A Safari In Tanzania: Part 2: The Maasai Giraffe

Maasai Giraffe                                       Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016



       The National Animal of Tanzania, The                           Magnificent Maasai Giraffe

       
       I have seen giraffes at various venues in the United States, and though I always thought them magnificent, I was not prepared for how incredibly magnificent they would be here in Tanzania, their natural environment:

Giraffe Eastern Serengeti                                                       Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016 

Giraffe Facts:

1.  There are nine subspecies of giraffes. 
      (The one featured in this blog is the Maasai Giraffe)          
           
2.  They are the world's tallest animal.

3.  Just as the white pattern on the tail of the           humpback whale is unique, so too are the markings on any giraffe.
               
4.  You can easily distinguish male from the           female by looking at the head.  The two horn-like   growths or ossicones are larger on the males and smooth at the ends.

       Here is a male:


                                      Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016        
     
5.  The females, who are smaller, have tufts of hair on their ossicones that look like upside down old-fashioned shaving brushes.  Below is a female calf sporting hers:           


 
                       Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016    

6.  A cow (female giraffe) gives birth to her six-foot, two hundred pound baby standing up.  Clunk!           
      
7.  You can also tell how dominant a bull giraffe is by how dark his dappling. (I have no idea what the biological mechanism is for this.)  So the fellow on the right would be the boss of the one on the left.  But the bull pictured above the baby photo, being taller, would dominate both.


       

   
8.  Sadly, up to seventy-five percent of giraffe       babies are killed by predators, usually hyenas or lions, in the first months of their lives.

9.  Giraffes need only five to thirty minutes of sleep every twenty-four hours.  Like horses, they can sleep standing up, but they also sometimes lie down, tucking their heads over their hindquarters. 

10.  Giraffes only have seven vertebrae in their
necks enabling tremendous flexibility when eating, fighting, or stretching down to their young. (We humans have five.)

11.  In a number of my photos you will see tick birds on the giraffes.  They not only eat ticks but a number of other annoying parasites.  They also sound an alarm when predators approach.

12.  To keep their twenty-two pound heart from     pumping too much blood up top when they lower their heads, a network of valves keeps the amount steady.

13.  Bull giraffes intertwine and push each other     around with their necks.  In doing this they determine who is stronger, and usually before there is any real whacking, one bull will yield and walk off.  This behavior is referred to as "necking" (a different definition than the one I knew growing up in the '60s.)

14.  A herd of giraffes is appropriately referred to   as a "tower" of giraffes.  Here is one such tower, aligned in a defensive pose because we were getting too close for comfort:

   


                 They weren't terribly upset, however, because they simply left:



     


       Are giraffes in danger?  Currently, the world's oldest and largest conservation network, The International Union For Conservation of Nature or IUCN, classifies the giraffe as "least concern," with the exception of the Rothschild giraffe, which it lists as "endangered."  Indications are, however, that the "least concern" category may soon need to change. 
   




        Like western medical researchers, witch doctors, particularly in Tanzania, also seek to advance their studies to deal with current medical issues.  Many have recently declared that meat from a giraffe's head, as well as marrow from its bones, can cure HIV.  One in eight Tanzanians have HIV, so this is bad news for these calm, sweet creatures.  

       While giraffes are occasionally hunted for their meat, there has been a marked increase in poaching for two reasons, the HIV "cure," and poachers who are living in the bush poisoning or shooting elephants for the illegal ivory trade. Giraffes, so large and defenseless, are easy targets and supply quantities of meat so the poachers can eat well while decimating elephants.  

       Here are two darling babies.  The guides told me they were around eight months old.  They made it out of infancy, so let's hope the government of Tanzania continues to ramp up the fight against poachers so they can live a poacher-free life:




  




                                                Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016





                                                                     Ainslie Sheridan copyright 216




Natural Giraffemanship?

       In my last entry I hinted that I had tried Natural Horsemanship techniques to the giraffes
at our first Nyumba in the Eastern Serengeti.  I was half-joking, of course:  a giraffe's legs are so long it would simply step out of a round pen even if one magically appeared on the savanna.  I did say, however, "half-joking":  what I did do was manage to approach them as if I were a fellow prey animal rather than a predator.  

       As many of you already know from other blog entries, as well as from personal experience, predators can be identified by their eyes, which are in the front of their heads, as well as by the way they approach their prey.  They move in a straight line and slowly creep, at all times keeping their eyes on the prize.  When they know they are close enough, they explode as if shot out of a cannon and the chase is on.   

       Because we too are predators, whether trying  to shoot with a gun or a camera, we approach an animal in the same way.  We think that by creeping slowly forward we won't scare the creatures we are pursuing.  Our equivalent of going from stalking to exploding is the report of a bullet or the sudden click and whirr of a camera.

      A few years ago I did have an experience applying this to a semi-wild animal--a young male deer here in Acton.  A woman in the next town over raised a fawn as a pet.  Habituated to humans, she became an adult and gave birth to a male fawn who also received the woman's attention.

       I don't know what became of the fawn's mother, but I do know about the baby.  I met him when he was nearly full grown at the local gun club where my son now and again shoots trap.  Looking for food, the little fellow showed up at the club where its members, deer hunters themselves, fed him.  Since someone was always shooting, the deer became not only habituated to gunfire, he recognized it as a dinner bell.

      I thought I might be able to get him to follow me into my horse trailer if I used the Natural Horsemanship approach and retreat method.  I would take a few indirect steps towards him, my eyes down, then retreat.  I then repeated this. After about fifteen minute he allowed me to stand by his side and stroke his neck and shoulder.  Then the magic happened.  When I walked off he followed me.  When I stopped he stopped.

      I never did get him into a trailer.  It would have taken the cooperation of the gun club members, who rightly kept repeating it was against the law.  Also, I didn't know where I could drive him that would keep him safe.  At the time I wasn't aware that loading a deer in a confined space could be the death of it.  If severely frightened, a wild animal can and frequently does die of what is called "broken heart syndrome." Catecholamines, a variety of stress hormone, release into the bloodstream causing the skeletal and cardiac muscles to break down, often resulting in death.  

      The deer continued to show up at the gun club but then he came no more.  One day, as I was riding on a trail about a mile away from there, I saw him.  He was dead, too ravaged by coyotes to tell if he had been shot by hunters.

       However, having had modest success with this poor little guy did give me the courage to try the approach and retreat method with the Serengeti giraffes.  Trying to get near to these grand creatures, nineteen feet tall, felt daunting.  I was also walking a bit away from the tents, something we had been counseled against doing. Well, I wouldn't walk that far away.

       I approached a bull who was munching the top leaves of an acacia tree.   I cast my eyes down and walked on a diagonal, stopped, backed up, and repeated my approach on a different diagonal:



        After a brief pause he walked around the tree, continuing to wrap his long tongue over the leaves, managing to avoid the terrible thorns.  He looked at me with his beautiful calm eyes and then resumed munching:




I watched him for quite a while before ambling closer:



                                                             Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016



       He was soon joined by a compatriot.  I was quite close, so I could aim my camera up at those gorgeous curious heads:


                                                     Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016   

      I wondered what would happen if I sat down on the grass.  The larger bull came out from behind the acacia tree and walked towards me:


       
Then closer:

       

      Okay, that was close enough to those powerful legs and neck.  I stood  up.  He thought it close enough, too, because as soon as I stood up:

 .
      
(Dressage people, don't you think that's the start of a lovely pirouette?  A giraffe walk is a pace with two legs moving on one side then the other two legs on the other side.  I didn't get to see a trot, but this bull's canter had plenty of suspension. )

       Discretion, it was decided by both of us, was the better part of valor: 




      I returned to my husband who had been watching my interactions with the giraffes and was on the verge of asking a guide to hop in 
a Land Rover to retrieve me.  After a lovely dinner I had a lovely sleep.   My hope is that every day and night will be without fear for these magnificent, gentle animals.  I know that is a vain wish and unlikely, but it is my hope:



       My next blog entry will focus  on the Maasai I met, their history, customs, and how they are navigating the changing world around them.

       Thanks you for reading The Windflower Weekly.


       See you soon --
             
                      Ainslie

                      



            

LINKS YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/

http://www.mustangheritagefoundation.org

http://www.amazon.com/Trophies-An-Equestrian-Romance-ebook/dp/B00998J2B2

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-kaleidoscope-pony-ainslie-sheridan/1114272809?ean=2940015948592

http://windflowerfarmgiftsforani.smugmug.com

https://www.pinterest.com/Dollydressage

http://www.facebook.com/YonkersShelter

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WINDFLOWERDIGITALART

http://www.thomsonsafaris.com/

Sources:

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/

http://returntofreedom.org/

http://wildhorsepreservation.org/wild-horses-and-ecosystem

Looking for equine and pet related gifts?  Check out the photo pendants in my Etsy shop and a variety of t-shirts, mugs, travel mugs, on Cafe Press.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WINDFLOWERDIGITALART

http://www.cafepress.com/windflowerfarmgiftsforanimallovers

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-kaleidoscope-pony-ainslie-sheridan/1114272809?ean=2940015948592

http://www.amazon.com/Trophies-Equestrian-Romance-Ainslie-Sheridan-ebook/dp/B00998J2B2

My Tanzanian Safari ( From Acton to Arusha)

A Safari in Tanzania, Simultaneously One of the World's Poorest and Richest Countries

Ngorongoro Elephant                                                                      Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016


       If you told me a year ago that I would be flying to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania to begin an incredible adventure involving the Maasai, Africa's "Big Five"(Lions, Rhinos, Cape Buffalo, Elephants, and Leopards), I would have told you to check out the sad balance in my checkbook. Then I would have pointed to the three horses in my pasture responsible for this shortfall.

      However, my remarkable husband was asked by Harvard Alumni Tours to act as study leader on a trip to Tanzania.  How did an English professor, his specialty being 18th-century British  literature, get asked to escort a group of Harvard alums to a country whose  primary language is Swahili and whose body of literature is to this day mostly oral? Here I must brag: not only is Jim educated in the humanities, he is committed to the study of human affairs and devoted to the welfare and dignity of all.  This includes a deep and abiding concern for the environment and the ramifications of increasing climate disruption, particularly for those who are being, and will continue to be, affected the most.  Here are some of those whom I met in just such a place, the cradle of civilization, the birthplace of us all, sub-Saharan Africa: 




        I am getting ahead of myself, however.  To get to Tanzania we first flew to Schipol, Amsterdam's international airport.  From there we met up with the other Harvard alums and boarded a KLM jet to Kilimanjaro.  Though  a climb up to the sadly disappearing snow cap of the great mountain was not on our itinerary, judging from the hiking boots and backpacks on the plane, it certainly was for a number of our fellow passengers.  

      Once through customs we were met by Thomson Safari representatives who packed us into one minibus and drove us to an evening of respite and relaxation at the gorgeous Rivertrees Country Inn where Jim and I fell asleep in a beautiful African appointed cottage complete with billowy white mosquito netting.  The next morning I strolled the Arusha river banks because, purportedly, there were monkeys to be seen there. Sadly, however, not seen by me.  Apparently it was still too cool for them to seek out the river's water and shade.  So after a breakfast buffet of everything you can imagine, pastries, fresh fruit, omelettes, and crepes, it was back into the minibus and on to Arusha Airport.

       I learned that the highway we were on was being widened by the Chinese.  As many of you already know, the Chinese are in Africa in a big way.  They need its resources--minerals, metals, food from land leased or purchased, and precious stones.  While the Chinese are doing good works--roadwork, building hospitals--they are not training the Tanzanians to operate the equipment they have brought over, a characteristic of economic imperialism, that the Chinese themselves fell victim to in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  
       We all know that the Chinese are up to their ears in the illegal exotic animal trade, and while they maybe bumping up the Tanzanian economy with roads, hospitals, heavy machinery, and stethoscopes, they are putting at risk its budding ecotourism industry by decimating its wildlife, particularly elephants.  Chinese diplomats, it seems, have been packing their diplomatic pouches with ivory.  However, that is but one of their methods.
       
       I will write more in future entries on this ongoing war--and it is a war--against these magnificent animals, but do please read the articles below which will give you an idea as to the scope of its horror:
          http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/tanzania/11748349/Tanzanias-elephant-catastrophe-We-recalculated-about-1000-times-because-we-didnt-
believe- 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/africa/tanzania-elephant-ivory-queen-arrest/index.html

   



Arusha Airport                                                                       Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016

      At Arusha Airport our minibus was closely examined before we were allowed to pass through its chainlink gates.  A gentleman with a long stick with a mirror at the bottom scanned the undercarriage for possible bombs.  Once admitted it was on to having our documents, luggage, and carry-on items examined.  Unfortunately, we were held up due to another airline, KLM.  It seems that Royal Dutch Airlines gifted one of our tour members with two complementary, miniature, delft ceramic houses filled with liquor when he transited from his native Toronto to Amsterdam.

      I was confident that none of my fellow travelers were terrorist candidates, and if I had to choose the one least likely to have been radicalized, it would have been the sweet, mild mannered sixteen-year-old Canadian Liam, who happened to be the unfortunate recipient of an alcohol-filled delft ceramic that KLM gave its passengers.  Again and again, poor Liam was asked how he got these pieces and he was told--again and again--how this was not only illegal because of the alcohol, but that these little blue delft houses could be smashed by a potential evil doer, i.e. him, and turned into potential throat-slitting weapons. 

     Repeatedly Liam apologized for his non-mistake but this guard went on and on for nearly twenty minutes.   When you are jet-lagged, sleep deprived, and standing in the hot African sun, twenty minutes is a long, long time.  Finally, the man said he would let Liam and his delft houses go but only if the young man swore he had no criminal intentions.  If Liam did, in fact, have nefarious plans, the guard said that it would mean he, the guard, would lose his job.  Loss of a plane and loss of lives, i.e. ours, did not seem to be a concern.  Liam promised (yet again) that he would make no attempt to take over the airplane with shards of Dutch delft.  This time the security guard seemed to believe him.  Well, sort of.

    Finally, it was onto this: 



                                             Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016

       I don't much like flying in planes, much less ones having only one engine.  It's one of the reasons I joined the Navy rather than the Air Force.  (Here, I must admit that during my eleven years of service, I wound up spending more time in planes and helicopters than I ever did onboard ship.)  Additionally, I didn't find it in the least bit comforting to be told by our pilot Jose that we were likely to encounter considerable turbulence but that he would do his best to fly around it.

       Here we are leaving Tanzania's northern city of Arusha:



       In a few minutes we were here:



       Then here:



       And then here!



       And finally a hint, just a hint, of what was to come:



      
       At that time the turbulence could only be experienced visually--a large angry red spot on the radar.  In the end, pilot Jose managed to skirt around any rough weather and, after fifty minutes, we began our descent, finally landing on a grass runway that could only be identified as such by two parallel lines of rocks and a fully employed windsock.  There we met our highly knowledgeable wonderful Thomson safari guides, Abu, Ojouku, and Freddie.  In retrospect, I cannot imagine a safari without them:




          After our luggage was loaded into our three Land Rovers, it was onto our Eastern Serengeti Nyumba ("Nyumba" is Swahili for home) set on the slopes of the Moruga Hill which, until less than a decade ago, had been leased to a brewing company to raise barley.  Fortunately, the Tanzanian government decided it was in the best interests of its people and ecosystem to let Thomson Safari take it over.   This has allowed it to revert to open plains and wooded savannas.

       On the hour-long drive our first animal life were cattle, goats, sheep, and donkeys belonging to the Maasai :








       These donkeys had ample pasture but they ambled down here to lick salt:



        All the livestock I saw at our first nyumba, indeed, spent their days grazing in large open fields of grass.  I'm sure  the feedlot cows in the U.S. would happily exchange places with these animals.  That is,  perhaps with the exception of these two oxen.  Our guide said they were being trained Maasai-style, "to become friends."





             In a short while these two will pull a cart together, and this is how they become habituated to each other's company.  It is an effective way to ensure they are pair bonded.  Still, I think they look rather forlorn.

       Soon the domestic animals gave way to wild:



      Zebra, wildebeest (I knew them as gnu growing up), and a giraffe!  Then the delicate, elegant Grant's gazelles.


Grant's Gazelles                                                      Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2015


       After a delicious dinner with the other guests, Jim and I retired to our luxurious tent, making sure all our belongings were inside.  We had been told that hyenas and baboons happily carry off anything and everything they can get their mouths and hands around:



Thomson Ten                                                             Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2016


                The next day the magic really began.  I also tested the applicability of Natural Horsemanship on some local giraffes.  Stay tuned.


       Thank you for reading The Windflower Weekly.  See you soon --   Ainslie 

LINKS YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/

http://www.mustangheritagefoundation.org

http://www.amazon.com/Trophies-An-Equestrian-Romance-ebook/dp/B00998J2B2

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-kaleidoscope-pony-ainslie-sheridan/1114272809?ean=2940015948592

http://windflowerfarmgiftsforani.smugmug.com

https://www.pinterest.com/Dollydressage

http://www.facebook.com/YonkersShelter

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WINDFLOWERDIGITALART

http://www.thomsonsafaris.com/

Sources:

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/

http://returntofreedom.org/

http://wildhorsepreservation.org/wild-horses-and-ecosystem

Looking for equine and pet related gifts?  Check out the photo pendants in my Etsy shop and a variety of t-shirts, mugs, travel mugs, on Cafe Press.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WINDFLOWERDIGITALART

http://www.cafepress.com/windflowerfarmgiftsforanimallovers

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-kaleidoscope-pony-ainslie-sheridan/1114272809?ean=2940015948592

http://www.amazon.com/Trophies-Equestrian-Romance-Ainslie-Sheridan-ebook/dp/B00998J2B2