Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Sierra Club. The WWF in South Africa worked closely with the Kruger Park, Mkuzi Game
Reserve, setting up the Peace Parks organization that furthers the mission of Transfrontier
Parks, apart from giving individual research grants.
When growing up we lived 73 miles, by mostly dirt road, from Barberton, the nearest town
where there were reasonable supplies. We kept tough, hardy African cattle for milk and
chickens for eggs.
Kids Herding Cattle Where Many Were Taken by Man - Eating Crocodiles at the Lomati
River
This meant, however, that they had to be protected from predators. Titus, as a grown African
teenager had the primary job of protecting the cattle and rounding them up with some “umalusi”
as help and putting them into the “isibaya” (cattle kraal) at night. Most African's names have
meaning and, for example, one of my brothers friends, an “umalusi” was called “Amandla we
inKosi”, meaning the power of the chief or God. The last name is related to the tribal or clan
name. If a person becomes well known to Zulus or Swazis, they will often be given an African
name with a meaning related to their persona. My father's was Besibesi meaning he walked
with a nod and legs spaced far apart. My brother's is Ngubane, because he has short small fifth
fingers, and he is an umBovu, meaning he has a short finger like the Ngubane tribe that have
their left fifth finger amputated as a tribal identifier. Most of the time it was easiest to find our
big grey humped bull and heard him back and the others would follow. Titus taught us how to
track the cattle through the Bushveld. If the cattle were in the 8 feet to 10 feet tall long grass it
was relatively easy since the herd would flatten the grass in a wide swath and the degree to
which the grass and bushes were bent over gave some idea how long ago they had passed.
Cattle egrets following the cattle would also fly up every now and again giving away the
location of the cattle. The moisture of broken branches also gave some idea of time,
particularly as some saps change color with time. Also, the texture, moisture, and color of the
dung and as one came closer, the temperature, gave an idea how far ahead they were. Dung
beetles meant the dung was fairly old. If the tracks (spoor) crossed more sandy parts with a
firm base, the tracks could also tell a story. If the edges were not sharp, then the gentle zephyrs
generated by the heat had blown the edges, often with the edges collapsing into the track. These
mini landslides in the track gave some idea of passage of time. If there was dew on the ground,
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