Cry of the Kalahari

by Mark James Owens

  2. Predators on which brown hyenas depend heavily for food, especially lions and leopards, are being shot at increasing rates by ranchers, poachers, and hunters. Conservation of major predator communities is essential in maintaining the present brown hyena population density in the Central Kalahari.

  3. Veterinary cordon fences are killing off thousands of antelope that otherwise would represent a lasting food resource for brown hyenas and other Kalahari predators. Addressing this problem is critical to the conservation of the brown hyena.

  4. Since the brown hyena is of little real threat to livestock, and since it is an endangered species, it should not be included in Botswana’s Predator Control Act. Proof of damage to livestock should be required of ranchers before they are issued special depredation permits to kill brown hyenas.

  Appendix D

  Latin Names of the Mammals, Birds, and Snakes Mentioned in the Text

  MAMMALS

  aardvark Orycteropus afer

  aardwolf Proteles cristatus

  cape fox Vulpes chama

  caracal Felis caracal

  cheetah Acinonyx jubatus

  bat-eared fox Otocyon megalotis

  brown hyena Hyaena brunnea

  duiker, Grimm’s Sylvicapra grimmia

  eland, cape Taurotragus oryx

  gemsbok Oryx gazella

  hartebeest, red Alcelaphus busalephus

  honey badger (ratel) Mellivora capensis

  jackal, black-backed Canis mesomelas

  kudu, greater Tragelaphus strepsiceros

  leopard Panthera pardus

  lion Panthera leo

  meerkat Suricata suricatta

  mongoose, slender Herpestes sanguineus

  porcupine Hystrix sp.

  rabbit, Crawshay’s Lepus crawshayi

  serval cat Felis serval

  springbok Antidorcas marsupialis

  spring hare Pedetes capensis

  spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta

  squirrel, striped ground Xerus erythropus

  steenbok Raphicerus campestris

  warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus

  wild cat Felis libyca

  wild dog Lycaon pictus

  wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus

  BIRDS

  bulbul, red-eyed Pycnonotus nigricans

  bustard, kori Otis kori kori

  cormorant, reed Phalacrocorax africanus

  eagle, tawny Aquila rapax

  finch, scaly feathered Sporopipes squamifrons

  fish eagle Haliaeetus vocifer

  flycatcher, Marico Bradornis mariquensis

  goose, spur-winged Plectropterus gambensis

  hoopoe, scimitar-billed Rhinopomastus cyanomelas

  hornbill, grey (in Maun) Tockus nasutus epirhinus

  hornbill, yellow-billed (in camp) Tockus flavirostris leucomelas

  kestrel, rock Falco tinnunculus

  kite, black-shouldered Elanus caeruleus

  kite, yellow-billed Milvus aegyptius

  korhaan, black Eupodotis afra

  lily-trotter (African jacana) Actophilornis africanus

  night jar Caprimulgus rufigena

  ostrich Struthio camelus

  owl, pearl-spotted Glaucidium perlatum

  plover, crowned Stephanibyx coronatus

  shrike, crimson-breasted Laniarius atro-coccineus

  stork, white Ciconia ciconia

  stork, white-bellied Ciconia abdimii

  teal, hottentot Anas hottentota

  tit-babbler Parisoma subcaeruleum

  vulture, lappet-faced Torgos trachelioutus

  waxbill, violet-eared Granatina granatina

  weaver, masked Ploceus velatus

  SNAKES

  boomslang Dispholidus typus

  cobra, Anchieta’s Naja haje anchieta

  mamba, black Dendroaspis polylepis polylepis

  puff adder Bitis arietans

  spitting cobra (Black-necked) Naja mossambica

  Notes

  4 Cry of the Kalahari

  1. Moehlman, pp. 382–83.

  2. Trivers, pp. 249–64.

  5 Star

  1. Kniuk, p. 126.

  2. Owens and Owens, 1979a, pp. 405–8.

  10 Lions in the Rain

  1. Schalter, p. 33.

  12 Return to Deception

  1. Mills, 1978, pp. 113–41.

  2. Skinner, 1976, pp. 262–69; Mills, 1976, pp. 36–42.

  3. Macdonald, pp. 69–71.

  14 The Trophy Shed

  1. Bertram, p. 59.

  17 Gypsy Cub

  1. Bygott, Bertram, and Hanby, pp. 839–41.

  2. Bertram, p. 59.

  18 Lions with No Pride

  1. Schaller, pp. 34–42.

  2. Schaller, p. 38.

  20 A School for Scavengers

  1. Owens and Owens, 1979b, pp. 35–44.

  21 Pepper

  1. Hamilton, pp. 1–52.

  2. Dawkins, pp. 95–131.

  3. Owens and Owens, 1984, pp. 843–45.

  25 Black Pearls in the Desert

  1. Young, Hedger, and Powell, pp. 181–84.

  2. Hedger, p. 91.

  3. Silberbauer, pp. 20–21.

  4. Child, pp. 1–13.

  5. Silberbauer, p. 22.

  6. Owens and Owens, 1980, pp. 25–27.

  EPILOGUE

  1. Williamson, in press.

  APPENDIX A Conservation of Migratory Kalahari Ungulates

  1. Condy and Hedger, pp. 181–84.

  2. Hedger, p. 91.

  3. Siegmund, p. 255.

  4. Abel son, p. 1181.

  References

  Abelson, P. H. 1982. Foot-and-mouth vaccines. Science 218: 1181.

  Bertram, B. C. R. 1975. The social system of lions. Scientific American 232: 54–65.

  Bygott, J. D., B. C. R. Bertram, and J. P. Hanby. 1979. Male lions in large coalitions gain reproductive advantages. Nature 282: 839–41.

  Child, G. 1972. Observations on a wildebeest die-off in Botswana. Arnoldia (Rhodesia) 5: 1–13.

  Condy, J. B., and R. S. Hedger. 1974. The survival of foot and mouth disease virus in African buffalo with nontransference of infection to domestic cattle. Res. Vet. Sci. 39(3): 181–84.

  Dawkins, R. 1976. The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press.

  Hamilton, W. D. 1964. The genetic evolution of social behavior, I, II. J. Theor. Biol. 7: 1–52.

  Hedger, R. S. 1981. Foot-and-Mouth Disease. In Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals, ed. John Davis et al. Ames: Iowa State University Press.

  Kruuk, H. 1972. The Spotted Hyena. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  Macdonald, D. W. 1979. Helpers in fox society. Nature 282: 69–71.

  Mills, M. G. L. 1976. Ecology and behaviour of the brown hyena in the Kalahari with some suggestions for management. Proc. Symp. Endangered Wildl. Trust (Pretoria) pp. 36–42.

  Mills, M. G. L. 1978. Foraging behavior of the brown hyena (Hyaena brunnea Thunberg, 1820) in the southern Kalahari. A. Tierpschol 48: 113–41.

  Moehlman, P. 1979. Jackal helpers and pup survival. Nature 277: 382–83.

  Owens, D., and M. Owens. 1979a. Notes on social organization and behavior in brown hyenas (Hyaena brunnea). J. of Mammalogy 60: 405–08

  Owens, D., and M. Owens. 1979b. Communal denning and clan associations in brown hyenas of the Central Kalahari Desert. Afr. J. of Ecol. 17: 35–44.

  Owens, D., and M. Owens. 1984. Helping behaviour in brown hyenas. Nature 308: 843–45.

  Owens, M., and D. Owens. 1980. The fences of death. African Wildlife 34: 2527.

  Schaller, G. B. 1972. The Serengeti Lion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  Siegmund, O. H., ed. 1979. The Merck Veterinary Manual. Rahway, N.J.: Merck & Co.

  Silberbauer, G. 1965. Bushmen survey report. Gaborone: Botswana Government Printers.

  Skinner, J. 1976. Ecology of the brown hyena in the Transvaal with a distribution map for southern Africa. S. Afr. J. of Sci. 72: 262–69.


  Trivers, R. L. 1974. Parent-offspring conflict. Am. Nat. 14: 249–64.

  Williamson, D. T. 1984. More about the fences. Botswana Notes and Records. In press.

  Young, E., R. S. Hedger, and P. G. Howell. 1972. Clinical foot and mouth disease in the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Ondersterpoort J. vet res. 39(3): 181–84.

  Acknowledgments

  WITHOUT THE ASSISTANCE of many people, our research and the writing of this book would not have been possible. We have not been able to mention in the text all of those who believed in us and helped us throughout the years. We deeply regret this and wish them to know that we will always remember their contributions.

  Our very special thanks to the Friends of the Animals and the Frankfurt Zoological Society, under the direction of Dr. Richard Faust, who gave us an aiiplane and other sophisticated equipment essential for working in such a remote area. The society financed the project from 1977 to 1983 and is continuing its generous support, The personal interest and encouragement of Dr. Faust and Ingrid Koberstein, his assistant, kept us going when times were tough.

  We are also deeply grateful to the National Geographic Society for our first grant, and to the Netherlands branch of the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature for their generous financial assistance. H.R.H. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands helped us secure funding and was influential in our efforts to publicize the Kalahari antelope issue.

  Our sincere appreciation also to the Okavango Wildlife Society for a grant that allowed us to purchase our first radio telemetry equipment and to continue our research at a critical time. We are especially grateful to Chairman Hans Veit, and to Kevin Gill, Barbara Jeppe, and Heinz and Danny Guissman for their support.

  We owe much to Al and Marjo Price and their family, who, through the California Academy of Science, contributed generously toward the operation of our project’s airplane.

  The late Dr. Beatrice Flad, a warm and sensitive person who was at the same time tenacious in her defense of wildlife, gave her life for conservation. We appreciate her financial support during the writing of our results.

  Thanks also to Dr. and Mrs. Max Dinkelspiel for their personal contribution toward a trip home when we badly needed to see our families.

  We are very grateful to the office of the president of Botswana and to the Department of Wildlife and Tourism for permission to conduct our research in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, for accepting our criticisms, and for considering our recommendations on the conservation of the Kalahari. We realize that it is not always easy to resolve the competition between man and wildlife, and we thank those officials who are sincerely attempting to do this for the betterment of all.

  Besides our sponsors, there are people who contributed greatly to the running of the project in crucial ways: our lasting appreciation and warm thanks to Kevin Gill who graciously gave us the full use of his home whenever we were in Johannesburg and for treating us to mellow evenings filled with good wines, fine music, and stimulating conversation. Our thanks to Captain Roy Liebenberg for teaching Mark to fly, and for his assistance with radio equipment; to Roy, his wife, Marianne, and their children, and to Bruno and Joy Bruno for allowing us to be a part of their families on many occasions. Dave Erskine and Rolf Olschewski hauled thousands of gallons of aviation fuel through the desert to our camp. Dave also made windsocks for the airstrip, helped us with photography, made logistical arrangements with mine personnel, and made critical observations on the brown hyenas on occasions when we had to be away. Bobby and Mary Dykes (Delia’s twin brother and his wife) gave us unending support in printing, sorting, and cataloguing our photographs, in shipping spare parts for our airplane from the United States, and in helping with project correspondence. They even brought our lion and brown hyena radio collars to Africa in their suitcase.

  There are still many frontiers in southern Africa where people must depend on one another—sometimes even for survival. In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the Archers—Geoffry, Ruth, Margaret, and Jean—kindly gave us the use of their home, wonderful meals, and innumerable cups of tea, and a “bush shower” that helped equip us for life in the bundu. We thank the Tom Lukes and Graham Clarks, also of Bulawayo, for their warm friendship; Mr. and Mrs. White of Salsbury (Harare) for their hospitality; Ted Matchel and Ian Salt of the Zimbabwean Department of Wildlife and National Parks for advice on prospective study areas.

  In Gaborone, Tom Butynski and Carol Fisher Wong put us up for several weeks while we were outfitting for our reconnaissance through Botswana. And over the years, whenever we arrived from the bush, Pietman and Marlene Henning of Gaborone always took us in, fed us, and gave us rest and friendship.

  For seven years, whenever we came into the village of Maun for supplies, our friends provided us with everything from truck spares to parties and advice. We will never be able to thank them enough, for theirs was the truest expression of the pioneer spirit that still lives in small villages on the edge of the bush veld. Our thanks to Richard and Nellie Flattery, Pete Smith, Eustice and Daisy Wright, Mark Muller, Dave Sandenberg, Hazel Wilmot, Toni and Yoyi Graham, Diane Wright, Dolene Paul, Dad Riggs, Cecil and Dawn Riggs, John and Caroline Kendrick, Larry and Jenny Patterson, P. J. and Joyce Bestelink and Kate and Norbert Drager. Special thanks to Phyllis Palmer and Daphne Truthe for kindly reading messages and telegrams to us on shortwave radio.

  There is a group of people in Maun who deserve special recognition: the professional hunters, especially of Safari South. When we first arrived with our back packs and dilapidated old Land Rover to study wildlife, the hunters managed to conceal the doubts they surely had about us and from the very beginning made us feel welcome. It would have been very difficult for us to begin our project without their advice and never-ending support. They gave us our only radio and talked to us often during the hunting season—our only communication with the outside world; they towed our truck when it broke down near the village; they loaned us the use of their airplane for game censusing; they gave us tents, chairs, tables; they flew Delia into Maun when she was very sick with malaria and did hundreds of other favors. Our sincere thanks to Lionel Palmer, Dougie Wright, Willie Engelbrecht, Bert Miln, John Kingsley Heath, Simon Paul, Wally Johnson, Junior and Senior; Tommy Friedkin, owner of Safari South; manager Charles Williams, and David Sandenberg. Though we did not condone all of their hunting practices, most of the hunters remained our friends.

  We had many illuminating discussions with Steve Smith, Curt Busse, and Carol and Derrick Melton, who gave us a standing invitation to visit their baboon research camp in the Okavango delta. The evenings with the baboons scampering around us, the Christmas turkey that was cooked in a washbasin, and our swims in the hippo lagoon will never be forgotten.

  We thank Dr. W. J. Hamilton III for accepting us as graduate students, for his support and encouragement while we were in the field, for his great patience with us as we write up our results, and for all the laughs both he and Marion, his wife, have given us when we needed them.

  De Beers Consolidated Botswana allowed us to purchase aviation fuel from their stocks and to buy supplies at the mine store.

  We would like to thank Lake Price and Warren Powell, who assisted us in the field for three months in 1979. They never complained about the long hours over the plotting board, the lack of water, or the rats and snakes in their shredded tent; or about the “turd patrol” (collecting, crushing, and sifting lion and hyena scats). Their contributions and companionship were invaluable.

  We are grateful to Gordon Bennett for the generous use of his airplane and company facilities on several occasions; to Cliff and Eva Thompson, Hans Pearson, and Phil Parkin for donations of equipment. For their gracious hospitality in South Africa, we also thank Frank Bashall, Schalk Theron, Allistar and Maureen Stewart, Willy and Linda Vandeverre, and Liz and Jane Cuthbert.

  To our families we owe special appreciation for their encouragement through the years. Delia’s mother and late father sent endless “car
e” packages. Mark’s father and Delia’s mother brought much needed cheer to camp on their visits. Again, we are sorry that the many interesting details of their visits could not be included in the book.

  Our good friends Bob Ivey and Jill Bowman have been involved with our project from the very beginning. Their encouragement and enthusiasm greatly inspired us, and they read and commented on the entire manuscript. We owe them much more than they will ever realize.

  We are also grateful to Dr. Joel Berger, Carol Cunningham, Dr. W. J. Hamilton III, Dr. Murray Fowler (Chapter 25), Helen Cooper, and Dr. Bob Hitchcock for their constructive comments on the manuscript. Helen Cooper (Delia’s sister) also helped with the epigraphs. We appreciate the encouragement, assistance, and lasting patience of our editors Harry Foster (Houghton Mifflin) and Adrian House (Collins) and the support and encouragement of Peter Matson and Michael Sissons, our agents.

  Doug and Jane Williamson took over the wildebeest research and the operation of the camp during a four-year drought. In our absence they have made lasting contributions to science and the conservation of Kalahari wildlife under extremely difficult conditions.

  We owe special thanks to Mox Moraffe, who assisted us for three and a half years in the desert. In his own quiet and humorous way, he gave us support and knowledge.

  Mr. and Mrs. Langdon Flowers of Thomasville, Georgia, kindly invited us to stay in “Breezinook,” their log-and-stone house on Greybeard Trail in Montreat, North Carolina, while we wrote much of this book. We are so very grateful for the peace and inspiration we found in this retreat and for the opportunity to get to know them better.