JUNE 2009
2009 started off peacefully compared to the political turmoil of 2008. The youth brigades that were terrorizing the ordinary Zimbabwe citizens have disbanded, many of them now employed within the Conservancy as Game scouts! In a few cases it is noticeable that they were actually pressurized to become youth brigades. In others the violence still lurks and it does not take long before they lose their jobs, for they tend to form partnerships with the poachers or poach themselves.
Just recently we had an experience which was not pleasant. It is highly possible that the culprits are old game scouts or from the villages of the people who invaded this wildlife land.
The other night at ten o’ clock, I walked out of our home to take our cat litter trays down to our rubbish pit. Our property is not fenced, as there has never in the past been a need to do this.
Suddenly my torch light picks up the eyes of an animal. I immediately think Hyena, Leopard or maybe even Lion, as we have heard them calling of late; then I realize it’s a dog. Sitting upright, staring at me, and beside it are two human bodies.
The bodies lie upon their belly, hiding their faces. For a moment I think they are dead, and then I realize that this is folly and these are obviously poachers or thieves. I am ten meters from them and they must have seen me approaching by the light of my torch. I can see that they are Africans but obviously their faces are hidden.
I back off, moving with speed to the house to call Jean-Roger. He grabs the shotgun and gives me a pepper spray (both objects that we never had in our home before the land invasions) and we return to the pit. Of course dog and men have gone.
We waken the two game scouts who sleep soundly in their small house and Jean tries to see tracks, but in the dark of the night it is hopeless. They do hear a dog barking and the noise comes directly from the house that Robert Mamungaere, the “war veteran”, stole in 2001. At this moment he is living with his wife in an area a few kilometers away, on another piece of land that he took over. There is no dog supposed to be nearby here.
The following morning as the sun beckons, Jean and the scouts look for tracks, finding one bare foot mark near that house. The same foot print as the one near our rubbish pit. So for the next few nights, the evening stars and the scents of night time Africa hold less appeal as our ears strain to hear unusual sounds made by man.
Silas, our employee, has been on leave. He returns on Thursday evening. He has a small hut about 150 meters from our house that he lives in when working here. His wife and children prefer to stay in their own community. That is a Communal Land some 25 kilometers away. In his hut he has two of his most treasured possessions.
His bicycle bought in 1997, and his radio. This is a solar-powered radio that I managed to get from the UK in 2006 while giving hippo talks over there. The radio only gives him each night a little bit of news on Zimbabwe as it cannot pick up any local channels, but it does give him some idea of what occurs in his country and the music from the other channels in Africa that it picks up give him pleasure.
The bicycle, like so many older things, is so far superior to the bicycles sold these days in Zimbabwe. Silas has looked after it better than anybody I have ever seen with a car or any kind of machine.
He sleeps near it at night as it means everything to him.Two kind Dutch hippo supporters, Floor and Bob, over the years have sent Silos Dutch tires and tubes for his bike. He has found that the tires here in Africa fall apart on our dirt roads within a matter of months. These Dutch tires last for years.
Friday 1st May, Silas came back to work at 6.30a.m and at 11.20a.m he went home for lunch. Within five minutes I heard the most awful wailing.
African people of the bush and maybe of the city, I don’t know, do not normally shed tears like I do. When they suffer a loss, be it some kind of bereavement or something of incredible importance to them, they make a kind of sound that is unusual for a white person to make.It is a much more heart rending sound than ordinary tears. It sums up pain; it shows grief loudly and very concisely. Silas arrived at our back door wailing and in pain.
His bike, his radio, his shoes sent by a hippo parent last year, his bag and his soap and razor and a tiny little case with a spanner and tools in, were all gone. Gone too were 100 Rands cash, which would buy him two weeks worth of his staple, maize meal diet. Even the padlock from the door had disappeared.
Immediately we went into action. The two Scouts were deployed as soon as they returned from their anti-poaching patrol. Jean drove to our neighbours 18 kms from here, to try and get back-up scouts, but sadly the one that came here, Gilbert, was not at all interested. After all it was May Day, a public holiday. A party with a lot of beer was taking place later and he was not in the slightest bit interested in assisting Silas.
Jean walked then with the scouts until dark, but they did not find the bike. The next morning Saturday, the scouts found tracks where the man had put the bike on the ground and cycled. He had carried it initially so as not to leave any tracks. There also appeared to be two sets of tracks.
The scouts followed to see where he had gone to. We have three of what are now called settlers villages but where in truth live the people who invaded here in 2001, so as far as we are concerned they are squatters.
They built their huts to the south west of us, the nearest being about six kilometers from here and it seemed that the thieves were heading for one of them. The good thing about Silas’s bike is the tracks it leaves are unique to this area, as the tires leave a different tread.We have been told by the same “war vets” that took Jean-Roger handcuffed in 2005, accusing him of murder and walking him 25 km without water, that they now wish to work with us and others in this Conservancy. These specific people live in those three villages.
They had come to our home recently, telling us they wish to stamp out poachers in their villages that they have built on Conservancy land, and in return they want meat and for us to work with them. We want to believe they are genuine and that things are going to improve, but we step lightly at this moment in time as we need to see results.
They did though, just last week, pinpoint two poachers who had set snares in our area and on Mokore Ranch opposite us across the Turgwe. They told the manager there that they will kick out the poachers from their villages, so again we wait to see. Both of those poachers were ex game scouts and before that Youth brigades!
So nowadays we sleep with worry of theft, worry of whatever is out there, but if you worry too much you cannot work. So along with my work; the worry is shoved deep inside me.
Jean-Roger and I do not have too much material wealth but the things we have are all important to the daily running of the Turgwe Hippo Trust, and so very much needed to keep everything operating.These days at night I stride down to the rubbish pit willing those b…..s to show themselves again. I am so angry at Silas’s loss that I want to let out this anger in more ways than words. We did go to the police and were told that if any intruder was to step inside our home we are in our rights to defend ourselves, but that does not bring back his things.
One of the “war vets” who arrested Jean-Roger back in 2005 has told the manager on Mokore that a guy was seen trying to sell a big black bike. That guy with the bike is known and was also one of the main hecklers that were in that mob that came to our home. He is a bad poacher and we have caught him ourselves once; he was also seen stealing on another property.
We have offered a reward for the return of Silas’s bike. In the meantime when he went home a few days ago for his week off (he works three weeks then goes home for a week) he had to walk. It would have taken him four to five hours to get home. He cannot take the shorter route, as the elephants live in that area and so he could possibly have a problem, so he has to walk between 25 and 35 kilometers to get back to his family.
We cannot drive him as there are no roads for our ordinary pickup truck and the four by four Land Rover is once more off the road. One day we hope to have a new four by four, but for the moment we do not have one.
To find Silas a new bike that is as good as his old one will not be easy at all. The bikes that you find in Zimbabwe these days are not good bikes. The mountain bikes that were imported many years ago all fall apart, so we have to hope that his old bike will be found.
Alan, the foster parent who bought the shoes that were stolen, has kindly told me he has sent Silas another pair and some shorts. We have given Silas some of my old clothes, a warm fleece and some socks. It is totally disgusting that those people will steal from somebody who has so very little. Obviously after checking our home and maybe even seeing Jean-Roger come out with the shotgun, they thought they would hit a softer target and so they stole from Silas.
Silas was born in the hut he lives in, but because he is now afraid he has asked if he could move onto our property, into the house that the two game scouts occupy. In the past, when offered this home, he refused as he liked to live where he was born. So we shifted the scouts to a prefab house and Silas is now in the brick structure. It is so sad that here, in the middle of the bush surrounded by elephants, hippos and all the other wildlife, that man can still intrude and cause misery to others.
Yet, when you face upset and disappointment you can either wallow in it or you can look for brighter and happier things. As I tell Silas, people are kind and he is lucky that the hippo parents want to look after him by sending clothes and gifts. One lovely American lady, Audrey, recently sent him cash to buy a surplus of maize meal for his family. Another Dutch lady Beate has just adopted her mother and her own hippos again and also send a donation towards a new bike for Silas. On our side I have managed to order a new solar-powered radio and hopefully it will be here by late June. The bike is more of a problem but we will do our best to help him if the old one is not found.
So far the first part of 2009 has been peaceful compared to the political problems that occurred during 2008. The British and American governments must also feel that Zimbabwe has stabilized to some extent, for they have lifted their travel warnings to their citizens.
It would be very nice to see tourists come back to this Country as in the past the Turgwe Hippos had as many as 1000 people each year visit them. By doing so they helped to support the Trust and spread the word about our adoption program.
We are really hoping that some of the hippos’ parents who adopt them may decide to visit here, maybe later this year.
Kim, a male who was born to Odile in April, followed by Peaches, Cheeky’s new daughter in July and then Grace who was born to Tembia and the older female Abe in November 2008 are all growing nicely. Kim and Peaches are right next to Hippo Haven in Bob’s weir pool, so I can follow their lives daily and record any new adventures or experiences that occur.
I have 13 hippos at this moment in that pool. A further four are living in a tiny channel in the Turgwe River opposite our house. Then there is Tembia, the younger bull, and Abe and her elder daughter Tsakus and now Grace, who are four kilometers upstream from Hippo Haven. Pavodok, another young male, returned last year and I believe is also hiding in reeds about five kilometers down from Hippo Haven.
Two older juvenile females, Sabi and Hope, appear to have left this area. This has happened with a few young females over the years and I believe they move to one of the other two river systems within this Conservancy, either the Mkwasine River or the Sabi River.
I think they move so that there will be no form of inbreeding and so that they can choose their own bull from a totally unrelated hippo family. Unfortunately it is very difficult to put a radio collar or any form of chip or tracking device onto hippos. This is due to the fact that they live mainly in water and when on land they walk through thickets and brush up against bushes and trees.I have looked into the various ways that other animals are tracked. In the case of hippos it is also very dangerous to drug them in order to fit some kind of tracking device. Nine times out of ten when a hippo is near to water, which normally it is, if darted and drugged it will return to that water immediately, and drown. The mortality rate when drugging hippos for capture in order to relocate to another area is as high as 33%. That is why when wanting to move hippos, it is best to be prepared to spend a long time and try to capture them by feeding into a truck.
Next week Jean-Roger will be doing an extremely hard job as he is going back into the Turgwe River with the Trust’s sand pump. Malilangwe Trust, a USA-backed Conservation Trust which is located approximately 80 kilometers from here, kindly donated to the Trust recently for us to get all the fuel for this three week job and buy some necessary equipment for the pump.
Jean has not used the pump for two years and like any piece of machinery, if not used it can develop problems. The funniest thing happened this morning. Jean was checking inside the engine and what does he find, but a tiny birds’ nest. Fortunately it had nothing inside so it could be removed. Had he not found it, we could have had a fire in the engine when starting up the pump!
The place he is going to open up is, at this moment, no more than a few centimeters deep. After three weeks, he will create a pool probably of around 100 feet long by 50 feet wide and deep enough for an adult hippo to submerge in.
The channel that Surprise and her family are living in is rapidly drying up now, so we need to create an additional pool for her and the other four hippos.Patrolling for snares is an ongoing daily event. We have periods where we find a lot of snares, so we remove them and then have peace and quiet for a couple of weeks and then it starts up again.
An ex game scout that worked with us from the Mokore Safari camp has paid the “war vet” Robert Mamungaere to take land behind the kopjes (little rocky hills) near to Hippo Haven. He was fired by Mokore safaris for poaching, so it is bad news that he has moved near to us. We will just have to be extra vigilant and catch him before he can kill any of the animals in our area.
Of late elephants in this Conservancy are being severely threatened and killed. All of the so called settlers’ villages are constantly complaining about the wild animals. Lions kill and sometimes eat their cattle. Elephants supposedly go into their lands and steal the tiny crops that they have grown.
The people that moved into this Conservancy were told by the government to grow cotton, but for the last two years they have for the most, not bothered to. Instead they just grow a tiny amount of maize to feed themselves. This maize to an elephant is like putting a chocolate cake in front of a child and saying do not eat it! So of course the elephants living within this wildlife land will enter the so-called settlers’ villages and eat the maize.
So Robert Mamungaere, the “war vet” near us organized for two National Parks rangers to come into the Conservancy with two army personnel and they shot at elephants in a herd, nowhere near to the lands. They killed three elephants and wounded one. Since then we have heard that two more elephants were killed in another area of the Conservancy, again where there are so called settlers. In all, we know of 15 elephants shot since the beginning of 2009!
Now the Conservancy are talking about capturing the lions in the one area by drugging them and removing them to the north of the Conservancy, which has not been invaded. All that will do will be to leave an area without lion where new lions will probably move to and once again kill cattle. The only answer to wildlife and human problems is to fence out the humans. If the boundary fence around this Conservancy were put back and the people that invaded this Conservancy (who now live as well bang smack in the middle of it on the land adjacent to us called Chigwete) were removed, this would solve many problems. Otherwise the killing will more than likely continue until all the animals are dead.
This Conservancy is not just a fantastic piece of wild bush land suitable only for the wildlife, but it is also a very important part of the old peaceful Zimbabwe, a place where tourists can come and bring much needed foreign currency to the Country.
At the moment hunters are the bread and butter for the people who run the land in this area, but in the past nearly half of those people worked more in the photographic and eco-safari line of business. If Zimbabwe became prosperous once more, I am sure they would prefer to return to that.
Many African countries, that in the past have suffered terrible problems, are now prosperous like for instance Zambia, so Zimbabwe could still recover. These are the positive thoughts that Jean-Roger and I hang onto. It is very hard to focus on a positive outcome when things are not good, but it is why the human spirit can survive as we do have this ability.
In the meantime we are now on line with our “adopt a hippo” project. Please help the Trust by finding one new parent for the hippos for us. The adoption is the Trust’s daily bread and butter and without it we would cease to exist.
Now is the nicest time of the year for me. The hippos spend the mornings on the sand bank and so I can see them beautifully and photograph and film them out of water. The chacma baboons and the vervet monkeys once more become permanent visitors to Hippo Haven with the onset of the dry.
The bush looks like Africa on the television as it starts to turn to yellow and gold with the colours of winter. The elephant herd of over forty animals normally live right next to our house for many months. These are the joys of living at Hippo Haven.
The Turgwe Hippos and I thank you so very much for caring about their lives and supporting them.
Karen Paolillo Turgwe Hippo Trust, Hippo Haven, Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe. June 2009.
