SANParks.org Forums

Thanks for playing, Bishop, Sprocky, Rooies, and Siobain. All of you mites got some of them right, but only one got all. Answers as below:

1. It is possible to get malaria in Johanneburg (malaria-free area), despite a resident never having left his city.
TRUE. Yes, indeed known as traveller's malaria, the infecting mosquito could possibly be transported via, say, suitcase and thereby infect a person in a non-malarial area! Very rare though.

2. Malaria may develop more than a year after exposure to a malaria-infected mosquito.
TRUE, possibly up to a year; most likely, though, to be much sooner - two weeks to a couple of months.

3. If antimalarial pills are taken diligently at the correct dosage and time interval, a visitor to a malarial area will not be infected with the disease.
FALSE. Malarial pills reduce the risk of contracting malaria if bitten by an infecting mosquito drastically; but they are not fail-safe, hence the need for additional non-drug measures.

4. Eating garlic in a malarial area may reduce the chances of contracting the disease.
TRUE. Research has suggested that garlic may indeed reduce the amount of mosquito bites, hence the risk of contracting malaria!

5. The incidence of malaria in visitors to the Kruger National Park is significantly lower than the incidence in areas surrounding the Park.
TRUE. This is mainly due to Kruger's diligence in spraying appropriate mosquito sites and reducing the spread of the malaria mosquito. Most places outside Kruger do not seem to be as diligent.

6. Only the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito can transmit malaria to the victim; males, however, still bite (although they cannot transmit malaria), but mostly in the daytime.
FALSE. The first part is true, but the male does not bite.

IB, you're IT!

BBL ...

Imberbe!

A bit of a higher grade question, with two aspects you need to answer correctly:

You are in a desperate survival situation deep in the bush. You are weak and desperately searching for some food. You are unsure of what bush food is edible and what is dangerous.

You enter a beautiful lush valley and see a troop of baboons and a troop of monkeys searching for food on opposite sides of the valley. You decide that it would be wise to follow one of them and see what they eat. You decide to follow the monkeys.

Soon you see them eating a brownish fruit, which is as big as an orange and has a hard shell. Following their lead you break open the shell and hungrily devour the pulp and pips. It actually tastes quite nice and you can eat your fill.

That night you wake up with severe tummy trouble. The morning find you close to death.

Two questions you need to answer:

1. What correct decision did you take and why was it correct?
2. What wrong decision did you make and why was it a mistake?

Nice Q Imberbe!

Lemme see... I'm not close to higher grade, but here's shot.

Correct decision?

To look at what the animals eat and to go for that. One of the good options when looking for food in unkonwn surroundings is to look at what the animals eat, primates probably better as in this case. The anials will also show you where there's water - if the animal you're trying to look at is dependent upon surface water that is!

Wrong decision?

To simply take the fruit that you see the monkeys eat, and accept it as good for you as well. From the description it sounds like monkey orange (I think the English name is) - I knew them as "klappers" growing up, and we had two types. We called them the "botter klapper" and "wyn klapper" - I've actually never looked what their official names are, neither what they're called in English!

But what you should do when you get food is to first take a little bit and put it in your lip, and wait a while. Nothing happens, take a small bite onto your tongue, and wait. Tehn swallow a small piece and wait again. Only after quite some time and sure that it is fine and not doing anything can you eat. Here, you should have eaten the pulp, but not the pips. Can't remember now, but I think the pips contains some poison, as often fruit pips do, even those we eat on a daily basis.

Do I pass on lower grade, or even fail that? Let's see what others have to say.

I partially agree with bishop3006.

The correct choice was eating what the Monkeys were eating rather than what the Baboons were eating.

Bishops advice on testing the fruit is spot on.

Nice Q, Imberbe. Bishop, Sprocks.

Well done both of you.

Yes, correct decision was to rather follow the monkeys than the baboons, since baboons can eat more things that does not agree with humans than monkeys.

The fruit was indeed monkey orange and Bishops technique is a good way to help you make a decision. So I am giving that to Bishop as well.

Most importantly he pointed out the fact that you should not eat the pips. The fruit is excellent food and nice to eat, the pips will give you problems. Look closely at the monkeys, they do not eat pips.

What I was looking for additionally was:

Never eat too much of anything, first test it and eat in moderation. (Wrong decision.) When you see that it is OK, you can eat more.

Bishop you are IT!

Very interesting and helpful question!

Bish

Thanks Imberbe, interesting question. Had me think some!

Let's keep to the trees.

This beauty is used, but be careful! Tobacco pipes are made from the wood and the fruit pulp is edible. The oil from the fruit and seed is used as hair oil, cooking, and to make candles and soap. Quite a versatile tree it would seem.

But beware, the seeds are poisonous!

Which tree?