Exploring Pigeon Valley: Working with nature

THIS is the 64th in an ongoing series that highlights the riches of Pigeon Valley, the urban nature reserve in the heart of Glenwood.
In this series I have reported growing numbers of Black Mambas and the brief presence of a Side-striped Jackal in the area.

I can now report a Crowned Eagle nest built by an adult at the back of the Berea Ridge, with at least one juvenile also present in the area, a situation that we have never recorded before.

ALSO READ: Exploring Pigeon Valley: The Mantids

Some people say that Covid-19 is Nature’s way of fighting back against humanity. That is not the way I see it.

Humans are just part of nature, and it is human actions that brought on the virus. We concentrated wildlife and humans in one place, creating the ideal conditions for a virus to pass, probably originally from bats, to humans.

We have brought on ourselves the need to live in unnatural ways as a way of protecting ourselves against the consequences of our actions. People long for ‘business as usual’, yet business as usual has meant acting recklessly and without thought.

The pandemic demonstrates the consequences of human actions that disregard the rest of the natural world, treating it as something to be suppressed, exterminated, poisoned with herbicides and pesticides or mindlessly exploited.

Or we think ‘nature’ should be relegated to some picturesque bit of land where we can gawk at it. Our actions have led to declines of many species and mass extinctions, creating gaps for population explosions of others – both alien species like Mynahs and House Sparrows and some indigenous ones like Hadedah Ibises and Vervet monkeys – and, in the case, of Pigeon Valley, Red Duikers.

Urban life is usually one of sadly reduced biodiversity.

The meaning I give to these phenomena is that we should accept ourselves as part of nature, and abandon ideas of controlling and dominating the rest of it.

Here good science can provide insight – for example, we now understand that large amounts of bacteria live within us and their presence is essential for our good health. The question is thus not how we kill bacteria but what the optimal relationship with them is. It means also that we take responsibility for our actions

When people are upset if a Crowned Eagle takes a pet, I understand fully.

I would have hated to have lost my late Oscar this way. However, I am also aware that it is only the return of natural predators that will ensure a balanced Hadedah, Duiker and Vervet population, in turn giving greater protection to many other bird species. I also feel remarkably privileged to be in the presence of such a magnificent creature, not least because this is in an urban area.

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