Excitement in the Delta

It has been an absolutely tremendous week out here on Chiefs Island in the Okavango Delta. From leopard sightings to hyenas killing antelope, and then to top it off, a threesome of lions killed a massive buffalo just outside one of the tents here in camp. The buffalo managed to run into the water just before the lions finished it off, making for a hectic battle between the crocodiles and lions. Not only that, but an elephant wandered by and, curiously enough, filled his trunk with water and started spraying the lions! He scared them off for a while, then another elephant came and started fighting with the first, just in front of the lions who were nervously eating the buffalo not fifteen feet from the sparring giants. After they moved off, about five or six crocs moved in and began to eat nose to nose with the lions (literally – their faces were less than a foot away at times as they chewed through the carcass) which was quite a spectacle. Both the lions and crocs nervously chewed, keeping an eye on the other, and every once in a while one would make a sudden move giving the other a fright and starting a clash. It was undoubtedly the coolest thing I’ve seen in my nine months over here in Africa, and I ended up spending the entire day sitting in front of that kill and just watching the action. Ahhh what a day, who needs television when you can just prop a chair up and watch lions fighting crocodiles over a buffalo carcass? Only in Africa…

Elephant spraying the lions

 

Scaring off the lions from the kill

 

Then the elephants started fighting, right in front of the lions! Look how skeptical those three look…it was as if they were thinking ‘do I dare look away from these angry giants to take a bite of my tasty meal’

 

Next the crocs moved in

Then the lions came back, literally eating face to face with the crocs

 

One of the lions tried to pull the carcass out of the water to avoid the crocs, but no such luck.

 

Confrontation between  croc and lion – that’s one angry cat!

 

All that remains of the 2000 pound buffalo in just 24 hours. It’s amazing how efficient African predators are, and how dangerous this place really is!

 

Out on drive, we spotted a leopard and followed it around. She hardly even noticed the vehicles.

 

This leopard is a movie star – she’s been the star of practically every documentary that’s been done on leopards

 

Sizing up the tree

 

Finally she found a nice place to rest

 

Later we bumped into a pride of lions with this young cub

 

Cub drinking milk from its mother

 

lets play a little game… who's mouth is this???

 

 

Ahh..tis the mouth of this young fellow!

Tis the season for a chargin’

After last weeks close encounter with Sargent, the big male rhino, I had another close encounter – this time with a huge bull elephant. As I was walking to the research vehicle, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a huge grey mass heading my direction. I quickly glanced over, only to find a massive elephant charging right at me. Luckily elephants are masters of the ‘mock charge’ and rarely strike their targets, so I stayed pretty calm and just waved my arms up and made some noise to slow his approach. Despite knowing (assuming) he was only mock charging, it still got my blood pumping! Seeing a two ton animal racing towards you with its two sharp tusks, stopping only within about five feet, is a pretty frightening and exhilarating experience! It’s really only those last few feet of his charge that you start praying that this guy is just trying to intimidate you and will soon stop, and yes it sure does get the adrenaline going! But I suppose I’m quite used to it by now, after all its almost four or five times a week that I’m charged by the elephants around here. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that they stick with the mock and forget about charging me for real!

Big elephant bull starting his charge

When they charge, elephants flair out their ears to make them look more intimidating. I must admit… when you’re standing only a few feet away from them, it works!

On a separate note, this morning as I was eating my bowl of cereal around 5:30am, I remembered that I had left my water bottle in my room. I started walking back, and about 20 feet from my tent I saw several female lions dash out of the bushes next to me and run directly under where I was standing (on a boardwalk, only about three feet off the ground) and off towards the field just behind my tent. A moment later a huge male lion came charging through the bushes that the females had just darted out of, and sprinted after them. He was roaring like mad and must have been chasing them out of his territory, but I must say it was definitely the closest encounter I’ve had with lions while I was not inside a vehicle. To say the least, I was glad they were pre-occupied with running away from the big male (and he too busy chasing them) otherwise they may have taken the second to look up and see me walking right over their path. All in all, it was a pretty exciting way to start the day…

lions darting out of the bushes, and running within a few feet of me!

Here’s a short clip I took just yesterday morning–lions were feeding on a buffalo that they had killed the night before when some crocodiles came in and took over. You can hear the baboons yelping just as the lions take off

Caught between a rhino and a hard place

We had a great morning of rhino tracking, with a little added excitement. Our goal was to check up on a female with her calf, and after an hour of searching through the bush we heard a loud rustling through the bushes. Usually, if anything, the rhinos will run away from the vehicle, so it is unusual to hear a rustling sound – meaning the rhino is nearby and scraping his feat on the ground to mark its territory. As we slowly made our way around the bush, we found our girl with her calf. But to our surprise, she was with Sargent, the large, cheeky male from last weeks post. Rarely do we find the female rhinos spending time with the males (they meet once a month or so, and finding them together is a rare sight). As if Sargent didn’t have enough testosterone on his own, let alone when he was with a female, he could think of only one thing to do: charge the vehicle. He made it pretty obvious that he didn't want us hanging around his woman...It’s a bit nerve-wracking being on the receiving end of a charging rhino, but its all in a days work I suppose. Anyways, it added some definite excitement to the day, and on top of that we stumbled upon three different prides of lions, got nice and stuck in a giant mud hole, snuck up on a massive herd of buffalo, and managed to track another four rhino. Quite a day!

 

A short clip of Sargent charging us this morning

 

 

Just another day tracking rhino. Behind me is Bogale and her calf

A nice place to rest

Giraffes on the move

Desperate in a land with no rocks

Stuck in the mud, using sticks to get us out

Out and about with a rhino or two

Poaching has taken a severe toll on rhino populations throughout Africa, and today only a few thousand of these majestic animals remain. It is no wonder, then, that Botswana’s government has gone to great lengths in keeping their remaining rhinos – about 100 and rising – safe and out of reach from poachers. In doing so, they have employed the leading rhino tracker in the world, a Motswana man named Poster, to track and monitor the rhinos on a daily basis. Poster is based out of Chiefs Island in the central Delta, a vast and fertile island where many of the rhinos can be found within a few days drive.

I am very fortunate in that the company I am working with at the moment owns the only safari camp on the island, and I was lucky enough to be sent here for two weeks. This camp is the company’s flagship premier lodge, boasting the greatest game viewing in the whole of the entire Delta, and ranking in at the number one luxury safari camp in all of Africa. In an average week, the guides here will often spot over 80 different (not total..different) lions, 8 different leopards, thousands of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, impala, lechwe...etc.... its known as the 'land of plenty' and for good reason. Needless to say, it’s a spectacular place! Anyways, since I’ve arrived, I’ve spent a great deal of time chatting with the legendary rhino tracker, and today he took me out for an exciting day of…you guessed it, rhino tracking!

Max on the left, Rhino skull in the middle, Lion skull on the far right

There’s no denying that this humble and amazingly kind man deserves all the hype – he can literally spot a rhino footprint underneath a bush from the back of a vehicle moving 20 mph nearly 30 feet away. It’s unbelievable. And not only that, he’s spent so much time with these animals that he can even talk to them and get through to them. It sounds strange, but what I witnessed today was truly shocking. Once we approached our first rhino, a young male named Sergeant who was concealed in thick bushes, we stepped out of the vehicle to get a better look and check on his condition. A bit anxious, sergeant swooped his head around towards us and began to charge. Now, I’ve heard horror stories about rhinos – they may look big and innocent but they are actually incredibly dangerous animals… and at seeing this two ton armored horn charging right at me, I could literally feel adrenaline rush through my veins as my heart shot into panic mode. But Poster stood there and in his deep, calm voice he said ‘Sergeant, that enough! Calm down boy, that’s enough!’ and low and behold, that rhino stopped in its tracks. I was stunned, but whatever relationship Poster has with these animals, it’s out of this world.

Poster stopping to record the coordinates of one of the rhinos

Then the two of us I casually got back on to the vehicle and drove off, spending the rest of the day tracking another four rhinos. On the way back to camp we got caught in a massive thunderstorm and got absolutely soaked from head to toe (we sit on the back of the land rover while another guy drives), but we were loving every minute of it. The rains arrived much too late this year – usually coming in September, but this was the first big shower of the year – so we reveled in the storm like kids playing in the sprinkler, literally shouting out and laughing as lighting crackled around us and thunder deafened our ears. I admire Poster, he lives a beautiful lifestyle, with nature being his office and his playground, and I hope to learn as much as I can from him before moving on to whatever’s next.

Poster and I, soaked on the back of the truck after driving through the massive thunderstorm for nearly two hours!

Just before arriving at camp we saw a pride of lions stalking a herd of zebra so we quickly turned around and followed their pursuit. We watched as eight lions fanned through the trees, spreading out to maximize their effectiveness and chances of catching their prey. Silently, they crept ever closer to the treeline, until they made one final push and charged the waters edge where the zebra were drinking. Alarmed at the sight, the zebras frantically shot up and flew with lightning speed (almost like they were running for their lives…) away from the threat, leaving the disgruntled lions at their rear (though one female managed to catch a baby warthog in the process). Although this hunt was unsuccessful, it made the absolute perfect ending to our spectacular day, and look forward to more to come!

this lucky lady walked away from the hunt with a tasty, albeit small, morsel – a baby warthog.

This rhino's name is Mogale, and she's quite a shy girl! or maybe she's just used to running away from men...

Living the Okavango Delta

I have been very fortunate over the past few months in that I have met a number of researchers here in the Okavango Delta, all of whom are happy to have me helping them out with their projects. Consequently I have been able to help track and collar one of the most charismatic and fascinating species of African carnivore –wild dogs. Not only that, but I have helped a researcher collect lion DNA using biopsy darts, collected samples from the waterways of the delta looking at micro-invertebrate biodiversity in relationship to land usage, studied population dynamics of roan antelope (a very rare species), and assess the impact of elephants on the surrounding vegetation. To say the least, I have had my hands full – there hasn’t been so much as a dull moment here in Botswana.

Tomorrow I’m being flown out to another premier camp located on a small island in the heart of the Okavango to assist with ongoing biology projects in the area, and I couldn’t be more excited! This island is the hotspot of biodiversity in the delta – it is the place to be if one is looking for wildlife. With an abundance of leopard, lion, buffalo, elephants…. there is no shortage of excitement. Basically it is a dream come true living in the thick of the bush, no doubt an addicting lifestyle!

 

 

A view from above – flying to one of the camps in the delta. You can easily make out the animal tracks in the vegetation heading towards water (or in this case, a dried up waterhole), often referred to as the ‘veins of life’

 

This is why elephants cause such a ruckus on the surrounding vegetation – they scrape off the bark with their tusks and chew on it like gum. They will often remove an entire ring of bark around the tree, thus disabling the tree from transporting liquids and nutrients through its bark, inevitably killing the entire tree.

 

 

Elephant using its tusk and trunk to remove the bark

 

 

The lounge area in one of the camps

 

Elephant wandering through camp

 

 

A leopard on it’s kill – a female impala. Incidentally she was pregnant and only days away from calving.

 

 

Leopard in a tree – lazy in the mid-day heat.

funny story before bedtime..

Four guests arrived in camp the other day, all excited to be here in Botswana. After talking for a while, it was mentioned that farming is very popular here and cattle ranchers own some 60% of the countries land. The guests were intrigued by this statistic as they told us that they hadn't yet eaten any meat on their entire trip. We looked at the information sheet about the four guests, and it mentioned that they were all vegetarians..... That's when they told us that they were, in fact, all veterinarians...







haha funny story! and now a few pictures from this morning

A leopard we stumbled upon just after it had eaten an impala.

Fish eagle taking off

This bird spent most of its afternoon riding this prime example of an 'african taxi'

Car trouble in Africa (and other cool photos too!)

It’s been a very exciting two weeks here in Botswana, action packed could easily be an understatement. Whether its been chasing wild dog, stalking leopard, tromping through the marsh to find the rarest species of African owl, flying around the Delta to help with animal surveys or running into car problems when you are four hours away from town in the middle of the bush, the excitement here never seems to cease. Having said that, I am having the time of my life out here… there’s not a dull moment to be found!

If there’s one thing that Africa teaches you, it’s how to deal with your vehicle. I must admit, when I left the states, I hardly knew how to change a tire..but since I’ve been out here, I must have learned how to take apart an engine and redesign an entire land rover. Firstly, the research vehicles we are dealing with are easily twenty years old so they are quite prone to breakdowns. The second problem – we use land rovers as opposed to land cruisers (land rovers are notorious for being unreliable vehicles). And lastly, I cannot stress how important it is to know how to make a quick fix when your vehicle brakes down 10 miles outside camp and you are surrounded by lions, elephants and hippos. Not a situation you would likely face back in the states, which is likely why I was completely car-ignorant before arriving here, but wow do you pick up quick when you live in the bush. I’ve probably changed a tire a day out here, hoisted an entire land rover back onto a bridge two jacks and some bricks, driven through water over four feet deep while praying not to get stuck, plugged a diff casing with a modified stick, and driven nearly three hours back to camp at a drooling 10mph after needing to remove the drive shaft from a misfit of a truck. One things for sure out here in Africa, never does a day go by when you don’t get your hands dirty.

the water began to flood some of the roads at the camp we were staying at, maximum driving depth 4 feet in some places!




Two particular circumstances come into mind when discussing some of the issues I’ve had with these land rovers in the past two weeks. First was when a few of us had just done an environmental inspection at a new camp about four hours away from town and were heading back home. While we were at the camp, one of the mechanics replaced the oil in the diff housing, but apparently screwed the plug on a bit too tight. As we left camp, the plug actually fell into the diff and was swimming around in the oil, but unfortunately this meant no way to keep the oil from spilling out. None of us knew it had happened of course, and we were driving along merrily about an hour outside of camp when all of the sudden we heard a loud cracking noise and the car came to a sudden jerk. We looked under the car only to notice that the diff had no plug (it had fallen inside, but we didn’t know this at the time). Not only that, but the oil had completely drained so now it was bone dry inside the diff housing. This is a major problem because the gears that spin the wheels would start to catch on each other and completely stall the tires from spinning.

To our surprise, there was an old road maintenance truck abandoned on the side of the road a few hundred meters ahead so we figured we could drain some oil from it and use it in our own car. The oil wasn’t by any means diff oil - it was jet black and very soupy - but it would make for a quick fix that would (hopefully) get us back into town. After a very messy exchange of oil from that ancient machine into our broken machine, we chopped down some branches to improvise a plug for the housing. We stripped the bark off and jammed the tree limb into the hole, crossed our fingers that it would stay in, then headed off again.

Next problem: the diff plug had fallen inside the housing and was now bouncing around, so it snagged on the cogs only a few minutes later causing us to lurch into another screeching halt. Time to get creative…so we removed the entire drive shaft from the bottom of the vehicle and drove at a depressing 10 miles per hour for the remainder of what should have been a three hour drive, but instead took about eight hours. I have to admit though, despite the breaking down and slow going, I was fairly amused throughout the entire situation simply because it was such an unusual experience. Quite funny how you manage to work your way out of problems like that.

The old truck that we syphoned oil from to put into our own beat down land rover

dirty job




The stick plug! coming soon to usa!

here's the stick plug in action, jammed in there and hammered in with yet another large stick

removing the drive shaft altogether, thus disabling the four wheel drive and reducing strain on the rear wheels to minimize the chance of the diff plug getting caught in the cogs



The second car issue I’ve had in the last few weeks was when my land rover’s tires were completely dislodged from a log bridge. Apparently my one of my rear tires had not been completely aligned with the bridge when approaching it, and it threw the entire vehicle sideways and off the track. This was quite a sticky situation because the car was literally resting on the front CV joint and the rear diff, not the tires, which I thought was sure to do some serious damage. I was also worried that we would have to cut some of the log poles on the bridge to get the car off, something that the company would not be particularly happy about. We were, however, able to hoist the car up and over the edge of the bridge and back on it properly with a few jacks and some ingenuity. Amazingly it was completely undamaged, but ironically as we were just about to back it up off the bridge, the steering rod snapped when we turned the wheels and one got caught between two logs. Oh well, for such a dramatic incident, a broken steering rod was the least of my worries.

Despite the occasional serious issue with the car and the daily tire changing/field fixes for random breakdowns, everything around camp has been fantastic. Really quite an adventure, and to say the least the car problems do add to the drama of living out in the bush. I guess it wouldn’t be quite an adventure if we were driving around in brand new 4x4s that could topple trees and float across lakes now would it

This is clearly not how one is supposed to drive over the bridge - here the land rover is resting on the rear diff and the front left CV joint --- not pretty!

getting creative with jacks and hoisting the vehicle back onto the bridge

OK, enough talk, now time for some other neat photos of the things I've been seeing. Presenting....Max's back yard!!!

an unusual sighting... an elephant on all fours crawling out of a mud bath!

baboon with baby

flying into one of the camps, this is the view from the air. Can you spot the elephants??

a view of what the water looks like from above

elephants having a tissy fit

A big yawn! this is about 20 minutes after sunset, not a very nice shot but still kind of neat

blue wildebeest with baby! very cute watching it prance around

Lunch

Barred owl outside my tent

cape buffalo