Every now and then Mother Nature unexpectedly allows you a  private viewing.

“Vital lives are about action. You can’t feel warmth unless you create it, can’t feel delight until you play, can’t know serendipity unless you risk.”
~ Joan Erickson

We were travelling up river to Puku Flats and on the way we decided to stop at Elephant Valley upstream on the Chobe river from the Chobe Game Lodge. There are times, especially in the morning, when you get there and all is quiet. Other than a Fish Eagle perched in a large Jackalberry tree ever alert surveying the scene, all is still. There is not even a Red-billed Francolin or White Crowned Lapwing down at the water’s edge or a baboon lurking on the white sand banks.

Then there are other times which are unusual and special.

This time from a distance, we saw something special. It was no big dramatic event unfolding but we were privileged to see a small herd of young Sable which had come down to the river to drink. The whole experience took about five minutes  and will be remembered for a life time. We were the only ones that saw it  – a rare private viewing.

“in African mythology, the Sable symbolises vivacity, velocity, beauty and visual sharpness”.

“Veronica, I know these antelope have a special meaning for you so I hope you enjoy this post”.

I have made a special effort to get into the bush as often as I can but have rarely seen Sable. This is because they are mainly found in the northern part of South Africa and Botswana, in Zimbabwe and Zambia and in a very special part of Angola. I have on rare occasions seen a lone Sable bull drinking down at the Chobe river but usually from a distance. This time we saw a small herd of young Sable, reasonably close. These youngsters did not go straight down to the river’s edge to drink but rather to a small pool a couple of metres away from the water’s edge – the reason crocodiles.

I saw my first Sable in Rhodesia in the 1960s and it made such an impression on my young mind. I was struck by its majesty, an impression which has stayed with me all these years. Long before we had cameras, our favourite sketchings were of Sable and Paradise Wydahs.

“Sometimes serendipity is just intention unmasked.”
― Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures

Back in the 60s, one afternoon shamwari Mike Condy’s dad John Condy told us a story, with a cup of tea in hand on their front lawn under their huge Jacaranda trees in front of their family home, about a Sable bull which he found dead with a Lioness, also dead, impaled on its horns. The bulls are big powerful animals, capable of deadly defence with those scimitar-shaped horns.

The young Sable are a dark brown and adult Sable turn jet black after about three years. The adult bull with fully curved horns and a strong jet black appearance is an impressive sight.

The young Sable were very weary when drinking from the river.

They slaked their thirst with long deep draws of water.

Having sated their thirst, it was time to walk back out of Elephant Valley, but there are trees and bushes either side of the valley which make it a great ambush corridor. These two youngsters were having a good look around before walking back out of the valley.

The curvature of the Sable’s horns give an indication of its maturity.

Very young Sable are greyish-brown with minimal distinguishing markings. As they mature their coat becomes a rich reddish-brown, with the belly, haunches and facial markings in greater contrast. At this time the face is largely white, with a wide black stripe running from the forehead to the muzzle, and black stripes from the eye to the muzzle. Once adult, the female’s colour changes gradually with age and status. The facial markings form a mask that contrasts with the neck, shoulders and mane as they become darker. Eventually only the rump is red. The darker colour heightens the line of the face and the front quarters, emphasising the sweep of the long horns. The colour change in the adult male is more dramatic. All parts that were previously red become black, and so contrast even more with the facial mask and light underparts. They mature gracefully!

The Roan Antelope is the closest looking antelope to the Sable. I have never seen a Roan along the Chobe river.

“The ‘control of nature’ is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man”.

 –Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

The Sable found in southern Africa are said to pale in comparison to the majestic giant Sable, found only in Angola. It is the national symbol of Angola but is threatened with extinction because of poaching. There are estimated to be around 200 of these special antelope remaining in Angola. The coal-black males, which carry scimitar-shaped horns over five feet in length, are featured on the country’s currency and the tail-fins of its airline.

Double click on the image below for more details.

The Giant Sable is described as critically endangered on the Red List of Threatened Species – another one!!!
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/10169/0

“Workable solutions for Earth are urgently needed. Saving seals and tigers, or fighting yet another oil pipeline through a wilderness area, while laudable, is merely shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

– Lawrence Anthony

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and then let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

We spent a wonderful five days on the Chobe river with CNP in mid-August.  The river’s water level had subsided from its peak in June. This gave the larger mammals an opportunity to cross onto the partially flooded islands to graze.

“But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the Elephants except those that we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only Elephants, but all living creatures their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves.”
― Lawrence Anthony, The Elephant Whisperer

One large mammal that loves the water is the Chobe Elephant. Generally, you will find them down along the river’s edge drinking in the afternoon. But drinking time is also fun time……..yes!!!

The Elephants are quite happy to immerse themselves in the water. You can just imagine what it must be like after a long trek (sometimes over thirty kilometres) to get to the water in winter. It is hot and dusty and that water is sparkling and inviting.

Elephants are one of the only mammals which dare to combine their thirst quenching with a swimming session in the Chobe river. Usually the crocodiles will not attack them, especially if there are a few playing in the water at the same time.

After a refreshing swim, the older Elephants sedately walk away from the water. Not the youngsters, invigorated they start to mock fight. Nothing serious just pushing each other around.

The next image gives you an idea of the vastness, peace and tranquility along the Chobe river. A small group of Elephants were cooling off in the late afternoon.

Having cooled off, it was time to play. The buoyancy in the water helps these pachyderms.

They were just playing!

“The road is long
With many a winding turns
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows where

But I’m strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother……”

There is always one in the group that seems to like stepping up on the others’ back.

And when your mates are a bit too heavy, a snorkel comes in useful.

This bull had just crossed the river to get to the main Chobe island where the ‘grass was greener’.

Elephant Valley – a place where many happy hours are spent by Elephants and photographers alike.

The white sand in the bank in the background must have specific minerals which Elephants, antelope and baboons alike seek. The Elephants eat the white sand for its minerals and also rub themselves against the bank. Big and small seek the minerals in the white sand bank.

This youngster had just been snoozing on the sand path leading down to the water while waiting for the herd at the water’s edge to move off.

Having had a drink of water using his mouth and as he had not got the ‘trunk thing’ going yet, it was time to go and copy the adults. He was bum rubbing too.

The young Elephant were very gentle and playful down at Elephant Valley, but there was not much time to linger because other family groups were waiting.

Each family herd would wait patiently for the one at the water’s edge to finish before coming down to drink. Human beings could learn a thing or two about patience from their ‘big eared’ friends.

When it is their time to drink, the matriarch confidently leads the family down to the water’s edge.

Down near Puku Flats, close to where we saw the ‘Lilac display’, a mother and her calf were feasting on the water lily stems. The youngster had so much mud on his face he could hardly see. The youngsters are quite hairy.

The wonderful thing about the afternoon ‘game drives’ on the river is that they often end slowly.  This gives us photographers time to shoot images in the changing quality and colour of the evening light.

The trick was always to find a point where you could get reasonable perspective on the Elephant so as to get as complete silhouette as possible.

As the sun progressively sets, the colours in the sky become more saturated making the image more dramatic.

“Of all African animals, the Elephant is the most difficult for man to live with, yet its passing – if this must come – seems the most tragic of all. I can watch Elephants (and Elephants alone) for hours at a time, for sooner or later the Elephant will do something very strange such as mow grass with its toenails or draw the tusks from the rotted carcass of another Elephant and carry them off into the bush. There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, and ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea.”
― Peter Matthiessen, The Tree Where Man Was Born

Having had the privilege of watching and photographing these giants along the Chobe river, amongst other places, it is becoming clear that this privilege is in the process of being destroyed for everyone. Double click on the BBC News image for the latest news about the “tipping point for Elephants’.

Social media can help create the awareness about what some human beings are doing to our children’s natural heritage. It is only through growing awareness and outrage can this be stopped or at least pushed back into balance. The current rate of Elephant poaching in Africa is pushing them past their tipping point.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be,

Have fun

Mike

Unusual title for a post – yes. It was an unusual sighting of three Lilac -breasted Rollers on and around a dead tree trunk  in the Chobe river down at Puku Flats.

“To the scientist Nature is a storehouse of facts, laws, processes; to the artist she is a storehouse of pictures; to the poet she is a storehouse of images, fancies, a source of inspiration; to the moralist she is a storehouse of precepts and parables; to all she may be a source of knowledge and joy”.
–John Burroughs

It was mid-morning and we had been watching some buffalo wallowing in the mud and a pair of Yellow-billed Storks fighting over a small section of the inlet in the river. We decided to start back to the Lodge for breakfast when we saw three Lilac-breasted Rollers flying around a dead tree in a bay at Puku Flats. There were three Lilac-breasted Rollers flying around the dead tree with one or two of them landing and perching for a short while, displaying with wings spread and calling with the urgency of upset lovers.

In between the ‘dead tree’ theatrics, we watched spectacular rolling displays, which is where they get their name.

One Roller, probably a male, flew to the dead tree with a small offering of ‘Cuisses de Grenouille’ to his mate.

“. . the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race”.
  – Rachel Carson

A little tenderising required.

And then he made his offering with the panache of an exotic dancer.

The would be suitor had no such offering but winged it with a hearty song.

The male in the middle was flanked by an already involved pair.

He gave it his best shot but it was not to be.

And off he flew into the big bright blue.

It was very unusual to see this type of display. It was noisy, flamboyant and dramatic. It felt like we were watching an intense love story being enacted on the ‘dead tree’ stage. It was thrilling to watch nature at her dramatic, colourful best.

“As long as men inquire, they will find opportunities to know more upon these topics than those who have gone before them, so inexhaustibly rich is nature in the innermost diversity of her treasures of beauty, order and intelligence”.
–Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

There are an estimated 29,000 Rhino left in the wild, globally. Africa has 25,000, with around 20,000 in South Africa and 90% of the poaching in South Africa is in the Kruger Park. Of the 20,000 Rhinos in South Africa around 18,000 are White Rhino and the balance are Black Rhino.

The table below shows that 1004 Rhinos were killed by poachers in 2013. The birth rate of white Rhinos is estimated at around 6.8% (compound annual rate over a five year period  not an individual year’s growth rate which is more volatile) and around 5.6% for Black Rhinos. This means that an estimated 1250 to 1300 Rhinos are born in South Africa each year. A few percent need to be deducted for natural mortality. This year poachers are on track to slaughter over 1200 Rhinos in 2014 – dangerously close to the tipping point. Beyond this point the massive conservation gains achieved in rebuilding the Rhino population in South Africa and the dedicated hard work to achieve this gain by so many concerned and involved people will start to be undone.

Double click on the tables to see the underlying statistics from the ‘Stop Rhino Poaching’ website.

This interview on Classic FM on Thursday 17 July 2014 with Nigel Morgan on Rhino poaching was also enlightening and alarming.

I am using social media to create more outrage at this slaughter.

No one seems to think that having so many armed poaching gangs roaming around Kruger Park, one of SA’s premier tourist destinations, is a problem or a danger to our foreign and local tourists – hmmmmmm!!??!!