This is Part 1.
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I participated in a research safari in Kenya between March 16 and April 4 2007. I am delighted with the experience as it allowed me to see other dimensions of Africa:
- large animals in their natural habitats
- the Maasai ethnic group living as they have for hundreds of years
- Kibera, the 2nd largest slum in Africa
- the city of Nairobi, Kenya
In this submission, I describe my experience with the large animals. Please refer to my PHOTOS here. I will describe the other experiences in other files.
Many people think of Africa as full of large wild animals. I did before I arrived in Africa. Many years ago, Africa did have many animals living nearly everywhere. Then the white man arrived, much hunting occurred, and illegal poaching grew. In Mali, current residents remember white’s arriving in helicopters and gunning down whole herds of animals. Now, there are essentially no wild animals in Mali and many other African countries. Wild animals are located in pockets of relative safety, mostly in East and Southern Africa. Hence, I went to Kenya in East Africa. In fact, I spent most of my time just south of the equator near Mount Kilimanjaro. And yes, water does reverse its direction when it goes down the drain when you are south of the equator. It swirls counter-clockwise, rather than clockwise.
What is a safari, and how does it differ from a ‘research’ safari? Most of the tourists who come to Kenya, and supply over 60% of Kenya’s income, travel from Game Park to Game Park every 1 or 2 days over a duration of a week or so. They often stay in comfortable hotels and are driven from place to place in vans with pop-up roofs. These allow them to stand-up and see the animals while they are in the vehicles. Guides help the tourists understand what they are seeing, and to locate specific animals for viewing. Some people fly into Nairobi, then take a private plane to a very comfortable hotel and are driven from there. Many interesting sights can be seen like this. Kenya has several big parks, as does Tanzania which is located next to Kenya. The Serengeti is in Tanzania just over the boarder with Kenya, on the other side of Mount Kilimanjaro.
The research safari that I participated in spent 2 weeks in one location with a wildlife conservationist with the focus on one animal and a priority problem related to it. I slept in my tent in a rustic camp site. Although I saw many other animals, our focus was on the elephant population between Amboseli Park and Mount Kilimanjaro. 1400 elephants live in Amboseli and go back and forth to the Mountain for food and water. There are about 14,000 elephants in Kenya total. The snow capped peak provides nearly all of the water in the area. Elephants require 200 liters of water everyday to drink and 300 kilograms of grass and small trees to eat.
Due to global warming, it is estimated that the snow will be completely melted from Mount Kilimanjaro by 2030. After that time, there will be almost no water for the elephants and other wild animals. Mass die offs are expected unless other solutions are developed.
The corridor between the Park and the Mountain is also home to the Maasai community. Increasing incidents of human and animal conflict are occurring. As the Maasai build new villages, bring in more herds of goats and cows, and plant more gardens, there are increasing problems with the elephants and lions. One specific example of this is the Maasai school that I visited. The principal said their biggest problem is that regularly the students and teachers cannot make it to school because of passing elephants and lions. Also the Maasai herdsmen complain that the lions come out of the park and kill their cattle. Even today, there are incidents of elephants being speared by the Maasai and dying.
The project that I worked on intends to document the movement of elephant’s overtime, and then apply to the European Union for funding to help the Maasai move north and out of the corridor between the Park and the Mountain. Each day, we got in the Land Rover and headed off road into the corridor. ‘We’ was the driver, the guide, myself and another volunteer. Each month there are varying numbers of volunteers, ranging from 1 or 2 up to 10 or 15. We were the only vehicle to have permission to travel off road. Periodically, the vehicle would stop and the guide would climb on top with his binoculars to look for the elephants. You may think it simple to spot elephants. Not true. They live in a shrub savannah, where there are many many small trees and bushes about their same size. At any distance, an elephant looks like a shrub. I could never spot an elephant before the guide did.
After the guide saw a herd of elephants, he instructed the driver on where to drive to intercept them. We drove over sometimes very rough terrain until we came across the family. Elephants almost always travel in families, headed by a matriarch. The women and children travel together. If there is a male, he is young. When the males become ‘of age’, the matriarch chases them out of the herd. This reduced the chances of in-breeding. Then groups of males may form, or individual males may travel alone.
Any elephant can be dangerous, but individual males are the biggest risk. (Did I hear someone say that is true of human males also?) As we approached the family, it was very important to sit down in the vehicle, speak softly, and not use flash on the camera. Did I mention NOT to stand up? Standing is interpreted as an aggressive move by elephants, and may cause them to charge. Also the human scent is likely to result in a charge. Elephants have VERY good sense of smell. When their trunks stop foraging and go up in a question mark shape, they are smelling. When elephants make their trumpeting sound, you are in danger. It is like the rattle of rattlesnake.