Hi again,
Herewith, some snippets from various sources.
I appeal to you to send me items to distribute to our members for the Cleft Stick, the Game Ranger magazine and to be posted on the web site. These are your magazines and website, so ensure it gets the news that you would like to see in it.
Please let me have any changes to your physical address, phone no. or e-mail address to keep the database up to date. Remember this is the address we will send your Game Ranger Magazine to.
Thanks to all of you who have made the effort. Please will any of you who know of members who do not get this “electric” Cleft~Stick, & have access to e-mail, pass their address along to me.
Don Yunnie
7 Chalet Drive, Hilton, 3245, South Africa Local Tel & Fax (033) 343 1534
Int. Tel & Fax (+2733) 343 1534 cell 082 377 7562, E-mail dyunnie@xsinet.co.za
If you do not wish to receive this e-mail newsletter please send a blank e-mail to me at the above address with the word “Unsubscribe” as the message heading.
Please feel free to write to express your views on the content or the subject of any of the articles in this magazine – to the address above.
Sad News
I have a note from Jim Feely to say Gordon Cunningham died on 5 April. Gordon was member no. 83 and Joined in May 1977. The original artwork on the GRAA manifesto was drawn by him.
Botswana NewsFrom The Boteti Diaries March 2009.
Note pictures & map deleted due to size – if you would like the complete article let me know – ed. It was midnight on 25th November 2008 that we watched, with almost disbelief, the Boteti River flowing into our waterholes! Too good to be true after such a long time battling with water shortages for wildlife in the area. No, not a dream, we awoke after just a couple hours sleep to make sure it was really happening. The riverbed in front of camp was steadily filling up, herons, egrets, storks, pelicans and many other new species of birds not seen for almost two decades were dropping in, as were many visitors from the villages and Maun to witness this miracle river. I still look out in front of camp in awe of all that water. The history of water shortages for wildlife at Meno A Kwena was terrible to experience and we can now thankfully say it is behind us, we hope for a long time ahead. The migration had already gone since the rains started earlier in the month so when they return at the end of the rains we will be waiting with more water for them than they have seen in a generation.
Reports are flooding in of river levels in the Zambezi, Chobe and Okavango far exceeding expectations, and this dramatic rise in water levels is quite a bit earlier than normal. Lodges and villages in the Caprivi are being flooded and evacuated. In Kasane, people are watching the river banks disappear before their eyes as water creeps up their boat jetties and gardens. At Rundu in Namibia, the same news pours in. And there are still loads of waterlogged floodplains in the Okavango Delta from our local rains. Mmmm? The more there is flooding upstream, the more water we will get and there is no way our hundred foot high river bank will flood over!
MIGRATION DUST SETTLES ON A DILEMMA
Southern Africa’s largest zebra and wildebeest population had already started their mass migration eastwards from the Boteti River to the saltpan grasslands before the first rain drop splashed against the dry Kalahari sands. The November build up of colossal tropical cloud build up was the signal to make the dangerous annual hundred kilometre move across the waterless layer of sand to their breeding grounds.
We set out on an expedition across the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park to the saltpans to look for them scattered across vast grasslands and water logged saltpans. The area was a lot drier than I expected for January, when most rainfall in Botswana occurs. We had prepared ourselves for the mud and slush of the pans and to perhaps have to turn back for fear of getting stuck for hours, or days!
We eventually found the migration, what a sight it was, thousands of animals as far as the eye could see along the shoreline of Ntwetwe Pan. Then as we approached the saltpan itself an even more spectacular sight unfolded ahead, the vast pan was full of water. A mirror of the evening sky filled with setting sun coloured clouds blew me away! Add to that the silence broken only by mirrored distant thunder explosions …and the mirrored zebra calls …mirrored sandpiper whistles. We camped in this paradise for the night…
Far away and behind the migration the lions of the Boteti remain in their territory to come to terms with the sudden disappearance of their staple food supply. The lions are forced to face their biggest test of resilience ever, as they have done for generations before and somehow triumphed. Except they have been under a lot more pressure this summer rainy season than previously experienced.
Myra is the name given to a lioness of the Kumaga pride by researchers studying the human/wildlife conflict along the Boteti River boundary of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. Myra was immobilised in November 2008 to fit a tracking device collar to monitor her movements during the ‘zebra crunch recession’! We are concerned about stock raiding forays by lions across the fence into rural communal farmlands, particularly as the fence is not being maintained satisfactorily. Myra is going to help us put a stop to lion/livestock conflict, is the plan. Botswana’s Problem Animal Control policy states that farmers are permitted to kill predators responsible for their livestock deaths, so naturally we in tourism and the environmentalists are concerned about the threats to our wildlife and want to find a realistic solution. Myra will be texting us frequent location updates so we know where she is at all times. Can you believe this technology?! And no we do not text her back to say thanks for the SMS!!!
The detailed location information transmitted by Myra is the key to our knowledge of lion movements to confirm when and where the lions are crossing through the fence to raid livestock. This will help us prove to the park management authorities that due to poor park management there are still human/wildlife conflicts. It will also help us understand what to do to reduce the continuing conflict, so far the fence has made a substantial positive difference, just not enough.
All looked well until we started receiving text messages in February from outside the park fence in livestock country. The lions were breaching the fence where they crawled under the wires at night, making hit and run stock killings, to then return back into the safety of the park at first light. Glyn Maud sent me updates of Myra’s movements by email, it was typical of the lions along the Boteti during the wet season, and my concern for the Meno A Kwena pride grew as we saw less of them. A few years ago we were witness to lion shootings close to Moreomaoto Village when they hung the carcasses for all to see at the Chief’s Kgotla.
I was taking a break with friends on a game ranch in the Eastern Cape of South Africa when I opened a text message from Glyn. “MYRA SHOT!” “…Forfuxakes!” - Was my immediate response. Myra and the rest of the pride had started making regular crossings over to feed on livestock when she became trapped between the parallel park fences. Apparently she had been shot by farmers in close proximity to the fence, as had three or four others. It gets worse…
News of the migration’s movements in the east of the park was showing a possible early move back to the Boteti, rain was not as substantial as we were experiencing over the Okavango and Chobe. Even if the migration returns for just a few days it will take some of the pressure off the lions, even if temporarily. We discussed all aspects of the issues involving the lions and increased conflict with farmers. Then we heard there are the six starving cubs of one of the shot lionesses wandering around Kumaga. Why? Why was this year deteriorating back into a more serious state since the construction of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park fence? Why are we seeing the surviving Kumaga lions in really poor condition? Starvation? Poison? Disease?
Then news of the lion conflict and possible disease was taken up by government with a sense of utmost urgency. I was seeing more officialdom at camp and the area in a week than I had seen in years. The long grass along the fence was cut, more patrols, more interest. Two emaciated lions were trapped and taken for tests in Gaborone. Turns out rabies was the result of tests, the disease had already been reported in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve since 2008. Sadly we are facing the complete annihilation of the Kumaga pride, and very likely spread of lion conflicts to neighbouring Meno A Kwena.
I increased patrols of the fence at Meno A Kwena and sure enough disclosed our own lion conflict ugliness – wire snares set in holes under the fence where lion tracks could be seen in the wet sand after recent rain. To add to the slap in the face, we found the snares to be tent gye cables, probably from our old discarded tents grabbed out of the rubbish trailer before it gets chucked at the village dump! We picked up three snares over a few days and destroyed them, filling in the holes with thorn branches and soil.
When considering the complexity of our conflict situation it is necessary to understand the broader past present and future of human settlement in and around natural environments. Our lions have a history of survival based on livestock resources in their environs. The construction of the fence did not stop that, it merely created a temporary difficulty that the lions soon adapted to and overcame. Nature has a cunning sense of seeking out the most beneficial resources available. The lack of fence patrols and maintenance resulted in lions figuring out they can cross the fence, feed on livestock and return to the safety of the park, with a lot more ease than hunting meagre and difficult wet season food resources in the park. The recent incidents have proven this simple fact and we are endeavouring to prevent further confrontations for the sake of wildlife conservation. We started with a simple step; saltlick blocks in the park to attract prey species to the area thus improving access to them by lions. We did the same in the communal free ranging farmlands at cattle posts so livestock can be better managed and herded into the safety of enclosures at night. Now it is up to the authorities to maintain a presence along the fence to create additional difficulties for lions to breach the fence.
Have a look at this remarkable video footage of human/wildlife interaction…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd97TnKlRZM
CAMP GETS SOME MAKE UP
After years of investment into the conservation of the Boteti area wildlife we have finally taken the plunge to improve the comforts of camp for our guests, within reason of course. I want to maintain the tented safari camp theme and to develop sustainable and environmentally friendly systems that reduce our Carbon footprint, seeing as that’s the trend these days.
Karien Belle’s speciality is producing the most stunning and original jewellery, she came to camp last year to create a vision in her mind’s eye of what the camp ought to look like. Maintaining that safari atmosphere, I reminded her. And practical, I demanded. The horror look she gave me said it all. Creative people are not practical at the best of times, so I let her get on with it without too much stomping the ground in defiance. Karien spent a few months in India gathering ideas and then making orders for all sorts things - furniture, leather, brass and copper equipment, military parachutes. What are we going to do with parachutes?
The project finally reached completion in March this year, and despite the creativity/practicality conflict, is looking absolutely stunning. Karien has excelled in turning Meno A Kwena Tented Camp from a simple Outdoorsman’s bush camp, into a beautifully charismatic and stylish safari camp that enhances the pristine natural surroundings on the banks of the Boteti River. I’ve yet to collect images of the new camp to publish in the next diary update. This one is seriously overdue and needs to be sent now.
CAVE CROCS
Caves are a rare geological fact here in Botswana. The Kalahari sand basin that covers this 99.9% dead flat country has engulfed all but a few outcrops of an elevated nature. So the caves in the banks of the dry Boteti River are quite special. More special is what lives in them. I wonder if they sense the river is flowing just thirty kilometres upriver from them, if they then would perhaps start crawling along the dry riverbed to the water. Well, not necessary, the river is coming. My prediction, this year, is that we will see water in the river all the way to Rakops, perhaps even the saltpans just beyond. Does anyone know how we are going to cross the Boteti into the national park at Kumaga in a few months?
WATER FOR LIFE PROJECTS
As is often the case with conservation efforts we are always constrained by financial support. The river flowing has eliminated our water problems at Meno A Kwena. So huge fuel expenses are no more, the sound of diesel pumps no longer pollutes the exquisite quiet of the African nights. The flowing river has brought change for the better but we still have a lot to deal with, it’s not all directly related to water despite its influence. The large herds of water dependant wildlife will still come to the river and will still have limited access because of the fence that traverses the park side of the river bank for most of the national park boundary. This will still create pressure on food resources within reach of the river.
It is our aim to carefully scrutinise the next dry season happenings along the Boteti as we expect the river to be flowing for years to come. The zebra and wildebeest population will grow steadily putting more and more pressure on water demands. To this end we must encourage the powers that be to consider moving the fence to allow increased wildlife access to the river. It is our intention to put more effort and time into the benefits from tourism being directed to the development of the rural communities living along the boundary of the park. It is after all our next phase in justifying the existence of the national park so that one day we see the light at the end of the tunnel. That light being the Central Kalahari Game Reserve being quite rightly connected to the Okavango and Chobe wetlands so necessary for the survival of Botswana’s natural wildlife resources.
I do think the present global economic situation is proving that tourism has to be of great value since it is one of the three major industries here now. And when considering that foot and mouth disease all but eliminated the beef industry for a while recently, and now the recession has shut down mining, it is up to us in tourism to help sustain Botswana’s economy from deteriorating further. Our incredible wildlife and environment needs us for their survival.
The Maun Festival planned for the end of April is a great juncture for all the reasons, especially when mulling over the economic and politic doom and gloom of late - …”SO LETS PAAAAAAAARTAY!!!” I am entering the Moreomaoto Village Primary School traditional dance group who are practising like mad at the moment, and Rustur, the woodcraftsman who is producing brilliant furniture for us at camp. The exposure will be fantastic for their huge potential.
Have a look at their website…
http://www.maunfestival.com
I was about to send this update when I heard the really sad news from the USA that Skip Essex had died from a heart attack. Skip hunted with my Father back in the 1970s, he loved the adventures of Africa so much he invested here, became a hunting guide and built a house for the hunting seasons. His African adventures diminished in time until many years later Skip returned to Botswana in 2005 on safari with his family. He was hooked again and bought into a partnership with my Brother Roger’s mobile safari company. Skip and his lovely partner, Danny joined our Water for Life Project and so set out to assist with raising awareness and funding in the States. Skip is my other founding trustee for Water for Life and will be missed and remembered for his wildlife conservation passion.
MIGRATION RETURNS
One more thing I promise. The zebra migration has started to return early to the Boteti from the saltpans. This is the first time these zebras will find a river to drink from since they left the area after the first rains just before the river flowed in November. The first groups arrived on the 28th March, they usually only return as late as June but rain over the saltpans was somewhat less and earlier than normal. It is quite heart warming to see the zebra herds dwarfed by so much water in contrast to the last almost two decades of meagre water for so many desperate animals.
Members to take note:
There is currently a high demand for lion bones to be exported to the Far East as tiger bones. Sources reported that current prizes for lion bones vary between R 600.00 to 800.00 per kg. It has been reported that the demand from Asia is so high that many Lion Farmers in the Free State whom in the past illegally hunted lions and buried the carcasses were currently digging out the buried bones in order to sell it to people from the Far.
The Game Ranger Archive
I have received a CD with obviously many hours of work in compiling this archive. There are many interesting articles and stories, many of which will be of interest to our younger rangers who wont have seen them the first time around. We will have to decide on how we will be able to distribute it, to those who want a copy, in the most cost efficient form as it is, as Jim says, a huge file. A huge heart felt Thank You for the effort you have put into this. – ed
I have posted Don a CD with the attached tables of contents together with a digitally photographed copy of each page of each issue of The Game Ranger shown in the tables (Aug 72 - June 95; 375 pp, 134 MB) plus minutes of 1st AGM, letter from Norman Deane accepting chair, and proposals for Ted Davison and Charles Pitman to be honorary members.
Used the camera, as my scanner is an even slower process. The Game Ranger collection is from the GRAA archive at the Wilderness Leadership School. I'll give to Don what I took away, when next up there. The other docs from Peter's collection.
It is interesting to note that up to the issue of December 1992, i.e. for 20 years, the lion faced west on the badge, and from March 1994 he has faced east. Don't remember why the change; or were we very percipient in foreseeing the 180 shift in the government's international orientation? I do remember at one early stage he faced forward briefly on a wire blazer badge, of which Ivan and I each have one, but not on the cover of The GR.
I suggest that GRAA brings this digital archive up to date, adding anything else you think of interest/importance. This could be an on-going project. Nicely labeled (Ron can do that) it should be a saleable item, especially at the 40th commem. and AGM next year.
Doing this has revived many fine memories, as I am sure it will for you when you see it. Tempus fugit, however, and there I find a photographic record of my aging process.
THE MANIFESTO: A BRIEF HISTORY by JIM FEELY
1. The minutes of the AGM held at the Hazyview Hotel on 2nd November 1975 record that I was requested to draw up a draft - of what was omitted. In my memory this was the manifesto that I there proposed should be prepared, so I was given the job.
2. The executive meeting held on 18th January 1976 resolved that: a) Ian Player and I finalise the manifesto, b) Gordon Cunningham be asked to design it as a membership certificate for the GRAA, in a similar style to that he had done for Wallace Stegner’s statement on wilderness, and c) Barry Clements have the document printed.
3. The wording of the manifesto, which I wrote during 1976, was presented and accepted at the AGM held at Hluhluwe Game Reserve on 13th February 1977, where it was confirmed that Barry Clements should arrange for its artwork and printing.
4. The Chairman’s report to the AGM held at Loteni Nature Reserve on 5th February 1978 states that members received their copies during 1977.
5. Gordon Cunningham’s design, done as a gift to the GRAA, was shown to the Executive Committee at its meeting on 23rd April 1977. The original was already with the printers. It was decided that the high standard of Gordon’s work merited him being offered Associate Membership in appreciation, which in due course he accepted.
6. Gordon was an accomplished calligrapher and wildlife painter and sculptor, who worked as an architect in Pietermaritzburg. He designed some unusual but highly appropriate accommodation for the Natal Parks Board, inter alia at the Giant’s Castle rest camp. His son Tony is the noted ethno-botanist (now living in Australia) who now owns Gordon’s old home in Betty’s Bay, where the original document is held.
7. The original wording of the manifesto referred to game rangers as being men, as we all were until the new millennium. Thereafter this changed, so that Janet Snow proposed at an AGM a small, simple change to remove gender from its present form.
All the best
Jim (Feely)
Environmental Investigation Agency
Conservation bodies believe the legal ivory market in China is providing cover for illegal trade from Africa. They estimate that 37,000 African elephants are killed by poachers every year
Investigators have seized £20m worth of illegal ivory in south-east Asia in the past six weeks, including the third largest haul of elephant tusks on record, The Independent has learnt.
Customs officials in Vietnam last month discovered 1,200 sections of tusks from up to 900 elephants, weighing 6.23 tonnes, hidden inside a consignment of waste plastic which had been sent from the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam.
Conservation bodies said that poaching in countries from Kenya and Tanzania to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan is reaching levels not seen since a global ban on ivory sales was imposed in 1989 and was placing the remaining wild elephant population in danger of extinction.
Related articles
Conservationists yesterday claimed that the ivory confiscations and increase in poaching were proof that fears expressed at the time of the sale that it would fuel renewed demand for illegal tusks have come true.
An authoritative American study warned that poaching deaths are on a par with the late 1980s and the remaining large groups of elephants outside protected reserves could be extinct by 2020 without improved enforcement.
Campaigners believe the legal trade is being used as a disguise to smuggle ivory to China, where there is burgeoning demand for name seals, carvings and polished tusks and concern that newly introduced counter-trafficking measures are inadequate. Vietnamese officials said last week they believed the consignment seized in Hai Phong port from a Malaysian vessel was destined for China.
It is estimated that about 37,000 African elephants are killed by poachers each year. Figures obtained by The Independent show that in Kenya alone, the number of poached elephants has doubled in the past 12 months while officials in Tanzania are also investigating a reported large increase in poaching in the country's protected game parks. The elephant population in DRC is estimated to have fallen by a third in the past five years.
Michael Wamithi, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) elephant programme, said: "These alarmingly successive incidents are an indication that there is an escalation in elephant poaching in African range states, and an upsurge in illegal trade of ivory in the Far East markets. Although investigations are still ongoing, we suspect that the 6.2-tonne ivory haul in Vietnam was headed for larger markets in China, where legal ivory markets could provide cover for illegal trade. Vietnam has a small market unlikely to be able to absorb or demand such quantities."
The ban on the sale of ivory has been credited with halting a catastrophic decline in Africa's elephant population throughout the 1980s, when 70,000 elephants a year were being slaughtered by poachers. Elephant numbers across the continent are estimated to have fallen from 1.3 million to 625,000 before the prohibition was introduced in 1989.
Cites denied a link between the sale of ivory from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe last October, which was accompanied by a 10-year moratorium on further sales, and any increase in poaching or smuggling. The organisation's exhaustive Elephant Trade Information System (Etis) suggests that smuggling went down in the wake of the last sanctioned ivory sale in 1999, although the amount seized each year has now been increasing since 2005.
But Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring organisation, reported in February that illegal ivory prices had risen to $1,500 (£1,000) per kilogram. The figure is disputed by Cites, which points out that the average price during the sale of legal ivory was $162 per kilogram and suggests that such a black market price is unsustainable. But campaigners say there is ample evidence that poaching is becoming increasingly rampant, with hunters and dealers targeting and decimating specific herds in the face of inadequate enforcement by host countries.
Poached ivory is currently sold for about $38 per kilogram in Kenya, where hunters have recently targeted the famous Amboseli elephants, killing 15 in the past year. With adult male elephant tusks weighing up to 50kg, the death of a single elephant can represent a year's income for a farmer or hunter. The result is a growing trade which is funnelling poached ivory from across Africa to criminal gangs with export links to the Far East. Traffic, which provides smuggling data to Cites, said the latest seizure in Vietnam proved there were sophisticated middle-men based across eastern Africa capable of amassing large quantities of ivory and smuggling it across the Indian Ocean.
Mary Rice, executive director at the Environmental Investigation Agency which provided much of the evidence that led to the original ivory ban, said: "There is an increase in poaching in many areas and we have an increase in seizures in Asia. These are not one-off opportunistic shipments, they are obviously consistent and organised."
IRF 2009 World Ranger Congress in Bolivia
Hello to delegates of the 2006 World Ranger Congress in Scotland,
Greetings on this Earth Day 2009, I hope you are all finding a good way to share this special day with your communities and colleagues.
During the Scotland Congress many of you expressed interest in the 2009 Congress. We have been sharing updates in the Thin Green Line newsletters, which are sent to member associations for sharing with their members. We wanted to make sure those of you at the last Congress were getting the same information, in case you haven't been receiving the Thin Green Line newsletters. This will give you the latest news on the VI World Ranger Congress. Please share with your colleagues.
2009 World Ranger Congress in Bolivia, November 1-7, 2009:
The web site has been moved from the Chile host site to one in Bolivia, so updates to the web pages can be posted quickly and directly by the organizers. New web site: http://www.worldrangercongress.org
Arrangements with the newly available PayPals service in Bolivia are taking longer than anticipated, so the early registration deadline has been extended to May 15.
Registration fees:
Reminder: Abstract papers for presentations are due May 10. Information is on the web site: http://www.worldrangercongress.org/envio_en.html. Please encourage your colleagues to consider submitting proposals for presentations. Once those proposals have been reviewed, the program will be developed with more details.
Carola and the organisers have put their energy into gaining the political support of the Ministry and in gaining sponsorships, moving the web site, and contracting with the hotel, conference center, and PayPals. We will soon get regular reports so everyone knows the progress being made with more details of the program.
Best wishes to all,
Deanne
Ms. Deanne L. Adams
Vice President, International Ranger Federation
1348 Glen Drive, San Leandro, CA 94577 USA
+001-510-633-1282 phone/fax
+001-415-613-2480 mobile
IRFdeanne@aol.com
http://www.int-ranger.net/
The IUCN Red List web site made easy: a users’ guide is now available
In October 2008, the IUCN Red List web site was given a brand new look. The new site has more functionality that ever before. This also means that the site has more detailed search pages that allow increased flexibility in the searches that can be carried out, introduces the ability to store searches for future use or to share search results with others, and allows users to download range data for mammals and amphibians. In order to help users to navigate their way through the wider range of functions on the web site, a set of instructions have been developed (The Users’ Guide to the IUCN Red List web site. Version 1.0 (March 2009)) and this document is now available to download from the link below (PDF, 2.47 MB). The document contains several sections, providing guidance on how to search the web site, how to navigate through the species fact sheets, how to save searches and export data from the site, and where to find and download GIS data for amphibians and mammals. Use the index to access the section you want (just click on the topic in the index).
Click here to download the users’ guide.
A video tutorial on how to search the IUCN Red List at www.iucnredlist.org is also available. It covers quick searches, advanced searches, as well as the new refine option and how to save and export searches. Click here to view the tutorial.
Southern Africa’s freshwater species in firing line
Many freshwater fish, crabs, dragonflies, molluscs and aquatic plants are at risk of extinction in southern Africa if its rivers and lakes are not protected from developers, according to IUCN.
The study by the IUCN Species Programme, in collaboration with the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity and the South African National Biodiversity Institute, shows that seven percent of species are known to be regionally threatened or extinct. But this figure will skyrocket unless freshwater species conservation is considered in development planning. To help inform the development process about the conservation of freshwater habitats, the IUCN Species Programme has worked with South African institutions to conduct a regional assessment of the status and distribution of 1,279 types of freshwater species including dragonflies, fishes, molluscs, aquatic plants and crabs. The results of this study form part of a larger project spanning the whole of Africa, creating a baseline of information for conservationists and development planners to account for the needs of freshwater species.
Full story Full report
Recommended reading
Have just finished Alan Burdick's Out of Eden: an odyssey of ecological invasion, 2005,
What a wonderful primer for the layman on: ecology, ecological invasions and the role of their understanding in nature conservation. Have never read a better; it should be required reading for all involved in conservation including the scientists. For this reason I am copying this quite widely with my strongest recommendation. It is an eye-opener
many thanks
Jim (Feely)
Predator Conservation Trust newsletter
Hi Don
As you might remember I am involved in spotted hyaena research in the Caprivi region and contribute information to the Predator Conservation Trust in the UK which they put on their website and in their quarterly newsletter which gets sent out via email and snail mail. My field updates are a bit irregular, but are supposed to come out about once every week to ten days or so.
I will from now include you in my update circulation should you want to add anything to the Cleft Stick for the rest of the Association.
Any members who wish to receive the PCT (Predator Conservation Trust) newsletter directly can be added to the PCT mailing list by contacting Anthony May from PCT by contacting him at ant@predatorconservation.com
All the best from the Caprivi, Lise
Lise Hanssen
POSITION(s) AVAILABLE
Two vacancies in TRAFFIC
Please find attached announcements for two vacancies, which have arisen within TRAFFIC. The posts are for a Programme Officer, TRAFFIC Europe Programme and a Tiger Trade Programme Manager, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The deadlines for submission of applications are 5th May 2009 and 8th May 2009 respectively.
Anyone interested contact me & I will send the complete advert. –ed
Laohu Valley Reserve, Vacancy for assistant Game Ranch manager
Laeohu Valley are repeating this ad, placed in C~S recently. Anyone interested contact me & I will send the complete advert. –ed
Tailpiece
This is a master piece. If you have not read it take the time to read it now. If you have read it, take time to read it again!
GEORGE CARLIN (His wife recently died...)
Isn't it amazing that George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's could write something so very eloquent...and so very appropriate.
A Message by George Carlin:
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things...
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
If you don't send this to at least 8 people....Who cares?
George Carlin*