234 : Black-headed Heron



Black-headed Heron - Ardea melanocephala

I have almost stayed on safari in my head for 5 months now. By definition if this is the Daily Bird if I go and see 100 birds in 3 days that allows me 3 months to post them up. The only limitation then is my time in posting them up. I do think we need to mix it up a bit now and say goodbye to Tanzania so I am off this weekend to find some new places to talk about. I will have to come back to my "old laptop" to finish off this trip at some point.

This bird was there on the drive in to Olakira camp where I left a small part of my soul last year or I swapped it for something else. As stillness and a sense that the skies are so much larger when you get out of town. Turn the engine off and soak it up.

The Serengetti itself is in a way manmade - people were cleared from it to create a park for shooting. They never tell you that in the big documentaries. So thank you big game hunters without whom the original drive to preserve this would never have happened. But now just clear off and hang up your guns. Just go to these places and plough in money - because if they are worth more as playgrounds for all of us and create jobs for the Gregorys and Barrakas and so on they won't be turned over to the plough and the last antelope trapped. There is a lot of work to be done making sure more money trickles down. Its the Masai's land. We took it away - now its kept for a good purpose - whats good for everybody's pockets can be good for animals. I have no moral answer but I know that the Masai that act as rangers tracking every individual Rhino to keep them safe, who act as guides, cooks, pilots, policeman, truck drivers even love it the way it is now - they love the animals. Just tip big when you go and the money gets home to the families and the thing stays safe. Thats my feeling - we need to all buy this every year. Its not enough to sit watching Africa - money needs to go to Tanzania and Kenya to keep all of this safe.

And in the end if a Rhino was worth more alive to everyone locally then they wouldn't be shot. The orders come in through some middle man for matted hair from China which serves no medical purpose and one of these last few great creatures is killed for the sake of new mobile phone  in Tanzania and a new car in Shanghai. I don't have any answer - I know that the whole world needs to keep this place and this animal safe for eternity.

Black Rhino - way less than 100 left in this population. It was a privilege - I wish it wasn't. I dont see a roaring trade in Panda pen*s so you can stop this if you really want to China.  You have no tigers left of your own - you have all but finished off the asian Rhino. Stuff your traditions - really - just stuff them - they are not worth the life of one more of these beautiful creatures. Lets stop buying any Chinese goods - the whole world. Shark fins, tiger pen*s, rhino horn, ivory - please just get over yourself. Enough.

Tanzania

July 2013