Well, I have been here in the Niassa Reserve with the Niassa Lion Project for three days now and we have had some of the best wildlife viewing  from right outside the tent.  I am here to assist with conservation activities and to find ways the Houston Zoo can deepen their relationship with this unique and awesome community-based conservation project.

Houston Zoo employees Angie and Renee outside the camp on the Lugenda River, with elephants behind them.

Wildlife viewing is a given when visiting field-based conservation camps, but no one could have prepared me for the show we were in store for here. Earlier today, 30-40 elephants were just outside our tent. They sounded like a group of bulldozers as some of them crashed around in the trees and bushes.  We sat and watched them with local teachers that had come to camp from nearby villages to help us prepare for some conservation activities we will be doing with the villages in a few days. Elephants often raid crops in their villages and kill village members that attempt to stop them, so we were happy to share in this rare peaceful experience they were having with these elephants.   I was delighted to see that they seemed to watch them with the same amount of intrigue and amazement as we did.  I think this was the first time they saw them without feeling any kind of fear.  

Daily routine of bringing water up from the river for drinking, cooking and bathing.

The Niassa Lion Project is actively trying to reduce all wildlife conflict in the Niassa reserve.  They work with the local communities to provide solutions.  The are currently testing non-lethal methods to deter elephants.  In fact, They have a Mozambiquan, Mbambu Marufo, doing his masters on bee hive barriers.  Elephants are afraid of bees and try to avoid them at all costs.  This method of control has been used sucessfully in other parts of Africa, but no one has tried it here in Mozambique yet.  Mbambu used to be a park warden and has seen lethal control methods used and fail in the past on elephants, so he looks forward to testing this method and hopes it will provide a peace for both the animals and the people.

As we tuck in to sleep here in the Niassa Reserve, I listen as the elephants crash around in the bushes and vocalize loudly outside the tent.  I then hearmen from a nearby fisherman’s camp yelling, screaming and banging objects together to keep the elephants from coming in their direction.  I suddenly experience first hand the importance of Mbambu’s research.

Thatch shaded tent with elephants moving about in the brush

At the beginning of this year the Houston Zoo funded Mbambu Marufo to attend a human wildlife conflict training in Kenya.  He wanted me to thank everyone at the Zoo for making this possible for him.  The training has been invaluable for him and he uses it to protect species on a regular basis.

Young conservationist from Mbamba Village learning how to radio collar a lion

More to come from Niassa…

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