In the next series of posts, I am going to ask you to think about things in a different way.

You see, I am going to be talking about trophy hunting, and that is not a subject that a lot of people want to hear about.

Let me define that…. Trophy hunting is when a hunter pays for the privilege of stalking and killing an animal so that he can have the trophy to place on his wall and then to enjoy as we would a piece of art. Now I probably lost a bunch of you right here…..

PLEASE KEEP READING

My husband, Michael is currently writing a book about the idea that trophy hunters are the main reason that there is wild-game still around. This is the gist…..PLEASE read all the way through.

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The African country of Mozambique endured a 15-year civil war, ending in 1992. During this time, the villagers were faced with no food or jobs. After the war ended, they had to depend on poaching and subsistence farming to feed their families.

Enter Mark Haldane of Zambeze Delta Safaris……

He met with the villagers and explained to them his vision to restore not only the villager’s lives but also the ecosystem within which they lived.

The first step was providing protein. This protein would come from wild animals, however, rather than indiscriminate poaching, international trophy hunters would be the source of the meat. The meat from this closely-regulated sport hunting would go to feed the local villagers and the hunters themselves. The goal was to provide 10 pounds of meat per week for each of the local families. The villagers were doubtful!!

However, as time went on, they found that Mark was true to his word. Not only was red meat provided each week, but fish protein was also available through a fishing program. He also developed a community agricultural field.

Now, children and their parents are well-fed and enjoy a much healthier life!!

Every one of these additions came from the money of passionate sport hunters.

The improvements did not stop with food. Zambeze Delta Safaris was joined by the Cabela Family Foundation and The Ivan Carter Wildlife Conservation Alliance and together provided schools, housing for teachers, a clinic, a portable maize mill, and even a honey production program.

The next job was to find a way to curb the poaching that was still happening in the area. The answer was to establish an Anti-poaching team made up of the villagers who had once been poachers. Now they have fast-response teams that make use of motorbikes and even a helicopter. All of these were purchased with hunter dollars.

You may wonder how sport hunting differs from poaching. In both cases, animals are killed by ‘hunters’. However, poaching uses snares and traps to catch whatever animal happens to walk past. It doesn’t matter if it is a female or a young antelope and the suffering endured by these snared animals is great.

On the other hand, sport hunting works under government supervision, and there are strict quotas as to the number of animals that can be taken, AND only OLDER males are taken, leaving the young males, females and calves to continue to grow and repopulate the herds.

The monies paid by the hunters (license fees, community fees, and daily rates) go straight back into the local community and into anti-poaching efforts.

The villagers are not the only ones who have profited. Numbers of game animals have grown with the regulated hunting of their populations providing the funds necessary to suppress poaching. There are now 3,000 Sable antelope in the delta where they once numbered only 30. Only 1200 Cape buffalo remained when the Safaris Operators began their work, now there are more than 25,000 of these animals roaming the landscape.

Without the intervention of sport hunters, there would still be starvation among the people and the animal populations would continue to dwindle, eventually leading to the extinction of entire species.

WITH sport hunting, this portion of Mozambique has experienced a resurrection of both people and nature.

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Over the next two weeks, I will be writing about our wonderful trip to the Zambeze Delta and will be showing you not only the hunting, but also the amazing things that are happening for the villagers.

I promise that you wont be subjected to any dead-animal shots!!

If you will stick with me, I think that you might be encouraged with what you see and might just be able to think about sport hunting in a different way.

Thanks for reading!!!

Now….let’s head into the bush!!!!

This gentleman is  Zakarea……

…..and he serves as the community liaison between Zambeze Delta Safaris and the local village.  This position is one of great importance as, in many cases, he is the one who decides which families get what!!

He is 51 years old and says that he was born on January 1^st, as were all sixteen of his children…apparently, it is the default date for all births.

He serves in many roles, but the most interesting is the work that he does as the “Bee shepherd”!!

The bee swarms are captured using these boxes that hang in the trees…..

They have something in them that attracts the wandering bees.  Once caught they are moved to the hives.

When I first saw these boxes, I asked Francisco what they were.   He made the motion of something flying and then acted as if he was touching his finger in something and then tasting it.   I got the idea!!

The hives currently in use are an “African Top-Bar” hive. 

Mark told us that it is an extremely basic form of bee keeping but works well in this situation.

They have recently started transitioning to a modern “Langstroth” hive.   Since the summer temperatures can reach 100 to 115, the wooden hives are very hot.    They are starting to build these hives from concrete, as they are much cooler and make for healthier and happier bees!!

Also, the weight of the concrete hives deters hive-rustlers!!!

They use wooden forms to mold the concrete…..

….. and use the metal from confiscated poacher’s snares to reinforce the slabs…..talk about using something bad to create something good!!!

They can build 3 concrete hives each week and there are a bunch ready to be deployed into the field!!

In a good season, they take between 16 and 20 kilos (36 – 44 pounds) of honey from each hive.

The strong point of the honey from this area is that there are no pesticides sprayed anywhere around.   Most of the pollen comes from the indigenous trees that grow prolifically!!

The flavor of the honey changes based on the time of year and on where the hive is situated.

The honey has a high moisture content and is sometimes sent elsewhere to dehydrate a bit.  Otherwise, it easily molds.

There are currently 350 hives, and the beekeepers are paid for their honey.  The initial market is to local hotels and resorts, but they hope to soon move into the Middle Eastern market.   The reason for this niche is because, since they don’t have indigenous bees in their countries, they don’t have to irradiate the honey as it enters the country.  If it was sent to America, it would be irradiated to protect the local bees, but would lose much of its goodness.

Because of the quality of the honey, it will bring top dollar.

They have a problem with ants invading the hives and have solved that by placing a metal plate on the pole and smearing it with engine oil.   Apparently, the ants cant traverse the gap!!

While we were looking at the new concrete hives that were being built, I found an interesting design in these wooden boxes filing several shelves…..

I found out that these were the frames that are used in the hives.   The metal wires are covered with wax and then dropped “file folder” style into the hive.

Zakarea was proud to show us his hive and we happily followed him to the back of his property…..

….As we walked, I managed to grab a quick photo of a gorgeous plant…..

I have been surprised to not see more flowers and, when I questioned Julian about this, he responded that I needed to remember that it was the middle of winter here!!!   DUH!!!

Thus ends the saga of the Bee-Shepherd…..a sweet saga indeed!!!

In most parts of Africa there is an evening tradition that takes place in winter and in summer…..the fire pit!!

In our camp, everyone would gather around the pit about 6:00 pm, appetizers and drinks would be served, and we would all sit and tell about the exploits of our days. It was a SWEET time and one that Michael and I both looked forward to.

But this was NOT a simple event to set up and the preparations happened at various times throughout the day.

The fire pit in Mungari camp was an amazing structure, built from concrete that had been reinforced using metal traps and snares that had been confiscated from area poachers….talk about a good job of recycling!!! The circle spanned approximately 8-10 feet and could seat a LOT of people around it.

The first task of the day was to clean out the ashes from the previous night’s fire…..

You can see the small indentation where the coals will be placed to start the current fire.

Sometime during the day, one of the camp helpers would build the fire…..

To me, this looks like a pile of wood and not a pre-built fire, but it was the perfect shape, and it has made me rethink the way that we build fires here!!!!

Around 5:00pm, the worker would bring coals from one of the “water-heating” fires and place them in the indentation…..

And then they just let it sit!!

Gradually the smoke would start to rise from the middle….

….then a few flames would appear……

….and before you knew it, there was a roaring fire…..

As the night went on, people would carefully pull out the logs that were on the bottom of the pile and start to stack them tee-pee style over the flame…..

We could tell that it was a warm place to be….I was just afraid that someone would mistake “Puddin'” for one of the logs…..

About the time that the fire started roaring, we were invited to enjoy drinks and appetizers while we warmed ourselves around the fire…..

It was a wonderful way to wind down from the day and get ready for the amazing dinner that was to follow!!

Believe it or not, today we are starting another trip to Mozambique!!!

We will be flying to DC today and then have the long flights on Friday, arriving in camp around 4:00pm on Saturday!!

This trip will be much the same as last time, however there are some special events that Michael will be writing about and hopefully there will be more photo days, helicopter rides, and beautiful sunsets for me!!!

While we are gone, I will be sharing the travel log from the last trip so you can catch up on all of the fun associated with it.

We are greatly looking forward to seeing all of the camp staff again and the new visitors that will be joining us!!!

For you quilters out there….get ready….. the months of August thru November are dedicated to quilting and other fun things and ……