Hippos with young in tow are the most aggressive, sometimes attacking cattle that come to graze on the banks of the Niger.
Hebridean sheep graze freely on the Machrihanish Dunes course, serving as natural lawnmowers, and the rough is studded with purple pyramid, frog and marsh orchids.
Now, they peer out from shaded watchtowers at miles of flat water meadows where sheep graze and, on the northern horizon, at a low brown mud-brick village with some trees.
Martha and Saratu and Rehab's families all said yes; Yagana, an orphan, received the blessing of her foster father; Kume was found sitting under a tree in the primary school – she had brought the family's herd to graze around the deserted, weed-choked building.
However, the school faces the challenge of having an open compound that is inviting to community members to come and graze their animals.
The school has a watchman who would be checking to see that residents no longer come to graze their cattle on the school compound.
It would certainly be an incongruous scene for an energy boom, in the lightly wooded commuter belt countryside a few miles from Gatwick's perimeter, but with the flight paths pointing elsewhere, leaving the local horses and goats, even a field of llamas, to graze in peace.
The forest was always a treasure trove for these villagers - a source of firewood, charcoal and building materials, and a place to graze and water cattle.
The only signs of life are the sheep from a local farm that graze on the weeds sprouting up through the Tarmac path that runs from the gates to the mine-head.
It involves a package of rights, such as the right to graze and to hunt, the right of access to sacred sites, and the right of transit.
That is not always true. "Empty" land often supports herders who graze animals on it.
