November 17, 2012
1400
Letaba Rest Camp
Mid-day break.
Checked into Letaba this afternoon after three days at Lower Sabie and
two days at Olifants. It’s been hard to
find the time to write anything.
It’s hot now. It was
about 72 deg F when we went out the gate this morning at 0430. It’s now about 106 F. We’re all in the room with the A/C
running. Gina’s reading and Aislin is
noting which gifts go to which friends back home.
Yesterday evening we took a long and hot drive that was mostly
not productive. We did however find one
hyena – a young hyena who’d been terribly injured by a snare. I’ve seen the impact of snares before. In 2008, I’d spent time at Mashatu in
Botswana and we encountered both wild dogs and elephants with snares. The wild dog especially suffered terrible
injuries by a snare around the neck, which cut deep into the muscle and
tissue. In that case, the researchers
were able to dart the dog, remove the snare and treat the dog with antibiotics
and topical antiseptics. I didn’t expect
to see a snared animal in the heart of the park and it makes my heart
hurt. Snares are like land mines of
human conflicts – they’re cheap to make and they’re indiscriminate. They are nooses made of cheap wire, anchored
to a tree usually, and set about head high for a small antelope. The animal gets it’s head or a foot or a
trunk caught in the snare and pulls and thrashes to break free while the wire
cuts deep. Often the animals will be
unable to break free and will die but if the animal is able to break the wire
it will suffer terribly from its injuries.
I’m not sure what the intent was.
At Mashatu, snares I think are usually set out to capture animals for
‘bush meat’ by desperately poor economic refugees from Zimbabwe. Here, I just don’t know. Don’t know if it’s for food or if this is the
work of poachers hoping to snare a rhino or something. It’s so hard to fathom. It’s very hard to see and it had an impact on
Aislin for sure. This morning I reported
the sighting to the rangers at Olifants and provided photos and a
location. They will pass it up the chain
of command, to the veterinarians at Skukuza, and may attempt to locate and dart
the hyena to remove the snare and treat the animal. Animals like hyenas are amazingly resilient
and can survive horrific injuries but I’m not optimistic. They have to find one hyena and it’s hard for
me to see them expending the resources required to do that. An injured rhino, sure, but I don’t know
about a hyena. I just hope for the best
for the little guy.
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| Young hyena terrible wounded by wire snare |
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| Young hyena terribly injured by wire snare |
While driving around yesterday morning, Aislin was remarking
about the casual and promiscuous nature of baboon sex and used the expression,
“Sloppy seconds”. I caught my breath for
a moment, contemplating the implications of a 14 year old using a term like
that. After a few minutes, I asked her
if she knew what that meant. She gave me
a PG version which involved the idea of taking something discarded by someone
else. To my relief, it was clear that
she didn’t understand the literal meaning of the term. I suggested that that was an expression she
probably wouldn’t want to use with her grandmother and asked her where she’d
heard it. She told me, “Boys” at
school. I’m trying now to figure out
what sort of gun I need to buy….
I want to talk about race somewhere along the line. It’s a topic that comes up for me repeatedly
when I’m in South Africa. We have seen
some bad behavior here for sure and it’s caught Aislin’s attention. It’s given us a chance to talk about some of
the ugliness of our experience in the US.
It’s a reminder too that we’re guests in this country. It’s a very beautiful country and I see
optimism in its young people, but I fear that there’s more pain to come in the
future of South Africa.
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