RAPTORS: A NEED FOR CONSERVATION

The population of large raptors like the Martial Eagle, the Bateleur, the Whitebacked Vulture and the Lappetfaced Vulture are declining rapidly. This is primarily due to habitat loss, as more areas adopt agro-pastoral farming and housing developments. Civil wars and armed conflict in Africa, lead to birds being chased from their breeding territory, and being trapped to be eaten by humans. In some parts of Africa, it is believed that there are medicinal benefits in consuming these birds, and the body parts are used in cultural practices. Nests are also raided for the eggs. The nesting sites are also subjected to disturbance by human activity by recreational use of wilderness areas, like the use of off-road vehicles and mountain biking.

Immature Bateleur

The Bateleur ( Terathopius ecaudatus ) is easily disturbed while nesting, and therefore, these nests should never be approached, as the adult birds are not likely to return. The Bateleur seldom flaps its wings when in flight, and glides with a side-to-side rocking motion as if balancing on a tightrope, hence the French name, "bateleur", meaning "acrobat". The Bateleur takes seven years to reach sexual maturity, and to have tawny wings, and the red markings on the face and red legs. Currently, the Bateleur is listed on the IUCN Red Data list as "near threatened".                                                                                                    

A sexually mature adult Bateleur

The Martial Eagle ( Polemaetus bellicosus ), is only found in the more southern regions of Africa. Like the Bateleur, it is also listed on the IUCN Red Data list as "near threatened", but could be re-classified as "vulnerable". This is the largest eagle found in Africa, and grows up to 83 centimetres in length, and has a wingspan of nearly three metres.

Martial Eagle

The White-backed Vulture ( Gyps africanus ) is listed as "endangered", as the global population is estimated at 270 000 individuals. Vultures are often poisoned when farmers put out poisoned carcasses, in an effort to destroy predators like jackal and caracal. The vultures feed on the carrion, and subsequently die from the poison. There is also the deliberate poisoning of vultures by poachers, due to the belief that circling and arriving vultures will disclose the location of poached animals.

A Tawny Eagle with two White-backed Vultures

Lappet-faced Vulture

The Lappet-faced Vulture ( Targos traceliotus ) is rare, and is considered to be endangered as the global population is estimated at only 5 700 mature individuals. Like the other raptors, their breeding grounds have been degraded by human civilisation, and they are subjected to poisonings and trade in body parts. The Lappet-faced Vulture takes six years to reach maturity, and only one egg is laid each breeding season. Most raptors are slow to reproduce, and together with factors liking drowning in sheer-walled water tanks, and electrocution on pylons, their numbers are in decline.
                                                                                   


Active conservation measures are needed if the raptors are to survive. For more information: www.birdlife.org

LITTLE BIRDS

Water, any source of water, like a dripping tap at a campsite, and the little birds will gather to drink. In Nossob, our camp tap was visited by Cape Sparrows, House Sparrows, Familiar Chats, Pririt Batises, Scalyfeathered Finches, and my favourite: Violet-Eared Waxbills. They were quite used to human activity, and one could pull up a camping chair in the late afternoon, sit about four metres away, and enjoy an avian display.  Whenever Dave heard a "toy toy" sound near our campsite, out would come Dave's Sigma 150-500 mm f5-63 lens, and he would stalk the vividly coloured Crimson-breasted Shrike ( Laniarius atrococcineus ). This bird is also known as the Crimson-breasted Gonalek, or Crimson-breasted Boubou. The shrike would hop around, and play a "hide and seek" game with him, much to my amusement. Dave had many attempts at photographing the elusive bird, but one afternoon at Mata Mata, the shrike caught a small grub, and Dave was quick enough to capture the action.

Crimson-breasted Shrike 

Photo: David Mullin

 Of the 264 species which have been recorded in the Park, only 78 are resident, 16 are seasonal migrants, 18 are nomads, and 152 species are irregulat visitors, and are therefore classed as vagrants. The Crimson Breasted Shrike is a resident.

 Swallowtailed Bee-eater

Photo: Noel Hammond

 The Swallowtailed Bee-eater ( Merops hirundineus ), catches its prey in mid-air, unlike the Crimson- breasted Shrike which forages on the ground. It feeds on bees, flies, wasps and other winged insects. The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater breeds in pairs or in small colonies. The long, tunneled nests are made in sandy banks. They may be seen on a cold morning, huddled in a row. Noel used a Sigma 300-800 F5.6 lens to capture the above image.

The adult has caught a bee, which it will feed to the chick on the right.

Photo: David Mullin

BIG BIRDS

The ungulates like the wildebeest and the springbok seek shade in the heat of the day, but there is still activity in the riverbeds, as birds strut around. We often see the Ostrich ( Struthio camelus ) walking around. Unlike with the hyena, I can tell the difference between the sexes. The male ostrich has black plumage, while the female has rather drab, brown plumage. Ostriches are able to keep cool in the heat by fluffing out their feathers and spreading their wings. The male bird can weigh up to 150 kilograms, and their diet will often consist of tsammas and gemsbok cucumbers, and even insects and small reptiles. They are able to obtain moisture from their food, and therefore, do not need to drink often.

Ostriches do not mind the heat

Ostriches are able to breed throughout the year, but they usually lay eggs just before the rainy season. Several females lay up to thirteen eggs each in a hollow scrape in the ground. Only the dominant hen and her mate incubate the eggs in the collective nest. Only about twenty eggs are incubated, and surplus eggs are pushed aside, where they decay. The hen is able to recognise her own eggs, and these are retained. The male bird takes over incubation  during the night, and sits on the eggs.

 If danger threatens, an ostrich will feign a broken wing, in order to distract the predator, while the chicks are escorted to safety. An ostrich pair with a brood of chicks, may abduct chicks from another pair. Raising chicks does not take much effort as the chicks are able to feed themselves. One often sees chicks of different ages with one pair of adults, when chicks have been abducted. As ostriches are able to run up to sixty kilometres an hour for long distances, they are seldom preyed upon. The cheetah, which can run faster, is possibly their main enemy.

The ostrich is able to filter out salt from the water through glands near its beak.

Another big bird that is found striding in the riverbeds is the Secretary bird ( Sagittarius serpentarius ). A fully grown Secretary bird is often over a metre tall. Secretary birds often gather at midday at the water-holes which have sweet drinking water. It is one of the few birds that is able to carry water and food in its crop, back to the chicks on the nest. The Secretary birds pace up and down the riverbeds in search of insects, reptiles, rodents and eggs and chicks of smaller birds.The Secretary bird will also prey on snakes. The bird will dance around and dodge a snake until it is able to kill the snake by striking it repeatedly with its  claws and beak. They are usually in pairs, but large numbers, up to fifty birds, have been recorded at Rooiputs, Leeudril and Kij Kij.

The Secretary Bird

The ostrich is the biggest bird found on earth, and the Kori Bustard ( Ardeotis kori ) is the heaviest flying bird. The Kori Bustard can weigh up to nineteen kilograms. Kori Bustards do not often fly, and are more likely to be seen walking in the riverbeds. They are omnivores, and eat seeds, insects, and small rodents and reptiles. They are very fond of the gum produced by Acacia trees. Their alarm call is a barking sound. As the Kori Bustard is slow to take-off and fly, they are often the prey of caracals, jackals and leopards.

The Kori Bustard is listed as "vulnerable" on the Red Data list of birds.

"TSAMMA SEASON"

There is a saying in Africa, that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. I am like the Englishmen today, as I also wish to venture out in the midday sun. The sun bakes down, burning my fair skin, sweat runs down my body in rivulets, and the sand scorches the soles of my feet through my shoes. "It is bloody hot," says Noel, "are you sure you want to do this ?" I think this a stupid question, and I make him stop the car. "I don't think I want to do this," grumbles Noel, but he engages first gear, and drives up a steep incline. Perched on the ridge of the high riverbank stands a small, solitary building. It overlooks the Auob riverbed.

The Auchterlonie Museum overlooking the Auob River

"What is so important about this building ?" asks Noel wiping the sweat from his face.

                                                                                                                                          "I read the book," I reply.

                         Noel rolls his eyes, because he knows that I spend a lot of time reading, and I have a curiosity that is never satiated. I know he is thinking that my mind has become heat-addled, but yes, I have read a book that was inspired by this lone building. The book is called "Tsamma Season" and it is written by Rosemund J. Handler.

In an appendix to the novel, the author writes: " Tsamma Season is a work of fiction and the characters are imaginary. Like many works of fiction, the story is inspired by actual events. A family lived and farmed above the Auob, as did the Johannsens, but well after 1914, when the government of the Union of South Africa drilled a series of boreholes along the Auob River to provide their troops with water in the event of a South African invasion of what was then German West Africa. I first visited the site of the ruins in the late 1990s. I gazed about me at the immense desolation and the heat-glazed riverbed, and felt the magic that captured the imagination of Alf Johannsen. Some years later, these ruins became the little Auchterlonie Museum, built by the people of Upington to depict the life of the family who farmed there.The stark unassailable beauty of the Kalahari Desert continued to captivate and intrigue me. On each succeeding visit to what is now the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, the story grew ..."

I experience first-hand the "washed-out sky" and "heat-glazed" riverbed, as described by Handler. I also experience the intense heat, as I stand looking at the re-built farmstead. Thankfully, it is summer, and I do not experience the biting cold of a Kalahari winter. The Kalahari winter would be the "Tsamma season", as this is when the Tsamma melon ( Citrullus lanatus ) matures in the cold, dry winter, when there is no rainfall. The Tsammas become an important source of nourishment and moisture for birds, rodents, ungulates and even carnivores. ( See the blog post entitled "The Pride of Nossob" for information about the symbiotic relationship between the Tsamma and the Brown Hyena. ) The human settlers would also have had to rely on the Tsamma as a food source. It is difficult to farm with livestock, and grow vegetables in the desert. The settlers would shoot game for biltong ( preserved, dried strips of meat ) and would tan and dry the hides. The hides were exchanged for goods like tea, coffee, sugar and ammunition. The closest town is Upington, a journey of two weeks by ox-wagon.  

The museum was constructed using the ruins of an old farmhouse. The walls were built using the calcrete stones that are found on the banks of the river. Rafters and beams would be fashioned from the wood of the Camelthorn tree. Riempies ( thin strips of dried animal gut ) were used to secure and lash beams together. The roof is thatched using dried grass and reeds. The flooring is a mixture of sand and animal dung. There are only two rooms in this cottage: one room is a bedroom, with a big double bed, and the other room is a living and cooking area, with a fireplace. There is also an outside cooking area, a big round pit, where a fire would be made. There would also be a hollow in the ground like an animal burrow. A few\hot coals would be placed in the hollow, together with a pan of bread dough, which would then bake. There is a tanning pit for the animal hides, the precious bore-hole, and a few low stone walls forming kraals ( enclosures ) for the livestock. 

I start to feel like I am baking in the hot sun. I just cannot imagine the suffering and the hardships of the people who once lived there. It is so remote, so isolated from others, the climate varies from extreme heat to extreme cold. They must have been very tenacious, more tenacious than me, as I seek to get out of the hot sun.  We return to our car, and begin the thirty-five kilometre drive to Twee Rivieren.

HANDLER, R.J. Tsamma Season. 2009. Penguin Books: South Africa.

www. penguinbooks.co.za

A HOT MIDDAY AND A COOL BATH

 It's midday. The heat is uncomfortable. The temperature peaks at 38C. Our campsite at Mata Mata has been packed up, the tent folded up and placed on the car roof rack. Stretchers, chairs and tables have been folded up and stored on top of the roof rack, too. Now, we are in the car, travelling down the Auob to Twee Rivieren. We do not hope to see much, as the animals gather under the shade of the few trees in the riverbed. The soft, early morning light has been replaced by a harsh glare. To do photography in this light is not ideal, as the photos tend to look over-exposed.

The water-hole.

We slow down at the water-holes and scan for any animals. The hot sand shimmers in the heat, but we do not see anything coming to drink. Then, Noel stops suddenly, "look," he says, "there's something in the water !" I look, and then I see the head. Submerged in the depths of the water trough, with just its head protruding, is a Spotted Hyena, taking a bath.

After a good wallow, the hyena starts to climb out.

Feeling refreshed, the hyena ambles off.

 The Spotted Hyena stands nearly a metre high at the shoulder, and can weigh up to eighty kilograms.  The genitals of the male and female hyena look similar, and therefore it is difficult to tell the sex of a hyena. "That does not matter, all that matters is that they know the difference," says Noel with a chuckle. What I like about the Spotted Hyena, is that they live in clans, with a matriarch in charge. All the female members are dominant to the males. Communication with the clan members is done by  whoops, cackles, growls and grunts, with these eerie vocal noises being heard in the night. The Brown Hyena leads a more solitary and silent existence, and does not hunt big prey like the Spotted Hyena. Both the Brown Hyena and the Spotted are territorial, and use scent marking to establish their territories.
  

A Brown Hyena scent marking.

It is often thought that the Spotted Hyena is a cowardly scavenger, but they are also tenacious hunters. In the Kalahari, the Spotted Hyena will often prey on Gemsbok ( Oryx ) calves, by running into the herd and separating a young one from the adults. They are also fearless, and will chase lions away from a kill. They are able to eat one-third of their weight in one sitting. Generally, the only time one will see hyenas during the middle of the day, is when they are bathing.

For more information about hyenas: www.hyaenidae.org

FAREWELL, PIET HEYMANS

Piet Heymans loved the Kalahari. He was a business-owner from Bloemfontein, but he would travel up to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at least twice a year. He got to know the secrets of the Kalahari, and he could read animal behaviour. Piet, or Oom Piet ( Uncle Piet ), as he liked to be called, could tell from the number of moths around the campfire, if rain was to be expected in the next few days. The skies would be cloudless, and Oom Piet would watch the agamas. If the agamas were sitting high up and looking North, a shower of rain could be expected.

Oom Piet had visited the Kalahari during all the seasons. He saw the changing weather patterns and the different climates which accompanied each season. He knew the harsh, dry winters and the scorching, merciless summers. He would drive a Toyota Landcruiser from Bloemfontein, which had been converted for camping purposes, to the Kalahari. This vehicle was nicknamed "Skilpad", which means "tortoise". Oom Piet and Skilpad would be a familiar sight as he drove along the Park roads. He would often stop and chat to the tourists and discuss sightings.

Oom Piet favoured the region north of Nossob. He often sat at the water-holes of Cubitje-Quap; Kwang; Bedinkt; Langklaas and Kousant. In later years, the Botswana authorities established a campsite at Polentswa. This became Oom Piet's favourite campsite, as here he found tranquility and the freedom of an unfenced camp. Oom Piet would spend hours watching the animals coming to drink at the Polentswa water-hole. It was here, that he felt close to nature and his beloved Kalahari. By then, Skilpad had been replaced by a smart off-road caravan, and I wonder how many times Oom Piet took shelter in that caravan when lions and marauding hyenas came to visit  him at Polentswa.

It was a privilege to be invited to camp with Oom Piet. Noel Hammond; Anton and Elanie de Villiers; Jan and Elsie Hamman and Gavin Stapleton were some of the privileged fellow-campers. This was a group of friends and photographers that shared camaraderie around Oom Piet's campfire. Sadly, Jan passed away in 2004, and Gavin in 2008. Yesterday, the 16th of January 2013, Oom Piet slipped away in his sleep, after a long battle with cancer.

Oom Piet, you will always be remembered, as the Kalahari will never forget you. You have left behind a legacy of solar-powered water pumps at the water-holes. The water produced by these solar-powered pumps sustain the wildlife, and brings enjoyment to the animals which like to bathe. You worked tirelessly to establish "The Friends of the Kalahari", and to raise funds to replace the worn-out and malfunctioning windmills, giving your time and  generous sponsorship to this project. Oom Piet, your legacy lives on ...

 Sunset at Mata Mata

Please see the blog posting, "Where are the barking geckos ?" for photos, and information about Piet Heyman's book, "Ousus".

A TAWNY EAGLE AND A TRAFFIC JAM

The air seems cooler this morning. I stand outside the tent and greet the dawn. I look at the sky, but all the dark clouds have vanished. The wind has died down. I was disappointed it had not rained during the night, but I was not disappointed for long. We drive thirty kilometres down the Auob river, and then we suddenly see small puddles of water. "Rain," I shout excitedly, " it rained here during the night !"  Noel brings the Land Rover to a halt, and lifts up his camera, with the 300 - 800 F5.6 Sigma lens attached, and grins as he snaps away. He photographs a Tawny Eagle in a rain puddle in the road.

A Tawny Eagle bathes in a rain puddle

For about twenty minutes, the Tawny Eagle bathes, splashes around and drinks the water. A line of cars back up behind us. The eagle derives much pleasure from the puddle, and Noel derives much pleasure from his photography. The cars cannot pass, and become impatient. There is an exchange of words between Noel and the driver behind us. I get embarrassed, and sink lower in my seat. This altercation causes the eagle to look up. The eagle ruffles its feathers, and they are not the only the only feathers being ruffled at the moment. Suddenly, the eagle takes off. The car behind us pulls alongside, the driver is looking angry and glares at us. Noel politely smiles and thanks the driver for his patience, as they pull off.

The Tawny Eagle takes to the air.

Tawny Eagles are common in the Kalahari. They range in colour from light blonde to dark chocolate brown. The younger birds are usually light in colour and darken as they get older. The eagles feed on on small mammals, like squirrels and mongooses, reptiles, other birds and insects. They will also feed on carrion, and as a result of this, they are often killed when poisoned carcasses are placed in the open. They build large stick nests, and they favour the stout trees which grow in the riverbeds. 

After photographing the Tawny Eagle, we head back to Mata Mata. We have to break up camp and then travel down to Twee Rivieren.