Bushman Walk

One of the other activities we have done whilst on the project was the Bushman Walk, where 2 of the local workers, Felix and Peter, took us on a walk though the bush and taught us about the lives of the tribal hunters who have lived on the land for thousands of years.

Back before white men invaded Africa, there were 2 main modes of living for the tribes- above the equator the Bantu people farmed livestock and grew crops, and below the equator lived the San or Bushmen who were hunter-gatherers. The people lived peacefully together, trading animal skins for metals and other crops, however the San started to hunt the livestock of the Bantu people, creating conflict between the 2 peoples. Simultaneously, European invaders in the south were extending their rein over the country and forcing the San out of their natural hunting grounds. Now the San people are confined to a much smaller area, mainly in southwest Africa, but they are recognised for their cultural and historical value by the government and so are given a protected status. Modern San tribes are no longer nomadic, and have set up villages and adopted a more modern style of living.

 

Felix and Peter preparing a bird trap



In preparation for long hunting trips, the San people would locate ostrich eggs from the nest and make a hole in the top of the egg, cook the egg and eat the yolk. Then they would then coat the inside of the shell with honey and leave it for the ants to eat the leftover egg. They would locate honey by attaching a thread to a bee and finding where the thread is left thus finding the bee hive. The empty shell would then be filled with water, sealed with beeswax and buried in areas where they would be hunting. Any broken shells would be used for making jewellery.

A large part of the tribal culture was making jewellery and instruments out of seeds, empty cocoons and fruit skins. The San people would also make a very strong rope made from a plant known as Oryx Horn, and they would waterproof the rope using beeswax. I tried feebly to make a version of this rope but was laughed at by Peter!



Peter demonstrating a porcupine trap



The San people will only kill what they need- they have strong beliefs that the spirits of dead animals will return as people and vice versa. They would lay traps for smaller animals such as porcupines and birds whilst hunting larger animals- if they do not catch anything then they will take whatever is caught in the traps, however if they do make a larger catch they will release whatever is caught.

To decide the direction that the San will hunt in, they send a runner (a young boy) to retrieve a praying mantis, and each of the hunters will in turn put the insect on their bow and whoever’s bow the praying mantis gets furthest on before falling off gets to decide the direction that they hunt in. They decide the direction by shooting up a very small arrow into the air from a love bow, and whichever direction the arrow lands in is the direction they will hunt in.

The San people hunt with poisoned arrows, and the strength of poison used depends on the size of the animal being hunted. The strength of the poison is determined by making a cut on one of their limbs, letting the blood run and placing a small amount of poison below the running blood. The faster the blood congeals upon contact with the poison, the more potent the poison.

When a big kill is made, tribes from all around will be invited for a big celebration feast. There is music and dancing and plenty of food. This is also a way for men to meet women- if a man likes a woman he will shoot an arrow from his love bow at her butt and if she likes him, she will hold the arrow to her heart (if not she will break the arrow in half!).

Born Free

Every morning we work from 7am to midday, when we stop for lunch. After lunch we have a few hours to ourselves, and then in the afternoon is usually some kind of game drive. The project leader, Clive, and his assistant Beth, are incredibly knowlegable and have shown us all kinds of animals living in the reserve.

Probably wondering why 2 trucks of
 tasty meat are sitting watching him!

I think the highlight of the game drives has to be tracking all the 7 radio collared leopards. We only caught a glimpse of a few of the leopards, who are so well camoflaged you often don't see them until they are right in front of you. One of the leopards, MJ, has 2 6-month old cubs who she usually stashes in the mountains while she goes off to hunt for them. However they are reaching the age where they need to start accompanying mum to learn how to hunt. We were so fortunate on Sunday morning to have not only tracked MJ to a nice shady spot, but also her cubs who were busily eating a kill that she had placed in a tree for them. The cubs were only a couple of feet long and we watched them for several hours.



Barely hanging on

MJ the mother

Wild dog

Abbey the cheetah

We also tracked hyena and wild dogs. A healthy clan of hyena actually rank above a pride of lions in nature based on the power of their jaws, and I got to stand 10 feet away from one (albeit a sleeping one)! The hyena at Okonjima aren't like normal hyena because they are solitary and would never be solitary normal. This particular hyena, Pooh, was the hyena I mentioned in my post about the vet visits. Luckily he is back roaming free and in good health. Wild dogs are endangered in Africa- there are only about 500 left in the wild. It took a few attempts to track the wild dogs and when we finally saw them it was only very briefly.

Another real highlight was tracking some of the cheetahs that are in the larger rehabilitation enclosures, with the aim of eventually releasing the animals. Having worked closely with the cheetahs in the welfare enclosures and learning about the overall aim for these cats, it was good to see the ones that have a chance still. We saw 3 cheetahs- Mulder, Abbey and TinTin who are all siblings and hunt in a coalition (the name for a group of cheetah). They were all very relaxed when all of a sudden Mulder got grouchy and tried to charge us- a bit scary but luckily we were in good hands. Hopefully one day these cheetahs may be released back into Namibia, but they still need to be a bit more afraid of humans first!

Pretty cute for a squirrel!

 

I've seen plenty of game animals since arriving in Okonjima, but not all of them. The numbers and type of game are controlled in the reserve to maintain the predator-prey balance. Some typical game we have seen are Oryx (the most mountain adapted antelope), Greater Kudu, Impala (nicknamed Bambi), Steenbok (which curl up like stones when afraid- Steen=stone) and Dik-Diks which are the smallest antelope in Africa and mate for life.

One animal that I have seen more than enough of is the giraffe, however they are so graceful and yet bizarre that I never tire of seeing them! Did you know that a group of stationary giraffes is called a tower, but if they are on the move it is a journey?! A group of giraffes is more of a social group- they don't stick in family groups unless it is a mother and her calf- and they don't stay in the same group. And giraffes have the same number of vertebrae in their necks as humans! Enough of the useless facts (might come in handy for a pub quiz), and on with the pictures!


My absolute favourite animal however, has to be the zebra. In Okonjima reserve there are mainly Mountain zebra, which have white bellies, horizontal stripes down their legs, a brown patch on their snout (for lack of a better word) and a grid pattern of stripes on their butts. I didn't realise until I toured the rest of Namibia that Mountain zebra are actually quite endangered so it was a priveledge getting to see so many. [More on zebra later. I might even dedicate an entire post to them.]