grasslands 1.pdf

7/28/2019 grasslands 1.pdf

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GRASSLANDS


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GRASSLANDS

Stealing Te Lions Share

Dorobo Hunters, Kenya

Te Arrow o Knowledge

/Kun Namce and N//ao N!ani, Kalahari Bushmen

Herds, Homes and Horses

Nomads, Mongolia

Snake Harvest

Sap Lake, Cambodia

2 - 31

6 - 74 - 5

10 -

11

8 - 9

Ultimate Domination

Herding Cattle, Austrailia

Te ough Plants

Introduction


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THE TOUGH PLANTS

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Much o the landscape reects a battle between the

grasses and the trees. Where there is enough water, trees,

woods and orests dominate, leaving the drier lands as

the grass-dominated savannahs, prairies and steppes.

Tese rolling grass-covered landscapes provide no inter-

ruption to strong winds and no respite rom intense heat

or severe cold. Tat the grasses themselves ourish here

- and can withstand being rozen, drowned, burnt, tram-

pled or grazed - is because they grow continuously rom

the base, making them quick to regenerate and highlyproductive. Tey create a skin o ertility woven in roots,

stems and tussocks that take advantage o every drop

o rain, which is why grasses cover more o the Earths

surace and eed more animals than any other plant.

Te worlds great grasslands cover almost a quarter o the

land surace and include the prairies o North America;

the continental steppes o Eurasia, stretching rom the

European plain to the Iranian east; the Central Asian

steppes, which stretches unbroken nearly a third o the

way around the globe; the Mongolian grasslands, which

give way to the Gobi Desert; the pampas o Argentina;

and the Arican veldt. Ten there are the savannahs,

with a scattering o bush and sparse trees, that character-

ize great swathes o East Arica, the dusty ringes o the

Kalahari and northern Australia. Tere are also grass-

lands that undergo massive changes with the seasons

- six months dry, six months submerged by great oods.

But by ar the most common grasslands are the millions

o hectares under cereal cultivation. Indeed, our suc-

cess in taming the grasslands means that ew wild onesremain.

Grasslands are the landscapes where we rened and developed what

it is to be a human. Once we discovered the power o re to shape

grasslands, we began to reconstruct them, spreading elds acrossmountains, orests and even deserts. Te grassland landscape reach-

es into our souls, refected in the suburban lawns and urban parks

that we create today. Te human journey is interwoven with grass

and grassland animals.

We explore the ways o living on the grasslands, rom the most an-

cient to the most recent. Its a story that begins with scavengers and

resourceul hunter-gatherers and leads to the city dwellers most o

us are today, driven by a series o ingenious revolutions in our rela-

tionship with the nature o grasslands.


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GRASSLANDS

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Fire Power

Te most powerul tool used by grassland people is re.

Bush res are part o the seasonal ecology grasslands -

the natural disaster borne o aridity and strong winds, to

which mam o the plants are adapted. Evidence suggests

our ancestor. Homo erectus, may have used re as much

as 400,000 years ago to manipulate the landscape and

get access to new ood sources. Small burns staggered

in time and space create a mosaic o diferent habitats,

some newly burnt with a resh ush o grass, some more

mature with ruit and seeds. Such a mixture attracts

more game, which in turn makes hunting easier. Burn-

ing itsel can also help ush out game. In Australia, the

Martu women will ollow the re-line ashes, tracking

goanna lizards that have gone to ground to escape the

ames. oday, we despair when wild land is burnt to

create pasture, but it has been our ancestors sustained

and repeated burning over millennia that has helped

to create the landscapes we now consider to be natural

wilderness - including the Serengeti o East Arica and

the Kalahari o southern Arica.


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STEALING THE LIONS SHARE

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Te original human way o lie was hunting and gather-

ing, and it is still practiced today by the Bushmen o

the Kalahari in Botswana and Namibia, the Hadza o

anzania and the Dorobo o anzania and Kenya. Yet it

is a dying skill.

Big herds ollow the new grass that springs rom the

burning and the rains, and when migrations o wilde-

beest in their thousands pass through their territory, its

a boom time or hunter-gatherers. Humans, though,

arent the only predators: lions, leopards and hyenas are

both competition and potentially atal threats.

Among the Dorobo o Kenya, the bravest hunters arethe ones who take advantage o lions - letting the pride

do all the legwork and then stealing the kill rom under

then noses. Tey live on the savannah o southwest

Kenya and northern anzania, and hunting is an essen-

tial part o their culture. When a child is born, the lather

will mark the occasion by hunting a girafe, using simply

stealth, a bow and poisoned arum.

wice a year, the Dorobo witness the migration o hun-

dreds o thousands o wildebeest, which cross betweenthe open grasslands o the Masai Mara and the Loita

plains - drawn on by new rains and the promise o resh

grass. o get there, they have to pass through the bot-

tleneck o the Olginye valley and, most dangerously, the

bushy gullies where both humans and lions lurk.

Dorobo hunters watch the wildebeest movements at

dawn rom rock lookouts. Sounds at night may also

help them orientate their hunt the ollowing morning.

But above all, the Dorobo use the lions to assist in their

search or ood. Tey can tell just rom tracks whetherthe lions are hunting or simply moving, how ast they

are going and whether the pride includes juveniles or

experienced lionesses. Tey might use the lions to push

the wildebeest towards their own limit or, i the tracks

are resh and show a pursuit, they might ollow them in

the hope o coming to a kill.

I the Dorobo hunters see a lion kill, they approach the

eeding animals close enough to assess the pride and

whether or not cubs are present. o walk into a pride

with cubs would be suicide, not because the lions would

protect the kill but because lionesses might become very

aggressive it they elt their young were threatened. Once

the hunters have assessed the situation, they challengethe lions. Walking shoulder to shoulder, bows drawn,

they approach the eeding pride until the lions give way.

Reaching the kill, they work ast, with at least one man

keeping watch while the others hack of chunks o meat

or scavenge what remains o the carcass. Its a very coura-

geous way o gathering ood.


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GRASSLANDS

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THE ARROW OF KNOWLEDGE

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Te Kalahari Ju/hoansi Bushmen still burn the land to

improve their hunting. Te hunters skills come rom an

intimate knowledge o the environment that ew other

societies have retained, though modern desires and shit-

ing ambition mean that such knowledge is dying out.

One o ew remaining hunters is /Kun Namce. He can

read the signs let by every animal that lives on the Kala-

hari savannah - rom the hyenas, lions and scorpions

that could kill him to the kudus, porcupines and beetles

he eats. He has both a mental map o the geography

o their land and a map o the behavior o the animals

that live there - a way o seeing the world to which most

o us are blind but which is vital to survival in the arid

savannah.

His weapon is a simple bow and arrows. Each arrow is

made out o two diferent grasses, one that holds the

arrow tip and a broader grass or a shat, jointed with a

spindle-shaped bead o bone or wood and bound with

sinew threads. Tis weak-point construction is an es-

sential design eature. Te metal tips are covered with

poison extracted rom the larvae o the Diamphidia

simplex beetle. /Kun gets it by digging into the parched

earth at the base o a particular species o myrrh treeor peanut-sized hard balls o sand encasing the beetle

grubs. Te mashed-up grubs create a poison so potent

that he need re-anoint his arrows only once a year. Yet

to use the deadly arrows efectively, he has to be close

enough to get a shot.

In a rough grassy hide near a waterhole, /Kun waits. At

15 metres (50 eet) rom the waterhole, there is a good

chance o an accurate shot. A kudu approaches nerv-

ously. Te arrow ies, and the kudu bolts. Te shat allsaway, but i /Kun is in luck, the barb has struck home.

He waits or an hour or so or the poison to do its work

beore he starts to track the victim. He and his ellow

hunter N//ao N!ani have to stay close enough to nd

the kudu beore a lion or leopard does but at a distance

that doesnt make the animal run arther and extend the

chase.

Tere is a concentration and a transormation as they

move, making hand gestures in silent conversation, tell-

ing the story they see in the tracks. o track an animal,

you must rst know it, but with tracking you begin to

dance, you become that animal. You must think like

that animal. says /Kun. Te track tells them how strong

the animal remains, how ast it is moving. When theynally run in or the kill. N//ao N!ani delivers the death

blow with a spear. Te hunters eat roast liver at the

scene, but the meat belongs to the maker o the arrow (it

might be a woman or a child), and it is carried hack to

share among the whole village. Te east is ollowed by

dancing, in which /Kun shares the story o the hunt so

everyone will know how that animal died.


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GRASSLANDS

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HERDS, HOMES AND HORSES

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Rather than restrict themselves to grazing their animals

in the region o their villages. Mongolian nomads carry

their homes - gers - with them as they and their herds

ollow the grazing. Tey owe their success to another

animal o the grasslands, the horse. A horse needs to

graze oten and regularly, and unlike a cow, it cant rumi-

nate (regurgitate and then rechew vegetation), but it can

run switly and or long distances. It is thought that the

rst people to ride horses did so about 6500 years ago,

which gave them greater speed, endurance and strength

on the plains than ever beore. It also gave rise to terriy-

ing ghting orces. Te biggest empire in human history,

stretching rom Europe across central Asia and all o

China, that o the thirteenth-century Genghis Khan,

was built on a horse-mounted army. oday, Mongolians

are no longer eared ghters, but the bond with horses

remains.

Mongolia is a land without ences, and though the hors-

es are owned and branded, they are not corralled or shod

and roam ree in stallion-led herds. When it comes time

to move to new grassland, they are driven along with

the other livestock. Tey are ridden but also milked, and

ermented mares milk is still an essential summer ood.

First, though, you have to catch your mare.

In late June, when new oals are about a month oldand the spring grass is vibrant green, riders rom every

amily, some as young as nine, saddle up and head out

to round up their horses - perhaps a small herd o 50

or one as large as 1000. Many o the people dress in

brightly coloured silk deel coats that shimmer in the

morning sunlight.

In Chuluuns amily, six riders round up more than 100

horses When the herd is brought to the ger, Ulaana takes

on the task o catching a oal. Equipped with a larchpole about 6 metres (10 eet) long with a simple leather

loop lasso at the end. Ulaana and his horse cut and twist

through the herd at a canter, aiming to loop the deli-

cate lasso around a oals neck. Foals and mothers run

together, doubling back through the herd, but Ulaana

skillully lassoes a oal, leaning back in his wooden sad-

dle to hold the pole steady until his cousin ungaa gets a

halter on it.

ungaa then drags the oal to a rope strung between

two posts at ankle level and ties it up. Tey repeat theprocess until all the oals are tied up. Te mares, mean-

while, stay close by, and now the boys turn their mounts

in pursuit o them. Tese mares are not broken in, and

or the three-year-old ones in their rst season, there is a

rightening surprise ahead.

Te chase is wild, the dust ies and the mares lean as

they turn and race ahead o the herd. Ulaana reaches

orward, both hands on the pole while also holding the

reins, and stands up in the saddle at a ull gallop. With

incredible horsemanship he lassoes the mare. But ear

makes her strong, and she bucks and rears, and Ulaana

needs all his strength to hold the pole. When she pulls

ree, the mare bolts back to the herd with the pole

trailing along beside her. As she comes past him, Esee

lurches or the pole, is pulled of balance and lands ace

down in the dust. Eventually the lasso noose loosens and

alls open. Te pole drops to the ground and is broken

by the pounding hooves. Tey have to start over.

Tis time, the pursuit is swit and the catch is clean, but

it takes a second noose beore the trio o horses comes

to a halt. Te mares eyes stare with ear and deance

as Esee approaches her on oot. He talks sotly, with a

halter held at arms length. Slowly, calmly, he slips the

strapping around her head. Only then does he remove

the lassos. With help rom Chuluun he straps up her

orelimbs and hobbles her back legs so she can onlylurch towards her tethered oal. Te two are let alone

or a ew hours beore milking is attempted.


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GRASSLANDS

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HERDS, HOMES AND HORSES

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With encouraging murmuring, they bring the oal to

suckle, then interrupt its drinking to milk the hobbled

mare. With that done, the oal drinks again, and ungaa

takes the milk away to make the most treasured summerood, arak - a 24-hour- ermented yogurt.

At sunset, both mares and oals are released to suckle

uninterrupted and spend the night together beore

the whole challenge begins again next morning, and

the next - until autumn arrives and the amily have to

pack up their gers, made o canvas, wood and elt -and

continue their search or grass. Tis perennial quest has

shaped the whole ger liestyle, and though many Mon-

golian nomad amilies now have lorries to help with themove, others still use yak-drawn carts.


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GRASSLANDS

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Te Peoples Grass

Te real exploitation o ooded grasslands in Cambodia

and elsewhere in Asia comes with the damming o silt-

rich oodwaters into paddies tor the domesticated grass

that we now know as rice.

We have been locked in mutual dependence with grasses

or millennia. Rice, wheal, maize, barley, sorghum, mil-

let, and sugar cane - all are grasses that weve adapted or

our uses, breeding them or plumper seeds, taller stems,

earlier ripening and resistance to drought, rain, insects

or germs. And it was grass that has ultimately tipped the

balance towards urbanization. Our love afair with these

cereals shows no sign o waning, and as the original

grasslands have vanished, so the domesticated grasseshave spread.

ogether, grasses supply an astounding 75 per cent o

carbohydrates and more than 50 per cent o protein to

the human population. Pastures in the temperate world

alone eed cattle that produce 80 per cent o the worldscows milk and more than 70 per cent o the worlds

bee and veal. Tese are monocultures in which the

number o plant species is reduced to just one. Te land

is boosted in ertilizers, doused ill pesticides and sown,

tended and harvested by machine. Te industrialized

grasslands o the USA have a rural population density

on a ar with Arctic Greenland, with no more than six

people per square mile. But the supergrasses remain a

luscious temptation or grass-eating animals, and we are

still locked in a never-ending battle against what we nowcall pests.


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SNAKE HARVEST

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In Cambodia, people living around the onle Sap Lake

exploit the surrounding grassland in a unique way. Te

monsoon rains are so heavy that the water level o the

lake rises by up to 8 metres (26 eet), increasing its size

by our times and ooding the grassland. o keep above

water, the grass grows ast and also oats in matts. Te

people cope by living on stilted or even oating houses.

But there is a bonanza. Te oodplain provides the

perect nursery or a myriad o small sh, which in turn

are hunted by millions o amphibious snakes, including

cobras. Living on narrow boats or days at a time, whole

amilies net the snakes they eat the guts and then sell

the bodies at market. An average 6.9 million snakes are

traded in a season - grabbed and weighed by the hand-

ul, skinned and eaten dried or ried, with a sprinkle o

chilli, as a bony but protein-rich snack. In todays world,

though, many also end up as odder or the nearby

crocodile arms.


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GRASSLANDS

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ULTIMATE DOMINATION

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Human domination o the grasslands is getting ever

more intense. We have made whole landscapes into

monocultures and controlled herds so huge that

we need helicopters to round them up. Among the

biggest cattle herds are those in the Northern erritory

o Australia - a continent where cattle arent native but

are 30 million strong. It is a mark o our ingenuity

that we can shit grassland animals around the globe to

meet our needs. For cattle stations that have hundreds

o thousands o animals ranging over immense pastures

o 6110 square kilometres (232 square miles) or more -

bringing in the herd means taking to the air.

Te helicopter cattle round-ups are immense spectacles.

Teir sound precedes them, as three helicopters y in

ormation, driving several thousand cattle a day over

the vast landscape. o keep the nervous animals moving

towards the holding pens, the helicopters criss-cross the

land, assisted by riders on the ground, oten smothered

in sufocating clouds o ne red dust. Te pilots have

to be excellent yers, with lightning reexes and able

to manoeuvre in the dust clouds. Tey y low and ast

and need lo read the landscape and understand cattle

behaviour. When cows hide among the trees, the pilots

may have to land and chase them on oot.

Hundreds o thousands o cattle are herded to collec-

tion points and loaded onto massive land trains that trailacross Australias Northern erritory to the ships waiting

in the northern ports. Tis is a live-export trade, breed-

ing and attening cattle originally rom one continent on

the grass o another beore exporting them to a third.

Outwardly it seems as i humanity has tamed the grass-

lands and crushed most o the competition. But will we

become victims o our incredible success? Agriculture

currently sustains a huge urban population. Yet by 2030,

there will be more than 8 billion human, which some es-

timate will require a 30 per cent increase in grain yields.

As more and more people want to eat meat and drive

cars powered by biouel, well need to grow even more

grain. Once again it is grasslands that will determine the

uture o mankind, and out intelligence will be tested to

keep this crucial relationship in balance.


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GRASSLANDS

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