I have made it to my final destination. I am now in Australia, and yes it is that time again time for the facts. The population of Australia is 22.32 million people. The population growth has been 0.85% and the average life expectancy is 80.5 years which is big difference from the other two. The unemployment rate is 5.2% and the population below the poverty line is unknown. Australia has a wider range of religions than anywhere else on my journey, as shown below.
The main industries in Australia are: mining, industrial equipment, transport equipment, food processing, chemicals and steel. The country makes and grows the following items: wheat, barely, sugarcane, fruits, cattle, sheep and poultry. The land use in Australia is arable 6.15%, permanent 0.04% and other 93.18%. Australia has a few natural hazards such as cyclones, droughts and forest fires. There is 11.66 million telephones, 16.48 million mobile phones, 25.5 million radios, 10.13 million televisions, 14,189,544 internet connections and 450 airports. I can't wait to see what the next few days brings.
Now I am moving on to Australia and the last leg of my journey. I'm very sad that it is soon to be over but am really looking forward to seeing even more new cultures when I get there. I have really enjoyed Africa and its small challenges as well as the large ones and am just grateful to have been able to have made the trip at all. I am also very happy that so far my previous research and contact with people has been pulling through and I have been able to see and meet everything and everyone I have hoped to.
There is about 77 different types of endangered animals in Zimbabwe. These include the African Skimmer
This is an African Skimmer. They are distributed throughout most of Africa except form the very South and the North West. Overall there is about 10,000 to 17,000 of these animals left which in the area that they live is a very few animals. The conservationists are not sure as to why the African Skimmer is dying out. But some believe it is because of degradation of wetland habitats and over-exploration and human disturbance. It mainly eats small fish it catches these by skimming across water with its mouth open as shown above in the picture. They need calm water to do this hunting which makes it hard for the birds to find places to live which is why the species is spread so far across Africa. They build their nests on sandbanks were they lay their 2 to 3 eggs over a couple of days. The eggs are generally laid between March and June in the West and East of Africa. The beak of this bird is designed for it's unusual way of hunting. So the longer bottom bit can go in the water and scoop up the fish when it comes along.
It has been a pleasure to find out about this threatened bird and how it is so specially adapted to it's way of life. Its life is very structured as it has to have certain conditions to survive.
The Chewa people are spread throughout Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. This map shows where they live in Africa. These people live in a subtropical climate were in the lowlands the temperatures range between 21 degrees and 29 degrees. The first recorded kingdom of these people goes all the way back to 1480 and yet they are still very traditional. Today I met some of the tribal warriors. They are very distinctive because of their language, called Chichewa, special tattoo's and possession of secret societies. Their economic welfare is from slash and burn agriculture growing corn and sorghum. They live in compact villages spreading other the indicated area above. The villages are run by a hereditary headman who is advised by a council of elders. The Chewa beliefs on creation are that they are created by God called Chiuta or Chaunta on a mount called Kapirintiwa during a thunderstorm. They believe that you are in contact with spirits and animals. The spirits choose to get in contact with living people. They also believe that if you are dancing then you are in constant contact with the spirits. The thing I will remember most will be how distinct the Chewa people are compared to the Mapuche people who just looked very similar to the stereotypical tribe.
It is considerably hotter in Zimbabwe then it was in Chile like ten degrees hotter. Zimbabwe is quite a politically problematic country. They have a population of about 12.3 million. Of these people about 72% live below the poverty line. In Zimbabwe the average life expectancy if you pass 5 years old is 51.4 years. They have an unemployment rate of 80%.
These are the main religions. Syncretic is a mix between Christian and Indigenous beliefs. They had a population growth of 0.62%. In Zimbabwe they have a lot of natural hazards, these include recurring droughts, floods and severe storms. The land use in Zimbabwe is: 8.24% arable, 0.33% permanent and 91.43% other. A great amount of the other 91.43% is quarries as Zimbabwe is a gold mine for a lot of metals including gold. The industries in Zimbabwe are: coal, gold, platinum, copper, nickel, tin, clay, metallic and non metallic ores, steel, wood, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, clothing, footwear, food stuffs and beverages. They make and grow: corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts, sheep, goats and pigs. The country has only 317,00 telephones, 423,600 mobiles, 1.14 million radios, 370,00 televisions, 820,000 internet lines and 404 airports.
I am looking forward to venture further into this beautiful countries landscape and wilderness to meet another tribe and try to find another endangered animal.
This is my last day in Chile I am catching a plane later to Zimbabwe where I am going to find another tribe and animal. I am really enjoying this adventure and am enjoying meeting the new people and seeing how their cultures are different from the one I am used to at home in the Scottish Borders. Chile is a very diverse country with some problems but the good I saw always outweighed the bad. I got to try tribal life and discover some of their beliefs. The bar is very high and I don't envy Zimbabwe as they, unknown to them, try to better the experience. Now I say my goodbyes to Chile and move on to my next challenge in Africa the second of the continents on the Tropic of Capricorn. I will reflect more deeply on the subjects at the end where I compare the countries, their people and their animals.
While I am in Chile I am hoping to encounter some endangered animals. I had my first one of these encounters today. It was a white chinned Petrel.
Today I met some conservationists who were out in a search for this bird to do a 'head count' of how many they still had in their area. I only spent some of the day with them so I don't know the total they counted, but they were telling me that overall in the world there are only about 3 million of these birds left. They told me about what the main problems and reasons as to the birds falling numbers. The biggest problem is that the white chinned petrel has some characteristics that mean that they end up in prime fishing spots at the wrong times, so they end up being by-catch. They have no real safe place or time as they have been reported all year round as being by-catch somewhere. They have started cutting this down by creating bird-scaring lines, streamer lines and night-set lines and these have all been having a good outcome. They have cut down the number of the birds become by-catch by 14,700 from 2003 to 2009. What the conservationists were saying was that the birds have a very diverse living area. This makes it hard to prevent by-catching of the white chinned petrel. So at the moment we are going to have to deal with cutting down the numbers in important places such as breeding habitats and so on.
I was very privileged to have met those conservationists today as they have told me great problems that many endangered species are having in Chile. This really opened my eyes to greater problems. In my other countries I am also going to look at different endangered species and compare but mainly contrast the problems different climates and places can create in animals lives.
