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The first hunters that ventured into the interior of Southern Africa called the Sable a "Harris buck" It was named after a hunter Capt. Cornwallis Harris. The picture painted by Harris in his book "The Wild Sports of Southern Africa" which book first appeared in 1839, is of vast herds of animals swarming across the veld:"herds of guaggas and brindled gnoos estimated to contain 15 000 animals....the country being chequered black and white with their conregated masses"

He described how he saw herds of 300 elephants in the Magaliesberg area.

... and then came the great white hunters.

The same hunters that wiped out the Quagga and Bluebuck

The opening of the aardvark's hole always faces west... (or so I've been told )

Hi every one
Did you know that an elephants favourite snack is the root bulbs of the creeper: morning glory (can someone help with scientific name please ?)

Males loose this hair from fights with other males over females etc. Thats why females and young males still have their hair.

SOME INTRESTING INFO ABOUT DESERT ANIMALS:

Springbok and Steenbok generally dont take in water by drinking and keep a very tight control of their water loss therefore sweating is kept to a minimum. Their fur is important when it come to controlling their body heat. On various parts of their body, these smaller antelope have the shortest hair of all the desert ungulaters.

This shotness of hair is directly related to the pressure that these antelope are under from predators. Larger antelope such as Gemsbok and Eland are able to defend themselves against Lion or Hyenas with their sheer body size and lethal horns. But smaller antelope can only run away from predators and do so at great speed.

During this escape run for safety the Springbok and Steenbok produce large amounts of heat at a rapid rate within their bodies. Their thin fur now allowes them to quickly offload this build-up of heat during and after their safety sprint. This prevents their body temprature from reaching dangerous levels.

You may notice, especially in desert areas, that a heard of springbok will generally stand facing the same way while feeding during the heat of the day. They have adopted an important stance while feeding at tempratures over 30 degrees celcius. They generally stand inline with the suns rays, thus minimising the amount of heat absorbed by the sides of their body and head.

The fur of the Springbok is abapted to reflect the suns heat. Although their fur is generally thin, the white fur on their lower back is long and can be made to stand up. On avergage these hairs on their lower back, together with the white fur on the belly, may reflect up to 75% of all the direct and reflected heat that strikes these parts of the coat.

But at night the springbok (and Steenbok) pay the price for their thin fur. They have to shiver in order to produce enough heat to keep warm.

I HOPE THIS IS NOT BORING YOU??...

When larger desert animals such as Eland, Gemsbok Red Hartebeest and Blue Wildebeest become water stressed (cant afford to loose anymore water through sweating) they have an ingenious manner in which they solve this temprature control problem.

They will allow their body temprature to rise but will keep the temprature of their brain cool. They do this by means of a so-called 'blood-flow radiator' known as the CAROTID RETE SYSTEM. Basically this system cools the blood going to the brain.

This saves them varst amounts of water that would otherwise have been required for normal evaporative cooling (sweating) to keep the temprature of the whole body constant and below a level that would be dangerous to the brain.

The nyala is used to diffirentiate between cows and ewes. Anything smaller that a Nyala Bull is called a ram, and anything bigger than a Nyala ewe is called a cow. That's why you get a Nyala Bull, and a Nyala Ewe

SOMETHING DIFFERENT!!

Dung beetles may be divided into three groups on account of their behaviour.

There are PARACOPRIDS who land on the dung pat and construct their tunnels directly below the pat (depending on the species, a whole variety of nest types may be constructed below the pat).

Then there are ENDOCOPRIDS which are a very specalised group of dung beetles which are present in winter within the droppings of elephants or rhinoceroses. They construct their nests within the dung pats in which they form several brood-balls, each containing an egg.

And lastly there are TELECOPRIDS or ball-rollers, and this is the group that has the most elabrorate structures for relesing chemical signals known as pheromones. The ball-rollers are in effect cutting off a piece of dung and removing it from further competition by rolling it away and burying it.

When in Kenya, a bull hippo was feeding on an impala carcass. Since then, that male was shot as it was deemed to pose a danger to humans!

an elephant's penis thrusts independently when mating (ie' ele doesn't have to use his hips!)

also porcupines are one of the few animals to have sex for pleasure (or to maintin close bonds etc). They continue to mate when the female is not in season.

I now have an identity crisis, am I maybe a Pocupine?

Oh Sprocky