Learning about Conservation of The Okavango Delta

Recently I watched two Nat Geo documentaries on the Okavango Delta region, The Flood and Into the Okavango. Both came out in 2018 so I'm behind the curve. Even though they are about the same area they are extremely different. I'd go so far as to say that they are contradictory. I watched Into the Okavango first so I was mostly shocked by how much wildlife was in The Flood. 

The Flood can be considered a stereotypical nature documentary where you're viewing animals in their habitats and seeing how they survive as weather and circumstance chances the region around them. I wish there was more about the Okavango and its importance. The Delta has seasonal flooding which means that the area is drained of water through evaporation or transpiration in about one month. When it returns it initially can be up to three times its normal size.  This documentary shows animals surviving while all this occurs around them, but is overshadowed by the typical things we see in every other nature show about animals. The Flood on Nat Geo

Into the Okavango was more my style. This is perfect for people who may find typical nature shows boring and would like something with more adventure. It starts with conservation biologist Steve Boyes and introduces us to his background. He talks about growing up in South Africa and his special bond with the wilderness. The Delta is threatened like most nature by humans. As we encroach on what is around us, we are losing the aspects of the world that we supposedly value. Living in harmony with the environment is no longer something we seem to be capable of. I long for this peace and solitude. To be at one with nature. I don't have religion in my life. I don't have a calmness. The moments I'm able to disconnect and embrace the warmth of the sun or the wind blowing against me, I cherish those. Even the rainy, soggy days. To accompany Steve on his quest are a Bushman who I believe was named Walter and a marine biologist named Adjany who is as of this April Angola's Minister of Tourism, Culture, and the Environment. Not a bad promotion. 

The documentary does have an issue with clarity. I think it is presented that they are setting out on this long trek through three countries to figure out why the Okavango is drying up, worried that eventually it'll cease flooding altogether and leading to problems for tribes such as the one Walter is from. It's not as clear that they planned to document all wildlife along their way, or that they were looking for other threats to the delta (manmade). The reason for Adjany coming along for the trip is revealed halfway through when we finally learn she is there to document the marine life. There was a lot of focus on her, perhaps more than Steve once the documentary got going. By not distinctly saying why she was invited along it served as a big mystery. This documentary shows us a lot of birds, as Steve has a background with them. There's mention early on of Monkeys and if I'm remembering this right, wild dogs, but we don't see them. Eventually, we are led to a herd of Elephants and there's a Hippo attack on Steve's canoe. Otherwise, we don't see all the wildlife that is presented in The Flood. This is what I meant earlier when I said they were contradictory. Into the Okavango almost makes it seem like there is not that much wildlife left. It is only via text at the end that we learn about all the species that we discovered and documented. We learn a lot about war-torn Angola and how the tribes living around the Delta have recovered from that. These people that live along the Delta are different from us. Many will look at them and say poor but these people live by simpler means and are happy. They don't need to be saddled by our electric gods. They are respectful of the land and life around them and it's wonderful. Into the Okavango on Nat Geo TV

Two very different documentaries about the same region. One focuses on the animals that live there, while the other focuses on threats to the environment and the quest for preservation. 

For more information:

Okavango Wilderness Project

Okavango Delta On Wikipedia

Botswana Tourism

Playing Favorites

 Something that's not often asked, much to my surprise, is what my favorite animal is. I understand I'm not five. It is a throwaway question but I am of the Facebook generation of which countless information-seeking surveys are how we passed the time. Don't bother looking me up. I am long past using that platform. Having a favorite animal is almost a weird concept. A flavor or food is understandable. A type of weather or season, sure. I wondered when I first decided I wanted to answer this whether having a favorite or liking one more than another is against the inherent concept of conservation. I thought about it in human terms. I wouldn't say I prefer one type of race, filling in for species, over another. Then this opened up an entire psychological can of worms which ultimately gave way to me conceding to this. Just because I gravitate towards some animals over others does not mean I want to genocide or watch the rest of them die out. 

I'm sure at this point some of you are saying "We just wanted to know your favorite animal. You went way off the deep end." Old habits die hard. It's not that simple for me because in trying to come up with my favorites I began to think of animals I don't gravitate to. Can you imagine Steve Irwin saying Crocodiles are cool but fire ants can burn in hell? All species have a role on this planet, whether that affects us directly or not. One is not more important than the next. Along with sharing my favorites, I am also sharing my least favorite, but none of this is based on worth. 

I am already outspoken on my distaste for domesticated animals like cats and dogs so I'm not going to talk about that here. 

Monkeys - We never had a Tiger poster because we didn't subscribe to Zoobooks but I am almost confident that at some point we had a few sample pages from the Monkey issue which resulted in disappointment. I don't think my older sister was interested in Monkeys either. Somehow these animals would repeatedly come into our lives. My mother bought numerous Monkey related stuffed animals for me, one of which I kept on my Drumset since I didn't have Animal from the Muppets to put in my stick holder. The big development at the Bronx Zoo had been the Congo Gorilla Forest being added. The Jacksonville Zoo event updated their African Forest exhibit since I've been down here. Everywhere I go, the monkeys will follow. 

Are they too similar to humans for me? Smaller, hairier humans? Possibly.  Over the years I've started to become fonder towards them. What Changed? The Lion King. I'm a huge fan of Rafiki. I'll even admit to the following. I am not an emotional person when it comes to films and the father/son relationship in The Lion King never gets to me. In the remake, when Rafiki retrieves his staff from the tree and says "Hello, old friend"...yeah, that gets me. 

Elephants - Elephants are a common animal that everyone seems to like. When you go into a house, what do you see? An elephant statue with money tucked into its truck for luck and wealth. They are almost the Keanu Reeves of the Animal Kingdom if there were multiple versions of him which are occasionally murdered for his tusks. 

When I attended Savannah College of Art and Design there were different groups of people I would hang out with. There was one group I didn't spend as much time with but were super welcoming which was very recreational even though I was not. Read between the lines here. One night I invited myself over when they decided to watch a very trippy movie called Cat Soup. Cat Soup is an experimental surreal film about a cat who has to travel to the land of the dead to bring back his sister's soul. There were multiple scenes involving elephants that stood out to all of us. Despite not being in on it like the rest of my friends, I went away that night with elephants on my mind and never looked back. Seeing an old classmate of mine on a trip engaging with elephants including some Calves was one of the reasons I deleted Facebook. Jealous much? Perhaps. It's worth getting rid of and disconnecting to discover who you are and for you to live your own life, not live through others. 

Fish - I don't eat seafood. I don't like the smell of fish. I've never gone fishing even just for sport. It's the thing to do in Jacksonville but I'm from the North. It's a curse in my life that Red Lobster has the best biscuits. My parents took me to the nearby fish hatchery a lot when I was really little. Maybe I had a bad experience. Whatever the reason or cause, fish don't fill me with wonder or inspiration. I slept next to a fish tank for two months while living with my best friend right after high school. I don't understand it. Colors. Sharks are cool though. 

Praying Mantis - This is an animal that skeeves me out. Insects are hard to get behind. The fact that the female Praying Mantis will eat the head of the male during intercourse creeps me out so much. Was I a male Praying Mantis in a past life? I hope not. It's dreadful to think about. 

Foxes - Most people assume that Foxes are my favorite animal. I even have the old Kojima logo tattooed on one of my shoulders. Foxes were always cool to me because of Robin Hood. That was my favorite Disney movie as a kid. As an adult, I still like them but not to the point I'd consider them my ultimate favorite. After witnessing them interacting with people in various settings over the years I find them too similar to dogs. 

Snakes - My wife says I can't have one because my kids will get freaked out when I feed them mice. I LOVE SNAKES. Ok, so stealing this area to mention I love reptiles. Alligators, Frogs, Lizards. Reptiles and Amphibians. Family members of one of my friends helped run the Long Island Herpetology Society and I was forcibly volunteered to help one day. It was my first major experience with Snakes and it was a wow moment for me. I'm sadly remembering that I no longer have the staff ribbon I wore at the event as an entire bag of my collections was lost throughout the years but it meant so much to me that I had kept that ribbon as a prized possession. More recently, at a local playground right before the pandemic hit, a teenage girl approached me and my son outside of the park restrooms to show us her snake. I thought it was so cool. My son pets it disinterestedly and then proceeded to talk about video games as is his want. One day he'll understand. He wants a cat right now so I have to wait for that to blow over before corrupting him with the wonders of snakes. 

I also had multiple experiences with snakes in college. I'm trying to remember if one belonging to an acquaintance named Jesus was a Boa or a Python. We used it for a film shoot and I even got to hold it at length at a party. One of my roommates bought a snake as well which we had up until he went back to Romania for the summer. 

 

So there you have it. Some animals I enjoy and others I'm not too fond of. 

TL,DR: Let me hang out with your snakes but keep your Praying Mantis far far away from me.