Thursday,
April 27th.
We were up
at 5 again for a new adventure. It was the photography groups time to join the
conservation group in removing some of the invasive species of cactus with the
unusual name of The Queen of the Night. It is native to South America and is thrives
here, growing to huge sizes and heights. It interferes with the native plants’
ability to grow in the area as it hogs the water. There are no native animals
that eat it and it has needle like thorns that irritate animals. So, we drove
90 minutes to the location only to find a herd of about ten elephants happily
browsing on the other plants in the area. So, we had to sit and wait patiently
until they moved on, as it would be too dangerous to get out and get to work.
When they moved off, we began. We were to cut the cactus to pieces with
machetes, saws and ropes. Then we carried the pieces by pitchfork to a pile
which would be picked up by a truck to be hauled away and burned. We worked for
a couple of hours. We were also asked to take photos of the process to use to
show what the company African Impact is doing. On the way back to camp we saw
quite a few zebra, and a large herd of Cape Buffalo. After lunch we had two
good lectures. One was on Taxonomy led by Kes and the other by Timo on ethical
photography. We learned about the taxonomic structure of the classifications of
all life from the largest grouping of domain and becoming more and more
specific through the other classifications as they cascade from general down to
more specific: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family genus and finally
individual species. Got that? Timo went on at length about real wildlife
photography and faked shots and how to tell. He also gave us food for thought
whether it was ethical to plant food in order to entice a bird to come to it in
order to get a better shot, or go to places where the animals are used for
entertainment for tourists. I know I’ve done things like that in the past, but
always rationalized it as ‘when am I ever going to get the chance to do that
again’ or ‘if I don’t do it someone else will’. For example: riding elephants,
walking with lions, posing with tigers, diving with white sharks… Anyway, it
makes you think. After dinner we had a night drive. We saw dozens of groups of
impala, a couple of elephants, and a tiny pearl spotted owl. It’s a very
different experience driving around in the dark, flashing a spotlight in the
forest and up trees looking for reflective eyes and then coming across an
enormous elephant. When we got back it was time to get to bed as we have
another drive in the morning.
Great pics and interesting blog. The zebras in the first pic almost (slight difference in colour) look like they are conjoined. On another note, good thing there is no test at the end of your blog...I will never remember any of this! Looks and sounds like it was a great day!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the zoology refresher, it's been awhile!
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