Skeleton Coast Namibia

Skeleton Coast Namibia: an area that gives one a feeling of having arrived at the end of the world - or possibly its beginning.

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World Watch Advisory 03/17/04 04:54 GMT
Authorities warn March 16 2004 that serious floods are likely in northern Namibia in the coming weeks. Namibian Department of Water Affairs officials March 16 warned that impending floods in the Caprivi Strip in northern Namibia are likely going to exceed those seen in 2003 - which was described as a major disaster. Anticipate significant disruptions including road closures in this region in the coming weeks.

Officials have been reporting rising river levels in the Zambezi and Kavango rivers since mid-January. The water level in the Zambezi River March 14 was measured to be at least 1.6 meters higher than last year's level taken at the same time. Authorities estimate that additional rains in southern Angola are likely to push the levels well beyond those experienced in 2003 when floods submerged large parts of the Caprivi Strip and caused serious population displacements. Fears are even expressed that Katima Mulilo - a major town in the Caprivi Strip - may be flooded. Lake Liambezi in southern Caprivi has already begun flooding. Significant flooding may impact the major east-west road running through the Strip connecting Namibia with Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Expect disruptions in road travel and public services, including power outages; allow additional time to reach destinations. Consider postponing road travel to and through affected areas. If travel is unavoidable, carry plenty of food and water, and a radio with spare batteries. A personal satellite locator is also recommended. Avoid driving through water on roadways, as it could cause the vehicle's engine to stall. Do not attempt to move a stalled vehicle; abandon it and immediately move to higher ground.

As always in Namibia, drink bottled water only and use bottled water when brushing your teeth. Flooded conditions may lead to health risks and diseases such as malaria. Monitor media reports for local impact and follow the guidance of local authorities.

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Along the wild wastes of Namibia's Skeleton Coast, we encountes a magical place where Cape fur seals have hauled out of the sea to mate and give birth for millions of years. It is an ancient beach landscape where the sea, the wind and the rubbing of countless thousands of seal generations have shaped the granite boulders into monolithic sculptures that eerily resemble those very same seals nestling amongst them.

Where the stark and versatile beauty of northern Namibia's Kaokoveld meets the chilly fingers of the Atlantic's Benguela Current is a stretch of shoreline strewn with the skeletons of ships, seals and whales. This is the magnificent, yet infamous Skeleton Coast, an area that gives one a feeling of having arrived at the end of the world - or possibly its beginning. Here on show are the 120-million-year-old scars of the rupture of an ancient plateau that led to the drifting apart of the continents. To stand and contemplate them is a humbling experience, and even more so because one is aware that the presence of human beings in this arid landscape is overwhelmingly insignificant.

It is indeed a desolate place - but desolation is only a human definition. For many other mammals, not to mention the countless terrestrial and inter tidal invertebrates that have adapted to the nuances of this desert region, this is home.

Along this coastline, at latitude 18ûS, a rocky promontory interrupts the endless stretch of sand. Its name, Cape Fria, comes from the Portuguese word for 'cold', a stark reminder that those early sailors, too, felt that there was little warmth for humans amongst the rocks. For a certain streamlined carnivore, though, the promontory has much to offer; Arctocephalus pusillus, otherwise known as the Cape fur seal, breeds here in thousands upon thousands.

If you're traveling through the Skeleton Coast National Park, a detour to this colony is a must - but only if you are not squeamish. The stiff odor of decay, excreta and collective halitosis when you arrive is enough to wrinkle the hardiest nose. But wait a while... the smell subsides, or rather, you get used to it.

Keeping quiet, edge slowly towards the resting creatures. At first the seals are curious about you, but soon their curiosity turns to mistrust, and mistrust quickly translates into flight. Many of them bound and bleat their way to the sea, leaving behind what appears to be a group of seals that refuse to budge. Some have even raised themselves to their full height in defiance of the human intruders.

Look closely and you will see that these streamlined shapes are actually granite monoliths sculptured in the astonishing likeness of the sinuous creatures that live among them. And, indeed, sculptures they are, molded and smoothed not only by the sea, but by the seals themselves. Some people see them as the ancient rubbing stones of the sea and the seals; others see an 11-million-year-old signature in a cycle of stone. The more fanciful may even wonder whether this is how seals sign themselves in and sign themselves out... Seen through a poetic eye, the sea, the stones and the seals take on a different meaning. But let's not forget that the scientific eye also sees a certain kind of beauty.

The generic name of the fur seal, Arctocephalus, derives from the Greek arktos, a bear, and kephale, a head, while the specific name, pusillus, is from a Latin word meaning small (the original scientific description was that of a pup). Two subspecies occur in the southern hemisphere: the Cape fur seal and the Australian fur seal A. p. doriferus, which lives around the coasts of Australia and Tasmania.

The fur seals are classified as members of the family Otoriidae, or eared seals. The true seals, of the family Phocidae, are distinguished from them by not having external ears and by their different form of locomotion on land. The Otoriidae seals have fore flippers that are extraordinarily similar to the human hand, while their hind flippers are modified limbs that can be turned forward under the body and used in locomotion. The Phocidae seals, on the other hand, slide along the ground. Not surprisingly, the genitalia of male Phocidae seals are housed internally, whereas those of male fur seals are safe in their external form.

The teeth and the jaw architecture of these two families suggest that their evolutionary ancestors go back about 22.5 million years; the earliest known Otoriid, Pithanotaria - which, at about 1.5 metres long, was relatively small - was described from the late-middle Miocene, about 11 million years ago. Elsewhere on earth, the first apes had already established themselves, rhinos were around and so were aardvarks. The worldwide expansion of grasslands had begun, heralding what was to be the emergence, five million years later, of giraffe, warthog, zebra, camel and the modern carnivores - lion, leopard and cheetah. Thus, compared with many other animals, the fur seals have been around for a long time.

The best time to see them at Cape Fria is from October through November, when the breeding males begin hauling themselves onto land to establish their territories. In the ensuing weeks the females arrive and give birth to pups conceived 12 months previously. Within a matter of five to seven days the cows are in oestrus again and ready to mate. At the same time the huge males, weighing between 250 and 360 kilograms, aggressively defend their territories against other challengers. Females within each territory, collectively (and aptly) known as a 'harem', range in number between seven and 66.

Once the mating is over, the males play no role in the protection and rearing of the young. Instead, they go back to the ocean where they feed, bask and swim, preparing themselves for the territorial and mating demands of the October and November to come. The females, meanwhile, set off to sea on a feeding excursion, returning sometimes only after several days. On arrival back at the shore, the cows go to their usual resting places among the sculptured stones and there find their pups, identifying them by their bleat and scent. The females' absence is a vulnerable time for the pups, which are preyed upon by black-backed jackals and the nocturnal brown hyaena. Yet even these predators, like the sea and the stones, have a role to play in the cycle of seals.

NamibiaReading

Namibia’s Himba People
The Kaokoveld Wilderness
Namibia's Endemics
Etosha National Park
Big Sky... Big Earth
Skeleton Coast
Birding: Impalila Island and the Eastern Caprivi

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