Kgori, the decline of nonyane ya magosi

GASEBALWE SERETSE
Staff Writer | Tuesday March 30, 2010 00:00

 

Among Batswana, it is often called nonyane ya dikgosi. In the olden days, ordinary people were forbidden from eating it and if it so happened that a hunter killed the bird while out hunting, he would take it straight to the kgosi as a tribute to him. In some instances, some members of merafe who were regarded inferior, were expected to give it to someone from the senior merafe. Legend has it that the Bakgalagadi were not allowed to eat the bird and if they happened to catch it, they would give it to the nearest Mokwena, a tribal cousin. 

According to Wikipedia, the majestic kori bustard, which is native to Africa, is possibly the heaviest bird capable of flight. It further says that the male averages about 110 cm in length, stands 60-90 cm tall and has a wingspan of about 230-275 cm. The female averages 5.7 kg and is usually 20 percent shorter than the male. There is no doubt that since the bird is heavy and therefore a poor flier, this makes it easy prey for predators.  According to Kabelo Senyatso, the director of BirdLife Botswana, in the country, they consider the bird to be a threatened species although globally, the bird is not in the red.

'We have realised that in Botswana the numbers of the kori are greatly dwindling so we have decided to conserve it because it is a bird that features in many aspects of the Setswana culture, which means it is very important to Batswana,' he told Mmegi in an interview.Although BirdLife does not have actual figures, they have attempted to make the index of the bird in some of their specific habitats and realised that the numbers are greatly reduced.

Senyatso said that one of the things that worries his organisation, is poaching which is rife in Kweneng and Kgalagadi. He said that in Kweneng those who kill the bird mostly do it for the pot while in the Kgalagadi there is a trend where the bird is trapped by poachers and exported to the neighbouring South Africa. Senyatso expressed worry about poaching the kori for sale because if not stopped, the birds will be wiped out.

He said that since the kori bustard spends most of the time on the ground, they are easy targets for poachers and predators and that if poaching continues uncontrolled, the bird might be threatened with extinction. Perhaps the fact that the bird is an easy target inspired the Setswana proverb that says, 'Kgori e bona mae, lerapo ga e le bone,' loosely meaning 'The kori sees her eggs but she does not see the trap'.

Senyatso further said that some of the bustards get electrocuted after colliding with power lines while in flight. One can safely assume that since the birds do not fly that much, they do not know how to avoid such things as power lines like other birds which are constant fliers.  He further said that they as BirdLife are worried that the some methods that are used to combat birds such as the quelea, thaga, with poison.

The quelea birds are notorious for   invading the fields eating crops in the process, so the Ministry of Agriculture has been using a chemical known as Fenthion 64 percent ulv to combat them and Senyatso fears that this might  greatly affect the kori bustard which is an omnivore and therefore likely to eat the poisoned birds which can also kill them.

'We are currently negotiating with the Ministry of Agriculture and encouraging them to think of using other methods which would not be harmful to other bird species such as the bustard,' said Senyatso.

He said one of the things that is a cause for concern about the decline of the kori is the fact that the female lays only two eggs and  reproduction occurs only once in a year. Both the eggs and the chicks are always exposed to predators that find them easy targets.

Although the kori bustard is not in the red as far as being threatened is concerned, according to the online Kori Bustard Fact Sheet,  the bird is listed on Appendix II of CITES since the distribution of the kori subspecies is becoming fragmented and overall, declining in numbers.  The East African subspecies is found in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, while the southern form is distributed in southern Africa in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, southern Angola, South Africa and southern Mozambique.

BirdLife has decided to initiate community based birding in places like Makgadikgadi Pans, Otse and Lake Ngami where they are encouraging people in those communities to exploit the birds in a way that does not bring them any harm. They believe this initiative will help combat poaching of all bird species. It remains to be seen if the organisation will be able to save this nonyane ya magosi for posterity.