Buff-crested Bustard - Eupoditas gindiana
Bustards are very much on my mind this week with the announcement in the UAE of record numbers of Houbara Bustards bred and released through the captive breeding programme. The Bustards of Arabia have been hunted in the wild to near extinction. Originally falconry was practiced by the indigenous arabs in a sustainable way but of course over recent decades the balance was lost such that Gulf arabs will travel widely in order to hunt these birds. Whatever my thoughts on hunting - which are mostly supportive where a particular past time supports a landscape (no grouse no grouse moors etc.) it is a shame perhaps that birds that are not so exciting to hunt and kill do not get bred and released in the numbers that are being reported here. Over 40,000 Houbara's have been bed this year and a quarter of that number released all over the Gulf and North Africa courtesy of the generosity of the UAE.
You can read about the programme here at their website. I just hope I can get a picture of one in the wild. I am not sure if a released bird will count - I hope I do not have to travel to Iraq or Iran to get my picture of an Asian Houbara. Anyway its good news that they have the stated aim of recreating a sustainable Gulf wide population - yes they will be hunted in the same way that snipe, woodcock, grouse, pheasant and any game bird is hunted the world over. If they are prepared to spend millions to ensure that the balance is right and put the right controls on then that is fine in my book.
Back to African Bustards -
This is the fourth in my collection of Bustards - I even have a page called "Smaller Bustards" in my Birds of East Africa with just one bird left to photograph - a Hautlaub's Bustard. These Buff-breasted Bustards are supposed to be short legged and to be fair they did seem to hug the ground more. I think this is a female bird but even on the male the head markings were much less developed than the white bellied which was the other Bustard we were seeing in Ruaha.
They are hard to see !! These are the size of a goose and with a long neck but the camouflage is effective in the long dry grass. Ground nesting birds with a need for some stealth feathering. Finding a mate in the correct season is solved by the Males flying up from the bush into the sky and performing a series of semi back somersaults. That must be something to behold ! Giant bustards cartwheeling down through the sky. I have read that they are somewhat aggressive once the female submits - with their head an necks getting pecked throughout the ordeal.
Perhaps its no wonder she would prefer to stay hidden.
Its a safari posting so its always good to get away from birds and to introduce some of the supporting cast. We were tearing across the park in pursuit of a Cheetah sighting one afternoon. Below a typical view of the back of Lorenzo and Tony bantering and squabling away in a good natured manner at 80 kph on a dusty road ! Tony on the phone getting tree accurate directions from Festo, another guide who had seen the Cheetah earlier in the day with another couple staying at our camp. I should say that Ruaha is nothing like the Ngorogoro crater with 30 vehicles descending on any cat in view. We could go all day without a sighting of another truck. We very rarely "twitched" our game and every day we would find our own lions - hunting, sleeping or slinking off into the bush after a siesta. Lions with cubs, male lions, female lions.
So in pursuit of a Cheetah typically Mrs C shouts out "Lion" and there by the side of a bush was the most beautiful lioness. Just 2 or 3 yards from the truck.
Now lions have grown on me - I got to watch a lot more of them this year going about the business. Here in Ruaha they are not picking off sick Wildebeeste from the edge of a herd 100,000 animals strong. These are buffalo hunting specialists and we witnessed what they get up to on another occasion. We were near to a river here and this lioness was probably sleeping off her last meal - which was probably buffalo and the rest of her pride would have been dispersed around in favourite sleeping spots. We knew we were due for a lion as my eldest son (aged 11) had negotiated a truck stop/pit stop just a hundred yards up the road. He has a sixth sense for dangerous peeing.
This was the lioness' view - open bush dotted with Baobabs (which I still don't know how to pronounce correctly). You can see another lioness in the background to the right of the tree in the left foreground. It might have been an ambush line of lions spread into the distance - a picket line.
The guiding at Kwihala was just superb. After the vehicle stopped and while I was composing portraits like the one below Lorenzo would whisper across to us a steady diet of lion facts and stories, all questions were answered and on the occasion that an answer wasn't known he would hit the books and internet over night to try and find out an answer. Top class guiding, and appreciative that we were not "cat fever" people. We are as happy with a mongoose or a caterpiller at times.
This lioness was stunning though - looking at the face markings you can get a sense of the wonder of evolution just in the detail. The lighter detailing under the eyes is designed to reflect more light into the pupils at night - the reverse of American footballers who put on a black stripe to stop glare. Amazing - not by accident or design but by the wonder of natural selection lions that had the eye liner developed a better night hunting capability and over time bred more and took more territory so that over eons all lions took on the adaptation. How wonderful is nature.
There is a link between the bird and the beast - the bird I think was photographed immediately before my eldest had his pee which then led onto this lion. I have to remind myself but this post was supposedly about ...
Buff-crested Bustard, Eupoditas Gindiana
Ruaha National Park, Tanzania
July 2013
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