December 4, 2019
Download the 2018 Annual Report of the Angolan Association for Birds and Nature (Associação Angolana Para Aves e Natureza), in English with a brief summary in Portuguese, compiled by Michael Mills, on bird conservation and research activities in Angola. Click here to download the six-page PDF.
Visit this website’s Birds page here to read more materials about birds in Angola, including past annual reports by the Angolan Association for Birds and Nature.
November 10, 2019
Now available online, South West Angola: a portrait of land and life, click here to download a PDF of the book. This is the most informative book published to date about southwest Angola, covering the provinces of Namibe, Cunene and Huíla, written in both English and Portuguese, by the Namibian father-daughter team of John and Stephie Mendelsohn.
This comprehensive book brims with images, maps, graphs and charts that capture the faces, spaces and places of the great open landscapes that makes up Southwest Angola, like this magnificent tree, purported to be the world’s largest baobab, which grows north of Xangongo.
November 7, 2019
NOTE (update on Nov. 10, 2019): Regarding the December poaching incident below in which three poachers were arrested red-handed with the remains of a freshly killed giant sable female and then set free by the judicial system, it was not actually the judge who made the decision. The poachers were sent home by a local prosecutor with whom the poachers and respective families managed to negotiate a friendly release. This of course raises some worrying issues regarding the conduct of local police authorities, but also means that the incident is not necessarily closed from a formal legal standpoint. Source: Palanca Report First Semester 2019.
Read Biologist Pedro Vaz Pinto’s Second Semester 2018 Report with photos of Angola’s Cangandala Park and Luando Reserve, in English and Portuguese, now on our Giant Sable page.
The Luando Reserve is where most of the Giant Sable work has been focused lately, and where the tasks are more challenging…
Recently-appointed head of rangers for Luando, senior ranger whose war name is Fox, is doing an excellent job in training and organizing the sable shepherds and turning them into functional rangers.
“Benefiting from preliminary undercover intelligence work and with firm collaboration received from local villagers that a serious poaching team had crossed the Luando river and was operating in a given region, we sent our six best rangers to survey the area and prepare an ambush if possible. Six poachers were intercepted and following a few shots fired, three got away but the other three were detained, plus one weapon, ammunition and three well maintained motor bikes. Significantly they were carrying various animal parts and remains and included the skin of a giant sable female.”
History is made. The first time in 50 years poachers are arrested with evidence of killing a giant sable! A day in the life of a ranger on patrol in Luando, view the slide show:
“Although we worked in close collaboration with provincial authorities, government, police and military and we thought that all the necessary steps had been taken to make sure the poachers would receive exemplary punishment, the judge ruled that the poachers should be released upon paying a fine of AKZ 250,000.00, which was worth less than US $250.00 per person. This was a ridiculous amount, and worth much less than what they had already profited from selling the bush meat! This ruling blatantly ignored that the act of killing of a giant sable – our natural national symbol, had recently been criminalized and the fine set at the very impressive and dissuasive amount of AKZ 22,000,000. And yet they got away paying only 1% of what the law recommends because the judge took pity on them or possibly didn’t think this was such a serious offence. Needless to say, this was a huge blow to the morale of the rangers, and even the local villagers feel frustrated and revolted by the judicial system.”
Visit our Giant Sable page to read Pedro Vaz Pinto’s full report.
September 2, 2019
Hippo attacks, wrestling rapids and being arrested by Angolan security forces! Hear all about it at the Viking Club, Thursday 5 September, 2019, beginning at 19:30. Oscar Scafidi, author of the latest Bradt Travel Guide to Angola, will present images and video clips and share his experiences kayaking, hiking and wading 1300 km along Angola’s longest river, the Kwanza River, along with his friend Aly. Oscar worked as a History teacher at the Luanda International School from 2009 to 2014 and currently resides in Madagascar. Buy an autographed copy of his book, Kayaking the Kwanza, which will be on sale Thursday evening.
Oscar Scafidi and his friend Aly on the Kwanza River.
Everybody is welcome to attend. For your information the Viking Club in Luanda is a non-profit sociocultural association with Nordic origin with an aim to promote a more knowledge of Angolan society and culture. The Viking Club has its premises on the main floor of the Maianga building, Rua Marien N’Gouabi No.118 in Maianga, across the street from Ambassador/Agencia de Viagens/Turismo. Visit our Join Us page to see a map.
On sale at the Viking Club on Thursday September 5, 2019.
May 12, 2019
Read Biologist Pedro Vaz Pinto’s First Semester 2018 Report with photos of Angola’s Cangandala Park and Luando Reserve, in English and Portuguese, now on our Giant Sable page.
Flap-necked chameleon.
Generous rains that continued into May brought new life to the park and reserve after the previous year’s drought.
“Sable are breeding exceptionally well, they are well protected and the area of the sanctuary is still big enough to sustain a fast growing population.”
Luando Reserve inundated in March during patrols.
“The step up of security measures initiated in the previous year is producing encouraging signs. In particular, the semi-permanent presence of two senior rangers, well equipped and maintained, and fully motivated has been a game changer in the reserve.”
Insect life in Cangandala … View the slideshow:
“The message is clear: the giant sable is a national symbol and sacred, so Government and partners want to take seriously the mission to protect the species.”
Visit our Giant Sable page to read Pedro Vaz Pinto’s full report.
March 26, 2019
Cavango clinic/hospital.
Dr. Tim Kubacki is a medical mission doctor who has been serving rural Angola since 2012.
He is based in Cavango, “a small, rural village of about 500 people that was a mission village before 1976, especially housing and treating people with Leprosy. In 1976, all 250 Lepers were slaughtered during the civil war and the villagers scattered, many walking with a group of more than 5000 people on a pilgrimage to a refugee camp in Zambia (a nine month trek through the wilderness) until the war ended in 2002. The people of Cavango and those in the surrounding villages have since begun to repopulate the area and continue to live simply, in simple stick and mud homes with grass roofs, without electricity and running water, via subsistence living, farming by hand and raising animals for food. Many in the village have never been to the city as transportation is mainly by foot (about a week’s walk to the closest city).”
Dr. Tim regularly travels by air with Mission Aviation Fellowship Angola (MAF) to remote communities that have no access to health care. Around Cavango his clinic has placed motorbike trailers in villages to bring in unconscious patients.
Village ambulance with patient inside arriving at the clinic.
See his blog with photos at kubackisinangola.com
March 24, 2019
Read Biologist Pedro Vaz Pinto’s Second Semester 2017 Report with photos of Angola’s Cangandala Park and Luando Reserve, in English and Portuguese, now on our Giant Sable page.
Ivan the Terrible in 2011. He was so strongly built the radio collar looks dwarfed around his neck.
“R.I.P. Ivan!
“Ivan the Terrible passed away on July 10th 2017. An imposing bull, massively built and scarred from battles at age 8 when we first found him in Luando in July 2011… After six years of freedom and adventure outside the enclosure, the old warrior decided to return to captivity where he finally died. His death appears to have been “natural” and peaceful.”
“Sable breeding in the sanctuary is going exceptionally well and the population is steadily increasing. We have surely more than 60 pure animals at the moment and with a very healthy age structure – these days, calves and young make up for the majority of giant sables in Cangandala.”
“Mercury has assumed his leading role, and inherited the gentle nature, tolerance and serenity from his father Duarte.”
“Eolo is more elusive and nervous than Mercury, but he promises to soon become an exceptional specimen …. his horns are very impressive and quite larger and more handsomely arched than Mercury’s.”
“In Luando the giant sables are being tracked remotely, and the data obtained are allowing us to keep a daily surveillance achieved via satellite communications with the shepherds.”
“Following national elections in September, a new President and Government was appointed in Angola. Changes are happening at various levels, some being most promising for the future of our natural heritage, and a special commission was created in December by presidential decree for the protection of the giant sable.”
Visit our Giant Sable page to read Pedro Vaz Pinto’s full report.
December 12, 2018
The International Crane Foundation conducted an aerial survey of Cameia National Park in Moxico and the surrounding Bulozi Plain of Angola, a massive fresh water floodplain, and discovered three new breeding grounds for Wattled Cranes.
Wattled Crane families, one of the newly discovered populations.
Wattled Crane habitat on the Bulozi Plain.
Click here to download a PDF version of the August 2018 issue of the Foundation’s publication, The Bugle.
October 19, 2018
Angolan reed frog, endemic to Angola
The Angolan Escarpment is the least known and studied part of the African Great Escarpment. Urgent research is required to protect and conserve Angola’s threatened biodiversity. Several observatories have been implemented throughout Angola including one in the southern escarpment in Tundavala.
A recent study states that despite this area’s stunning landscape that is home to several endemics, Tundavala “lacks official national protected status and is threatened by increasing human activities, especially logging and burning for charcoal production and the harvesting of natural resources such as medicinal plants and rocks for building purposes. Increasing numbers of villagers inhabit the region with their livestock (cows and goats) and plant crops. Other threats include man-made fires and the dumping of rubble and domestic, commercial, and even medical waste.”
As part of this study on Biodiversity and Ecology by Hamburg University, you can now download a special report titled Amphibians and reptiles of the Tundavala region of the Angolan Escarpment, by researchers Ninda Baptista, Telmo António, and William R. Branch. Click here for the PDF.
Ansorge’s whip snake, endemic to Angola
July 23, 2018
Available now, The Special Birds of Angola, a guide to birds of Angola by Michael Mills. Click on the book cover to download a sneak-peek of the book:
This book can be purchased directly from the author: www.goawaybirding.com or via the BirdLife South Africa bookshop at www.birdlife.org.za.
The Red-crested Turaco is the national bird of Angola. Image taken from The Special Birds of Angola.
“Angola is endowed with the richest diversity of eco-regions of any African country. Its habitats range from the mobile dunes of the Namib Desert to the equatorial rainforests of Cabinda, from arid savannas of the Cunene Basin to the moist miombo woodlands of the Bie planalto, and from the floodplains of the Cuando-Cubango to the montane grasslands and forests of the Benguela highlands. It is thus not surprising that Angola has a remarkably rich birdlife, one of the richest on the continent.
Despite all the natural treasures of Angola, it remains one of the most poorly researched regions of the globe. Fortunately, this situation is rapidly changing. Increasing numbers of young Angolan biologists are joining expeditions led by international experts in the study of Angola’s biodiversity. For more than a decade, Michael Mills has been working with Angolan colleagues in exploring the far corners of the country, discovering and documenting the incredibly rich diversity of birds. Most importantly, he has been working with the local communities of Morro Moco to protect the critically threatened forests of Angola’s highest mountain, where many bird species known nowhere else, are found.
This book is a unique and major contribution to bringing the diversity and beauty, but also the rarity and vulnerability, of Angola’s avifaunal treasures to the attention of the Angolan people. By highlighting the birds of special interest to ornithologists, to conservationists, and to the general public, Michael and his collaborators have set a benchmark for promoting awareness of the importance of Angola’s avifauna and the habitats they occupy to the world at large. Without knowledge, there can be no appreciation, and without awareness there can be no conservation. As Angola’s critically important bird areas come under increasing threat, time is not on the side of the birds and their habitats. This book can help reverse the trend.” – From the Foreword by Brian Huntley to the newly published book, The Special Birds of Angola.
Angola Field Group 