Live Feed at a Waterhole in the Namib Desert

I am one of a legion who find themselves not always easing rapidly into sleep. My mind races with thoughts and this racing keeps me awake. I try reading a book, but often nod off and then wake up as the book falls away. A much better remedy for me is to listen to a history book on my iPad, or watch a relaxing video. When I fall asleep, the audio continues, always at a low volume. There is no disruption.

The most relaxing of all the videos I've ever watched is the one featured at the top of my blog. This is a live feed from a waterhole in the Namib Desert.

Namib Desert

_{Mike Mirano. From his blogspot:https://197travelstamps.com/2018/02/25/things-to-know-before-traveling-to-sossusvlei/. Used under CC 2.0 license}

The Namib Desert, Namibia, is on the coast of southwest Africa. The desert is believed to be the oldest, and one of the driest, in the world.

The live stream from the Namib not only is relaxing to view, but the feed also offers sound. I can hear the outdoors. The sounds of evening or midday. I can hear the animals grunting, or cooing. I can hear their hooves as they splash in the waterhole. I can hear birds cawing.

I find that the more I watch life at the waterhole, the more involved I become. I want to know about the animals. I want to understand how the water the animals drink from does not become stagnant, how it is replenished.

The waterhole is man made. This is how the Gondwana website explains the operation:

A solar-powered pump on a 100m (300ft) deep borehole draws water from the aquifer (groundwater) into a reservoir 150m to the north-east behind the camera. A pipe feeds the waterhole from the reservoir and the flow is regulated via a float valve and water refills automatically.

My only complaint with this live stream is that sometimes it's 'down'. No live stream is available. But even then, I can reverse the feed and look at a feed that came through earlier in the day.

Black-Backed Jackal

_{Mike Mirano. From his blogspot:https://197travelstamps.com/2018/02/25/things-to-know-before-traveling-to-sossusvlei/. Used under CC 2.0 license}

The black-backed jackal feeds mostly on small prey and on carcasses. As such, it is said to be essential to the ecosystem of the desert because it keeps the place free of decaying animals. This jackal is one of the oldest dog species. I've only seen a couple of these canids at the watering hole in my live feed, and in each case the animal was alone. Here is a video of a very nervous jackal drinking from the waterhole at night.

The black-backed jackal is not a solitary animal, however. It mates for life and raises its pups as a family. The solitary jackals I saw might have been out foraging food for the mother and young ones back home. As the pups grow they also help in raising younger pups. This family unit may hunt together.

When I first started watching the feed from the Namib desert, the exercise was simply passive. I was trying to go to sleep and I watched events (or sometimes no events) unfold. However, as time passes this feed becomes something more. It becomes a window into life in the Namib dessert.

I see animals that are vaguely familiar to me. For example, the oryx. When my granddaughter was very young and learning her letters, the word that represented 'O' was often 'oryx'. It didn't mean anything to me. Now it does.

What a magnificent animal.
Oryx

_{Thomas Schoch CC-BY-SA-3.0}

The oryx is one of the largest animals in the antelope family. There are several kinds of Oryx. The one I see by the waterhole in the Namib desert is the South African oryx, or the gemsbok. It is an amazing animal, not just beautiful to look at but an extraordinary example of adaptation. This animal thrives in the desert. It has kidneys adapted to filter brackish water. It doesn't sweat, so it conserves moisture. It is able to moderate its body temperature so it doesn't overheat in the 100+ temperatures of the Namib.

While the oryx is susceptible to predation, predators approach cautiously because of this animal's quite impressive horns. These are formidable weapons in any encounter.

Some other animals I've seen are zebras, wildebeests and many birds.

Wildebeest/Gnu

_{Mathias Bethke. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.}

I've observed the pack behavior of wildebeest (gnus). The gnu is also in the antelope family. As I watch a herd near the waterhole, it quickly becomes clear which animal is the dominant bull. He presides over the waterhole. No animal drinks unless he lets them. I observed a juvenile run in terror as it approached hostile adults. Very quickly I saw two adults separate themselves from the herd and went to tend to that juvenile.

The wildebeest also is a very large antelope, with an adult weighing between 300 and 600 pounds. These animals are definitely not monogamous. During mating season bulls will mate with as many females as possible, and females will mate with many bulls. A curious aspect of wildebeest reproduction is that all the females in a herd will give birth in a two week period, and they will do so in the center of the herd. This is said to give the calves greater protection from predators.

Here is a dramatic video that shows a calf separated from the herd. Three cheetahs take chase. The mother notices and springs into action to save her baby. She brings the offspring back into the safety of the herd.

This morning I woke to an interesting sight at the waterhole: two large vultures. They were perched at the edge of the waterhole when an adult springbok approached. The springbok charged one of the vultures and both birds took off.

The springbok is a small animal (weight: 60-93 pounds).
Springbok

_{Giles Laurent. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.}

I looked up the bird. It was a lappet-faced vulture. This is a large bird and may weigh as much as 20 pounds.

Lappet-Faced Vulture

_{Jerry Pank. Used under CC 2.0 license}

I've seen different species share that waterhole, but the springbok didn't want anything to do with the vulture. While the bird is essentially a scavenger, and feeds on carcasses, it also hunts when necessary. It hunts small game and even something as large as a springbok if the animal is weak and unable to defend itself. Maybe this explains the animus of the antelope to the bird.

Here is a video of lappet-faced vultures being chased by an oryx. I don't think vultures are popular at the watering hole.

New York (my home) time zone is 7 hours behind Namibia, so often I'll turn the stream on and it will be night at the waterhole. Animals need water at night, also. One interesting image that comes across sometimes is the reflection of eyes in the dark. The screen will be almost black in the distance and two orbs will appear. As they come closer the animals they belong to will come into focus.

I've yet to see a large predator at the waterhole. However, there are dog packs, hyenas, lions and leopards nearby. Here's a video I found online of a leopard taking a drink. It is nighttime and you can see the eyes reflecting, as I described in the previous paragraph.

I've seen many warthogs around the waterhole. Once I saw a warthog cool itself off (wallow) in the pool that you can see at the side of the waterhole. Watch in the YouTube video below. Warthogs are pigs, really large pigs, with very large horns. Despite their ferocious appearance, they do not hanker for a fight but will offer one if attacked--or if their young are in danger.

In this video (below), a jackal family has high hopes of making a meal of the warthog. Those hopes, I believe, are dashed by the indifferent warthog. I'm not sure why the warthog is so confident. I found an article that asserts warthogs make up part of the jackal's diet in other parts of Africa.

Wind Up
This blog is a kind of loosey-goosey introduction to one method I use for going to sleep at night. This is a wonderful tool. Maybe it won't work for others, but it not only works for me, but gives me fuel for thought in the daytime, when I'm awake.

I'll never to go Namibia. I don't like zoos, on principal (they are prisons). I love animals. What better way to see animals, hear animals, and have a gentle nod off to sleep.

Thank you for reading my blog. Peace, health and sweet dreams to all.

May peace return to my country.