What Is So Special About Deserts

Long time readers of this blog would have noticed that I have a special interest in deserts.  A lot of that has to do with how I grew up, but I have often found that many nature enthusiasts don't think of deserts as being that interesting.  I'll just share some of what makes it special to me, from a nature oriented point of view.

1.  You see everything.  One thing that has been really fun for me over the years has been to learn about the behavior of animals that I have had the great fortune of seeing on a daily basis.

One animal that stands out is the Oryx, a arid-adapted antelope that is so special to the Namib.  They are attractive just to look at, but I have come to appreciate so much more about them simply because I have had the opportunity to observe them well.  The reason why it stands out to me is because if you are in areas that are more thicket like, you only witness small amounts of behavior and then the animal disappears into the bush.  And often that behavior that you see may be influenced by the presence of people and vehicles.




In the desert you see thing from far away, far enough that your presence has little influence, and open enough that you can sit and watch the whole interaction play itself out.  It really becomes small simple things that you appreciate.  One thing that has been fun to observe is simply when a herd moves form one bull's territory to another's.  There is a whole host of interactions that goes on...the old bull walking right to the edge of his territory, watching them go, the other bull waiting in anticipation.  Then he starts to sort out the young males, making sure they stay well away from the interesting females.  Then checking each female, and getting varied responses.  The whole process can take a long time.

That's just one example, and of course there are many other things that you just get to observe better than you would in the 'bush'.

2.  It's simple.  This isn't always so correct, but you get a great feel for ecology and interactions on different levels, because there are fewer things to confuse the whole process.  It's a bit hard to explain, but the ecology is a little more fun to try to understand because there isn't a lot of factors to consider.

3.  This one is special to the Namib, but you get to observe all this wildlife with amazing landscapes as a backdrop to the whole experience.

4.  It's less irritating.  Go birding in African woodlands, and after a short walk you have little gnats and things in your nose and ears while you peer at the birds in the canopy.  Sure, there are things like that in the desert, but to a large extent you don't have so many bugs to bother you while you are out on foot.

5.  It's all special simply because of the aridity.  Every animal, every plant, all this life in the desert, all of it has to deal with significant aridity...the problems of temperature and temperature control with limited water and often limited food sources.  Life is harder, and yet many organisms embrace it.

6.  One thing that was special to me about the Namib, and I think this doesn't make is stick out from other deserts, but rather from ecosystems that have more commercialization...deserts are still rather unknown.  Especially the so called "Pro-Namib" area that I got to know, isn't well known by scientists, and there is very little knowledge about it within the public in general.  It means that you have the chance to get a special inside look.  It's a special, unique ecosystem to try to understand.

7. Because there are fewer bushes, and often sandy soils, it's an easy place to learn tracking, and animal tracks can tell you so much about an ecosystem. In the desert you learn so much about the nocturnal activity that is so important in a place with souring day time temperatures.

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!Nara Fruit

 

Picture:  !Nara husk in the dunes

A cliché of deserts; the dying man, with scorched lips, begging for a drop of water. In some ways this is just what a lot of wildlife do on a daily basis in the desert...every bit of their physiology and behavior is focused on getting, and loosing less water.  They may go for months, in some cases, years, without drinking.

There are many ways that animals in the Namib deal with this problem...it's a subject for a whole book on it's own, rather than one little blog post.

But along much of the margin of the Namib Sand Sea, there is a one plant that does one special thing.  The !Nara Acanthosicyos horridos.


[The ! is a click before the word.]

In the heart of the dry season (which you could call our spring,) when the grass is all dead, the bushes are dry, summer is coming...just at this time, this plant does something amazing.  It produces a large fruit.  Not just one, I was once told by Conny Berry (a well known Namibian biologist, known amongst other things for the field guide to Etosha's plants) each of the large !Naras produce over 100 fruit in the fruiting season.

Everything eats it.  The plants grow in sandy ground, usually on the margins of the dunes where the edge of the dune is near some dry river bed.  But, at times, these plants are found right within the dune field itself.  They derive their moisture from a huge root system, and the plants themselves become very large, creating hammock dunes. 

Oryx, the large antelpe found in the Namib Desert, make a lot of use of these fruit.  They will beat their way into a bush (the bushes are harsh, with lots of thorns on the stems.)  When they get near the fruit, they still have the problem of retreaving the fruit with their horns.  This is done by thrashing at it, and I am sure that a lot are lost to this exercise.  Oryx at Sossusvlei, especially in the dry years, chew on the roots.  They don't seem to eat them, they just dig them up, and have a nice chew...most likely to get at the moisture in the roots.

Springbok - a much smaller antelope, do it in a much more civilized manner.  I have never seen springbok thrashing at a !Nara bush that I can remember.  But they are just about the first to be interested in the whole fruiting process.  They start by eating the flowers, long before any fruit show up.  Oryx don't bother.  The Springbok go for the easier stuff all the time.

Ostrich go for the fruit as well, and if you ever have the chance to watch Ostrich trying to get at the fruit, without hands, horns or hoofs...its funny.

If the fruit is too deep in the bush, it is the Gerbils and mice that do the job of breaking into the skin.  Then everything else comes and has a go.  Lizards seem to go for it, many different beetles.  Birds, especially Cape Sparrows, seem to love the inside.  Stripped mice will keep eating the hard skin for a long time after the fruit itself is gone.

Still today there are some people who harvest these fruit.  The Topnar people, who live on the northern margin of the Namib Sand Sea still collect and eat these fruit.

It is very likely that Sossus, the origional name for Sossusvlei, was a bushman word.  And why would these indigionous people have visited that area, so deep in the desert.  They were also interested in the !Nara fruit.

The Nara on Namibweb, Wikipedia, and an image on Digitaljournal.

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Sossusvlei Desert Lodge, a thank you

Amazing Deadvlei!

I spent last month working at Sossusvlei Desert Lodge.  Sossusvlei Desert Lodge (called Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge before) belongs to the group &beyond.  &beyond run perhaps the best collection of lodges in Africa.  All of them are very upmarket, but still have a super personal touch.

I worked for the lodge just a few months short of seven years, starting at the end of 2000.  We had moved away for a short while when my eldest son was born, but soon moved back.

I worked mainly as a guide, but did manage to get myself to do a little management as well.  But guiding in the area is really my passion.

Sossusvlei Desert Lodge is situated on NamibRand Nature Reserve, on of Namibia's most important private conservation efforts.  Most activities are done on the reserve, but they also conduct trips to Sossusvlei, an area in the Namib Naukluft Park with huge dunes and the famous Deadvlei...a clay pan that has some 80 dead trees standing there for around 600 years.

Sossusvlei Desert Lodge is a 20 bed lodge, with lots to do.  The area is great for kids, with the dunes as a wonderful play ground.  Activities include drives (you would be really amazed by the diversity and quantity of wildlife in the area.)  Oryx are perhaps the cliche animals of the region.  They are large beautiful antelope with long straight horns and an amazing range of behavioral and physiological adaptations to desert conditions.  There are Springbok, special gazelle like antelope, also well tuned for desert life, two types of Zebras, Kudus, Klipspringers, Steenbok, Baboons (deep in the large gorges,) and re-introduced Giraffe, among others.  Jackals are the common predators, but there are a number of larger predators as well, including Leopards and re-introduced Cheetahs.  Lucky guests have had some sightings.  I had about 11 sightings of Leopard in 2008, just to put it in prespective. 

I recorded, with the help of my guides, over 110 species of Birds in the area, from the world's largest bird (Ostrich) to Dusky Sunbirds, to a number of Lark species, to Red-necked Falcons.  Desert specials, such as the Dune Lark, and summer migrants like the Lesser Grey-backed Shrike.  When Sossusvlei floods a host of waterbirds show up.

Then there are other things.  A couple years ago one of our astronomers found tadpoles.  Frogs in the desert!  It was amazing.  Reptiles, including a yet to be described gecko.  Snakes include the tiny Peringuey's Adder, on of the worlds smallest Bitis (Adder) species.  They are often called Sidewinders.  In the warmer months a bid of dedicated tracking often results in finding one of these snakes in the dunes.

Then there are the beetles, perhaps the drivers of the desert's food web.  And termites, and interesting ants, all sorts of curios bugs, with their own way to handle deserts, from sitting out the dry months to having a very special niche.

And scorpions.  We still  don't know to much about them, but think we have around 8 species.

Then there is the scenery.  It's not an exaggeration at all to say it is spectacular!  And its not just the dunes.  The hills, the plains (especially as they are now with the grass cover.)  It's not only the Sossusvlei Dunes (off in the National Park) that are amazing.  The partly vegetated dunes offer the photographer much more interest in a small area than the big dunes.  Each bend, each ridge, each clump of dune grass revels a new twist to these dunes of the eastern margin of the Namib Sand Sea.

The place is interesting for geologists (perhaps the main people who love the dry times, when vegetation doesn't hinder one's study of the rocks.)  And there is plenty for those interested in archeology, including bushman paintings nearby the lodge (a tough walk, but worth it.)  For the fitness enthusiast, bring your running shoes...I promise it will be a memorable couple runs you do in that landscape.  Hiking...dunes, hills, and the areas with larger gorges support pockets of Camelthorn woodland.  The planes are also worth taking a walk on.

And if you need to rev up the adrenaline, a well run ATV trip lets you take quad bikes through a beautiful area of dunes.  The trip is run in such a way that it is as safe as possible and does the least damage to the environment.  I was never to fond of these machines, but made sure in my time as head ranger that we would run the trip as well as possible.  Ironically, on the lodge's web pages there are a number of pics of me doing the quad bike trip!

And there are extra activities.  Ballooning for the romantically inclined.  It's pricey and remember that ballooning is rather fickle...depending on the weather.  On the good days, though, it's a trip of a lifetime.

Scenic flights over the dunes is certainly the best way to get a feel for the scale of the dune field.  It is truly an amazing experience.  I have done the flight some seven times and can't wait for my next opportunity.

Currently they are also offering helicopter flights in the area.  I am sure that it is even better than the flights, but more limited in the number of passengers and it's a few bucks more!

You can do a trip to a wine farm...it's very interesting for those with an interest in wine.

So much to do, but it's also a place to do very little.  Have a massage.  Get out on your own in the planes and just listen to the quiet.  Drink some bubbly on the porch of your stunning room.

At night the lodge turns on the charm.  The lodge has a resident astronomer most of the time, with gaps filled by interested staff.  Spend a bit of time to learn about astronomy and have a look through a huge telescope.

Part of what makes the lodge so special is the staff.  If you are really lucky you will hear the staff choir sing.  It will stay with you for a long time.

Well, that sounds like marketing slosh, but honestly, I believe there is nothing like it in Namibia, and their really couldn't be much like it in the world.  Many travel agents and well traveled guests have commented on how amazing the place is.  And, of course, it's special to me.  Most of my working life has been spent there, both my kids had some time there and were born during our involvement with the lodge.  The fact that I have had the chance to go and work there again was REALLY SPECIAL TO ME!

So, thanks a lot &beyond, Annalie (current GM) and the whole Sossusvlei Desert Lodge team.

The Chefs...they know magic!

Deadvlei, well worth the 1.3 kilometer walk (it says 1.1 on the sign...it's 1.3...check it out on Google Earth.)

 Singing at SDL...they will blow you away.  Spontaneous and fun it's also really quality singing.

Ah, that's where you find me when I am working there!  Out on the planes, finding the desert's creatures and learning about their lives.

Dune 22, the dune overlooking Sossusvlei.  Get those legs working and enjoy the view.

The dune drive (by the Petrified Dunes) on NamibRand.  This is one of the standard drives.  Sunset with drinks up there is amazing.  Be prepared for a bouncy and exciting drive.

Descending the dune drive after sunset, watching for the night's creatures to start coming out.

Fairy Circles...still a mystery, these little circles are found throughout the Stipagrostis plains.  Prominant scientists have found evidence of termites causing the circles, but not every one agrees, and the mechanism remains a mystery.

The drive up the Petrified Dunes, ancient dunes turned to a sandstone like material, gives you a fantastic view.

The few nights without resident astronomers, Petrus, one of the keen desert rangers, often drives the telescope.  His interest and knowledge in astronomy will amaze you.

The curves of the Sossusvlei dunes.

The lodge at night taken with a long exposure from the obseratory walls.

September sunset.  During the dry season (July to October) the desert's air gets murky.  Photographers, don't dispair, it gives you so much scope for creative photography.  This image has the least touching up of the lot on this page. 

 

You can't tire of photography or simply gazing at the dunes in the early morning light at Sossusvlei.  I believe that I have done just over 900 trips to Sossusvlei in the last 11 years.  I have yet to get tired of going there.  It is a long trip, and at times the place is busy with tourists, but you can always find your peace of solitude and enjoy the majestic lines of the dunes.

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Desert Forensics

A couple of days ago we found saw a number of Lappet Faced Vultures sitting about 1km from Sossusvlei Desert Lodge.  I didn't have time that day to go and have a look.  The next morning I went out early to have a look at what had been dead there.  It didn't take long to find the carcas...a dead adult male ostrich.

Trying to work out what happened was much harder.  Due to the great rain that the central Namib has had in recent years (2006, 2008 and 2009 especially) the grass is exceptionally thick.  At times these sandy planes have no grass at all.

Looking around a bit I could see that the bones had been dragged from where the bird had died.  On that spot there were numerous ostrich feathers.  In several of the barren fairy circles [see note] there were tracks where an ostrich had been sitting.  It was clear that it had not been running as it had sat several places near where it was killed and had never really run.  Clearly it hadn't been well before it's death.

I thought then that perhaps a small predator had killed it.  I couldn't find any clear predator tracks, but found a few that I thought could be.  I didn't find any tracks much larger than Jackals though, and thought that maybe it had been a very young cheetah.  I had thought that it had to be a predator because the whole thing was eaten so fast (within the day it had died it appeared.)  I could see it hadn't really run, but thought it was probably already very sick and had been virtually stalked right up to where it had been sitting.  Also there had been no thrashing around before it died, which with something like an Oryx often creates a hole in the ground around it's legs when it dies like that.

Later I was talking to Jeff, one of the other rangers working at Sossusvlei Desert Lodge.  He knows much more about pradators and their kills than I do.  So we went out together to have a look.  It didn't take long for him to exclude any large predator from making the kill.  There would have been many more good tracks of the predator.  At the place the bird had died there was no blood lying around.  Had it been killed, the blood on the ground would have been obvious.

So in the end we figured that it probably died from it's weakened condition.  It may be possible the Jackals may have made the final kill when the Ostrich had been dying anyway, but there was not involvement from  a large predator.  Basically this Ostrich was polished off by Jackals, Crows, Vultures and in the end, beetles, basically all within a day!

The greatest thing about the whole thing was to see all the Vultures.  The Lappet Faced Vultures are a threatened species with conservation issues throughout it's range.  The fringe of the Namib Desert is one of the areas where these huge, ugly but amazing birds have a chance at a stronghold.  The Vultures should be starting to breed now, and a number of dedicated people are working hard to monitor and protect these birds.

[Special Note]  Fairy Circles - a phenomenon on the eastern fringe of the Namib Desert where areas with Stipagrostis grasses have barren patches a couple meters across, that often form very neat circles in the grass.  As yet the cause is unknown.  Several prominent scientists working on solving the problem consider termites to be the likely cause.

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Staking out a desert waterhole - a wonderful morning.

This morning I didn't have any guests at Sossusvlei Desert Lodge and knew that it was my chance to have some fun on my own.  I came to the lodge and had a great breakfast (chili cheese omelet.)  Then headed out for a walk.

I had seen earlier that there was a spring in the mountains still holding water.  It's a wonderful place.  On of our astronomers had found tadpoles there before.  It had been a really interesting discovery.  We simply had no idea that we had any amphibians here in the desert.  I had also found a springbok painting (bushman rock art) there.

The spring holds water for a few months after the rain, and this year with great rains there is still a good bit of water now (late August.)  When I saw it we had just passed by before.  I decided today that it may be worth staking out.  I set off from the lodge with just my camera.

As I got near the spring I saw an adult male kudu up in the hills.  He was very relaxed.  I took a couple of picutures and moved on.

At the waterhole I lay down in a hiding spot between the rocks.  I was hoping to see a kudu or mountain zebra, but I knew that it was late in the day.  All that came in to drink was birds, but it was still such fun to just lie there and watch nature switch on again.  I took many pictures of the birds drinking and flying around and had a great time just being there.  To me to get out in nature like that from time to time, all on my own, is just a wonderful experience and one of the reasons I will keep doing my best to keep coming to visit Sossusvlei Desert Lodge and the NamibRand Nature Reserve.

On my way back I crawled slowly up the hill to get a better picture of the kudu.  He was still there and let me take a wonderful picture.  Then I made my way back to the lodge before the desert heat set in to much.  A wondeful way to spend a morning!

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Sleeping Baboon

Climbing rocky hills has been an activity I have been enguaged in most of my life.  I love climbing hills for many reasons, and I have spent a lot of my hill time alone.  When the chance comes to climb a hill with someone else, it is a treat.

This year I have been in Swakopmund for the first half, with no hills to climb, and I have gotten into the worst shape of my life.  It has been great to be back here at Sossusvlei Desert Lodge, and have the chance to do a little walking. 

Since I have been busy basically every day since getting here on the 7th.  I have done some walking with guests and doing a few exercises, but I am certainly not in great shape.

However, Frank, the resident astronomer, wanted to do the mountain called Sleeping Baboon (I think others call it Nubib Peak, but it's not the highest point of the Nubib Mountains.)  Anyway, I said I would, but could only go after my guests departed. 

We drove out in my Land Rover and parked on the main road.  Our starting elevation was 933 meters (3062 feet.)  The first bit of the walk we jump over a fence and walk on our neighbors property.  It is slow going, as it is very rocky and there are no clear paths.  After some distance we take a ravine up the mountain and start our climb.

Towards the top the ravine heads to a shear cliff, and we move over to a very steep section with loose rocks to the right of the ravine.  Then traverse a narrow area over the top of the cliffs before another steep rocky section.  Finanlly we got to the area where we had to climb a section not to far from the top.  My lack of condition was getting obvious to me and I decided not to climb the steep bit.  Frank climbed a little higher, but didn't want to go to the top alone.  It gets very steep towards the top.  So we made that our turning point.  We had got up in about two and a half hours and reached an elevation of 1618 meters,

On our way down we were getting a bit low on water.  Despite being in the cooler time of the year, the temprature was hot (over 30 degrees Celcius.)  We made our way down.  I saw some Augar Buzards flying overhead...wonderful birds.  At one point a falcon (I guess Lanner, but I had no binoculars) was working the gorge back and forth. 

Further down we started to hear Rosy Faced Lovebirds.  Following the call we saw a huge sociable weaver's nest with lots of Lovebirds going in and out.  At times in these dry areas the lovebirds use the sociable weaver's nests as both roosts and for breeding. 

We reached the bottome of the mountain and started the long walk back to the vehicle.  By this point we were not talking much, just plodding.  At one point a wip snake (or Karoo Sand Snake) shot out from a grass clump right from between my feet.  They are great little snakes.

We made it back to the vehicle.  My legs were shot (tired) and Frank was a bit dehydrated.  Silly, really.  But it was such a nice walk.  We got back and drank lots of fluids and rested up.  Today I can feel it in all my muscles.  It's a good feeling.

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A couple Jackal sightings

While guiding here at Sossusvlei Desert Lodge I have had a few sightings of interest.  Two recent sightings involve Jackals. 

The first was a sighting on the main road heading south from the lodge.  We were on our way to an area called Draaihoek and one of my guests spotted a couple Jackals by the road.  When we stopped we noticed that there were many Jackals. 

Normally Jackals are found in pairs, sometimes with a few young ones.  At times when they have a good potential food source, such as an injured Springbok that they would be able to kill they might tolerate neighbors so that they could work together to increase the chance of success.  However on this occasion there were more than I had ever seen together and we couldn't make out what they were looking at.  All of them looked off in one direction and they were clearly bothered by what they saw.  They didn't worry to much about us.

We never did see what they were watching, but perhaps it may have been a Cheetah (which have been re-introduced onto NamibRand) or Leopard.  I didn't see any tracks near the road to give it away, and so we will never know.

The second interesting sighting to me was a Jackal kill in the dunes.  While doing a walk in the dunes near some 11 km  from the lodge with a family of guests, we found an area in the dunes where all the grass was covered by feathers.  On inspection we managed to find a carcass of a Ludwig's Bustard.  What was interesting was that it was buried by Jackals (seen from the tracks) under the sand.  This is a large prey item for Jackals and I would guess that they buried it so that it would not be seen by Vultures flying overhead.

Guiding in the Namib is always a treat and often these small interesting things pop up.  For more sightings from Sossusvlei Desert Lodge, visit the their wildwatch website.

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Rain in Swakopmund

I still remember my first time to Swakopmund. I was coming down to the coast from Windhoek within about the first month that I had arrived in Namibia. I had to come and help with a set up for a desert function.

I grew up in the Kaisut desert, and it's rather arid, and we had the Chalbi just north of us, which is a really amazing and strange. But driving down to Swakopmund was really strange.

The Namib Desert around Swakopmund is mainly composed of gravel plains, with the dune field lying to the south. When I say gravel, it's not really gravel, it's more a sandy, gypsum crust.

It creates a whitish surface. In the Kaisut we would get around 100mm average annual rainfall. That's dry. In Swakopmund, it's more like 14mm average annual rainfall. That isn't rain. It means that at times there are years that go by without rain. There is a significant amount of precipitation from fog off the cold Benguela current. It's about 25mm.

So it's a dry, dry place with strange gypsum plains and frequent fog. Recently we had about a week of rain (not sure if it's ended yet.) I don't know how much feel. But it's kind of strange to be here when it rains. Swakopmund still has mainly gravel roads, but they are bound with salt. Yes, you can almost watch rust develop...it's crazy.

There isn't any proper drainage from the roads, or even from buildings or anything. When it does rain, the town becomes one big mess.

The picture shows the road outside our house after it has dried out. In the morning it had been a challenge to drive on, through the muck.

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Three new giraffes arive on Namib Rand Nature Reserve

I have just received an email letting us know that we have just had three new giraffes brought into the reserve.

We had three giraffes introduced in 2003. They had two babies in 2006. Giraffe would have always occurred in small numbers in areas with trees. These areas are found in small pockets in hilly areas in the eastern part of the Namib, where runoff lines create lines of trees. The successful re-introduction of the giraffe to the area is another part of the success of one of the most important private conservation areas in this country.

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Leopards in the desert

Tonight one of our guides saw a leopard on a drive down south from the lodge. At Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge we are in a hyper arid desert (a real desert, in layman's terms.) To see a leopard here in your life has got to be a special experience. Recently, though, on Namib Rand Nature Reserve we have seen quiet a few.

I have seen leopards three times this year here on the reserve. The first sighting was on a walk with birders. It was my guest, looking up at the hills looking for Rockrunner who saw the leopard.

Then came a sighting at bushman's Koppie, a hill 16 kilometers south of here. It was beginning to rain as we drove around the hill. The one leopard was out on the road and the other (probably the mother) was back in the hill. The young one approached the vehicle enough to make me back off a bit.

We watched them climb on rocks, play with each other, and study us. It was amazing. Despite guiding for 10 years now in the Namib, I still had to pinch myself to remind me that we are in a desert. Leopards are really amazing predators - so adaptable, living in proper central African rain forests, mountain forests, through to deserts!

In my time in the Namib I have seen one leopard in Damaraland, and about ten sightings in the desert. This is more than I have seen in any other area. I have seen some leopards in Etosha, some in kenyan wildlife parks, and some in South Africa. But it is the leopards in the Namib for which I count myself very lucky to have seen.

I've added a link to a book about Leopards at Amazon. It's from Lex Hes, who I once had as a guest.

The Leopards of Londolozi

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