Bateleur 3: On foot in the bush

On Sunday we finally got to go walking! As noted in earlier posts, safari operators are very strict about keeping visitors inside camp boundaries, where staff can keep a watchful eye on animals wandering through and manage visitors to avoid conflict. (It’s the critters’ home, after all – we are the ones in need of management.) 

The wind was still very strong, not as bad as the day before, but still strong enough to interfere with listening. (Throughout our visit, I  marvelled at Temba’s ability to hear an animal’s presence from very far away). Temba and Simba drove us to a broad pan with good visibility, frequented by almost every kind of critter in the area.

The rules when walking are strict: no talking, walk in single file behind the guide, lined up in height order (from shortest to tallest) so everyone can see the guide’s hand signals.  Temba led, we lined up behind him, and Simba followed at the rear.

Our first naturalist lesson involved dung beetles and honey badgers. Afficianados of ancient Egypt (aren’t we all?) know that dung beetles (aka “scarab beetles) roll scraps of animal droppings into little balls, then lay their eggs inside. (For ancient Egyptians, this was a symbol of rebirth.)  Honey badgers like to snack on dung beetle larvae, extracting the meaty bit and leaving the empty husk behind.  Fortunately, there are A LOT of dung beetles.

The Apple Leaf tree (on Matt’s right) was used by local people to fish before fishing rods came along. The technique: crumble leaves in a pot of water, then dump the water into an area where fish have been herded close to the shore. The apple leaves will reduce oxygen in the water, stunning the fish, who can then be harvested by hand. Fish who are not harvested recover after about 15 minutes.

These open areas are popular with many species because of their visibility – prey animals can see predators approaching and run to safety.  Maintaining these open areas requires constant human management to prevent brush from filling in. Some owners clear vegetation manually (using vehicles and axes), while others use chemical herbicides – see the greenish-blue stumps below.

Below: Jackal track, front foot. There are 2 lobes in back and 4 toes in front. The front feet are larger than the back feet to carry the weight of the head.

We spent some time looking for the entrances/exits in a Buffalo Weaver bird nest.  Snakes prey on eggs and babies, so multiple exits are a must.

This is the burrow of Harvester Termites, who collect grass. Harvester Ants, o the other hand, collect seeds and are predators.  

The large mounds so typical of the African veld are made by Fungus Termites: they collect materials, then compost them into a nourishing fungus – which Aardvarks really like. The aardvarks dig into the mounds to reach the tasty fungus, leaving large holes behind, which become burrows for them and for other species (including mongoose, snakes and hyenas). Termite queens lay one egg every second, varying the genetic coding depending one what kinds of jobs are needed: warriors, workers, or heat regulators (they wave their “arms” to regulate temperature). When an aardvark predates, the termite warriors swarm out on a suicide mission, clmbing onto the aarvark’s long tongue and nipping it with pincers strong enough to draw blood. The queen immediately begins replacing termites by job category, depending on who was lost in the raid. Except for the queen, termites live for only a few days – they are regular food for birds and mammals.

We tasted the leaf of a Magic Guarri tree, a rare evergreen because no one eats it – the tree is very high in tannin, which dries the mouth. Leopards and lions spray Guarri trees to mark their territories, knowing that their mark will remain.  Guarris aren’t the only trees with tannin: the Hookthorn, an Acacia species, responds to munching on its leaves by increasing tannin levels up to 94% within 15 minutes, deterring further browsing.

Millipede corpse. These insects spray hydrogen cyanide when threatened. Birds won’t eat them, but civets do. Babboons harass millipedes to make them spray, then rub the insects in their armpits to kill parasites.

Impala (tracks below) have very long legs, so their distinguishing characteristic is back legs stepping over front legs. Most animals “under step” when walking. 

Hyenas have jaws stong enough to chomp through bone, which forms an important part of their diet. Their scat (below) turns white due to its high calcium content. 

Zebra tracks are very similar to a horse. The front foot is above, rear foot below, typical of “understepping.”

Steenbock survival strategies revolve around staying hidden. When a threat is spotted, they hide their scent by curling into a ball with all the smelly bits tucked inside. Steenbock also cover their droppings, like cats.

After a couple hours of walking, we looped back across the pan to the Land Cruiser, where we loaded up to spend the rest of the morning on a game drive.

Temba stopped a few hundred yards away for a show-and-tell about Kudu horns and Horn Boring Moths.  Horns are made of keratin and are too strong for even hyenas to eat, so Horn Boring Moths are the only creatures recycling keratin back into the ecosystem. Kudu horns grow one spiral every four years, until they reach three turns (about 12 years old).

We came across a large, old bull elephant lying down, which Temba said was very unusual. We watched for a while and  couldn’t tell if it was dead or alive.

Temba decided to drive on for 30 minutes, then loop back to check on the ellie.

We talked a bit about local languages.  Simba comes from this area, and his native language is Shangaani, the language used by the guides when confounding tourists. The Shangaan Tsanga followed rivers to migrate into Mozambique and Zimbabwe in the 18th century, first as as traders, then as conquerors of the people here before them. Tsanga speakers fled to the low veld (this area) after the Portuguese conquest.

Temba is from Zimbabwe and is a native speaker of Shona, a Bantu language spoken by about 80% of Zimbabwe’s people. 

We joined the queue for an old female leopard, Star, and followed as she marked territory. She was recently kicked out of her territory by her latest daughter, and was establishing a new territory here. Star went up one tree – decided it was not to her liking – then settled into a very large Marula on a riverbank. 

Up she goes!  Her climb is very fast, in one fluid motion, like she’s just walking vertically up the trunk.

Deciding this tree is not a comfortable choice, down she goes.

And down the road we go, following in Star’s wake…

…to a much more comfortable perch: cool and shady and where she can be virtually invisible.

We drove back to the elephant, who was still lying on his side.

Fortunately, after a few minutes he roused himself, got to his feet and put his trunk to the ground, listening for other elephants (who communicate through deep rumbles from their stomachs). Once he started to eat, Temba decided he was OK. He munched on branches for a while, then eventually wandered past us to go about his business.

We returned to camp, where a largish herd of mother-and-baby elephants came down the riverbed.

On our afternoon drive, we came across a male cheetah lounging beside its lunch, an Impala carcass.

Next up was a lioness with two cubs on a recently killed Kudu.  We got to watch them for quite some time. Cubs are always fun to watch (bloodthirsty little critters that they are).

We watched an ellie mom and her calf drinking at one of the waterholes. They passed right by our vehicle when their thirst was sated.

And then we finally got to see one of the giant – and now rare – species of African birds: Ground Hornbills. Hornbills stand 4-5 feet tall, are very long lived (50-60 years), and don’t reach sexual maturity until10 years. Chicks are jointly fed and raised by parents and grandparents, with subadults also helping out. Breeding experience with captive birds suggests that Ground Hornbills can’t successfuly reproduce without at leas 6 years experience as chick-raising “helpers.”

Smaller Hornbills (like the ones hanging around Idube) also have an interesting nesting strategy. Female Grey, Yellow and Red-billed Hornbills make a nest inside a tree cavity. The female lines the nest by pulling out 50% of her feathers. The male then seals her inside with a plaster made of mud, droppings and fruit pulp, leaving a hole through which he feeds her. When the babies hatch, the mother breaks out, then re-seals the nest with the chicks inside to protect them from predators. Two holes are left in the re-sealed nest so both parents can feed the chicks.

At dusk, while returning to camp, we came across a mother and calf White Rhino with good sized horns. (Timbavati does not cut Rhino horns, relying on their anti-poaching teams for protection.)

And that was the day!