Hwange: Retreat Of The Elephants By Nick Greaves

Hwange: Retreat Of The Elephants By Nick Greaves

Hardcover

ISBN 186812665X

Publisher: Southern Book Publishers Ltd 1996

Used – Near Fine. This book is in mint condition. The Dust Jacket has some very limited signs of wear and the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. The book is protected with a Cellophane cover.

This book was first published in 1996, has 129 pages, 10 chapters, numerous beautiful colour pictures and 3 large colour maps. The book is dedicated to author's mother - GWEN. The foreword is by Will Travers of Born Free Foundation. NICK GREAVES was born and raised in Yorkshire, England. He received his Geology degree in University of Aston, Birmingham. In 1976, he went to Southern Africa. He worked in Hwange, Victoria Falls and Okavango Delta, guiding from the Safari Lodges. He is an author, Professional safari guide and a photographer. He left Southern Africa in 2005 and lived in UK for few years. He is now Back in Southern Tanzania and works in Selous GR, Ruaha NP and Katavi NP. He lived with his wife 'Steph' and son 'Douglas' in Victoria falls, but now lives in Tanzania. This book covers, the animals, vegetation, climate, birds in Hwange NP. Then the book narrates a monthly diary of events in Hwange.
Hwange NP is as large as Belgium and is situated in the North-Western corner of Zimbabwe and is its largest wildlife area. All the African animals and birds are represented, including the Sable, the Roan antelopes and the African wild dogs. In 1928, Hwange was proclaimed to be a Game Reserve. In 1939, boreholes were sunk to create waterholes. In 1949, Hwange was upgraded to National Park status. The southern 2/3 is covered with Kalahari Sands. The vegetation has 1070 plant species of trees, shrubs and grass. During the winter dry season, the temperature in daytime can be between 25-28C and the night frost is common. Sunshine can be 9 hours a day.
Hwange is most famous for its elephants. It also has 103 species of mammals and 410 species of birds. The elephant adjust their breeding rate depending on adverse conditions. When eating salt minerals, they swallow as whole, as if chewing gritty material would ruin their teeth and shorten their lives. The wrinkled texture of elephant hide retains water and after dust bath, keeps it cool for longer. Every elephant after mud bath takes away many Kgms of soil, making the waterhole deeper and its trails become rivulets during rainy season collecting more water. Culling of the elephants has led to large scale migration to safe areas, like Hwange. They had been warned by distressed elephants with infrasound messages. Tuskless females are far more common than tuskless bulls. Male elephant has no scrotum and their testes are situated inside the body cavity, close to the kidneys. The elephants have no epididymis and their semen is stored in long duct of seminal vesicle. A bull elephant can eject 1 titre of semen through his 'S' shaped erect penis, during copulation. Eating the placenta full of hormones, stimulates milk production in a cow elephant. Elephants are killed in Hwange, when they come out at night onto the main train line from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo.
Greaves narrates some interesting stories of his monthly diary of 1988: Feb - African Dog hunt; March -Heavy rainfall; April - poaching of white rhino and her calf; May - culling of bull elephant; June - elephant feeding from 4x4; August - baboons hurling abuse at lions; Sept - diving hyenas; October - very hot 'suicide month'; November - arrival of rain; and December - rain transforms Hwange.
Because of reduced funds, the management of water, soil, fire, roads and poaching, is neglected. The facilities in the NP range from basic campsite to luxury Safari Camps. Wild life is all around you and it pays at night to watch which 'shadow moves' and which is 'stationary', so stay in the lit areas away from the trees.
Reading recent Zim headlines, the country is still in trouble, frequent power cuts, strikes by civil servants etc. Tourist returning say that the tourist industry is ok and the wildlife is good.
Some other books by Nick Greaves are:-
(1) When Hippo was Hairy, 1990
(2) When Lion Could Fly, 1993
(3) When Elephant Was King, 2000
(4) When Bat Was a Bird, 2004
(5) The Magic Fish Bones, 2006
(6) Elephant, Out of Africa.