) through the thorn forests. They do so very quietly as well. How something weighing 2000 pounds and standing up to 16 feet tall can be so quiet when it moves is another mystery of this animal.

I remember well the day when I was home from college during graduate school when a pair of Seventh Day Adventists showed up at our farm determined to save me from an eternity of fire and damnation. The topic that got them excited was evolution. I was taking a graduate course in evolution at the time and luckily I had my facts and figures down perfectly. They didn't stand a chance.

The bible thumpers were excited because I stated matter of factly that if you read Genesis 1:1-7 objectively it maps out the course of evolution from the simpler life forms to the more complex life forms ultimately resulting in humans. Of course you can interpret anything in the bible to suit any topic you might be discussing but I didn't mention that. All I heard from the bible thumpers was that "I did not evolve from an ape." Well, yes you did but what's so bad about that? George W. Bush is living proof that humans and chimpanzees are first cousins however Dubya wasn't an issue at the time.

I asked the thumpers to tell me some of the characteristics that all mammals have in common. Things like hair on their bodies, and mammary glands, giving live birth, a lower jaw made of simple bone, the ability to replace teeth at certain ages, the ability to regulate their body temperature, a four chambered heart, and seven cervical vertebrae. All mammals possess these characteristics and no group of animals other than mammals has all of these characteristics.

So I asked the thumpers how many chambers are in a human heart. They had no idea. Then I asked them how many chambers were in a chimpanzee's heart and how many in a giraffe's. They didn't know. (the answer is four). I asked them a number of other questions and then said "So, how many vertebrae do you have in your neck?" They didn't know that they had seven. I then asked "How many vertebrae are there in a mouse's neck?" They guessed three but the answer was seven. I then asked "And how many vertebrae are in a giraffe's neck?" They said 20 but the answer is seven just like there are seven in the neck of a chimpanzee.

After discussing these biological facts a bit more and pointing out that in the biological scheme of things we humans have a lot in common not only with our first cousin the chimpanzee but also with a mouse and with a giraffe the thumpers had had enough. We had been debating for three hours and despite all the facts in front of them they refused to believe them. Finally I was asked if I was concerned what would happen to me when I died. I smiled and said "I want to be buried on the plains of Africa next to a giraffe so his seven neck vertebrae can play pool with my seven neck vertebrae any time they want to." Clearly flustered the thumpers threw their hands in the air, yelled "there's no hope for you young man" and left. Some giraffe somewhere in Africa was probably smiling as the two thumpers stormed out of our back door and then drove away.

I saw giraffe every day I was in Kruger National Park and never once tired of looking at them. They are such a biological oddity it was impossible not to want to look at them. One day while watching one chewing its cud (giraffes are the largest ruminants on earth) it dawned on me. A giraffe is like a Jersey cow on a Barron County Wisconsin pasture chewing its cud and watching the day go by. The only difference is that a giraffe neck is about 80 times longer than a Jersey cow's neck.

The picture below is my most favorite one from the trip. I found a group of seven giraffe (the largest group I encountered) by the side of the road near the Letaba Rest Camp one day. Predictably they were just chilling out eating acacia leaves, chewing their respective cuds, and just being giraffes. The one in this picture had a flock of yellow-billed oxpeckers on its neck. There were probably 20 of those birds picking lice and ticks from the skin of the giraffe's enormous neck. Every so often the giraffe reached the limit of his tolerance and would shake his head and neck like a dog (but in much slower motion) sending the oxpeckers off in a frenzy of feathers only to land back on the giraffe a few seconds later.

If you look closely at the picture below you can see not only the intricacies of the giraffe's neck but you can also see several ticks by its ear and near its horn there is a yellow-billed oxpecker waiting patiently to dine on ticks.

Close up of a giraffe's head. Note the ticks by its ear and the yellow-billed oxpecker waiting for a chance to dine on them

Among the 49 species of mammal I saw on my South African journey, I have to say that its a toss up between African elephant and giraffe for my most favorite. And although neither could eat me (both could crush me like a bug however) I think I enjoyed them so much beause they both define evolution run amok.

Lions and Kudu and Impala, Oh My

(Photo by BigCats.com)

During my recent trip to southern Africa I was lucky to be able to see 39 different lions in five widely scattered groups largely in central and southern Kruger National Park.
Each of the 12 main rest camps in Kruger National Park maintains a wildlife sighting board near the reception area for the camp. The wildlife sightings are updated almost instantaneously when new observations of high-priority species are made

The wildlife sightings board at Lower Sabie Rest Camp on September 16 2011

Each of the Big 5 mammals is on each board along with other species such as Cheetah, Wild Dog, and Spotted Hyena. Their location is plotted on a road map of each region of the park making the logistics of finding a species you seek much easier. If you are looking for a particular species simply stop in at the reception area, check the sightings board and make plans accordingly.

When I checked it one morning, the sightings board at Satara Rest Camp in the center of Kruger showed that lions had been seen in two relatively close areas off a dirt road just south of the camp. My arrival at 8:00 a.m. told me that the sightings on the board were very new.

My first lion
I dashed down this road (as fast as you can dash down a washboard surfaced gravel road) and about 12 km from Satara found two lions (probably young males) snoozing in the shade of an acacia tree. As I watched them, a small group of greater kudu stood nearby grazing as if there was no danger.

A greater kudu male munching on savanna grasses less than 100 meters from a pair of sleeping ions

Something I had read somewhere said that prey species seem to "know" when a predator is hunting. Likewise they seem to "know" when they are not. This morning the greater kudu, blue wildebeast and impala actively foraging 100 meters from the sleeping lions must have known that they had nothing to fear - then.

I watched this first pair for maybe 10 minutes then tired of watching tired lions snooze and moved on. Another 10 km further east I encountered a T- intersection and as I studied a map trying to decide where to go next a Land Rover driven by a Belgian guy pulled up and the driver informed me that a pride of lions was sleeping by the side of the road just 3 km south.




Snoozing lions

And that is exactly what I found when I drove up to the spot. Nine lions of various shapes and ages lay in the shade of acacia trees sleeping off last night's feast of impala or whatever other snack the lioness was able to kill. I watched these lions for maybe 30 minutes and simply marveled at the massive neck and chest muscles of the female. Given the chance female lions will kill African buffalo, young elephants and giraffes on top of all the smaller creatures they consume. To pull down something as massive as an elephant they have to have some fantastic muscle development.

The best part of the 30 minutes spent with this group of lions was watching the lone cub sleeping maybe 30 feet from me. I hate sounding anthropomorphic but cute is the only word that describes the cub. I have since printed out an 8x10 of the sleeping lion and it now adorns my living room wall.

Lions were another example of the adage about when it rains it pours. For three days I saw none and half an hour I had seen eleven - with more to come.

Driving south from Satara about 30 km I encountered a pride of 18 lions sleeping by the side of the road. This group included a fully-maned male not unlike the male in the first picture of this post. Like the others this group just chilled out snoozing in the shade of acacia trees. Unfortunately they were too far away to get decent pictures with my meager lens. Next time.

Still further down the road I encountered another group of 9 lions. Each was slowly and methodically crossing the road in front of me.

Note how perfectly the color of the lion blends with the color of the savanna grasses behind it - the perfect killing combination.

Thirty-eight lions in a morning was one of the other highlights of the trip. The next day I saw one more lion (again snoozing) by the side of the road not long after my encounter with the leopards. In all I was lucky enough to see 39 lions in a 24 hour period. This was the third of the Big 5 I saw on the trip.

Granted my observations were very limited in duration and scope but there is one thing I learned about lions from watching them and reading about them. They sleep a lot. About the only time they are moving around is when they are hunting and then its the lioness who does the hunting. The males hang out and let her do all the work. However when they are not hunting or eating the spoils of their hunt, lions just lay around.

This is another animal I fantasized about shooting when I was a child and a young adult. It was those pictures in the Weatherby rifle catalog that got me pumped up to go to Africa to shoot one. While waiting for my luggage after my arrival in Johannesburg I talked with a man from Midland Texas who had come to South Africa to hunt lions on a private game reserve. He became quite animated telling me about how he wanted to stalk a "trophy" male and shoot it.

Ernest Hemingway was a big time lion hunter who once boasted that you aren't really a man unless you shoot a charging lion.

One guy wants to "stalk" lions and Hemingway saw them "charging"? WTF? What sport is there in stalking a sleeping lion? I guess you have to worry about not stepping on a twig or something? And as far as a "charging" lion is concerned I think the only way you could get one to charge you is to disrupt its sleep and piss it off. The last group of nine lions I saw crossing the road bolted for cover when I said, in a normal voice, "hello brother lion." They charged alright - charged off into the grassland at a high rate of speed to get the hell away from whatever had scared them.

Given my early history and my retired-from profession I'm certainly not anti-hunting. However hunting should involve a fair chase and it should pit the hunter against his quarry. At least when a lion bolts from cover and snatches up an impala the impala has a better than 50 percent chance of escaping with its hide. With a sleeping lion the odds are much more in favor of the hunter than the prey.

Populations of predators like the lion are self-regulating. When there are lots of prey animals there are lots of predators. When prey populations are low so are the numbers of predators. Its a nearly perfect system. Accordingly predators like the lion are never going to become overly abundant and their population in need of culling. They seem to be too busy sleeping to be worried about these things.

I think they should just be left alone.

An Enormity of Elephants

The first elephant I ever saw in person was tethered to a chain at the Barron County Fair in Rice Lake Wisconsin when I was about 10 years old. I have never forgotten that ridiculously huge creature standing there with a forlorn look on its face as it contemplated how many more humans were going to crawl up on its back and make stupid noises.

I was one of those humans and I climbed up on the elephant with much excitement. I swear that from up there I could see all the way to Cumberland but actually I just saw as far as the Frostop root beer stand. True to my fledgling wanderlust I remember thinking about how cool it would be to ride through a "jungle" on the back of an elephant. I'd be a reincarnated Tarzan if I could do that - all I needed to do was learn how to swing from a vine and I would be ripe for the role.

At about the same time I remember looking through my dad's catalog for Weatherby hunting rifles and marveling at the "trophy" African elephants that people had shot with a .458 Weatherby Magnum, marketed at the time as "the" elephant gun. According to Roy Weatherby, owner of Weatherby rifles in Santa Monica California, no person in his right mind would go anywhere near a charging bull elephant with a rifle any smaller or with more killing power than a .458 Weatherby. I remember wishing I could afford to own a .458 Weatherby Magnum on the off chance that an elephant would show up in Barron County and I could shoot it.

Other than other animals tethered at circuses or those in abysmal conditions in a zoo, I never saw another elephant in person until October 2005. While walking through a forest in southern Thailand, searching unsuccessfully for ultra-rare Gurney's Pitta, I heard what sounded like a small tornado rumbling through the forest. Trees snapped off like match sticks and the ground trembled as I stood still. I had no idea what was going on until a pair of Asian elephants (much smaller versions of the African elephant - the elephant in the movie "Water for Elephants" was an Asian elephant) barreled through the forest not 20 meters from me. Despite their being much smaller than their African cousins I remained in awe at the enormity of these beasts. And as they raced by me, no doubt just playing rather than trying to escape anything, I wondered how on earth anyone, Roy Weatherby included, could ever shoot such a noble beast just to festoon a wall with its head.

My first African elephant was a massive male standing in the Luvulu River at the northern edge of Kruger National Park in South Africa. I had parked on a bridge over the river and got out to look at the swarm of swifts flying around in front of me. Almost as an after thought I looked at the river itself and there was this massive beast standing knee deep in the river splashing water all over himself as he gave himself a shower. Although he was too far away to photograph sufficiently the image of my first African elephant was etched in my mind's eye.

A few hours later, closer to the Punda Maria Rest Camp where I spent the night I noticed the elephants shown above standing in a Mopani forest just chilling out and being elephants. I stopped my rental car and watched them. From earlier reading I knew that if an elephant starts swaying after laying its ears back against its body that was a sign that it was getting annoyed and the wisest thing to do was to move on. I moved on.

A few hundred meters further down the road I came on to more elephants just chilling out in the forest.

An African elephant chilling out in the forest in northern Kruger National Park, South Africa
A bit further down the road I encountered more elephants. Seeing them against a backdrop of primordial African savanna and forest they didn't seem real. I remember saying to myself at the time that looking at them was more like watching the movie "Jurassic Park" than actually viewing wildlife. They were just too big and too bizarre to be real.

There is an estimated 16,000 African elephants in Kruger National Park where, according to biologists who do research on them, there is sufficient habitat for about 6,000 elephants. And like any other animal population when there are too many for a certain area the habitat becomes degraded, competition for available resources becomes more acute, disease sets in, and Mom Nature sets back the population in ways that watchers of Animal Planet do not like. However Mother Nature always bats last and always has the final say.

Overgrazed African elephant habitat in northern Kruger National Park, South Africa
The day I saw my first elephants but before actually seeing one, I noticed how so many of the mopani trees had been hacked to bits with limbs laying helter skelter on the ground and huge gashes to the body of the trees where giant limbs were once attached. Having lived in tornado country for a number of years my initial thought was that there had been a bunch of tornadoes there because what else could cause that sort of damage. Then it dawned on me - elephants.

Several years ago the collective world population of environmentally concerned people (they number about 35 now) was exorcised by the fact that elephants (primarily African elephants) were being poached for their ivory. International meetings were held and international treaties were ratified all in the name of protecting elephants and keeping them from going the same route as the passenger pigeon. Once the market for ivory dried up populations of elephants began to rebound. And they keep rebounding to the point of what is occurring in Kruger National Park.

Well meaning but uninformed people will instantly say that rather than shooting the excess they can simply be moved to other places. But what if there are no other places that can handle such gargantuan beasts? The excellent book "The Elephant Whisperer" discusses the pitfalls of moving elephants (even a small number of them) to places where efforts are being made to conserve them.

My second full day in Kruger I saw more and more elephants everywhere I went. The more of them I saw the more each one of them still seemed surreal and again I felt like I was in the movie Jurassic Park again.

One afternoon I was along a river at the Shingwedzi Rest Camp where I saw my first hippopotamuses. They were lolling around in the river farting and belching and coughing and just being hippos. As I watched them I noticed a small family group of elephants at the edge of the river that included a relatively new baby.

A family group of African elephants at Shingwedzi Rest Camp, Kruger National Park
As I watched the elephants clowning around in the water, out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the entire western sky had turned a strange mud-covered gray color. Twisting my head to take in what was happening I saw a massive male elephant not 20 feet from me.






Three pictures of the bull elephant that walked 20 feet from me without me seeing it at first
I remain amazed that a 5 ton animal could move as swiftly and stealthily as this guy did and not be detected. I simply did not hear him until he was that close to me. I guess that is just one more reason why there are restrictions on exiting your vehicle in Kruger.

I spent one night at the Olifants Rest Camp along the Olifants River along the border with Mozambique. The word "Olifant" is Afrikaans (and I guess German) for "elephant." I had hoped that if I had not seen an elephant earlier in the trip I would certainly see one in a river named after them. And I did. Lots of elephants.

The Olifants River Valley on the Mozambique border
One of the many highlights of the trip was the morning I sat where this picture above was taken and watched family groups of elephants milling around in the river below me. With them were hippopotamus and the occasional giraffe. They all made for an unforgettable breakfast.

As my time in Kruger continued I started to realize that not only do elephants tear down tree limbs to get at the succulent leaves and bark they also do it for recreation. I think they just get a rush out of ripping the stuffing out of anything and everything they feel like tearing apart. And who is going to stop them?





An African elephant ripping a tree to shreds I think just because it could
On my last day in Kruger, just a kilometer or so north of Crocodile Bridge Gate, I encountered a traffic jam. This one was caused by a group of nine elephants who just decided that they wanted to block the road. So they did. One of the nine, pictured above, was mutilating a tree just for the hell of it. He would reach up, coil his trunk around a branch, and give his head a small twist. A sound reminiscent of a rifle firing would be heard next as the limb broke off like a twig. This was followed by a tumultuous crashing as the limb tumbled to the ground. The elephant looked at the downed limb for a bit, probably snickered under his breath, then reached up with his trunk and ripped another limb to shreds.

One day near Satara Rest Camp I came onto a watering hole along the side of the road. In it was a group of seven elephants. They were taking their leisurely time soaking up water, splashing it on their back, hosing down others in the family group, and just generally being elephants. The temperature had to be close to 100 degrees F and there was not a cloud in the sky. It was blistering hot for me and I was in the shade of a rental car. For the critters of the savanna it had to be miserable. As the elephants took up space near the water, a circle of plains zebras stood patiently waiting for the elephants to leave. Behind the zebras was a massive flock of impala also waiting for their turn at the water, each with its tongue hanging out as they panted in the searing heat. Behind the impala was a lone spotted hyena who, apparently, was the lowest member in the waiting-for-water pecking order. He stood there covered in mud and dirt panting like crazy and looking miserable. However nobody budged. Not one animal was foolish enough to consider challenging an elephant. The elephants seemed to know this and took their good natured time getting their drink. I passed by this same watering hole at dawn the next morning and all of the mammals from the afternoon before were gone. Eventually, I guess, everyone had their turn at the water and moved on - but not before waiting what must have seemed like an eternity for the elephants to move along.

After leaving Kruger I didn't see another elephant for 9 days until I arrived at Addo Elephant National Park north of Port Elizabeth not far from the Indian Ocean.

Lone elephant foraging on grassland at Addo Elephant National Park
Here the elephants were in a much different habitat type than in Kruger. At least what I saw of Addo was largely grassland reminiscent of those in Kidder County, North Dakota. There were no mopani forests to exploit. Instead the elephants foraged on the abundance of grasses available for them to eat. The elephant in this picture was the last one I saw in the wild in South Africa.

In places like Kruger National Park something has to be done to reduce the numbers of elephants before the habitat is completely trashed. As I watched elephants standing around looking stupid I could not imagine how anyone and especially someone calling themselves a "sportsman" could get off on killing one. There is no sport in shooting something that doesn't want to move. At least with grouse or duck hunting you flush the animal and give it a chance to avoid getting hit. When that animal is as big as a barn the sportsman quotient is reduced substantially. Roy Weatherby can stick his .458 "sporting" rifle directly up his anal pore.

Still something needs to be done in places where there are too many elephants before they eat themselves out of house and home. Wildlife biologists are trained to come up with solutions to issues like this. However after spending as many enjoyable minutes as I did getting to know African elephants I am glad its not me who has to make the final decisions.

Every elephant I saw in Africa made me think back to that day at the Barron County fair when I rode on the back of an elephant. They made me think of old Tarzan movies and they made me glad to be able to see one. I hope some workable solution can be developed so that elephants will forever be inside Kruger National Park and I hope there's just enough of them so there is food enough for all and so my grand children can one day go to Kruger National Park and experience the same bone chilling rush I experienced each time I saw the enormity of elephants.