Ibn Ibn Battuta

Devolutionary Biology

In my previous travels, I have offered separate observations on both the turmoil in eastern DR Congo and the ecosystem collapse threatening Lake Victoria.

Delphine Schrank's brief report, "As Go the Hippos...", in the latest issue of The Atlantic highlights the intersection of these two phenomena beside another of Africa's Great Lakes. The resulting disaster, on the shores of Lac Edouard, is proving much greater than the sum of its parts.

Unfortunately, the convergence of economic, environmental, political, and population pressures is likely to make such multi-faceted disasters even more common in coming decades.

The Slow Death of Africa's Greatest Lake

The Spring issue of the Georgetown University Journal of the Environment (Vol. III, pp. 42-47) includes a piece I wrote, entitled "The Slow Death of Africa’s Greatest Lake: The Environmental and Social Impacts of the 'Modernization' of Lake Victoria" (reprinted below).

The paper draws on a lot of the research I did last summer while studying the local ecology in Mwanza, Tanzania, on Lake Victoria's southern shore. 

Please enjoy:

The Wild Things of Rubondo Island

Tanzania map

From the minute the boat bumped against the thin strip of white sand beach, it was clear that Rubondo Island is an almost unearthly place. A few paces from the water's edge, a seemingly impenetrable tangle of dark tropical forest began, covering the entirety of the enormous island, which from the water is easy to mistake for the mainland because of its size. We would stay at the ranger's camp along the lakeshore, along with a few other groups of travellers.

Before the painful exercise of pitching our tents (a jumble of mismatched poles and bundled canvas which our guide company was happy to provide us with) at and shortly after dusk, we took a brief walk through the forest. Walking along the trail, peering into the undergrowth, I was reminded of the mornings in my childhood when my sister would wake up and come downstairs, her long hair in a feral tangle, and my mom would order her to "Go comb that rat's nest!" Amidst the roots of the banyan trees, hanging down from high up in the canopy to the forest floor, and the endless squiggles of liana vines entwined around the other vegetation, others recalled Where the Wild Things Are.

Reflections from the Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater

Tanzania map

At a minimum, there is at least one element of Serengeti National Park and the nearby Ngorongoro Crater which no number of IMAX and National Geographic documentaries can convey: the parks are bursting with animal life. Yes, the films show the incredible diversity of the wildlife which used to freely roam this entire region. However, it is only by visiting that one can really sense just how concentrated the animals really are, and how rich the environment which supports them is.

I estimated that in two days we would probably be able to see most of the large mammals which inhabit the parks, but not all, and not very frequently. These

The Birds and the Bees, the Flowers and the Trees

Tanzania map

Our ecology class enjoyed an exciting first week. Each morning a few of us joined Dino on an optional morning walk, which consisted of us walking for an hour or two down one of the dirt roads around the university, pointing to birds, bugs and plants and making Dino tell us the fascinating story of each one.

Early on we spotted red-breasted sunbirds, black kites, pied kingfishers, mousebirds with their long, flowing tails, red-cheeked cordon bleus and numerous other birds.

Later we happened upon a colony of Safari Ants, known as siafu in Swahili, and learned from Dino that this dangerous species has been known to occasionally eat babies, and is even capable of significantly harming adult humans – particularly drunk ones who pass out along the roadside late at night and wake

Mwanza: Back to School in Hyena Country

Tanzania map

Though not the smallest puddlejumper in Africa, the plane we took from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza last Saturday still looked to me like a small-scale model of a real airplane. Nonetheless, it shuttled us from the metropolis of Dar on the Indian Ocean coast to the rock-strewn shores of Lake Victoria without incident. We passed above the plains of central Tanzania and descended toward Mwanza in late afternoon as the sun illuminated the region's unusual, gravity-defying rock formations and corn fields. The lake sparkled, dotted with islands and the day's last fishing boats.

The one-room airport, wholly devoid of any security apparatus, would later prove an apt representation of the laid-back small-town atmosphere of Mwanza, Tanzania's second-largest city after Dar es Salaam - and a distant second to be sure.