Over centuries the Mi’kmaw people, one of Canada’s First Nations, have navigated routes in the region. The Mi’kmaw would paddle along waterways then disembark their birch bark canoes to carry them on portages of up to two kilometres at a time. Cody explains that Todd Labrador, a Mi’kmaw craftsman, operates workshops in which he demonstrates how to strip bark from birch trees and make traditional canoes. Interpretative tours also provide insights to other aspects of Mi’kmaw heritage, including the medicinal use of plants.
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As we walked into the enclosure one of the beasts let out a cry that sounded something between a roar of rage, a moo of deep pain and something the Star Wars character Chewbacca might utter in the heat of battle.
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“We have a couple bears that are repeat offenders, every year. They're coming into the community doing the same thing; most of those bears are habituated to garbage or food conditioned to garbage. They're older bears that were around during the time when an open dump was in operation here. They were introduced to garbage from their mother, so that's a habit that's almost impossible to break for a bear,” says Brett Whitlock, the man who manages the Polar Bear Alert Program in Churchill, Manitoba.
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Hwange provides habitat to more than 100 different mammals, in excess of 400 bird species, nearly 200 types of grasses and 230 trees. Surely even a poor day by local standards it will impress a visiting Brit to whom seeing anything other than a cat or dog is out of the ordinary?
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Many of us tend to think of efforts to conserve the world’s natural resources as a fairly recent trend. In fact, the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans region has been a reserved area since 1875.
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“Maintain a minimum distance of at least seven metres,” we were told by guides at least three times during the pre-trek briefing. It’s taken less than five minutes in the presence of the gorillas and, already, that golden rule is broken.
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A humpback was spotted off Newcastle in 2019. One orca was seen in 2018. Minkes are sighted frequently. I’m probably not the only passenger hoping for a repeat when Alex says he saw a pod of eight white-beaked dolphins a few days ago.
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“This is their territory. This is where they live. We try to keep them as wild as we can. Even though we visit them on a regular basis they are not tame animals. They’re still wild and we respect them. It’s two-and-a-half tonnes of sudden action; zero to 60 kmph in just a few seconds. It can be quite surprising how quickly they get up,” says Norman Bourne of BlackRhino Safaris.
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“We used what we know about bison’s preference for food and forage to develop predictive a model for habitat. The Panther Valley is kind of the bull’s eye in terms of the best quality habitat we have in the park…once we release them and they step out of the gate they don’t have to go looking for their first good meals. For people there may be some discomfort getting reacquainted with these animals that have been missing for 150 years…you need a bit of a warm-up period. We felt we needed to start slowly, with just a few people at a time interacting with the bison, so it was better to start in the back country rather than next to a highway or one of the towns,” explains Carsten, who grew up in Alberta.
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I lean over the inflated side of the boat, photographing a shearwater taking a rest just out of touching distance from the boat. A cry of excitement causes me to spin around and I catch a glimpse of a humpback whale in mid-air, twisting amid spray before splashing back down into the sea. I know I’ve missed a golden photo opportunity but feel blessed for having seen such a magnificent sight.
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