SANParks.org Forums

Hi Formites,
how are you doing? i have been quite a bite just to give a chance to my fellow guides to pass their questions to you and having a chance to go through your answers according to my questions.
Thanks.
my next questions are,
NO 1: Is there any speciffic periods of time for the baby Giraffe to stay with their mother,
and to join a group of the other babbies (creche) and to be introduced to the family? This is because I have seen the baby giraffe alone or with other babbies without mothers.

NO 2: Why do giraffes shake head after drinking water?
thanks, I am Oscar- Guides of selous.

Dear Oscar, Guide of Selous

Herewith an explanation to question 1:

Baby giraffes nurse for about a year, but begin eating leaves at about four months. They stay close to their mothers for the first few weeks, but after that, many mother giraffes leave their calves in sort of a babysitting co-op: one mother babysits while the others go out to eat. This "giraffe nursery" is called a creche.

Sometimes the baby is even left alone for a while. When that happens, the little guy just sits quietly and waits for mom to come back.

Asante sana

Elzet

Hello Formites.
How are you all? Am one of the the Guides of Selous. I would like to thank you for the answers you sent to me and to all guides of selous. Thank you. My last question was concerning about PRAY-MANTIS. And now I have another queston about HIPPOS.

a question is:
Sept.24 How many minutes or hours do hippo sleep under water at a time?

Thanks very much,
FURAHINI, guides of selous

Hey Furahini

Hippo will sleep for long stretches at a time, even hours, under water. But during this time they will come up to breath. This is done without them even waking up. Their body does it in a sub conscious way, they do not need to wake up. It is the same as your body telling you to breath, when you are sleeping. You do it without thinking about it.

In fact, when you watch them, you will quickly notice when they are sleeping. Because when they are sleeping, they will only stick their noses out of the water, without even their heads coming up above the water. When they are awake, they will also surface their eyes.

Hi FURAHINI

And this being done every 3 to 5 minutes for adults while for youngsters between 2 to 3 minutes.

I forgot to add that.

Hallo,

Thanks for your help. I am happy that we can go on internet and that you are helping us and get a lot of knowledge from you.

I am Daimon, I have been working in this place for 1,5 years. I live in Bagamoyo and here I am boatguide.

I would like to ask a question about bees.
Sometimes we see bees making hives in baobab trees.

Sept-26:
How long do the bees use to make honey?
(How long will it take them from start to the end?)

Thank you very much for your help.
Daimon

Hi Daimon,

It's really nice to speak to you again. Once again a great question.

It's a difficult question to answer because it depends on how many
flowers with nectar and pollen are around for the bees to collect.

The worker bee lives on average about 6 weeks, from the egg to the
larvae (grub), the pupa and then adult stage takes about 3 weeks. It is said
the average worker bee makes about 1/2 a teaspoon of honey in it's
lifetime, so then I would say it takes 2 to 3 weeks for the bees to make
the honey from start to finish.

Perhaps someone else has more info on this.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Hi Siobain, Boorgatspook, Elzet, Katka Voth, Imberbe, Kamadeo, Bishop3006 and those not mentioned.

Thanks a million for your time and energy! It is much appreciated.
I copy all the questions and answers into a Exel document (the Blackboard logbook)
There are more questions but we try to answer those in camp.
You have mainly seen Furahini and Oscar on the forum, I made a little rotation for them when to check and post questions.
Hopefully we will have over the week all of them on the forum!

I am still very interested to see what the answer might be on Oscar's question:
NO 2: Why do giraffes shake head after drinking water?

I have asked other guides from SA and they had no answer. There is some misunderstanding about this behavior and I hope somewhere out there is someone with the answer!!!

Again thanks a lot!
Jaap

Hi Jaap, I did see this question posted earlier...this is very interesting, I
have never seen Giraffe do this. I will read up and see what I can find.

Perhaps someone else knows....?

Jambo Formites.
How are you all?
Here is Mzee Haule one of the guides of selous. I would like to thank you for all questions that you have answered us. thank you very much. I have another question about Baobab and Long pod cacia (shambok pod)
a question is:

Why long pod cacia and baobab trees get flowers earlier than leaves?

This is because, it is dry season now, most of the trees have no leaves together with Long pod cacia and Baobabs. But long pod cacia and baobabs have started with flowers instead of leaves. ((WHY?))

Best regards,
Mzee Haule- guides of selous.

Dear Mzee Haule

So nice to hear from you again! I hope everything is well with you and your colleagues. Please convey my regards to all.

I shall deal with your query relating to baobabs.

As you know, the leaves of the baobab tend to fall off during the winter months and appear again in late spring or early summer.

The large flowers (up to 20 cm in diameter) are white and sweetly scented. They emerge in the late afternoon from large round buds on long drooping stalks from October to December. The flowers fall within 24 hours, turning brown and smelling quite unpleasant. Pollination by fruit bats takes place at night. Bats primarily pollinate the large white flowers with their ruffled petals at night, although many different insects and other creatures such as birds will visit the sweetly scented flowers. The flowers, being white, are more visible at night and being sweetly scented also help to attract a wide variety of potential pollinators.

The seed capsule does not split open, instead it hangs on the tree until it gets blown off by wind or gets collected by monkeys, baboons or people who all enjoy the soft powdery substance that covers the seeds. The seeds are not generally eaten by animals and are discarded, and from these seeds new baobabs can grow.

Many plants that lose their leaves like the baobabs flower during the period when they are leafless as this increases the effectiveness of pollination. The absence of leaves improves wind transmission of pollen for wind-pollinated plants, and increases the visibility of the flowers to insects in insect-pollinated plants (as in the case of the baobab).

This strategy is not without risks, as the flowers can be damaged by frost or, in dry season regions, result in water stress on the plant.

I hope this helps!

Take care.

Elzet

Jaap, I've drawn a complete blank on this (in the process finding a couple of other interesting tit bits about giraffes drinking habits though ).

In all my books there is actually no mention of this behaviour at all Sorry.

Just a little note about the long pod cacia.
In SA we call it the Sjambok pod, Cassia abbreviata.


My thoughts were the same on baobabs Elzet..
Just the Sjambok pod.. Ill try to find out what is pollinating the flowers.





Have not read it somewhere.. Have not been able to find it on internet so far..
Lest see if someone else can find info on this behaviour......
Thanks for looking TP!

Dear Jaap

Good to hear from you! BTW, I like the interaction with you and the guides...

When I conducted initial research, I came across this info, but was a bit embarrassed to post it as a possible answer to the giraffe's head shake after drinking water question... But I thought my clever co-mites would have come up with a clever answer by now. But seeing that no one has, here goes my pleb explanation:

Unique Blood-pressure Controls

Many scientists and casual observers have been intrigued by the blood-pressure regulations in an animal with such a long neck and legs. Research has shown that the giraffe has a very large heart (13kg) and that its pumping power is three times that of a man.

Most important, there is an intricate network of valves in the veins and blood vessels of the neck, which prevents the brain from being filled or emptied of blood too quickly. One highly specialised vessel near the brain acts as a sponge, slowly absorbing blood to the point where pressure warns the animal to lift its head before damage occurs.

Next time you see a giraffe drinking, notice that it never keeps its head down for too long.

http://www.wildwatch.com/living_library ... -2/giraffe"

Now here is my deduction.... by shaking its head after drinking a few mouthfuls, the giraffe is communicating to the body that the pressure may ease up - i.e. no more need for blood to be absorbed by the 'sponge vessel'... the shaking of the head actually helps the blood to drain back to where it is needed, stabilising the blood pressure... until the giraffe takes another bow to take another drink... ???