Meet the Chobe Angels, Africa's First All-Female Safari Guide Team
Mangwegape, dressed in crisp green khakis with a red, elephant print scarf tied around her neck, is acutely attuned to the surrounding wildlife. She gracefully navigates narrow dirt roads little more than the width of the truck, weaving around spindly branches while stopping to examine old leopard tracks, point out a tiny dung beetle, or make way for a flock of helmeted guinea fowl, affectionately known as Chobe chickens, that cross our path.
One moment we were surrounded by elephants gently flapping their massive ears, trunks snapping up grasses and pungent wild basil. 'This is Chobe for you,' she tells my fellow guests and me. 'You'll never be close to an elephant like this elsewhere.'
Unflappable and empathetic, Mangwegape observes the herd closely, and when one juvenile gets a little too bold, stepping close to our truck, the guide starts the engine so the sound deters him instantly. 'Being in the bush, you listen, you smell,' she says. 'Animals clue you in to what's happening.'
The all-female guide team didn't happen by accident. The driving force behind the Chobe Angels initiative was Johan Bruwer, the lodge's general manager. When Bruwer took the role in 2004, the lodge employed just one female guide. Noting guests' overwhelmingly positive reactions to her expertise and approach, the manager sought to hire more women—and was surprised to encounter stark cultural resistance and widespread skepticism.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Incredible photo shows hidden danger as Aussie travellers head north to escape winter
Tourists heading north to escape the cold this winter are warned to watch their step. An incredible photo by local fisherman and birdwatcher Rodney Fischer shows a crocodile almost completely camouflaged in a pool of mud. The image was snapped this week in Wyndham, the northernmost town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It shows a crocodile in a state of brumation, which involves slowing down activity and metabolism. When animals like bears, squirrels or mice hibernate, they enter a deep sleep, but when it comes to brumation in Australian reptiles, they remain semi-alert. 'You wouldn't want to step on one. If you did, it would move for sure,' Fischer told Yahoo News Australia. 'Usually crocodiles are sitting out in the bank basking, but it's good to let the public know that they can be hidden in the mud. It's good to be careful around the waterways and even dry creek beds, and they could be anywhere.' Can you spot the crocodile's eye in the photo? Fischer had been birdwatching when he spotted the crocodile hanging out in a dry billabong, waiting for the rains to restore the surrounding creek. Anger erupts after Canadian tourist's 'disgusting' stunt with juvenile crocodile Frustration in Aussie tourist region after council ban rejected Exotic snake found hidden in kitchen raises biosecurity concerns At first glance, the four-metre-long animal looks like a log with few discernible features. But if you look to the left of the leaf in the centre of the image, you might be able to spot his half-open eye. 'He might sit there for weeks and weeks, or even months. They just lay there, close their eyes, and think do not disturb me,' he said. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Fundy National Park celebrates 75 years
New Brunswick was one of the first provinces to ask for a national park, and 75 years ago, the province got its wish. Fundy National Park officially opened to the public on July 29, 1950. In what was described by the Saint John Times-Globe as "perfect weather," thousands of people gathered just inside the park on a Saturday to watch the opening ceremony, attend brass band concerts and watch a softball game and a women''s golf tournament. The park was announced in 1948 but had been in the works in one way or another since the 1920s. Becky Graham, the park manager at Fundy National Park says, in a bit of an understatement, that a lot has changed in 75 years. Originally, the park only had one campground, no trails and no interpretation programs. "The real focus of the park was to bring people to the area for tourism and for recreation," Graham said. "Those things are still important to us, but we have also evolved a mandate to really protect and present special places like Fundy National Park." While Parks Canada eventually went with the area of Albert County we now know as Fundy National Park as the location for the park, it was not anyone's first choice. The provincial government always advocated Mount Carlton, in the north, which Parks Canada really disliked for a site. Among the other areas considered were Point Lepreau, also on the Bay of Fundy and now home to a nuclear power plant, and Mount Champlain, in south-central New Brunswick. WATCH | The history of New Brunswick's first national park: In fact, Fundy was chosen in part because of the unofficial and negative description of New Brunswick as the "drive-through province." "What really swung it towards Albert County, frankly, was the fact that you have to drive all the way through New Brunswick to get there," said Alan MacEachern, a Western University historian who wrote a book about the building of Atlantic Canada's first four national parks. "They thought this is a way to bring tourists, central Canadian tourists, but especially American tourists, and force them … to drive all the way across New Brunswick to get to Albert County." Relatively smooth sailing As with many national parks, the founding of Fundy meant moving out residents and shuttering communities. The community of Point Wolfe was wiped off the map, farms and homes were expropriated and churches closed. This had also happened in Cape Breton and P.E.I. when national parks were built there, causing outrage in both provinces. But opposition in New Brunswick was muted. "There were definitely people who were going to be expropriated who were not happy about it, but I think that there was a lot less displeasure in New Brunswick than there had been in P.E.I. and Cape Breton," MacEachern said. What did upset some residents was the feeling that any evidence of their existence in the park was removed, which was in keeping with Parks Canada's philosophy at the time. "The belief [was] national parks should have basically no evidence of prior human existence," MacEachern said. "They wanted to get rid of any kind of evidence that the people of southern Albert County … had ever lived there." Constructing nature For a park whose goal was to present the absence of civilization, a lot of construction went into it The farms and homesteads and churches that were torn down were replaced by welcome centres, golf courses and hotels. "They developed the heck out of it and in, as you say, a very suburban sort of fashion," MacEachern said. In his book, he goes into more detail about the fate of some of the area's original elements: "The new Fundy National Park, populated for almost 150 years, was too wild to be currently acceptable. Roads needed to be straightened, hillocks flattened, ugly and misshapen trees cut down, stones removed, grass planted." MacEachern said Parks Canada immediately had regrets about how Fundy was constructed and viewed it as an example of what not to do at a national park. But he takes an optimistic view of the park. "You could argue that Fundy National Park has had 75 years of getting back to nature, of being about the things it wasn't quite about at its founding," MacEachern said. Seventy-five years later the park has grown to 207 square kilometres, with 20 kilometres along the Bay of Fundy coast. It went from one campground to five and offers back-country camping and several kinds of roofed accommodations such as yurts and rustic cabins. The park has also developed an expansive trail system, more than 100 kilometres in total. Present and future In terms of visitors, Fundy continues to be popular among tourists. Graham said early this season was a little slow because of rain, but June saw an eight per cent increase in visitors over the previous year. This could be attributed to a few factors. More Canadians discovered national parks after the COVID pandemic made outdoor spaces a more popular option, and political turmoil in the United States means more Canadians are looking to vacation closer to home. Finally, entrance fees for all national parks have been waived for the summer. While more people are going to national parks, the parks have to contend with their dual purpose of access and conservation, something that isn't easy. "Parks Canada's mandate is to both protect and present," Graham said. "To really ensure that we can live up to these dual responsibilities there's a team in the park … really focused on ecological health and monitoring and reporting."
Forbes
2 days ago
- Forbes
Colorado Innovates Wildlife Crossing System To Deter Crashes
Colorado Department of Transportation staff views remote camera photos of wildlife crossing under a ... More highway structure. As Colorado leaders recently toured a half-way point on building a massive overpass wildlife crossing above Interstate 25, state police were warning drivers about the dangers of crashing into animals after two recent fatalities. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D) joined with state officials recently to see what is billed as among the world's largest wildlife crossing built over a major highway. Located in Douglas County, the Colorado Department of Transportation is managing the project called the I-25 Greenland Wildlife Overpass. The goal is to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions with such big game as elk, pronghorn and mule deer by creating a six-lane-wide overpass. The location is where large movements of big game animals occur. Bennet commented July 25 in a social media post about his visit to the Greenland Wildlife Overpass project: 'Colorado continues to be a model for the rest of the Western United States. By building the largest wildlife overpass in the U.S., we are protecting wildlife and keeping Colorado drivers safe.' Rendering of the wildlife overpass above I-25. The overpass was designed with wide sloped entrances that gradually rise above the highway to appeal to big game. Elk prefer traveling in wide open areas and avoid tunnels and underpasses. The $15-million wildlife overpass is expected to reduce wildlife/vehicle collisions by 90% on I-25. After completion slated for December, the structure will compliment an existing I-25 wildlife crossing system of underpasses and fences and connect 39,000 acres of habitat on both sides of the interstate. Images of wildlife using Colorado's wildlife crossing underpasses. The 200-foot-wide, 209-foot-long overpass will link into the state's current 18-mile wildlife crossing mitigation system called the I-25 South Gap project. This area is between Denver and Colorado Springs. Before Colorado created its wildlife crossing mitigation system, drivers along that stretch of I-25 crashed into an average of one wild animal per day trying to pass through the highway corridor. Each day some 87,000 motorists drive on that 18-mile section of I-25 just south of the Denver metropolitan region. With abundant animals and people living among its mountain areas, Colorado sees about 4,000 wildlife-vehicle crashes yearly that cause $80 million in damages. These accidents also result in injuries and fatalities to people and wildlife. Wildlife killed include moose, deer, black bears, elk, mountain lions, raccoons, hawks, coyotes, porcupines, red foxes, bobcats, owls, rabbits, Canadian geese, beavers and badgers. Although the new overpass is mainly meant for larger animals it will likely be used by other wildlife as has been the case with Colorado's wildlife underpasses. Animal footprints at a Colorado wildlife crossing. A variety of animals have been seen on cameras using the underpasses, including wild turkeys. Colorado State Patrol have held a summer public awareness campaign about wildlife-vehicle crashes to deter collisions. Already this year through July 17, state troopers have responded to 1,600 animal-involved crashes causing property damage in 95% of the accidents. In these collisions, 63 people sustained injuries and two died. Shortly before midnight on July 11, a driver collided with a moose before three other vehicles hit the animal. One of the drivers lost control of the vehicle and died. Then on July 20 just before 6 a.m., a motorist swerved to avoid crashing into a deer and veered off the road. The vehicle rolled and the driver was fatally injured. 'Drivers in the mountain communities know to expect wildlife, but these animals can show up in more unexpected locations everywhere in our state,' Col. Matthew Packard, state patrol chief, noted in a press statement. The Colorado State Patrol has determined the third most common factor in all vehicle crashes last year were wildlife collisions. In 2024, troopers investigated 3,573 of these wildlife-vehicle crashes. Statistics showed 96% of those crashes last year resulted in damaged vehicles, while the majority of the injured wildlife died. 'According to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, the insurance industry pays nearly $1.1 billion yearly in claims for all wildlife collisions nationwide. The average property damage cost of these crashes is estimated at over $3,000,' Colorado State Patrol says. Colorado troopers have listed steps drivers can take to mitigate accidents with wildlife. They suggest motorists: When encountering wildlife while driving on a roadway, police say the most important advice is to maintain control of your vehicle.
