Looking for lions

Lions are panthers, so are leopards, jaguars and tigers. None of them can purr but they can roar! They are sometimes called the roaring cats for this reason.

Panthera leo - lion
Panthera pardus - leopard
Panthera onca - jaguar
Panthera tigris - tiger

You could, if you were a “lion watcher” look for the these lions in Africa.

Panthera leo hollisteri - Congo lion
Panthera leo massaica - Masai lion
Panthera leo verneyi - Kalahari lion
Panthera leo krugeri - South African lion or Southeast African lion
Panthera leo azandica - North East Congo lion
Panthera leo bleyenberghi - Katanga lion or Southwest African lion
Panthera leo senegalensis - West African lion, or Senegal lion

You can’t look for these lions anymore – they’re extinct!

Panthera leo spelaea - Eurasian cave lion
Panthera leo atrox - American lion or North American cave lion
Panthera leo europaea - European lion
Panthera leo fossilis - Early Middle Pleistocene European cave lion
Panthera leo leo - Barbary lion, extinct in the wild
Panthera leo melanochaita - Cape lion
Panthera leo sinhaleyus - Sri Lanka lion or Ceylon lion.
Panthera leo vereshchagini - East Siberian and Beringian cave lion

Neil Heron
www.beardedheron.com

Management fires: putting them into perspective

MANAGEMENT: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE KRUGER COIN


Thanks for the 70 plus years of management: from zero - 8 000 white rhino's in the Kruger National Park - South Africa can be and should be proud of the Kruger National Park, it's management and the rangers responsible for providing us with what is still the most diverse and largest protected space in Africa (Some say in the world)

Now is the time for South African’s and the South African media to put their Saturday morning beers down, put out the braai fires and dowse their willingness to react, half cocked, to an incredibly unfortunate and horrific set of circumstances which led to 2 rhinos being burnt in the recent management fires in the Kruger National Park.

Now is the time for South Africans and the South African media to grab the opportunity to learn, appreciate and understand just how difficult it is to manage our heritage – the Kruger National Park – a savanna ecosystem unparalleled in the world today. We have to understand, learn about and appreciate the management required to keep safe, the tiny space we have allocated for the survival of higher organisms in this system despite the impact we have already had on it by subjecting it to our wanton (and often indiscriminate) need to see a lion, or a rhino or buffalo, elephant and leopard living in a natural space.

We have all created a ‘cage’ (albeit a big cage) and just like we enjoy keeping our hamster in a cage or birds in an aviary. In the same way the Kruger’s ‘cage’ too has to be cleaned and managed in order protect its biodiversity. Too many rabbits, hamsters and dogs in your back garden has you racing around to sell them, swap them or destroy them – or they get sick – the quality of their lives are reduced, the whole thing becomes a mess….So the Kruger cage (the one we created by building cities and roads that could not support other life forms, the one we created because of indiscriminate hunting, the one we created because you didn’t want a lion eating your children…) has to be managed.

South Africa’s savanna ecosystem equals about 45% of our country, and in terms of animal biodiversity, is richer than any other system in our country. – In South Africa the savanna biome is largely used for meat production, game farming and hunting. Then there is the Kruger – a part of this system dedicated to eco-tourism activities, research and conservation. South Africa’s savanna is rapidly declining because of our need for firewood, building materials, our insatiable demand for citrus and sugar and the water that this agricultural activity demands…

So we have to manage what we got – what little space we have left ourselves and what we are still taking away from this environment to sort ourselves out. Let’s not even talk about the mineral wealth under the Kruger’s ground.

Fire is not the only necessary management tool to protect this savanna system – we have to start reducing the unnatural water in the Kruger – we have to manage animal populations in the Kruger, we have to manage diseases and alien plants brought into the Kruger. – All of these things are emotional and controversial but here’s something that none of you want to talk about. We have to start managing the amount of people in the Kruger, the amount of cars and vehicles in the Kruger, the amount of rubbish and plastic we leave in the Kruger. We have to manage the impact we are having on the Kruger. Try and highlight these things to your children before it becomes too late for the Kruger.

So now we end up in a situation where, because of the impact we have on everything else, it has become inevitable that most of the natural world has to be managed by us. The Kruger National Park and many other national parks and reserves around the world were created to maintain ecosystems as close to their natural state as possible and to keep natural ecosystem processes intact. To learn about them, and to promote their natural richness and hopefully allow our children to benefit from them.

Now within a controlled or managed ecosystem such as the Kruger National Park – all the life of plants and animals, and the way they work together and the natural process have created some of the earths most biologically diverse elements – this is referred to as biodiversity.

Biodiversity attracts tourists to an area. The often exhilarating and inspiring diversity of wildlife and plant life in the Kruger National Park is as much a part of its attraction as is any particular species. There is nowhere quite like the Kruger, where one can see and experience elephants, rhino, zebras, giraffe and other large mammals in their natural environments. If that biodiversity is adversely affected, the allurement and wholeness of the area is damaged.

The above is an eco-tourism an extremely important part of the management of this issue, and so too is the conservation of the vegetation – it is the vegetation that supports higher organisms. In a way ecotourism is responsible for the development and maintenance of reserves like the Kruger. The Kruger is found in a precarious situation - It has immense biological value with high diversity and will remain a crucial part of South Africa's future. Employment, local people, local communities, local industry can and should all benefit from the protection and maintenance of a sound eco-tourism plan that sustains the Kruger's biodiversity.

We all benefit from biodiversity. About a quarter of all prescribed medical drugs (including codeine, morphine, quinine and strychnine) are extracted directly from flowering plants. Traditional medicines, foods and ceremonies all add value to the way the Kruger is managed - not to mention the way the Kruger is 'sold' as a tourist attraction.

I have just returned from a 14-day south to north Kruger trip and the realisation that there is currently nowhere else on this planet that I can see 35 large mammalian animals living in their natural state (and I could have seen more), 234 birds (and I could have seen more) 37 tree species, the flowers and grasses and the variety of landscapes is like a wake-up call. Please wake up South Africa, and learn that collateral damage in the management process of the Kruger National Park is what you have already created because of your one-minded, insatiable and often unwarranted need to see a lion and little else when you visit the Kruger…

Sadly during the World Cup I collected dead puffadders that had been driven over, vervet monkeys that had to be destroyed because of the processed food they are fed by tourists – we have to stop erosion and the increase of sodic areas because of tourists driving off-road – one hundred animals injured or dead by speeding – bats and monkeys and birds dead by rat poison, litter and carnage – hornbills passing cigarette buts too each other – birds eating half consumed human breakfasts…It’s just too much….think about your reaction to this unfortunate incident before you point fingers.

Think about FROM ZERO WHITE RHINOS IN THE KRUGER NATIONAL PARK at the turn of the centaury to 8 000 WHITE RHINOS IN THE KRUGER NATIONAL PARK TODAY! That’s good management – the hardworking Kruger rangers should be commended, don’t you think?

Neil Heron
www.beardedheron.com

Bearded Heron Coffee Shop

The Bearded Heron Safaris “Coffee shop”

Other vehicles role passed us – everyone inside them intent on finding out why we’re stopped! The questions are extraordinary, “Are you looking at anything interesting?” What are you watching?” Have you seen anything?”

I hold up my coffee mug, “Good morning,” I respond, “We’re having coffee!”“Oh well - enjoy then.” They look disappointed as they move on, once again searching the African savanna for anything ‘interesting’!

My coffee shop returns to normal – my guests and I watching the morning,
we’re listening to the sounds of Eden as the white-fronted bee-eaters start
waking next to us, light changes the mood, a red sun peeps up from the
eastern horizon, and in the distance a lioness roars in social greeting. A
hippo signals its return to water, a sharp snort from somewhere out there
and a few alert calls from not so nearby kudus all play a tune to the new day.

My coffee shop has opened for business!

“That lioness is getting closer and probably closer to some of the other
members of her pride,” I suggest, let’s wait and see if she becomes visible to
us!” I have chosen my ‘coffee spot’ well; we are positioned over a wide sandy
river bed with little surface water – only the odd pool where elephants have
dug out the underground stream.

The mood in the vehicle changes, everyone looking into the bush, everyone
listening for the sounds that will bring us some news. An hour has passed,
and then an exclamation. “There! Look it’s a rhino, he’s coming to the water!”

Good! I can guide through the approaching rhino. A square-lipped rhino bull
on territorial management duty. Before I even open my mouth someone
in the back of my coffee shop shouts: “There they are!” as two lionesses
come bounding out of the bush in playful greeting. We watch the moment
for a while, the lionesses and the rhino disappear back into the bush,
and the Kudus nervously make their way towards the river. The sun is
beginning to warm up the bush now, and a whole new day has begun.

We’re about to continue our game drive now, a vehicle roles up next to us, the
driver asks, “Have you seen anything interesting?”
“Just stopped for coffee, there are some kudus at the water and a few bee-
eaters catching breakfast,” I respond.

I turn to my guests and suggest. “There’s a nice little cocktail bar I know of for
this afternoon’s drive! We’ll watch the sun set in the west a little later – over
some water, and enjoy the moment the bush closes the day and gets ready
for the night!”

Neil Heron
www.beardedheron.com

On the Fly Safari Adventures

Bearded Heron Safaris (10 June to 4 August 2010)
Kruger National Park back-to-back safari itineraries

A mammoth 48-day back to back safari in the Kruger National Park, hosting
a combined 18 itineraries and a total of 74 international guests, has just
been completed successfully – without any travel, safety, accommodation or
guiding issues to speak of. All guest itineraries, accommodation and travel
arrangements by Tina Heron, all field guiding, hosting and hospitality by me
and all meals, stores and equipment operations by Gordon Hunter of Bearded
Heron Safaris.

LOGISTICS
Guest pre-safari communication included more than 500 emails, 12 telephone
hours and 60 hours of logistical planning.
Transfer, shuttle, guest houses in Cape Town and Johannesburg – KNP
accommodation and 24-hour private guiding activities logistic and preparation
equalled more than 100 hours of telephone, email and other communication.
International guests from 15 different countries in the world including Mexico,
Honduras, Brazil, USA, Colombia, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Canada,
Turkey and Vietnam.

STATISTICS
* Youngest guest 6-years-old.
* Oldest guest 82-years-old.
* Common European language after English was Spanish.
* 329 interpretive drive/walking interpretation hours plus 143 ‘fireside
hosting hours’ conducted by Neil Heron. That’s 472 hours of ‘talking’!
* 339 Breakfasts cooked by Gordon Hunter.
* 339 Lunches prepared by Gordon Hunter.
* 339 Dinners cooked by Gordon Hunter.
* The dishes and washing up: kitchen cleaning were handled by Gordon and
an assistant who together washed more than 4 000 dishes during our time on
safari.
* 3000kms of game drive roads and tracks.
* 35kms of walking activities.
* 282 sleep hours (at about 6 hours a night) for Neil and Gordon.

Neil’s reflection
I’m still trying to digest all the amazing people, characters and discussions
we had on safari during the 48 days. The biggest positive to take to heart is
that there is a common and real concern and awareness of just how important
the world’s natural spaces are. This ethic seems to exist all over the world
– from the farmers in Honduras, Canadians sharing their awareness of the
importance of their great lakes, to Americans offering disdain at the influences
of too many people in national parks like Yellowstone National Park. From the
Brazilians and their love for the Amazon to the Australians and their woes with
Cane toads and rabbits.

My undeniable passion for the Kruger National Park, its diversity and
opportunity constantly remind me of the great privilege I have to enjoy

access to this remarkable place, however, It’s becoming difficult for me to
show my guests the wilderness - those wonderful spaces where nature
lives. The endangered spaces in Africa where ‘life’ shows little concern for
contemplation or any remorse to those that stumble or fall! Success or failure
is not measured by others in Africa – nor by the times we rise or fall. Success
is reserved for the moment we wake up and failure by the times we’ve stayed
down.

These spaces show all that is! Not all that we want from it!
Sometimes I need these spaces to unravel the ‘other jungle’ we see while
I live in a system so organised and diverse, so mature and willing, and so
representative of how our own world, sadly juxtaposed to this one now, could
have been...If we could only live without the questions we ask that Nature no
longer has the answers to.

Perhaps we’ve run away with our expectations, perhaps we stay too close
to our securities and perhaps we’ve lost the ability to stay focused on now –
because now is what life is all about!

Tomorrow will take care of itself we shout, and then look in the mirror in
horror to see a reflection of how we have arrived here today. Life is like
information – it’s only important when you need it – not before or after.

So I contemplate...When does eco-tourism become bio-terrorism? What
happened to us in this world when we left, we were still part of the system,
now we watch it from the outside. When will we remember the times that we
were the children of life, like all her other children, not her masters, not her
protectors or caretakers. We are simply life’s children! Life misses us in the
great outdoors.

It has become my greatest wish to re-introduce the Kruger National Park to
South Africans who are not simply there to ‘look for lions’ that do not consume
alcohol and drive around the Kruger roads in the early hours of the morning.
It is my greatest wish to introduce an ethic of awareness, an awareness
of just how fortunate we are to have this heritage that includes our shared
wisdom, our combined culture, our diverse history and ecological splendour.

It is my greatest wish to remain dedicated to the protection and sustainability
of the Kruger National Park, to do no harm first, share in wonder the amazing
stories and moments that continue to unfold before my very eyes.

Neil Heron
www.beardedheron.com

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Kruger senses

Tracking the spirit of safari

Dawn arrives – first news comes from the quieting of nocturnal insects, then an orange wash wipes the blackness from the eastern skies. I can see the tree-line silhouetted in front of me. Dawn is magical on the savannah, greeted by a first song, then a chorus of songs as the birds and daytime insects begin telling stories of the imminent arrival of a new day.

The first smells arrive, the dew, damp, warm muddy water scattered sent of early blossoms, and even news of fresh dung, rotting flesh or damp hair can be picked from my first long intake of air.

I can feel dawn. The cold creeps around my skin and in an instant moved away by the morning breeze and the first rays of red sun rising in the east.

My eyes are adjusting, I can pick out the shapes and movement in front of me, and I can see this world lightening with every passing second. I listen to the first early footsteps scurrying through the scrub. The baboons are shouting in social hierarchy, and in the distance a lioness roars confirmation that her pride is nearby.

A lone hyena whoops a scouting call, a jackal answers but cuts the call short, and a hippo grunts his return to the water in territorial voice.

My safari has begun! A journey that will allow me to process this early information and then include the footsteps, fasces and feeding signs left behind from last night’s visitors.

What will I uncover? Where will I go? This is my adventure today!

Neil Heron
www.beardedheron.com

It's in our Nature!

Bearded Heron Safaris has been – and continues to be - successful because we offer insightful glimpses into South African culture and lifestyles that few organised package tours provide.

Combine the raw energy and unrivaled passion for hospitality South Africans share, with the embedded knowledge and love of the wild – and you end up with a cultural experience with people that invite you into their lives to share a magnificent diversity and potpourri of beauty and wonder such as the Kruger National Park.

Yes the Kruger is world-famous – but so is South African hospitality! So is the passion South Africans have for the soil, their history and their wildlife. The stories you get from real South Africans from all walks of life are limitless – our attitude in the bush, the amount of time we spend outdoors, our traditions around the campfire and our reaction to rain are glorious examples of ‘salt of the earth’ people.

Besides being great hosts, people love to experience our ingenuity. South Africans can always make a plan! Going the ‘extra mile’ is simply part of the journey for us – we know that our wine is good because of all the twists and turns in the grape vine!

Bearded Heron Safaris is made of that ilk. We don’t simply design itineraries that provide tours of destinations that are world-famous. We invite you into our homes and lives to share with us what we love so dearly! Our passion for hospitality and our unrequited need to learn about the world – your lives and your cultures have created a situation now where we can honestly say: “In more than 1 000 safaris that we have conducted in the Kruger National Park we haven’t experienced one that hasn’t gained us new friends or that wasn’t successful.”

Our own culture lies deeply embedded in our attitude, our ‘way of life’ and we can’t wait to meet and host more people from all over the world and share the beauty and wonder of African wildlife with you!

Neil Heron
www.beardedheron.com

Talking Trees

The plant world had their Internet millions of years before we did! In their world the communication infrastructure is called proto-cooperation. Ours is called the world-wide-web.

In the natural world there is no language barrier as with us humans, every living organism ‘talks’ to each other. We hear the insects and the birds all the time – so why haven’t we noticed “talking trees” before?

Some of us have tried to “talk to trees” some even professing success! Absurd but gallant none the less. Normally we don’t talk to trees! And normally, trees and plants don’t talk to us but consider these reference points, and then contemplate “talking trees!”

Plants form communities of the same or different compatible species; they get to together, identify their strengths and weaknesses and kind of collude with each other for mutual benefit. Trees form root unions by grafting on to one another and then start to communicate by swapping nutrients with each other (soils as the conduit) and millions of bacteria as the traders of information – a bit like our own information highway.

Different trees and plants have different root systems in terms of depth – the deeper roots of one particular tree are able to reach down and collect minerals from the earth that others can’t. This root grafting allows trees with different root structures to ‘hold hands’ with each other and swap nutrients among each other.

Sometimes – depending on the extent and quantity of different minerals, etc. Trees will ‘barter’ excesses with each other. This could be construed as a mutual benefit society but also one that creates difficult times for newcomers finding the necessary food sources. Trees do not hold hands with newcomers!

Some trees are thieves and simply latch onto a bigger tree, grab the root and take what it needs without offering anything back – like junk mail in the inbox – or unsolicited email.

The biggest scientific wonder comes when we start understanding the way trees will ‘hear’ the emergency calls of a nearby tree under stress because it is being browsed on by animals, and the community quickly increases its content of toxic and unpalatable chemicals called allelochemicals.

These act against the browsing animal. Tannin is one such chemical and reduces the animal’s tendency to eat a particular food source – especially in times of drought.

So trees tell each other when an animal is browsing on the community – all trees defend themselves by listening to the chemical reaction of the tree that is being eaten or abused. Not through the connected root system but because a third player – the exchange server – represented in this diatribe by Mycorrhizea, Fungi and bacteria – the unsung hero’s of our living (albeit struggling) earth.

Fungi produce microscopically fine filaments formed from single celled chains. These form a wonderfully mutualistic union between the plants and the soil environment.

Mycorrhizal filaments penetrate plant systems and help plants collect essential minerals as well as helping with nitrogen fixation. In exchange plants provide essential sugars required by the mycorrizae.

Any chemical news is broadcast by these ‘chat rooms’ as well. Ouch, watch out! Help, etc.

This is how the communication highway among trees and plants is formed – this is how trees ‘talk to each other’

So next time you start breaking off the branches of a tree for firewood, replacing soil with landfill sites or simply removing the trees and soil for transportation remember that you’ve basically destroyed a “treeway” conversation – and had much more impact on the environment than you think you’ve had.

Besides the actual destruction of life – think about the impact you’ll have on the landscape, think about the consequences of no trees to assist in the control of erosion, think about the role they play in producing oxygen and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as moderating ground temperatures, and of course, providing shade and homes for many other animals besides ourselves.

Some of the more well known talking trees:
(reference from Google internet search)

Talking trees are a form of sapient vegetable life common to many mythologies and stories, most famously the Ents in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories.

The Greek Talking Elm: Philostratus spoke about two philosophers arguing beneath an elm tree in Ethiopia which spoke up to add to the conversation.

The Indian Tree of the Sun and the Moon: Told the future. Two parts of the tree trunk spoke depending the time of day the question was asked; in the daytime the tree spoke as a male and at night it spoke as a female. Alexander the Great and Marco Polo are said to have visited this tree.

Oracular Trees are sometimes attributed with the ability to speak to certain individuals, especially those gifted in divination. In particular, Druids were said to be able to consult Oak trees for divinatory purposes, as were the Streghe with Rowan trees. To what extent these trees could "talk" varies from story to story.

In Ireland a tree may help you look for a leprechaun's gold, although it normally doesn't actually know where the gold is.

In Dante's Inferno, the protagonists (Dante and Virgil) speak with committers of suicide who have been turned into trees in Hell.

The Forest of Fighting Trees in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz attack the Scarecrow. In the 1939 film version trees grab Dorothy and the Scarecrow when she picks an apple from one of them.

In the book A Spell for Chameleon written by Piers_Anthony on pages 8 and 9, a talking tree named Justin Tree is introduced. The character returns in Zombie_Lover and Swell Foop.

In The Three Amigos, the gang encountered The Singing Bush.

Neil Heron
www.beardedheron.com