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

EMAIL: grantp@mcmotor.co.za fanielomb@mcmotor.co.za