No Cheetah

There was another interesting lesson (re)learnt on this last trip into the African bush - the realisation that nature is bigger than all of us and can't be co-ordinated or orchestrated to meet our (immediate gratification) needs.

This of course includes not getting to see the cheetah we were sure we were going to see...

The reserve we were visiting had introduced cheetah from a breeding programme. The cheetahs were habituated to humans - which meant that there was a strong likelihood of seeing them... and our expectations were high.

But nature planned to teach impetuous and somewhat demanding journalists a lesson that involved expressly not meeting their expectations or demands.

A week before we arrived at the reserve the lionesses killed one of the cheetah pair. This disrupted the normal pattern and movement of the now lonely and pining cheetah - and he remained elusive and well hidden.

Journalists on assignment can be a rather arrogant and demanding bunch (taking deadlines and editor's demands too seriously can to this to the nicest of people) and not wanting to insist that the reserve change its policy and use telemetry to track the cheetah we took the opening presented by contact with the neighbouring farm...

And there we were the next day, driving around 8,000, hectares in the baking African sun trying to track the pair of male cheetahs on the neighbouring farm.

We went to the spot where they were last sighted. Put up the telemetry equipment but found no signal.

We drove on and tried again. And again.

We saw rhino, giraffe, zebra, leopard tortoise, dung beetles, hornbills... but the cheetahs who were tracked daily by telemetry remained invisible - there was not one blip on the radar so to speak.

We eventually retreated to nurse our frustrations while attending other events on a tight media schedule - only to learn that the original cheetah on the first farm was sighted while we were out chasing a sighting of the other cheetah...

A wonderful (if frustrating) lesson. You can't control nature, or people; and it is possible to try too hard to achieve something that would come naturally if only you would relax and go with the flow...

I'm sure you are wondering about the final outcome...

The pair we were tracking were found late in the afternoon, resting in a shady valley where the signal could not be picked up; but there was not time nor opportunity to go back there.

We had another two days on the original reserve,and the lone cheetah was not spotted again while we were there... and we did try (when will I learn?).

I've often wondered if one sees more on a game drive bouncing around on rough roads through the bush, following fresh spoor... or sitting still and quietly letting nature unfold in front of you...

There's the thrill of the chase (almost satisfying a hunting type urge) in a game drive, and a sense of doing and trying which is appealing - and you probably do see more of the larger species... but you miss so much by not sitting still and letting the world reveal itself in layers to you.

Life can be frustrating; or a lesson... and I think there is a fine line between chasing a goal (too hard) and steering the course of your life in a chosen direction. Perhaps all that is needed is to know yourself and follow your heart - which is a whole lot easier said than done (given societal expectations and conditioning) - especially on a media trip.

Dead Leopard

I'm angry; yet strangely thankful. 

I attended a media trip which was to include something I considered special: the release of a relocated leopard. It was to be the first time I would see a leopard, and I was excited.

The leopard had been captured and removed from a farm to save it's life. Simply put the farmer considered it a nuisance and a threat to his livestock. The three-year old female leopard had been held in a boma largely to disorientate the sleek but smelly feline so that she did not head back to her old haunt...

She put up a feisty fuss when the vet wanted to darted her in the dark, covered section of the boma, but was soon sedated and carried out to the table to be measured and given a medical once-over before being take to her new home to be released.

In the middle of being measured and having an injured paw attended to, the leopard stopped breathing. The vet immediately administered an injection to facilitate breathing and she started again with a few shuddering breaths, we all sighed in relief but then her breathing stopped again... and no amount of resuscitation worked.

The sleek cat, in her prime, just died. 

The first incident in more than 60 successful leopard relocations.

It was a moving and emotional moment. Just about everyone present cried and withdrew; and the people involved felt awful and then tried to explain the incident away.

It is sad; but the truth is that nobody involved in the relocation efforts is to blame. They would not be relocating leopards unless it was for their own good and preservation - and it would not be necessary is man was not encroaching on the leopard's territory and if farmers revered them rather than seeing them as pests.

I was sad when the leopard died; and then angry. Angry that it had not fought to cling to life so that my happily-ever-after do-good impression of conservation efforts remained intact. Angry that my own race - humans - had placed the leopard in jeopardy...

But a sense of thankfulness began to descend after a while. I became thankful of the sacrifice of the leopard's life. For me it, and I think for several others present, it has been a catalyst - no more than a catalyst; a thorn in my side - to spur me on to do more about conservation than merely mentally siding with nature and the animals.

It is time for me to address the urgent need for us to respect our natural environment - our host the Earth and the other creatures that reside on her with her blessing; and as a writer, one of the ways I hope to make a difference - and honour the spirit of the leopard - is to blog about relevant conservation issues.

I would like to encourage everyone to join me in honouring this leopards life - to do more for conservation than simply acknowledging it should be done - and then leaving it up to someone else.