My goldfish pond

[Dave 54]

Haver, I will have to check out that movie. I was watching a lot of movies that had something to do with africa and also reading books about Africa before we left to go there. We even watched the Nelson Mandela movie the night before we left.The thing is Africa is so big with so many countries you learn a little but not that much about where you are going. We actually saw large herds of elephants in Botswana. My daughter took a video of two elephants we saw that were play fighting. It was pretty amazing to watch two elephants charging each other. One time a lion was really close to the tracker that sat in front of our vehicle. The big cat jumped and i was sure he was going for the man's throat. My heart jumped at the same time. Our guide explained the animal jumped because he was afraid because he got too close to the man. It's funny that the big cats have very strict rules they follow. if you understand what they will and won't do then there are no problems if you follow the proper procedures.
JW. Yes There are a lot of similarities between man's behaviour and that of animals. The thing you have to respect is they kill for food and not for sport so in that way they may be more civilized!
CE, Yes I know what you mean but when you are watching the big cats they must kill to survive otherwise they will starve. Sometimes they go for days without getting anything. Our guides stressed that they are animals of opportunity. They need to surprise an animal by hiding behind a bush or rock. They can not run in an open field and chase down other animals. Another way is they find babies or weaker animals off by themselves. . Most of the other animals like elephants, giraffes etc have ways of fighting back and if there is a pack of them they can easily fight off a leopard or lion. Another thing it seems like they are all afraid of hyenas. One of the guides told us that if we were left in any of these parks overnight the hyenas would rip us apart if we stayed on the ground. The thing you have to remember is we are talking about carnivores. They do not have any other option but to eat meat. If they don't find kills then they will not survive.Here's a picture of a nice little kitty cat taking a nap. Lions and leopards sleep almost 20 hours a day because they get so tired from eating meat.View attachment 78079

Its the natural order of things Kieth kill or be killed and kill to survive then you have the clean up crews hyenas insects and vultures .
Believe it or not Hyenas are very good at hunting but are good at scavenging as well , did you know that female Hyenas have a false penis ?
I dont think you have the man and animals thing quite right though Keith as we are at odds with nature, if you look at the natural world all animals have a job to do often involving the propergation of plants, grasses and trees , man Kills for sport at the end of a gun barrel why ?
What the guides didnt want you to see and have no intention of showing you are the caged and drugged lions, that are bread specially for rich hunting types who pay top dollars to do so.
Personally I'd like to see them do that on their own in the wild basically they would end up as lunch.
South Africa has been called upon to stop these canned lion shoot but currupt goverment officials know it brings the country in lots of money so there is no political will to ban it.
Another thing you wont see are the endagered species slaughtered for bush meat or the Ivory poachers etc (thats man for you).
In reality its time we found our place in nature again and get around to healing our planet which has been ruthesly exploited as have its animals by us .
However you took some fantastic photos of nature as it is intended to be

Dave

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks Dave. i sympathize with most of what you are saying. I totally agree that the animals in many ways are more civilized than us and only hunt for food and not for sport. For the reasons you mentioned we did not visit any of the petting parks because of our knowledge of what happens to the animals when they get older. There was recently a program on CBS's 60 minutes about the petting lion parks and how the animals get sold to hunting parks later on. When we came back home someone I work with told me that in his country the richest man recently went to Africa and paid $60,000 to shoot an elephant. Personally I didn't find that very exciting and felt bad for the elephant, but I must add I have never hunted and that does not interest me. That being said overall I was impressed that all the people we met in the wildlife areas in that they were so greatly concerned about the environment and welfare of all the wildlife in the reserves. Ecotourism is a real thing there and they have realized that by increasingly protecting the environment it will create more tourism and jobs. Currently South Africa burns elephant tusks that were taken from dead elephants so poachers can never get their hands on them and there are many other things they are doing to protect their wildlife. I'm sure they are not perfect .... but even in the US there are many people that disagree with the government's practices when it comes to preserving natural resources and wildlife. Unemployment is 25% in SA and 53% among blacks. 50% of Cape Town's population lives in shanty towns so the government is in need of revenue. I'm sure they probably compromise on some things for the sake of raising revenue so there are funds to help the poor. Re the British: Our hotel mangers in Botswana were British expatriates and they always had a number of good stories for us when they joined the group at supper. They were really interesting and made the stay very enjoyable. There weren't any British in our safari camps, but the numbers of guests were pretty low because we were there in their summer which is off season. More people prefer to go in their winter because it is easier to see the animals because they congregate at watering holes and also the bush is yellow and much lower without the high grasses we saw. It seems that the majority of the people we met were either from the US or Australia.
Addy, Wow that sounds like a long trip. It was 15 hours to Joberg from Atlanta and 17 hours back and then we had to go to and from Chicago and that was too long for me.. Well tomorrow is my wife's birthday. I hope she remembers the trip really well because that was her birthday present!

 

[Dave 54]

Happy Birthday to your dear wife Keith I ont enquire hr age thats a womans perogative to tell not yours one thing I didnt metion is what man has done to the Northern white Rino basically they have been poached to the point where their are a total of 5 left and they are on the very bring of extiction , all for their own protection are captive but sadly the male Rino shows no interest in mating with any of them , they have tried to get the females pregnant by arificial insemination but so far nothing has worked .
The blame lie firmly on China and their beliefs what powdered Rino horn does for the love life the poachers are paid very littl but from the middle man onwards the sky's the limit on the price .
This is happening to many creatures that the Chinese have these beliefs in , the snow leopard , Siberian tiger , Vietnam Rino the list goes on and on , they have alott to be blamed for then we have to look at the sharks definned and thrown back alive just so they can sell sharks fin soup the other end.
I'm glad of the Whaleing bann the Japanese and Norwiegens would love for it to be lifed thankfully its not been but Japan still hunts the minky whale supposedly for scientific study strange its aold in Japan to eat .
Tuna and many other species are on the brink too , god I sound like some Liberal Green Party member , ts just that I read alott and love documentrys over reality TV shows and everything Celib....... nuf said their
I doubt very much the revenue raised gets to the poor of South Africa but does get into the pockets of corupt polititians etc :grrr:

Dave

 

[addy1]

Addy, Wow that sounds like a long trip.

It was back in the day before 911, a hopper plane from Zambia, to a hopper plane that landed somewhere north africa, to the next hopper plane that landed in england, to a plane that went to new york, to a plane that went to arizona. Some of those planes where almost like bush planes.

 

[Dave 54]

Oh I miss the H out of Rhino silly me didnt notice till this evening , that'll teach me to come online without my first cup or two of Java in the morning

Dave

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks Dave, I think she had a nice birthday. We took this fantastic trip for her birthday so she really had not much to complain about. We are starting to look at lifestyle changes since the kids are out of the house. Some of the options look like they may be interesting so we will see how it goes. Re the r(h)inos. In Botswana they took out the last 60 at Chobe and have them hidden away for safekeeping. The military shoots to kill all poachers there now. In South Africa they have taken extreme measure to safeguard them. When our group was watching some we spotted a hole in their ears. That identifies the ones with poisoned horns so they are useless to poachers. The problem is when you make $10 a day and you get offered $100,000 for a rhino horn it can be tempting even if it is very wrong. Re: The poor in SA. There are lots of them all over in the country and cities.The government is trying to help but there is only so much they can do. We saw government free housing all over and even for Mozambique refugees. That said there is definitely corruption there. The president of SA just awarded his village $15 million for improvements and there is a lot of controversy about that. Someone else was just caught stealing $6 million from a government housing program. Stuff happens here too so I can't tell if it is worse there or not. A few more rhino pics from our trip. It seems like there were a lot of young ones with their moms so I wonder if there is a problem with their mating.

 

[CometKeith]

I shoveled my pond yesterday.I cleared about 2 ft of snow off or about1/4 of it. There was still plenty of ice but at least my fish don't have to live in darkness 24-7. I could still hear my pump and waterfall still working under all the snow so I was happy.

 

[j.w]

Good job and lots of work. Glad I don't have to do that but still would be nice to have a bit of snow before Spring arrives.

 

[CometKeith]

J.W, well as soon as I did it I thought twice about it. They are predicting really cold temps here later this week and maybe the snow insulation would have kept it a little warmer.

 

[j.w]

Oops now you may have to get out there and put it all back. The fishy's need their warm blanky

 

[addy1]

We have had very little snow, my pond so far, has been at 41 or 40f almost all winter. (since it iced over)

 

[j.w]

You have a new weather thingy addy.

 

[addy1]

You have a new weather thingy addy.

It is the actual information from my backyard now instead of the airport, my weather station sends it to weather underground. The airport is always slightly warmer than us. That is the smallest sticker I could find, that would post my data

 

[j.w]

It works good and gives you a more accurate temp etc. since it is right from your property. Good Deal!

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, cold temps coming here, too, Keith. I looked this morning for extended forecast, nothing more than 20% chance of precip any day for next 10 days. Then this afternoon someone said something about snow on Monday. Looked again, and sure enough, 80% chance on Monday and 60% chance on Tues. What is going on??? I'm all for some snow, but the temps are going in the toilet Monday night again ... down to 4 with high winds. Yuck and double yuck! Going to single digits this weekend too. Ho hum ....