Tuesday 8 January 2013

Thinking of a Safari?


Ah, the final untouched frontier, where wild animals roam unhampered or pestered by mankind.

This is Tanzania, that unspoiled land where Lions, Elephants, and Giraffes have yet to encounter a human being.

Hello; are those tourist buses I see? No wonder that poor Lioness is turning her back on the world; I quite expect she despairs (as I do). 

I presume she's also been tagged, numbered, and fitted with a tracking device. We couldn't have her getting lost, now could we!

15 comments:

  1. That is a truly depressing photograph...

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  2. Tacky. Some folk just have no idea that even the theists' very, very dodgy exhortation to "have dominion over them" is a responsibility, not a free for all.

    We don't own this planet exclusively, we most assuredly do not "own" the other creatures on it. A lot of the other creatures are as bloody and uncivilised as we are, but it's only Human beings that make me ashamed.

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  3. Nothing like getting out into the wilds of the bush, just you and nature in all her glory.

    Still, if the revenue provides government's with the incentive to protect indigenous species rather than allow the locals to poach them out, surely it is an acceptable evil?

    I have been in Angola nearly twenty years and I have never seen a single lion, giraffe or elephant. There are a half dozen or so elephants in Quisama National Park but they were flown here from South Africa. They are the costly nucleus of a restocking programme but the project will only succeed if people pay to come and look at them.

    In South Africa, many species are bred in order to stock game reserves, not only in South Africa but other African countries where war and poaching has decimated local stock. Some of the necessary revenue is derived by allowing tourists, principally from the US, to pay to shoot them. Sounds terrible but one could argue it reflects only the attrition occurring naturally in nature with the benefit of ensuring viable breeding stock. Conservationists here have realised that if they are to succeed, it has to be run like a business.

    One other observation. Knowing Africa as I do, it is vast and there are very few roads so 99.9% of all the animals here are never inconvenienced by tourists in Landcruisers!

    I agree with you, though, it is sad. But I think saddest are these tourists who cannot be arsed to hire a local guide and walk into the bush armed with their bolt action digital cameras rather than ride in sweaty convoy.

    Look at it this way, at least the lioness is not behind bars in a zoo.

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    Replies
    1. As far as I can see, the poaching goes on regardless. If there's money to be made, there will always be guides, big-game-hunters, conservationists, and poachers; somehow they need to come to an amicable agreement.

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  4. Friends have been on safari but they never told me about the convoys. I had no idea it was like this and I'm shocked. It's horrible. All I can say is at least they're armed with cameras and not guns.

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  5. She looks depressed.

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  6. Horribly sad. Hippo made some good points though.

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  7. Sad situation Cro. Y'Know there are some things in life that have never interested me - going on a cruise and going on safari.....makes me a bit out of step I suppose, but I just don't see the appeal.

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  8. I would like to travel, but my body says, "Stay Home." Happy New Year, Cro!

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