Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
him. Another time one of the drivers got up early to prepare and clean a vehicle for a game
drive. He was down at the garage by himself and the pride caught him and unfortunately killed
and ate him. Once again this probably is due to the decline of medium sized herbivore
populations and residual predator over population as Botswana's wildebeest and zebra
populations have crashed by 90% and could become locally extinct. Of interest, there are no
stories of leopards attacking people in Moremi, although in the Kruger Park leopards have
been more of a problem, yet still rare. Perhaps this is because the pressure on leopard
territories and food supply may not be as great since about 300 leopards are killed each year
by animal control officers and cattle farmers in Botswana. Leopards attacking early settlers,
Africans and a Newfoundland dog that had rescued sailors from a shipwreck of a boat trying to
get into Durban harbor may have been because where a new boat was being built on the Bluff
had few animals on it. (Graham Mackeurtan The Cradle Days of Natal 1497-1845).
Mackeurtan also implies the origin of the Nguni word for white people, abalungu, which he
spelt differently (Bubulongo), comes from the name that was used for the Durban Bluff area by
the Zulus under Shaka, namely a long narrow topped ridged hill, and not where white people
live. The name Durban came about on the 23 of June 1835 when missionary Allen Francis
Gardiner presided over a group of 15 settlers who decided to form a town named after the
Governor of the Cape, Sir Benjamin D'Urban.
While most tourists are concerned with the risk of wild animals potentially killing them, the
greater hazard is that of motor vehicle accidents, but the latter hardly enters our consciousness
since we have factored the risk into our daily living. Hence, around 1000 to one more people
are killed going to the various Southern African national parks and game reserves than actually
in them. It has been extremely rare for tourists to have been killed in the Kruger Park, in fact, I
am not aware of any in the many decades I have been visiting. I ask the question of game
rangers whenever I get a chance to. In Africa leopards have rarely become regular man eaters
whereas one of the leopards killed in India by Corbett was documented to have eaten more
than 400 people. The Panar leopard is documented to have killed 400 people, the Rudraprayag
leopard 125, and the Champawat tigress 436. Corbett hunted them from a raised platform but
was himself stalked. Both lions and tigers are cautious of suspicious situations because of
potential traps. But whereas lions once have killed an animal will tend to stay allowing a
hunter to shoot a man-eater, tigers will rush in and grab the animal and rush off again.
Livingstone relates that in India to keep the tiger in sight, the method used was to dig a pit and
put a stake in the pit and then tie a goat to the stake, with a stone hanging from its ear. The goat
would bleat away in the night, attracting the tiger, but being suspicious, it would walk in
circles around the pit, allowing the hunter the opportunity to take a shot. When I visited Corbett
Park a year ago, a leopard had killed and eaten a woman a week before, a tiger had attacked
two teenage boys but not killed them, and during the night, a tiger roared probably a mile away
from my hotel, even though this was a well built up area. The roar of tigers and lions travels
long distances to establish their territories. This is due to the vocal cord folds stretching and
shearing similar to a baby cries and is not related to nerve input. The cords vibrate irregularly
and the folds are filled with fat that makes them square shaped. During a roar they vibrate at 40
to 200 Hz in lions and at 83 to 246 Hz in tigers at up to 114 decibels. Thus, on night drive
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