CONSIDER THIS… Wildlife Myths

TO DA Y, TH EW ORD ‘myth’ is generally applied to a popular or long-held belief that is actually untrue or unscientific. In the case of wildlife, hunters of a bygone era observed certain apparent anomalies and drew wrong conclusions, thereby creating myths – such as the notion that hyenas are hermaphroditic. Modern biology and zoology have dispelled most such myths, but in less learned circles, a few yet remain.

I have read works by experienced hunters claiming that leopards cannot swim. I once followed the spoor of a leopard dragging a dead Brahman calf and saw where it stopped at a small, fast-flowing stream. I was unwilling to risk jumping over it holding a rifle, and the leopard clearly thought likewise regarding its kill. I saw where it had entered the water and swum across while being swept a couple of metres downstream before clawing itself out onto the opposite bank. I crossed further down then followed the spoor until I found the kill on a ridge, almost entirely eaten.

While tiger-fishing from a small boat on the Zambezi, above the falls, a friend and I enjoyed visiting the small islands – some mere sand with scrub and a few small trees. On one occasion, we dragged the boat onto the bank of an island about 30m long and half as wide. We observed leopard spoor emerging from the water next to the boat and disappearing into the patch of grass and bush. We duly walked around the perimeter of the island and on arrival back at our boat, realised there were no leopard prints leaving the island. Warily watching the grass and bush immediately in front of us, we slowly backed up to the boat, climbed in and pushed off without starting the motor. Later, locals told us that leopards swim to these islands to hunt the monkeys in the trees there.

I have heard that elephants cannot swim, but walk on the river bottom, sometimes submerged with just the tips of their trunks exposed for use as snorkels. Elephants certainly can swim, paddling with all four feet. I have watched them crossing the Zambezi any number of times, observing their shoulders hump up as they touched bottom when nearing the far side. I have not personally observed elephant ‘snorkelling’, but some well-known hunters like John Coleman and George Rushby have.

It is said that elephants cannot stand the smell of chillies and will stay well away from them. I must admit I did not really take this seriously until a friend gave it a try. In a famous game reserve, a rangers’ rest-camp was being plagued by destructive elephants pulling off the roof-thatching. Even an electric fence erected around the camp failed to keep them out. Then my friend, who was the game warden and PH, bought a large bag of chillies and boiled them up. He also cut strips of cloth and submerged them in the brew. He draped these small strips of cloth on bushes and branches all around the camp’s perimeter. The result: no elephants approached for the next week.

Another myth is that big cats such as tigers, lions and leopards have no sense of smell. Even Jim Corbett believed this, and who is to deny an observation from such a man? I lived between two lobes of the Dlinza Forest in Zululand, where leopard occasionally visited us. I dug a small waterhole on the edge of my unfenced property, right next to the forest. During the dry season, bushpig, duiker, bushbuck, mongoose, porcupine and genet drank at the waterhole. Very late one afternoon, I walked into a leopard drinking there. I remained motionless while my visitor quickly disappeared into the nearby cover. This was the only water around for many hundreds of metres, so how did he find it? The sense of smell of the big cats is not as acute as that of hyena and jackals, but is sufficient to smell water and humans upwind. Perhaps they do not rely so much on their sense of smell because their sight and hearing are so acute.

Reports of hippo and rhino stomping out campfires at night are not mythical. On numerous occasions, and in several African countries, both black and white rhino, as well as hippo, have charged into camps, directing their attention exclusively to the fires, stomping them out and causing great alarm. Why they do it remains a mystery.

Somehow, for me, Africa will always be mystical, and I love it so. In a place like Africa, it is easy to see how myths can so readily take root. At a prospecting camp, I once lay on my camp bed while a lioness purred and rubbed her nose on my fastened tent flap. I had secured the flap because hyenas had been stealing my cooking pots. One cannot help but wonder at it all.