African Wildlife & Environment Issue 76 FINAL

& ENVIRONMENT

ISSUE 76 (2020)

THE MAGAZINE OF THE WILDLIFE AND ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

CONTENTS

The content below is hyperlinked to the article Just click and read

1 Editorial 2 Letters to the editor 5 In memoriam: Garth Owen-Smith 6 Good reads

Conservation 8 Does freshwater flow into the ocean constitute a wasted water resource?

A picture is worth more than a thousand words

Fauna, Flora & Wildlife 11 Foraging food from the veld 13 A picture is worth more than a thousand words 18 The Majete story 24 A new tree book is born

Birding 27 The majestic Forest Buzzard WESSA Regions / Branches / Friends 29 Friends of Moreletakloof

Eco-Hero 32 Peter Hitchins

The Majete story

Subscriptions / General 38 WESSA membership 39 Leaving a legacy 40 Region, area office, branch & centre contacts 41 Publication details

THE MAGAZINE OF THE WILDLIFE AND ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Eco-Hero Peter Hitchins

Copyright ©AfricanWildlife & Environment.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by and means, electronic or mechanical without the prior written permission of the publisher. African Wildlife & Environment retains the right to make alterations to any material submitted. The publisher, while exercising due care, cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage to material submitted.The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of WESSA. Copyright on all content belongs to WESSA and the individual contributors.

Cover photograph: John Wesson

GENERAL

Dr John Ledger EDITORIAL The Editorial in issue # 74 of your magazine was critical of the wind energy industry, the impact of wind turbines on the environment (in particular, the mortality of birds and bats), and the myth of 'carbon-free' electricity generated by wind turbines. Several readers responded to this provocative item, but there was not enough space in the next issue (#75) of the magazine to publish their letters. Instead we promised that issue # 76 would allocate the room to do so. As may be expected, the subject of energy and climate change is fraught with controversy and polarised opinions.

overseas who know and love the African continent and its unique wildlife and biodiversity heritage. We can only hope for the end of the Covid-19 epidemic to happen sooner rather than later, and a return to normality to re-open travel and tourism operations again. We also need to plan for future events like this that can bring countries to their knees. More than 100 years ago, the 1918 'Spanish Flu' epidemic killed millions of people, including my own grandfather, then a young man. With the growing world population, and international travel on an unprecedented scale, conditions for the evolution of more wicked viruses are probably going to improve. Nobody knows how we will look when our epidemic passes (they all eventually do) but for now may you, our readers, take all reasonable and responsible precautions to protect yourselves and your families for as long as possible. Better treatments, drugs, and eventually a vaccine will evolve in time. The longer we can survive until then, the better. Good luck to all of us! The sooner the tourism, hunting and wildlife ranching industries can get back to normal, the better it will be for wildlife, biodiversity and for all the people whose livelihoods are based on these economic activities. While there may be some losses of edible species due to dire human needs, history has shown that with appropriate measures, which include making wildlife valuable to the people that livewithwild animals (see reviewof Emmanuel Koro’s book, page 8), populations can recover remarkably quickly. A case in point is the Gorongoza National Park in Mozambique, which has made a spectacular come-back following its virtual destruction during the civil war in that country.

There is only one subject on the world agenda at the moment - the pandemic of the nasty Covid-19 virus that has swept across the world, causing social and financial havoc. The rural areas of Africa have been badly affected, since international travel, tourism and other attractions on the continent have been suddenly shut down. A lot of things have changed in the world since the Spanish flu ravaged the world one hundred years ago. For one thing, modern medicine, vaccines and a dazzling array of pharmaceutical chemicals have prolonged human life, and in most developed countries the allotted 'three- score-years-and-ten' (70) has been routinely extended by another ten to 15 years for many. This mostly accounts for the high mortalities among senior citizens reported from Europe, the UK and the USA. The developing world by contrast has much younger populations, so Africa (and South Africa) should theoretically be better off than the developed countries Community conservancies, national parks, private land used for photographic safaris, wildlife ranching, hunting and tourism, the lodges, tour companies, professional hunters and all of their respective staffand service providers – none have been spared. The situation in rural Zimbabwe is particularly bad. The country is in economic melt-down, and there is no food in the shops. I am a trustee of the Wilderness Wildlife Trust, and we recently held an urgent meeting to get food to people in areas where Wilderness Safaris operates. The most critical need is currently in Zimbabwe, but food aid is also being directed to wildlife areas in Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, Zambia andZimbabwe.Afoundation in theUSAhas kindly provided funding to supply emergency food parcels for these affected people for three months, and we hope others will follow suit. It is inevitable under these circumstances that starving people will turn to wildlife to sustain themselves, and who could blame them for that? Let us hope that the potential damage can be offset to some extent by similar types of interventions by individuals and charitable foundations

Dr John Ledger Consulting Editor john.ledger@wol.co.za 083 650 1768

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LETTERS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Your opinion is highly valued and welcome. Please send your feedback, letters, comments and suggestions to editor@wessa.co.za

From Paul Dutton Your latest editorial about wind farms assessment I hope will save us from turning our fast vanishing ‘open space’ into fields of expensive whirling biocidal propellers. I visited Humansdorp some years ago where farmers are cashing in by accommodating these structures that would have challenged Don Quixote in hating his government even more. I met an Eskom technician servicing them there who declared them a waste of money and of limited energy production especially when the Cape winds occasionally die down.

We welcome feedback from our readers, and you are all encouraged to send us your letters to express your opinions.

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LETTERS

From Jack Ellery (letter shortened)

I felt that your argument presenting wind energy as not ‘carbon-free’, to be a little misleading to readers. Of course, NOTHING is carbon- free. It is impossible toproduce energy without ‘burning’ something, whether it is you or me walking up a flight of stairs, or shovelling coal into a furnace - both produce carbon dioxide amongst other things. The 'burning' of energy produces carbon dioxide in most instances in the natural world. Saying that producing wind turbines is 'carbon negative' due to the fact we must burn fossil fuels to produce them, is true to an extent - you do have to burn fossil fuels toproduce steel and concrete, and all the various components. But if you look at the life span of a wind turbine vs the same energy produced using fossil fuels, the usage becomes fairly negligible. Based on your calculations,

By that logic, should we then stop producing bicycles because we need to burn carbon to produce them? Or solar panels, because we need to burn carbon to produce them? No. Because the NET positive impact (in terms of greenhouse gasses released) over the lifespan of a bicycle or solar panel, or indeed, turbine, far outweighs the NET negative impact of producing them. Of course, I completely understand your argument with regards the impact onwildlife and biodiversity. I also 100% appreciate and support your concern on the lack of attention to biodiversity present in the report. It is highly concerning, and quite frankly just reflects the lack of research which is applied to these initiatives in that regard. However, it is also important to consider at these issues from a macro- perspective. There is no way to produce energy which will not have some negative effect on some wildlife or habitat in some way. Even solar panels - in order to produce the amount of energy required to meet global demand, huge swathes of land would have to be cleared, forests felled, in order to create these power banks around the world.

one wind turbine requires 150 tons of coal to be burnt in order to construct themachine, equalling 279 tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.A1.8-2.5MWturbine has a capacity of 2.86MW per year - and without actually ‘burning’ any fossil fuels. For a coal plant to produce the same amount of energy, it must burn 11,440 tons of coal per year (these calculations do vary from one to another in the various sources I looked at, but not by much, so this is a rough average from what information I could find. The variation tends to come from the quality of coal used as a basis for calculation). This equates to 21,278.4 tons of Carbon Dioxide released into the atmosphere. Annually. Around 276 times MORE than it takes to produce a wind turbine - once. Even if you factor in all the transport, fuel and lubricant to service the machines, I still think it pales into insignificance when compared to the lifespan of a turbine in terms of Fossil - shall we say - ‘reduced’ (rather than ‘free’) energy production.

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LETTERS

From Willem Hazewindus Your denouncement of wind energy in African Wildlife & Environment issue #74 needs to be put into perspective. It is very sad that wind turbines cause the death of a variety of birds. But that by itself is no reason to advocate the opposition of wind turbines in order to prevent the death of birds. On that basis it could be argued that the use of motor vehicles should be opposed because they cause biodiversity road deaths. One could go even further and oppose the generation of electricity because of a multitude of unintended consequences to our biodiversity and to the environment! Realistically, if we accept that as people we want electricity, we should calculate what the most cost effectiveAND the most environmentally friendly modes of generation are, recognising the limitations of solar at night and turbines when the wind does not blow. In the same way that you calculated the carbon footprint of erecting wind turbines, it would be only fair to do the same calculation for erecting solar, coal, gas and hydro power generation facilities, and then compare them per Megawatt generation capacity. In addition, comparisons on carbon footprint per Megawatt generated should be presented. The impact of the various generating

I think what I am trying to say is that all of the alternatives reallyneed tobeweightedupagainst eachotherwithvarious indications as to howefficient, and sustainable, each energy is in terms of production, installation, maintenance, direct ecological impact, greenhouse gas production, feasibility (geography, climate, etc), etc these different sources are, and then invest in the one which ticks the most boxes… When you weigh up the global impact of Climate Change (increasing temperatures, desertification, lack of rain, flooding, etc) on local ecologies, I think that the NET negative impact of these climate changes around the globe probably would account for more habitat and species loss than wind turbines ever could. Unfortunately, given the ever-increasing human population and our demands for more food, energy, EVERYTHING, we only really have a choice of the lesser of many evils. Birders (such as myself) will always hate the turbines, and I share your sadness for the high losses of raptors especially, as I am passionate about raptor conservation - particularly vultures. Those passionate about wetland conservation and river habitats will always hate dams. Those who are into Marine Conservation will always hate tidal barriers. In my mind, Solar is the way to go. The reason I felt so strongly to present my response to you I think was born from a fear that some readers may

modes on biodiversity should then be determined and compared. Furthermore, the air quality degradation (and negative health impacts) of thedifferent generating facilities should also be presented. For example, if wind kills birds but coal kills humans, what would the choice be? Only once we have a total and comprehensive picture of the potential benefits and downsides of the various modes of electricity generation will we be able to make informed decisions on the least harmful ways for biodiversity – which includes Homo sapiens.

not give enough time and consideration to the need to be producing less fossil-based energy. And as such, an article which effectively says ‘wind power is bad’ in its entirety, may mislead people to feel that there is absolutely no place for it whatsoever, and that a better and more viable alternative is just more of the same - ‘it doesn’t matter anyway, I’ll be long gone before the coal runs out…' Thank you for your interesting editorial, and apologies for imposing my thoughts upon you!

Willem Hazewindus Past chair WESSA NAR, and Recipient of WESSA Lifetime Conservation Achiever Award. Lone Hill, 21 January 2020

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IN MEMORIAM

Garth Owen-Smith was born in 1944 and lost his battle with cancer on 21 April 2020, so ending the life of an extraordinarymanwho has left an indeliblemark on the practice of wildlife conservation in Africa. For 53 years, from his first visit to Namibia in1967, Garth devoted his life to changing the way in which wildlife policies and attitudes to rural communities were implemented. In memoriam GARTH OWEN-SMITH Colonial attitudes and philosophies brought to Africa saw rural Africans as 'poachers', to be pursued and punished by the equivalent of the European 'gamekeepers', whose job was to protect the 'Royal Game' within the areas designated for their protection. In this way most rural Africans were alienated from wildlife and denied access to the wild resources that they had traditionally utilised for centuries. Garth Owen-Smith's story has thankfully been documented in his excellent autobiographical book AnArid Ede n. His early years in Namibia (then 'SouthWestAfrica', administered by South Africa since 1921 after World War 1) were characterised by ongoing friction with government Dr John Ledger

rapidly after Namibia's independence in 1990. The new regime was very supportive of the notion of communities having ownership and responsibility for the wildlife on their land, and the concept of 'conservancies' was widely implemented. By 2017 there were 83 registered conservancies in Namibia, covering 163,000 square kilometers of land, over which wildlife was now legally managed by its

officials who regarded rural communities as incompatible with wildlife conservation goals. Garth's view was that unless these same communities were treated as legal custodians of the wildlife they lived alongside, there was no hope for nature conservation in Africa. His philosophy was articulated in a seminal article entitled 'Wildlife conservation inAfrica: There is another way!', published in Quagga # 17 (1987), the journal of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. When he resigned from government service, hewas supported by someNGOs in his efforts to implement conservation in an area the size of the Kruger National Park. He had one

indigenous rural custodians as a valuable and sustainable resource through tourism, live game capture and sales, subsistence hunting and trophy hunting. Today Namibia leads the African continent in its enlightened wildlife conservation policies, which have ensured the increase in numbers of rhinos, elephants and a myriad other species that have benefitted from the conservancy concept. Garth leaves two sons and a grandson from his former marriage to June. A more detailed tribute will be paid to this conservation legend in a forthcoming issue of our Eco Hero series. It is not often that individuals can play a major role in shaping far-reaching national

Land Rover, donated by an American NGO called SAVE, and six community game guards, funded by the EWT. The concept of the game guards was his innovation, to give the local community chiefs status in appointing the men, some of whom were reformed poachers. Over the years, Garth suffered considerable deprivation and hardship, but stuck firmly to his convictions. With his anthropologist partner, Dr Margaret Jacobsohn, steady headway was made, which escalated

policies, but Garth-Owen Smith was one of them, and we salute his legacy and his memory with gratitude and appreciation for a life truly well-lived.

Dr John Ledger Consulting Editor john.ledger@wol.co.za 083 650 1768

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GOOD READS

GOOD READS Book reviews by Dr John Ledger

Butterflies Woodall, Steve (2020) . Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa . Struik Nature, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town. Soft cover, 15x21 cm, 464 pp, illustrated in colour throughout with photographs and distribution maps. ISBN 978-1-77584 -587-4. R390 The first edition of this field guide

to our butterflies was published 15 years ago, and Steve Woodall has arguably done more than anyone else to expose the diversity and beauty of these insects to the lay public. Today we have a veritable army of citizen scientists armed with digital cameras, binoculars and sharp eyes, who send in records of butterflies to SABCA (South African Butterfly Conservation Assessment), a collaboration between the Lepidopterists' Society of Africa (LepSoc), the SANational Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and the Animal Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town. SABCAhas now evolved into SALCA to include all Lepidoptera, and not only butterflies. Steve's revised Field Guide is the 'Butterfly Bible' that all nature enthusiasts will want to own. The text has been fully revised to reflect recent taxonomic changes, while species entries have been updated and expanded. Remarkably, the book features all of the 671 species known from the region. The photographs are superb, two-thirds of them are new to the revised edition, and a large number of them are by Steve himself. I was a little surprised that there is not a section on photographing butterflies, yet there is a full-pagenarrativeoncollecting butterflies (which is not damaging to populations, a popular misconception). There are a number of very useful introductory chapters which take up the first 40 pages of the book, followed by the species accounts (with photographs and distribution maps) and ending with indices, a glossary and a list of food plants. This is an outstanding, professional,masterpiece of a field guide, a tribute to the author, his collaborators and the publishers – a winner in every respect, a landmark in the documentation of the biodiversity of this country.

African Birds Watson, Rupert (2020) . Peacocks & Picathartes. Reflections on Africa's birdlife. Struik Nature, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town. Soft cover, 15x24 cm, 216 pp, illustrated with greyscale sketches and two maps. ISBN 978-1-77584 -560-7. R220 The author has lived in Kenya for 40 years and is an enthusiastic birder, as well as a lawyer, mediator, naturalist andwriter, having authored several books and published many articles. This latest offering is a very readable and eclectic account based on RupertWatson's own observations, and some very extensive reading and research he has conducted in the compilation of this book. The main chapters are Only in Africa, Mainly in Africa, and Six Special Species. I was intrigued to find Egyptian Goose and Hadeda in the latter chapter. At the end of the book there are short chapters on Conservation & Celebration, Inspiration & Information, and Bibliography & Further Reading. There is no index. The book is illustrated with rather charming pencil sketches by Peter Blackwell. Peacocks & Picathartes is a celebration of the diversity of Africa's birds, focussing on families that occur only in Africa, as well as iconic families and species that, although having close relatives in other parts of theworld, seem to embody something ofAfrica. This is a wonderful collection of stories that most birders will thoroughly enjoy, written in vibrant prose and filled with interesting information and anecdotes. It is a wonderful bedside book to dip into for unusual insights into the world of birds.

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GOOD READS

African Frustration Koro, Emmanuel (2020). Western

Amazing places Bristow, David (2019). Of Hominins, Hunter-Gatherers and Heroes. Searching for 20 Amazing Places in South Africa . J acana Media, Auckland Park, South Africa. Soft cover, 15x24 cm, 247pp, illustrated with B&W photographs. ISBN 978-1- 4314-290-9. R267 David Bristow knows how to write a good yarn, and I found this book to be wonderfully

Celebration of African Poverty. Animal rights versus Human rights. Published by Emmanuel Koro, PO Box 14374, Northmead Square, Benoni, South Africa. Soft cover, 15x21 cm, 133 pp. ISBN 978- 0-6208-652-4. Order from the author at westernceleb2020@gmail.com or call +27 71 176 9265. US$10. In 1993 Emmanuel Koro did a 21 km run to raise money for elephant conservation in Zimbabwe. His venerable and respected aunt asked if he was crazy to do such a thing. He explained that apart from raising tourism revenue, elephants also bring sport-hunting earnings and their ivory and hides can also be traded to generate funds for elephant conservation and rural development. Just one elephant hunt can raise enough money to build a clinic in a rural area. His aunt was amazed to learn that elephants can benefit people both ecologically and socio-economically, while revenue from hunting can protect elephants from uncontrolled poaching. Alas, this alluring picture has been despoiled by the western animal-rights movement that has managed to promote the implementation of international bans on trade in elephant products, andhaswaged a relentless campaign to stop trophyhuntingandcontrol of elephant numbers through sustained harvesting. This is one of the most frustrating realities of Africa today. The continent is resource-rich, but poor. Africans are prevented from utilising their resources because of bans and constraints imposed by international agencies, like the IUCN and CITES, which were originally set up to conserve biodiversity and to oversee the orderly international trade in plants and animal species. In this hard-hitting little book, the author vents his frustration about this intolerable situation: "The Western animal rights groups present themselves as progressive people while in reality they are seemingly ruthless, and violateAfrican people's rights to benefit from their wildlife. They do so through their continued use of funds that they raise, to sponsor the ban on international trade in wildlife products, including rhino horn and ivory. "TheWestern animal rights groups fundraising industry is, in my opinion, a ticking time-bomb for the survival of African wildlife, including rhinos and elephants. It is also a ticking time bomb for the wellbeing of African people, who continue to die needlessly of poverty-related diseases and from starvation, despite being wildlife-rich." This book, written by an African, echoes the long-held sentiments of realistic conservationists who have argued that unlesswildlife is of full financial value to thosewho live alongside wild animals in Africa, this extremely valuable resourcewill simply be replaced by 'the cowand the plough'. The animal rights movement will be responsible for this tragedy, by unilaterally removing the right of Africans to trade and benefit financially from their natural resources. This is an important book, with an important message for everyone who cares about wildlife, wild places and human dignity in the developing world.

informative and entertaining. The intertwining of historical facts, natural history and a regular dash of humour, bring the 20 Amazing Places to life in a unique way. I have been to a number of the places he describes, yet found that I never knew a fraction of the interesting stuff about them. Indeed, I wished that I could have read Bristow's book before going there - it would have given me many insights that would have made the visits more rewarding. The book is also an extremely useful indicator of interesting places to visit for anyone planning a trip around South Africa. Apart from being a good writer, David Bristow is also environmentally literate, with a postgraduate degree in environmental science from the University of Cape Town. Thus, in his chapter on the Kruger National Park, he raises the issue of elephant management with commendable candour. Their numbers have grown beyond the carrying capacity of the park, and the damage they are causing to habitats is threatening other elements of the biodiversity the Kruger Park is charged with conserving. He writes: "No one wants to see the Kruger's sylvan reduced to a treeless wasteland as has happened across much of northern Botswana. Then again no one wants to see the elephants being 'taken off' in the name of conservation. And yet it makes sense to sacrifice some of the resources you have, and share the spoils with your neighbours, in order to turn the tide of the battle. "You wouldn't want to be one of the people who has to make these decisions, but someone has to. It's like when your arm has been trapped in a rock in a lonely canyon for 127 hours, and your life force is ebbing away. You have a pocketknife and the clock is ticking. "With the combined forces of land claims, poaching and radical politics gathering around the perimeter of the park, it takes a bold decision to cut off your arm in order to save yourself – or not to." DavidBristowalso takes us to theWestCoast Fossil Park, Mapungubwe, Hogsback, Lambazi Bay, Port Grosvenor, NieuBethesda, Cape Point, the Johannesburg 'war museum' and others – they each get a new treatment in a journey through our 'world in one country'. A great book, highly recommended.

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CONSERVATION

How many times have you heard someone saying that freshwater flowing into the ocean is a 'waste of a resource'? My response is always one of anger at the ignorance of the individual concerned. Ecosystems are defined by the flow of water, wind and nutrients through a landscape. The operative word in this observation is ‘flow’, because we know that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, merely transformed from one form into another. Water is a key element of that flow, so let us delve deeper into this fact from an environmental perspective. Does freshwater flow into the ocean constitute AWASTEDWATER RESOURCE?

Prof Anthony Turton

reduces its erosion potential. In a desiccated landscape we typically see canyons and gullies sculpted by water of great energy potential. That erosive energy arises from massive flows over short periods of time that have not been attenuated. Intercepted water always implies the presence of vegetation that attenuates the flow by releasing energy. This in turn implies lower soil temperature so that microbiota can survive.

South Africa is mostly semi-arid, except for a few places like the Natal Midlands that are well-watered. Aridity refers to the relationship between water falling as precipitation on the one hand, versus water returning to the atmosphere as evaporation on the other. It’s about the balance of water coming into a system, as opposed to water leaving that system in the form of vapour. Aridity is not about the lack of water. In fact, arid

regions sometimes have masses of water, often to the point of doing serious damage, as we saw in the Laingsburg flood in January 1981, where most of the town was demolished with the loss of 104 lives. So, it is not about the volume of water available, but rather about the balance of water left in the ecosystem after a rainfall event, and after the desiccation by wind and sun. More importantly it's about thefloodpulsebetween events. Arid landscapes are desiccated ones. This is a central feature pertinent to the relevance of water in such ecosystems, because it is the microbiota - the bacteria, fungi and archaea - found in the soil that make the difference. Dried soil is unable to sustain microbiota, so it becomes nutrient- depleted over time. The absence of water, elevated temperatures from the sun, and the parching winds collectively play a role. But what of the rivers and aquifers that receive water from surface flows? When water falls as rain, it is intercepted by vegetation. The more vegetation there is, the greater the interception. This means that where vegetation is present, water striking the surface has been slowed down. This

Image 1 : 27 Apr i l 2012

Image 2 : March 2015

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CONSERVATION

floats on top of saline water, and will not easily mix. This is a fundamental driver of the ocean currents of the planet, where fresh water flows into the sea, and creates areas of less dense water floating above masses of denser saline water. In technical terms, these two types of water are separated by a ‘halocline’. This can be seen if a scuba diver goes through a 'thermocline' (temperature-derived where warmer water is less dense than colder water, so the two separate across a clearly defined boundary) that also coincides with a halocline. Often denser saline water is also colder than less dense fresh water.

Image 3 : 24 Februar y 2016

But because microbiota can flourish, the soil is also more friable, so more of the rain infiltrates the ground to become soil water. It is soil water, present in the root zone of plants, that sustains ecological processes more than anything else. Once that water goes deeper than the roots can penetrate, it becomes groundwater, eventuallyflowing intoaquifers. Adesiccated landscape thus delivers a four-fold whammy in that groundwater infiltration is reduced, soil temperature is increased, surface soil erosion is common, and fertility declines as microbiota die in hot desiccated sand. But what happens when this surface water flows beyond the point where it originally fell? It is in this

If one looks along the halocline, light is distorted much the same as a mirage gives the impression of pools of water in a desert. It is inthisregardthatestuariesareimportant,because it is here that freshwater meets saltwater ecosystems. It is also in estuaries that biodiversity is spawned. Estuaries provide highly varied habitat in a relatively small area, so these are ideal spawning grounds for fish that later migrate out to sea. Typically, estuaries have a mud bank created by the tides, sometimes associated with mangroves. This mud is rich in organic nutrients and the tidal pulse determines behaviour of the living things that call this home.

regard that the storybecomes interesting because of physics and chemistry. Fresh water differs fundamentally from saltwater in many ways. The obvious differentiator is that fresh water is not saline, but saltwater is. Herein lies a myriad important aspects we need to understand. Salinity is the relationship between a water molecule and a salt molecule. Salt is a characteristic of an arid environment. Think of a salt pan in the Kalahari or Karoo. But salt is hydrophilic, so it attracts water. Now think of a given volume of salt in a defined volume of water – say a teaspoon of table salt in a one litre jug of water. All the salt will dissolve, so if poured out nothing will be left behind in the container. However,

Image 4 : 13 Januar y 2019

if the container is left in the desiccating sun, only the water will evaporate, but no salt will leave the solution. Salinity is thus a ratio of fresh water to salt within a given system. And it is right there that things get interesting, because of the physics of water. Saline water is denser thanfreshwater, so it sinks. Stateddifferently, freshwater

However, the fresh and saltwater remain separate in estuaries, because of the physics and chemistry noted above. Consequently, we see a wedge of saline water penetrating upstream along the benthic zone of the river – the bed where land meets water – with an opposite wedge of fresh water floating above. This wedge pulses with each tide, moving back and forth over the riverbed,

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CONSERVATION

season these muddy freshwater pockets are evident as they pulse along the shore, slowly mixing with the sea water as a result of wave action. Its interesting to observe the movement of these pulses, clearlymanifestasdifferentcolourwaters with straight lines separating them, as they respond to each tidal ebb and flow. Satelliteimagesshowthisphenomenon clearly, where summer flood pulses of freshwater discharged through estuaries present as plumes of distinctly coloured water, with clearly defined barrier lines between them. These patterns repeat themselves consistently over time scales recorded by satellite imaging, suggesting that they are persistent.

Image 5 : 4 Februar y 2019

but more importantly across the banks and mudflats associated with pristine systems. Its this pulsing wedge that triggers many of the ecological processes such as spawning. Therefore, a reduction of estuarine flow by over-abstraction of freshwater upstream disturbs the dynamics of this flood pulse, and destroys biodiversity of the oceans some distance away. The presence of muddy floodwaters is common along the coast adjacent to rivers that still have enough base flow to prevent sedimentation of the mouth and the formation of a lagoon. KZN has many lagoons where streamflow has been so reduced that the flood pulse is unable to break through into the open sea. In the rainy

It is these freshwater pulses into the salty sea that drives biodiversity and sustains fisheries. Therefore, to consider water flowing into the ocean as a 'wasted resource', merely speaks of an ignorance about the interconnectedness of ecosystems, of which humans are a part. Environmentally savvy people ought to educate those with such beliefs.

Prof Anthony Turton Centre for Environmental Management University of the Free State

ADVENTURE A WORLD OF in our own backyard

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FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

Foraging food FROM THE VELD

Foraging for many people is a way of survival. The abundant delicious ‘weeds’ that we can use in soups, stews, salads and nourishing stir fries will add nutrition packed with vitamins into our diets at no extra cost. The most sought-out edible weeds have been growing and used for centuries, like the ‘Marogo’which spans a variety of different spinach- like leaves including the Amaranthus species, field mallows, young leaves of the prickly cucumber, pumpkin and calabash vines (incidentally also with their delicious bean-flavoured young tendrils) to the vast array of wild fruit that grows seasonally in our SouthAfrican veld.We are enormously privileged to live in a small country with a diverse climate that has the biggest plant variety in the world, and therefore food foraging and Indigenous Healing plants are so important to the existence of all South Africans. One of my favourite indigenous weeds grew in stark green clumps along themoist river bed and cool corners of the dams on our original farm. It is the commonNutgrass Cyperus esculentus alsoknownas ‘Earth almond’, ‘Hoenderuintjie’ or ‘Insikane’ with its solid stems and bulbous root that form little nuts and tubers. It grows approximately 90 cm in height

As we venture into the ‘new world’ that we are facing and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic we will find many treasures we never thought of in nature. Many indigenous plants from the veld, and some in our gardens, will give us comfort and encourage a new way of free nutritional living. I hope this short introduction to a few of these fascinating indigenous plants will inspire you, as I have been my whole life, growing up on a farm with these valuable medicinal plants where the unusual became the usual.

Sandy Roberts Photograph JohnWesson

Cyperus esculentus

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FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

and is an evergreen weed from the sedge family that is not a grass at all. It can be most irritating to remove from one’s garden, and grows wildly in water-soaked culverts and moist roadside verges. It is attractive when grown in marshy areas as the birds find it malleable to weave and nest in. It is as sweet tasting to wild pigs as it is to goats and cattle and guinea fowl, who dig energetically to find the tiny pea shaped nuts, naturally spreading the growth as they unearth the roots. The ‘nuts’ are harvested, well washed and sold in manyAfricanmarkets as ‘tiger nuts’with a sweet tasting flavour, high in nutrients and rich in carbohydrates and minerals. Medicinally the fresh tubers when chewed aid digestion, colic and flatulence as well as cleanse the mouth leaving a sweet taste and breath. The nutgrass ‘milk’, more commonly known as ‘tigers’ milk’, is traditionally made by pounding the fresh tubers to a mash and boiling until gloopy and soft. To remove the strands, pour the warm mixture through mutton cloth and squeeze out the liquid into a clean bowl. Discard the strands and add either cow or goats’ milk to the desired consistency. This milk is usually sweetened with honey and poured over mielie meal porridge eaten for strength and vitality. Many African culturesbelieve thedriedtubersareforprotectionagainst bad spirits and will ward off famine. Small bunches of tubers are bound together and stored in the roof above the front door for warding off the bad energy. It is also good to know these dried and roasted tubers ground up make the most delicious coffee when sweetened with red ivory berries and honey boiled over a slow burning fire. Even though nutgrass has many valuable uses and can be made into tasty dishes, the easiest way to eat them is as a plain snack. Wash well and scrub off the outer skin gently with a brush and then lightly dry roast them in a pot with a little salt. The nutgrass tuber when dried yields a nutritious oil remarkably like olive oil which also contains, amongst others, linoleic, oleic and palmitic acids. The crunchy, earthy almond taste is quite unforgettable.Alwaysmake sure that you are harvesting the nuts from a clean ground-water source and avoid stagnant muddy areas as the nuts could be toxic. It is essential to the environment to forage sensibly by not taking the whole plant and replanting a third of tubers back into the moist soil. The ultimate benefit to us all is that these amazing indigenous plants grow naturally and organically on our back doorstep. It is vital to remember the golden rule: you have to be 100 percent sure of the identification of a plant before using it for food or medicine, you must always let your doctor or health practitioner know if you are using a natural or home remedy. Never try a new plant if you are pregnant, have any allergic reactions or are suffering from any organ disease. When in doubt please leave out!

FURTHER READING: Indigenous Heal ing Plants (reviewed in Afr ican Wi ldl i fe & Envi ronment # 71).

NUTGRASS CURRY RECIPE

• 1 kg good stewing beef • 1 cup flour • Dash of sunflower oil • 4 onions, peeled and chopped • 1 litre of water • ½ to ¾ cup honey • 1 tablespoon curry (Sandy uses masala) • Salt and pepper to taste • 4 large potatoes, peeled and diced

• 4 carrots, peeled and diced • ½ cup raisins or sultanas • 2 cups nutgrass tubers, cleaned • ½ cup dried split peas • 2 mashed bananas • ½ cup coconut

DIRECTIONS Too much curry spoils the subtle, nutty flavour of the nutgrass, bananas andcoconut, so start with a scant tablespoon and add more if you prefer it stronger. Cut the meat into cubes, and roll each piece in flour. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot and brown the onions and meat. Add the tomatoes, stir well and add a little water. Mix the honey vinegar, curry powder and the remaining flour and the salt and pepper and add. Once it is well mixed, add the remaining ingredients. Turn down the heat and simmer, stirring every now and then until the meat and vegetables are tender. Add more water if necessary to keep the stew moist and succulent.

The Herbal Centre Hartbeespoort 071 161 6441 or 012 001 4142 (mornings only) GPS: -25° 41’ 03.25”, +27° 55’ 04.06”

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Since the camera was invented, photography has played an important part in conservation and has helped to get the message out there. With the birth of social media platforms, the sophistication of modern mobile phones, and the easy access through the internet, sharing of any video or photo can happen at the touch of a button. This is both a blessing and a curse. In my conservation career photography has played a major part. A picture is worth more than A THOUSANDWORDS

that wildlife photography has become accessible to a far greater proportion of the population, and the only limit to what is possible is your bank balance. Good camera equipment is not cheap and the mainstay Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras can cater for the needs of all people. Mirrorless technology has also brought huge strides to the industry and is most likely what the future will look like. As a young schoolboy I was always fascinated by photography and spent much time with my father in a darkroom developing film. The smell of the chemicals and the muted red light created a surreal effect, as the photos were passed through the different containers until the image appeared, as if by magic. The process was a laborious one, but that you had to accept because there was no alternative. When I was young, I was fascinated by snakes and tried my hand at photographing them with my father’s Pentax film camera. Some of the slower-moving snakes were easy to photograph, but some of the faster snakes almost got me into trouble. The poisonous Rinkhals was prevalent in our area, and as a spitting snake one had to be careful of your eyes. I remember focussing on a Rinkhals that had spread its hood and was throwing its head forward. I could not manually focus no matter how hard I tried. Only when checking the front of the lens, did I realise it was coated with venom, and that was why I was getting that 'shooting through a fishbowl' type of effect. Once I was trying to photograph a large Brown House Snake when I moved my hand to try and make it get into a striking pose. To my absolute horror while looking through the viewfinder I felt a pain inmyhand and realised that the snake had latched onto my fingers. Instead of capturing all the action and pushing the shutter button, I jumped up, screaming like a stuck pig with the snake attached to my hand. Fortunately, they only have fixed teeth and no venom, so apart from a couple of scratches and hurt pride, I was fine. There is a fine line between wanting to get 'the shot' and putting yourself in danger. The 'Daryl Balfour Incident' with the large elephant bull called Tshokwane was a wake-up call for many of us in the Kruger National Park. Salios Baloyi was my trails assistant on the Napi Wilderness Trail, and he was one of the field rangers who investigated the scene after the incident. Taking a photo of a charging elephant bull will always be impressive, assuming that it will only be mock-charge and stop. In Daryl's case he was on foot, and after being mock-charged repeatedly, he continued after the elephant and then it finally carried through with the charge and injured him severely. Hewas incredibly lucky to survive. Salios said that the large tusks had gouged deep into the earth in the elephant's attempt to get to him. The details of this incident have been written about by Daryl in his book, and having his

BRYAN HAVEMANN PHOTOGRAPHS: JOHNWESSON

It is a 'miracle' that one can capture a moment in time and have it immortalised. Filmcameras in the 35mmanalogue format were the mainstay of most wildlife photographers in the early days. The frustration was that once a roll of film was finished, you had to wait until it was processed in a darkroom or laboratory before you could see the results of your work. This waiting period created much anticipation to see the results, but also made you careful of your shot before pressing the shutter button, not only because you wanted a good photo, but also because of the significant cost of the film and the processing! The digital revolution has provided technological breakthroughs that would have seemed impossible a couple of decades ago. Manual focusing was the order of the day before; however now there are ultra- fast automatic-focussing lenses that can track moving subjects, keeping the image pin-sharp and firing off bursts of 12 frames per second with ease! This has meant

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wife Sharna nearby to be able to offer assistance, helped give this story a happy ending. The last photo that was taken just before Tshokwane knocked Daryl over isan iconiconedue to the feelings it evokes when you think of what happened just seconds after the shutter was pressed. K r u g e r - 2 - K a l a h a r i interviewed the Balfours and a summarised extract as told by Daryl Balfour of the incident follows: “Briefly, I'd approached the elephant on foot about one to two kilometers off the road (which we had special permission to do in Kruger) and started taking my shots. Tshokwane made a series of mock-charges, which I photographed. I then 'shoo-ed' him off and turned and walked away.Tshokwane retreated some way then went back to feeding. After Ihadgoneabout100meters I looked back and preferred the light and the setting, so decided to return for a few more images. This was my first mistake. I walked to within about 40 meters of Tshokwane and noticed that he was aware of me but continued feeding. This was the kind of behaviour I had become accustomed to with the other big old tuskers I had worked around. I set my tripod down low and sat on the ground to commence shooting. "Suddenly Tshokwane charged. At about 15 meters from me he stoppedhischarge,thencurledhis trunk under his chest, trumpeted shrilly, lowered his head and charged in all earnestness. I continuedphotographing,saying to myself 'This is for real! Great shots!' My second mistake was that I continued photographing until my lens would no longer focus. By then Tshokwane was less than three meters from me, approaching in a cloud of dust. I knew I was in trouble!

The elephant captured moments before impact Dar yl Bal four/Wi ldphotosSafar is.com

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I scrambled to my feet and was hit in the small of my back as I turned to get out of the way. A moment later a second heavier blow sent me flying into the thorn scrub, and before I knew it, I was under Tshokwane's body and his feet were flying around me. "Trying to get out of the way and avoid being stood upon, I clinched like a boxer, grabbing hold of one of the elephant's forelegs and hanging on for dear life. I recall looking at the toenails on his feet and thinking how ugly theywere!Tshokwane stilled, then steppedback and stood on my left calf muscle before reaching down with his trunk, grabbingmy right ankle, and hoistingme overhead. He then slammed me back into the ground, dislocating my hip with the wrenching impact and thus immobilising me. Then I saw one of his huge tusks coming straight for my face and I pulled aside, taking a glancing blow to the side of my head which fractured the skull and knocked me senseless. "I regained consciousness about an hour and a half later, and to cut a long story short, dragged myself to where I could see my revolver lying in the dirt. The Kruger authorities insisted I be armed when they gave us permission to walk in the park, and Tskokwane had torn a camera bag and my holster from a belt around my waist. I fired a distress signal of three shots in the air. Sharna was waiting in the vehicle back on the road, heard the shots, realised I was in trouble, and eventually found me where I lay in the bush. She managed to load me into the back of the pickup and drove me to Skukuza, from where I was airlifted to hospital in Nelspruit. Perhaps the biggest lesson from the event was that a mock-charge can turn profoundly serious in an instant. The only predictable thing about a wild animal is its unpredictability. Luckily, the film was recovered unscathed from both the Nikon cameras I was carrying, despite Tshokwane having stomped on them really well!" Leading a wilderness trail in the Napi area in the southern KNP, we were viewing a small breeding herd of elephants when the wind suddenly changed, and they

got our scent. They immediately took off running in the opposite direction. I had put the trail group on a rocky outcrop, so I knew that they were safe. One of the trail group had an expensive upmarket camera and as we watched the elephants, they stopped with their trunks scenting and did an about turn and charged back towards our position. I was standing in front of the rocky outcrop and shouted and clapped my hands to try and turn the elephants. All of them turned apart from the matriarch with a small calf in tow. At remarkably close quarters I fired a warning shot at an oblique angle into the ground in front of the cow. She came to a skidding halt about five meters from me and showered me in dirt and stones. I had the rifle ready for a brain shot because I knew that I could not let her past me to my trail group. Fortunately, she spun round and ran away trumpeting madly with her herd in tow. The photographer had kept his cool and recorded the whole incident from his elevated perch. Unfortunately, one of the ladies in the trail group had tried to run and caught her foot in the rocks and brokenher leg. She had only two hours before asked for excitement, and she got more than she had bargained for! We had to evacuate her to hospital. When I was working for Dr Gus Mills as his field assistant in the south-eastern part of the Kruger National Park, I took numerous still photos with a film camera with a telephoto lens. Working with lions and following them to see what they are eating in a predator/prey study meant that there are long periods where you just watch lions sleeping. One afternoon I was next to a pride of sleeping lions and the light was perfect for some photos. Getting down to ground level always gives an interesting perspective, so I slowly opened the Land Rover door and lay down next to the vehicle. I had a clear view, of the sleeping lions looking under the chassis of the vehicle towards them, which offered me some protection. Lying on my stomach half under the

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