Extinction was never an option for 'them'

by Rachel Chinyanga (Zimbabwe)

I didn't expect to find Zimbabwe

“Extinction was never an option for them”, this came to mind as I saw that animals in this part of the country, Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe are what you call divergent, with an exclusive vulture restaurant open for wining and dining; baboons lounging on hotel terraces sunbathing and participating in social behaviours such as eating, sharing food, grooming and resting; and monkeys surprisingly joining us for dinner (LOL! it was one monkey by the way). Still a surprise though!! A trip taken to Victoria Falls to celebrate my graduation from university with my parents in November 2019 was characterised by evolutionary surprises that had me raving more about the almost-human animals than the beautiful and spectacular Victoria Falls. ‘Without deviation from the norm progress is not possible’ is the mantra that Victoria Falls’ animals live by. Living in large troops as expected is not part of the Victoria Falls baboon DNA, and neither are vultures inherently scavengers always. On the day of arrival, Paul, our tour guide announced that we were going to a vulture restaurant as he drove down the hilly road towards the Victoria Falls Safari Club/Lodge, a beautiful wooden lodge. The first thing that came to mind was we were going to eat a vulture. Little did I know that this restaurant was exclusive for only keen-eyed customers; vultures. As we walked down the stairs at the back of the lodge, I spotted them. With their powerful hooked beaks they tore off chunks of fresh meat lying on the dry ground, no longer the typical scavengers and undertakers I knew them to be. It was lunchtime and the vultures were right on time, 1 p.m. to be exact as explained later by the host and their personal waiter, George, a cheerful chubby man. They call it the ‘Vulture Restaurant’ and what we were having was a vulture culture talk as we sat down beneath a small wooden shed with terraces with other surprised tourists as well. It was certainly an exclusive restaurant and I wasn’t the only one astonished. After the vulture culture talk, my parents and I decided to have lunch at the Victoria Falls Safari lodge’s restaurant which is rather ‘inclusive’, but a little bit more inclusive as I discovered later on much to my amusement. This place was beautiful as we sat down on the porch overlooking a watering hole in the wild where I saw a variety of animals such as a warthog, leopard, hyena and a buffalo drinking from it. Captivated by the delicious food in front of me and the cozy and natural game viewing, I didn’t realise that a monkey was standing right over my plate of French fries about to snatch my juice bottle and the plate itself before other hotel patrons chased it away towards the watering hole. Talk about inclusivity! I was really shocked and amused at the same time. This celebratory vacation was already full of surprises on the first day when I witnessed baboons lounging and sunbathing on the hotel terrace with other hotel patrons. The scenery was one I didn’t expect to find especially when a baboon mother and her baby approached an empty sun lounger and sat on it basking in the sun. Even the hotel patrons lying comfortably on their white sun loungers at the hotel terrace did not seem fazed by the pair and the three baboons that came and joined them later. These animals being the social primates they are were comfortably enjoying the luxuries of human civilisation. One would expect that animals such as mammals and birds with a complicated nervous system that react quickly than any other living things would run away at the sight of humans, but this wasn’t the case at all. Paul later explained that it was the humans who took over their homes so this was their way of adapting to the situation. Despite baboons being well known for their vulnerability to habitat change, Victoria Falls animals adapted quite well. Even as their natural home shrunk dramatically with some forests being burned and cut down to create space for civilisation they adjusted to the change and made our homes their homes too.