Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Trip to Africa was worth the wait

Paula DelGiudice

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1999 | 9:54 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at PDelGiudice@compuserve.com.

I never even dared to dream about going to Africa. It always seemed like such a remote possibility: too far, too costly, too wild.

It wasn't like I didn't have the opportunities. While working as an editor for a shotgun hunting and shooting magazine in Reno during the early '80s, I was invited to go to Morocco to hunt doves. I was warned that it might not be safe for a woman to go, so I never really entertained the notion.

The next invitation was for a photo safari promoted by SATOUR, the South African tourism organization. It was a long trip and I just couldn't envision going along or being able to accomplish the kind of promotion they expected.

It was in my role as chair of the board of directors of the National Wildlife Federation that I finally was able to make the trip to Africa. I returned this past Saturday.

The first seed was planted by NWF CEO Mark Van Putten back in March or April. He asked what I knew about tracking. I told him that I'd done a fair amount of tracking in relationship to the hunting that I've done, but I certainly wasn't an expert. So if they needed someone on camera to be the expert, it wasn't likely to be me.

At the end of April, the question came up again, while Van Putten and I sat in my pickup overlooking a rain-soaked Red Rock Canyon.

"Would you like to be involved with this film we're doing with Turner Broadcasting on tracking? It's going to be shot in South Africa." (NWF has a productions division that produces wildlife and nature documentaries, in addition to IMAX films such as "Whales and Wolves.")

I started to let it sink into my brain and couldn't figure out how I could make it work with the kids' summer vacation and everything else. It was my husband's generosity that allowed it to happen. He always wanted to go to Africa and he agreed that it was a chance I couldn't turn down. So he agreed to hold down the fort at home while I spent eight days traveling to the shoot and filming.

Before long, I was boarding a plane for New York. When I finished flying nearly 30 hours later, I would be in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, just east of Namibia and a stone's throw from the southern border of Botswana.

For someone who likes wildlife, it's a fairytale land. Every animal and every bird is something new to see -- at least outside of zoos. The film crew was assembled by using talent from throughout the world. There were filmmakers from Cape Town; the producer from Amsterdam; the executive producer for TBS based out of New York; the sound guy, still photographer and tracking software developer from Johannesburg, and me, all camped at the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park campground.

Though it's winter down there, the weather was about like it is here during November -- typically pleasant. Though dome tents and sleeping bags were where we rested our heads, the camp offered hot and cold running water, so showers were available. It was rustic, but it could have been a lot worse.

The first night I could barely sleep due to the excitement and the time warp of crossing international time zones. I kept hearing an animal that cried like a baby, seemingly in our camp. I found out it was a jackal.

There's no slouching when shooting on location. The first and last hours of daylight, when the sun is low on the horizon, are the most spectacular for filming, so we were up early every day. The national park kept its gates locked until 7 a.m., so we were there exactly then to head out into the park, after picking up our bushman tracker Vet Piet.

He would spend the rest of the week with us, showing us the ancient tracking skills of the bushmen. The bushmen used their exquisite knowledge of the habits and spoor (what they term the tracks, scat or other residues left by moving animals, birds or insects) to hunt animals for survival.

The film has a complicated story line and the bushmen play a central role. The bushman culture is dying as hunting land has been taken away and animals they once depended upon are found only in parks and reserves, where they have no access.

Louis Liebenberg is a South African scientist who has developed a software package for a palm-sized computer that will allow the bushmen to input data about the animals they observe, either directly or indirectly, in order to provide a complete picture of the landscape for modern day wildlife managers. Though most of the bushmen cannot read or write, they can use this software because it uses icons.

The film hopes to show that this new technology may be one way of repurposing the culture so that it will survive in some form rather than simply become extinct. Saving this culture is important to wildlife and natural resources because the bushmen are incredibly tuned into the land and its animals. Because they understand it like few others, they can be wildlife's greatest ally.

In addition, the animals are a vital part not only of the bushmen's circle of life, but of the bushmen's spirituality -- the bushmen once believed they were animals. For scientists and other concerned people, seeing the African bushman culture survive is important because it is thought to be the oldest on earth.

The film also will compare some of the African conservation issues with some of the ones found here in the United States. One is that animals in South Africa are not owned by the people like they are here. They're owned by the land on which they reside. For instance, a lion living in the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park is owned by the park. If it wanders outside of the park it can be shot by nearby farmers.

Reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves are similarly threatened by livestock interests who fear for their cattle. Bison are regularly shot if they wander outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park because some livestock owners believe the bison will transmit brucellosis or other diseases to their stock (even though it has never been documented that transmissions of brucellosis actually occur from wild to domestic animals).

Looking back, I have never seen a landscape that looked more like parts of Nevada than the Kalahari Desert. But that's where the similarities end.

The Kalahari is made up largely of the most gorgeous Red Rock Canyon-colored sand, dune after hundreds of miles of dunes. Though the vegetation is similar, there are several subspecies of Acacia trees and shrubs. For example, there were incredible plants that form tubers that antelope eat instead of drinking water.

I was incredibly moved by seeing an African lion in the wild.

I've seen hundreds of them in my lifetime: in zoos, in cages, in movies. Once you see one walking in the wild, you understand from the bottom or your heart how important it is to protect their habitat, so they'll always be able to walk free in their homeland.

I could go on about the gorgeous sunsets; the beauty of the clear blue sky not marred by a single jet contrail; the deepest quiet I've ever experienced; the wonderful animals such as cheetah, hyena, ostrich, steenbok, wildebeest, wildcat, meerkat, and yellow mongoose; and the stars of the Southern hemisphere, blotted out ever so slightly by the hugest, fullest moon I've seen ... but I think you get the picture.

The film, by the way, is due for release in November.

archive