10 elephants killed in 11 days at Taratibo

Ivory poaching has been on the increase but we have just received news of a MASS slaughter at Taratibo.  A reserve run by Jacob (a cousin of Dominik's) the only other conservation project within the Park - it is a particularly beautiful area with a large Inselberg range.  How devastating for Jacob and what a huge dent in the small population of elephant in this area.  Jacob has a good local ranger force but the poachers were heavily armed with automatic weapons and supported by a helicopter that removed the ivory.  Locals say the poachers are planning to return.  We must put everything in their path to stop them getting to Mareja. 

Sign of a new born elephant at Mareja 

Only yesterday Dominik was telling me about the elephant birthing grounds that are near the house. When a female makes noises to indicate she is giving birth, all females within range trumpet back and form a protection ring against predators.  Time for trumpeting from the human world.

poachers retaliate - wild fires rage

Apparently fires have been lit all around Mareja and even below the house. The Rangers found a poachers camp and confiscated nets and snares.  They then scuttled away before the poachers returned.  Fire making is a skill everyone has with or without matches and it is very effective, used to drive game into your net, push them into a snare rich zone or temporarily wipe out a habitat.  The hope is that they were not really 'hot' fires which devastate all flammable life.  However, at this time in the season the land is getting pretty dry, so they could be...

Every year there is a programme of early burning.  And we managed, what felt like, a good amount this year trying to create 'breaks' so that the big hot fires can't take hold.  I drove as others dabbled their fire sticks into thick knots of vegetation (fire sticks made from bamboo shredded at the end like a loobrush or knots of grass tied into bundles). 

These burns are done along roads and tracks so the breaks are linear.  Dominik particularly wants to protect the rich and rare mountain vegetation.  But the thought of this uncontrollable force of nature manufactured for maximum effect is really worrying. You can only imagine the panic in the animal world when they hear that deep crackle of hungry fire.  And apparently a 3 day fire came really close to the house, they have estimated about 5,000 hectares of fire.

Intense reality...tiles, spirits and blood analysis

As usual we are doing a flying Pemba visit but this time with added urgency as we have to leave for UK in 5 days.  Much to say but in brief:

For me a time of tile making with a group  of four women (two children).  Now that they have mastered the large floor tiles, am encouraging them to explore designs.  It is a new world entirely for them and full of much excitement for me and they seem to be enjoying it greatly too.

Much illness amongst the community, Adamo has a horrendous boil in a comprising place.  Maria is suffering from various pains I can't quite understand and yesterday I took her to the Private clinic here in Pemba.  She had many blood tests that revealed great illness and were a shock (she was given an antibiotic drip and looked like a startled rabbit but I sat with here and gave her the odd mint I had (M&S curiously strong...and comforting).  She is now armed with 6 types of medication and we will take her back to Mareja today to her natural environment.  She has a chronic womb infection and syphillis but sadly that is not it and the last condition the doctor decided to keep from her for now.  The reality of life here involves major illness with an average life expectancy of 47, Maria is 37 and we must now get her the medication she needs to prolong her life as much as possible.  (Dominik is also trying to locate a councillor who suffers from the same condition and speaks Machua, as there is potential confusion, fear and stigma to try to overcome.)

An alarming turn after a happy day of tile making was a sudden call early evening as Ali's wife had 'developed madness'.  We visited to discover a terrifying night attack of wild screaming and voices where she had to be restrained.  We tried, crammed into her smoke filled dark home, to help calm her but she was consumed by a world far from our reach and had to be driven to Nanduli yesterday.   She usually had the broadest most beautiful white smile which has quite disappeared and been replaced by a deep reflective scowl. They say she is possessed by a spirit which arises from a time when she was enslaved during the war of Independence and suffered who knows what terrors.

There are reported armed Poachers on the Mareja border.  They have apparently killed many many elephants using AKAs and armory only associated with the Police or Army - a new twist to have guns involved.  Our Rangers have been flakey lately so there has been much discussion and work to improve their drive and commitment.  They are focusing patrols around our elephant strong holds.  We seem to have more elephants present than usual so they may be fleeing towards a safe haven.  Dominik is strategising and working hard - all his fears may be coming true.

On a light note I have had some clothes made by Josephina - African materials into simple but striking outfits and a few presents to add a bit of colour to the European palette.

Plans on hold - malaria and a common cold

Stuck in Pemba for the 5th day.  Dominik recovering from malaria and I have a cold (obviously less serious).  Wish we didn't live opposite the main hospital with the pavements piled high with people awaiting  treatment.  Our Pemba home could be described as the Infection Hotspot of the North, not quite idyllic coastal living...we don't even have a view of the third largest bay in the world to speed recovery.

Sengi course run at Mareja by Galen and Peter

Harith (Ecology Tutor at Unilurio, Pemba) wrote in his feedback: initiatives like these are fundamental to the growth of the biology students not only from Cabo Delgado but from Mozambique.  With these 3 days we could live and learn with the kind of people we all want to be like in the future.

Whenever we have visiting specialists at Mareja it is our express wish to involve locals were we can and in particular enable them to share and benefit from their passion, professionalism, skills and knowledge.

It is widely acknowledged that Mozambique needs to build its capacity for research and conservation so it can better manage its great and diverse natural resource.  There are huge holes in its current expertise, so it relies on visiting specialists and a small team based in Maputo at Eduardo Mondlane or the Natural History Museum. 

It is also recognized that the country's biodiversity resource is severely threatened by persistent and increasing factors - farming, development and exploitation for logging, mining and poaching.  As one of the country’s most at risk from climate change, due to its large coastal line, the preservation of its coastal forest is paramount.  Mareja supports 36,000 hectares of this unique habitat, sub tropical coastal miombo forest, an ecosystem that makes it a Global Biodiversity Hotspot.

Early this year we signed an MOU with the newly established local university UNILURIO and Quirimbas National Park (QNP). Unilurio offer two degrees, in IT and Biology - subjects that reflect areas of great economic growth and importance to the country.  However the university has limited resources with no laboratory and only 15 titles in its library.  But it has attracted 120 students who are currently studying Biology and it has aspirations, such as, to employ Tutors with a relevant MSc qualification within 5 years.

Galen and Peter only had three weeks to achieve their objectives but they made time for a 3 day course for four key individuals, two top students and a newly employed Ecology tutor, Harith, and Snr Denga, Head of Research at QNP.  They ran a practical field course offering insight into Sengi and their research.

One of the objectives of the workshop was also to teach the British and American style of discussive learning, creating an informal 'tutorial' atmosphere where questions and debate are encouraged.  (They tend to use a more lecture based style of teaching here in Mozambique.)

It was a hugely successful few days full of hands-on learning, much discussion - fuelled by homemade fare, Peter's contagious interest and Galen's life experience as one, if not the, leading Sengi specialist.

Here 'papa' (sweet maize meal) for breakfast prepared by Antonia and served by Maria

- topped with nuts, banana and Mareja honey

MANN Mission: we mount the ex army truck and head to Nanduli..in search of a goat

Ali: left look out

Without question one of the strangest trips of my life.  Imagine a huge army truck, really huge dating from 1960's built for the Cold War and imported from Germany by Dominik to Durban and driven overland. 

We have two lookouts precariously balanced on the front and a cargo of immensely excitable whooping cutana (bush knife) swinging people, and Peter - who are so enjoying the clanking, hulking dominance of the strada to Nanduli.  Dominik is driving and me and Galen are upfront perched on the unstable detachable seats that are semi covered in kudu skin and smell rather strongly of rotting meat.

Admao: right look out



Forca!  The road ahead

 The cutana wielders have been instructed to cut any overhanging branches.  And in between whenever a stretch of road without huge holes appears everyone cheers Dominik on to pick up speed.  Right at the front, against the metal grill that divides the cabin and large open back, is a mother and child, the child is being rocketed or poked neatly into a hole in the metal grid but like the mother she is smiling and laughing – those in the front decide she is possibly the most resilient child in history.

Usual employment of the Truck

This truck is used for road making and carrying overly large piles of wood, a huge water tank or similar.  However on this occasion it is being employed simply to go to Nanduli to... pick up a goat. 

I kept on wondering if there were other reasons to mount this exuberant voyage – but there really were not.  Well we might collect Maria who could help prepare the beds for the students arrival tomorrow but then again she could walk or bike to Mareja, and Antonio would like some shima.  So the 20km journey was to collect a goat, Maria and shima in priority order.

We have had a run of tyre problems on the Nissan indeed three flats and two innertubes peppered with holes.  Dominik has tried every sort of patch and fixative and many days have been spent pumping, clamping, jemmying, gluing to no avail.  Now  message has been sent for two replacement tubes with or without Mechanic to come to Mareja.  Thus we have to take the MANN truck as the Nissan is wheel-less.

Shima, milled maize

The  most surreal moment of all was on approach to Nanduli, everyone started chanting M-a-reja, M-a-reja, M-a-reja.  Sounding like vagabond war mongers, I was sure all of Nanduli would be in hiding or armed to the teeth.  But in fact not - the whole town surrounded the truck and added to the already highly charged excitable occassion. 

We bought The Goat... 

Nanduli by night

a poor goat for the Mareja community party on the Scientists last night.  Galen had bought it as a thank you to the community, providing a great treat and feast, so my feelings about goats had to be suppressed.  (I find them exteremly endearing, with their wonderful coloration and willful ways.)  Ours was trussed up in the back of this most uncomfortable of transport methods.  We also bought an immense about of shima (12kgs) but Maria surprisingly didn't want to come back with us...oh  how wise

...no more than 100m outside Nanduli we heard the regular low thud of a flat tyre - but not any flat tyre a huge hulking tyre flattened.  Suddenly the jubilant arrival in Nauduli ebbed away and the dark and cold set in.   Adamo forgot the jack - how was he to know this trusty stead would get a flat tyre too?  Four hours later the tyre has been replaced for one of the extras on the back.  Many free riders had headed back to Nanduli and others had lit a fire.  At this time of year the nights are freezing.

In all it was an eight hour round trip to Nanduli and back, and a rollercoaster of emotions.  Now the goat is tethered awaiting the party (thankfully unaware)

Learning to prepare a study skin

By night or twilight (depending on the days progress) Galen and Peter prepared their specimens for transport and more importantly for preservation as scientific museum specimens. (They have a collecting permit for 8 of each Sengi species.) They were neatly and expertly skinned and then stuffed, turned into ‘study skins’.  It is something I have always wanted to know how to do. 

Having worked at the National History Museum in London, as part of my job I have investigated most corners and storerooms to examine their extraordinary collections and stood eye to eye with preserved large animals, all but alive... for the glass eyes and elements of slight curl or fading that set in over time.  Images are etched deep, such as the baby elephant prepared by the great Taxodermist Rowland Ward, so life like it is turning as if it has just spotted you or the Black Maned Lion now extinct from the Cape in South Africa.  Or the large collection of Giraffes in the storeroom in Wandsworth were necks are separated from bodies for economies of space and placed carefully next to their matching body - the slender necks form a wonderful dappled grove with the heads as a low-lying canopy you could almost touch.  Or the small Victorian cabinet on display in the museum, crammed full of hummingbirds that glitter prepared with their habitat and scattered amongst the trees like Christmas decorations.

Peter was taught the skill and quickly picked it up, being very dexterous and careful.  For some reason I would always alight on the stuffing scene, which was sharply illuminated by their head torches, just as Peter had finished neatly putting a kebab stick with twissled cotton wool into the tail and was embarking on brushing or stroking the specimen with a toothbrush.

Towards the end of their trip Galen very kindly taught me to prepare a specimen.  I so enjoyed my lesson, once I had detached myself from the living creature that was still warm in my hands and imagined its great value as a sample of its morphological and genetic evolution - I had the opportunity to examine it closely and did.

I have always wanted to try this art, there is a difference between preparing study skins which preserve the features as much as possible and a taxidermy specimen that preserves the pose of life.  Mareja Sengi are being prepared flat with feet neatly and directly forward and back, not the most comfortable pose but they can be stored and studied to best advantage.