Earth Hour

I've

signed

up - have

you?




Earth Hour 2009 is a global initiative by the WWF (= World Wide Fund for Nature) - to take a firm stand against climate change.


Meaning: we are encouraged to switch off our lights on Saturday, 28 March 2009 between 20h30-21h30




By signing up you're pledging to do that!


To sign up (if you are South African) OR to learn more: visit www.earthhour.org.za


"Your name will make a world of a difference!"

What will I do in that hour? Well, there are candles (something most of us became accustomed to after the ESCOM-fiasco last year - remember?) but probably, I'll go outside + enjoy the night-sky (we do have the most magnificent "star-sky") + with all the lights off around us (!?) we'll be able to see that EVEN in Joburg!

A covert Story

ON A WING ...

Gymnogene

Buzzard

Pied Kingfisher

Giant Kingfisher

Spoonbill

Gannet

Pelican

Saddlebilled Stork

Openbilled Stork

Burchell's Coucal

Thickbilled Weaver

Cape Weaver

Pintailed Whydah

Hamerkop

Longtailed Widow

END

An Ostrich Story

I'm an ostrich hatchling, about the size of a big hen, but will eventually grow to an impressive height of about 2.6m - because an ostrich is the largest living bird on earth! We might not be able to fly, but "at full throttle" can reach a speed of up to 70km/hr. You'll find us distributed in West, East and southern Africa, where our habitat is low rainfall areas.

An ostrich nest is simply a hole scraped in bare ground, and an average egg weighs about 1.4kg and takes about 35-45 days to hatch. During the night, the ostrich male shares breeding "duties" with the female, whilst the female sits on the eggs during the day. You want to know why? Then check out the next photo.

Can you see? The male has mostly black feathers, whilst the female is brown = well-camouflaged during the day. Ostrich couples not only share incubating the eggs, but in nature, they also mate for life. Have you also heard the expression that ostriches "bury their heads in the sand"? Well, that's NOT true. If they feel threatened whilst sitting on a nest, ostriches only tend to press their necks and heads flat on the ground.

In nature, the male defends the hatchlings and also teaches us youngsters how and what to eat. A fully grown ostrich has a wingspan of 2m or more, which are "brought into play" during mating displays, but also, to provide shade for tiny chicks like me. Although they differ in colour, both males and females have bare necks and thighs. Since I confirmed that it's not true that ostriches bury their heads in the sand, it IS true that throughout our life we swallow large numbers of pebbles. That helps with the digestion, because in our gizzards, the stones help to grind the harder food we eat. Eventually, an adult ostrich carries approx 1kg of stones in its stomach.

Talking about food - ostriches are mainly vegetarians but occasionally, we like to nibble on insects. We can go without water for days, but when water is freely available, we enjoy "a drink" and frequently take baths. Other than having long necks, small heads, large eyes, long + powerful legs, we only have 2 toes on each foot - that certainly distinguishes us from other birds, which mostly have 4 toes on each foot.


Now let me introduce you to other members of my family. Hatchlings normally are fawn in colour with dark brown spots but sometimes, by a fluke of nature, some chicks are more white in colour than brown. We don't notice colour, but hear when humans remark about the unusual shading.




Then again, on other occasions, instead of white, there are black chicks amongst us. Until we are over a year old, one can't (generally) distinguish who is male or female, because until then, we are all brown - or all look like females. The males only start to "discolour" when we are becoming sexually mature - so seeing a black chick amongst us is as unusual as a white one.



Now to some family "portraits" - cute or ugly? You be the judge.



















I did mention we liked water, right? But what this family member is trying to accomplish, beats me! Perhaps it's vain and is using the water surface like a mirror? But does it realise that by stretching its neck it tends to loose its resemblance as an ostrich?

Now this "specimen" is taking things a bit too far and out of shame, I do feel like "burying my head in sand". It seems to have lost its "bite" - pardon the pun - because ostriches don't have teeth!!

Did you know that once, ostrich feathers were considered a fashion necessity amongst ladies as far afield as London, Paris + New York? The feather boom began in the 1870's and lasted until the first World War started. Then, fashion houses changed their designs to fit the "austerity" of war - and the demand for ostrich feathers was "no more". Whilst the boom lasted, great mansions were built but eventually, many owners lost their fortune.

From 1826-1867, ostriches were hunted for their feathers. Then it became an industry (us 'birds' were domesticated), so now, you not only find us in game reserves, but can also get to know us "close & personal" on any of various commercial breeding farms, esp. in the Oudtshoorn district of the Klein Karoo. Now we are farmed not only for our feathers, but mainly for our leather and meat. Ostrich meat looks like beef but is low in fat + cholesterol, and high in calcium, protein + iron.

Did you know that in 1903, the original ostrich feather dusters were invented by (missionary + broom factory manager) Harry Beckner in (wait for it.....) Johannesburg!

Last but not least - let me introduce you to a distant cousin, the emu. This grey-brown bird with a shaggy appearance is the largest bird native to Australia, and has 3 toes on each foot. It's also a flightless bird and also tends to swallow pebbles to assist in the digestion of plant material. Whilst we ostriches are "famous" for our feathers, the emu, in contrast, is farmed for its meat, leather + oil (the latter from fat, which is used for cosmetics, dietary supplements + therapeutic products).

A Dassie Story

Let me introduce myself: I'm Dassie, a Rock Hyrax. You might think that I look like a rabbit, but please, take a closer look - do my small rounded ears really remind you of a rabbit? And although you can't see it in this photo, dassies don't have (external) tails! As you CAN see, I'm a grazer, in contrast to my cousin, the Bush or Tree Dassie, which is known as a browser: it survives on nutrition derived from foliage. We "crop" vegetation with the sides of our mouths whilst using our molars, instead of the incisors, as most other mammals do.

A dassie's habitat is any rocky area in mountain ranges or isolated outcrops, and we are widely distributed throughout South Africa - we certainly frequent the coastal areas (left) i.e. we LOVE the Tsitsikamma Region.



Back to our relatives: believe it or not and although we look like rodents, our evolutionary relationship is CLOSEST to the elephant (and the dugong). Our name is derived from the Dutch dasje (= bager), so please, don't call us rock-rabbits!








Check out those 2 upper-front incisors (left)! Don't you think they resemble tusks? I did mention that we are related to the elephant, right? By looking more closely at these 2 sharp teeth (watch out!!), you can tell my bru (= SA slang for 'brother') is a male: a male's incisor teeth are triangular in shape whilst a female's are rounded.


Look at my cute little siblings (right) - we are all part of a large colony (up to 50 dassies tend to associate together), in contrast to the Tree dassie, which tends to associate in pairs. You can tell us apart by our "coats": Rock dassies are covered by yellow-grey to dark-brown hair with lighter underparts, whilst a Tree dassie has longer and more woolly hair. Another difference is that rock dassies are nocturnal whilst we love sunbathing!

Talking about the sun: we have a low metabolic rate and a poor ability to regulate body temperature. To compensate for that, we only become active after sunrise, when we tend to bask in the sun before moving off to feed. At night, we all huddle close together to keep each other warm in our shelters - to conserve warmth/energy.

After a lengthy pregnancy (= gestation period) of up to 240 days (again, compare that with the elephant!), our young are born fully haired and with their eyes open so that we look like perfect "miniatures" of our parents. Although like all mammals we do suckle milk from our mothers, we are able to move about and eat vegetation soon after birth. The other day, I overheard a human say that my little cousin (above) looks just like a hedgehog - can you believe that?

Talking about "looks" - I also overheard the woman, who took this photo (left), comment that this dassie specimen looked to her like a little koala bear! Weird, these humans! I wonder if they are aware that unlike them, we don't need to consume regular intakes of water? Because our diet consists of plenty succulent food (grass, shrubs and succulent leaves), we can survive on the nutrition (fluid) derived from that or occasionally, sip some water from small pools in rocks.

As I've explained just now, humans make weird comparisons but have an even weirder way of saying things. Like this little fellow (left) prettily posing for a photo. Guess what the female photographer said in response? "Ag, shame!" Now I would have understood if she had said: "How cute!" but no, it was "ag, shame".

Footnote: the photographer explained "nicely" to me that "ag shame" broadly denotes a sympathetic feeling + that someone admiring a baby might say that to emphasize its cuteness!!

By way of closing off, I wish to remind the human race how dependent they are on our ......... urine! Yes, you heard me right.

Did you know that hardened dassie urine (known as hyraceum) is highly sought after by perfume makers - to give an animal-like "note" to fragrances?

A Hippo Story

My Hippo Story starts in the Kruger National Park, where we saw our first hippo "walking about" - probably because it was a cloudy and cool day - since hippo usually only emerge at dusk to graze on dry land.

Did you know that once, hippos were widespread throughout Southern Africa (wherever a body of water with gently sloping banks existed, bordering grassy plains); whereas today, these formidable amphibians are mainly found in the Mpumalanga Province and the coastal belt of northern KwaZulu-Natal.

The story "gains momentum" as soon as we visit Lake St Lucia (an estuary as well as a lagoon - also a UNESCO World Heritage site), where about 800 hippos reside. During a boat cruise, we see this hippo emerge.........


............before we realise that protectively, it is trying to "screen" its youngster from our view.





Further along, other hippos are dozing in the sun whilst lazily leaning their heads on the backs of others in the colony.





Massive heads with small ears, protruding eyes and nostrils projected just above the water's surface, are popping up "all over the show".




Although a hippo's skin is protected by a glandular secretion, we detect a few hippo that appear "sun-burnt".......







..........or is the "excessive" pink colour perhaps the result of a kind of mutation?






Not only does a hippo have a huge, barrel-like body, but it is the most dangerous animal to encounter on land - hippos have killed more people in Africa than the wild animals "belonging" to the BIG 5..........



.........or than the crocodile!!








A visit to the St Lucia estuary/lagoon certainly includes "spotting" crocodiles, where about 2 000 crocodiles (like the hippos) have adapted to the brackish water conditions: a mixture of fresh and sea water -
and that's where our story today ends.

For further information on The Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, you can visit my blog-entry on Sunday, 20 April 2008 - "A World Heritage Site".