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November/December
2001
Plam-Beach to Malembo |
| Aim |
| The aim of this expedition was to conduct a population census and map the distribution of hippos on a Southern section of the shoreline of Lake Malawi |
| Abstract |
| The Lake Malawi Hippo Project was initiated by the African Conservation Trust to address the rapidly declining hippo population of Lake Malawi. Initially it was planned as a census of the hippo population of the lake. The counts were to be conducted via a series of expeditions. This report covers the first expedition undertaken from mid-November to mid-December 2001. The expedition was manned by overseas eco-volunteers who partly funded expenses. The University of Natal, Durban and the University of Malawi, Zomba provided technical and scientific support. |
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| The expedition began at a Southerly point on the lake and its aim was to cover 300 to 400 km of shoreline by kayak in a Westerly direction. Unpredictable weather, sickness and the need for sturdier watercraft meant that only 120km was covered by the end of the expedition. Future expeditions will be run using larger boats. The hippos counted by mid-December numbered 37, with only 3 pods having more than 3 hippos. With such a low figure and after discussions with other wildlife activists in the region, it was clear that urgent action was required. This has slightly altered the aims of the project, which have now expanded to include protection of the larger pods. |
| Introduction |
| Malawi |
| Malawi is a landlocked country. On the scale of the African Continent, it is dwarfed and could easily go unobserved while browsing a map of the land-mass. In terms relative to a European reader, it covers a greater area than Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland combined. It is bordered by Tanzania to the North and Northeast; Mozambique lies to the East, South and Southwest and Zambia lies on its Western border. It is just over 9° South of the equator, at its most Northerly point and just over 17° at its most Southerly. This makes the country approximately 900km long with its width varying from 80km to 160km. It covers a total area of 118 428 km². Approximately one fifth of which is Lake Malawi. |
| Lake
Malawi |
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The lake has a total surface area of 22 490km², making it the 3rd largest lake in Africa and the 9th largest in the world. It is 585km long and reaches depths of 700m. The lake also covers part of Tanzania and Mozambique. The ecosystem supported by the lake is unique in global terms. With over 1000 species, it is thought to have the greatest diversity of freshwater fish in the world, approximately 500 of them being endemic to it’s waters - mostly from the brightly colourful cichlid family. The lakeshore has been lapped by waves for at least 8 times longer than man first laid eyes on it. Its age is estimated at between 2 and 7 million years old. When early European explorers first met their distant African cousins by the lakeshore, there was an unsurprising breakdown in communication. In attempting to find the name of the lake, the Europeans were told it was Nyasa or Lake. The locals might have been trying to inform the map-drawers that they had not reached the ocean yet! The other name for this nyasa is Malawi, which means Flaming Water, a likely allusion to the dazzling sunsets on the Lake but maybe there are other secrets at the bottom of this 700m deep, ancient giant.. It provides an estimated 70% of animal protein for the Malawian population and provides water for irrigation, washing and livestock. It also makes the lakeshore popular amongst tourists, who provide an alternative source of income to a country largely dependent on subsistence agriculture. For all these reasons the second largest lake in the Southern Hemisphere is an important ecosystem and a valuable resource. |
| The Lake Malawi Hippo Project |
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Large-scale hunting and killing of hippos, which are not protected, has increased dramatically on Lake Malawi in the last two to three years. A fact declared by Georg Kloeble of the Wildlife Action Group. Kloeble, a native of Germany, has been working to protect wildlife in Malawi for seventeen years. He claims that the hippo population, in some parts of the lake, has decreased by over 50% in the last 2 years. Other sources have also made known the shrinking numbers. In January 2001, Carl Grossmann – Director of the African Conservation Trust, read about the plight of the rapidly declining hippo population on the Lake. He knew that one of most important factors for efficient environmental management planning is having basic information. As he owned a number of watercraft and land-vehicles, Grossmann decided an expedition to count the actual number of hippos on the lake was feasible. Because of the size of the lake, this was going to take several stages, each stage comprising of a single expedition. As counting the hippos on the Lake once would not do enough to protect the animals, a long-term strategy was required – the strategy became the Lake Malawi Hippo Project. It now has four objectives; |
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| To use the collected data efficiently and effectively, it needs to be analysed by the people directly effected by a changing ecosystem on the lake, namely Malawians. This led the African Conservation Trust to establish scientific support in Malawi. This support has come from Dr. John Mfune of the University of Malawi, Zomba. Enthusiastic about the idea, the ecologist agreed to provide scientific supervision for the project. As Co-ordinator of the Master program in Environmental Science, he was the ideal contact for ensuring the longevity of the project. |
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The expedition acquired GPS (Global Positioning System) equipment from the Programme of Geomatics (Land Surveying), University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. Mr. Angus Forbes of the Programme of Geomatics agreed to provide technical backup to the project and will be supervising the creation and maintenance of a GIS (Geographical Information System). The GIS will incorporate all spatial data including the GPS mapping of the hippo positions and numbers as well as any environmental remote sensing that may be needed at a later date To fund and provide manpower for the first expedition, volunteers were needed. These were recruited by the African Conservation Trust (ACT). The Trust funds research projects in Southern Africa by obtaining volunteers from around the world. These volunteers cover their own expenses plus an additional amount that covers the cost of the project. The applicants were filtered down to 8 people. These 8 along with Grossmann, the expedition leader and 2 Malawian guides made up the crew that were used on the expedition. |
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The expectations of the crewmembers varied. Some members thought that they would be on the water everyday and that the expedition would be physically demanding. Others expected the expedition would be less frontier-like, that the food would be more varied and that the routine would be structured and predictable. It was estimated that 300 or 400km of shoreline could be completed on the first expedition. This was calculated at a rate of about 15-20km a day, for a period of around three weeks. Rest days were incorporated into this calculation. The final destination was Nkhata Bay. |
| Basic equipment for the expedition consisted of two land-vehicles, a rubber dinghy and three kayaks; a double and 2 singles. The two land vehicles were a rear-wheel drive Toyota Venture and a 1975 Volkswagen Beetle. A full itinerary of equipment is listed in Appendix II Camping Equipment. |
| The starting-point chosen for the expedition was Palm-Beach, a camping site North of Mangochi. This location was decided upon as it is sufficiently North of the river-channel flowing into Lake Malombe to ensure that hippos from this channel are not re-counted on future expeditions. |
| Expedition Members |
 Capt. Carl Grossmann FRGS Expitition Leader, South Africa |
Director
of the African Conservation Trust. LAN Controller, University of Natal,
Durban. His speciality is mapping using GPS. He is presently completing
a GIS course. Sustainable conservation of our environment, especially
the African environment, has been a major driving force in his life.
He has travelled extensively in Africa, in particular Southern Africa since
1993. To give you some idea of that, his various passports contain about
250 border control stamps! He has been involved in Malawi periodically since 1993 and conducted a 42 day sea kayak expedition (commercial) in and around the Lake Malaw National Park in '97/'98. He had a tented camp on Lake Malawi until 2000. He also owns a private adventure event company, Classic Events & Expeditions, which has been operating tours and events since 1998. |
 Tadhg 'O Conaill M.A - Expedition Co-leader, Ireland |
Originally
from County Sligo, then the family moved to the Irish speaking area of
Conamara, County Galway. Either way a West of Ireland man. He enjoys running,
reading, playing guitar, soccer, surfing, scuba diving, Gaelic-football,
swimming and snorkelling. |
 Francis Njanje – Senior Field Guide, Malawi. |
He has been involved with Carl Grossmann since his first sea kayak expedition to Malawi in 1997. He comes from a small village close to Monkey Bay on the Southern lakeshore. He is an art trader, buying Malawian art in Blantyre and travelling to Durban, South Africa, where he sells the art. He is the senior guide on this expedition and will accompany the kayakers to act as an interpreter and liaison officer with locals. After the expedition he will be the new field-centre manager, looking after the base and meeting and accompanying volunteers to the field centre or area of study. |
 William Chabwera – Assistant Field Guide, Malawi. |
William
is from the same village as Francis and was recruited by him. He is physically
fit and energetic. A man of few words but good to have around in a crisis
or emergency. Like many Malawians he is a proficient boat-handler and kayaking
came naturally to him. William is married with one child. |
 Amy Deane - Crew Member, United Kingdom |
Amy
works in London for the Good Brand Works, a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
consultancy; she helps large corporates with their corporate social strategy
and encourages them to be good citizens internally and for the wider community. She visited Malawi last year on a charity cycle ride with Cheshire Homes to raise money to build a new centre in the North of Malawi, providing help and advice for people living with disability. She considered it the most wonderful experience and an opportunity to see a beautiful part of the world whilst giving something back to the wider community they were visiting. |
| During the trip they stayed at Mvuu Camp where the hippos wandered between the tents at night. “Listening to the gentle contented grunting of the hippos in the river at sunset was the one of the most peaceful times in my life. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone, and feel immensely privileged to be a part of the beginnings of this project” |
 Anne Jacinta Hansen- Crew Member, Norway. |
Anne
Jacinta is a twenty one year old from Norway. She has spent the last 12
years at school specialising in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.
When she finished in 1999, she started a school year at Vestoppland Folkhihg
School. There she studied in a class called "Interplay and Conflict".
At the end of the school year, she went on a study tour on conflict resolution
to South Africa. This tour was a very important event in her life. Since then she has been working at different places; a supermarket, an old people's home, as a teacher, and for the last six months for a company, where she has been dealing with imports from Germany. |
| She
sees herself as a person who likes to try out different situations and challenges.
“I am also an adventurer and simply love physical outdoor activity and generally
being out in nature.” |
 Chris Moore - Crew Member, United States of America. |
Chris is a fire fighter for the U.S. National Park Service, working at Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota. He works on a fire use module and his main duty is to assist national parks and forests in their use of fire for ecological benefit. |
 Manika Naidoo-Crew Member Australia |
Manika was the journalist for the expedition. Unlike the rest of the volunteers, she is African born, pushing her way into the world in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, thirty years ago. But apartheid was a bit of a problem and her parents left for England and then Australia six months later. She came back to live in Zimbabwe for three years when she was about 10, before returning to Australia. “The reason why I have told you all that is because I am in Africa at the moment to do the roots thing”. Patrick and her quit their jobs to discover “Tutu's rainbow nation, and the journey since has been as confusing as it has been exhilarating”. |
| She has been reporting for about six years and started out as a journalist on a Melbourne broadsheet called The Age. She worked all the rounds, politics, arts, business and sports. |
 Patrick Over – Crew Member, Australia. |
Patrick
has been living in Cape Town, South Africa, since 2000. He has been working
with Butterworths, a legal publisher, where he was commissioned to write
approximately 50,000 words for a new loose-leaf service on class actions
in Australia. |
 Joanna Rogers – Crew Member, United Kingdom. |
Joanna
trained as a Cordon Bleu cook. She worked in the Alps as a Chalet girl for
3seasons, cooked privately for families in Greece and Corsica. She continued
to do outdoor catering for a company and for herself since she
moved back home. She has also completed a Sports Therapy Diploma, 6 years
ago, but never managed to put it to good use. She has done her fair share
of travelling, but not of late. She spent a year in India, Thailand, OZ and NZ and spent 6 weeks fishing off the Great Barrier Reef, cooking on Maxi Racing Yachts and Out Bush catering for the Sheep shearing teams. A few years later, she ventured to South Africa and stayed for 18months. She was based in Capetown and had various jobs, as one does. |
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She
spent 2 months in Zimbabwe, which she loved and rode in the Mavoradonna,
canoed the Zambezi and spent time on Lake Kariba. |
 Claire Spencer – Crew member, United Kingdom. |
Claire
has always been interested in animals and conservation; at college she studied
animal care & science which included some conservation issues. She keeps a variety of pets at home and also takes in injured wildlife. She is a member of various groups that are concerned with conservation and the keeping of wild animals in captivity. She currently works for Sun Life Financial of Canada which is a pensions and life company. She works in an office environment which isn't a career she envisaged, but finds animal-related work hard to come by. |
| “This
expedition will be completely new to me; I have never visited Africa before,
and have never been kayaking! I look forward to seeing the animals (especially
the hippos) living freely in the wild. I believe this trip will open my
eyes to a whole new world which many people will only ever have the chance
to see on television.” She hopes her input to this expedition will “make
a difference (no matter how small) to the understanding and monitoring of
the declining numbers of hippos living on Lake Malawi”. |
| Fieldwork and Research |
| The methodology of the expedition was relatively uncomplicated as scientifically it had a single broad objective i.e. to map the distribution of hippos. Each evening plans were made for the following day, the route was decided, the team was divided into the water-crew and land-crew. The crew’s selection depended on how people were feeling; tiredness, illness and the weather conditions were decisive factors. Each morning the land-crew packed up the tents and camping equipment from the night before and headed for the next meeting-point. The water crew packed the kayaks and boats with a minimal amount of equipment and food, enough to ensure they could survive for a few days in case of an emergency landing. Such precautionary procedures were unlikely to be put into effect, as the shoreline being surveyed was, to a large degree, highly populated. When the kayaks and boat were prepared, they left the shoreline and paddled 150-200m offshore. This distance was considered safe for observing the hippos. The kayaks were considered advantageous as they could silently search for hippos without disturbing them. The shoreline was surveyed using binoculars. When spotted, the kayaks moved closer to their target, if it was considered safe. Hand-signals and whistles were used to communicate a sighting or a warning. Refer to Appendix X Hand-Signals. |
| The location of a hippo sighting was noted immediately, using co-ordinates from a hand-held Magellan Global Positioning System (GPS). This GPS unit has the potential to take 3 readings at any given location; these are altitude above sea-level, longitude and latitude. To decrease the time it took for the unit to give a reading, the elevation was set a constant. This was the mean height of the lake-surface; 474m above mean sea-level. |
| Attempts were also made to record hippo-sightings on video camera. Once this process was completed, the kayaks and boat moved on. The hippos were observed as the crew left to ensure they were not moving in the same direction as the departing crafts. This final surveillance ensured that they would not be counted twice if the team stopped on the shore for a break. Breaks were taken, if the sun got too hot, if bad weather conditions looked imminent or as already mentioned for regular food or rest breaks. |
| The water-crew finished their day’s paddling after about 15 or 20km. At the final day’s destination they met the land-crew, who would have the tents pitched and other tasks completed. |
| Many difficulties arose on the expedition. Not least of these was a pre-rainy season heat wave. Temperatures stayed at around 40°C and occasionally went over this figure, the highest mark on the group’s thermometer. An abnormal wind pattern and pressure area caused the unusual conditions, which delayed the rainy season. Needless to say the energy sapping conditions did not make the groups task any easier. Refer to Appendix VII Heatwave for a newspaper article on the weather conditions. |
| Sickness and ill-health was also another problem encountered. The most common one was diarrohea, which effected every member of the group to various degrees at one stage or another. An anti-diarroheatic was the swiftest cure. Dehydration was another problem. People were prone to this after suffering from diarrohea. On the water every kayaker carried 2 litres of water to prevent dehydration. Extra water was also carried on the support boat. |
| Protection from the sun was also essential on the lake. A long-sleeved light top was the safest option. A brimmed hat and sunglasses were essential accessories. Some members opted to wear a piece of cloth under their hats to protect their neck and ears. A high-factor suncream was carried on board the kayaks and regularly applied to exposed skin. One team-member was particularly sensitive to the sun because of the side-effects of his malaria medication. He chose to wear light-gloves to protect his hands, as the water often washed off the suncream. |
| The lake can change from being as still as glass to very choppy in a matter of minutes. Knowing what signs to look out for is invaluable, for the particular time of year; these included a wind from the South and changing cloud patterns. Grey clouds in the distance did not necessarily mean that a change of weather was imminent, as rainfall and windy conditions were often localised. On some occasions the water-crew did not get to shore before a storm blew up. This resulted in them getting caught in choppy waters, making the kayaks difficult to control without capsizing. Learning through experience taught the crew to get to shore at the first indication of a change of weather. This option was the most sensible as not all the paddlers were experienced at kayaking. |
| On the first rest-day after driving up from Durban, the newly acquired second-hand rubber-dinghy was inflated in preparation for a test-run. The engine was rigged up but would not start. A local mechanic was called and discovered a problem with the carburettor. He brought the engine to his workshop to sort out the difficulty. The next day was a training day and the mechanic returned with the engine. Once again the boat was inflated and the repaired engine was rigged up. A pod of hippos was observed on a test-run but were discounted from the final figure as they were about 3km South of the official starting point. |
| At this stage it was noted that the dinghy had some minor leaks and that the transom (board that holds the engine in place) was slightly warped. Later that evening the second smaller out-board engine was brought for a test-run. It started and ran without any problems. The next day, the expedition had a late start as the leaks in the dinghy had to be fixed. This meant waiting until the boat was completely dry; this did not take very long because of the heat. The leaks were then sealed with a strong adhesive designed for the purpose. The dinghy was inflated and the smaller engine rigged up. The recently repaired engine was left with the land-crew. The kayaks and inflatable were then loaded with the necessary equipment and the expedition began. After about 10km, the smaller engine overheated and the support team had to land. The land-crew was contacted by satellite-phone and they duly arrived with the larger engine, which was put on the dinghy. |
| The support team continued but because of the warped transom a lot of water was being taken on board the dinghy. This resulted in regular stoppages to bail out the excess water. After one day’s usage on the expedition, it was decided that the rubber dinghy could not be used any further. With a small change of fortune, the first night’s camp was at a destination where a boat was available for hire. This fibre-glass boat was hired and the dinghy deflated for the last time. Because of the weather, physical tiredness and sick-days, many days were lost on the water. This meant that inevitably the initial objective of 300-400km of shoreline would not be reached. |
| Results |
| The locations of the hippos and the numbers at individual locations were all mapped. The locations marked on the map are where the hippos were sighted on a particular date. It should be noted that where hippos have a thin population, they may patrol large stretches of shoreline. In a highly populated lake this length of shoreline is approximately 500m. In a less densely populated area, it is not unlikely that they cover longer stretches of shoreline. |
| The GPS data, dates of sightings and number of hippos viewed are given in table 1 below. |
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| Table
1. GPS locations for hippos sighted |
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| Discussion and Conclusions |
| As this initial expedition only made up part of one of the overall objectives of the Lake Malawi Hippo Project, the conclusions by themselves, while significant, do not provide a vast amount of scientific data. Before setting out, it was thought that the number of hippos counted would be low but the findings were below what anyone expected. The data collected on this expedition shows that hippo numbers on this stretch of lake are at a critical level. |
| In his 1995 publication “Behaviour Guide to African Mammals” Richard Estes gives a figure of 7 hippos per 100m of shoreline in a water body. This expedition covered 120km, and a comparative figure for a 100m stretch of shoreline yielded 0.03 hippos or 230 times less than might be expected. In total 37 hippos were counted, only on three occasions were pods of a greater size than 3 hippos, these were a pod of 5, 8 and 11. |
| While
it is not impossible that an insignificant number of hippos remained hidden
from the water crew on this expedition, it is unlikely. The only way they
would have escaped attention would have been if they walked around a camp
at night. If this section is representative of the lake as a whole, then predictions of an imminent localised extinction in the near future are not overly dramatic. |
| Over the next series of expeditions, further numerative data will be collected and added to the GIS database, allowing existing numbers to be monitored. Scientific data on the behaviour of the hippos and knowledge acquired during observation will also be obtained while establishing protective measures. |