The following is a chat transcript from the Mungo Park website. Enjoy!
Tonight we are talking with actress and wildlife
activist Stefanie Powers. Stefanie has just recently returned from
a trip to Labrador, joining Mungo Park's Expedition to the Eastern
Edge as a guest correspondent. In her daily dispatches, wildlife
lover Powers reported on Newfoundland and Labrador's caribou
migrations the largest such migrations in the world.
Perhaps best known for her starring roles in the television series
Hart to Hart and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Powers is also a
celebrated philanthropist who helped found the William Holden
Wildlife Foundation. Powers currently serves as president of the
foundation, a public charity dedicated to wildlife preservation,
whose Kenya-based education center serves 10,000 students
annually. She also works with species survival programs for the
Cincinnati Zoo and Zoo Atlanta.
STEFANIE POWERS: Good evening. I'm happy to be here and I
was thrilled to be in Labrador.
MP: Well, great. You've traveled quite a distance from L.A. to the
eastern edge of Labrador. What was your first thought when you
saw the landscape of Labrador?
SP: Well, we had been very nicely briefed in Goose Bay about the
terrain and the habitat of the caribou. And what I expected to see
were barrenlands, but I had no idea that it would be as spectacular
a landscape as it was. It's really a glacial landscape, with deep
fjords carved out of the glaciers. The faces of some of the fjords
go two to three thousand feet straight up from the water. It's
absolutely spectacular and far from being barren, although there
are no trees. When you look into the minutia of the flora that
supports the life forms there, there's a tremendous variety
much greater than I imagined.
And of course, in the winter, in order to support the caribou, who
feed almost entirely off lichens, mainly whatever there is, is of
such high dense protein base, because of the inhospitable climate,
it's sort of I think it impacts even greater on the flora than it does
on the fauna by virtue of the fact that they take longer to grow and
they are impacted as they grow. I mean, there must be a really
powerful survival strategy for all of these hearty species. I'm told
some of the trees at the tree line may be as old as 20 years and
still look like saplings. But if you cut them open, you see the rings
of the trees really, really tightly bound together. So, clearly
whatever they get out of whatever is there in terms of soil nutrition
goes into everything that they've got.
MP: It sounds incredible. What inspired you to go on this
expedition?
SP: I'd never been to that part of the world. But the notion of
combining animal behavior observation with the leading edge of
technology was just too tantalizing.
MP: And who did the briefing in Goose Bay, a biologist?
SP: There were biologists and members of the Ministry of Forest
and Wildlife Resources. We had one of those people come with us
on the trip Frank Phillips was his name, and he had a wealth of
information and knowledge, and was a very good camper. So we
learned lots of good camping tricks from Frank.
MP: Will it be a long time before you'll be able to put some of
those new camping tricks into action?
SP: Not too long, no, because I live part of the year in Africa in
East Africa, in Kenya and I spend a lot of time in the bush. So,
far from this being an unusual experience, it's actually more usual
for me than not. And you know, camping today is hardly roughing
it, because we have all these miracle fabrics and miracle
inventions. But to be actually on the shores of the fjord, far away
from any habitation, and open up a satellite telephone
communicating with a satellite flying over Guatemala was really
kind of a sharp contrast with the modern world and the bush.
MP: You've given us two really impressive descriptions here of
the landscape and the technology that we're using. Now, what was
the highlight of the whole trip? Which event stands out for you as
being the most impressive?
SP: Well, in the animal experience, I think seeing a black bear
coming along this ridge above our camp. When he saw us, he
stood up. I think the whole encounter took about 12 minutes. ... It
was incredible. Whether he could see us clearly or not, he
definitely saw us moving. And he stood up to his full height. Frank
estimates that he was about 500 pounds and stood, on his hind legs,
well over six feet. It was astonishing, a display of such power and
strength. It was absolutely breathtaking to see him. And then he
ran across the ridge above us, past us and on towards his own
destination, wherever that was. We actually saw two black bears,
but the second one we saw in the helicopter in which we did our
surveys every day.
The caribou were fabulous to watch. But the closest we got to
them and the most meaningful observations that we got of them
were actually right in front of our campsite. We were on the
shores of one of the great fjords, Hebron Fjord, and one morning
while we were all having our coffee, there they came, padding
along the sand in groups of four, six, as many as twelve. And they
were so beautiful to watch. They have a rather ungainly sort of
gait, and their fur was beginning to come in with white streaks and
white bits. Actually, in the wintertime they get much grayer and
grow more hair, in order to keep them insulated.
MP: What was the most interesting thing you learned about the
caribou? And what surprised you?
SP: It was fascinating. I was prepared for what the caribou looked
like, and I'm familiar with herding animals by virtue of my
experiences in East Africa. And migrations, per se, I've seen a
number of times from Tanzania to Kenya the great migrations
that encompass a million animals driving north and then south
across the border of Tanzania and Kenya. (I've seen) the great
herds of wildebeest mass together and then shoot off as though a
gun has gone off. With the wildebeest, you really do see a kind of
large massing of males, females, babies, everything. And then
once they start to go off, they move en masse. They do trail along,
but they move as a great huge streaming mass.
The caribou seem to move along traditional paths that you can see
from the sky and which, I was told, have existed for hundreds of
years. You see the caribou tracks, which they obviously have
created over hundreds of years. And they trail along those tracks
until the calving season, when the caribou then begin to mass
together but (the group that gathers is) generally only the
females and the young that they carry at their side. They migrate,
streaming along, and finally get into numbers as they get onto high
ground, where they have their calves. And they go up to this high
windy ground, which is very inhospitable, in order to get a vantage
point to spot any predators that might come to attack them or
threaten them.
The vast slopes of these mountains are denuded of most
vegetation except the very smallest. And it's then that the animals
begin to feed on lichens and continue that feeding process
throughout the winter. The calving season is generally in June, and
then at the end of July they begin to move off slowly, trailing in
small groups. And that is when you begin to see bachelor herds,
but not right away. That behavior is slightly different than the
behavior we see in East Africa, which was very interesting to
learn, although we didn't see it. It was the wrong time of the year.
MP: Stefanie, this leads me to a question one of our online
audience asked. Have you ever had any scary experiences with
wild animals in Africa or up in Labrador? For example, was the
bear scary?
SP: No, we were very safely far enough away. And I don't think
he would have been interested in coming into our camp. He might
have been interested in coming into our camp had food been
scarce, and perhaps he would have been tantalized by the smell of
our garbage. But we were very careful about how it was disposed
of, so that we would not tempt any bears to come around, because
clearly their sense of smell is so acute that even the slightest tinge
of food source that they might easily attack would be too tempting
for them and dangerous for us. But since we knew how to behave,
it wasn't frightening.
But there have been close calls over the years. Generally, it's not
the animal's fault, but the human being's fault. I think most animal
people will agree that what they call a bad animal, a dangerous
animal, a vicious animal who's attacking human beings, has had a
bad experience with human beings. Because on the whole, they
won't go out of their way to attack us unless they're pushed to.
MP: Where did your interest in animals come from? And how long
ago was that?
SP: Oh, I think it came from my earliest recollection. People used
to bring me things that dropped out of trees and pets they didn't
want. We had a bit of a menagerie, growing up.
MP: I'd like to ask about the people you encountered in Labrador.
You visited with the local Inuit community. What did you take
away from that experience, and what was your impression?
SP: Well, once again it's the tragedy of the indigenous people, you
know. It's a sad tale, the experience of the Indians in the United
States as a result of the settlers deciding that there was no place
for co-habitation. And I don't think it's over yet. It's obvious that
what occurred with the Inuit in northern Labrador is a subject for
much discussion. A great many people on both sides are working
to find ways in which they might return a sense of dignity to those
people. And they sorely need it.
MP: I understand you're a vegetarian. What was it like to sleep on
the caribou skins and watch others cook the meat?
SP: Well, you know, I'm not an evangelist for vegetarianism. I'm
mostly concerned about the way animals are raised and killed for
food. I think we have to educate ourselves about how
overconsumption has [made] our meat preparation methods
increasingly dangerous to human beings. But since it is human
behavior that needs to be altered, rather than animal behavior, it's
up to not just vegetarians, but animal protectionists, as well, to
preach the gospel of humanity and humane behavior toward
animals in general, and certainly the animals that are consumed for
food.
MP: I'd like to tie that question into some of your comments about
the indigenous population, because there's an awful lot of
subsistence hunting up there. And I would imagine that there are a
lot of similarities with your experience in Africa, as well, where
people who are living off the land have to strike a balance and find
a way to survive.
SP: All I can say is that nature has always balanced itself. Man
has not. And we have to look at ourselves and ... the way in which
we treat nature and exploit nature, and try to understand what we
are doing. Nature is giving us all the messages; we just have to be
smart enough to listen to her and try to alter our own behavior
not the least of which is to pay attention to the human birth rate.
Animals are extraordinary that way, you know. Take the caribou.
The food source may be dwindling for them, because their
numbers are greater than they have been since the last census. ...
In the late 1950s, the numbers of the George River herd that we
saw in Labrador were about 15,000. They're now numbering about
three-quarters of a million animals.
It's an incredible increase, but since the census in 1980, they've
stabilized and are now probably reducing their numbers by virtue
of the fact that the food source is reducing. What they're seeing
now is that many females are not coming into foal. And those who
are, are coming in at a later age, so they're almost self-regulating.
That's not uncommon. There are certain species in East Africa
that will self-regulate their birth pattern when they sense that a
drought is coming. So, if they're clever enough to do that to control
their population, we should be able to do the same thing.
MP: Here's a little bit of a "behind-the-scenes" sort of question.
Did Maggie help out with the photos?
SP: Help out? Oh, my God! She was the photos. I learned a lot
from Maggie. I was thrilled to have her there. And you can tell
Maggie that I got my slides back and there are a few that I'll send
her.
MP: How long have you been working in the field of wildlife
conservation?
SP: Oh, gosh, I guess I've been working in it all my life, but as
virulently as I am now, which I never expected to do since
1981.
MP: And how much of the year do you spend in Africa?
SP: That always depends on work. Generally, I like to be there
three times a year. I'm not always able to do that. But I also like
the work I do. And the work I do also makes it possible for me to
attract attention to the work we do in Africa. So everything has to
get more or less equal time.
MP: I know you're very involved with other issues of social impact
and importance. Could you tell us more about different projects
that you worked on aside from wildlife conservation?
SP: Well, mainly it's wildlife preservation and conservation. I'm
involved with some species survival programs, and I've worked
very closely with Dr. Betsy Dresser who's currently at the
Audubon Zoo Center for the Production of Endangered Wildlife in
New Orleans on a species survival program and an embryo
transfer program with Bongo, a medium-sized East African
antelope. We are transferring embryos of Bongo's into host
females of a subspecies antelope, and producing offspring if we
can. We haven't been too successful. But of the transfers that
have been made, one has been born at the Cincinnati Zoo. So that
gives us hope. If we can refocus our attention on this particular
subspecies, we might be able to get some more births. But it's an
expensive proposition, and there are other things that are taking
priority.
I've also tried to help direct some funding toward the orangutan
project of Birute Galdikas in Southern Borneo. Some of you may
recall that Birute is the third member of the trio of women that Dr.
Louis Leakey helped to sponsor and certainly encouraged to do
behavioral studies of the great apes in the wild, the first of which
was Jane Goodall, the second of which was Dian Fossey, and the
third of which is Birute Galdikas.
MP: Fascinating. Now, Stefanie, in your professional life, what's
next?
SP: There are number of projects, all percolating. Two of them
are movies for television. One of them is a play another
musical, which I'd like to do. I did a musical last year.
MP: Well, Stefanie, thank you very much. We've really enjoyed
having you as our guest correspondent on our expedition to
Labrador.
SP: Well, it's been a great pleasure for me. This is all a brave new
world. And I'm afraid they might have created a monster. Now,
I'm dying to get back to my computer.
