Ecology Archive
Tit for That
The Obama Administration may have hastened rhino extinction in order to achieve political capital in Wisconsin. Charity begins at home, and there’s no more powerful example of this than for Americans interested in saving rhinos and no greater reversal in my life time than what the Obama Administration has just done. For the first time [...]
Elephant in a Texas Circus
Posted by jimheck in Arts and Culture, Big Game, Ecology, Poaching on May 7, 2013
It’s likely there is a greater percentage of Chinese who wish to end the ivory trade and save elephants than there are Texans who believe in evolution. Think about that, please. Yesterday, the Chinese actress Li Bingbing – who has 20 million followers and counting on her social media – made a highly public visit [...]
Killing Two Birds with A Bird
The great rice fields of western Kenya are ready for harvest. But the battle that will determine who eats the rice is only now playing out. It’s man versus bird, and the rules of engagement are not pretty. This is such a perfect example of the folly of man trying to tinker with nature. I’ve [...]
On Safari: Never Discount Junior
There are few true big game reserves so close to large metropolitan cities as Arusha National Park, and it’s holding its own against an onslaught of peripheral farms and shops. The park was exceptionally green and beautiful and lived up to its reputation for us as “Giraffic Park.” We probably saw 100 giraffe in the [...]
Techtonic in Nature
Posted by jimheck in Ecology, Economy, Environment, Wildlife Management on March 28, 2013
Separate but Equal: A chilling phrase used throughout history to justify such barbaric ideas as apartheid and reenforce the power of the status quo has now been applied to African wilderness in an attempt to save lions. It’s more naive than offensive. Sorry to be such a drag on your week, but when the world’s [...]
On Safari: Dead Elephant Walking
Chobe’s elephants are legendary, but what I saw this time is disconcerting. They are tame, inbred, their many broken tusks are like toothpicks, their family behaviors have broken down and they are destroying the Chobe forests. Is it time to cull? There is a growing consensus in the affirmative. Even the conservation organization Elephants Without [...]
What a Valentine’s Bouquet!
The floral biodiversity of The Cape is greater than the Amazon; in fact it is the most diverse floral system in the world, even though it’s the smallest. Today and tomorrow we experience this amazing Valentine’s Day bouquet, first by visiting the famous Kirstenbosch botanical gardens as it celebrates its 100th birthday, and tomorrow, by [...]
Ripped Off Paradise
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Ecology, Environment, Ngorongoro Crater on January 17, 2013
Paradise is being abandoned. Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater, its greatest single tourist attraction and one of the most pristine areas on earth, is in the midst of a political crisis that threatens normal tourism there. Officialdom in Tanzania is rarely much more than organized crime, but even that can be better than the mayhem currently being [...]
Death Becomes Them
Posted by jimheck in Ecology, Economy, Environment, Poaching on September 4, 2012
There are many different kinds of poaching and some I actually sympathize with. But a particular type of child poaching in Kenya is uniquely tragic. Poaching is hardly confined to Africa. The legendary boar poachers in my childhood home of Arkansas, or deer poachers in my neighboring state of Wisconsin have fed grand literature as [...]
Leaping out of The Wild
Yesterday eland was photographed in Nairobi National Park. It’s enough to make you believe the wilderness will be preserved! There is hardly anything as anomalous in the wild as Nairobi National Park. Three of its four sides abut some of the highest low-rise human population densities on earth, including some of its most truculent slums. [...]
The Real Terror Within
Posted by jimheck in Ecology, Economy, Environment, Politics on August 7, 2012
Terror in travel is a wonderful way for us guides to get our clients into the car on time, and in Africa, snakes seems to be the trick! In East Africa where I guide there are 42 venomous snakes and every single one is a killer! But now a wonderful assistant professor of biology at [...]
Eat And/Or Die
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Ecology, Economy, Environment on July 9, 2012
Organic brats and burgers covered with organic lettuce as Nigeria berated our summer holiday grill obsessions and viciously debated a national law to accelerate the use of genetically modified crop seeds. If my relatives are any indication, America is turning neon green. We couldn’t even use non-organic salt for the July 4th barbecues. And the [...]
Better Visit The Selous Soon
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Ecology, Economy, Environment on May 7, 2012
Bruised but recovered from the embarrassing loss of the Serengeti Highway project, Tanzania looks truly set on creating one of Africa’s largest dams over currently one of its largest game parks. Friday, Energy and Minerals minister William Ngeleja announced during a visit to the area that “This is not a ghost project…Tanzanians will see it [...]
Land Grabs Really a Proxy for Water Grabs
Posted by jimheck in Ecology, Economy, Environment, Uncategorized on March 22, 2012
By Conor Godfrey Paolo Bacigalupi is a master science fiction writer, and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and any other Sci-fi award you can think of. His blockbuster hit was entitled “The Windup Girl.” The story imagined a world in the near-mid future where food-crop biodiversity had plunged due to constant genetic tampering in an [...]
Better Than Agent Orange
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Ecology, Environment on February 2, 2012
Today’s Nature article suggesting elephants be introduced to Australia to control gamba grass is not funny. It’s terrifying. Sometimes today I think I’m living in a parallel universe where the main difference is the use of fact. It doesn’t seem to matter much anymore in my one cognizant world, and it gets harder and harder [...]