Apr 30 2008
An even shorter (but not and sweet) post today. What do you as readers think of the idea of rescuing lions from Romania and flying them to Africa? I would be very interested to hear your views. Call it a snap survey….
By the way, refer to comments on the previous post, for my rambling response to Wim.
Apr 28 2008
I’ve been following the events in Zimbabwe fairly closely. I spent part of my toddler-hood there. I also have a few people there who are very important to me.
TB the ostrich’s “quiet diplomacy” is thankfully being replaced by more decisive actions from southern africans. Of particular interest is the 77 tons of arms that were due to be offloaded in South Africa, origin: China. Destination: Zimababwe.
To my mind, 3 million AK-47 bullets, 1500 rockets and 3500 mortar shells are not going to help the people of Zimababwe recover from their currently desperate economic situation. Nor will they give citizens the freedom to express their political views. Nor will they promote peace and stability in the SADC.
I’m pleased to read here that even though the big man’s TB’s head is still firmly stuck in the sand, the SA Transport Allied Worker’s Union members refused to offload the ship in Durban. And futhermore that Mozambique has refused to allow the ship into its territorial waters.
Back to the subject of the title of this post. The Zim government coffers are not adequate to pay for this consignment. So uncle Bob, chose to trade 8 tons of Zim ivory for his weapons. This sale has not been appoved by CITES.
I’d be curious to hear some different points of view on this. I haven’t read any of the other wildlifedirect blogs which may have dealt with this, but will do so today. The story is well-covered in the South African dailies.
Apr 27 2008
If you have been hiding in a dark cupboard for the last few months, without access to internet or cable you might not be aware of the countrywide violence that shook Kenya in January and February, after the national elections in December.
The photograph below is of the back end of a minibus taxi in Nairobi. Most often taxis here are emblazoned with pictures of american gangster rappers and / or glamorous black women. This one was a pleasant surprise… Kofi Annan (for cupboard-dwelling newsphobes: Mr Annan was greatly influential in bringing a peaceful resolution to the post-election violence.
Here is a good summary of blogs that have been dealing with the kenyan national crisis.
Apr 25 2008
Here’s a photo I took recently of two members of Nempakai’s pride. This pride was mentioned in Antony’s post on on the Lion Guardian blog, on the 19th of April. I thought I might point out some interesting features.
The “handsome spots” are a feature of younger lions. They lose these spots as they grow older, and become more tawny.
The noses of cubs are almost completely pink for at least the first year. They become progressively more black as the lion gets older. In Tanzania it was found that lions generally had completely black noses by the age of about 6 years.
This was a short (and sweet?) post today. More tomorrow….Thanks
Apr 24 2008
My name is Seamus. I am a field biologist, specialising in studying lions that live in conflict with people. There is a group of like-minded and talented researchers that I work with that I will introduce individually in due course. For the moment, you can read about them here. We call our collective “Living with Lions”. Our approach is to use the only the highest calibre science to understand why large carnivore populations are declining in africa, then to carefully document applied conservation conservation programs that we initiate or collaborate with. If the results of our work are unpalatable we present them anyway. If something doesn’t work, we try to understand why. Conversely if the results of our work are optimistic then we promote them.
So, if I am in the business of research, why blog? Well, its quite simple really. Firstly I would like to bring some world attention to the situation of large carnivores in africa, and while traditional media outlets carry more accountability for their content, I have always been surprised by how little impact stories there have made. Having been raised as more of a paper and print sort of person (thanks DBM and MB for my addiction to newspapers), I have to admit to being a little skeptical about blogs, dismissing them as the unstructured ramblings of people with nothing better to do than gaze at their collective navels. I looked more closely at blogs late last year however and came to realise that they are consumed by a surprisingly wide audience, and can do things which traditional (aka “square”?) print media can’t. I helped to get the Lion Guardians’ blog on its feet last year and am pleased to say that it is rasing funds and ticking along quite well without my assistance now.
Which brings me to my second justification for take time away from research to publish a blog. I plan to use this to raise money to support our work. Conservation and research work in africa is typically not well-funded by governments here. This is understandable for the most part, as state funding generally has to be directed towards ministries that solve basic human needs. So good conservation in africa is often funded from external (private) sources. My strategy on this blog is going to be to try to post often, to post interesting material, and from time to time, remind readers to take a minute to hit that red button…. it was once said “wildlife conservation in africa is cheap”. This is pretty much true (in relative terms) but I still need a fair amount to put fuel in the ‘plane and buy lion collars, and from where I am (a bush camp in southern kenya) these are quite significant expenses.
Thirdly and lastly, this blog is for my somewhat scattered, eccentric, but nevertheless loving family… all the scientists in CO (whose work I still don’t really understand), Auntie Suzie in Durban (”whose house smells like diesel”), all the other peeps down South and of course, Little Yellow Bird (waiting for spring in the northwestern corner).
Disclaimer: Blogs have been called “citizen journalism” and other slighly confusing, but grand monikers. I have no noble aspirations here. Although I am a member of Living with Lions, and collaborate with many other conservation groups, don’t take anything I write in this forum as representative of the views of anyone other than myself. And from time to time if I digress from the topic of lions, its because I’d like to be seen as being a little less one-dimensional than your off-the-shelf lion researcher. Be patient and I will return to lion-related topics… they are after all, my favourite animals (followed closely by aardvarks and tigers).
I will develop the infrastructure of this blog as I have time, and as the wildlifedirect team provide the tools to do more exciting and dangerous things. Some posts will be short and cryptic. Others will be long and rambling. I would appreciate your thoughts. To a certain extent I can take requests for content too.
I’ll end this here. Media-savvy people will no doubt impress upon me the fact that most people wandered off to watch MTV or reality TV after the first paragraph… such is life I suppose. In the words of one of my favourite robotic politicians, “I’ll be back….”
