Finds from the upper Okavango catchment area
Thalefang Charles | Friday April 1, 2016 17:30
The interview is conducted in three languages, being the local Mbundu translated into Portuguese, Angola’s official language, then translated to English (for researchers).
Through the three-tier translations, it is clear that locals are adamant that there are still big wild animals around this unprotected wilderness.
They mention ‘Elefante’ and Expedition Leader, Chris Boyes does not need to wait for English translation to understand.
Most villagers from the previous interviews have only been talking about elephants, but Jinjanga residents were offering to direct the researchers to a place where they could see evidence that indeed elephants still exist up on these highlands.
Having elephants in this remote wilderness would be a huge discovery for this research expedition in the Okavango’s upper catchment area hence Boyes’ sudden excitement.
South Eastern Angola is amongst the country’s most remote areas. For over 30 years this region has been cut off from the outside world due to human conflict. This supposedly abandoned region is the catchment of the Okavango Delta - a World Heritage Site - and catchment of some of Africa’s greatest rivers. The things that happen up on these highlands could directly affect everything and everyone that relies on the waters of the Okavango River basin from Cuito to Makgadikgadi Pans.
But this place has been a ‘black hole’ to biodiversity researchers for over 30 years since it remained inaccessible due to war. The dangers of landmines and blown-up bridges make it still difficult to access many places.
Fourteen years since the ceasefire, National Geographic Society (NatGeo) through the Okavango Wilderness Project (OWP), commissioned extensive biodiversity research in the area dubbed #Cuito2016.
“Last year, we undertook our biodiversity surveys during winter to coincide with the annual flood into the Okavango Delta. This is, however, not an ideal time to study biodiversity, as there is no rain and reptiles, insects, fish, mammals and birds are far less active. Migratory bird species are away and plants are not flowering. This is why we have to undertake far more indepth surveys during the summer months this year,” said OWP leader, Dr Steve Boyes at the beginning of the research expedition.
The expedition brought various scientists from around the world in various disciplines including entomologists (insects researchers), ichthyologists (fish specialists), herpetologists (reptiles) mammal specialists. Chris, who is leading the expedition team says another aim of the expedition was an extensive mapping of the area.
He says, “We wanted to break open routes through these thick forests, especially for vehicle access, to find more source lakes, rivers and to understand the drainage of these rivers”.
There are seven great rivers that could be traced from these Angolan highlands, namely Cuanza, Cuango, Kasai, Kuando, Cuito, Cubango and Cunene. The expedition focused on the Cuito River together with its major tributary the Cuanavale River – both major tributaries to the Okavango Delta.
“Currently we are doing this for the Okavango,” says Chris, revealing that research also included the socio-economic component where researchers visited communities living at these remote forests to conduct the group interviews in order to understand their way of life and also to hear from them about the secrets and history of the area.
The research team made major discoveries. As one researcher said, “Since this place’s biodiversity is undocumented, every single specimen we find here is of great scientific importance”. So there were a number of new species in the flora and fauna, first records for Angola and significant species range extensions.
Various scientists are still processing most of the research data collected from the two-months survey and Project Leader, Steve says they would present the findings soon.
The findings are expected to assist the Angolan government to develop policies for conservation of the area and this would by extension be a protection of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Bellow are some of the preliminary findings shared by some of the researchers.
Botany
Dr Davida Goyder - a botanist from Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, UK, led the botany team. He collected over 250 plant specimens around the Cuito-Cuanavale region that will be further studied at the Kew Gardens. Dr Goyder’s preliminary findings were that the South East of Angola is covered in deep deposits of low nutrient Kalahari sand with three main vegetation zones.
“The vegetation zones comprised of woodland on ridges, wetland in the valleys and grassland in between,” stated his report. He highlighted that most woodland trees belong to the legume family and extract nitrogen from the air to supplement their nutrition. Fire was also noted as a major factor in the vegetation of these regions. Dr Goyder said the Julbernardia is the commonest miombo woodland tree and is the most important honey plant in the area.
Herpetology
Herpetology team comprised of Werner Conradie, Luke Verburgt (from South Africa) and Ninda Baptista from Angola. Together they collected over 54 species. The team discovered two species that are new to science - Leaf-Folding Frog and Rough-Scaled Lizard both found around Cuanavale area. They also had 10 new records for southern Angola. Herpetology team found the Barotse water snake - which is a country record for Angola, Gaboon Adder (Southern Angola record) and Raymond Reed frogs meant they have extended their extension from north to south Angola.
Ichthyology
Fish experts that were part of the expedition were Dr Paul Skelton, Ben de Waal and Adjany Costa. The ichthyologists reported that all the four species they targeted to find on the reserch were collected on their first week. These were species discovered last year during the Okavango15 Expedition that are potentially new to science. It is the Climbing Perch (Microctenopoma species), Catfish without pelvic fins (Clariallabes species), Barb with orange mouth (Enteromius species) and Bulldog with a slender body (marcusenius species). The team also recorded one possible new barb to science collected at Cunde River. There are also two new records for the Okavango River system namely, Enteromius Bellerossi (Gorgeous Barb) and Clariallabes species (Unidentified Barb)
Ornithology
Over 215 species were recorded with over 50 new species. Bird expert Maans Boysen said they have realised significant range extension of birds like Sabota Lark, Crested Franklin. There were also lots of migrants that the ornithologists did not see during the last expedition that was in winter.
Follow the Expedition updates across social media with #Cuito2016 and #Cuanavale2016