by Patrick Garvey

Africa has always been a place of fascination for me ever since I was a child. I loved nothing more than to sit in on a Sunday watching the trials and tribulations of life on the savannah guided by the distinguished voice of David Attenborough. Everything looked larger, wilder and more dangerous when compared to what was happening in the fields around our house at home. When the prospect arouse to conduct fieldwork in South Africa’s Kruger National Park I jumped at the opportunity.

I boarded a flight in Dublin bound for Johannesburg with a sense of anticipation similar to that of a child on Christmas Eve. I would be part of a team organized by the conservation agency Operation Wallacea who operate scientific expeditions to several regions of special ecological importance. When I arrived in the airport lobby a sign directed me to our meeting point where a group of twenty volunteers awaited. A quick glance around made me realize that I would not be the only fair skinned traveler from the Emerald Isle. This was great news as experience has shown me that no other group of people in the world are more fun to be around than the Irish abroad.

After a 12 hour bus journey we arrived at the bush training camp where we would remain for the following ten days. Kruger National Park is home to the Big 5 (lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and the rhino) so called because hunters regarded them as the most dangerous animals to encounter on foot. The bush training would provide the basic skills needed if we stumbled upon any of these animals while out on the savannah. I wondered whether I would have an innate intuition, past down through millennia in the genes, to know instinctively what to do if confronted by a lion. It turns out that my natural response, to run screaming into the bush, was the one sure way of getting eaten! We learnt that during a lion encounter you must stare the animal down and actually take a step towards the aggressor if it draws nearer. Once it stops approaching you can slowly step backward while ensuring that you keep eye contact at all times. The strange thing is that if you do this with a leopard there is a good chance you will put yourself in serious danger due to its aggressive temperament. When confronted by a leopard you must relax your body language, avoid eye contact and slowly move away at an angle to avoid confrontation. It sounded all well and good in theory but would we really remember the protocol when confronted by a large predatory cat!

After our training we traveled for ten hours to the centre of the park to reach the South African Wildlife College where we would perform the research. To give some idea of scale the Kruger National Park measures two million hectares and is approximately the size of the whole of Wales. The Wildlife College would act as our base from where we would conduct wildlife and vegetation surveys across thirty different sites. The sites were located in the Kruger National park but also in Welverdiend, a local community area adjacent to the park. The wildlife habitats in the community area have been degradated due to overgrazing and hunting. The aim of the research was to see how this affected the wildlife community in comparison to the pristine reserve of Kruger. We stayed in tents surrounded by an electrified perimeter fence that separated us from the more unwelcome park resident. At night we would sit around a fire to enjoy a braai, the Afrikaans name for a barbeque. Over a few beers the rangers would regale us with fascinating tales of adventure that occurred during their years of working in the park. The smell of cooking meat wafting across the savannah never went unnoticed as lions and hyenas were quick to hone in on the source. It was discovered during these nights that there must be some sort of primeval fear etched deep in our psyche as the roar of a lion in the vicinity never failed to make us jump.

Every morning was spent conducting bird and vegetation surveys at the thirty different research sites. At around noon, with the temperature reaching the mid twenties, we would return for lunch at the college grounds. This is where we became acquainted with pap, a traditional porridge ground maize which had the texture, feel and probably the taste of polyfiller. The evenings were always a time to look forward to as we would drive into Kruger to go on a bush walk. Two armed rangers would lead the group and it was their responsible to ensure that we got in and out safely. The high caliber bullets they carried were about the size of an index finger, which were capable of stopping a charging seven tonne elephant if required.

On one memorable day a group of seven of us left the safety of the jeep to look for a herd of about a hundred elephants that had been spotted earlier. Under the rangers direction we moved downwind along the crest of a hill until we managed to get uncomfortably close to the herd. In order to return to the jeep we needed to cross a dried river bed in which the herd had congregated and it was during this crossing that we were spotted by a bull elephant. Not known for their tolerance he spread his ears, trumpeted and charged to within about 20 meters of us before stopping. Slowly we backed away up the opposite embankment while the elephant shadowed us along the river bed. We rounded a tree with our eyes fixed on the aggressor and walked straight into a leopard in the long grass! It’s hard to explain the level of fear that we experienced but suffice to say that my previous skydiving and bungee-jumping escapades pale in comparison to that adrenalin rush. Luckily the leopard was as surprised as we were by the encounter and took off before we had a chance to test out our bush training skills. The elephant too gradually lost interest as we put more distance between ourselves and the herd he was protecting. We returned to the jeep in one piece but with the addition of an experience that would stay with us for a lifetime.

The two months flew by and all too soon our adventure was over. We had been the first foreign research team allowed into Kruger National Park to document the wildlife. The information gathered would help the park devise managerial strategies to ensure biodiversity preservation. The cradle of civilization had truly been an inspiring and exhilarating part of the world to visit. Not only that but if a circus ever comes to my town and a big cat escapes I will be the best prepared man in Ireland to deal with such an eventuality!

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