Death is the price that the world's biggest land mammals are paying for their tusks, which have a lucrative international market. Is Zimbabwe's parks authority sufficiently equipped to effectively curb poaching activities, especially given the fact that poachers are coming into the country with far more sophisticated weapons than the rangers' archaic looking Russian-made AK47 rifles?

Gonarezhou National Park, which is situated in the south eastern part of the country, is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park which incorporates Gaza National Park of Mozambique and Kruger National Park of South Africa. Covering 5 053 square kilometers, this makes it a mammoth task for the few rangers deployed in the park to eradicate poaching activities, which are on the increase worldwide.

Due to the growth experienced in the ivory export business in the 1970s and 1980s, the total elephant population of Africa decreased by half. Up to one million elephants were killed for their tusks to the point where the endangered animal appeared to be on the verge of extinction. In fact there is evidence of elephant tusk size reduction. A rapid evolution due to the gene pool of the largest tuskers being hunted first.

Despite the resource constraints, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWMA), has made commendable strides in protecting the country's elephant herd and managed to reduce poaching activities by 32 percent last year. Authority would never eradicate poaching completely as it is part of wildlife management but it was critical that it is kept within acceptable levels. A representative said "We are dealing with a well resourced powerful syndicate operating in the region but we are, however, on top of the game as we have noted a decrease in poaching nationwide. We are working with security agents in the country, the Attorney General's Office, the police and the courts to address this issue, Poaching is not new in Africa but we have deployed trained men to the park. Our major challenge is that the rangers cannot cover the whole park"

In 1989 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora banned trade in ivory hoping to protect elephants from poachers. Some Western nations have also provided assistance to African countries in order to help crack down on poachers. Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia have in the past decades accumulated huge stockpiles of ivory through culling, which is meant to keep the elephant herd within manageable levels.

Although the country is bound by a moratorium on ivory trade for nine years it is continuously arguing that if allowed to sell its ivory stockpiles the issue of poaching could be managed better. Zimbabwe, which is sitting on a 34 tonne stockpile of ivory worth US$5.1billion, can only reapply for permission to trade in its ivory in 2017.

More reading:
- For more on the Ivory auction debate see our previous post here.
- More on South African National Parks Elephant Management policy here.
- For an amazing experience with Elephant conservation see this post here. You can get involved with Elephant conservation on your trip to southern Africa by actually collaring an elephant. more on that here.

.....Or just search our blog (top left corner) for "elephant"

Just in from Gorongosa....

Ian Michler, renowned specialist guide and photojournalist will lead a 7 night trip in Gorongosa in October this year! Ian is going to be exploring Gorongosa National Park (from the Explore Gorongosa base) for the first time. He is so excited. And there are still some places available on the trip! The trip not to be missed. Ian is an awesome guide and we can't wait to see what he finds in Gorongosa.

He will be taking guests fly camping, to Mount Gorongosa birding and hiking and of course all around the park - even to some of the further reaches of the park.

Answers to a few questions that you might be thinking...

Who is Ian?
A stockbroker by profession, Ian left the world of finance in 1989 to go and live a dream in the Okavango Delta. He has 14 years of guiding experience in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe conducting big game, birding, adventure and photographic safaris. Ian is also an accomplished photographer (Agfa Wildlife category winner in 1998) and writer of two coffee table books to his credit. He is presently working on a third, which will be on Botswana. He writes and photographs for various wildlife and travel magazines, Africa Geographic and Africa Birds and Birding in particular.

What is fly camping?
Fly camping is real safari the way it used to be. You'll go out from the more permanent Explorers Camp to camp in the wilderness in a mobile smaller camp. It's real camping but you are well looked after all the way. It's not backpacking. The food is great, the drinks are cold and the adventure can't be beaten. In the amusing words of our friends at Gorongosa:
"Although the trend these days is for safari camps to provide seventeen imported Mongolian cotton facecloths per person, delicately soaked in endangered highland yak milk and served chilled with a skinny moccachino presented in Italian marble coffee cups with gold inlay... we at Explore Gorongosa like to think it is more the experience that counts and that, like the wrapper around a yummy Swiss chocolate, the camp is simply the outer layer which keeps the whole thing together."

When this year? 18-25 October 2010

Where will I be staying?
You will be hosted by the only private camp in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique - Explore Gorongosa. Rob & Jos Janisch will organise your stay including all the fly camping, mountain trips, swinging from hammocks. And anything else you may want to get up to!
More on Gorongosa on our website here and on the blog here.

How do I get more information? Email us- click here

The early settlers, in response to street width taxation in Holland, built expansive wide fronted homes when settling in the Cape in the 1700’s. Houses in this style have a distinctive and recognisable design, with a prominent feature being the grand, ornately rounded gables, reminiscent of features in townhouses of Amsterdam built in the Dutch style. The houses are also usually H-shaped, with the front section of the house usually being flanked by two wings running perpendicular to it. Furthermore, walls are whitewashed, and the roofs are thatched.

Generally they are wide fronted homes with small window panes; it is interesting to note that all glass was imported by ship. Front verandas were laid out to use the tiles from passenger ships ballasts. To provide shade vines were sometimes planted to cover the trellis over the veranda.
Readily available local hard woods were used to make shutters. These shutters, apart from being a decorative feature of Cape Dutch houses, were closed at night to keep the family protected from both man and beast. Reeds (Restio sedges) were used as thatching. The Gables that were built at the end of the roof could be either straight, triangular or holbol. The front gable became the signature of each home.

Front doors were designed by the owner in collaboration with Malay artisans who were brought to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company. Homes were large with high ceilings. Floors and ceilings were made of local hard woods like yellow wood (Podocarpus spp). These homes usually comprised an entrance hall, lounge, dining room, kitchen and one main bedroom down stairs. Children’s rooms and attics were generally upstairs. As the family grew a ‘neck’ was build from the entrance hall and two more rooms built at the back of the house making the classical H shape with four gables.

Fortunately many homes remain. Famous historical Cape Dutch homes can be seen on the following wine estates:
Boschendal, Vergelegen, Morgenster, la Motte or Zorgvleit

Cape Dutch architecture is a beautiful and distinctive feature of the South African winelands. For more on visiting the winelands, click here. Or for further references contact Roar Africa.

First time visitors to southern Africa seldom visit the Kalahari. They are typically more focused on Cape Town, the Winelands and a Safari in greater Kruger area. But the Kalahari is a spectacularly beautiful part of Africa with huge skies, few people and abundant wildlife.

The Kalahari is a semi-desert covering 900,000 Square kilometers (350,000 square miles) in the South West of Africa. It covers parts of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. The desert is characterized by recent windblown red (iron) sands over white calcite deposited salts of thousands of millions of years ago and as with all deserts there is no surface water.

Amazingly large predators, antelope, birds and insects exist – all waiting for the annual rain which creates windows of survival or death. During August/September winter slowly regresses from the bone dry land and temperatures start to rise. This is when the small carnivores start their breeding activity.

A magnificent Black-maned Kalahari Lion photographed on my last trip to the Kalahari

More on the lions here

By the end of August the Sociable Weaver chicks are hatching and clambering for food in the large family nests, each nest can accommodate more than 100 families. As it is still too cold for reptiles such as snakes these chicks survive well, even when wind and dust storms blow over the trees and nests. By September the harvester ants can been seen collecting grass cuttings to take down into their mounds. The insect eaters are feathered and furred and ant bears have a time of plenty.

Unfortunately the antelope suffer their most at this time as feed value is almost nil, temperatures are rising and there is no available water, in light of this they lose weight and many die. This is when the predators and scavengers have their time of plenty.
The acacia trees start flowering – insects and animals utilize these flowers to their full extent. All is tinder dry and large clouds with lightning bolts occur. At this time fires are devastating to the animals and limited grass cover, often bird, insect and reptile homes in trees are burnt.

Short swift localized cloud bursts occur and the intensity of a sudden deluge can be devastating especially near river beds where the clay beds are impervious. The little creatures are drowned and the river floods the river bank areas with plant and debris being washed away. Water drips down from the trees and water may even flow in the river beds for a short while.

Millipedes and beetles emerge to take advantage of soft soil on the riverside. Trees and grasses burst into life providing the time of plenty for the antelope which are now calving. Insects appear by the millions and set about breeding. The rains are brief and short lived. Temperatures soar into November, December and January. The grasses and Tsama melon sustain life until the next rains……

Famous inhabitants of the Kalahari are the San or Bushmen people who have lived in the Kalahari for 20,000 years as hunter-gatherers. Today there are more luxurious options for accommodation. For example Tswalu Kalahari in South Africa.

You'll find more on this beautiful lodge on our website here

One last thing- the night sky has more stars than you can possibly imagine. Period!