Sadly, many bee farmers can be seen selling bags of charcoal next to their honey. The miombo trees have huge nectar flows, and the potential for commercial honey production out of pristine woodlands is being encouraged in many places around Zambia. True hunter-gatherer tribes have however been known to block up the holes they have chopped open with stones and wood, thereby allowing bees to recolonize their hive. No bees can use this again after it has been raided. Most trees are hollow, but sadly the method of harvesting the honey involves chopping open the hollow tree (often after felling). ![]() The other significant insect product is honey: the density of hives in the woodlands is high. These are a huge resource, with the dried skins being a popular food and important rural source of protein (pictures elsewhere on this site). Right at the start of the season caterpillars are harvested off the Julbernardia trees. There are a lot of useful products that come out of the miombo during the wet season. At least you never have to stoop under branches! The clear, shady miombo environment, perfect for walking when the grass is still short (it never gets too dense because of the shade). For now though, African Parks, Bangweulu Wetlands and ZAWA have done a great job in protecting the species and its habitats, and tourism revenue is used to pay local fishermen to act as shoebill guards, preventing chicks from being stolen and sold. Shoebills do, after all, hatch two chicks, and the species is threatened. Understanding the behaviour of Kapotwe is vital for planning successful chick-rearing strategies in the future, should these ever become necessary. Tourists have seen her, and she will be monitored into the future to determine whether her imprinting was severe enough to stop her breeding with other shoebills. ![]() ![]() Apart from a run-in with a fishing line (fortunately no serious injury, despite having swallowed a hooked catfish) and a well-meaning fisherman capturing our ‘escaped’ shoebill, she has been coping quite well in the wild. As the water dried on the plain, she followed the water levels into the Lukulu Delta, where she remains. Kapotwe eventually learned to forage on her own, hunting fish on the floodplain and in the pool in front of the research station. Kapotwe reaching her full adult plumage, with a nice little ‘crown’- truly king of the swamps!
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