FEATURE
Not Wishy Washing With
Water A
ngelina’s twins were born last year and here they are pushing each other playfully before us. The team from the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, know all the elephants by name and show me how a little ear notch, crooked tusk or hairy tail gives away their identity. All conversations keep rotating back to water. Amboseli’s rich swamp land is fed by underground rivers where egrets, pelicans, flamingoes and cranes wade amidst smaller lapwings and larks. At the Ramsar site, Dr. Cynthia Moss, is working with the Kenya Wildlife Services to make a wetland eco system area. Wetlands are an important asset in educating people about biodiversity and natural
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processes. Water management, damning, fishing, farming and deforestation, all contribute to wetland degradation. Wetlands provide water quality preservation and nurseries for fish and other creatures, including those that feed on them. They sequester carbon and so impact storm and drought damage. A global network is now working to preserve and restore wetlands by ensuring sustainable use of their biodiversity and ensuring the livelihoods of those who depend on them. Cynthia tells us that we need to understand hydrology more. How water works and are sound and smell linked in anyway. Micro biomes in nature talk to each other. Trees pass messages via fungi
under the earth and the overstory of a forest that’s tall trees pick up messages in the air. We discuss how life sciences in schools must teach fencing without obstructing animal corridors, security of protected areas, use of canine units to flush out poaching and zoning where grazing can happen without intense contact with wildlife. As we wander about the waterways watching the elephants swag about, we learn that only pregnant and nursing ones have breasts and that they’ll nurse pretty much all their lives. Here they are in paradise, little ones, teenagers and grannies. The herd of aunties and sisters remains close by trumpeting now and again at our proximity. Otherwise they seem relaxed, feed constantly and
