“Pen and camera are weapons against oblivion. They can raise awareness for that which may soon be lost forever” – George Schaller

Conservation photography is instrumental in replacing environmental indifference with a culture of stewardship and passion for our wildlife and wild places and has never been more important that it is today – Thomas P. Paschak. I read this sentence with keen interest as I think about all the horrific images I have seen over the last year. One such image is of the blood path that happens every year in the Faroe Islands, Denmark. A blood bath caused by a ceremony that in my mind does not prove that a boy has “become a man” but rather shows the ability of a boy to switch off his humanity. Images of rhinos stumbling around with blood spattered faces and horrific disfigurement. Disfigurement caused due to a lack of education and intense cultural beliefs with no regard to nature or its existence. However, I also think to the images that show some of the triumphs of conservation. The joy and accomplishment on the faces of people as they release an animal into the wild or the relief of seeing an animal removed from a life of cruel captivity. Breeding programs welcoming another tiny member into the world, aiding the desire to replenish the world with species that man has eradicated in its senseless and selfish drive to have everything and anything that it desires. This desire seems to come at a cost of mind blowing proportions. However, in order to understand the perilous consequences that these desires come at, many people need to see…not just hear or be told about the events that are occurring and the situations unfolding on nature today. This is where photos and images that pull at the lingering conscious that many people still possess, are so important in preserving what we have left. If we can spread the understanding that our beautiful world around us is in great peril to more people, the earth and what we are trying to protect…might just have a small hope. A hope that is felt each time an animal is rescued from a meaningless and callous death, when an endangered animal gives birth to its young and when an animal, crippled by man’s makings, is released back to live wild and free.

Some of the dogs from the Modisa project which hopes to be able to return them to the wild so they no longer have to gaze at the outside world through a fence. Check out what they are doing. www.modisa.org

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.

Recently, we had the pleasure of meeting Lars and Ragnhild Jacobsson, Sebastian Sandberg and Claes Norin from Gothenburg, Sweden who came up to see the project we run here at Dibatana Research and Monitoring Camp.

From left: Lars, Sara, Sven, Claes, Ragnhild and Sebastian.

They own and run Volunteer Travels (www.volunteertravels.com), a non-profit organization that sends volunteers to both humanitarian and wildlife/domestic animal projects. Lars and Ragnhild, as well as Claes and Sebastian brought with them the most amazing cheer and encouragement for Sven and I and brightened our week like no visitors have before. They brought with them much comic relief in the form of Sebastian and Claes, much like the Thompson twins, making us laugh at every possible moment. We often meet people that we get along with, but it is not often that we meet people that we click with, that you share a passion with or who think the same way that you do. Those meetings are special.

Lars and Ragnhild’s passion for wildlife, nature and the environment was revitalizing and uplifting. They all had such a genuine interest for everything they saw here, from the predators and herbivores, to the trees and grubs. They have an interesting and inspiring story of retiring early, finding life boring and a bit meaningless and with that in mind going out there to change that. Now they spend their efforts and time finding out about the problems our environment faces and doing their part to fix it as well as educating others to want to fix it. Like Nelson Mandela said, “There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” They have realized as we have, that it is about changing the mindset of people from consumer to preserver and the only way to do that is to get people to understand what is happening, not just tell them about it. Check out their website www.theperfectworld.com and join if you too want to know and understand what is happening to our animals and our environment. Everyone together can make a difference.

The Perfect World.com - check it out!!

Wild Dog vs Zebra

Recently, we encountered Matthews pack, the pack of wild dogs often found in our area, on the hunt. They are a large pack with approximately 19-20 adults and about 4 pups from this years litter have survived from the original 12 that were born. A number of the dogs in the pack are collared by the nearby predator researchers who spend alot of time collecting data and watching the dogs. While following them, we watched as they came across a zebra stallion on his own.

Zebra are quite large prey for wild dogs, although they often go for kudu which are also large herbivores. However, the blow from a zebra could be lethal to a wild dog. We were uncertain whether they would pursue the stallion, however, he was clever and held his ground and did not run, which might have proved to be a bad decision.

A number of dogs tried their luck but they appeared to be more interested in teasing the poor guy than actually making a meal of him. Eventually they left him alone and continued on their hunt, chasing a few impala but not succeeding.

They rested for awhile and we sat with them, enjoying their social dynamics and especially the pups who were fooling around with each other, occassionally getting a hiding from one of the adults when pushed too far. When evening fell they all began the hunt again but we lost them when they moved into Moremi Game Reserve.

African Wild Dogs are classified as endangered, with an estimated population of 5,000 individuals left in the wild. These amazing canids have been classed as pests in many areas, particularly farming areas and have been shot, poisoned and snared as a means to get rid of them. More recently, a bigger threat to these predators is human population expansion. As humans expand their range so contact between Wild Dogs and domestic animals becomes more frequent, increasing the spread of introduced diseases, now the biggest threat to wild dogs populations. A number of researchers work towards stopping the decline of these social carnivores in southern africa and are coming up with new ways to protect and preserve the African Wild Dog. Check them out:

Rosemary Groom - African Wildlife Conservation Fund - Zimbabwe http://www.africanwildlifeconservationfund.org/ - see her blog about her work with the Wild Dogs. OR check out their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/pages/African-Wildlife-Conservation-Fund/311031642244260

Save the African Wild Dog - http://www.save-the-african-wild-dog.com/painted-dog-research-kenya.asp

The Wattled Crane certainly has much to wattle on about...

Classified as “critically endangered” by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), the Wattled Crane's single largest population occur's in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Destruction, alteration and degradation of wetland habitats are the most significant threat to these endangered cranes. Human and livestock disturbance, power line collisions, mass aerial spraying for tsetse flies and illegal collection of eggs, chicks and adults for food, are also significant threats to Wattled Cranes.

These cranes are the largest in the family of cranes found in Africa. The total population of Wattled Cranes now stands at approximately 7700 in Africa, found across 9 countries. These birds are highly dependent on wetlands as they feed, breed and roost in this environment. Wattled Cranes are also highly territorial and once a pair has chosen a breeding site they will remain there for the rest of the year.

Two projects that aim to protect the remaining Wattled Crane population in Africa:

EWT – African Crane Conservation Programme - http://www.ewt.org.za/WHATWEDO/OurProgrammes/AfricanCraneConservationProgramme.aspx

International Crane Foundation - http://www.savingcranes.org/wattled-crane.html

BirdLife Botswana - www.birdlifebotswana.org.bw

Here at Dibatana Research and Monitoring Camp we record each and every sighting of the Wattled Cranes. We record the location they were seen, how many there were, what habitat they were in and what they were doing. We send this information off to BirdLife Botswana who uses it to keep track of numbers of these critically endangered cranes in Botswana. They are most commonly found down by the floodplains, which is where we saw these cranes featured in the photos, but can also be found at some of the inland pans during the wet season.

If you want to make a difference and help one of Africa’s many declining species…get involved!

In the wild...the same rules do not apply!

Sometimes living out here in the bush you have to come to a quick realisation that the same rules just don't apply. In human terms, killing a baby is brutal and unfair. Here...the weak and the young are preyed on. Recently, due to the FINAL arrival of the rains we have had many babies of all species running around, enjoying new life. Impala fawns, wildebeest foals and lots of elephant calves have been gracing the dry plains with their presence, bringing smiles to our faces and a new look to the bush. Unfortunately, this also brings smiles to the faces of many predators which make easy prey of these new arrivals. It is difficult seeing these helpless youngsters fall prey to short life. However, we have to come to a realisation that the fittest survive out here and we cannot interfere. It is the way of the bush.

Recently, we watched as Chellak caught an Impala fawn and made a good meal out of it.

This morning, we found the carcass of an elephant calf that obviously lived for minutes. We could not figure out how it had died or if the mother had birthing complications and it died in the process. However, some predators took advantage of this. The surrounding bush looked like its angry or upset mother had done her best to protect her youngster. However, due to its injuries or inability to move it died.