Richard M. Laws
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LARGE ANIMALS AND WIDE HORIZONS: ADVENTURES OF A BIOLOGIST The Autobiography of RICHARD M. LAWS PART II Hippos’ tears and Elephants’ tusks Edited by Arnoldus Schytte Blix 1 Contents Chapt. 1. First visit to East-Africa …………………………………………….....…4 Chapt. 2. To Uganda early days, 1961/62 ……………………………………...... 22 Chapt. 3. Over the Mountains of the Moon …………………………………...…48 Chapt. 4. Life in Uganda ……………………………………………………...….. 56 Chapt. 5. Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda …………………………... 126 Chapt. 6. Hippopotamus biology …………………………………………….... 130 Chapt. 7. Our life in Kenya ……………………………………………………... 138 Chapt. 8. Elephant research in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda 1965-67 ……………………………………………………………….. .150 Chapt. 9. Tsavo National Park, Kenya ……………………………………….. ..170 Chapt. 10. Elephant biology ……………………………………………………. 194 Chapt. 11. The destruction of Tsavo National Park …………………………. .224 Chapt. 12. Grand Tour and the Dole ………………………………………….. 264 Chapt. 13. Epilogue: Elephant Conservation, Room or Doom? ……………. 274 2 3 Chapter 1 First visit to East Africa: August - September , l961 was becoming increasingly concerned about the miasma surrounding the IWC and its ineffectiveness, the second-tier position of biology at the NIO, the lack of I support for my own work and limited opportunities to conduct field work, or even to attend scientific meetings overseas. So I began to think about taking another job. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) offered me an appointment to set up a cooperative scheme of whale research in the waters of the Eastern Pacific, based at Lima, Peru and involving Chile and Ecuador also. It was extremely well paid, non-taxable and with a very large expense account, but it did not particularly appeal. Then, in June l961, the Director of NIO, George Deacon FRS, asked me to represent the Institute at a Symposium on Underwater Photography to be held at the Royal Geographical Society. He pressed me to take it on despite my protests that I knew nothing about the subject, but ; there was no one else available at the time and a briefing would ensure that I gave a reasonable talk. So I agreed, was briefed, given a set of slides, and duly presented my lecture. It included some excellent underwater flash photos of the deep sea floor and others of oceanic squids being caught on hooks and attacked by their fellows - stirring stuff. When leaving one of the sessions, walking out into Kensington Gardens, Hugh Cott, who had taught me as an undergraduate and was himself a noted ecologist, photographer and an expert on animal camouflage approached: "Hello Dick. How would you like to work in Africa?" It transpired that the University of Cambridge was involved in a plan to set up a research programme, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and was looking for a biologist to head a small team to work on tropical animal ecology, based in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda. Hugh was the 4 Secretary to the Management Committee, of which Professor Carl Pantin FRS, was the Chairman. I said that I would like to hear more and so Pantin invited me up to Cambridge for a lunch at Trinity College. After lunch we talked, sitting in the sun in the walled Fellows' Garden about the objectives of the research and the support for it. I had a number of questions, which he dealt with and then he offered me the job; I said I would like to think about it for a few days. Maureen and I talked it over and we both agreed that, in the light of the recent events in the Congo, following independence, the rapid departure of the Belgian administration, and the upheaval which followed, Central Africa was not a good place to take our family. So I told Pantin that I had decided not to take up his offer and promptly forgot about it. A few days later I had a call from Barton Worthington, who I had known for a few years, on the Consultative Committee on Grey Seals and Fisheries, of which he was Chairman. He had much African experience and urged that I should think again and that he would be happy to fill me in on the practicalities and the opportunities as he saw them. So Maureen and I went down for lunch at his old farmhouse in Sussex. He had been delegated to persuade me to go to East Africa, to see for myself what it was like, to participate in the 'milestone' Arusha Conference, where I would meet many of the scientists and administrators involved in research on African wildlife, and visit various National Parks. I could take some leave, go for as long as I wished and then decide whether to take up the job; there was no obligation and there would be no hard feelings if I turned it down. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss, so I accepted. Taking five weeks leave from NIO, I had the necessary inoculations and so on, and flew from London Airport on Wednesday 23 August l961. It was an uneventful flight on a Comet via Benghazi. After a 10 hr flight we landed at Entebbe Airport at 7.15 am, to be hit by the moist tropical heat - there was a papyrus swamp at the end of the runway - and I was met by Alan Brooks, the Game Department Biologist, who seemed a good chap. We drove to his house in Entebbe, for breakfast and I learnt that his father was the famous Canadian wildlife artist - of the same name. The vegetation was all very green, with red earth and banana trees. It was not in fact too hot and in a way reminiscent of England, except that the trees and birds were very different. That afternoon at the Game Department, I met Ron Rhodes, a Fisheries Officer, and Dick Newton, Resident Game Warden. Alan showed me his laboratory, a bit primitive it was, and we looked at the menagerie - too small to be a zoo. The animals were all in very fine condition - a variety of monkeys, a young elephant, beautiful leopard, serval, warthogs, buffaloes, lugubrious whale-headed stork and others. That afternoon we drove to Kampala along a tarmac road, fringed by red earth, and tall anthills, bananas, African shambas , cultivated small-holdings, and in places swamp and forest. There were few cars and many bicycles, as well as statuesque, colourfully-dressed Waganda women. Kampala is very pleasantly situated spreading over several hills, sprawling and ramshackle in parts, but also with modern buildings in the centre. I shopped for shirts, shorts, desert boots - and so on. Alan suggested that I take on an English-speaking Ugandan, trained by him, as an assistant; he seemed reliable and neat and the salary would be about £15 a month. That evening I met Colonel Trimmer, the Director of National Parks, his wife Kay and son Simon, for drinks. They had a small pet lion cub, called Ben - 5 cantankerous, small, woolly and cuddly with spots. Col. Trimmer drove me to Makerere University campus to meet Ralph Dreschfield, Chairman of Trustees of the Uganda National Parks, Professor Leonard Beadle and his wife Sydney and their son Martin. Beadle was a m3ember of the NUTAE Committee. I also met David Wasawo, a Lecturer in Biology. We had a pleasant evening, with dinner and talk. Next day soon after breakfast I was taken along to the Zoology Department and shown around, meeting various people: Dr Bolwig, Peter Miller (entomologist, from Oxford), June Thurston, (parasitologist), Dr Visser (biochemist), Peter Milburn (botanist) and others. It was an interesting set-up, like a small, well-equipped UK University Department; there was a tiny menagerie, an aquarium and a museum. At coffee in the SCR I met Roberts, a technician, a Welshman and formerly a Game Warden. Later in the Physiology Department I met Professor Cecil Luck, (Physiology), and Dr John Lock, a pharmacologist interested in drug immobilization of wild animals. They had a very well-equipped mobile Laboratory, provided by the Wellcome Trust, and they showed me their field equipment. Everyone was very friendly. I exchanged ideas with Cecil Luck about hippo and whale skin, narcotics, physiology and behaviour and saw his captive animals - bushpigs, bushbabies and others. I also met Professor David Allbrook (Anatomy) and visited the Anatomy and Physiology Departments' libraries. The (overnight) train to the west was booked up and so I stayed another night with the Beadles. Col. Trimmer would provide a car and driver to take me to Mweya the next day. After lunch I went to see Roberts at the workshop again and had quite a long chat; he had a small lathe which would be useful for tooth-sectioning, if it could be adapted. I met Dr Henderson, (geologist), who showed me his stereo-plotter and parallax bar, which might I hoped be useful for measuring the dimensions (height, length etc.) of living animals (to estimate their ages) from stereo photographs. He and a geographer friend might be able to arrange for some topographic survey to be done for me in the Queen Elizabeth Park, as a student exercise. Also we could perhaps arrange for some of his students to work as assistants during the vacations. Tea then at the Beadle's and afterwards along to the pool for a swim; it was all very congenial and there were two attached squash courts. We walked back via some of the halls of residence, which were very modern, especially University Hall. There were delicious scents and very attractive parkland settings furnished with colourful flowering trees. Col Trimmer collected me at 8.30 am next morning, and his driver took me off in an Austin Cambridge saloon to Mweya, the Park HQ 260 miles away - after I had bought a toothbrush! It was a pleasant, enjoyable drive through lovely country in parts, becoming progressively more beautiful as we drove west and the people I saw by the roadside more attractive.