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SURVIVAL GUIDE
Curiosity and a Cat
Steve Boyes National Geographic Emerging Explorer
EXPERTISE
Conservation Biologist LO CATION
Botswana
Every year my team delves deeper into the Okavango Delta—a 10,000square-mile fan of channels, floodplains, lagoons, and islands. Within its maze there are more than 2,000 lions, plus leopards, hippos, crocodiles, and nearly 80,000 elephants. The local Bayei people are descendants of hippo hunters, so they have taught us to respect that animal’s natural rhythms. When we pole into the delta, we wait until nine to set out. That’s when the hippos come off the islands and go into deeper water. They return again around five. We’re off the water before they get back. Before we had the help of the Bayei, we had a steeper learning curve. One morning my brother and I heard lions calling from behind camp. They seemed to be on an island to the far right of us. We were barefoot and having our morning
national geo graphic
r Marc h
coffee but wanted a closer look. Soon we were hundreds of feet from camp in our underpants. We didn’t have a spear. Suddenly a pair of lions popped up. The lioness stilled and stared us down. I knew that we had to give her a reason for us to be there that didn’t involve her. We didn’t want her to perceive us as a threat. My eyes latched on to an extremely large piece of elephant dung. I took a few steps toward her, trying to move purposefully, and picked up the dung. I fixed all my attention on it to indicate that this was a very special piece of elephant dung—a very good reason for being there indeed. Somehow it worked. The lioness let me walk back to camp with my prize. We kept that piece of dung in camp for the rest of the season to remind us about consequences. Now we aren’t so reckless.
ART: ISTVAN BANYAI. PHOTO: NEIL GELINAS
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