The Sunday News
Phineas Chauke
WILD animals have been a part of man’s environment. The relationship between wild animals and humans is one that modern people would describe as “it’s complicated”.
There is affection there, passion, love and adoration. Yet there is also great fear, resentment and in extreme cases hatred.
The good thing is that the feelings and attitudes do not ‘“blanketly” apply but they are selective. There are some animals that humans are comfortable around with while some are tolerated and yet others are either feared or loathed.
All animals have a certain degree of fear of humans and some say this goes back to the Garden of Eden. However, I am of the opinion that back then animals obeyed and respected man rather than fear him.
Anyway, man’s love for animals as part of his natural environment has led to the development of nature parks where animals are afforded protection and where humans spend their leisure time relaxing and connecting with nature. This also culminates into huge industries of studying animals, protecting animals as well as wildlife-based safari.
The wildlife industry is a significant factor in national economies worldwide. The way people love animals varies greatly. Some enjoy watching them sprawl and flourish but others love them in the pot. The wildlife industry, therefore, is faced with the vices of poaching.
Poaching is driven by the selfish desire to take for oneself what belongs to everyone. This happens on different levels ranging from “subsistence” poaching where a villager kills a buck for his family to eat, to commercial poaching which is a carefully organised industry involving syndicates run by powerful kingpins.
Rhinos have almost vanished from the face of the earth owing to these criminals. A majority of us would be happy to watch a rhino go about its foraging but there are some who see thousands of dollars whenever they see a rhino. Oh! And the worst of them are those who see an aphrodisiac (sex boosting agent) when they see a rhino. It is utterly disgusting to imagine a whole rhino having to die for some guy somewhere to enjoy sex.
For those selfish people the next bout of sexual intercourse is considered to be worth more than the rhino’s life. Anyway, this is infuriating, let me drop it. As alluded to earlier, most animals have a natural fear of man (or is it respect). Even for those that feed exclusively on flesh, very few of them would consider man to be a candidate for the belly. Of course, we have some “uncultured” elements like sharks but for the majority of wild animals, a human being is best left alone or even avoided. The first instinct for many animals upon seeing humans is to quietly vanish from the scene. However, those animals that are used to seeing people without suffering any harm or negative experience, will continue to do their stuff comfortably. For most animals, attacking humans is only the last resort when they are scared.
In other words, animals may become aggressive as a way of protecting themselves or their offspring from humans. Due to a number of factors though, animal behaviour may become modified and they may behave in quite unpredictable ways, which is why people need to exercise caution around wild animals.
Poaching or any kind of persecution are some of the factors responsible for modifying animal behaviour in a negative way.
Fear of animals is also responsible for some of man’s undesirable actions towards animals. The way many people fear snakes has led them to attack and kill snakes. When snakes innocently stray into people’s homes, they get killed and what I have failed to understand is a situation where a person sees a snake in the bush and they still attack it.
Lack of knowledge about animals and their behaviours has led humans to indiscriminately attack animals. Some myths harboured by people also influence their attitudes towards animals. Animals active at night such as owls, hyenas and ant-bears, for instance, are perceived to be witches or accomplices in witchcraft in African communities.
They are therefore, shunned and killed whenever they are seen. Vultures are some of the animals whose populations are going down purely on the basis of man’s misconception of their way of life. Some people believe these birds have some supernatural ability to know where meat is and ours sangomas (and prophets) need that to supplement their powers to see the past, the future or things that are far.
The next thing, people are poisoning carcasses of donkeys and dogs so that when vultures eat they die and they are taken to sangomas who pay handsomely for the prized delivery. Sometimes the bad blood between man and wild animals is fuelled by the behaviours of the animals themselves. Instances where lions turn into livestock raiders or man-eaters, elephants trampling upon people and destroying croplands have the effect of incensing people. Instinctively, man defends himself and his own. Unfortunately, this is a conflict where man and the animals can literally “sit across the table” and find common ground without a droplet of blood spilled. A solution has to be found by humans in this regard.
Phineas Chauke is a Bulawayo-based tourism consultant, marketer and guide. Contact him on +263776058523, [email protected]
