Civilisation..De-Evolved. (Rhino Poaching)

RHINO POACHING!!......... the two words have the become  an expletive of the worst kind the most terrible swear word,  a cuss that sadly in 2011 gets used each and every day!

As I type this we have to date lost 279 Rhino’s in SA this year, this on the back of the 333 lost in 2010. There is huge public outcry, publicity, public sympathy and disgust but the carnage continues unabated and intensifies daily as was witnessed in the Western Cape last weekend and sadly even today in Limpopo!!!

I want to write about this from the eyes and ears of guides like myself across reserves in SA and elsewhere in Africa. We sit in a situation as guides where the topic of poaching comes up (rightfully so) on every single drive, walk or fireside chat! As a guide it’s a heartbreaking scenario to be discussing the brutality and nonsensical wholesale slaughter of these placid 30 million year old animals while sitting enjoying sightings of these ever dwindling rhino instead of discussing the majesty of them.

As a guide I do see it as my responsibility to address these issues and bring the matter and its facts to the attention of our visitors.  The facts such as the utter insanity of the beliefs in the falsified medicinal purpose and that is has gone way beyond the stereotypically ridiculous aphrodisiac properties of the Rhino’s keratin based horn.

How can we fight this pandemic when countries political leaders such as Vietnam’s are claiming its cancer curing properties? A point also worth being emphasised is that the demand is not only coming from a single source but many Asian countries....China only being one of them. The Rhino’s current peril being brought on by the new economic affluence of their previously poverty ridden populations.

We all know the current facts of the organised crime involvement and the involvement of vets and more recently and very sadly the involvement of rangers. With Rhino horn currently fetching $60 000.00 US per kilogram maybe the old saying should be changed from absolute power corrupts absolutely to...money & greed corrupt absolutely.

Where is our government in all of this?......what is being done?  Where is C.I.T.E.S (The Convention for the International Trade in Endangered Species)?

Realistically the solution to the Rhino disaster can surely only be a political one! As was the case with the Elephant slaughter it was only brought under some form of control by the outright ban in ivory trade in 1989 by C.I.T.E.S.

Surely sometime somewhere there would need to be a debate on the possible solution to this devastating problem. The two schools of thought being...A sustainable trade in Rhino horn as  a possible solution or will it lead to the exploitation of the horn by unscrupulous people or even worse governments or  will a outright ban solve and regulate this problem. The current hunting permit situation relating to the legal hunting of Rhino’s is an outrageous farce as has been witnessed with the recent arrests of some pretty despicable individuals.

How long will it take the organs of state to address this decimation? The world’s wildlife protection agencies seem to be hampered by insane and never ending bureaucracy!!

As you can see all we seem to be left with is question after question!

There may be this perception that this sort of utter ruthless annihilation of animals of this kind to be fairly new we may think that this sort of thing can be compared to the near decimation of Elephants in the 60’s,70’s,80’s....sadly even that was not the beginning. In fact as the human race we can go back as far as 300BC where Arab traders spurred on by the advent of the slave trade were responsible for the brutal killing untold numbers of Elephants and other animals. Since then many many more..tens of millions have died at the hands of the “INTELLEGENT APE” all of the seemingly mindless killing brought about to feed our incessant GREED!!

Greed being at the forefront of what is fuelling the current poaching lunacy...the question must surely be asked as a species do we really consider ourselves civilised?

We have applauded ourselves on how far we have come since 300BC, the progress we have made as a species, but have we progressed at all because from my angle it seems to me.....

Civilisation has DE-EVOLVED!!

Visit............www.stoprhinopoaching.com

Ostrich Interuptus..(PG13)

It has to be said..as Field Guides we get to witness an amazing amount of truly spectacular animal behaviour and out of this world wildlife sightings. Sometimes however we get to separate ourselves from the factual serious side of animal behaviour and enjoy the lighter side of nature.

The perceptions of visitors to our various game reserves can be so remarkably different to our own and sometimes it's these perceptions that make for the most memorable of bush experiences as was the case with this specific incidence.

Now the story might begin with the tone of a bar room joke told after way too many cheeky ones but in this case it's a true one so here goes.... So a male Ostrich a Wildebeest and a female Ostrich are walking through the bush.....

With the morning drive nearing an end I was making my way back to the lodge when we came across the three rather random looking animals mentioned above. We had interrupted a male Ostrich in the process of his lavish and somewhat balletic mating dance, the poor chap was in the process of trying to woo the somewhat more drab looking and completely disinterested female in the distance. Strangely enough the said random wildebeest had found himself in the middle of the honeymoon suite and was about to get caught between the two avian lovers, rather a funny sight it must be said, as attested to by the guest comments in the video.

The male Ostrich who had now spotted his opportunity and made a bee line for the female who was oblivious to his approach. The male then walked right passed the not so wily Wildebeest..I  may have been a little more worried if I was in the Wildebeests shoes...the rather randy Ostrich that is also not known for a remarkable intellectual capacity may well have made a clerical error. Luckily for the ruminant that wasn't the case and the male passed by without incident. Whatever level of dance ability the male showed seemed to have impressed the female and she allowed the male his moment in the sun...so to speak.

Above all else the guest’s perceptions and general humour while the act was going on truly made for a memorable sighting. At one stage while the male was going about his duties with much diligence the female promptly began feeding...surely a most demoralising act for any male, as you can imagine this brought on hysterical laughter from the back row....(it's always the back row)!.

                            Video By Guest Shane Brooking...edited by yours truly.

Having completed the task at hand the male then promptly dismounted and without as much as a thankful backward glance was off seeking his next conquest, leaving the female with what can only be imagined as a "dam men" look on her face.

Then to his credit my guest the "filmmaker" panned back to the Wildebeest now looking at us with a rather enquiring look as if to say "what the hell just happened??"

I will always be left with the thought.....what on earth was going through the Wildebeest's mind?....but then again being a Wildebeest probably not a hellava lot.

Murder Most Foul

We have all heard the stories, told the stories & stated the facts about the Bushbuck....the meek, mild, timid and shy antelope with an almost Jekyll & Hyde personality. We always share with guests this underwhelming spiral horned antelope's more sinister side..How many hunters have been on the wrong side of their sabre like horns....the tales of the poacher that under estimated Bambi in the snare and ended up head butted out of his shoes and off to meet his maker?

In reality however when most visitors encounter the Bushbuck on their game drives or walks they certainly can't be blamed for being at least a little sceptical of these tales and of the bushbuck’s unchained aggression in certain circumstances. After this morning’s drives the sceptical amongst my guests will never again be left wondering as to the validly of interpretations of Bushbuck's darker side.

Receiving a radio call that a colleague had located a crash of five White Rhino early in the drive I made to the area. Sadly as is often the case as I entered the sighting and by passed two Bushbuck rams casually feeding nearby, without giving them a second glance! Little did I know this seemingly uninteresting sighting would become the sighting of the day and possibly the month!

While viewing the rhino's I pointed out to the guests what looked to be a fairly normal territorial dispute between the said Bushbuck after saying that normally most animals will try and avoid serious injury in these situations..Murphy as he so often does was about to prove me wrong!

The weaker smaller Bushbuck appeared to be outmatched and probably realised this himself and began to take a submissive posture while trying to beat a hasty retreat. However the soon to be victor filled with what would be only described by one of my guests  as "a vicious rage" would not let the defeated ram off so easy. He began an absolutely insane testosterone driven assault on the rump of the unfortunate victim repeatedly goring him while the savaged ram was trying fruitlessly to evade the spiralled horns. Within a matter of seconds all attention had shifted from the rhino's to the battle, not wanting to move and loose my visual I stayed put and viewed from a distance.  The defeated ram's back legs gave in and collapsed while still propping himself up the enraged Ram was charging in from all sides deeply penetrating the doomed ram in the abdomen eventually tossing him through the air and leaving him upside down with his legs in the air.

Clearly the badly gored ram was on his way out but the adrenaline was surely flowing in the victor and his attacks didn’t stop he kept goring and tossing the nearly dead ram. Eventually the crazed ram withdrew slightly but soon after the victim gave one last muscular twitch and that was enough to send the Tyson of Bushbucks into another frenzy repeatedly taking run up's and deeply goring the dead buck. He relented eventually but did not move out of an attack position within half a meter of the deceased buck for nearly 8 minutes.
This was truly one of my most memorable guiding experiences the raw aggression was really something to behold it left my guests utterly shocked and awed and this from an animal that one of my guests later confessed to thinking looked remarkable like a tame goat at the time.

On a later drive another guest that after seeing a Bushbuck pass by the vehicle asked maybe rather tongue in cheek whether we were safe in the Land Cruiser...HAHAHA point proven....Murder Most Foul indeed!