Innholdsfortegnelse for Edition 90 i Travel Africa

Well, what a year it has been! In my editorial for issue 89, back in January, I said it felt like the world was in a bit of a mess and that we had become more aware of the need to be kinder to each other and to the planet. And then Covid-19 came along, and it suddenly got very messy. We have all been challenged like never before, and the impact will be felt for many years to come. Yet amidst all this we have seen acts of extraordinary kindness, generosity and mutual support. Where there is darkness, there is also light. Some say that this will irrevocably impact the way we live our lives. Only time will tell what the ‘new normal’ will come to look like, but…

STRATUS Usually thick, grey and covering large portions of the sky, stratus clouds are the harbingers of dreary overcast weather. The higher cirrostratus (above 18,000ft) contains ice crystals that bend rays of light to create a halo around the sun. If they turn the sky bright white it often means rain or snow within the next 24 hours. Mid-level altostratus (between 6,000 and 20,000 ft) usually herald a storm, while the lumpy nimbostratus is a sign that somewhere down below is getting a good, steady dousing of rain. CIRRUS Thin and wispy, these are the high-flyers in the cloud world, forming only above 18,000ft where this is little water vapour present. They are blown into streamers known as ‘mare’s tails’ and usually point to fair weather. Cirrocumulus appear as small,…

The relatively youthful face of the Namib Desert as we see it today is merely a glimpse into a period of around two million years in its very long life. It presents a portrait of extreme and exceptional beauty, but also hints at an underlying character sculpted by the harshest of conditions that carved, eroded and magmetised the country to its current splendour. With only a few minor interruptions, the Namib has been in existence for over 43 million years. Yet to understand the climatic changes that have forged this land, we need to go back a lot further With the breakup of Gondwana around 130 million years ago, a combination of climatic events, ocean currents, prevailing winds, erosion and volcanic powers started a stepwise process of creating what is…

Will we make it back in time? The storm clouds have been building all morning and now, as our Land Cruiser lurches towards camp, lightning flashes along the horizon and a sky of rumbling purple hangs above us, poised to burst. The first heavy drops cannon off the bonnet as we roll into camp, quickly gathering rhythm, and within seconds, the skies have opened: a thunderous downpour that hammers on thatch and canvas and explodes from the dusty ground. But we’ve made it. After two days of building tension — each morning, the bubbling call of the coucals promising rain — it’s exhilarating at last to watch nature unleashed. Especially when safe and dry, with beer in hand. For visitors to Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park — as in many…

HORIZONTAL FAULT LINES The delta is created by two deep crustal faults that run at right angles to the flow: one at the base of the Panhandle and the other at the foot of the delta at Maun, 175km apart. The difference in height between the start of the Panhandle and the base of the delta 270km away is just 62m. Thus water flows slowly and spreads out in fingerlike tributaries to cover, at its greatest extent, around 12,000–15,000 sq km. BOTETI RIVER Of all the water that enters the delta, a staggering 95 per cent evaporates into the atmosphere. Two or three per cent sinks into groundwater and the remainder is collected by the Thamalakane River at Maun and led either into Lake Ngami or the Boteti River, whose…

Radio collars: researchers have fitted radio collars on to a select number of wildebeest, with the trackers regularly relaying information back to the team, telling them exactly where the animals are and how they are moving — for example, if it is a rapid, straight-line migratory movement or tortuous tracks, indicating they are grazing. Tail-hair isotopes: at the same time as fitting a radio collar, half of the wildebeest’s tail is shaved. As the tail hair regrows it incorporates metabolites that are circulating in the animal’s bloodstream — such as cortisol, the level of which increases when the animal experiences stress. The tail also includes aspects of the food the wildebeest is eating, indicating where it has been and how close it is to starvation. On recapturing the animal, the…

The idea of a high and a low season, particularly in the Masai Mara Conservancies, is patently absurd. For years I have listened to scorched earth diatribes from people extolling the benefits of dry season photography and why you pay a premium for it. Dry and hot weather tests any photographer’s patience as you wait hours for catatonic felines to wake and other animals to languidly rise, in stages, from several coats of stupor. No-one is denying a clear, sharp dawn has its benefits. These conservancies have not only set benchmarks in terms of behaviour and animal concentrations, with off-road driving permitted, they also have the most protracted ‘golden hours’ in the world: light other areas of Africa only dream of. However, it is about more than the crepuscular hours.…

WHITE-EARED KOB • Where? The Sudd, South Sudan/Ethiopia • How many? 800,000 • Distance covered? 1500km • When? December-May: the kob move east from the floodplains of the Sudd, Bandingilo National Park, through Boma National Park (both in South Sudan), and into the western swamps of Gambella National Park in Ethiopia.; June-November: the migration goes into reverse as the herds head west again. • What’s occurring? The white-eared kob are on the move year-round — a slow journey driven by the constant search for new pastures. Densely packed columns of kob (which, when they are joined in their quest by tiang antelope and Mongalla gazelles, can top 1.2 million animals) can stretch a mind-boggling 80km long by 50km wide. • What’s it like? “My first adventure into Gambella left me…

Aquiet section of the camp is reserved for researchers. We pitch our tents on covered platforms raised several inches above the damp earth. Our Baka guides camp nearby, next to the ecoguards, who are dressed in dark green uniforms and carry rifles. Every night, I hear their footsteps as they patrol the forest paths. It’s the dry season, so the first night in my tent I leave off the rainfly. I wake up in the chilly dark, surprised to feel predawn dew dripping onto my sleeping bag. Lesson learned: the dry season is still quite wet. Though Bouamir Research Station has wireless internet capability, it drains the camp’s limited supply of solar-powered electricity. So instead of checking my social media updates, I mark the time by the call of the…

In the wake of the shocking death of Rafiki, one of Uganda’s best-known and most-loved gorillas, conservationists are closely watching the ‘Nkuringo’” gorilla group in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. In June, Rafiki was speared by a poacher who later admitted to hunting pig and antelope in the park. He said he killed the gorilla in self-defence when the silverback charged. The Ugandan man has since been sentenced to 11 years in prison, while three men who entered the park with him are awaiting trial. The death of the only silverback in the Nkuringo clan of 17, which Rafiki led since 2008, leaves the group unstable, with the possibility of disintegration. Experts must look to past incidents for clues about what could be next. When a silverback dies, group members may…

Most visitors to The Gambia sizzle on sunshine beaches, scarcely venturing inland to explore West Africa’s most interesting and navigable river. Yet the arrival of a 49-berth Greek luxury yacht, Harmony V, is an exciting opportunity to experience the interior’s unfettered culture and effervescent wildlife. Only a few hours upriver is Kunta Kinte Island, once a horrifying redoubt of slavery and a transatlantic conduit for an iniquitous trade. The reddish hue of its slave-house ruins could be soaked in blood while the ghosts of lost lives palpably linger among the island’s baobab trees. Yet there’s life to be celebrated thereafter, at Tendaba, where the river, now several kilometres wide, hosts biodiverse-rich habitats alive with mangroves and gallery forests, incised by tidal creeks. Crocodiles dwell here while red colobus monkeys prove…

1 Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park protects gallery forest and savannah next to the River Gambia. Wildlife here includes chimpanzee, lion, leopard, eland, a large population of elephant and over 350 species of bird. 2 A boat trip from Timbuktu along the River Niger not only provides a fascinating insight into the rural culture of Mali, but is also a good opportunity for spotting birds such as Egyptian plover, red-billed quelea and African fish eagle. 3 The Victoria Nile erupts in a plume of white water at Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda where boat trips sidle up to large numbers of hippo and crocodile, and perhaps an elusive shoebill standing motionless in the papyrus. 4 Africa’s Rift Valley Lakes are hotspots of biodiversity: Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi are renowned for…

On past safaris I have sometimes felt a disconnect between the accommodation and the natural environment I’ve come to enjoy. Are diesel generators really necessary? Should guests be receiving single-use plastic water-bottles? Do certain supplies need to be shipped in from overseas? Hoping to understand better the principles of eco-design and sustainability in today’s lodges, I visited Ila Safari Lodge, on the banks of the Kafue River in a Game Management Area (GMA) adjacent to Zambia’s largest national park. My expectations were high. I mean, there’s few hiding places when you call your company ‘Green Safaris’. The man behind it is Dutch entrepreneur Vincent Kouwenhoven: “First and foremost, we’re driven by conservation. By developing lodges, we create jobs for people from local communities and that increases awareness about the importance…

Tourism has people at its heart; connecting with one another and moving from A to Z via everywhere in between. Never did I imagine a scenario where aircraft fleets would be grounded, borders closed and the tourism world coming to a grinding halt, yet this is where we all found ourselves at the end of March. The industry rolled up its collective sleeves, getting stranded travellers home and coping with the process of the rolling cancellation of trips that could no longer be taken. An African safari itinerary involves multiple parties in the supply chain. When a client books with a tour operator, traditionally they will look to their ‘ground handler’ or ‘DMC’ (Destination Management Company) in the respective countries to knit together all the elements, from the time the…

The consequences of not travelling by air are more complex and nuanced than its adherents tend to suggest Flight shame. It touches a nerve among thinking, caring travellers, putting us on the defensive. We know that planes emit greenhouse gases and pollute the atmosphere, but many of us choose to look the other way. Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, aviation was growing at an alarming rate: in December 2019, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) predicted that by 2030 the number of flights tourists make each year would be 592 per cent higher than it was in 2005. Nobody knew at the time that, within months, most of the world’s planes would be grounded. With so many new issues to contemplate – from the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask, to…

South Africa is a country of striking climatic and altitudinal contrasts. From the dry grassy highveld around Johannesburg to the subtropical savannah of the eastern lowveld, from the lofty peaks of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg to the idyllic beaches of KwaZulu-Natal, from the parched semi-deserts of the Northern Cape to the temperate evergreen fynbos around Cape Town, there really is no such thing as a typical South African climate. Actually, that’s not quite true. Typically, most of South Africa, most of the time, is attractively warm and sunny. Certainly, there is no time of year when I would recommend against a visit. That said, a fair response to the question ‘When’s the best time to visit South Africa’ would be ‘Which part of the country?’, while the obvious riposte to the query…

The arrival of the rains is perhaps more noticeable in the Luangwa Valley than in most parks. The Luangwa River that forms the spine of the South Luangwa National Park floods every year, rising by as much as six metres. In places the floodplain is several kilometres wide and it becomes awash with water, spreading into channels and lagoons, depositing silt that will nourish next season’s grass. The floodwaters put pressure on the road network and threaten to engulf some of the lodges (many camps are seasonal, closing for the rains), as seen by these images of Kafunta River Lodge in the dry season (July) and after the floods of February 2020.…

JANUARY Height of the rainy season; high humidity. Scores of migrant bird species. FEBRUARY Heavy rains. Thick, lush vegetation. Birds still in abundance. MARCH Rains still heavy. Most summer avian visitors leave. APRIL Rains abate. Flood peaks in the Panhandle. Cooler nights. A good time to capture summer’s rich colours. MAY The flood arrives in the central delta, coinciding with impala rutting season. Breeding elephant herds move north, returning later as the delta begins to dry up. JUNE Full flood. Wild dogs start to den. Cold mornings offset by cloudless cobalt-blue skies. Vegetation takes on neutral winter colouring. JULY Head of the flood reaches Maun; flood peaks in central delta causing some animals to be stranded on islands. Camps focus on water activities. AUGUST Thinning vegetation facilitates wildlife sightings. SEPTEMBER…

Migration, escape, flight… whatever you call it, this ancient behaviour is a lifesaving response to environmental change Few things have more impact on animal movement than climate. It can be as simple as cattle being herded from winter barn to spring pasture, or wildlife roaming up and down a mountain depending on the season. Climate gets things moving. Just as it triggered the first human migrations out of Africa, climate change is now the catalyst for a modern-day exodus: people and wildlife escaping desiccated lands and warming seas. Migration, escape, flight… whatever you call it, this ancient behaviour is a lifesaving response to environmental change. The wildebeest and zebra of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem are so finely attuned to climate that their lives literally revolve around the annual cycle of rains that…

Have wildebeest, will travel. While the river crossings may have the biggest appeal, the downside is this results in overcrowding in a finite space as vehicles jostle for the best view. But are the crossings really the main event? Calving season in the southern Serengeti, for example, not only delivers the miracle of birth hundreds of thousands of times over, it also attracts large numbers of predators to the area — and fewer tourists. There are various phases to this year-long journey, each worthy of our attention. But where do you need to be and when? Here’s our month-by-month guide to the migration… Note: this is a rough guide – all dates are subject to (climate) change. JANUARY Lured by the rains in the southern Serengeti, the herds settle in…

Kenya has lost nearly 70 per cent of its wildlife during the past thirty years, cites the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA). Loss of habitat, human-wildlife conflict and climate change lie at the heart of this decline; the knock-on effect of which is the threat to Kenya’s tourism industry and, consequently, the livelihoods of its communities. Conservancies offer hope, says KWCA. Roughly speaking, a conservancy sees landowners select a tour operator to establish a safari camp within a block of land. The operator benefits from being able to offer safaris in an area with a higher concentration of animals, the wildlife is protected and all monies earned are shared with the landowners. The model is a conservation success story. In the Masai Mara, where 15 conservancies cover an area of…

Keziah is basking in the sun surrounded by six adorable, sleepy cubs. She’s one of Dennis Minja’s favourite cheetahs, a star among several big cats he knows personally that prowl Serengeti’s southern plains. “Keziah’s a ‘super-mum’,” he explains. “She’s successfully raised five babies, even though 95 per cent of cubs die through bushfires or predation. She’s even adopted a cub whose mother died. That’s very rare.” Dennis is a researcher for Zoological Society of London’s Serengeti Cheetah Project, based in the south of the national park. Vast and mesmerizingly flat, this is perfect habitat for the fastest mammals on Earth. Researchers here have been building up invaluable knowledge of cheetahs since 1974. With around 7000 surviving in Africa, this is one of the best places to see them, home to…

In December 1912 a South African farmer caught a barn swallow in his house. The swallow was wearing an engraved metal leg ring, placed there 18 months before by an ornithologist in Staffordshire, UK, when the bird was just a chick in its nest. This was the first incontrovertible evidence that barn swallows migrate from Europe to southern Africa. Today, we know that more than five billion birds, representing about 200 species, travel between western Eurasia and Africa each year. They include waders and wildfowl, raptors and songbirds, doves, owls and storks. Some travel slowly with many stops, others undertake epic non-stop flights. Some fly by night and some by day, some en masse and some alone. The common thread is that they breed in the temperate spring and summer…

1 WESTERN LOWLAND GORILLA (Gorilla gorilla): Unlike chimpanzees, western lowland gorillas travel in small groups of only about five individuals led by a silverback male. When he finds a tasty meal, the females must wait and subtly beg for him to share. Gorillas make a new nest every night by pushing down the forest undergrowth and leaves in a cushiony circle; the next day, they move on to a different site. The western lowland gorilla is critically endangered due to deforestation, poaching for bushmeat and diseases such as ebola and malaria. 2 GREAT BLUE TURACO (Corythaeola cristata): The great blue turaco does not fly well. This common, large bird grows to be 75cm tall and weigh around 1kg. True to its name, it is mostly bright cerulean, with a yellow…

THE POWER OF WATER Glance at a map of Africa and, with the exception of the damp, lush rainforest zone of the Congo Basin, it is largely an arid land. It’s not surprising that the continent’s waterways — from permanent rivers and lakes to seasonal wetlands — are often the focus of life: magnets to biodiversity, hubs of humanity. Rivers have become life-sustaining arteries for the growth and expansion of numerous African cities, from Cairo to Kinshasa. The continent’s rivers and wetlands provide social, psychological and environmental value. They offer superb scenery and tourism experiences and are considered world biodiversity hotspots; the backbone to many of Africa’s fragile ecosystems. As one example, Lake Mburo, a small lake in southwestern Uganda, played a central role in the formation of the 260sq…

Picture the scene. It’s mid-morning in mid-summer at a small waterhole in the African bush. On the foreshore, a hamerkop pursues frogs among the hoof prints. In the water, a dragonfly alights on a log-basking terrapin. In the background, a warthog trots down towards the water while impala, their thirst already slaked, nibble the greenery. It’s a veritable oasis: all life seems to be here. Picture the same location a few months later, deep into the dry season. The water has shrunk to a muddy puddle. The surrounding ground is cracked, rutted and denuded of greenery. There are no frogs, dragonflies, terrapins or water birds. The warthog and impala still turn up for a few final sips, but soon the water will be gone entirely and even these regulars will…

MAKING THE GRADE In most countries there is an environmental grading system of sorts, which will help you to identify operators with strong green credentials. In Botswana, for example, there are more than 240 standards encompassing environmental management, cultural resources protection, community development, socio-economic responsibilities and ecotourism. There are three grading levels — Green, Green+ and Ecotourism — designed to incorporate the broadest cross-section of tourism operations. Ker & Downey Botswana’s Kanana camp has received the scheme’s highest accolade. Built to blend in with the natural environment and with a minimal carbon footprint, the materials used in the camp’s construction came from sustainable sources, with old materials repurposed where possible. Kanana is 100 per cent solarpowered; plastic use has been significantly reduced and any purchases are made locally.…

Once the rains have gone seasonal camps spring up, welcoming guests for six-nine months before being carefully packed away again when the storms return. There are many such facilities in Zambia, including Three Rivers and Island Bush Camp in South Luangwa National Park, run by Kafunta Safaris. Both are open only between 25 May and 1 November each year. A seasonal camp does not necessarily mean everything has to be completely taken down when it closes, though. At Three Rivers the main structure and tents remain in place, while Island Bush Camp (which is made of a lighter structure of wood) is razed to the ground each year. At season’s end, the furniture and dismantled structures are stored in a huge container at Three Rivers, while the soft furnishings, kitchen,…

GAME-CHANGING CONSTRUCTION Kisawa Sanctuary on Benguerra Island, Mozambique, is using a patented 3D-printing technology to help reduce the impact of building in an isolated location. “Using design as a tool, not a style”, entreprenuer Nina Flohr is using the innovative technology to create mortar from saltwater and sand, which is then merged with Mozambican weaving, thatching, carpentry and textile skills. The machine will also print sand coral reefs and marine habitats for the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies. Could this usher in a whole new era of sustainably-built lodges in remote places? THE BEER NECESSITIES How do you remove the carbon footprint of serving beer and soft drinks in the bush? Answer: build your own brewery. That’s just what Asilia has done at their rebuilt Sayari Camp in the Serengeti,…

With a land mass of roughly 30.37 million sq km, encompassing 54 countries, it is no surprise that very different weather patterns prevail across the continent. Understanding what the weather will be like in a region you might be visiting — and how it affects the people and wildlife you are going to see — will help you to get the most of your visit. Africa’s climate can be broadly divided into eight regions (see map), each influenced by latitude, elevation, topography, ocean currents, prevailing winds, vegetation and the differing effect of the oceans and seas that surround it. Overall, rainfall is more variable than temperatures. In southern Africa rain falls mostly in summer months (with the highest amount occurring in the east), while in West Africa and the Mediterranean…

You don’t have to drive very far north from Cape Town on the N7 before natural wonders start tugging at your steering wheel. First to the left for West Coast National Park and the turquoise sliver of Langebaan Lagoon; then to the right for the rust-red Cederberg Mountains. But put the blinkers on and push northwards, and after four or five hours you will reach Namaqualand — setting for one of the world’s most stunning floral spectacles. Following good winter rainfall this 50,000sq km tract of desert bursts into bloom, a mass flowering that transforms a remote corner of South Africa into a petal paradise each August and September. For the rest of the year, the land feels drained of life — cracked and brittle like a piece of old…

Iglanced down at the landscape below, marvelling at the contrast. Just a couple of months ago the bush looked barren, but now, trickling streams had become swollen rivers, bursting their banks, saturating floodplains and multiplying into thousands of channels and rivulets, coursing across the land like blue cracks on an emerald sheet of ice. Elsewhere in Africa, it is the rains that spark spectacular transformations. Deserted dust-filled craters become refreshing, crowded waterholes and barren, sandy plains blossom into verdant, lush grasslands. The Okavango Delta also undergoes a rainy season rejuvenation (from late November to March), but it is the arrival of the annual flood a few months later that triggers an even more striking metamorphosis. Originating from rainfall in the Angolan highlands some 1600km to the north, the floodwaters’ marathon…

While we would suggest that the scale of Victoria Falls is impressive at any time of year—sections of it, like Devil’s Cataract, never seem to lose power—there is no doubt that the character of the falls varies greatly depending on the time of year you visit. Being aware of these changes will help you to manage your expectations. The amount of water cascading over the Victoria Falls is governed by the timing and extent of the sesonal rains that fall in the Zambezi River catchment area, many hundreds of kilometres away in northern Zambia and, primarily, Angola. According to hydrologist Dr Richard Beilfuss, “the Zambezi River Basin has one of the most variable climates of any major river basin in the world, with an extreme range of conditions across the…

More than two million animals. An arduous, year-long 500km journey over open plains, through woodlands and across rivers. In an area covering 40,000 sq km. Battling severe drought and heavy rains along the way. Living in constant fear of predators. In an endless quest for food and water. All orchestrated by the weather. Welcome to the Great Migration. In this wildlife carnival they call the ‘greatest show on Earth’, some 1.5 million wildebeest, along with 500,000 Thomson’s gazelle, 200,000 plains zebra and a whole host of other grazers, spend their lives in an almost-constantly moving procession — a treadmill they can never get off, unless forcibly removed by the likes of lion, cheetah, hordes of famished crocodile and whatever Mother Nature throws at them, as well as some unwanted intrusion…

Recent research suggests that the mantle of leadership rotates around the herd, based on an individual’s motivation. For example, one animal starts feeling hungrier than the rest of the herd and its individual response becomes stronger than its herding instinct. “In other words, it’s going to break away from the herd and say, ‘You know what, I need to find food’,” explains Grant Hopcraft, who leads the Serengeti Biodiversity Programme. “At that point, that animal becomes the leader and everybody follows because the herding instinct kicks in.” As they move, they might come across a thicket. Another animal, who has experienced a predator attack in a similar landscape, might think ‘I don’t like thick vegetation. I don’t care what you lot are doing, I’m going this way’ and she heads…

In Kenya, there is a wildebeest contingent that doesn’t venture south and instead performs its own mini-migration, trekking from the banks of the Mara River to the Loita Plains, just north of the Masai Mara. “[In March], all these animals should be in the Loita Plains — the calving grounds for this population,” says Grant Hopcraft, who heads a migration-monitoring programme. Several environmental impacts — from fencing to human disturbance — have caused this population to plummet from 140,000 five years ago to less than 10,000 today. However, it’s the wider, interconnected relationship between forests, climate and water that could ultimately lead to the demise of the Mara’s resident wildebeest — and threaten the Great Migration as well. “The first time in recorded history that the Mara River stopped flowing was…

If ever there was a time for the expression ‘bitter-sweet’, this was it. ‘Bitter’ because my calendar has been empty since March. Much of my work is guiding other photographers on safari, and with no travel it means no job. That sucks. But ‘sweet’ because, with the world in crisis, the Serengeti stood empty of visitors, providing a unique opportunity to explore it with only the wildlife for company. What a privilege. It was out of this that Serengeti Safari: One Day at a Time was born. As passionate conservationists, the four of us wanted to take the Serengeti into homes across the globe, to remind a world in lockdown of this wildlife wonder waiting for you when travel restrictions are eased. Three months later, three series have been completed,…

There’s no doubt that witnessing a humpback whale breaching only a few metres from you, or swimming with dolphins or sharks in the midst of a feeding frenzy such as the sardine run, can be a transformational experience. It certainly has been for me, to the extent that for the past 25 years I’ve gone in search of such encounters. Planning to see them used to be simple: the animals were known to be in an area at a specific time of year, so I could schedule my travel calendar accordingly. However, in recent times this has proven no longer 100 per cent reliable, because climate change is playing havoc with the migratory patterns of many big marine animals. To get a grip on these changes, understanding why animals migrate…

Zoonotic diseases, or zoonoses, are those diseases transmitted from animals to humans. Scientists say that every year zoonoses account for more than 60 percent of known infectious diseases reported globally, causing approximately 2.5 billion cases of illness and 2.7 million deaths. COVID-19, which is caused by the zoonotic coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has had devastating impacts. By late July, according to Johns Hopkins University, there were over 16.8 million confirmed infections worldwide and more than 662,000 deaths. The illegal wild animal trade heightens the risk of zoonotic disease infection and transmission among humans. In fact, said former US Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe in recent Congressional testimony: “Wild animals are the source of most emerging infectious diseases in humans.” Especially since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, AWF and other…

WHISTLING THORN VACHELLIA DREPANOLOBIUM Look closely at this acacia and you will notice that it produces long, straight spines, always in pairs and often with a large bulbous base. Look closer still and you will find tiny entry/exit holes in these swollen nodes which have been made by ants. Tree and insect have formed a mutualistic relationship: the ant enjoys a thorny shelter and nectar on tap, while the tree appears to benefit from its in-house legion of herbivore deterrents. Sit quietly and observe this evolutionary wonder at work and you may well hear the tree whistling softly as the breeze blows across the countless holes of its ant abodes. ROCK FIG FICUS ABUTILIFOLIA No tree in Africa evokes the tenacity of nature more than the rock fig. All it…

In April 2018 I was driving across the flat expanse of Tsavo East National Park. A huge storm was hanging over the Voi River to the east; dark curtains of rain trailing below the cloud. As I approached the storm blew away and the sun came out, but the road was soaked, puddles everywhere. It was like driving down a shallow river. And, to my astonishment, running off the road in every direction was an explosion of bullfrogs. The rain had brought them out from underground in their thousands. Here was the explanation why, in some African legends, frogs are believed to have fallen from the sky. Life in Africa, especially in the dryer areas, is tough for amphibians. In the gentle climates of Europe, it rains a lot; ponds…

Seven years does not seem to be enough time in which to completely change a game; and yet that is how long it’s taken for the African safari industry to go from being noticeably brown to convincingly green. It is also the length of time since Colin Bell and I conducted an extensive survey of 250 safari camps across the continent — for the Africa’s Finest project (www.africasfinest.co.za) — looking for the 50 greenest ones. Back then it was hard to find 50. I would say fewer than five per cent of lodges at that time used solar power; most were collecting and burning fallen wood in donkey boilers to make hot water. But in the intervening years, with the cost of solar rapidly dropping and the fact that most…

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