After a very long break in the bush, I’m back!
Africa Dashboard
Current Location: Stone Town, Zanzibar
I am in Stone Town with my family after a safari in Lake Manyara and Serengeti National Parks. They will fly home tomorrow night. Bonding with my sister Eliza and her best friend Maddie has been a highlight. I dread the moment when I will say goodbye to everyone. I felt well-positioned to appreciate the nature on safari as a contrast to my immersion in Washington and BC wilderness this winter. Giraffes replaced elk, acacias replaced firs, elephants replaced bears, and lions replaced… mountain lions.
Run to Children’s Hospital Fundraiser (click me)
How exciting to return from the bush to five donations to the fundraiser. Special thanks to Jess Shade and Jean Sigrid Nelson for donating publicly. I want to share what Jean wrote on the fundraising page because I found it particularly touching:
I know that 100 people donating $1000 would do wonders for the hospital. However that are many more of us who cannot do that. But those many, many more of us contributing 50 may just have the same results.
I’m very excited about the fundraiser right now. I recently received an email from the executive director of another charity, Thrive Global, who also wants to team up with my run. They provide school lunches to students in Tanzania. The new tentative plan is to stop at their schools on the way to Kilimanjaro.
I may postpone my run by a week or two to help with scheduling school visits. School is out of session until early July in Tanzania. A nice man named Dennis offered to let me stay in his home in Zanzibar if I need to.
Safari Field Notes
Lake Manyara
Giraffes. They like to eat the leaves of yellow acacia trees best. To repel giraffes, the acacias sometimes produce extra tannin making the leaves acidic. The trees “notify” other acacias to also produce more tannin through the wind and mycelium in the ground. So, when giraffes find an acacia with too much tannin, they walk against the wind to find the next tree.
Elephants. Fallen trees and vegetation in an area indicate that elephants passed through. They weigh 4000 to 7000 kgs. Elephants spend 18-20 hours a day feeding and drinking water. They live up to 70 years. They can communicate with each other from distances of 7km by channeling vibrations from their stomach through their feet into the ground. Therefore, it is said that they “hear with their feet.” They use their large ears to fan themselves. Trunks are the ultimate multi tool: a) Dispel bugs by sucking up dust and dirt and blow it on body, b) Feed by tearing leaves off trees and bushes, c) Hydrate by carrying water from ground to mouth, d) Knock down trees by wrapping around lower branch and hanging.
Elephants are a keystone species. With weak digestive systems and so much time spent feeding, they’re cheap labor for trimming vegetation, fertilizing the ground, and planting seeds. They also “upgrade habitats” by a) making depressions in the ground that become watering holes in the rainy season and b) knocking down trees that end up growing horizontally as bushes for shorter herbivores. The knocked down trees also have less tannin because the connection to the roots is weakened. One tree’s name in Swahili translates to “tree not easily knocked down by elephants”.
Baboons. They live in large troops governed by “oligarchy” (few strong males). Adult males not in the oligarchy are often bullied. The troop protects the wounded by keeping them in the middle of the troop when traveling (as long as the wounded can keep up). The only predator to baboons is leopards.
The herbivores like to hang out in large groups: warthogs, giraffes, buffalo, zebras, etc. The more the merrier (more eyes to spot predators).
Serengeti
Whistling acacia trees. Starling birds build nests in the branches of these trees from dead grass. The nests have two doors. The main door faces away from sun, and then an “emergency exit” goes out the bottom to escape predators. The tree’s branches are lined with spikes and nodes. The nodes serve as homes for “cocktail ants.” It is not yet known whether the ants create the nodes or the tree does. The relationship between ants and tree is mutual because when elephants and other animals try to eat the tree, the ants crawl into their eyes, nose, and mouth, causing them to stop feeding. When the ants get disturbed they lift their tails, hence the name “cocktail”.
Termite mounds. I saw mounds up to 10 ft in height. Termites build the hill by bringing soil from underneath the surface. This helps spread mycelium, which they farm for food. They harden dirt with saliva to make it impenetrable to pangolins and aardvarks. Many animals use the hills as viewpoints: impalas, zebras, lions, etc. Elephants rub their undersides on the hill to remove parasites. Dead termite hills can become habitats for small animals like banded mongoose and snakes.
Some quick additional Internet research shows that the mounds are designed for temperature regulation. Tall chimneys help ventilate the heat produced by termites and retain cool air each night.
The desert date tree has fruit that all animals like. Baboons, impalas, giraffes, elephants, etc. You will never find desert dates in the wild because an animal will already have gotten it. Some animals with more powerful jaws can chomp through the nut of the fruit to get the seed. Our guide Aloyce grew up around these trees. The kids in his neighborhood would pick the fruit off the ground until there were none left and then would throw stones into the branches to knock them from the tree.
Mild fire. The wild fire here burns in a thin line that moves across the landscape, like a copier scanning documents. The line is just a meter wide. The fire singes the grass but rarely burns trees. To protect the safari camp from the fire, workers mowed the grass very short in a ring around camp. This was enough to break the fire. The birds love the fire because insects jump out in the open to escape. We saw shrikes, rollers, herons, doves, and fowls all feeding on insects at the edge of the fire. The impalas and other grazing animals love to hang on the burnt earth because they have a clear view in all directions. The fire does not burn the roots, so the grass returns after the first rain.
Zebras. Two will pair up and use each other’s backs as headrests. This helps them conserve energy, have 360° views of predators, and promotes social bonding :) Let’s bring headrests to humans!!
Photo by Andy Cohen.