The New York Times puts it better than I did.
Lions on the loose
As I've mentioned, my house sits on a farm within Wits Rural Facility, a large gated area where many scientists, doctors and students stay while working at the hospital, Wits, or Kruger Park. We are surrounded by private game reserves that have some noisy lions that have kept me awake at night.
Two nights ago I woke up to actual roaring (rather than the sort of lion humming noises I'm used to) that sounded extremely close to my bedroom. Then Friday morning I received an SMS:
After a bit of stuttering---"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" from me, "Li-li-lions!" from Susan---I was able to reach for my camera and indiscriminately click away. They kept walking down the road, and after a moment of hesitation I decided we should follow. As we got closer all three walked into the bush to the side of the road. Two were further ahead and disappeared quickly, but one wasn't scared and eyed us as we pulled up next to her.
I was only able to get two photos where you can see her. The second one shows the side mirror so you can see how close we were.
And the close-up...
Once this lioness blended into the bush we sped down the road to alert the guards.
I saw a male lion in Kruger Park a couple months ago, but he was very distant and didn't move. Looking at these three walking down the road was awesome in the original sense of the word. They have such obvious power. I wish I had video of them walking. It was the most thrilling and scary moment of my time in South Africa.
The people sent to capture the lions found a waterbuck the lions had killed and dragged it to the road to bait them. The plan worked and all three are back in captivity. Hopefully the holes in the fence have been patched...
Two nights ago I woke up to actual roaring (rather than the sort of lion humming noises I'm used to) that sounded extremely close to my bedroom. Then Friday morning I received an SMS:
2 lions seen at Caravilla this am so don't walk around and if you have staff give them lifts.Caravilla is the other side of WRF, maybe 1km away from my house. Susan and I nervously laughed about whether the lions knew the shortcut to our house from Caravilla, then we went on our way to work. As we rolled down the hill toward the gate we were shocked to see three lions, two white and a third tawny. These specific lions are mentioned here.
After a bit of stuttering---"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" from me, "Li-li-lions!" from Susan---I was able to reach for my camera and indiscriminately click away. They kept walking down the road, and after a moment of hesitation I decided we should follow. As we got closer all three walked into the bush to the side of the road. Two were further ahead and disappeared quickly, but one wasn't scared and eyed us as we pulled up next to her.
I was only able to get two photos where you can see her. The second one shows the side mirror so you can see how close we were.
And the close-up...
Once this lioness blended into the bush we sped down the road to alert the guards.
I saw a male lion in Kruger Park a couple months ago, but he was very distant and didn't move. Looking at these three walking down the road was awesome in the original sense of the word. They have such obvious power. I wish I had video of them walking. It was the most thrilling and scary moment of my time in South Africa.
The people sent to capture the lions found a waterbuck the lions had killed and dragged it to the road to bait them. The plan worked and all three are back in captivity. Hopefully the holes in the fence have been patched...
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Sex vs. gender in the news
Really interesting controversy about an 18-year old South African track star whose gender is being questioned. Why biological sex is different from gender is something you learn in anthropology and sociology courses but is generally not discussed in ordinary conversations. Human variation is too broad for the distinct categories we use in everyday life, like man or woman, straight or gay, black or white.
Is this person a woman? Yes, I think so, because she identifies as a woman, regardless of what sort of plumbing she has. Is she categorically, biologically female? I don't know. But it's important to recognize that everyone she competes against has different levels of estrogen and testosterone, different secondary sex characteristics, and maybe even different primary sex characteristics. Maybe this woman is at the masculine end of the spectrum of female variation. But where is the line drawn? When a case like this comes up, it complicates our common sense understanding of sex and gender.
UPDATE: From the BBC, a blog post about the athlete and the reaction here and the ANC's response here.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Where the antelope play
I see impala just about every day. Yesterday I finally captured some for you in this terribly grainy video:
They are known as "McDonalds" because of the not-so-golden arches on their rears that look just like the M.
There's also a huge male waterbuck that seems to have taken residence behind my house. I couldn't get a picture of him before he ran off, but he looks a lot like this:
