Looking for the Elusive Black Rhino

11.7.17 Looking for the Elusive Black Rhino

Another early morning necessary for our 1.5 hour drive to the mountains where the elusive black rhino are occasionally spotted. It's not too long into our departure that we spot a female kudu and her little one, grazing on the hillside.

Later we spotted a couple of giraffes in the distance - real ones - not like the trees Colleen tried to convince us were giraffes. (ha ha)

The most interesting desert plant that we encountered was the Welwitschia mirabilis - one of the oldest plants in the world and unique to the Namib Desert. It has 2 giant leaves, 3 feet wide and withered by the wind. It absorbs the water from the thick fog that settles over the area and may live more than 2000 years. 

Eventually, as we roamed the area where the rhinos were known to be in the past, we met up with the "rhino patrol," who were hunting the poachers who were illegally killing the rhinos for their horns. They informed us, that in their walking, they had not seen a single rhino. Needless to say, we were a little dispirited but decided to persevere in another area nearby where they had not patrolled yet.  And, lo and behold, our trip leader Lloyd spotted a female and her cub - EXTREMELY far away. I could not sight them with the zoom lens of my camera, and after many tries, handed my camera to Abner, our game guide who was really into photography, and told him to have fun.  He shot multiple frames, handed my camera back to me, then showed me in one of the photos were mom and child were. Well, no wonder I couldn't find them - I wasn't even focused on the right spot!

 Mom and baby black rhinos.

Time to move to higher ground...

Not everything is black and white...

The black rhino, as you can see from the photos above, can be any shade of color from brown to grey (in a later blog post, they will actually appear to be white after a roll in the clay dust). 

The black rhino doesn't require as much water as the white so they tend to be found in the more rugged terrain. Females are smaller than males, and black rhinos are typically smaller than white rhinos. Black rhinos have a pointed, hooked and prehensile upper lip, used to grab leaves and twigs for eating. They are considered to be browsers and not grazers. The white rhino has square lips used for eating grass. 

After our game viewing drive we visited the village of De Riet, where we met the wife of the chief and the kindergarten teacher and her assistant. Apparently the children are cared for 24/7 by the teacher and her assistant because many of their parents work too far away from the village. Most of us who were former teachers said they couldn't pay us enough to be a mother to those 17 children in addition to teaching them. It is the culture of Namibia that families are very fluid - which is why when someone tells you someone else is a sister or brother, many times they are not biologically related. 

 Wife number one of the village chief.

The assistant teacher and one of the students.

Side Story: The Damara click

The Damara are an ethnic group who make up approximately 8.5% of Namibia's population. Their use of the "click" sounds has been loosely classified as Khoisan, and it appears that they picked up the language in Botswana before they migrated to Namibia separately from the Nama ethnic group.

When Phil asked our guide Ricky why he didn't use clicks so much in conversation, Ricky explained that men used these doubly articulated consonants less, and that if Phil really wanted to hear the clicks clearly, he should listen to women arguing.

So I staged an argument between Lloyd, our trip leader, Gandhi and Desert Rose and Seven - all members of our wonderful camp crew. Listen carefully to the women as they get more and more animated and you can hear the clicks...

https://youtu.be/GrQq1p22KBc

Before every meal we are given a hilarious description in English followed by the Nama translation with clicks.

https://youtu.be/WyFwcTD_OrE

And, as always, after dinner we joined our hosts and hostesses in African dancing.  Keep an eye on the skinny one - Desert Rose. She is amazing!

https://youtu.be/1JqNZ6ExKck
https://youtu.be/4N1gmD0-yXk