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GRAA Namibia Chapter Newsletter 11 Winter 2017 Newsletter #11 World Ranger Day Edition 31 July 2017 In this issue: From the Editor’s Desk 2 Namibia’s Conservation Pioneers 3 Helicopter lost in the dunes of the Namib 4 50 Years of Game Capture (Part 2) 6 Rhino attack survivor: an active campaigner against poaching 9 North Durban’s exemplary Honorary Officers 10 Matondoti Crocodile Poaching May/June 2017 13 Sustainable Development Awards 2017 16 A tribute to Albi Brückner 17 News from Shinganda Wildlife Wilderness 18 June News Headlines 20 !1 GRAA Namibia Chapter Newsletter 11 Winter 2017 From the Editor’s Desk This World Ranger Day (31 July, 2017) we celebrate the inspirational Contributors: work of conservationists present and past. We start with an update on the progress of Conservation Pioneers of Linda Baker Namibia, the book that Peter Bridgeford has spent many years of Peter Bridgeford painstaking work to compile. It’s expected to reach the shelves later Chris Brown this year. We have a sneak preview of content, with a story by Roelf de Sue Cooper Bruine about a helicopter lost in the desert - long before the days of Roelf de Bruine GPS,cellular phones and digital tracking methods. Louis Geldenhuys Louis Geldenhuys and Mark Jago wrap up 50 years of Game Capture, noting some of Mark Jago the remarkable achievements - some of them 'world firsts'. Ginger Mauney Allisdair McDonald For nearly 25 years, Basil Pather has worked tirelessly to save the Basil Pather unique Beachwood Mangrove Nature Reserve (Ezemvelo KwaZulu- Mark Paxton Natal Wildlife) in the heart of Durban. Having started his career as a Nekulilo Uunona senior ranger in Swakopmund during the early 1990s, he has remained a dedicated officer who doesn’t let the lack of resources and finances With thanks to Travel weigh him down. He has rallied together a voluntary team of Honorary News Namibia and NEWS Rangers who champion environmental education, construction and for allowing us to maintenance, research and law enforcement. We invited him to reproduce articles highlight some of the work done and share some insights into the printed in their system. There’s no news of the system being resurrected in Namibia, publications. but we hope that Basil’s work can inspire some debate on the Namibian situation. We welcome all our Nekulilo Uunona reports on how workhand Tulikokule Hilja Niipele, new readers from injured by a rhino cow during a patrol at Waterberg Plateau Park last various organizations year, has become an active anti-poaching campaigner, while GRAA - if you are not Chairperson Mark Paxton shares his recent involvement in the already a GRAA successful cross-border arrest of alleged crocodile poachers. We pay Namibia Chapter tribute to conservation legend Albi Bruckner, catch up on activities at member, please Shinganda Wildlife Wilderness in Zambia and end with an update of environmental news that made the headlines in July. contact one of our committee members Last, take a moment today to pay tribute to the men and women who listed below and sign are actively working as rangers, and, if you have retired from the up today! profession, reflect on some of your most treasured moments in the veld. GRAA COMMITTEE CONTACTS Chair: Mark Paxton [email protected] Secretary: Sue Cooper [email protected] Treasurer: Toni Hart [email protected] Committee member: Peter Bridgeford [email protected] Committee Member: Peter Wolfe [email protected] Editor: Linda Baker [email protected] !2 GRAA Namibia Chapter Newsletter Winter 2017 Namibia’s Conservation Pioneers Book to feature 70 biographies and ranger stories Peter Bridgeford has spent several years collecting stories for the forthcoming publication, Conservation Pioneers In Namibia and Stories by Game Rangers, set to reach bookshelves later this year. “I will be publishing it myself and selling it through the GRAA Namibia, who will receive a flat fee for every book sold. It will also be sold through book wholesalers in Namibia. No costs yet! Barbara Curtis is currently editing the text - about 150 000 words - with Ursula Bader completing the layout,” Bridgeford told the newsletter. The book will also include many photographs. “I also want to get GRAA South Africa on board to sell it in South Africa, again they will receive a fee.” It will not be ready for at least another two months. The ambitious project has resulted in Bridgeford collecting biographies of 70 pioneers from 1906 to 1972. Some of the contributors and contributions include: Peter Bridgeford Birth of conservation in Namibia Establishment of Namutoni and Okaukuejo Bernabé de la Bat Etosha — 75 years Hu Berry In a flash of a second — Etosha 100 Peter Bridgeford Conservation Pioneers Stories by rangers Dieter Aschenborn A game ranger in Etosha Johan Brisley Wounded wildebeest Lynne Tinley Etosha Piet Halali Etosha days Kallie du Preez Kallie and the elephant Hu Berry Tribute to Charles Clinning Gino Noli When smoke gets in your eyes Scotty Kyle My first days in Etosha Gert Jordaan A close shave in the Naukluft Allisdair MacDonald The wanderings of an African Leon van Rooyen Ostrich smugglers Duncan Gilchrist Wild man from the north Other authors include Bernabe de la Bat, Stoffel Rocher, Erwin Leibnitz, Hannes Holtzhausen, Willie Adank, Basil Pather and many more. On the next pages, we feature one of the articles to be showcased in the book. !3 GRAA Namibia Chapter Newsletter Winter 2017 Helicopter lost in the dunes of the Namib by Roelf de Bruine avail. Nico threatened to leave it right there for the Helicopters for game counts and capture were initially agents to collect. I suggested we all get on my truck and hired from Cape Town. This was expensive and the SWA explore the dunes. Administration decided to acquire its own, mostly for game capture use. Nico Maritz, the administration pilot, We returned around midday, had lunch and warily did a ‘conversion’ and for the third and last count of the hitched up batteries and tried again. The chopper fired Diamond Areas on my watch, he decided it would be up after a few tries. Everything was now urgent, as we the ideal opportunity to familiarise himself with the new had lost half-a-day. machine, nicknamed Heksie (witch), before the more taxing flying during the capture season. Nico asked us to move further east, closer to the farm borders, where most of the game was, then he need not In 1978, flying from Windhoek, he picked me up in fly so far west to refuel. He was readying for take-off Keetmanshoop, and to overnight in /Ai-/Ais we flew when we checked maps for the evening rendezvous. down the Fish River Canyon. The next morning we met Looking at my map, I suggested the eastern-most point up with the other staff in two trucks at Rosh Pinah, and of the Uri-Hauchab Mountain would be ideal and easy to the count could begin. locate. Nico and Johan Lichthelm, a new ranger, then took off. To make it a more useful and scientific expedition, I had invited scientists from Gobabeb Research Station to join Later that afternoon, I parked our vehicle halfway up a us in the Koichab Pan area, in their Landrovers, all fitted hill at the eastern end of Uri-Hauchab, to guide the with sand tyres. I took the lead in one vehicle and had chopper to where the others had made camp. It did not the two new staff members alternate between the other arrive. truck and the chopper. We made camp some distance into the dunes, but travelling down the dune streets that My assistant from Keetmanshoop said he heard angled slowly westwards, we ended up further west than something that could have been the sound of a I intended. helicopter, but was not sure. As the sound was to the west of us, it did not make sense. With me was a lecturer The next morning, everything began to go wrong. The from the Geography Department of Stellenbosch chopper refused to start! Even after coupling up the two University and, as we both heard nothing, I discarded truck batteries for 24-volts to jump-start it, it was to no the possibility of the helicopter being to the west of us. !4 GRAA Namibia Chapter Newsletter Winter 2017 Worst possible scenarios immensity of the dunes. As I topped one of the high dunes overlooking the gap between the middle and the That night, the ‘worst possible scenarios’, plagued me. most westerly hill, I radioed Head Office again. Polla To the east of us lay the huge complex of the Awasib Swart informed me that the police helicopter had not Mountains, with grassy plains in between, where there found Nico and the chopper. Mat de Jager, the other were usually some game such as oryx, mountain zebra, conservation pilot in the Piper Navajo aircraft and with ostrich and springbok. This is where I thought they Eugene Joubert on board, was sent to search for the would have been counting late the previous afternoon. missing chopper. I then contacted Windhoek Airport There were many places where it would be difficult to control tower and was told, when they last spoke, the find a downed helicopter. Navajo was close to Oyster Cliffs, to the west of Uri- Hauchab. The next morning, I sent the other two vehicles to the nearest farm, Aandster, owned by Thys Louw, an Honorary Conservation Officer. Just before midday, on 'Fuel for Africa' the last dunes close to the farm,, I first radioed conservation officer Johan Hugo on the farm Zais in the I set off at speed down the dune, up the rising sandy Naukluft Mountains, to come to Aandster with fuel for a valley and as I topped out on the southern side, at the possible extensive search of the Awasib Mountains.