This Blog

Welcome to my blog. From August 2011 to December 2011 I travelled through Namibia and felt at home enough to say I was temporarily living there. My main goal was to work on a research project on the Pangolin, but I also got plenty of safari time and took part in some other volunteer opportunities. On this blog I did my best to keep a detailed account of my experiences.
To start from the beginning, click this link: http://emielkaza.blogspot.com/2011_04_03_archive.html

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10/08/2011

What should I call this post? It describes the last two days..


So on Thursday I got up early and packed a lunch. Put coke in a bottle I have with ice cubes. I got my camera, binoculars, bird books and also entertainment (ipod, other book). We then walked over to the vulture restaurant and waited for a group from PAWS to arrive. They shortly did.

PAWS is the People and Wildlife Solutions and is a volunteer (but not really serious) programme based out of Okonjima. It will be the final thing I do before I leave the country (maybe). They arrived in a big group of 19 people. Martin asked for volunteers to help unload the offal and food for the vultures, only a few people stepped forward. Yesterday Martin and I had unloaded all this stuff from his truck into bins. It was quite disgusting. The huge horse intestines released gases, and the fetus dripped its amniotic fluid all over our feet. Those of you who commented on my facebook picture of the Impala will be glad I didn’t bring my camera.
I left my stuff at the hide, but had to quickly bring a small group to the bridge we had built to work on it further. Turns out, one of them was a civil engineer so I left him in charge and ran to the hide once I saw the vultures circling above.

Basically my job was to sit there all day and record all the events and behavior throughout the day, identifying any ringed or tagged birds. There were a few moments of excitement separated by great lulls, but overall I think it was definitely interesting to see how the feeding works. It gave me a better understanding of some of the behaviours I saw on safari earlier.

The vultures slowly descend onto the trees. They wait for hours, for a sign that its safe; perhaps a mammal coming to feed, or for one brave bird to start. The wind was strong, so they were even more hesitant than usual. I counted over 70 birds waiting in the trees before a small group came down to feed on some small scraps at the side. In the meantime two jackals had come past to take scraps as well as a mongoose. Only after about 5 hour did a sickly looking warthog come past, and surprisingly began to eat from the carcass. The vultures began to swarm down and struggle for pieces of meat. The warthog would occasionally chase some off, pinning them with his tusk, but they also did a fine job pecking each-others backs. Eventually when only the scraps on the bones were left, the majority of birds left. The ones left behind were the lappet-faced vultures, big strong vultures that can tear the meat off bones and eat the skin.

I saw 3 tagged birds in total. One to my delight was a Cape Griffon Vulture – the most endangered species in Namibia. REST exists for these birds and it was very exciting that one of the 30 in the entire country visited me that day (especially as we know they range all the way up to Angola). I identified him as a bird named Sky Banker. There was also a White-backed vulture with rings who I identified (just a number, no name), and strangely a bird with a yellow tag on its wing which didn’t correspond to anything from REST. The identification was actually pretty hard, having to squint through binoculars to make out the colours on three tiny rings on their legs. Especially, as they are continually moving and the light is directly in your face.

Then yesterday, the cat showed up again after a few days absence. I found him lying in the shade in a dry riverbed about a kilometer down the road. He is currently lying on my bed. Nothing too exciting happened. In the morning there were hyena tracks all around the front garden, and I spotted an elephant shrew.

My time here is coming to an end soon and im looking forward to starting at Mundulea. We are in the wild here, but there is a road nearby, and I miss the feeling of complete isolation from civilization.
On Monday Ive made arrangements with a restaurant to have lunch and leave my baggage there while I shop for food. They also have wifi!

2 comments:

  1. Hello Mr Vulture-counter, these sound like a useful and a relaxing day. Cool that Cape-griffon-vulture. Only 2 nights left at REST - the cat will surely miss you, but the 2 doggies at Mundulea will be so excited to see you again ;-) Monday should be a nice transition day, spending good time with wifi in the garden at the C'est ci bon Hotel will be a treat. Watching the latest Office episode no doubt. It's only a little over a week ago that we had our farwell dinner there: too big steaks & cold red wine, but a very friendly & joyful waitress I remember. Also the SuperSpar will be nice to stock up on cupcakes and sweet popcorn. I texted you that I spoke to Graham today about Monday's arrangements, he sounded very friendly & helpful. Should be nice there: more isolated and into the bush, at the same time with more people to talk to. Go-away-birds to listen to, and Pangolins to 'hunt' for. 19 volunteers at PAWS you say - you'll be in for a culture-shock when you go there. That's still a while in the future though. First enjoy this weekend ! Love, Dad

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  2. Hallo Emiel,

    Kun je die Aasgieren niet wat meer eetcultuur bij brengen? Wel dapper van je dat je hun favoriete eten klaarmaakt. Ik heb bewondering voor je doorzettingsvermogen. Wat fantastisch dat die ene vogel je kwam bedanken voor je kookkunsten.Begrijp ik goed dat REST alleen bezoekers krijgt die niet blijven slapen? Fijn dat je over een paar dagen gaat verhuizen en dat je dan gaat beginnen met je onderzoek. Ik hoop dat je ons een paar levende Pangolins kunt laten zien. Zo te merken heb je al heel wat geleerd om te overleven in de wildernis. Een goede verhuizing en ook de groeten van Richard, Renée.

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