I
always find it quite amusing when I'm with a new group and they watch
me, for the first time, bend down and pick up some animal poo. The
reactions are quite mixed. There are those that look in utter
amazement and then crowd forward to see what I'm holding in my hands,
and why, there are those that turn their nose up at the thought of
handling faeces but still have that inkling of curiosity to see why I
am doing it in the first place and there are those that recoil in
horror, take a few backward steps and tell me how disgusting I am.
Whichever group you are in, I can guarantee that by the end of your
trip to Africa you will have held, in your unprotected hands, a slice
of poo.
It's
not that I do this for the shock value, although my inner self is
having a little bit of a giggle, it is part of the all encompassing
educational nature of being in Africa, the art of tracking wildlife
in the African bush. You can learn an awful lot by simply picking up
animal faeces and examining it.
I
would say, however, that picking up the dryer form of animal faeces
is much more agreeable than the 'wet' kind! The wetter the faeces the
nearer you are to the animal, pretty self-explanatory really. But you
can also tell from the shape of the faeces as to which animal it
belongs to, or at least which group of animals it belongs to. Large
melon-sized balls are probably from rhino, elephant or maybe even
hippo, smaller raisin sized droppings (often found in a pile) are
likely to be from social antelopes, elongated twisted faeces about
the size of your thumb, are more likely to be carnivores and large
kidney beans shapes are probably zebra. Just having an idea of the
shape can help you out.
There
is so much you can learn from looking at faeces – you just need to
know what you are looking for.
But
to get the real nitty-gritty you will have to pick up the faeces,
look at it closely, carefully tear it apart and look at what is
inside. The classic example is discerning the difference between
elephant, white rhino, black rhino and hippo. Hippo are pretty easy
because although they eat grass, the same as white rhino, they often
use their tail to spread the dung around, and so consequently most of
it is found suspended in bushes and trees. Hippo faeces will also be
found near water sources, whereas white rhino will be found out in
the open bush. It will also be made up of entirely dried bits of
grass.
The
real test comes to rhino and eles. Black rhino and elephant feed off
similar vegetation – they are both browsers meaning that they eat
leaves and twigs although at times elephants will also consume grass.
Elephants are prone to stripping bark and so you may see long strands
of undigested bark in their faeces, look carefully. But the main
thing to look out for are the ways more twigs are cut up in the
faeces. Elephants will rip and tear at twigs and small branches,
leaving a rough and jagged end to the twigs, whereas black rhino will
cut the twigs at a 45° angle with their back teeth. So when you are
teasing apart the faeces, keep an eye out for cleanly cut small
twigs, with a 45° angle, as this will help you identify the faeces
from being that of the black rhino.
If
that is the case, keep an eye out for a suitable tree to climb! Black
rhinos are renowned for being rather feisty.
