Management

Today we got back from our 5 day camp out in the Serengeti. It was an incredible experience, although a little claustrophobic. We weren’t allowed to even get near the ankle-high grass just outside the campsite (some of the other guys tried) and anytime spent out of the campsite was in the Land Cruisers. It still was amazing, and we saw way more animals than expected. We even got to see a portion of the migration on the way out (there were so many zebra and wildebeest!).
One of the most interesting things I saw was a troop of baboons trapping a leopard and her cubs. They had chased them under a log, and the mother was staying there because she knew as soon as she left to fight the baboons some would dart under and kill the cubs. Of course there was a huge pile up of land cruisers to see this thing. Luckily we were able to get up next to Daniel, a guy we met who is the research assistant (the one who stays in the park and does the work) of the Serengeti lion research project, the second longest animal behavior research project (right behind the chimpanzees). Some tourist cars then went off-roading (which is obviously illegal), chasing the baboons away. It really shocked all of us, and Daniel was angry. He took videos and told us to send our pictures to TANAPA (the Tanzanian park authorities) so they could fine the drivers (even though they’ll only get a $100 fine, which they will get way more from tips because they did it. There were rumors that a TANAPA car came and killed one of the baboons, but our car left before that happened. It was a definite wake-up call to me about how little respect we sometimes show to the world. It would be sad to have leopard cubs die but there are times you have to let nature take its course. One of the things Daniel told us is that when he saw an injured lion he only called vets in if it was a human caused injury (gunshot wound, snare, etc.), not for any natural injuries. If you treated lions for any injury not only would it throw off data, making the research biased, you are dealing with an ethical issue. Who are we to say that a particular lion should be saved, that the leopard cubs should be saved? The baboons were only acting in their own best interest, something that humans do all the time. Wildlife management was described to me by Christian, my Wildlife Management Professor, to be more about managing humans than wildlife. And this is true. The trouble is not wildlife encroaching on human areas, it’s residential, industrial and agricultural areas encroaching on wildlife areas. There needs to found and implemented a lifestyle that is more in line with conservation of resources, and this is completely possible as long as there is a drive to and a willingness to respect this earth and all the life which supports us.