Please consider the images to be copyrighted and use only with my permission.
Thank you. DEClapp.

The hippopotamus is a chunky animal with a wide body and short legs. They can weigh up to two tons and big males often more than that. An average weight might be about 3300 pounds (about 1500 kilograms). They are chunky; have short legs, a short neck, a big head, with a cylindrical body and an arched back. One of the in-the-field characteristics of hippo country are the neat little trails they use to get from the water to the grazing areas. The chubby body and short legs means that they cannot step their own toes or cross their legs, nor can they trample a wide swath as they walk. The left legs make a narrow trail and the right legs make a separate narrow trail. For a big animal they seem to walk delicately through the bush. The two lane trails are obvious once you know what to look for.

They also make exit trails from the water where they spend the day. They leave the river via the same path each evening and break down the sandy edges of the river bank. These sloping trails to and from the water are what the migrating wildebeest and zebras use when crossing rivers. They descend along the hippo paths and hopefully they find another path, on the far side, that offers them an escape from the river (and the hungry crocodiles that just wait for the migration). The migratory beasts don’t plan well and sometimes get stuck against the far bank; sometimes with dire consequences.

Hippos are quite dangerous especially in the dark. They travel long distances from the water and they can panic if they feel separated from the water. Most people are hit by the large and heavy head of the hippo or are trampled as the hippo bolts for the water. It is an unpredictable animal, and very widespread, making it one of the most dangerous animals on the continent.

Hippos have an even number of toes; four on each foot. That is important as grazing animals, most land mammals, are divided into two groups – those with an even number of toes and those with an odd number of toes. The even-toed are the Artiodactyla and the odd-toed are the Perissodactyla. The latter group, odd-toed, contains the horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs who balance on their hoof-covered, third digit. The former group, even-toed, contains the hippo, deer, goats, camels, pigs, bison, giraffe, antelope, and llamas and they walk on their third and fourth toes, often fused. This divergence in hand/foot structure goes back about 53 million years when the even-toed animals first appear in the fossil record. By the way, the word ungulate isn’t really a good taxonomical word; it usually refers to hoofed animals although it is often used to refer to the cud-chewing animals. And further by the way; a hoof is merely a modified toenail.

Like elephants, hippos are declining rapidly because of poaching. The large teeth are sought after for carving and for a wrongly presumed to have a medicinal value. Loss of wetlands and grazing habitat (mostly to farming) also is having an impact.

The hippo’s nearest evolutionary relative is an aquatic or semi-aquatic creature from which evolved the cetaceans and the hippos. The shared relative existed about 60 million years ago and the splitting of the ancestor into the two groups (whales and hippos) happened about 54 million years ago. You might Google Pakicetus to get a look at one of the earliest forms that is in the whale/dolphin/porpoise (cetacean) line. The hippo’s evolutionary relationship with cetaceans has been solidified with blood protein analysis and even more recent DNA work.

 

There are few things as humbling as seeing how water, over time, can shape the earth. The Zambezi River passes over a cracked and crazed bit of old volcanic rock and eats its way through these cracks to shape and reshape itself. The floor of this part of the world was a smear of lava. Not an atmosphere jarring explosion but a slow oozing of molten earth until the region was frosted like a chocolate cake. It has taken half a million years to create the Victoria Falls – that is because there were eight locations for this cataract before today’s gorge was formed and today’s rim was accepted by the river. And, it is quite visible today that the river is on the move again; eating away at the weakest point of its rocky edge and creating a deep gash that will eventually gather all the water and become a new and spectacular cataract.

When on tour I think our (Smithsonian Journeys) itineraries are good enough – I don’t try to sell add-ons to our travelers. But, at Victoria Falls I do mention that the view of the falls and the ancient gorges below the current waterfall is best seen during a helicopter ride. It is money well spent. It displays the eons that the planet has been here. It shows the tens of thousands of years that the river has worn its way to the sea. It is a sobering look into time – and yet it also gives you an idea of what is ahead for the river and rock.

The famous explorer and missionary (not very succesful at either) David Livingstone was the first European to hear and see the falls. He arrived at low water and was brought to the top edge by local fisherman. For many years after seeing the falls he tried to develop a river-based economy in the region. He brought boats from England and found another thing he wasn’t good at … however, he did a great deal to slow and stop the slave trade. The image on the right shows two of the men, Sussi and Chuma, who traveled with Livingstone for many years and eventually carried his body to the coast, about 1000 miles from where he died, so he could return to England to be buried among other great men. Their choice to carry him to his people is a story of friendship and hope. Imagine what would have happened to two black Africans found carrying the folded and wrapped body of a white man in the 1870s. It is a great story.

Please treat the images as copyrighted and do no use them without my permission. Thank you.

The fourth largest river in Africa flows from northwest Zambia and Angola to the Indian Ocean; creating portions of the borders of Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. Along its 2200 mile run to the sea the Zambezi (also Zambesi) River is held back by two large dams; the Kariba Dam in Zambia and the Cahora Bassa Dam in Mozambique. In both cases great amounts of hydro-electric power is produced. Also, the level of the river past the dams is regulated by the amount of water allowed to pass through or over the dam(s). In many places the river flows languidly with large shoals of sand and is edged with emergent wetland vegetation. In other places it crashes over great clefts in the substrate creating marvels such as Victoria Falls or running fast through narrow scarps in the ancient lava floor of the region. There are many stretches of narrow these turbulent rocky rapids. The river has a maximum flow in March or April and then diminishes until in October or November the river has lost about 90% of its high-water flowage. March and April are very noisy months at the Victoria Falls and the spray rising from the narrow gorge below the falls often makes viewing and photographing the falls impossible. It truly become “the smoke that thunders” as the Lozi people called it. Locally it is still referred to as Mosi-oa-Tunya.

But in such a variable river there are dozens of animals and plants that live near or in the river and find it a suitable home. Below are a few of the animals most likely to be seen along the river. The images are from Botswana and Zambia for the most part. I will do a couple of blog pages on the Victoria Falls area next – so I am not emphasizing the Falls region here. As a matter of fact some of the images are from Chobe NP which is an area on the Chobe River just above its confluence with the Zambezi. As there is a long overdue bridge being built where Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana come together (a very rare occurrence in political geography) I will also do a page on the new bridge and its profound impact on the area.

 

 

 

 

I have been to Africa many many times and to East Africa at least forty times. I have now found the best lodge ever; really! Now you must remember that nothing is cheap in East Africa because of the difficulty in building, locating materials, training staff, and solving a myriad of logistical problems. You can’t just open a store or hotel or restaurant and call for supplies – it is not easy to do a good job and very difficult to do a wonderful job. The usual safari route, and perhaps the best one for game viewing, is the northern route. This will start in Arusha and then to Tarangire, the Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, and the Serengeti. Some itineraries will spend time in Lake Manyara NP as well; especially photographic outings.

You will occasionally hear the names of other locations; perhaps Ruaha and the Selous. The Lovely Frances and I had the chance to visit these two locations in the southern part of Tanzania last month and we learned a great deal. For instance the Selous has really rough roads and locomotion is done at a snail’s pace. There are tsetse flies all over the place in the Selous, or at least when and where we were, they were also. The Selous id a huge Game reserve, not at National Park. Perhaps TZ will gazette it as a park and improve the travel. We were in one spot and did not see the whole reserve so what we saw is limited and my observations also limited. We had a great boat ride on the Rufiji River as the sun went down; lions, crocodiles, civet, leopard, and lots of birds made that outing very memorable. However it was Ruaha and the Jabali Ridge Lodge that really made the trip! Ruaha is a national park and the roads are pretty good. The scenery varies from great flat expanses of baobab forest to red rock cliffs.

Below are a few images from Ruaha and the Jabali Ridge camp. The lead in picture shows Joseph and Fran with Mustapha (and a trainee game spotter) on a game drive. The staff is very good; both indoor and outdoor people were knowledgable and well taught. For instance, I feel that Mustapha could work/teach/drive anywhere in Africa.

I am a bit pressed for time but wanted to at least put out a teaser blog about this latest trip to Tanzania. Finally I have reached the Selous Game Reserve and the Ruaha National Park. Fran has been able to accompany me and we’ve had a ball. We have had typically (or better than typically I guess) spectacular safari accommodations with great landscapes, lodging, food, staff, and wildlife. There will be much more on this outing in the next few weeks, but let me get started with a few images and comments. Comments first; there are lots of tsetse flies in the Selous and the rugged terrain makes travel very difficult and slow – but certainly not all bad. Ruaha was a special treat; maybe the best outing I’ve had in years and years. Great accommodations here (Google Jabali Ridge in Ruaha) with wonderful guides, drivers, and game.

Here are three images and, as I said, more to follow after I get home. Fran leaves after two weeks and I stay on to take a Smithsonian group through the Tanzanian Northern Safari Route. This route starts in Arusha town and includes Arusha NP, Tarangire NP, Olduvai Gorge, Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti – and sometimes Lake Victoria. (Another set of blogs for another day.)

Well, let’s go back to East Africa, along the northern Tanzania safari route. This won’t be your usual animal parade, it will be a bit more earthy than that. It will show a few safari moments and then the same for a Maasai market which occurs weekly near Tarangire National Park; at the corner where you turn from the Arusha road toward Ngorongoro Crater. The safari highlights will be those things that just happen… and you just roll with them. The market is a cultural highlight in that we have nothing quite as entertaining; although some of our fresh food open air farmer’s markets are a bit similar. Here you could barter for cattle or goats or buy tethers for either. In addition there were sandals cut from old motorcycle tires (or tyres as they say), various food items, previously worn clothing in bales imported from the US or Europe, and a chance to buy herbs or get a tooth pulled.

A safari vehicle, mostly Toyota Land Cruiser modified for the job, has to be well maintained and yet be ready for anything that goes wrong. Black roads, hot sunny weather, tires with tubes, and lots of driving often cause a brief delay in the trip. Flat tires are not uncommon. The driver-guides are trained to deal with the mishaps but hot lug nuts and cumbersome jacks make every tire-change a bit of a challenge.

 

 

Aquaculture is huge business; salmon, oysters, shrimp, catfish, and dozens of other edible species are raised by the ton all over the world. Norway has become something of a specialist-nation when it come to raising Atlantic salmon. They say that over 14 million Norwegian salmon meals are eaten every day around the world; that requires a lot of salmon and that in turn requires an efficient method of farming. In total more than two million tons of salmon are raised around the world annually.

The young fish are hatched and raised in large indoor facilities. They are transferred to large outdoor pens to mature into 15+ pound marketable fish. In the places where you can tour the growing pens you can see the automatic feeders, underwater cameras, thermometers, and all sorts of things to insure that the water and fish are ideal. At the site we visited, the nuisance creatures (sea lice primarily) were controlled by “cleaner fish” (wrasse) rather than by chemicals. But in a sense of balance I must say that there are articles on the use of chemicals in Norwegian (and all the others as well) salmon farms. Some skeptics say there is some chemical use and others say that any country that still kills whales should be boycotted – this is a bit of apples and oranges for most people.  It is broadly perceived that Norway, despite whatever it uses to protect fish from parasites and to foster growth, uses significantly fewer chemicals than does any other major producer.

The information available from various sources is not at all similar when it talks about salmon production. One source, a Norwegian poster, says that Norway produces 63% of the penned salmon and that North America and Chile each produce about 9%. Other source only a decade ago cited both Chile and Norway with about 30+% of the production. The latest comparisons (two source) I could find says that Chile produces about 600 metric tons and Norway about 1,300 tons of Atlantic salmon annually. As salmon aquaculture has become large and international business, the companies from Norway, the United States, Scotland, and Chile and elsewhere, are now growing fish outside their original national waters. Much of the Scotland fishery is owned by Norwegian companies and so on. One company, Marine Harvest, kills/processes well over 380,620 tons of salmon annually; 7,000 tons or so a week or about a ton of salmon processed each day; nearly half the world’s production.

Anyway here is a quick walk through a floating salmon farm. Most actual growing areas are kind of stand alone feature (floating pens) out in the deep water of a fjord. This one is designed as an educational site.

Much of Norway is rural. Quite rural in most areas. The second home boom that has infiltrated untracked forests and coastal headlands in the US has been accomplished differently in Norway. Most of the second homes are clustered around ski areas and places where winter sports are enjoyed. A second home just for the view is not as common as here. Many rural people will have a time share or small apartment in the city in what seems a kind of contrary move. And, like most countries (think USA and Australia) the larger portion of the human population is coastal. So it is in Norway and this means that much of the interior is rolling moorland. Further north and this might be tundra but without permafrost it is heath and moor; or perhaps bogland and muskeg. Snow covered for six or seven months and wet underfoot the rest of the year.

This creates good land for migratory shorebirds Birds that winter in the tropics or even deep into the Southern Hemisphere and return to Scandinavia or Siberia or northern Canada to breed in the time of plenty – plenty of insects that is.  The vegetated landscape varies due to elevation and the aspect of the slope (N, S, E, or West facing); south-facing land get warmer than north facing and higher elevations lose tree life at about three thousand feet. Over all the forests in Norway are largest in the southeast toward Oslo. The central portion of the country is to high for trees, though 2000′ lower than Denver, and the western side is quite rocky and cut by fjords, though there are many smaller bits of forest land on the west side. The northern lands are rugged in the winter and usually have acidic sphagnum based soils.

The dietary and millenary habits of those living in the United States from 1870 to 1920 killed off millions of sandpipers, herons, cranes, and water birds. They were sold to restaurants and turned into fancy hats. It was hunting with scatter-shot cannons and decoying with live geese. It had a huge impact. The extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and the dramatic decline in the American Bison (buffalo) are well documented, but many of the birds that suffered the same fate are rarely mentioned. Sandpipers were shot at migratory stopovers and duck eggs taken from nests. It was an untenable approach to wildlife. And, to a large extent, in many countries but not all, it has stopped.
Two of the birds impacted are shown below; the Tricolored Heron (or Louisiana Heron in many older books) and the Willet. One heron and one shorebird or .

The white egrets (herons) were terribly impacted by the millinery trade in the late 1800 and early 1900s. The sandpipers were food well before that period but the Industrial Revolution and its resulting increase in the human population didn’t immediately have people change their ways; they stayed on that “shoot and eat” diet into the early 1900s.