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By Pat Graham
August 11, 2009
For two hours, the 4-wheel-drive vehicle rumbled into river beds and climbed over grassy hills, as we wound our way to Rhino Camp.
Wilderness Safaris operates commercial lodges and camps across southern Africa, including Rhino Camp, which specializes in safaris to track the elusive black rhino. Until a year ago, the camp was mobile to follow the rhinos. Now more sensitive methods of observing rhinos mean the animals are staying in reach of the camp.
While I’m excited by the prospect of seeing a rhino, I’m just as thrilled about seeing friends from home – Ginger and John Giovale of Flagstaff, Arizona (pictured above), are among a group of Conservancy supporters here to learn more about our work.
One of our guides, Kapoi, is a Himba from the Anabeb conservancy north of this area. Prior to his current job with the safari group, he worked for Save the Rhino Trust (SRT), an organization supported by the Conservancy that is dedicated to restoring the black rhino in Namibia.
Growing up, Kapoi hung around the SRT office after school. When he completed school, he volunteered for six months before being hired as a tracker.
The Track is On
Rhino tracking starts before dawn. With the trackers already out, the rest of us followed around 6:30 a.m.
Three hours later we sat high on a hill above the confluence of two rivers. We were taking a break on our way to meet up with the trackers and see what they had found.
A dozen binoculars scanned the hills and valleys on our way to meet up with the trackers. We didn’t really expect to see a rhino.
Fortunately, we were wrong.
David Banks, the Conservancy’s Africa program director, saw it first. It was in a small valley at least a kilometer away.
The winds had blown so hard all night and well into the morning that few of us had gotten much sleep. However, the level of excitement and energy picked up with word of a rhino.
We hiked carefully up a rocky hillside downwind of the rhino. There he was munching on some bushes below. The rhino couldn’t see us. They have very poor eyesight beyond 60 meters. The strong wind covered our scent and sounds.
It was a magnificent animal. Rudi Louitt of SRT said it was a younger male. He knew this based on its size and that its ears were free of the scars and tears older rhinos earn in their battles over territory.
The Palwag Concession
On the ride back to camp we enjoyed the enormous vistas of open grasslands, plateaus and wildlife. This vast area, called the Palwag Concession has been leased out to Wilderness Safaris for years and is off limits for grazing livestock, hunting or habitation.
With the commercial leases on the concession areas expiring they will be the core of what will become the Kunene People’s Park, so named because it will be jointly managed by the surrounding conservancies, traditional leaders and the government.
I asked Kapoi what the local people think about conserving wildlife. He said today the local people better understand the value of wildlife and why it’s better not to poach.
Kapoi's Story
Kapoi has seen this shift in economy, culture and conservation from all sides – growing up on a farm in what is now a conservancy, working for a conservation organization and now as a guide for a commercial lodge. This motivates him to share his experience with other young people.
When his days off coincide with school holidays, Kapoi returns home to teach young Himba boys to be guides. He’s bought books on birds and wildlife to better educate himself and to share the knowledge with them.
Kapoi’s father passed away a couple years ago. I sense some remorse in Kapoi that his father didn’t get to visit him in his job and see the pride with which he does his work.
So, Kapoi shares his work with other young Himbas. He hopes to give them the same opportunity he had and ensure that wildlife conservation benefits both nature and his people.
| « Arizona: Africa Connections | Arizona: Africa Connections...People's Park» |
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (Black rhino); Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (Ginger and John Giovale); Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (Kapoi at the helm).
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