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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
1
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
2
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
3
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
4
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THE ARROW OF KNOWLEDGE
5
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
6
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HERDS, HOMES AND HORSES
7
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
9
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
8
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
9
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
11
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