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
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--- MEDIA RELEASE:A new pig for Tsavo
By James Culverwell, Jim Feely, Sheila Bell-Cross, Yvonne A. de Jong and Thomas M. Butynski
Herewith a short excerpt from the article Jim has sent me – should you wish to see the full story with photos and maps let me know & I’ll forward to you –ed
There are only two species of warthog, and both occur in Kenya: the common warthog Phacochoerus africanus and the desert warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus. Little is known about the natural history of the desert warthog - indeed, the desert warthog might well be Africa’s least-known, non-forest, large mammal. The morphological differences between the two species of warthog are described by Grubb (1993) and by d’Huart & Grubb (2005). The most diagnostic and noticeable characteristics for both species are summarized in Box 1 (p. 4).
Huart & Grubb (2001) compiled a map depicting the geographical range of both the common warthog and the desert warthog in the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya). Their findings were summarized in 2002 by Boy in “The whole hog” [Swara 25 (1): 20-21]. The authors found the desert warthog to occur from Puntland (northern Somalia) south-westward through Somalia and south-eastern Ethiopia to central and eastern Kenya. The only sites shown on the map for Kenya were Moyale, El Wak, Merelle (“midway between Archer’s Post and Mt Marsabit”), and Mkokoni (in the Kiunga Marine Reserve). The southernmost record for Kenya was from the Kiunga Marine Reserve, about 60 km north-east of Lamu. All records were from north of the Ewaso Ng’iro River and east of the Tana River. d’Huart & Grubb (2001) speculated that the two species would be found to overlap in some parts of their range, but found no evidence for this; their data show the shortest distance between common warthog and desert warthog records as 25 km (in Puntland).
During a primate survey in 2005, TMB and YDJ encountered two solitary desert warthogs, 15 km and 80 km south-west of Garissa respectively, in medium dense acacia bushland. These encounters are important, as they are the first records of desert warthog west of the Tana River. Two questions remained, however. Are the desert warthog and common warthog sympatric? How far south does the desert warthog occur?
On the 7th of June 2007, JC, JF and SBC traversed Tsavo East National Park. Briefed a few days earlier about desert warthog characteristics by TMB and YDJ, they travelled through the high-density tourism areas south of the Voi River, far to the south-west of the nearest confirmed desert warthog locations. They were startled late that afternoon to find two adult desert warthogs in low scrub on the edge of the Dika Plains, just 13 km north of Buchuma Gate, and managed to take a few photographs before the warthogs turned tail. They had just recorded a new large mammal species for Tsavo East National Park, and a major range extension of over 300 km for the desert warthog!
The next day they returned to the area and located four more desert warthogs only nine km from the Kenya Wildlife Service headquarters at Voi; one adult and three subadults stood their ground long enough for positive identification to be made and for more photographs to be taken. What struck JC, JF and SBC immediately during these encounters was the overall shape of the animals' heads, the hooked warts, and the flipped-back tip of the ears (see Box 1), all of which are diagnostic, easily-seen field characters of the desert warthog. During this trip, no common warthogs were seen. All photographs were sent to experts for confirmation. Some of these, together with some of our other warthog photographs, are available on a digital map at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/wildsolutions/WarthogSightingsInKenya/photo?authkey=WigT2oFY78k#map
The Trophy Hunting of Elephants in the Kunene and Northern Erongo Regions
By Garth Owen-Smith, Co-director IRDNC Namibia, Final, 3 Sept 2008
Over the past few weeks I have watched in amazement the escalating media frenzy, sensational headlines and misinformation over the MET’s issuing of trophy hunting permits for six elephants to conservancies in Namibia’s northwest. Having worked as agricultural official in the then Kaokoveld (1968-70), was in charge of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s field operations in Kaokoland and Damaraland (1982-1990), and since then been co-director with Dr Margaret Jacobsohn of the Namibian NGO, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, that works with 25 conservancies in the Kunene Region, I would like to give my perspective on the issue.
Let me start with the situation in the late sixties. At the time I estimated the number of elephants in the Kaokoveld (north of Sesfontein) to be between 600 and 800, of which about 200 were permanently, or semi-permanently resident west of the escarpment, in the pre-Namib but which also moved down the larger riverbeds into the true Namib Desert. The only other elephants inhabiting such an arid habitat were in the Gourma Elephant Reserve in Mali.
When I returned to the region in 1982 the situation was very different. On the highlands of Kaokoland commercial poaching had wiped out all but about 50 elephants along the border with Ovamboland and the Etosha N.P. An accurate figure was impossible to get because most of this area was then a war zone. Based on Dr P.J. Viljoen’s research (1975 to 1983) and an aerial census in 1982, west of the escarpment only six elephants survived on the lower Kunene River and 30 along the lower Hoanib River.
The situation in Damaraland was a little better, with 185 elephants in the Ombonde, Uniab and Huab river catchments, of which between 30 and 40 were in the pre-Namib along the Uniab and its tributaries. There were then no elephants in the lower Huab or in the Uchab catchment. However, as over 80 elephant carcasses were also counted, it was clear that large scale ivory poaching was now taking place here. Over the next two years nature conservation officials under Chris Eyre, assisted by the EWT staff and community appointed game guards, achieved numerous convictions for illegal hunting and stopped the poaching of elephants. Sporadic cases of rhino poaching still occurred until 1994, but in only one case was a local community member responsible.
As between 600 and 1 000 elephants were killed or sought refuge in Etosha during the previous decade, without a single prosecution, this was a remarkable achievement, due primarily to the local people in the region now actively supporting conservation. Since then elephant numbers have rapidly increased on the highlands, probably supplemented by some returnees from Etosha to the highlands because illegal hunting was no longer occurring in this prime elephant habitat. In 1992 an aerial census counted 366 elephants in the region, but some herds were known to have been missed and the actual figure was taken to be about 400 – up from a total of 270 ten years earlier. Although there have been no recent accurate counts, over the past 16 years we know that elephant numbers north of the veterinary fence have increased substantially and they have now re-colonized much of the range they inhabited before 1970.
This would have been an unmitigated success if Kunene Region was a game reserve. But it is communal land where the local people are trying to make a living from livestock and rain-dependent agriculture. The elephants raid their crops, damage water installations and come into villages to drink large amounts of water that is pumped by the farmers at their own expense. They also pose a hazard, particularly to women and children that very few people anywhere in the world would be prepared to live with. In spite of this most of the communities in the Kunene Region have shown they are prepared to live with elephants and have formed, or are in the process of forming conservancies, so that they can get the rights to manage and benefit from the wildlife on their land.
It is also important that we clarify the term “desert elephants.” Internationally deserts are defined as areas receiving less then 150mm of rain annually. The highlands of Kunene Region get substantially more than this, so the elephants here are not “desert elephants” and in fact, live within a habitat that is little different to that in western Etosha, the Tsavo National Park in Kenya, or many other parts of Africa. As highly intelligent animals, elephants should not be killed lightly anywhere, but if they are to expand their range beyond our national parks the cost to the people living there must be taken into account. To put it crudely, they must “pay the rent” and where there are no non-consumptive opportunities available, the trophy hunting of a few bulls is the best option.
Now let us look at the situation in the west, where the rainfall is less than 150mm. The elephants along the lower Kunene were killed in Angola around the time of Namibia’s independence. However, the 30 elephants in the lower Hoanib have expanded their range to include the Hoarusib River, and according to Dr. Keith Legget now consist of 38 adult cows and 16 adult bulls. One teenage bull was shot here in 2005 because its behavior posed a threat to both the local people and tourists staying at the Purros campsite.
The Uniab “desert elephants” have also expanded their range, although fewer of them appear to use the pre-Namib now that the poaching has stopped and they are not being persecuted in the more favorable habitats to the north and east. The area they move in comprises the Palmwag and Etendeka Tourist Concessions, as well as the Anabeb and Sesfontein conservancies. In 2008 these two conservancies were jointly given a trophy permit, the first time since they were registered in 2003. One trophy elephant shot here every five years is sustainable, but the question arises: Is this the best use of big bulls in conservancies with high photographic tourism potential? I will return to this point later.
South of the veterinary fence the situation becomes much more complex. As there are no restrictions on livestock movements here, many of the residents are, in fact, commercial farmers living on communal land. And for years they have asked why they have to live with elephants causing them economic losses, when white farmers do not have to and call for blood every time one comes onto their property. Thanks to the MET’s conservancy legislation these attitudes are changing, but until much more income is earned from non-consumptive wildlife utilization this unanswerable question will not go away.
Another complicating factor is that in the Uchab catchment there were no elephants before the early nineties, and had not been since the 1940s. Consequently, unlike the communities further north, living with elephants is a new experience for the farmers here. Add to this that a number of local people have been killed by elephants in recent years, including a community game guard in 2007, and you have a conservation dilemma for which there are no easy solutions.
With the elephants in the arid west of the Kunene Region having doubled in number over the past 26 years, and their range having extended both northwards to the Hoarusib River and south to the Uchab River, it is ridiculous to suggest that their survival is threatened. However, that too many large bulls are being hunted is a valid concern. Selective killing of big tuskers by poachers in the 70s and early 80s, the shooting of bulls as problem animals and the number of trophies hunted south of the vet. fence have all contributed to there now being a severe imbalance between adult bulls and cows. According to Johan Haasbroek this is particularly so in the Uchab River, and as IRDNC has not worked in this area since the early 90s, and no reliable count has been carried out recently, we do not have any reason to dispute this.
So what should be done? Firstly the MET deserves praise, not criticism or threats, for a community-based policy and enabling legislation that is widely recognized as the most progressive in Africa. Without this we may not have had any elephants left in Kunene Region. Instead we now have wildlife populations, including elephants, recovering and extending their range in virtually all of Namibia’s communal areas – in stark contrast to what is happening over the rest of the continent.
It is equally important to recognize the contribution made by the communal area farmers, who are not only prepared to bear the cost of living with elephants and large predators, but have set aside land exclusively for wildlife and tourism, as well as employing game guards at their own cost to stop poaching and thereby safeguard the business interests of their private sector partners.
From the early eighties NGOs have also played a major role in supporting Namibia’s community-based natural resource program and the fledgling conservancies that have grown out of it, with their many donors having invested close to N$100 million in the Kunene Region alone. Here EHRA’s contribution of building protection walls around water-points in the Uchab and Huab catchments is also recognized.
Namibia’s professional hunters have played their part by paying good prices (determined by a closed tender process) for the few animals that are shot as trophies every year. Their injection of funds directly to conservancies has often been crucial in their early years, and will continue to be needed to make them into sustainable community-based organizations that improve the quality of life for the residents of communal areas.
Considering the combined contributions of all the above to make the Kunene Region the conservation success story that it is, why do we still need to shoot precious elephant bulls in the west? Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, one party has not yet come to the table in a meaningful way: The lodge and photographic safari operators who profit from the wildlife that the local communities conserve for them.
As part of the MET’s policy of allowing communities who live with elephants to benefit from them, in 2008 Purros Conservancy could have claimed a quota to trophy hunt one bull. They did not do so because their income, primarily from their own campsite, but also from two joint ventures and traversing rights to the Skeleton Coast concessionaire, had given their elephants a non-consumptive value much greater than what they would earn from one being shot.
I believe Sesfontein and Anabeb conservancies would have done the same if they had been earning sufficient income from the Palmwag tourism concession – 550 000 ha of land that in the 1980s their communities agreed not to use and to reserve for wildlife. For the first 17 years, while it developed into one of Namibia’s premier tourism destinations, they received nothing at all. Even under the new exclusive concessionaire, that operates three lodges and a very lucrative campsite here, the income they received up to 2007 did not even cover their staff salaries and other conservancy management costs. In order to give their members some long awaited benefits, in 2008 they decided to jointly trophy hunt one elephant.
Most of the conservancies south of the Huab River have to date received little or no non-consumptive income from their wildlife, in spite of the area being an extremely popular destination for both local and foreign tourists. Until this situation is rectified the MET will continue to be faced with demands for elephants to be shot here, either as problem animals or trophies. No conservationist, government or NGO, wants to see any more of the western elephant bulls killed, but sensational headlines and one-sided opinions in the media do not help. Therefore, my advice to Johan Haasbroek is to stop being a “lone ranger” and work with us to find a solution that addresses the local communities’ legitimate problems, as well as Namibia’s international responsibility to conserve this unique sub-population of “desert elephants.”
And to the private sector: If they are also concerned about the real conservation issues in the Kunene Region, and not just their profit margins, then recognize what the local communities have done to make your businesses possible, and pay them a fair price for the right to operate on their land. If this does not happen much of what has been achieved over the last 25 years could be lost.
By: Christy van der Merwe, Published on 5th September 2008
A notice of appeal has been filed with the Minister of Minerals and Energy to suspend and appeal a decision to award a mining right to ASX-listed Mineral Commodities (MRC), to mine for titanium-bearing minerals at the Xolobeni project area, along a portion of South Africa’s Wild Coast.
The Notice of Appeal was filed by the Grahamstown office of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), on behalf of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), a group of local residents in opposition to mining.
The Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica had until October 1, 2008, to respond and, if this did not happen, the LRC, if instructed by the ACC, would proceed to the High Court to try and get the mining licence set aside.
The mining right was granted by the Department of Minerals and Energy in early August. The Environmental Management Plan was expected to be signed on October 31, when the licence would become official.
The basis of appeal was that mining right was granted without sufficient and reasonable notice to, consultation with, or invitation for, comments from the community, as an interested and affected party, which was unlawful.
Although MRC has insisted that community consultations did take place, a large number of community members directly affected by the mining said that they were not properly consulted.
“The traditional leadership structures represented by the King and Queen and the Chief, or Nkosi, of the AmaDiba administrative area Lunga Baleni, of the Amopondo, have been deliberately sidelined in the consultation process as they are opposed to the mining in this area,” said the LRC.
The appeal was also based on the grounds that the Xolobeni area was part of the Pondoland marine protected area. Under the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act 57 of 2003, commercial mining cannot take place at all on any marine protected area.
It was also argued that the AmaDiba community has a right to legally secure tenure of their communal land under the Constitution and the Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004. Therefore, mining could only take place once a mining company has acquired a community resolution, which is issued by the Department of Land Affairs and the traditional authorities of the community, consenting to the mining and setting out the compensation to be paid to the community. Such a resolution was not obtained, said the LRC.
Plans for mining the sand dunes of the Pondoland
Plans to go ahead with mining the sand dunes of the Pondoland centre of endemism are going full steam ahead. And yet it is never too late to play our part in halting injustice. Read about the current situation in John Clarke's attachments if you have the time, or more succinctly on the petition website below. I encourage you to swell the numbers of the hundreds who have signed into tens of thousands! This example of callous greed in the partnership between our government and the mine owners is a portentious example of how greed is diminishing South Africa's prospects for sustainability. Let's do our bit to make greed history in South Africa, and stand in solidarity with the communities on the Pondoland coast, who symbolise us all, in this battle for the very life of creation, and the common good:
www.petitiononline.com/xolobeni
Visit the website www.lrc.org.za to see the full Notice of Appeal instituted by the Legal Resources Centre on behalf of the Amadiba Crisis Committee.
Hunt is on for leopard-slaughter
Tony Carnie, September 05 2008
Police are hunting for a Jozini man linked to the slaughter of at least 120 leopards, a rare and specially protected hunting cat whose distinctive spotted pelts often adorn the shoulders of the Zulu royal family and other traditional dignitaries.
The man was arrested four years ago when police found the remains of 64 leopard skins, which were in the process of being tailored into traditional attire.
Though he was eventually convicted of several serious wildlife crimes in the Ingwavuma Magistrate's Court last year, he never went to jail. Instead, he was fined, given a suspended sentence and ordered to do community service. But now it appears that he never gave up his thriving illegal business, which involved poisoning endangered cats and other wild animals with a potent weedkiller.
Three weeks ago, police found the remnants of another 64 leopards at his home in the Mamfeni area, near Jozini, along with skins from several civet cats, 10 suni antelope, 30 samango monkeys, a wildebeest and five grey duiker.
The culprit was not at home, but detectives found several cans of a powerful German-made pesticide which they believe was used to poison wildlife watering holes in Zululand, Maputaland and possibly Mozambique. The man and his agents were also suspected of using traps and guns to kill the animals.
Details of the discovery, which has shocked nature conservation officials, were announced yesterday by Senior Superintendent Rajen Aiyer, head of the police organised crime unit in Durban.
The case is likely to revive debate about the ceremonial display of protected animal skins by the Zulu nobility or traditional leaders and the degree to which this drives commercially driven wildlife crimes.
Aiyer was speaking at a meeting of the KZN Wildlife Crime Working Group in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve.
He said the wildlife products seized at Mamfeni were valued conservatively at R2.6 million and he noted that a single leopard claw could be sold for R100 at the Mona traditional market at Nongoma.
Aiyer is a founder member of the wildlife crime working group which was set up in KZN six years ago, soon after the police endangered species unit was disbanded.
The group includes senior Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and KZN Prosecuting Service officials.
Ezemvelo ecologist Catharine Hanekom said hundreds of tons of wildlife products, mainly plants, bark and tubers, were being sold at the Mona market every month.
Mona supplies muti products at wholesale prices to traditional healers and dealers who transport the goods to the Warwick Triangle market in Durban, the Farraday market in Johannesburg and possibly markets in Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland.
Hanekom said traditional medicine was used by millions of people around the world and the demand was unlikely to decline. However, several plant species were used wastefully. Traditionally, muti was harvested sustainably and in small quantities, to protect the parent stock, but with rapid urbanisation, suppliers now felled entire trees to harvest the bark.
The exploitation of dwindling natural resources could not be sustained, she said, noting that the rural landscape was being steadily degraded, in particular by organised commercial timber groups.
One of the more unusual guests at the meeting was Sindi Mkhize, a Pietermaritzburg sangoma who was convicted of wildlife-related crimes.
Some of Mkhize's initiates stole and killed a rare Seychelles tortoise from the Lion Park and Zoological Gardens near Camperdown two years ago. A lion skin and a leopard skin were also found at Mkhize's home. She was later sentenced to community service.
Advocate Dalene Barnard, who prosecuted the case, noted that several people were horrified that Mkhize had been given a soft sentence, but she was satisfied that community service had been the correct option.
Barnard said Mkhize told her that she had benefited from the sentence, which included cutting down invasive alien trees and plants, and had also volunteered to become involved with public awareness projects with other traditional healers.
This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on September 05, 2008
Burning the Traps:
The Landmark Foundation staged a public and symbolic burning of gin traps in the Baviaanskloof (Eastern Cape) this week. This is a culmination of a 4 year effort to rid the area of these barbaric predator control mechanisms; namely gin traps, indiscriminate poisons and hunting dog packs. These "tools" have seen the known numbers of leopards killed in the area rise to 25. These barbaric and ecologically damaging production tools are causing havoc and immeasurable damage to our biodiversity countrywide, as literally thousands of animals are being indiscriminately wiped out through these practices in the interest of agricultural profits. Furthermore, retailers are knowingly sourcing their products from such production methods, and we as consumers are knowingly or ignorantly supporting these practices through buying these products.
Four leopards were killed in 2006 by these traps in the Baviaanskloof valley alone. This led to dramatic and public conflict between the Landmark Foundation and local farmers who had used this method of predator control for generations. But from the start of 2007 the farming community decided to formally forgo the use of these much derided methods of predator control. The Landmark Foundation then developed an integrated project to convert the entire valley (about 50 000 hectares) to non-lethal, ecologically acceptable and ethical control methods (our other efforts are scattered across the landscape from Mossel Bay to Graaff Reinet to Grahamstown). The Baviaanskloof became an important focus and pilot area where we have been able to demonstrate and prove the dramatic success of the non-lethal control methods on an area-wide basis with cooperating neighbouring farmers. These methods include Anatolian dogs, protective sheep collars, alpacas, herding techniques and limited compensation schemes. It is currently being applied to about 13 000 small livestock animals in this valley and in the 12 months that these methods have been applied less than 10 livestock losses attributed to predators have been reported. This seems to emphatically counter the nay-saying in the agricultural sector and agricultural media about these methods, and dramatic and unexpected early successes in an area plagued by heavy losses at the time of using lethal controls!
Our current effort has seen the entire Baviaanskloof valley, on the western entrance to the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve near Willowmore, participate in the eradication of these barbaric and cruel production methods. More than a year ago the farmers agreed to stop using gin traps, poisons (which were not really used in the area) and hunting dog packs. This week, the farmers and the local community formally rid their entire valley of these tools by destroying 160 of these traps in their valley. This follows the confidence they have developed in the non-lethal control methods. Robert Leggat, a world renowned bronze wildlife sculptor will be melting down these traps and shape a memorial sculpture from the remains of the traps to both celebrate these magnificent creatures , the leopards, but also (to use his own words) to "capture and honour the collective suffering caused by these barbaric traps and devices".
Conservation outreach
All those interested in the Conservation outreach trip please note that the insert of the Conservation Outreach 2008 is due to be broadcast on 50/50 on Monday the 22nd September at 19:30. Please note that things happen and scheduling might change, but this is the time and date that we received.
Also, Stephen Smith's story will appear in the October issue of Leisure Wheels, which will be on sale from mid September.
Greetings from Western Zambia!
29 August 2008
Today started off as a fairly ordinary day – up early to head into the park to locate an injured Eland. Together with the local state vet and a community scout I crossed the pontoon at Kalabo as the sun was rising. The drive into the Park was fairly routine, thick sand and little sign of life until we reached the beginning of the plains where we encountered herds of zebra, lone wildebeeste bulls and plenty of oribi. We were due to meet up with the tracking team at Matamanene so we hurried along towards the camp. Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of something unusual that did not immediately rouse my curiosity. Some 50 meters along something made me stop and reverse to investigate further. Amazingly, there, in the middle of the road was the track of a bull elephant! Further investigation revealed tracks of three others, some smaller than the first one I had seen (probably an adult bull group of various ages). We all stood there, stunned – elephant last passed through the Park in 2005 and here we were, just a few hours behind them! We continued to Matamanene where we were greeted by an incredulous camp attendant, the animals had been right through the camp in the early hours of the morning! Later in the day we heard reports from community scouts who had seen the animals. They had moved some 30km from Mishulundu in the south east to beyond Matamanene. Unfortunately our injured eland precluded us from investigating further. It is hoped and anticipated that as time goes on these movements will become more regular and, hope against hope, some of these amazing creatures will eventually make Liuwa their permanent home!
Yesterday I did my first “official’ monitoring flight over the Park after a wait of way too long! Unfortunately, my clearance came just in time to coincide with the arrival of the August winds but beggars (or desperate pilots) can’t be choosers! Luckily the winds still die down in the evenings and only get up again at nine or so in the morning, so it is possible to fly in relative comfort. Amazingly, the first flight in the morning yielded a sighting of four elephant bulls! I nearly fell out of the sky in surprise – they were last seen passing through here in 2005 and there was only one brief sighting then. We went up to the Angola border (a jeep track) and covered a heap of the Park. What an asset this plane is! I flew in the afternoon again and we found the elephant twice more. In the far north of the Park we saw some poachers with dogs in the middle of a vast plain (I couldn’t help but lick my lips – I had always wanted to run down a poacher on horseback but here was my chance to do it in a Foxbat ultra light!). I did a couple of low passes and scared the *$%#@ out of them. The last I saw of one of them was him diving, Olympic swimmer style into the sand (he would have done well at Beijing!)! I am sure they had a couple of stories to tell around the fire that night and will hopefully avoid coming back any time soon!
Craig Reid, Project Coordinator
Liuwa Plain National Park, www.african-parks.org
Tailpiece
Hearing test for seniors.
A man feared his wife wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid.
Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family doctor to discuss the problem.
The doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the doctor a better idea about her hearing loss.
Here's what you do,' said the doctor, 'stand about 40 feet away from her and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response.'
That evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the den.
He says to himself, 'I'm about 40 feet away, let's see what happens.' Then in a normal tone he asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
No response.
So the husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife and repeats, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
Still no response.
Next, he moves into the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his wife and asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
Again he gets no response.
So, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away. 'Honey, what's for dinner?' Again there is no response.
So he walks right up behind her. 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
(I just love this)
'Ralph, for the FIFTH friggin' time, CHICKEN!'