The Sunday News
Phineas Chauke
THE distribution of wildlife in the world is dependent upon a variety of factors. This means that the animal species that exist in different zoo-geographic regions are not the same.
It follows then that if people want to see animals that are not found in their locality they will have to travel to other regions in order to get such an opportunity. Wildlife affords people vast safari opportunities that are categorised under consumptive safari and non-consumptive safari.
Consumptive safari refers to those pursuits that will somehow diminish the wildlife resource such as hunting safari. On the other hand, non-consumptive safari entails activities that leave the resource in the state it was such as game viewing or bird watching — both referred to as photographic safari.
Searching for, tracking or viewing animals in their natural environment is such a fascinating and satisfying pastime if you know how to go about it properly. Zimbabwe is endowed with an incredible variety of wildlife species which have for years made it a popular destination for tourists.
The Big Five game species — elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion and leopard — are all found in this beautiful land of Zimbabwe.
Although some of them are really big, the Big Five species were named so not on the basis of size but mainly because of how difficult and challenging they are to hunt.
Hwange National Park, the biggest national park in Zimbabwe has the full complement of the Big Five animals. In the past a new concept of the Big Seven was created through the extension of the Big Five by adding the crocodile and hippopotamus.
Why I say wildlife safari is enjoyable if you know how to properly go about it is because it may turn out to be dangerous if some of the laws of the veld are not followed especially in areas where there is dangerous game.
The other issue is that animals are best viewed in their natural, undisturbed state. That way one is able to observe unmodified behaviours of individual animals or members of groups including such activities as foraging, hunting, fighting, courtship and mating.
If you are not careful you will startle the animals and then most of what you would see is a reaction to your intrusive presence.
Since so many animals depend a lot on their sense of smell, it is prudent to always approach them from the downwind side where your scent will not be blown towards the animal.
There is a set of safari ethics that should be adhered to when in the wild that are meant to ensure sustainability and also to give animals the respect they deserve and avoid cruelty against them. Noise around animals is abominable. Teasing, molesting them or even feeding them is not permissible.
Some animals are highly territorial, marking and protecting an area against intruders of the same species. Some of the common methods used for marking territory include ground scratching, scattering excreta such as urine and or faeces on surfaces such as the ground, rocks, trees and grass.
Some animals secrete some substances from special glands located in different parts of their bodies, deposited on different surfaces to mark their territories. Males of certain species such as hippo and lion will also use vocal means to advertise their presence and dominance in their territories.
Territory may sometimes not be relating to space but to groups of animals regarded as subjects. Some animals are, however, not territorial and some tend to wander-about over very long distances in search of certain conditions. There are certain animals whose presence in an area would be beneficial to other animals. Such animals are known as key species or keystone species.
Examples of keystone species include the antbear which digs a hole every dawn to spend the day and once it leaves it never returns to that hole. This provides shelter for a number of other animals such as warthogs and wild dogs among others.
In the same vein, the elephant uproots trees, shakes down fruits and breaks tree branches as it goes about its own feeding, thereby facilitating access by other animals, of resources that were otherwise out of reach.
Wildlife is full of invaluable lessons for humanity and through tourism we are able to continuously observe and glean such precious knowledge. We only need to be humble and respect nature.
– Phineas Chauke is a Bulawayo- based Tourism Consultant, Marketer and Tour Guide. Contact him on +263776058523, [email protected]
