Living
In Botswana
The Real Crocodile Hunters ~ by Ashley Hammond
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| “I
have watched fourteen sunrises and fourteen sunsets in this hostile yet
beautiful land. I am truly sad that I must leave Africa. I believe it is
my spiritual home although I do not belong here. This land does not need
me, yet it lives in me, a burning desire to return and once again stand
and sip hot coffee as the golden sun gently pokes its head over the great
tentacled Okavango Delta. Images and thoughts of this wondrous land evoke
and provoke many words, yet this land can silence even the most poetic
wordsmith as its awesome spiritual pull bites deeply at even the most hardened
core. I need its memories and its offerings. Oh how privileged I am.”
These few sentences
are excerpts from my journal written daily on my most recent trip to Botswana,
an overwhelming experience that I will be retracing in a few weeks. I suppose
I felt much like Albert Einstein after he developed his theory of relativity
and have taken poetic license from his famous quote: “When you put your
hand on a hot stove for a second it feels like a week, when you get to
spend a week in Africa it feels like a second.”
So much of
Africa has changed in recent decades. Yet much has remained unchanged.
Unfortunately, it is that “unchanged” part that is becoming more and more
difficult to preserve. Many visitors like myself want to help. Funding
is crucial, but money alone is not the answer.
For a living,
I’m a professional soccer coach. Yet in my heart I am a devoted conservationist.
For the past
twelve years thousands of children in New Jersey have come through my year
round soccer facility for training. In all my training sessions, I have
blended the beauty of soccer with the beauty and necessity of wildlife
conservation. Each year, I feature a different endangered animal on the
camp T-shirt, and the children respond enthusiastically. I often thought
to myself, “Could the international language of soccer actually assist
in this tremendously important effort?” It can and it is. |
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| Covering
6,500 square miles the Okavango
Delta marks the end of the Kubango River, the fourth largest in Africa;
the Kubango originates in central Angola and travels 1,000 miles before
reaching Botswana. |
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But first,
let me back up a few steps. Africa is a vast continent defined by conservationists
as “safe” and “dangerous” places for animals. Many countries within the
continent recognize the need to conserve. A leader in Southern Africa is
my beloved Botswana. This country is home to an eclectic array of wildlife.
A thriving economy has allowed an organized, caring government to set aside
enormous tracts of land for parks and reserves. With the Botswana tourist
industry insisting upon a high cost low volume approach; this diamond in
the rough offers the best of everything that an untamed “African Experience”
can give to its visitors without itself being destroyed.
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| Top photo: A Crocodile
makes his way through a swamp in the Okavango Delta. Bottom photo: Impalas
rest in the shade. |
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Entry
to Botswana requires the obligatory border stop with shoe bathing an additional
act designed to prevent the spread of disease. Once on the roadhouses with
powder blue colored walls draw the eye from the otherwise scorched landscape.
These vivid colors remind me of the small Greek churches with powder blue
domes atop their snow white walls scattered over the numerous Cyclades
Islands of the Mediterranean. As you press deeper into Mopane (mo-par-nee)
woodland, large grey figures occasionally startle and a violent trumpet
always follows. The tough thickets hide a perfectly balanced world where
living and dying is an every day occurrence. Yellow hornbills carry messages
from tree to tree as small creatures scurry away from the oncoming safari
vehicles. The blanket of vegetation hides another large awkward mammal
whose daily ritual is dictated by the ebb and flow of the herds, packs,
gaggles and prides. Dotted around the landscape in Botswana are some of
the true foot soldiers of wildlife conservation and the people whose grueling
work will allow the awestruck to return.
The research/conservation
scientists that live in the bush with the animals are indeed the real anonymous
“Crocodile Hunters.” Home to them is a jerry-rigged 12 volt light hooked
up to a car battery. A car is needed to drive the 50 feet from the kitchen
to the sleeping tents unless you intend to be dinner for a waiting fat
cat! Home is checking your shoes for slumbering mambas and tying down anything
that moves to stop the baboons from decorating the trees. Home is sleepless
nights at the wheel of a Land Rover as you strain and painstakingly observe
a pride of lions: “left paw moved two inches,” “pride male rolled
over” and so it goes on night after night, day after day all over Africa
entire families live this lonely, spartan existence. This is coupled with
the constant fear of murderous poachers, an unforgiving clientele that
would truly rather eat you than look at you, freezing cold nights, blistering
hot days, and for what?
It is all in
the name of conservation and science. These dedicated heroes paw over every
detail establishing how best to conserve the fragile ecosystems and animals
that live within them. They do this with shoestring budgets and against
mounting odds as locals claim land and increasingly dabble in the highly
profitable bush meat trade. Coup d’etats and rebel forces exist in the
ranges of many of Africa’s most endangered species. These threats still
do not deter the hardened men and women that call the bush home as they
continue the endless struggle. |
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| With
the world’s preoccupation fixated on terrorism and the economies of some
countries still stumbling to their knees much needed funding and attention
has been lost for these noble causes.
As with tourism
in all places Africa has been hard hit by the global drop in vacationers.
Safari companies are feeling the pinch and this in turn tightens the noose
on local economies that had finally been persuaded to turn to the tourist
dollar verses the blood stained currency generated by the poacher and bush
meat trade.
Despite this,
we can’t lose hope. After all without the great beasts on the continent
of Africa we have no hope for our pearled, azure space capsule. As I try
to do my part, this is where soccer comes in. My company, Ashley’s Soccer
Camp, is involved in two projects with the Philadelphia Zoo donating new
and used soccer equipment to programs in Liberia and Botswana. Conservation
organizations use this as leverage and are speaking to locals in that great
international language known as soccer. At games local people are
meeting with the conservationists to discuss how the community can co-exist
peacefully with the animals as important equipment such as balls and cleats
are traded for time.
Looking to
expand this program many young children in the New Jersey area have been
collecting soccer equipment which has been sent to needy villages and in
turns warms the oft strained relationship between conservationist and hungry
villagers. Dr. J. “Tico” McNutt, the head of the Botswana Predator Conservation
group who specifically work with Africa’s most endangered carnivore, “The
African Wild Dog,” has also been involved in the plan. The Shorobe village
soccer team close to the Wild Dog Conservation base has been the recipient
of new cleats and uniforms courtesy of Ashley’s Soccer Camp and Tico himself..
Undefeated in the Delta league this season the green and white Shorobe
Village teams are soaring again after a disappointing relegation battle
last year.
This November
I am returning to Botswana armed with another plan. Hosted by Tico and
Pieter Kat (lion research), myself and Chris Waldron, Assistant Curator
of Carnivores from the Philadelphia Zoo, will be spending time on a new
initiative called “Bring a Bag.”
Along with
increasing support from soccer groups the plan is to work closely with
safari companies and create a web site to which scientists in the field
can relay “wish lists.” Safari companies will in turn send as part
of their travel literature to their clients a “needs” list. It is hoped
that the caring travelers looking to tread lightly but make an impact will
“Bring a Bag.” The bags will hopefully be filled with inexpensive yet crucial
supplies that can feed the needs of the scientists in the field enabling
them to channel conservation dollars away from the basics and towards more
and better research. Items such as flash lights, batteries, radios and
many other relatively inexpensive easily transportable items can make a
huge difference. |
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A recent fire
at Tico’s wild dog camp has deprived Tico and his family simple things
such as music as the CD players were destroyed. Cookery books and radios
were also damaged along with more important items such as binoculars, a
pellet gun, aircraft base station with radio antenna and a handheld ICOM
A5 Aircraft radio. The rest of the list is long and the expense to replace
these items is potentially crippling for Tico and with this may go the
last hope for the African Wild Dog.
The plight
of the Wild Dogs is well documented by Tico as his books and recent award
winning documentary “Newky” a Wild Dogs Tail are poised to help him dig
his heels in and make a last stand to preserve. With possibly fewer than
four thousand “Painted Wolves” as the dogs are sometimes called left on
the continent time and money are at a premium. In addition to being shot
and poisoned by farmers these awesome pack hunters are simply running out
of space. The dogs need large home ranges to catch adequate prey as they
also suffer a high infant mortality rate at the hands of lions and hyenas.
In addition to this the dogs are highly vulnerable to many of the diseases
that domestic dogs carry and many packs are regularly devastated after
coming in contact with farmer's dogs.
With big black
ears, dark faces and a menacing hunting style these highly endangered creatures
fail to capture the same panda type “cute’ attention. However when you
look deep into the eyes of a wild dog or spend a few moments in the company
of this masterful hunter you will understand why Tico and scientists like
him are prepared to live with so little in such inhospitable areas.
As voting members
on the Circle of Life committee we must ask ourselves how many breaches
in the circle can we allow before it simply becomes a dotted line and collapses.
If we were any other creature we would be labeled as a plague and dealt
with accordingly. The cure for the plague is being self medicated, kill
all others and do nothing to coexist peacefully. This is one doctor’s order
we would be well advised to ignore.
Tico and the
anonymous few are ignoring the order and continue to live a Bedouin lifestyle.
Programs like “Bring a Bag” and “Bush Soccer not Meat” must prevail or
Tico and his family will be homeless like his beloved wild dogs.
A full list
of items destroyed at Tico’s camp can be obtained by contacting me directly
at ashley@ashleyssoccer.com.
We are hoping to coordinate the replacement of these items with our “Bring
a Bag” program.
For further
information on how to get involved in “Bring a Bag” or the “Bush Soccer
not Meat” programs please write to soccercamp1@aol.com
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| Ashley
is a professional soccer coach in New Jersey and has used his training
company for 12 years to teach thousands of children about wildlife conservation.
Among other innovative teaching ideas each year a different endangered
animal is incorporated on to the camp t-shirt. The camp participants are
then taught soccer along with a healthy dose of conservation information
with questions and research projects. Ashley can be reached directly at
www.soccerdomain.org
or by email at ashley@ashleyssoccer.com.
Ashley will be writing a second report upon his return from his upcoming
trip we will include pictures from the wild dog and lion research camps
along with more information on how we can help. Chris Waldron can be reached
at chris@phillyzoo.org |
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