Wildlife near water
Variety in the Zambezi valley
I’ve already written in another publication about our recent weekend away from Lusaka, Zambia, camping on the banks of the Zambezi river. The link to that story is here:
But in this story, I would like to focus on the different varieties of wildlife seen, mostly from the comfort (and safety!) of the boat operated by Woods Camp and adjoining Muchichili Safari House.
Those little herds of impala, as seen in my header photograph, don’t pose any threat. But other animals do. For instance, hippos.
These animals may appear large and sluggish, just slacking off and chilling out in the water, but that would be the wrong impression. Well, they are large, and perhaps they are just chilling there, but they are certainly not sluggish! This species is responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other animal. Since they hang out in rivers, in the shallower parts, the interaction with humans who go fishing or washing or fetching water, is ... tricky.
A couple of years ago, we went canoeing on another spot of this same river and were charged by a hippo. Very … exciting. Talking about that event is much more fun than the actual experience was.
Hippos are grazers, they get out of the water, mostly at night, to chew grass on the river banks and beyond. So those massive teeth that they carry are not for eating, not for show, but for fighting. They are pretty territorial, and the bulls defend their specific part of the river.
Fun fact: the green grass on campsites is very popular for midnight feasting by hippos. Also if said grass is between your sleeping spot and the toilet…
The welcome sign at Woods Camp had also cautioned against crocodiles, and so I should show some evidence of these prehistoric creatures. We saw quite a few crocs sunning themselves on the sandbank, and saw one monster of maybe 3 metres long, leap into the water when our boat got close. Too fast to photograph, but I did get a picture of another one, slightly smaller.
I have no idea whether that stork was planning anything, or even thinking at all. At one point, he edged a little closer to the croc, to get a better look at what death looks like?
Now you might wonder what I’m trying to show with my next photograph, but the clues are already clear from the previous two.
While we are on the topic of birds, when you are near any body of water, there is always a variety of birds to be seen and heard. But I struggle to photograph them. I could blame my camera gear, so yeah, let’s do that. I use my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S9 and my little Sony DSC-HX99 compact, fixed-lens camera. The latter makes slightly better pictures, but has an irritating menu system, so that I am usually working on the “auto” setting, which is a pity.
Anyway, I digress. Something about the birds seen:
The African Fish Eagle, with its almost haunting, far-reaching cry, is for me the iconic African bird. And features on the Zambian flag, too.
Egyptian geese can be found all over sub-Saharan Africa, but also as far North as, well, Egypt. I’ve seen that they are not very popular in many housing estates near water (they tend to shit everywhere, on patios and pavements…) but here they were at least in their own element.
However, the most remarkable birds on this trip, were the White-fronted Bee-eaters that build their nesting sites into the eroded riverbanks of the Zambezi.
Back at the campsite, we’d seen a few examples of the Water Monitor Lizard, also known as the Nile Monitor. They seemed to be equally at home on the bank, and in the water.
I can’t close this story without one comment about the most dangerous of all animals: man. (And women too, I guess, let’s be gender-sensitive.)
But jokes aside, human-animal interaction is a problem. Campsites and lodges in Zambia generally do an excellent job at maintaining the necessary distance between animals and human visitors. And hunting is (at least nominally) prohibited in the Game Management Areas surrounding the National Parks. But in those GMAs there are villages and farms, people moving about. In the same areas, animals need to be able to eat, access the river, etc.
And so incidents do occur from time to time. A day before we arrived in this area for our weekend, a villager had been killed by an elephant. The person (who was apparently hard of hearing) had managed to get in the way of an elephant on the way to the river. Tempers were high in the villages, and there were plans to hunt that particular elephant and kills it. No success so far, which I believe is fortunate. Elephants do not easily become “rogue killers” of humans and in any case, it is their space too.
At the same time, villagers who have lived somewhere for generations, also need to have their homes and farms protected. It’s a problem that is likely to get worse as our human population numbers increase.
Anyway, I don’t want to end the story on such a negative tone, so here’s a nice sunset image. (Trees are also wildlife.)
If you like my stories about wildlife, or how we got to see them, do let me know. Comments about my photography are also welcome. Also, whether I write too much, or too little.
And do let us know about wildlife in your own part of the world!
