Not too much noise last night. I would have read longer, but there were hundreds of little gnats that were attracted to my book light. They were so small that they could get through the tiny holes in the mosquito netting - very annoying. I heard a hyena in the distance and some hippos closer by, but that was it. After breakfast, we hopped on the bush trucks and our first stop was to a tree with small round fruit. Neddy called it a wooly caper bush. The fruit is poisonous and the bushmen used to put the juice from it on their arrows and spears to kill animals during the hunts. Last night we saw the sausage tree, but we stopped again as Dave and Kitty did not go on the afternoon drive. During the light of day, we could see some large red flowers on it. When the flower falls off, the fruit appears. Neddy also talked about the scrambled egg tree - the roots are boiled by the local people and that solution is said to cure malaria and help with stomach problems. It is also said to help with aborting an unwanted child. We also stopped to see a large malura tree. The fruit of this tree is used to make a liqueur. It is a favorite of the elephants. We stopped to watch some birds - the Scalow turaco, green with red on its wings and the green-backed bulbul. We spotted a Defasa waterbuck - he is only found in and around Kafue National Park. We then stopped to see an elephant under the palm trees. He was shaking the tree and then eating the palm fruits that dropped to the ground. Another elephant came along and helped himself to the fruit and at first, I thought there was going to be trouble, but the first one just allowed the second one to enjoy himself. I truly think the second elephant was the same bully that charged at us last night - he was still a bit grumpy.
Driving along, we saw what looked like a nest on the trunk of a palm tree. As we got closer, we could see that it was an epiphyte - the leopard orchid, yellow flower with black spots. They have different types of termite mounds here as well as the ones we are used to except not as large. The ones we haven’t seen before look like large hillocks - some are covered with grasses and trees are growing out of it. These large mounds are inhabited by micro termites - rather ironic. The smaller conical ones shaped from grains of dirt and sand are inhabited by the snorted termites. We saw a good sized herd of impalas and Neddy informed us that the proper term is a rank or a leap of impala. We then saw a group of impalas and pukus together - they seemed to be sharing the same grassy area with no problems. The pukus whistle when they are disturbed by something and when they sense danger, they voice a series of whistles to warn the rest of the animals to flee. We then saw the white-fronted bee eaters. They were having a jolly old time flitting here and there. They were very colorful and fun to watch. They next in holes in the ground. We passed some water berry trees. Neddy said the berries are sweet and enjoyed by the local people.
We stopped to take photos of a Marshall’s eagle. He was perched at the top of a tree and seemed to be posing for us. He was a magnificent bird. Quite large with very sturdy legs. He has a very strong beak and can take down a small impala or a baby warthog. We stopped to take photos of a candelabra tree. It looks like a very tall cactus, but it is a tree. We heard the song of a bird we had not heard before. Neddy said it was a honey guide, but we were not able to spot it. Neddy kept stopping to look at tracks in the road. He saw leopard, lion and hyena tracks. We went off-road to attempt to find any of them, but were not successful. The tsetse flies were beginning to be pesky. I had put Deet on earlier so I put my fly net on. Neddy hopped out and lit the elephant dung located in the can hanging on the back of the truck. Juanita got bit on the face when one of them got under her head net and John got a bite on his leg when one flew up his pants leg. There is a lot of tall grass, bushes, brush, trees and large termite mounds in the area - plenty of hiding places. Also the color of the grasses match large cat colors so they could have been close by and we would not have noticed them unless they moved. We stopped by the water and took pictures of a yellow-billed stork (white body) and an open-billed stork (black body). Just down from there we spotted a pair of Egyptian geese with a number of small goslings swimming in a row - adult, babies, adult. It was cute. We saw another lilac breasted roller, but it was back-lit so the colors weren't as vibrant. We saw an African darter drying his wings while standing on a rock in the water. He must be related to our cormorant. Neddy said they also have cormorants here. We saw a Goliath heron and another darter. We drove past a field of brown granite rocks. From a distance they looked like petrified elephants - very rounded. We stopped for tea and a loo with a view (there were large granite boulders to hide behind here). I tried to take a photo of the many dragonflies buzzing around. I also took a photo of hippo tracks in the mud. When we were leaving our break area, we stopped to look at the white bird guano on the boulders. Neddy pointed out the brown mud below that. It is from the male hippo. He waves his tail like a propeller while he poops, flinging it every which way. Female hippos have a firmer stool - rather like an elephant’s, but smaller. Hippos can travel up to 10 km a night to graze. They use the scent from these dung markings to find their way back to the river. They tend to follow the same paths so eventually a path is worn through the grass - hippo highways. These highways turn to gullies during the rainy season. We spotted a warthog in the brush. I took a video of him scraping against small trees - trying to rid himself of the parasites most probably. We stopped so that Neddy could use his binoculars to scan the brush. When asked what he was looking at, he replied and ALT (animal-like thing). We all had a good laugh. Just as we were returning to camp, we spotted some warthogs. Neddy said they are comfortable coming into camp. The mom is named Lulu. There is a male, Prince, from last year’s litter. She had 4 in the litter, but 3 were killed by a leopard. There is one survivor from this year’s litter, a cute little female named Stella. She was very funny - when they came out onto the road, she ran very fast to get back into the brush. We had brunch when we got back: eggs to order, veggie pasta, salad, homemade bread, bacon. I hope I don’t weigh 300 pounds when we get back. We are eating well, but don’t get a lot of exercise except for the rocking back and forth in the truck. Vimbai said we could power walk from tent 1 to 9. She also said not to run lest a leopard think we were prey. We are now having siesta time. At 3:00 we will have a ranger come to talk to us about the poaching problem - then one of the guides will talk about Zambia during high tea. After tea, we will have our afternoon/evening game drive and then come back to camp for dinner.
A man named, Michael, from the Department of Parks and Wildlife came to speak to our group. His department used to be privately managed, but was prone to bribe and corruption. It is now run by the government. There are over 220 square km. in Kafue National Park North where we are. He and his compatriots are in charge of protecting this large tract. His job is to arrest poachers, anyone without a valid license to be in the park, or anyone starting a fire. There are fires here, but they are controlled burns done by the park rangers to keep down the brush in certain areas. Twenty days per month, they have a group of rangers who go into the bush to search for poachers. They use GPS to mark areas where it looks like some suspicious activity has been taking place. Generally the poachers are looking to kill lions and leopards for their skins or elephants for their tusks. If they catch a poacher, the first offense is 5-7 years of jail time. Sometimes they catch subsistence poachers. These are locals who come into the park for impalas to feed their families. Their penalty is to pay a fine or do 6 months in jail. There are also people who set snares. They are the most difficult to find, but cause a lot of damage as they do not target certain animals, but catch whatever happens to spring the snare. They also catch people who are fishing illegally - those who use nets or who suffocate the fish using lactose acid from certain trees. The department uses informants in local villages. This method is quite effective, but the informants have to be careful to not let anyone know they are doing this service as it could be very dangerous for them to be “found out”. Michael said he catches about 1 to 5 poachers per month, but more of them are subsistence rather than commercial poachers. The Chinese seem to be the biggest buyers of illegal ivory.
On our game drive, we saw some more white backed vultures. We stopped to look at a knob horned acacia tree. The knobs and thorns prevent animals from browsing on the tree bark and branches. Everywhere you look, you can see scrambled egg trees in bloom. There yellow blossoms really stand out as most of the trees do not have there leaves yet. Here it is very early Spring. We saw a Western banded snake eagle, but he flew away before I could a close up - I did get a far away picture. We saw another sausage tree and spotted a wattled lap wing sitting on a branch. We saw some more impalas and pukus and lots of guinea fowl with their speckled backs and blue heads. We passed an area where there were lots of holes in the raised ground. These are the nest of the white-breasted bee eater. It looked like a bird condo. I think I got a picture of one in his hole. We stopped by the water and saw 3 hippos. By this time it was getting quite dark and we could hear two lions roaring to each other. When we drive in the dark, the guide uses a spotlight to see if he can see eyes in the bush. We saw a common dyka and then just the eyes of two genets and a civet. We also saw another white-tailed mongoose moving away from us. As we were driving back to camp we saw a scrub hare and her baby on the road. At first, we though the baby was dead as it was not moving, but the poor little thing was just scared and afraid to move. Eventually, it did move and we were able to continue on our way back to camp where dinner was waiting for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment