An Alien in the Okavango

Posted January 23, 2019

Text and photos by Turner Nolan

After my first mission to Earth my superiors thought that it was so interesting and successful that I was asked to return! And this time to the opposite side of the planet from the Arctic! My objective this time was to learn about ecology on a continent called Africa — to gain an understanding of how the human and non-human creatures here relate to their habitat. So once again I was transported into the body of a 13 year old earth human, this time accompanying the Papa to a land called Botswana.

On this assignment I learned numerous things but the most interesting to me is what the humans call an ecosystem. On the first few days I kept hearing the human adults use the word “ecosystem” but couldn’t quite understand what it meant. I asked the Papa to explain it to me, but even after he explained to me it still took me sometime to exactly understand what an ecosystem was, but now I think I understand. I believe ecosystems are the connections that bind everything in a natural area to each other, like how carnivores, herbivores, and vegetation coexist but altering that balance can create new ecosystems, new landscapes, and even change the climate of the planet.

One thing I learned about all ecosystems is that they each have keystone species. Now I believe a keystone species to be an animal that has an irreplaceable importance on it’s ecosystem, like our gifkins on the white beaches of Fey. If you still don’t understand, think of it like this: our Gifkins only eat flim trees, not letting grow above Gifkin mouth height, such that the Notrey birds can’t safely nest there because they might get eaten by the Zergos, which leaves the beaches full of Tiphems to burrow in the trees safe from the notreys, all because of the Gifkins, making the Gifkins a keystone species. After I arrived in the savanna just north of the Okavango Delta in Botswana (Earth Date: November 3, 2018), I started looking out for ecological connections between species that might indicate which was the keystone species.

After a few days I realized the keystone species in this region is the elephant, because of their control on the forests and grasslands and thus the population of other species. Elephant habitat in northern Botswana is primarily swamps and savanna. This report is mostly about savanna. Savannas are like grasslands, but grasslands don’t have trees like savannas do. Savannas are like forests, but forests have closed canopies whereas savannas mostly do not. Elephants keep the savanna from becoming forests by eating lots of the trees, knocking them over, and pulling out their seedlings. But they don’t do this to all the trees, so a stable population of elephants will maintain a stable mixture of grass and trees in the savanna.

Elephants use there trunks for almost everything, even eating.
Elephants are browsers and grazers.
Elephants move between the grass and trees to vary their diets.
Elephants are huge and need to eat a lot to maintain their size.
Elephants are highly social animals, living in groups so they can help each other.
Elephant herds work together to protect their young by keeping them surrounded.
Baby elephants rely on milk from their mothers for food.
Elephants travel long distances to find the foods they like best.
Elephants need to drink water regularly so can't migrate far without it.
Elephants also modify the landscape by creating depressions that fill with water, creating new habitat for other species that like water.
Elephants are surprisingly quiet when they walk.
Elephants use their trunks to smell what they see and don't see.

Thinking about all the things elephant do to affect the ecosystem, I started to wonder what would happen if there were no more elephants…

At left is a mopane tree stunted in growth by elephant browsing, with a full size mopane tree in the background.
Here is a large forest of mopane trees mostly stunted in growth by elephant browsing.
Elephants are not the only control on trees, soils also control which trees grow where.
Here an ancient river bed is filled with sand, where only silver terminalia and apple leaf trees grow.

If there were no more elephants… I think trees like these mopane would find it easier to survive because they would be able to grow into taller trees and become a closed canopied forest. They’d also be able to expand into new areas because there would be no elephants to eat the tasty saplings, and therefore start to shrink the grassland areas.

Tsessebe usually graze in the mornings and evenings to avoid the warmest part of the day.
Zebras are also grazers, and depend on grasslands for their big migrations.
Wildebeest mothers need to eat plenty of grass to create milk for their babies.
Male Wildebeest chase each other when fighting over females.
Wildebeest have very poor short term memory, and look it.
Cape Buffalo are the most dangerous grazers on the savanna, and get especially grumpy when hungry.
A baby Impala with an Oxpecker bird picking ticks off it's neck.

If there were no more elephants… I think grazing animals that eat the grasslands would find it harder to survive as their grassy habitat was displaced by forests.

Lions don't eat people usually, they prefer grazers on the savanna.
Though lions eat other animals, they can be affectionate with each other.
Lions evolved flesh-ripping teeth, which they display when they yawn.
Even a lion's eyes blend in with grasslands.
Though lions like to play in trees, they do not hunt from them.
African wild dogs are the most successful hunters in Africa, besides humans.
Dogs kill their prey by ripping flesh from their bodies while they chase them.
Cheetah's evolved into the fastest land creatures so they could catch grass-loving antelopes.

If there were no more elephants… I think predators like these lions, cheetahs, and wild dogs would find it harder to survive because their prey, grass-grazing antelope, would be fewer in number and harder to find.

Black-backed jackals like the shade of trees, but find most of their carrion in the grasslands.
Hooded vultures have a hard time finding their carrion beneath a forest canopy, though Bateleurs often help them.
Spotted hyena have a stronger bite than most predators because they eat bone.
Spotted hyena are mostly nocturnal, which helps limit conflict with predators over carrion.

If there were no more elephants… I think scavengers like these hyenas, vultures and jackals would find it harder to survive because there would be less carrion created by predators.

A new termite colony begins when a male and female termite meet and start digging a new mound.
Termites need clay soils to build their homes, which can house millions of termites and the grass they collect.
Termites are another keystone species here because they create new habitats.
Old termite mounds become homes for other species.

If there were no more elephants… I think insects like termites and harvester ants would find it harder to survive because they have less grass to eat, and they could no longer reshape the land and recycle nutrients into the land as much as they do today.

Southern ground hornbills nest in trees but forage in grasslands.
Southern ground hornbills eat insects, reptiles, invertebrates, and small mammals.
Southern ground hornbills live in groups of 5-10, but only raise one chick at a time (2nd from left).
Cattle egrets evolved to follow around grazers, which stir up the insects they like to eat.
Cattle egrets also remove ticks and fleas from grazers, like this Cape Buffalo.

If there were no more elephants… I think insectivores like these ground hornbills and cattle egrets would find it harder to survive because the habitat of the grass-dwelling insects they eat would be smaller.

If there were no more elephants, not all animals would find it harder to survive. The shrinking numbers of grass-loving animals, insects, and birds might be balanced by increasing numbers of forest-dwelling animals, insects and birds. So along with the changing habitats of the ecosystem, the biodiversity of the ecosystem would change too.

The lips and tongue of a giraffe evolved to eat acacia leaves without being hurt by the thorns.
A giraffe's tongue is up to 30 cm long.
The giraffe's long neck makes it easy to eat tall leaves but hard to drink.
A group of giraffes has three names: a journey, a tower, and a kaleidoscope.

If there were no more elephants… I think browsers like these giraffe would find it easier to survive because there would be more tall trees creating the leaves that they eat.

Veraux's Eagle Owl live in trees and hunt at night.
Bateleurs, like this baby, are especially good at finding carrion in forests because they fly within the tree canopy.
Hammercops build huge nests in trees out of clay and sticks.
Silvery-cheeked Hornbills roost in flocks of hundreds of individuals.

If there were no more elephants… I think forest-dwelling birds would find it easier to survive because there would be more forest habitat providing branches for nests and forest insects for food.

Baboons are a lot like humans.
Baboons enjoy the protection of the forests when raising their young.

If there were no more elephants… I think forest-dwelling creatures like these monkeys and baboons would have more forest habitat to live in, giving them more food and protection from predators so they could grow in numbers.

Leopards like to climb trees to ambush prey.
Leopards usually drag their prey into trees for safekeeping.
Leopards have evolved a camouflage that works well in trees and grass.
Leopards are solitary predators.

If there were no more elephants… I think ambush predators like these leopards would find it easier to survive because forests would provide them with more ambush opportunities.

An elephant killed by poachers for it's ivory.
Human population and land use can displace elephant habitat.

If there were no more elephants… it would probably be due to humans. Some humans kill elephants to get their ivory tusks and other humans build cities and fences that destroy elephant habitat. Thus humans are also a keystone species here.

Dr Richard Fynn, at left, is an elephant ecologist specializing in vegetation, standing with the Papa, and Joe, the pikey pilot of the helicopter we flew in.
We mapped vegetation from the helicopter along several transects in between the Okavango and Linyanti swamps.
John our camp manager and the Papa setting up GPS base on a fuel barrel.
The local humans of Botswana are dedicated to protecting their ecosystem, like Oats, one of our excellent guides who educates local farmers on co-existing with elephants.
Another of our excellent guides, Knowledge, writes books to help educate other humans about ecology in Botswana.
We met with Job Morris, who runs the San Youth Network, to better understand how we could help his mission.
We had many opportunities to closely watch elephants interact within their ecosystem, such as here from our tent.
My human body.

Fortunately there are still elephants. Lots of them. Maybe even too many. Too many can have the opposite affect on biodiversity – turning the savanna into mostly grassland. Unfortunately we do not know whether there are too many or too few elephants, but that’s what the Papa and I spent a month in Botswana studying. By tracking the changes to their habitats, we can learn how the biodiversity is changing. But’s that’s a story for another report…

Yet again my mission to earth is over, and yet again I’m amazed. This time I believe I learned more, like what ecosystems are, keystone species, and lots of different non-human organisms. But thing I take away the most is how important humans are to this planet, and how they as a keystone species of their planet can either destroy their natural world and it’s ecosystems or protect them. My final message to my people is to not make the same mistakes the humans have and to learn from their successes.

The End

PS. Click here to learn more about the research the Papa was doing.