Land Rover Defender
-
Upload
car-leisure -
Category
Documents
-
view
254 -
download
1
description
Transcript of Land Rover Defender
FeatureLand Rover Defender - Sea Turtles
Mozambique – More specifically Ponta Malongane, where white sand beaches stretch as far as the eye can see. It is a place of extreme serenity and peace, but also a place where na-ture battles the circle of life, a battle for survival.
Defending Wildlife
It is on these beaches that the Logger-
head and Leatherback sea turtles make
their nests and lay their eggs, and the
odds are stacked against their very
survival.
If you are a regular reader of this magazine,
you would have seen that we have been in-
volved and featuring the conservation and re-
search efforts of Pierre Steyn for the last three
years now. Pierre’s been working on turtles in
this area for 15 years, and his tagging and re-
search programme has the sanction of the Mo-
zambique government.
But more importantly, Pierre and his family is
also very active during hatchling season mak-
ing sure that the local Mocambican people
doesn’t kill these majestic creatures for food
when coming out to lay their eggs, and also to
assist the very small hatchlings to make it out
to sea when they are hatched.
The endangered Loggerhead and Leatherback
turtle females return to the same beaches
where they were born to lay their eggs. They
will never lay their eggs anywhere else, al-
though they do travel the oceans of the world
for thousands of kilometers.
They also lay their eggs almost exclusively at
night. And this is exactly where Pierre Lombard
has focused his efforts in researching and pro-
tecting these vulnerable creatures.
The cruel reality for these majestic animals is
that very few hatchlings survive to reach matu-
rity. From the moment they are hatched, they
are hunted and disregarded, and it is here that
Pierre and his family try to make a difference.
It is only when you sit down with Pierre to dis-
cuss the project he runs in conjunction with the
Mozambican government, that you realize just
how bad the odds are.
The female turtle reaches maturity at around
seventeen years of age, and they only ever
come onto the beach to lay their eggs. When
a hatchling leaves its egg, and digs its way out
of the nest, it has to make a perilous journey
of a 100 metres or more of crab infested sand
to reach the white surf. That is if the nest is not
violated by wild cats and the like before they
hatch.
These turtles are also attracted to light, as the
white surf of the waves are always illuminated,
even on very dark nights. This built in attrac-
tion to light is what aids the turtles in getting
back to the surf after laying their eggs. This
adds another problem for the survival of these
41ISSUE 60
turtles, as more and more of the beaches they
lay their eggs on are being developed, and the
lights of these houses and developments make
them lose direction.
The work that Pierre and his family have been
doing is of vital importance, as he can now keep
track of which females come back and when.
But, the years that Pierre has been doing this
worthy job has taken its toll on his vehicles,
and it has become very expensive to maintain
his own vehicles when patrolling the Mozambi-
can beaches at night. And this is exactly where
Pierre needs constant assistance.
This year however, Land Rover South Africa
provided the Turtle Research and conserva-
tion Project with a Land Rover Defender Fire
to cover the transportation requirements of the
project. In doing so, Land Rover emphasised
and strengthened their long-term commitment
to Wild Life Conservation.
The conditions in which Pierre does his work re-
quires a very capable and robust vehicle as he
travels up to 120 kilometres along very treach-
erous beaches with slippery rocky patches along
the way. Pierre has on occasion been caught by
an incoming tide when he spent more time with
turtles that have been injured or lost on the
beaches, and again, having a robust vehicle has
been reassuring when faced with these chal-
lenges.
The limited-production Fire edition Defender is
just such a vehicle, and comes packed with Re-
caro bucket seats, leather and Alcantara trim,
diamond-turned alloys, colour coded head- and
tail- lights, running boards and more. The Fire
edition comes in a special Vesuvius Orange
metallic paint and is offset by Santorini black
accents. It still has the 2.4 litre common-rail
turbo diesel engine that is matched to a six
speed manual transmission, and is still one of
the most robust vehicles around.
But the main thing with the Defender was that
it did not need any modification or suspension
adjustments to handle the tricky conditions in
which it was required to work. The standard
capabilities of the Defender made it an ideal
member of the team, and never let the other
members down.
The mating season saw Pierre tagging 99 tur-
tles, and he was able to monitor many of the
returning females of previous years. It is only
when you experience the conditions out there
for yourself that you realize just how important
the correct vehicle is for the work that is in-
volved in Pierre’s project. He also took us along
in the Defender he used to find and tag turtles
on the beach every night, and the nights we
spent with Pierre resulted in many turtle sight-
ings.
42 ISSUE 60
Ewald van Zyl
Land Rover Constantia Kloof
243 J G Strydom dr , Weltevredenpark , 1719TEL: 011 671 8000