Africa’s natural demise

READING about the demise of the last male white rhino that had been living in Kenya (Mail, Wednesday) reminded me of when I lived in west Africa in 1999.

I had expected to come across wild animals associated with Africa during my sojourn in Ghana. However, despite me travelling far and wide in that country – from Takoradi to Accra and Tema, all along the Gold Coast, then north by train from Tarkwa to Kumasi and into jungles that surround the huge Volta lake district – and I even undertook a visit to the Kakum rainforest reserve – but never once came across any native animals; such as giraffe, elephants, gorillas, lions, etc. roaming free, which one would be quite familiar with from watching them on TV nature documentaries.

Expecting to at least see monkeys (as I’d witnessed close-up in their natural habitat in Asian countries), but none were to be found. I even asked a ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ (who had been employed as a forest ranger) about the possibility of coming across wild animals in their natural state in the countryside, but he was unable to tell me where they might be found (in the wild, in Ghana).

Maybe if I had gone to the Accra zoo or Ankasa game reserve I might have seen some, but I can get close-up to such captive animals at the Dublin Zoo and at Fota Wildlife Park in Cork. One of the locals being interviewed after the death of ‘Sudan’ (the last Male White Rhino) on TV news, was heard to blame ‘human encroachment on the nature reserves’ which have been designated as ‘wildlife parks’.

The way things are heading, with Africa’s population explosion – where humans are taking over the land where wild animals roamed for thousands of years – the demise of the African white rhino will surely be followed by the extinction of many more native species of animals, across that continent. And within a very short period indeed. TOM BALDWIN, Midleton. Co. Cork.