The Wheel of Life

I ended up cross posting this on Shutter Fug (videography) and Life Of A Stranger.

There is more photography to come from Port Lympne, but I put this together from footage I shot on the mini safari that was part of the package for, "Livingstone Lodge." This involved an elongated tour of the hundred or so acres of land which is given over to free roaming hoof stock and the information given by guides who came from Africa and spent considerable years dealing with the ecosystem there.

The wheel of life is actually quite fragile and it is amazing to hear some of the checks that nature has put in place to avoid some disasters; and then how man has come along, made one change and killed over a hundred species giving himself a good deal of problems in the process.


One of the things in this video is how the Red Lechway graze the rough grass. Once they are done, when the floods come fish can traverse the wider flooded planes, eat the insects and lay larvae. This is then food for birds, etc. and when the waters go, the softer grass is available for other animals to graze on as the rough grasses have gone. When the Lechway are taken away, the fish are confined to the river, birds haven't got the same food available and starve and also the fish don't get to eat anywhere near the amount of insects they would have done; leaving man with an insect problem. Plus, the other grazers can't get at the soft grass because the rough grass is still there.

The guide made another point; why are we eating animals that we have to inject, dip in chemicals and wreck the habitat so they can graze on soft grasses. Better to instead use the naturally occurring animals instead. He has a point.

The other major thing was that nature has a protection mechanism against inbreeding. This is because inbreeding gives rise to genetic malformations including white animals. Normally, white animals are killed by the parents because they can't survive themselves; white animals can't camouflage and can't hunt; they'll starve. Also, they attract predators to the whole herd. White animals can't be reintroduced to Africa, firstly because it is human intervention that allowed them to come about in the first place and secondly because they can't survive there in the wild. So, if you are attracted to part with money to support conservation efforts aiming to reintroduce white animals to Africa, best check up on them first; there is a good possibility that the efforts are complete frauds and have been created specifically to get peoples money. In a few days I'll adjust this paragraph to include links to where you can do just that and be certain of where your money is going.

Science is also making things worse. Sub breeds exist and science wants to conserve these. The guide told it truthfully; if herds come across each other, they'll just mate and produce half breeds. Nature doesn't care, so why should we; especially as it gets in the way of reintroduction efforts. After all, so many species were introduced from other continents some years ago so it is a bit of a joke to ensure that some breeds are only introduced in to certain areas based on the breed that they are.

This is not a good situation.