NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE (WILLIAM L ALLEN, Fiear ‘Ansociate Eaters ‘ELIZABETH A, MOLE, ROBERT M. POOLE SENION ASSISTANT EDITORS ROBET BOOTHE, Praducrow + ALLEN CARNOLL. Carmygaiy WILLIAM T. DOUTHITY, Hlrtmonis Mais « RICK GORE, Suiancr ~ DAVID JTFFERY, Lepeuie THOMAS KENNEDY, Photngapiey + PETIR MILLER, Bxpedtioas JOHNG. MITCHILE, Eevramnens © OLIVER EAYNE. Memmeripts CONSTANCE H. PHELPS, Lay sl Tieng = LESLEY BROGERS, Reser ALLAN ROTCE, lMlaination © CHBUSTOPTER F SLOAN, Av + CEOMIGE E STUART; Anitwnobipy EDITORIAL Anata iors: Dn Tak Sc65) Som ihe Kart ie fil Bin Meee Harnett ‘Eon Sear Waar: Jann L Eat Cathy Teoma. lL Seerom. Pit 2 enti Seer Wri St (hasten F Cat, any 9A. Thoma Col, Peter fotaoat, Jew. Ci Yay. Mag Heng (ote Seranaunnait,X Re Wiliaes Beeston: haw (Manor Leena! Sat Grea Vain Gate Line Mom: Lin, Ai Matin. Willim Net. Watton Diet, rghit. Lachoen Meets: izle A demwnny Aare Ser fraearhor: Caray anderson Ft. I tee ‘cats MMcCon mary EPs. Aigo A Titan. 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AMmNaton Dl Devers Mary L_ aon, Dehn ‘Sarton Seer d Me, yn 8 kena, RAMs We, Surman A ylation ity Ca Cer, ‘Aes vi Prva) fae A Stinger Dewloprant Dio: Margaret Sear. Deca Drety # leech, (eter Eien, Cewainnal Geyonn: Pioee Gram apie Mal Sur S none dacrrMarcy Weer, ont tates Fomign Ee Nata W trance Aaa ice resigo Wt ot Ges@apN EaxcabCD Nbr Dil, ast Ww Provuten an Ohara an Elan) De Fuga! Pagar Beane. uma ‘Nevouten: Mra Eau Ce, train Systems: lanes PMA. ee Preity, ena eh, dare Vee eigen: Sear Bolen. Mure Bare. Werk Chew, Cua Cimny Fed. Gort ‘ec, eee to oman a Mena, een Bua nt Feige Caen Fine ‘anerme a Jonas PLODUCTION sravicns ca Hua. Aant vee Frenne nag>eeSevcen: fbr fA Mtn Coeny ¥. WH ‘Duwoio rT Oui, Aaa Cocos: Po-Pyeaa: Gaui, MUCoRe, Owes Men GANG iow einge. Pulp € Fide. Garcc , hmrick. Png, Rotepe ML, Accent Sharan hana Yates ‘uy WHEN Alp, Dome Adnan. dome ima ADVERTISING 1 Rit iat, We etait a Ovation Rode, Naat Manage: aur |. Rue, CRiage Knap, Sioeourse F Simot, Exeter Mirage Pil) 6. 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PLN eC pris S008 rai aap Sana Ange ooo Rint eon BO Mg CEASE sem sageotans nents keuie seen o aso nana are NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY "Fe the itcrease au diffusion of seograplnic kmowiedge.” ‘Tig RaiewanncRAReSqcvey i chacere "Wingo Kon sonal ic wa edlennl began See 1990 he Sy fae aupporned more them §,500 empinrationn smal erscarch (open odng wo kno eho aa. REG MEE, Plo ene Var Prandent GENE FERRONE toa pesrracaye ROBERT BSUS oe Pein SUZANINE EIRIMRE. Senrvtary aud Counrel }.GREGORY FLATTS, Treat Joes fL BLODCEN, HATMGND F COORER, HOYER GOLDEN, ROMA L. HASSLINGEL, JAMES E RELLY, ]OMATHAN WUNDERS. {ABHY LU, GEORGE E SEWSTERT, DALE A PETROSKEY BOAND OF TRUSTEES {GLMEITT a. GHOSVEND, Chena Jo, LLANE TORe ‘am oe gp Sata and WILLIAM ALLEN THONEAS E ADLER ‘hse ae ces a Ae FRAME ROMAN Chas SPEED, Pas Cine EES M.aBANSCON way Fld of permet Hare aber) |. CARTEL RROMN (ests Hass Non Gali of it MARTHA. CHURCH 1s Gate Raton for Abr Tehing MICHAEL COLLIS Frm Mica Callne es Ay LEON HIGCINBOITHAM, JR. Farmer Ciel Juatipe fox whe Ther Caron, U.S. Canrt ef Apnea ‘NBu9 HOFFMAN JOHN JAY ISELIN J. RILLARD MARRIOTT, J hanain a ore. Mac Iara [FLORETTA DUKES McKENZIE Famer Sree bf Eoin Def Combi ‘WEG MUR MATHAMIFL PARED. asnesma Enver ‘WHLLIANMAC REM Fone Necrarit, Foear moments Fron to= fyoe ROZANVEL RIDGWAY (Ch file Co Utd Sts AL PRANCIS SAUL IL ‘Sharan an rien, 8 Saal Empey ROBERT. STAI TRUSTEES EMERITUS een & Agana Rober | Bes. orev mae, evan Ee, ry ass Carte ‘Mix andor shear Ws AhsGheaney Mar aur ©: Heckel Rcbet © Betas, redone Yeu RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION COMMITTEE EDUEATION FOUNDATION ‘acre Pte, etn DeirA Place~ eels inthe New South Africa By Douglas H. Chadwick bs by Chris Johns Photograp pene oc eran |On the windswept frontier between fo nations, a lion patrols the dry Nosiob riverbed, center af a vast ref- uge for big game. Here South Africa's Kalabari Germsbok Nattonal Park ts joined by a fence- less border with Botswana's larger Gemsbok National Park. Encompass: tngan area larger than Vermont, they represent an Afri- cin trend toward transnational parks, allowing wildlife ree rein in their natteral ecosystems: Lions and many other large species bad all but disap- peared from South Africa by the turn of the century be- cause of unbridled Hunting by white setilers. But the seeds of a remark able comeback were planted in the 1890s wath the country’s first game reserves, including Umfaloxt in Natal and Sabie in Trans: vaal. Frome the latter sprang Kruger National Park in 1926.VERYTHING feels like fresh start. It is early September, the onset of spring in a brand-new democracy, the Republic of South Africa. The country’s far southern edge is in flower, and my boots are pointed down the Otter Trail, which leads for five days through the untamed terrain of Tsitsikamma National Park. ‘The route becomes a forest tunnel. Theairis close and humid and netted with monkey-rope: vines. My footsteps arethe only sound, Where @ pool shimmers within a bower of yellow~ wood and white peartrees, otter tracks pattern the mud, The path makes aturn, Suddenly the world is all sun glare, wind, plunging head- lands, and detonating waves. I can't hear my footsteps anymore. But I can see whale spouts and the earth's curve in the sea. Southern right whales and humpbacks migrate around this time of year. African pen- guins sometimes stop in from breeding colo- ‘ies farther west, and bottlenose dolphinsride the breakers rolling toward the cliffs. Thad come to South Africa to learn how its wildlife reserves were faring under the coun- try’s first truly representative government. In 1994 a largely peaceful revolution ended the racist system of apartheid. Nelson Mandela, who had been imprisoned for 27 years, was elected president. His administration inherit- ed a park system long regarded as among the best in the world. It contains 17 established national parks and five more-in the process of formation, scores of provincial parks, other public lands such as scenic and recreational areas, and anetwork of private game reserves. ‘But Mandela also inherited a fledgling de- mocracy in which medical care, reliable water, schools, and housing remain in short supply for many, especially in rural areas. Estimates of unemployment rates range as high as 40 percent, and the population of 43 million isexploding, Where will nature fit into the balance? That ‘Wildlife biologist Dowe Cuapwrcx isthe author of fouir books, including The Fate ofthe Elephant, aiid 16 Grocrarmte articles. He lives in Whitefish, Montana, and keeps a log cabin next to Glacier ‘National Park. 10 depends largely on the future of the parks. ‘South Africa is well aware of thelr value in luring tourist dollars into the country. But parks also cost money to run and, as in the ‘United States, they are being asked to pay ‘more of their own way. Increasingly, they have to prove their worth to a land-hungry populace with pressing social concerns. Before I visited South Africa, I thought I understood what that worth was, but Tam just now beginning to grasp the scope of what is being conserved here. Even when I put on a face mask and dive beneath the waves to watch angelfish dart ‘among anemones, I'm within the sanctuary system, because Tsitsikamma's boundaries extend three miles out to sea. Created in 1964 with a narrower strip of ocean acreawe, it was the first of several marine reserves. Besides sheltering sea life, such refuges help replenish fish stocks that commercial and sport fisher- men rely on elsewhere along the const. On land Tsitsikamma is thinner. Though some 45 miles long, itaverages only halfa mile wide. But the'staff works with neighboring private landownersto control alien plantsand soil runoff, Itatso helps manage conservation on large, government-owned tracts farther in- land. Bendinginthatdirection, the Otter Trail crosses a terrace burned by past wildfire. There I find myself walking in chest-high fyn- bos, a community of thick, aromatic shrubs and wildflowers, many unique to this region. ‘The proteas and-aloes bold forth petal super- novas-40 huge that the sunbirds feeding on them seem like insects on ordinary blossoms. Rain squalls put the sun out. The onshore wind turns bitter. Heavy swells roll against me as I cross the mouth of the Bloukrans River to heave my pack onto the fur cliff wall. Well, T think, as I crab sideways along a slippery ledge, it never was my destiny to explore how rouch luxury human can.absorb, More rainy miles bringone of the huts that awaitthe Otter ‘Trail waytarer. Stars emerge. So does a pair of eyes lit by flames from my campfire. Leopard? ‘There are a few around. But no, my flashlight finds a smaller night hunter with ties to both the catand mongoose family —asmall-spatted. genet. I wonder what its destiny is. National Geographic, July 1906woman, performs a thank-you dance near Hlubluwe- her elan. A Zulu sangoma, or medi Umfolozi Park for the new wildebeest tail given her by a ranger fra rs and traditional healers are a part of the In this rural nation, spirit di landscape that parks are trying to incorporate inte their management plans. uth Africa bas bi to ensur wee amon aswell. But pearing into fresh, driftin é : " val rain f nayear, Lm the soly esaving a ¢ © whose hoofs never touched nature-or helping I er tall, the way the heat made thing s usually framed, but both sides m had a horselike andl a be missi point. Wildlife has little chance ail. Yet from its cas ‘ ng in countries where too many straight horn four feet long and sharp as a pe © po. nftanchised, Noresn lance. Yes, As real as unicorns ever any mit e progress und freedom — get. Grudgingly I admitted that ironment. Soinstead of oryx, or a gemsbok, seen from the side and tie New SouthNAMIBIA egiincoek ES Forest anc grass Grass [I Shrub = Swamp be: West Coast at: Pack Cape Town A pride of parks Pioneers in wildlife conservation, South Africans have forged a network of public parks and reserves unrivaled outside North America. Models of con- servation management for the country’s northern neighbors, they now occupy nearly 6 percent of South Africa's land. Private reserves and game farms, whose humbers have exploded in the past 15 years, occupy a near-equal area and provide a valuable, if luxury-oriented, buttress to the park system. Qe MOZAMBIQUE How Buy Cesta, f= ere = Management of protected areas IWEN—The World Conservation Union classifies publicly owned protected areas by conservation goal and strategy, The map highlights parks that foll within the three categories predominant in southern Africa, Official park namas do nat alwaye ‘accurately reflect the management category. & — National parks Managed for public education and recreation, each of these parks preserves one or more ecosystems. & — Habitotspecies management areas, ‘These reserves protect species and their habitats and facilitate scientific research and environmental monitoring, Public education ip secondary, & — Protected landscapesisoascapes Aesthetically pleasing iand and water settings, ‘they are mandged mainly for hurnan enjoymentThreatened African wildlife Distribution and wtatox of fear specter HM Frenne range [Ell] Range 200-200 years ago mT. Poached out af exkitence In places, African elphants now number a mere 543,000, lass than half the number of only 20 years ago, The 1380 international ban on ivory trade has helped curt the dectine Among Africa's mast threatened large carnivores, the wild dog was ance hunted 8 vermin by farmers. Large parks in South Africe and Tanzania are now its prime ganctuariss. Even there, however, itis stalked by lions. ~~ S ‘Once more plentiful than the largar white rhino, this is now the enctangered ono, fumbering about 2.400 eontinant-wide, Hiuhtuws- Umfolari Park containa approximately 400, perhaps the largest single population. Cepabie of running 70 miles an hour, cheetahs wore one fast track to extinction until thelr numbers recently levaled off at about 12,600. Genetic uniformity puts them igh risk for apidemics, missing one horn. Twas, after all, in Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, a huge reserve linked to still larger Gemsbok National Park in the neighboring country of Botswana. En route, I had stopped at Augrabies Falls National Park, where the Orange River goes airborne 220 feet, spraying thunder and mist, and the granite rim is divided into territories by skirmishing lizards colored like pieces of rainhow splashed up out of the gorge. HE NORTHEASTERN REGION of South Africa harbors the flagship: Kruger National Park, 35 to 40 miles wide on average and 230 miles long. On a hot afternoon I linger along the Sabie River, one of several waterways that give life to this arid domain. The Sabie is running low right now. Big, rounded rocks show above the surface. The current forms gentle rapids around them, full of murmurs and braided light. Abruptly, one of the mounds rears up in a spray of drop- lets and splits open. It is.a hippo head, yawn- ing. The animal's back has birds walking-all over it. They are oxpeckers, gleaning insects and parasites off the hide. Terrapins do the same underwater, Along the shore crocodiles sprawl with their ragged mouths open to help shed the afternoon heat. Gray herons and a saddle-billed stork stalk fish in stilt-legged slow motion until herd of Cape buffalo comes churning through the shallows to drink. Waterbuck and bush- buck burst from mmong the reeds to look on. Large bunches of impalas appear everywhere in the riverside shade, twitching at flies, new scents, and suspect shadows. Only one, draped high in a jackal berry tree, is still; the leopard that put the body there will be back as sunset turns the Sabie crimson and lion roars transform the growing darkness beyond into arenas of hunger and stealth. Now that South Africa is no longer being boycotted by other nations, word of itsnatural treasures is spreading fast. “Last year 730,000 people came through Kruger's gates," [learn from Piet du Plessis, chief of tourism, “About 7,000 were from overseas, compared with 56,000 priorto independence. Thisyear we are up another 20 percent and climbing." Nation- wide, the number of overseas visitors jumped 52 percent from 1994 to 1995. Overall, tourist is expected to pump 40 billion dollars into the economy over the next five years. Krugerisamong (Continued on page 20) isCull ofthe wild suBreaking out, reaching outAfrican dilemma(Continued from page 13) theheavily visited parks that not only pay for themselves but have-enough left over to finance others that are not as well-known but that conserve vital cle- ments of biological diversity. Anothor is Gold- en Gate Highlands National Park, which holds some of the last native highveld—South Africa's. rich upper elevation prairie, now mostly farmland—along with the imperiled sungazer, or giantgirdled lizard. Such popular parks are the reason the national park system is already 76 percent self-supporting, Part of Kruger's attraction has to do with the quality of the facilities. The main roadsare paved. More than two dozen immaculately tended rest camps offer accommodations from bungalows to tent, sites. Stop ata picnic site in between, and you'll find boiling water in case you want tea. Meanwhile, reservations re- quired for overnight stays help keep visitors spread out so the only crowds they experience are likely to have hoofs or paws. Driving back to camp in the evening via a dirt road, I pull over as.@ pickup truck skids to astop beside me: A man leans out the window and shouts, “Did you just pass'a cheetah by. any chance?” This is no curious tourist but Douw Grobler, a strapping, sun-and-dust- tanned ranger from park headquarters. He is following up a report of a cheetah with a hurt leg. L hop into his truck to lend a pair of eyes “What a day,” he mutters as we jolt down the road, racing against nightfall. “Not an ordinary day but typical of some days, I'm afraid." In the back of his truck is an impala, struck and killed by a-visitor’s car. In the cabis a rifle intended for a big male baboon I saw earlier at a nearby picnic site, Tourists ignor- ing “Please Do Not Feed the Animals” signs had turned him into a dangerous panhandler. He went on to break into the park shop and started hurling wine bottles around. By the time Douw artived, he found only broken glass and dung. The vandal had fled. And now we're searching for a cheetah doomed to starve if its legis toodamaged torun on. “ There!" Douw exclaims. The cat is like a slender patch of sunlight left behind in the brush. It struggles to rise. One forepaw hangs On morning reconnaissance, a trio of suricates scope the landscape around thei at an awful angle. “Broken,” the ranger pro- nounces with a shake of his head as the world's fastest Land animal limps a few yards, then turnstofaceus. “Theinjury appears to be nat- ural, so he'll just have to suffer it out on his own. In eases like this, we're supposed to let nature take its course.” Which meant we couldn’t even leave the cheetah a hit af impala meat. So, ifa hindquarter just happened to fall off the truck and end up nearthecat before we left, I would never ment OR ALL ITS VASTNESS, Kruger is only a fragment of the wildlands its inhabitants ‘once depended on. ‘The boundaries are arbitrary, and the park is increasingly surrounded by human activity, This separate- ‘ness—this ecological apartheid —is reinforced ‘bya fence enclosing the park. The stout wires are intended to keep wildlife safe from people while protecting humans from predators and diseases that game animals can transmit to livestock, But the barrier raises the question: What exactly is nature's course here anymore? Tliterally bite into the most emotional issue when T order. meat pie for lunch at the park. Some of that meat, I discover, may be ele- phant. Foraging for as many as 20 of eve: hours, the world's largest land animals can seriously harm plant communities, along with the creatures tied to them, Aslong.aselephants are free to wander, they only stir the habitats they use, But they can hammer an environ- ment when confined. A principal stronghold of crocodiles and endangered wild dogs in South Africa, Kruger also holds 80 percent of the nation's clephants. ‘To maintain the park population at around 7,300, rangers have culled 300 to 400each year and hauled the bodies to the park slaughter- house, where they become canned meat, fresh food for the staff, and restaurant fare. Among the animals killed are big males caught raiding irrigated fields just across the southern boundary. (Yes, a game-proof fence stands in the way, No, they haven't invented ‘one that is feasible to build and will stop a determined bull elephant.) Ironically, Kruger is ronowned for protecting big tuskers, The burrows in Kalahari Gemsbok Park. A type of mongoose adapted to open and arid regions, the gregarious creatures —also known as meerkats— thrive in the desert park and elsewhere in South Africa's dry western provinces, 20 National Geographic, uly 1006:Homo sapiens flood the beach on New Year's Day at Greater St. Lueia Wetland Park, where ~thanks to the Natal Parks Board's gaod neighbor policy —admission is free for local residents, South Africa's torrid zone, northern KwaZulu-Natal teems with tropical life. Along its normally empty beaches sea turtles are making « comeback 60-year-old Shawu, who died in 1986, for by anim org example ivories ten fect long and was by private conservation groups, the park plan wed constantly by rangers determined — to find homes for surplus elephants in r tokeep poachers at bay. Noticesin visitorcen- boring Marambique, whose reserves were ask tourists to contributé photographs emptied by years of civil war. Ideally, ret biologi dentify the ing an COU allowing the el heirown. The fence sep: ve heir range oni carcom- _phanisterelocate oi rating Kruger champion tuskers anc y that we don’t on its western bot ger’spul smannger, sighsashe puts ing the size of the down the tel Please, Fask ourcritics, Should e prove success tell us where is the money to translocate the ful, fences will al a Kruger 1 ne where is there sible ne ein Mor elephants instead? Then tel T hear taik of linking Kruger to othe r » put them? Contraception? Fine Lovely. Just let us know whois gaingto pay to protected wildlands in Zimbabwe, The re t war elephantsall over theparkand put would be one of the world's largest reserves. them on birth-control drugs?’ Menta re ning to come down 5 caught hot,” apoacher v or may an for the tribal Fair questions. Here ar ds for preliminar in Kr e been prot answers Fuly 1No fonger working for a pittance, local craftsm the gate to Kruger Parl put finishing touches on carvings that now earn them a living wage. Tutored by park consultants, they are learning to set prices in line with their labor. Large craft items may fetch several hundred dollars: in park cu io shops 4 nominal entrance fee scal bus © been ter 191 w able ek 1 a special Isind-elaims court. Portions on paper than in practice, t 1 of three national parks, Kruger among them, forums turn int ‘Continued on poTerritorial catThreatened with an oily demise, the 70,000 Cape gannets of Malgas Island share their waters with scares of tankers —a situation bound to worsen if plans mate! ize for the storage of Iranian oil at a nearby depot. Not only the gannets are-at risk butalso penguins, pelicans, and a host of other birdlife in West Coast National Park nued from page 23) juabbles be CENTURY AGO conservation was tivists pler. Thé main issue was wh hiets and Ant rotect Kru: not wildlife ‘ommer ger's rivers, ill but suck: people set asirle three game reserves s mercial fo now the province of KwaZulu-Natal: Hu: and Letaba hi gindry hluwe, alongthe that name; Umfolozi, well. across. corridor of state land to the south; and lifethirstier St. Lucia, about 30 miles east. They are the go farms in the Bel- longest standing reserves in Africa. In 1949 a near the park bouni While a other farsighted people built a fence arc powered pump chugs away on the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi, c ga joint park low, he digs a trench to direct water of nearly a quarter million acres. hrinking Sabie down to his tomato top Camp, the highest point of e, Lrendezvous with section I should give them water three times ‘anger a week,” be tells me, wiping sweat from his Armstrong and a field crew of about.a temples, “But 1am allowed to pu ce dozen whites and Zulus in the chill, predawn a week, so the tomatoes will Ww as big pled terrain of chest-high grass The park says it will buy aur vegetables. Iin- and young acacia trees falls away on all sid vultures 5. fir boun: sate ripe. They did gles and the day g, but we do nat see.” ad, W k: My tomat notcome. They are sa f Nai ‘onal Geographic, JulyIn the shallows of Kosi Bay estuary, men compete with flocks of flamingos for the sea‘s bounty, using fish traps to sieve the tides. Accepted as part of the environ ment, the ama-Thonga fishermen were allowed to continue this ancient tradition in 1992 when the area was incorporated into the Kosi Bay Coastal Forest Reserve © a young wom: lose to a me guards. Alth Imet two black exe il being toiden s at the National Parks Bo: 1 office and horn c been searching for nonwhite field manag ields the best ers in vain. It tak sight of Tracey Abel king up «rifle slung over hershoulderto make me he hairiest realize that ] have not met a an—of an: hear race —in-a manaj ole, until now quare big animal: sblackrhi- with women it's been an excuse t Lhis rifle aside. I made hister Tbe ent tra park Then, calling out in Zulu, Tracey hurries ttateh up with the rest of her patrol, vanishing among the buffalo thorn in search of giants. ‘Now it's my turn. Warrick spies his quarry and racesoff fora close-up look. He gets a good one—seconds before he has to dive behind a boulder to keep from being gored. We try to scout up more, following the threr-toed tracks and heaps of dung that mark their territary. ‘We pass fallen tree limbs grown shiny from itchy rhinos rubbing against them. In a grove of Natal mahogany along a valley bottom, ‘Warrick signals « halt. Straining, all T hear is the duet of a female black-collared barbet and her feathered mate sifting down through the leaves. Then, something else, Crack! Some- thing big. Whooom! Something elephantine. Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park's elephants carne from Kruger as orphans in the aftermath of culls, Whether from early trauma or the absence of elders, they have became a notori- ‘ously moody bunch given to charging visitors. We race through barbed tangles but not yery far before we bump into another elephant, turning our way and filling the space in front of us, then a third as we backpedal, Evers War- rick starts looking around for the stoutest tree toclimb, but wefinally scuttle to safer ground. Vv NOON ‘THE NEXT DAY T've not only seen rhinos nose to nose but leaned up. against their titanic butts to shove them through the veld toward a wait- ing truck: three white and one black, all drugged. As of 1890 the world had perhaps 50 southern white rhinos left, all in Umfolozi. Today there are around 8,200, the result of KwaZulu-Natal's translocating more than 3,700 ever the decades in what became known as Operation Rhino uth Africa became a primary refuge for black rhinos as well. In 1970 they numbered around 65,000. Poaching for their horn-—used to treat pain and fever in the Far East and to a lesser extent for ceremonial dagger handles in the Middle East—has since dropped them to fewer than 2,500, Hluhluwe-Umfoloz supports 350 to 400 blaick rhinos, among the largest populations anywhere, along with the second largest population of white rhinos— some 2,400.—within its fenced boundaries. To maintain a balance with their food supply, the park removes up to 5 percent of each group every year forsale. “Several just went to Namibia,” says Dave Cooper, a veterinarian, as we stroll past the 32 complex of pens in Umfolozi where rhinos adjust to captivity before being transported long distances. While new arrivals bash the bars surrounding them, a black rhino mother who has been here for weeks lets me reach in and pet her calf, “Six others are en route to Britain, Ten are to be shipped to Bangkok and two to Israel," Dave continues, “Some won't live long after they leave, since their destina- tions are private hunting reserves." A white rhino sells for $15,000 on average, a black rhino for about $42,000, A game-farm owner can turnaround the next day and charge some- one almost double that amount to shoot one— a white one, that is, since it is Megal every- where to shoot a black rhino. ‘The problem with selling off such wildlife is that once animals have dollar values, they start.to get swapped like commodities: Trade you two trophy sable antelope for a rhino, deal? And reserves end up with a fauna skewed toward species that are the easiest to manage or prized above all others by shoaters. ‘The advantage is that onee big game ani- mals become big business, thereis un incentive to keep their habitat intact. Since 1979 South Africa’s network of private reserves and game farms has grown in area from less than 2 mil- lion to more than 16 million acres. That acte- age can nurture other life from eagle owls to monitor lizards and pepperbark trees at no ‘extra cost. By contrast, certain plants have become so scarce in many settled areas that traditional healers; or ryanges, can ne longer find the roots and leaves for their medicines anclare making arrangements with reserves to gather in A fraction of the income from KwaZulu- Natal parks is distributed te:neighboring com- munities. Villagers have begun to think about establishing their own wildlife reserves. One has been formed next to Mkuzi Game Reserve, 8 provincial park, and Phinda Resouree Re- serve, a luxurious wildlife resort. Hluhluwe- Umfologi's fence may soon reach out toenciose 8 25,000-acre community reserve being con- sidered at the park's southern edge. Thesenew areas can offer game viewing for tourists, selective trophy hunting, and a regulated! har- vest of wild meat—a combination many pri- vate reserves and some provincial parks profitably pursue—while creating bridges between other wildlife habitats. Butnoteveryone is happy about the increas- ing acreage of parks. In the shade of a fruiting National Geographic, July 1996Landlords of Richtersveld National Park, the Nama people collect rent from the parks board for use of their desert home s the world’s richest diversity of succulent pl. elu! ing Nama herderRhino landRhino rescueTHOUSAND MILES to the west, in Rich- tersveld National Park, [ pull into the diamond-mining town of Sen- delingsdrif after dark and knock at what I take to be the superintendent's house. A man with olive-black skin opens the door. “T'm Jooking for a Mr. Paddy Gerdon,” Ts “Yes, I'm Paddy,” he replies. “Something tells me you're nol as Irish as ‘the name sounds.” Roaming the 400,000-acre park with Paddy over the next few days, I learn that he is descended from French Huguenots, Malayans brought to South Africaasslaves, and prossibly Col. Robert Gordon, who was among the first Europeans to explore the western coast. By sheer coincidence it was that Dutchman who in the 1770s named the Orange River, which now defines the northern and eastern bound- aries of the park Paddy oversees Paddy's father often took him to parks near their home. As he grew older, he found grent satisfaction in roaming the out-of-doors and decided onacareer in conservation. Peoplesay the reason whites get hired for upper echelon park jobs is that they have the best quulifica- tions, That may be true, but the apartheid sys- tem spent at least three times as much money to educate a white student as a nonwhite one. And, as Paddy discovered, colleges specializ- ing in wildlife management did not let people his calor in. Paridy took courses in environmental edu- cation instead, graduated with honors, and was selected as the National Parks Board's first nonwhite professional conservation offi- cer, But, stationed in Cape Town, he grew restless amid the smog and commuter crowds. “You end up with a headache, feeling like you've done-a whole day's work, and you've anly driven to the office,” he says. “Tusked to be stationed somewhere in the wilderness, I got my wish. Between Richtersveld's remate- ness and temperatures that reach 127 degrees, wesee fewer than 2,000 vi Those temperatures, combined with rain- fall of two inches or less a year in some parts, make for landscapes so stark they might be from a planet closer to the sun. But the cold Benguela Current running along the nearby Atlantic coast forms fogs that wash over the mountains through winter. That sheen of pre- cious moisture gives life to the slopes, It just doesn't look quite like life anywhere else. 38 As we clamber upadry wash, Paddy shows me hajfmens, plants that de look half human with their unbranched bodies and flowering headssilhouetted against thesky, and scores of different euphorbias, the African equivalent ofcactuses. At out feetare tiny globular suceu- lents, Some grow mainly among quartz crys- tals that, being white, reflect sunlight and are cooler than the surtounding rock Others resemble rocks themselves, On the yellow petals of a daisy are black markings thought to mimic pollen-thiet bee- des. “If the flower appears to have some of the robbers on it, others will avoid landing, since this beetle aguressively defends food,” Paddy explains. By necessity every plant here is a genius inventor, especially of ways to store water or produce seeds that can withstand manthsof baking until passing storms unleash the miracle of s desert in bloom, What T first thought. were bands of iron-rich rock are orange and red wildflowers running across the terrain like a flash flood. Richtersveld was set aside principally to protect this unique flora, though the place growsequally intriguing animals —coal black, hairy scorpions capable of shooting their ‘venom three feet away, forexample, and rare mountain ground squirrels. Steenbok, gray rhebok, a few klipspringers, and the occasion- ‘al gemsbok make a home here, subsisting on water from plants. For at least 2,000 years domestic sheep and goats and their herders, ‘the Name tribe, have managed to live in this desert aswell. ‘The National Parks Board began eyeing the area as a potential reserve in 1972. Planners ‘kept trying to persuade the Namatoleave with offers of other grazing lands. The Nama ‘balked. Dismond-mining operations along the ‘Orange River were another snag, Richters- veld wasn't born until 1991. By then it had taken on a character all its own, as a park based on contracts between groups with dif- ferent interests. ‘The diamond’ companies stayed, with the understanding that the land being mined will revert tothe park when the gems play out. The Namastayed ton, In fact they became the pro» ptictors of Richtersveld, leasing their land to the parks board for 24 years while reserving the right to terminate the contract with a six- year notice. The lease money goes into a com munity trust fund to be distributed as the Nama see fit. Park-management decisions are National Geographic, July 1096On the lonely bushveld of Northern Cape Province, two San tribesmen tend their ailing father, Regopstaan. Patriarch of South Africa's last Bushmen, as they are often called, the now deceased 95-year-old h ped to see the resolution of a lawsui to allow his people access to their old hunting grounds in Kalahari Gemsbok Park, by a committee consisting af four park employees, four representatives. from Nama village done Nama who speaks pecific Byr ment the Nama limit the size of th bute with additional range vergrazing, y are € var the park, UT NEAR RICHTERSVELD’S HEART Ni named Frikkie Smith is pri F p move a flock of 230 gc ge of « wash where a few trees offer thorny umbrellas of shade. Two boys who help with herding crack a goatskin bull | brush hip near asm “Sometimes two owners, th four or five owners will run their animals together. But the first warden told us the big herds rr dead, trampled a for Parks in the New South Africa s. We agreed it w slem, discussions like that, I don't notice much difference before the park and now T ask how he feels about tourists coming throug! Good: I like to see them enjoying the They ofien stop to talk with us, and th ack How arks in your country?) where to begin, I sa: Then he asks me sour park com= Uncert serves in both countries protect lift >e of great import Almost one-third of Richtersve! species are found only here orin the imme vicinity. And just yesterday at heark ethnobotanist Fiona Archer told me th Nama have specific use 130 Many are medicinal, enlistes froBetter hunter than ranger, Klaas Kruiper left his job with Kalahari Gemsbok Pari. “ | red Kalahari dunes, the San tribesman plans to resume a traditional way of life. managed, say the San, there will Is to go around. St. Luciais one of the country’s me: ks—used by hundreds of thou: hermen, beachcon and birde other watchersof wildlife, Theclast mining began in 1989 and led toSou' say in public heari acommon pra t South Africa's first wilderness ar he U.S. but another first for South Afric Placing near! of Umfolozio This spring, after 1 returne South ed Africa, the government ruled against the min rism, RBM ba: cision, Thatinae a ae Se eeSport, like all life, is about taking risks. /( ANNISTE LET THE From the balancing act of British hurdier Percy Hodge to the athletic rituals of ancient Greece (below!, humanity's panchant for play has been expressed in every society in every age. For the centennial of the modern Olympics, we deployed photographers, dug through picture archives, and commissioned a vetoran sportswriter to get atthe cultural roots of the games we play, THE £1) BY FRANK DEFORD In the Greece of 2,300 years ago, time was ady measured in olympiads—fouryear periods—and the country was $0 generally en- gaged by sporting compatition that the Olympies fore actually only part of acircuit not unlike, say, the Grand Stam of tennis today or Grand Prix auto racing. There were also the Pythian Games and the Isthmian and the Nemean. In Athens a sturdy wrestier, good enough to compete in the Isthmian Games, enjoyed remaining in the gymnasium after practice, there to chew the fat, to ponder life. It might very well have been right there where he first inquired: “What, then, will be the: right way to live?” Anyway, eventually, the wrestler would answer his own question: ‘A man should spend his whole life at’play." Thus did Plato assess the grand place af sport in civilization. Mere often —although all their forms, have been played In virtually ev ery Society since the beginning of humankind—it has been the fate of play to be dismissed as somehow inconsequential to our existence oR jarnes, in lly,” says Drew Hyland, a philosophy profes sor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, who is past president of the international Philosophie So- ciety for the Study of Sport, “after Plato and Aristotle no major philos- ‘opher seems to have seriously con sidered the implications of sport until Niotzsche in the 19th century: To be sure, sport appears more evident in our lives today, but thatis simply because we possess greater leisure time and the technology to allow us the greater opportunity to| ed See UT Ue COC Ae nese bowman keeps alive the samurai art of ot Pee ecu ect ’ Ps ; practiced in the sixth century, archers h Pe EE AS aa ken Fs Oe ee ~ Efae ace Daag! ed Seyi eee ey esteem te : 3 ene rt ony asocet Ris _ watch or participate in sport; intrinsically, sport is na more a part of us than ever jt was. The “official” Olympics are dated from 776 &.C., but more informal games hed been held at Olympia for several centuries, and athletic dis- plays of even more ancient vintage took place in Eaypt and China and the Americas, Johan Huizinga, the Dutch historian whose 1938 work, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture, remains the classic in the field, point- ed out that, after all, animals not only play but play “just fike mon.” It amused Huizinga how there was forever a tendency amongst psycholo- gists to conclude that playing games must have what we would call today some hidden agenda, But why? Why can’t we play in order to play no jess than we-eat in order to eat? Of course, this is not to suggest that play has hot often been associated with other important elements of life. The first teamwork came, surely, onthe hunt, and all sorts of sport derived natural- ly from the military—archery, chariot racing, the javelin. There Is evidence of fencing for fun por- trayed on the walis near Luxor a5 early as the 12th century 8.C, and Assyrian warriors appear to have raced with what Olympic swimmers call the crawl stroke. (Sparta had no swanky gyms at all; we don't need any of those sissy civilian d- vertissements around here.) Likewise, from early on and everywhere, major sporting events were FRANK DEFORD, chosen by readers of American Jovmat: {gen Review as the nation's best sportsyritor in 1983, is also 2 radio and television commentator and the author of 17 books, including Love anu infarrry, « historical navel set in Jopan. This in his first artiefe for NATIONAL GEOGAAPHIC. tury ac. ware 46 Chariots driven into battle by Hittite warriors in the ninth cen ‘L eens sts htel Mts Pte Pr eeate erate ee ae Marathon — giving n Pte Ree eee the duller prayer world, At Olympie it was the huge stat- up of Zeus, nat the stadium, that was one of the Seven ‘Wonders of the World. Early Mescamericans saw in their Ba RESOUNCE isa popularly raced. ball games reenactments of conflicts between the sun and moon. And not all that much changes, does it? Beron Pierre de Coubertin, who inspired the re-creation of the Olympics in 1896, declared: “Forme, sportis a religion with church, dogma, ritual,” Broadly, the kinds of games we play also ap- pear indigenous to the whole human race. Haw else to explain that an activity like bowling evi- dently grew up in such disparate locales as Egypt, Polynesia, and Germany? Ball games, which originally were rock or skull games and lat er animal bladder games, also trace to antiquity all aver the world. It is, as well, « constant that competitions with horses have invariably been for the royal and the rich, every king's sport, everywhere, Even in the Olyinpies, a remarkably democratic affair forthe time, itwas the owner of the chariot team, not the driver, who was han: ored in vietory. Withal, sport is inherently’ contradictory, for while it is fun anct liberating, it is also one of the most regulated parts of life. Inevitably the ques~ tion sny child asks whan coming to a new game is; What are the rules? One can visualize our primitive ancestors, relaxing after some kind of tribal melee, extrapolating from that game haw National Geographic, July 1996co eran Set) Reyes ihe eeeoe pe rane eoesiloea ers Peri oarirs A cu 2 é ee ea i cr terrain) Pee pets et the rest of their chaotic tives “Might be better prescribed. Certainly sports de shape our values—all the more so today when so many children watch famous millionaire stars in action. (One is re- minded of histarisn Daniel Boorstin's prescient obsarva- tion from 36 years ago that, s00n enough, the only real things left in world of "pseudo-events” would be crime and sports.) The ancient Greeks, as is wll known, were a Socinty where homosexuality was tolerated, even stylish. As sport is employed today to sell products orto give otherwise hum drum cities and colleges identity and glitter, so did the Greeks use sports as an opportunity for men to meet boys. It is instructive that the root word for "gymnasium," gymnos, has nothing to do with sports, but means "nude," And, of course, the Olympians competed buck naked before an audianes limited to males, though the priestess of Demeter was permitted to attend t is also true that while sport may be universal, our particular choice of asma reveals a great deal about ourselves, Asa case in point, Alsion’s Seed, David Hackatt Fischer's brilfiant study of the migration from the British Isies to the Ameri- can Colonies, demonstrates how countrymen from proximate regions introduced entirely dif- ferent sports to the new fandd, The Puritans, who hailed from ths east of England, clustered in New England villages, where they introduced the forerunners of base- ball (town ball) and football (the Boston game) — activities that required community coordination Olympics ‘Acrobats toss a ball in a 1,600. ‘year-old masaic discovered at a Roman villa in Sicily. ara eee Netherlands. ee Cee tee ‘een fet Indeed, as early as 1639 the militia in Massachusetts had to devote time, regularly, to sports together, Meanwhile, the Cavaliers of Virginia and their servants emigrated largely from the Southwest of | England— ‘Thomas Hardy territory —and favored ail types of blood Sport; depending on your sta- tion, you hunted down everything from bucks to birds: The gentlemen also were fond of horse racing, especially as it lent itself ta gambling. It was not unusual for huge sums to be won or lost at these early match races. Yot-a third large migratory cohort, the North Britons, brought with them to the Appalachian spine athletic manifestations of their “warrior ethic’"—coming, as they did, from borderlands where wer was mean and incessant, These immi- grants preferred individual competitions that tested a man’s ability to run, jump, and throw, as wall as horribly savage wrestling matches and the even more sanguinary rough-and-tumbles — brawls that positively appalled visitors from the more genteel coast. It was not uncommon for these scraps to result in maiming —even blinding and castration, fis, then, hardly any accident that American football, the mast obvious modem war game, would become favored in the South by descen- dants of these bloodthirsty peopie—but would find no place in Baron de Coubertin’s classical theater of sport. Ironically, football hac at first been the property of American de Coubertin types—effete Ivy League aristocrats who used the rough game to shaw the hoi polloi their own PEBLFOTS(iets eine) ties socinties had formed. it Caine em ieee rng) eee Poesy i brimming masculinity, But then, attitudes about athletes: ‘tween two poles. On the one ‘hand there has been the im- age of the dumb jock, while ‘onthe othor we calebrate the | “Sstme or sans ie ard vate bios aan Er) pe ee oe ent teen Cored a on eee es Pt pein founded in England Laren eee Hundred Gui fby the baran, terribly distort: ed the way we came to think about sport. In fact, nowhere in human nature has victory incompetition ever been inci- rs SY denial, and amongst the TRIER Very crofessional athletes at heroic all-American (really: Chic sport of Renaissance France, Olympia there was actually all-curs}, 8 Ranaissance man "ut tennis Bavaria to numerous anaxpreasion: "tho wreath or prized for being sound of Pla- death.” (The Aztec and Maya tonic mind and body alike, treated this somewhat more: ‘Surely, though, It was the Greeks who invested the most of themselves in-sport, so it is appropri- ‘ato that their Olympics were the games that de Coubertin revived exactly a century ago, their idealized sportsmen evoked. The Olympics were genuine too; they grew naturally out of asociety that was at once competitive the Greeks had drinking contests, singing contests, even beauty pageants, male division—and aesthetic, Socra- 4es held that the twin keys to @ person's develop- ment were the fine arts and sports, which are precisely the two disciplines first cut whenever American schoo! districts run short of funds. Yet we must be careful not to romanticiza thoge original games indiscriminately. For opan- ers, where they were held at the end of every fourth summer-in stifling Atlante-ike heat in the Peloponnesian boondocks, a river valley packed with freemen, their slaves, and whares— must have produced an effluvium from the vaca- tioning humanity and their sizzling animal sacri- fives that was overwhelming. Also, the myths notwithstanding, the Greeks really did not call aff wars for the games) and! the competitors were hat a bunch of gicdy amateurs, running snd scrapping in the butfjusttorthe fun of it. ‘That latter praposterous concept, foisted on us 4g, literally, making human sacrifices out of the los- ers In their big games.) De Coubertin, though, wistfully proclaimed the Olympic motto te be: “The most important thing in the Olympic ‘Gamesis not to win but to take part.” The Olympics caused more practical problems by trying to ban professionals. The read to purity is paved with hypocrisy, De Coubertin was a Frenchman, but he was an Anglophile, imbued with the-spirit of English, oristocratic sport. He made pilgrimages to Rughy and Eton, rather than Olympia. More to the paint, he needed Brit- ist support if ever he was to re-create the games. So de Coubertin went along with the professed English amateur ideal, even though it was, in fact, only sore sanctimonious cant that the Upper classes emplayed to keep the poor folk from baing able to compete fairly with the gentry, In few other disciplines has it ever been sug- gested that performers are somehow loss sullied for failing to profit by their talent. Yet the idea of the'struggling artist persists with sport, and itre- fains “Olympian” in the public mind evan.as the Olympics are finally returning to the way they really were, with payment allowed for the ath- Jotes. In Greece Olympic winners were richly re- warded and presented with everything from cash National Geographic, Fuly 1996Amer teen Cotter ears Cd ad reser na PE cet eaee Syn a een the Duke of Beaufort pe oe ieee ese ren Chae Deer near pa 3 : i (on the barrelhead to tax ox: ments. Moreaver, while the competitors were obliged to swesr to Zeus that they would play fair the manic press for victory was such that this sacred oath was more often honored in a breach that would do the Na- tional Hockey League proud. it is-all terribly romantic to believe that just playing for fun without caring about victory is the goal of sport, but that's rather like the old trauba- dours suggesting that true love appears only without lust. The reality is that, tall times, sport at the highest level has been desperately fought by those who are the best at it and who are ‘compensated for their effort. Forever inherent to play have also been gambling and cheating and ungrateful fans, booing, and all the other unat. ‘tractive flaws anc foibles of humankind—how well | recall a sign in the Sports fustrated art department that read; LIFE IS A MICROCOSM OF 'SPORT—and we can nover return to those good. old days of pure fun and games because there just never were any. Ever. Anywhere. Indeed, | would suggest that the obsessive at. tempt to force the Olympics to be an unnetural athletic beast encouraged the kind of cynicism and hypocrisy that allowed more honestly pro fessional competitions to advance in popularity and prosper. Certainly the Olympics have grown throughout this century, and they have come to constitute the greatest festival in the world today, but ironically—and however much the games mean to the compatitors—the Olympics, | be: lieve, have meant little to the advance of sport British private schools such as Rugby became seedbeds of team ‘sports in the 18th century. 7 Led Sheeting eee Aree Mirena eo ene Peet i Wete ieee ee cad one er Reese et Suan) | itself. Original — modern events, such as-the World Cup, the American World Series and Super Bowl, and various European and Asian team championships have superseded the Olympics in passion, es truly pure compe- titions. As sport, it Is the Olympics that have ended up more sideshow: the mist important Olympic compatition now is batween cities fighting to host feture games Pr: sport emphasized mano # mano, and while various ball gamos hands, L or-sticks—do date from antiquity, they were viewed loss haroicatly in the classical world. In more than.a millennium’'s worth of ancient Giym pics, the Greeks never included any ball games on the program, dismissing them, literally, as child's play. The Romans set aside space for ball: playing nextto their public baths but constructed gargantuan arenas for chariot races and ladiato- rial duels. In medieval times, whan martial games were especially prized, several British monarchs periodically banned all football in England, lest it divertthe yeomen from practicing with thair bows and arrows, (SUill, Say what you ‘will, the thras best sports stories of all time may yet be Odysseus’s marksmanship with s bow, winning his love, Penelope; William Teil’s marks: manship with a bow, saving his son; and Robin Hood's marksmanship with a bow, showing up the bad guys.) The prejudice against ball games. parsisted into modern times. Even as his predatory neigh: bors rade io the hounds, Thomas Jefferson 49,Ci ad er) Peery ees ere peered eerraes Seated Pcie roe ; H 3 & Pir re ee dae Jent for the body and stamp no character an the mind,” ‘Yet with the growth of the industialurban world in ‘the 18th century, it was the eed Pei ites pierre anette Ea eee) Po line, it could not olaien the universality of other human endeavors. Certainly it is instructive ~ ont RERUN various British ball games, Gera tomb painting from the fh that while the Greek influ- the art of team play, that Lahore pthcn tec gh ence continued an in so caught on and captivated ‘the rest of the world, Espe- cially, too, a8 Our culture grew more hateroge- neous, the town team bound us all, and, more ‘than symbolically, the ball connected the ditfer- ‘ent players. For all the fuss made aver the Olym- ples @s a grand production, the 20th century doos not, at the last, end up Olympian. Instead, our time Is more the triumph, in play, ofthe team anct ‘the ball aver the individual and his body. Notwithstanding this change in sporting taste, the larger question is whether sport will ever be accepted as somathing more than a- popular, but vulgar. cultural cousin, There are, | believe, two good and obvious reasons why the coming mit- lennium presages change. First of all, the next eontury will be the first ever when femates will enjoy @ reasonably coordinate position in athlet- ics with males. Inevitably women have bean the cheerleaders more than the fans, the prizes mar than the players. The Greeks did present the Her- sean Games at Olympia for females, but key to them were the accompanying fartility rites, For the modern Olympics, only grudgingly did de Coubertin allow female participation. One could argue yet, I think, that the most important worn- an ever involved with the Olympic movement was the controversial German filmmaker Lani Rictenstahl, whase epic work, O/ympia, primarily 50 many ateas—in art, philoso- phy, drama—sport was un- able to travel with the same esteem down through time. Yet this accustomed dismissal of sport may have much to do with the simple fact thateven the most brilliant and beautiful sporting achievement is transitory. The statue of the dis- ous thrower remains, revered, but the perfor mance of the man who actually threw the discus is fost. That of art which is most prized is that which has bean saved—can be saved —whether itis the written word, the constructed edifice, the painting, the sculpture, the recorded song. Now that we possess the technology to retain glorious athletic performance on film, sport should, logically, asin in stature with the other preserved aris. it is especially revealing that the sport of basketball has ascended so in popularity largely for reasons of the aesthetic. Basketball has sold itself as @ visual ert far more than any other sport, anc with the néw eentury ahead itis poised to replace soccer.as prima upon the globe and 1 supplant the Greeks’ own track-and-field as the premier Glympic game. The appreciation of sport is everywhere expanding, its areaterval- us accepted; the play activity—the play instinct — that has been forever with us should henceforth enjoy & more acclaimed status. That seems only fair play. one National Geographic, July 1996lunges jump: ad vsrial Mee cael competitions called harrij pound boulder, char i Meh ta ele eco RUC t eC n ae Cory fie Lt dofneo y= = =THE PERFORMANCEPain precedes glory for aspiring gymnasts at the Krylatskoye Sports Complex in Moscow. With gen- erous state funding and an emphasis on talent identification, the former Soviet Union dominated ar reel eee Gece ee Rem Rei eicoae oreTHE GAMEI keep both eyes on my man. The basket hasn't moved om me yet. JULIUS EAVINGea RL Rel Rew cee ai) PES ee ee eee UCC] Rese ee ica) share a wall with the village church. The sport's Cie meen ee eel ee Pee UT ube Rue ue Lem Ure Lules CU cs is emed is ae oe LN dotaDns eeSCE et tae edd MOUNTAIN BIKINGnothing but pure enjoyment for me. WILMA RUDOLPHMeee Me eee uO CL was once the workhorge of Inuit hunters but now is rae ete eeu RCS Us il 5 deemed DateImagine Oviraptor, a beaked dinosaur that resembles an ostrich with a tail, returning 10 its nest and fading its young (right) just like a other bird, That's what picture after the spectacular find in Mongolia of the remains ofa nasting dinosaur (left), proof that dinosaurs alaontologist with the American Museum of Natural History and dis- caverer of the neat Nicknamed Big Mama another nest held bones of the first known oviraptar Inside the nest lay the skull ofa young dromasesaur (above, at top), possibly a baby Ovirapto! meal,DIN OSANGIES Gir (Url Grey UNEARTHING A FOSSIL TROVE ty DONOVAN WEBSTER PHOTOGRAFHS BY LOUIE PSIHOYOS Ant BY JOHN SIBBICK tthe edge of the sand- storm, the cargo truck in belches smoke and —— shuddersto astop, its engine stilled by a chretha- chunka that signals snapped pis- ton rods, Coming tn from the west, the starm bears down on us. A gray-brown wall af Gobi desert grit, it towers a mile in the air, racing toward us-at 50, miles an hour. Our 28-member expedition is in Mongolia to search for fossils. Having spent the past week driv: ing 500 miles across a trackless desert toward our dig site, we have been knocked toa halt more than a dozen times by a string of flat tires and mechanical problems. And now there's this airborne sandpaper. As we inspect the engine, the grit claws our faces. Yet even inside the sandstorm’s sting, the work is slow for a different reason: Everyone is watching our Mongolian drivers. Will they remove their clothes? Mongolians, it is said, enjoy nothing more than standing naked in howling sandstorms. They claim the flying sand adds vitality and strength to anyone hardy enough to withstand the pain. Some even believe the tradition comes from Genghis Khan, Mongolia’s 13th- century king and the conqueror of Asia, Genghis and his warriors, the legend goes, gained invincibility by taking sandstorm baths and drinking the blood of t horses as they crossed the waterless Gobi. Together, Mongolia's famously strong steeds and airborne soil are said to |have given Genghis’s armies the strength to-over whelin the largest continent on earth, Itis noye—about an hour from our base camp with night coming fast—that out expedition co-leuder Michael Novacek, | prove high on the gale. “Gobi Expe- dition "95," Novacck’s saying, “Oh yeah. Feel the magic." awe traveling through a 300,000. square-mile waste land the size of five Wyo mings. We're 12 people fewer than the most famousexplora tion of the Gobi in modern the 1922 10 1930 per- oy Chapman Andrews, also of of the American [PSST the American Mu Museum of Naru- [DYe(f ists scum, the first ral History in New ‘Western scientist York City, begins (ehhh to study this part to grin. After it's | [=a of the world, decided the tuck ae ur expedition’s will be abanconed | jfuchottheresearh — si2¢—and the ex overnight ahd 2 yyag:aipportad by, perise of transpart- party will be sont — yourSoniaty. ing us to one of to the nearest town tomorrow #9 scav- enge for parts, several team members—inclading our other co-leader, Mark Norell, our Mongolian drivers, and me— strip to our waists to test the Mongolian ardor for flying sand, Navacelestarts:to belly laugh, As the next wave of sand slams ws (and | nen roris: serie style to distribute its pain), [hear a voice riding: the least populated spots on earth —is aiwell-spent gamble, since No vacek, Norell, and their host and colleague, Demberelyin Dashzeveg of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, know the address of one of the best fossil sites ever found. Accidentally discovered in July 1993 by Dashzcveg, Novacek, Norell, paleantilo- gist Jim Clark, and several Trailing clouds of dust and glory, 8 caravan of scientists pushes across Mangolin's Gobi desert. In the sun- scorched hills of Ukhas Tolgod, where sand blows mercilessly (upper lef), U.S. and Mongolian researchers have found one of the world's richest dinosaur fos sil beds. Huge sandstorms apparently suffocated and then entombed scores of animals gathered at an oo ais, from birdlike dinosaurs to early mammals (tithe paigel, mariy preserved in their death throes. From their remains, exports begin to envision life 80 million years ago‘e Beljingcolleagues, the site—called Ukhaa Talgod—isa basin that extends five miles, ringed by 4 Series of auburn spires. The is home to the seemingly impossible: eroded cliffs pep- pered with complete skele- tons of 80-million-year-old A former editor of Ouréide maga- ¢, DONOVAN WeiisTen says the assignment was his “second longest camping trip."* This article is the third thar Loure Psnaovos hus photogeaphed for our dino- saur series, To learn how Joan Sipaicx created his paintings, Jog on to National Geographic ‘Online (httpJAvww.nationalgeo- graphic-com on the World Wide ‘Web oF Go NATIONAL GHOGHAPH- 1¢.0n CompuServe), Dinosaurs of the Gobi dinosaurs, mammals, and liz- ards from the late Cretaceous period. ©The late Cretaceous was when mammals, dinosaurs, and birds were evolving together,” Novacek says. “So the richness of this place may help us learn more about con- nections between animal fam- ilies. For me, that’s what truly enlivens Cretaceous fossils, Secing common ancestors, identifying shared skeletal fea- tures of different species at their roots, that’s exciting. It helps us trace the origins of modern life.” Novacek isn’t alone: ‘Ukhaa’s secrets seem to spark the imagination of the rest of the world too. The first time Ukhaa made news was in 1993, when Norell stumbled across a fossil embryo of the oviraptor group, carnivorou: ostrich-like dinosaurs that walked on their hind legs and had curved claws, beaks, and crests on their skulls. The fos- sil Was still cloaked in bits of shattered eggshell. The 1993 expedition also extracted the fossil specimen of a mature eight-foot-long Oviraptor that had been bur- ied while sitting on a nest full of eggs. It demonstrates that dinosaurs had parenting behaviors like birds, which care for their young. Novacek and his colleagues have also discovered hundreds of perfectly preserved skulls and skeletons of lizards and tiny mammals, “We don’t know why all these species chose this 01 locality," Novacek says. think it was a breeding and nesting ground at the edge of «spring or marsh. “All we know is that lare Cretaceons species lived and bred here in great profusion; then they were buried quickly by sandstorms of collapsing dunes, Sometimes, in the way their skeletons are oriented — forelimbs our and pushing — we see evidence they may have struggled against the sand as they died, like skiars covered by avalanches.” the sandstorm, and we're camped on-a wide prom- ontory overlooking a broad dry-wash basin, The 6,800- foot peaks of the Gilvent Uul range stand purple in the morning light. We're the only human pres- ence-visible on this desert expanse, and we resemble a. small city, Twenty-two yellow dome tents harnacle the peb- bled sand. Canvas safari chairs and stacks of aluminum food lockers encircle a woodstove kitchen: “Let's ga, everybody,” Novacek keeps announcing. “Let's move out.” We heft our rucksacks and spread across the dry wash in proups of two or three as we begin the mile walk toward the twin peaks we call the camel's humps. After 20 min utes We arrive ata natural amphitheater that is far larger than it appeared from our campsite. Its floor is spread with house-size rills thar abut tall cliffs of red sandstone. | follow Luis Chiappe, an Argentine paleornithologist from the museum, up the cliff walls, Eighty feet above the desert floor he moves slowly along a steep pitch, searching the loose sandstone for clues. “You want to find little fragments of white, little bits of bone,” he says. “Then you follow that crumbled bone uphill—and often you will get 8 fossil speciient."” | 's sunntse, the day afterThe amphitheater begins to echo with voices, “Got some- thing here,” somebody shouts. “Over here too,” someane else yells, “Here's one,” comes a voice from the opposite side. It’s Norell, “Looks like Ovirap- tor, Specimen seems to go into the hillside.” In three or four minutes of searching it's obvious a new layer of fossils has been exposed by eroding winds, snows, and rains during the past year—and it holds doz- ens, if not hundreds, of new fossil finds, On the cliffside Chiappe and [ move forward, a mea- suiged step at hiappe points toward the ground. “Here's a piece of bone,” he says, “It probably slid down the hill.” He looks up the slope, takes: an uphill step—and there it is. Like a crumbly white shelf, the pale line of a fossil skeleton sticks out from the eroded hillside. Chiappe untips his rucksack and extracts'a soft-bristled brush and a-vial of glue with an eyedropper top. He brushes the fossil, then drops little beads of glue across the bone. “We do this so the specimen won't disintegrate,” he says. ‘He extracts a steel dental tool and begins to pick away the sandstone. Fifteen minutes later ‘Chiappe has exposed the fore- limbs. and spinal column of an immature, six-foot-long Ovi- raptor. “It’s a well-articulated specimen,” Chiappe says, smiling. “That means its bones and joints are still arranged as they were in life, and they appear to be complete.” Chiappe marks the fossil’s location with a'strip of toilet paper and moves on, We spot 78 another exposed fossil a few yards ahead—and another and another. We mark cach loca- ton before descending to the desert floor. Allaround us Uhear shouts ‘of other discoveries. Within an hour we've found 30 fossils, including whole skeletons of ten Oviraptor and a number of rabbit-size mammals, “This place is ridiculously easy,” Novacek says, shrug- ging. "Paleontology isn’t like this anywhere else on earth, Most of our colleagues—who are fine paleontologists— collect only a few teeth or partial jaws ina lifetime, They have to make reconstructions from spare parts. Here, hecause sandstorms buried the animals quickly, the specimens are usually complete, It's almost unfair,” As the new fossil locations are being noted and marked in the morning's growing glare, Novacek hums a snatch of the song “Isn't It Romantic?” then breaks into another grin. He turns ina circle, taking in the dry wash and the loop of red stone walls, which are now festooned with white strips of toilet paper. “Something terrible hap- pened to these poor animals,”” Novacek says, “Which is very good for us. We thrive on carnage." HUNDRED YEARS AGO, no one considered Mongolia the center af the fossil world. Back then the skeletons being unearthed in the arid American West were what held paleontolo- gists’ thrall, That changed, however, in 1922, the year Roy Chapman Andrews and his fleet of Dodge motorcars rolled into the Gobi. ‘A prototype for Indiana Jones who dressed in jodhpurs and a felt hat, Andrews hadn't gone to Asia for dinosaurs, Instead he hoped to find the fossil origins of humans, a goal he never achieved. His findings, which he chronicled in the remarkable book The New Conquest of Central Asia and in the June 1933 issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAMHIC, included discovery of the first Gviraptor (Latin for “egg, stealer,” because it was dis- covered on top of a nest of eggs) and the first complete skull of a hog-size species with an elaborare head shield and parrat beak named Protocera- tops andtewsi. ‘Andrews considered the discovery of mammal fossils cone of his greatest achieve- ments. The Gobi fossil beds are still the only places where skulls of mammals of the late Cretaceous period are com- monly found, ‘Writing of bandits, two- hump Bactrian camels, herds: men wearing black knee- length tunics called dels, snakes, sandstorms, and the mythical sand serpent Aller- gorbai borbai (whose mention sets our 1990s drivers into panic), Andrews documented the Gobi's otherworldliness. in language both florid and descriptive. Calling it “stud- ded with giant buttes like strange beasts” and having cliffs like “medieval castles: with spires and turrets, brick red in the evening sun,” he mixed gaudy metaphor and broad-brush science to push field-based paleontology for- ward with a single lurch. Frustrated by communist political pressures, Andrews ended his Gobi explorations in 1930. In the next six decades paleontologists from the Soviet Union and Poland National Geographic, July 1996claws prepate to slash its opponent open. More than 70 million years death, the combatants™ seems to kick al frantic en} dust in the air. inal search at Ukhaa, and [‘ FIVE DAYS after our orig. teams have broken up to pal begin preparing specimens for excavation, Norell and 1 stroll in-a rocky, sun-blasted basin nicknamed Xanadu. It’s where ar-old whose sses, rock-star haircut, and full beard sug an outlaw biker more than th American Museum's associate urator of pal st ontology found the Ovfraptor embryo in 1993. The next year he spotted a circular nest near the spot where he'd found the mmbrya, but time prevented him from removing the nest. Now, after ten months af back-burner worry in his clut muscutn lab, he’s hoping tered to see how the snows and winds of the long Mongolian winter have treated it As we prospect for fossil eggs. Norell explains the cls distic system of biological taxonomy. Also called phylo- genetic systematics, cladistics defines links between living and extinet species by compar ing shared physical features chat represent evolutionary vances, German entomologist Willi Hennig, who developed this methodology 40 years ago, exhaustively collated lists of hundreds of anatomical fea- tures—such as joint archite ‘ure—to create family t living and extinct animals, During the past twed nosauirs have been added these trees, linking, for exam: ple, the thin-walled bones, hip-joint sackets, and arm, des Dinos Down and dirty, Novacek and Norell excise @ 600-pound hunk of sandstone containing the bones of a nesting Oviraptor. Eags are visible above Norell’'s hands: Getting the plaster-encased fossil off the hill (below), says Novacek, “was like moving a grand piano. shoulder, and skull features shared by some dinosaurs and modern birds. “Wi using fossil evi: dence to link different spe Norell says. “But th: doesn't mean we understand evolution. When a new fossil comes along and upsets 01 theories, well, we adapt. That's how we learn. Norell points to a flattened portion of the hillside. “There's where | fou embryo,” he says, his head turnin, to sean for the nest Partly covered by adried, lengy weed, a perfect ring of nine dark orbs rises slightly from the ground. Most of the eges seem to have been broken open by weathering and are filled with red sand, but some are still buried, making it hardto know whether they're intact and might contain embryos, something that won’t be sect until the specimen is returned to New York and stripped of its rock casing, Norell drops to his belly, his face only inches above the nest. “This is great," he says as he starts to scrape the soil. “Oh yeah. Look at this, look at this!” He pauses for a moment and sits ap. t's adromacosaur nest,” he says, invoking the dinosaur group that includes Veloci- raptor. “We've got some infant specimens here too, Look.” Norell lifts a tiny twig of fossil bone. “That's the proximal end of a femur, a leg bone." He lifts a half-inch~ long, v-shaped piece. “Here's the tip of a ja Becausc hie's conversant in skeletal comparisons—layered ona lifetime of studying fossil and contemporary skeletons — Norell can identity what ani mal the fossils came from, even by the scant evidence these bones provide. “How do I know it’s a dro- macosaur?” he asks, repeating thy question. “These title grooved indentations are sites where muscles attached to the bone. These occur in the same place in all dromaeosaurs.”” Because some dinosaur evolutionary frees.are more fleshed out than others, the museum's team has let some of the mote well-known spee!- ttienis—such as Protaceratops and the four-legged, armor- bodied Avkylosaumes— go unexamined, Instead the team has collected specimens of Cretaceous mammals, lizards, and theropods, Theropods are a diverse group of dinosaurs that all stem from a three» toed, meat-cating, upright ancestor, They encompass 82 everything from the gigantic ‘Tyrantnosaterus rex to today’s tiniest hummingbirds. “It's nor that we won't pull a perfect proto if we find one and have room on the truck," Norell says, scrunching over the nest, “but we're collecting mamimals and theropods first. I'm mostly concerned with theropods, since there’s good evidence that they evolved into bitds. They have the same wrists as modem birds, many of the same skull structures, and the same eye placement as modern b He scrapes and brushes, scrapes and brushes, Gusts of wind throw sand and dust into his face and hair, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He begins to apply the glue. Finally he sits back up, a huge-smile crossing his face He takes a strip of orange sur- veyor's tape.and marks the spot by knotting the tape to the nearby weed, He reaches into his bag and removes a Rambo-style knife, which he uses to trench around the nest. ‘When a shallow gutter is cut, he gently spreads his fingers across the nest’s surface. “We've just transcended the world of dinosaur bones and entered the world of behav- ivr,” he says. He explains: “There's a nice, round configuration to the eggs. This gives clues to nesting behavior. The eggs didn’t get this way by ace dent—the parent arranged them, If we find other nests with this configuration, well, we can begin to believe egg arrangement is a behavior.” “Some things about dino- saurs we'll never know,” he says. “Like what color were they? What sounds did they make? So at times like these, when we find evidence that might show how they lived, we're cestatic.” Norell reaches out, ing the nest like an ancie masterpiece. He chuckles: “You'll be reading about this for years.” IME AT UREA has slow- | ly melted together. Days are blistering hor, and with each new morning the thythms of modern life are cooked from our memories, ATES: National Geographic, July 1906further blanketed by-an all consuming fascination with things Cretaceous, Within weeks wristwatch-based time- keeping has been erased. In its place is a daily succession of gritty work stratified by zo of rising hes We wake around seven, with the sky purple and the high-desert air at 40°F, By 3 p.m., after eating lunches of canned tuna and s. washed down with sun-hot tines, Dinosaurs of the Gobi canteen water, the tempera ture often exceeds 100°, Still, the aft 9° peak gen- erally doesn’t arrive until after five—and it's often accompa ied by a 40- to 50-mile-an- hour wind. The gale results from solar energy on the desert floor, which heats the air and makes it rise. The slightly cooler air off the Gilvent Uul rolls downhill and takes its place— making working, cooking, or ernoon’s 1 A pack of troodontids freezes as.a deadly wail of sand bears down on a crowded oasis. This is how experts imagine the end came for many of the animals whose remains now emerge 1aa Tolgod. On this day in the late Cretaceous, armored ankylosaurs walked the shares, turtles and crocodiles basked, and rodent-like mammals tried to keep out of harm’s way.Finest of their kind, Gobi skulls help scientists unmask @ past when dinosaurs conxistad with mammals in the final period of reptilian dominange. The largar skulls balong to theropods — bipedal dinosaure generally revarded aa kit to modern birds, Prominent beaks distinguish the tooth. less oviraptors (teft), with the fngenia type resembling & parrot in profile. A predator's ferocity is imprinted in the skull of a four- to five-foot-lang mature Velociraptor (top), at exaggerated version of which created havoc in Hollywood's Jurassic Park Equipped with the largest brains relative to their size among dinosaurs, theropods are now seen as swift, intelligant hunters. Some experts guess that because of their exceptional agility, roo: dontids (below) might have boon warm-blooded. The most commian mammal skulls bolong to miultituberculates {upper left), small mammals with ambitious incisors. National! Geographic, July 1996