Mothers of the Wild (and my encounters with them)

Everyone has a mother and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about being around wild animals; it’s don’t mess with Momma.  I thought I would share a few quick, exciting encounters with mother animals as a belated Mother’s Day post.

Every time I’m learning about animals there is always the “Mother Factor”.  An animal may not want to hurt you or be dangerous in general…. unless it’s a mother. Take for instance Grizzly Bears; most the time that they are awake they are too busy eating berries and flowers to want to harm you. 

Last year I worked in Canada as a grizzly bear researcher and I’ve had my fair share of bear encounters.  One day I was on my ATV trying to get to a collection site, when I came upon 3 little grizzly cubs. You’d think, what a great experience; where’s my camera.  No, it was an extremely nerve-racking moment. Where there are cubs there’s a momma bear, a big momma bear.  I couldn’t see her; the cubs had climbed up trees just next to me. After all the training we had had on defending yourself from bear attacks, basically you can throw it away when a mother is involved, because she will stop at nothing.  I immediately drew my bear spray and gunned the quad bike.

4 months spent tracking grizzlies, I had many encounters, but never got a single picture so this is stock

Back in Africa just a few weeks ago in the park, I was driving my truck up the western savanna trying to track the wild dog pack.  I drive this area everyday and barely see anything other than the occasional duiker or kudu.  Scanning the sand path looking for signs, I spotted something out of the ordinary. It appeared to be 2 large tracks or 4 small ones, but just in one place, as if something stepped onto the road and immediately stepped off.  I slammed on the breaks so as not to destroy the tracks.  After a quick glance at the bushes around me I disembarked to get a closer look.

Just as I took a step around the front of the car….in an instant I heard an immense roar and the only thing I saw as my eyes looked up was a massive lioness stopping just at the edge of the road in front of me.  I don’t know how it happened, but the next thing I knew I was sitting in the truck, knife drawn with a heart rate of probably 200+.  With my brain in overdrive, I quickly reversed the truck back down the sand road.  As I was backing up, I spotted something moving quickly through the grass beside me.  Realizing that she was running after me I put the pedal to the floor.  (You have to realize here that lions will not attack or threaten a vehicle, it’s much too large. Yet this lioness was bent on getting me the hell away from her space).

Finally far enough away, I realized immediately which lion it was, Dee.  Dee has cubs and they must have been close to where I got out of the truck. Several hundred meters away now, I could hear her chuffing or making an alarm roar as a warning of attack.  A lioness with cubs will not think twice about killing anything that threatens her.  Many people have been killed just by walking into an area where cubs were. 

 

Dee in the road just after she bluff charged me.  I was too shaky to get a decent shot of her. 

Photo by one of the volunteers in the park, but another mother in Tembe

The most amazing part is that from where she was (likely 15-30 yards from the road) to where she stopped just a few feet in front of me, took the same amount of time for me to hear her and move my eyes. Moving faster than my brain, ears, and eyes could coordinate! I was sparred that day.

You’d think lions would be most dangerous mothers, however ask any field ranger or experienced African wildlife person what they fear most and the answer is always elephants.  Female and young elephants stay together in groups called “breeding herds”.  Cross the path of one of these breeding herds and you are in for a world of trouble.  Elderly elephant matriarchs will think nothing of leading a stampede towards, over, and on your vehicle if you get too close.

My last day at Tembe Elephant Park I was driving through the swamps trying to get some pictures, as the area is really open and always full of elephants. I was parked on the side of the swamp taking some photos of a group of males, when I realized there was a female with them.  This shouldn’t happen, as females are always with breeding herds. The shrill trumpeting of the rest of the herd gave me the answer. I quickly started the truck and put my shifting skills to the test. Looking in the rearview mirror I saw the rest of the herd immerge from the thicket next to the road.  Barreling after me in a charge of flailing trunks and flapping ears was probably 6-7 large females with their calves in tail.  Elephants can’t run, but they do walk really fast, about 25 mph (40kph).  It may not seem quick, but 35 tons of elephant going any faster than a walk is an intimidation, especially all mothers.

 

Some of the mothers of young eles I've run into

A breeding herd moving across the swamp

The youngest calve in the park

Moral of the story, don’t mess with moms.  Their bravery and instinct to protect their children is unmatched in both our own mothers and those of the wild.

Why do Conservation?

     During my undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, I was involved in research on snakes and lizards in a lab doing “experimental physiology”.  Basically we were trying to figure out what animals can do and why they do it.  In our case we were looking at the tongues of snakes and lizards, how they used them to smell and why so.  It was pretty interesting and exciting stuff, handling snakes, playing with lasers, and using high-speed cameras.  All those interesting facts about animals such as how great a dog’s sense of smell is compared to humans are because of research like this.  It has been through the studying of the world around us that we are able to advance and improve our own. Studying birds’ wings gave us flight; bats gave us sonar, and the list goes on from curing disease to advancing our technology.

     As much as I enjoyed playing in the lab with the high-speed camera (capturing things breaking in rat traps, popping water balloons…. everything is cooler in slow motion!) something never seemed right to me.  Here we were trying to see what animals could do, but at the same time there were animals going extinct each year.  Insects, fish, and mammals no one has ever even seen, let alone spent years researching their tongues, gone into the abyss of what we don’t know.

     Who as a kid did not at some point want to be an explorer of some sort, an astronaut, a mountain climber, a private investigator, or the like?  It’s in our nature to explore and learn and to want to learn more.  It’s why we send rockets to far off galaxies and submarines to the unreachable depths of the ocean; to learn.  Yet each year between 1,000 and 10,000 species go extinct, mostly without man’s awareness (luckily on their behalf perhaps).

     Few people on this planet ever get the chance to leave where they were born and learn the amazing vastness and diversity of life that exists on it.  Even those privileged few of us who have the financial means to visit far off countries will only scratch the surface of the amazing living mural we live on.  Even over the course of many lifetimes you could never envision the number of insects, fungi, and bacteria that live hidden in foreign jungles, below the arctic ice, and even within our own bodies. Because of that none of us can ever truly grasp how lucky we are to be surrounded by such beauty.

     When I am doing my research in the field with the rangers, I often realize that their view of the world is likely very different from my own. Here are men who have mostly all grown up just a mile or two from the park, likely had little to no schooling, most speak little other than their native Zulu.  Yet here they are risking their lives to protect endangered animals.  When I ask them why, most answer because they love the wilderness, the animals, and the peace that they find there.  They often ask me if in the U.S. if we have elephants and lions, seems silly to us, but these men will likely live and die not far from where they were born.

     On occasion I tell them about what I have seen in the world.  Most of them do not understand why rich people from far and wide come to the run-down areas that they live in. I tell them how lucky they are to have such amazing animals in their country and that in Europe and North America most of the animals have disappeared because of people.  They immediately feel a great sense of pride and are eager to learn of our mistakes.

 

This men live a solitary life on the reserve and most will work the majority of their lives protecting wildlife making about $400 (USD) per month. They have nothing, but my respect

     There is still so much to learn and explore in this world.  As one scientist put it, it is as if we are in a cave that is pitch black and all we are holding is a candle.  Many people would think that where the light of the candle ends is as far as we can see and know, but beyond the faint light of the candle the size of the cave and what inhabit it are unknown to us.  It can be scary to learn more, to venture deeper into the unknown.  However, if we are brave enough we will likely find out more about ourselves as well as the cave.

     I believe in conservation because I believe in the power of knowledge.  I think that each organism on this earth has a value that goes beyond a dollar sign or even a possible medical treatment.  I find value in knowing that the amazing beauty of this earth will continue and not be destroyed.  What we all need to decide as a society is what value we have for life besides our own.  Do we truly think it is important that rhinos and elephant exist or does it mean more? Will this decision not just affect the existence of other creatures, but also perhaps be our time to shine as a species, to say this is who we are as moral beings?

Returning from the Bush

     I have just returned from another great time out in the African bush.  For almost a month I have been continuing my research on Suni antelope at Tembe Elephant Park and Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal.  Each time I leave KZN and return to Pretoria I miss being in the bush more and more. 

 

      I miss the nights; so dark that a million stars and the Milkyway set the sky ablaze as the deep rumbling of distant roars proclaim the dominance of the lions.  The sound of trees crashing to the ground as giants silently move through the forests, the elephant’s trunk as effective as the lumberjack’s axe.  The yelping midnight howls of hyena, calling out in the night as a reminder of their presence.

     I miss waking to rumble of elephants shaking my bed, as two brothers communicate in an inaudible low frequency to each other. I miss walking through open grassland and dense forest, never knowing what I will run into from the largest rhino to the smallest mouse.  In a paradise of sand away from the coast, in the middle of wilds Africa I always find a quiet peace.  I can never sit still when I am there and the frenzy of bird, insect, and beast is always stirring all around you, yet there is a calm that comes to me when I become a part of it all.

     Returning to the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle is a daunting yet inevitable challenge.  I may walk the streets, navigate the traffic, and confine myself to walls and rooms, but the drums of the forest pulses in my veins always.  I sit in classrooms and meetings yearning for adventure and to return to the freedom of the bush.  It is then that I know where I truly want to be, where my heart is. Being in the city is constricting and can feel imprisoning, especially in an African city, but it reaffirms what I truly enjoy and makes my return to the wilderness that much better.

      This last month of work was truly spectacular.  Everyday was a great adventure and even the one day I never left the house to finish writing a paper, was better than any before it.  I explored deep parts of the sand forest no one has been to, I had many encounters on foot with elephants and lions (some closer than others), and made some new friends and spent time with old ones. My Zulu has greatly improved as well. Regardless of the pictures I took or the things I saw that day, everyday was a great one if by the end of it I was sitting around a fire, having a hot meal, a beer, and a lot of laughs.

Until next time; Akubekuhle! ("good health" in zulu)

Mufasa, the king of the southern pride at TEP

Leonard and I out doing some elephant monitoring 

Me and my Zulu rangers (Norman and Yaya) posing in the Sand Forest

Southern pride, Yeats, the male is only 2 years old! 

Elephants greeting each other at Mahlasela Hide