Recently I had opportunity to talk with co-workers coming from Tanzania (as in country in eastern Africa). Back home their families are small farmers with acreages that approximate mine (~ 20 acres). That seems to be enough for many to make a living although guys I met are from relatively well to do families with another job on side. They all indicated their farms where diversified in that on a given farm they produced a small number of livestock with a few acres of row crops in addition to free-range poultry. Then I asked about predators like leopards and jackals which to me would be rough equivalents to our bobcats and coyotes/foxes. I do not know what they might have that is similar our raccoon and opossum but suspect their hawks are very similar to our assemblage in North America. I asked how they deal with those predators going after their free-range birds and they indicated they have now such concerns. I asked them if dogs where used as guardians and answer was no. Dogs do not appear to be held in high esteem there, even less than by what appears to be the consensus among the modern backyard keepers of poultry. I then asked how they deal with such predators and answer was a quick “You have to go to parks to see predators, we kill all we find”. This I guess is more doable since entire landscape is taken up by the small little farms that likely provide no prey other than livestock and all the farmers hammer offending predators at every opportunity.
I was dissapointed to learn Tanzania is no longer a wild place in that wildlife has been largely exterminated. I like our system better where we have a mixture of wild places and “tamed” making for a more dynamic environment.
I was dissapointed to learn Tanzania is no longer a wild place in that wildlife has been largely exterminated. I like our system better where we have a mixture of wild places and “tamed” making for a more dynamic environment.
