Archive for Did you know?

Day 5 – Bird of Prey Sanctuary and Natal Lion Park

Lacey / October 25, 2012 / No comments

First of all in the morning we all got up and had some breakfast that Victor made for us. After everyone was finished we made our way to the African Bird Of Prey Sanctuary. It was very good there. We all got to see and learn about different birds of prey we wouldn’t normally see in our country. We also saw a show at 10.30 to learn even more about these birds. I personally enjoyed it because I am not really a bird person, therefore it was really informative for me. We all managed to get some stunning photos to re-live the memories of the sanctuary. We also had some hotdogs after the show and spent some money in their gift shop.

After the bird of prey sanctuary we went to the Natal Lion Park. Before we went there Victor told us to go in with an open mind and make a decision about the zoo afterwards. Just from him saying this I realised that this zoo might not be of the best standard. And boy was I right. The enclosures that the animals were in were of very poor quality and none of the animals had any enrichment which is crucial in a zoo. I am not a very emotional person when it comes to most things but as soon as I saw the lions (my favourite animal) I literally just burst out crying. They were acting so unnaturally it made me angry more than anything.
I do understand that running a zoo takes time and money and that the owner might not have much. But there are such simple solutions to stop the animals behaving in this way. Even just a little enrichment would help. I know that if you want to work in the animal industry you have to see the bad side as well as the good. Therefore I am grateful that the college took us there. It has opened my mind to how some animals get treated and if anything it has made me more determined to succeed in the animal industry.

All in all I think it was a very good day!!! :)
Written by Jessica Randall

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Category: Birding, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course, Extreme Nature Tour, KwaZulu Natal, KZN, Mid Kent 2012 /

The Velvet Gecko

Lacey / April 23, 2012 / No comments

At Umkhumbi lodge we are proud to say that each room has a resident Velvet gecko (they stay outside, don’t worry!) The Velvet gecko is on the IUCN list due to it’s rarity. One species of the Velvet gecko is so rare that it was only recently rediscovered!

They are larger than the non-indigenous Tropical house geckos that are so prominent here in South Africa. They have been known to grow up to 120mm in length (and that is just the body, add the tail on as well and you have a fairly substantial portion of gecko!).

 

Why is a velvet gecko called a vevlet gecko?

The scales of the Velvet Gecko overlap slightly giving it an almost velvet-like feel

 

So, I hear you ask, if they are so big; How on Earth do they run up the walls? How do they not fall off the ceiling?

Well, each toe is covered with large, wide pads. These pads are covered with tiny little hairs, shorter than 2 diameters of a human hair(1) and much thinner, it is these hairs that allow geckos to run up even the smoothest surface. Each of these hairs is subject to a weak molecular attraction – Van Der Waals theory – which gives geckos the ability to be able to hang from a wall by just one fingertip. This adhesive effect is very strong and the tiny hairs only become detached by changing their angle (almost like velcro).

 

How do geckos stick to the wall?

The texture of a geckos 'fingerprint' helps them stick to even the smoothest of surfaces.

 

For more information about the discovery, read this and this from the Lewis & Clark College, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Stanford University.

Category: Activities, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course, Our animals / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Did You Know – Flat Lizard

Lacey / February 8, 2012 / No comments

Lebombo Flat lizard Platysaurus Lebomboensis Description: Small to medium sized African Lizards, there name is derived from their 'flattened' shape. Habitat: Occur in South Africa (in the Northern KwaZulu Natal province), Swaziland and Transvaal. They are rock specialists and their flattened body shape means that they are able to enter even the smallest crevices. Behaviour: Flat lizards are diurnal and become active when the direct sun touches the burrow entrance. They bask in the sun next to their burrow entrances to regulate body temperature. When theyare not basking they are actively foraging (including jumping into the air to catch flies) or socialising with other lizards. Diet: Flat lizards mostly eat invertebraes such as; wasps, bees, flies, caterpillars, ants, beetles and butterflies. Male/female: Female and juvenile, dark with 3 pale longitudinal psrralel lines down their backs. Males are brightly coloured with orange tails and flanks and green/blue chins. Did You Know: Common flat lizards have even been known to eat figs! | There are 13 different species of lizard. | In some species of flat lizard the females are just as brightly coloured as the males.

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Did You Know – Narina Trogon

Lacey / February 2, 2012 / No comments

Narina Trogon factsheet is this weeks factsheet, see belowlearn about Narina Trogon

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Did You Know – King Cricket

Lacey / January 18, 2012 / No comments

Check out his weeks nature factsheet – this week King Cricket

- Onosandrus (King Cricket) - Description: Medium sized cricket with single spine on inner side of upper front leg (tibiae). Pattern on back caused by black markings on cream body - Size: Body length approx 28mm. - Male/female: Mandibles same size in both sexes. - Life Expectancy: Approx 3 years: hatchling to adult - Behaviour: Nocturnal, stay in underground burrows during the day emerging at night to feed. - Diet: Eat small animals (usually insects) and plant matter. - Noise: 'Stridulate' by rubbing legs against the abdomen. - Reproduction: Eggs can take up to 18 months to hatch and take 1 to 3 years to mature. Males can have harems of females which brood eggs and young in special chambers. - Habitat: Dark and damp places; Wet soil, rotten logs, sodden moss. - Distribution: Found across the whole of South Africa. - Did you know: Some adults are missing both wings, sometimes they only miss one! | Make a deafeningly loud noise just by rubbing their legs together.

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Did You Know – Lion

Lacey / January 11, 2012 / No comments

Check out the wildlife factsheet below! This week is the Lion, and it is on two pages!

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Lion Scientific name: Panthera leo - Description: Largest African Carnivore. Lions are social cats and typically spend 20-21 hours a day resting. Most active early in the evening and late at night. - Male/female: Avg height 110cm (females) 120 (males). Short coat, males have manes. Juveniles are spotted with grayish coats (adult colour at 3 months). - Activity: Lions typically spend 20-21 hours a day resting. Most active early in the evening and late at night. - Hunting: Main hunters are usually the lionesses, but will scavenge if their is a kill available. Males will follow behind rushing to join the lionesses once the prey has been caught. Lions can kill prey up to 4 times their size, on ocassion even animals over 1000 kilos can be brought down, larger prey are usually brought down in co-operative hunting. Males are slower than females but their larger size means that they are more likely to tackle large prey. Lions share food to an extent, if prey is small or scarce smaller and weaker animals will miss out, even mothers will not share with their cubs until they have eaten enough. - Killing technique: Small game such as impala is usually brought down by a slap to the rear, tripping, or grasping with both paws. Larger prey is usually brought down by the full weight of the lion to slow down and over-balance the prey. For additional leverage the lion can grip the neck of the prey (shoulders/ back can also be used) to protect themselves from horns and to an extent the hooves of the prey. - Social Structure: Lions are gregarious and they live within in a matriarchal society. This society offers communal care of those within its pride - including communal suckling of cubs. Males form coalitions (usually with littermates) to ensure that they can secure territory when they leave the pride. - Breeding: Gestation 102 days. Lionesses usually produce cubs every 2 years. When a new male takes over the pride one of the first acts is to kill all the cubs below one year of age. Some lionesses may be wounded or even killed for protecting their cubs. After the loss of her cubs a female is able to mate again within a few weeks, however she is unable to become pregnant for around 134 days after losing her cubs due to a takeover. It is thought that this is to protect the female should the new male desert the pride and allows a stronger male / coalition to take over. - Communication: Vocal; Roars, grunts, snarls, growls, meowing, hissing, humming, puffing, woofing, spitting and moaning. Smell: Spraying (urine), clawing, scuffing, urine-testing. Tactile: Licking, head-rubbing, greeting ceremony. - Greeting ceremony: There is a special greeting ceremony that allows lions to show another Lion that they belong in the pride and 'come in peace'. Here is how to do it: on approach moan softly, rub heads together, then sides together with your tail raised high (if you can manage it, drape your tail over the other lions back). Then lean against eachother, as hard as you can, it doesn't matter if you fall over the other one. Greetings occur between females and cubs and between adult females. Females and cubs will sometimes try to rub the pride males who may accept the greeting but save their own greetings for other males in their coalition. Greetings seem to work upon a hierarchy and may be a form of appeasement from a lesser individual. - Did You Know: Female lion cubs never lose their playfulness where as males over 3 years rarely join in the games. Lions are very good swimmers, but HATE water! Lion claws are sheathed like your cat at home. Lions drink water regularly when they can, but they can go without water for long periods of time - some Lions in the Kalahari have been spotted eating samma melons and gemsbok cucumbers when thirsty.

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Did You Know – Hippopotamus amphibius

Lacey / January 4, 2012 / No comments

See below for this weeks South African animal factsheet!
Exceptionally large amphibious mammal: average size 1600-3200kg (male). Brown to purple-gray in colour with pink underparts. Large body with short legs.

Category: Bushwire, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Did You Know – Skink

Lacey / December 14, 2011 / No comments

Check out this weeks factsheet on Typical Skinks – Trachylepis (Mabuya).

-Skink -Genus: Trachylepis -Description: Genus of 23 species of skink that are similar in appearance, i.e. body shape. All lizards within this genus have fairly shiny scales, large eyes with movable eyelids and well developed legs. -Size: The largest species are approximately 120mm and the smallest approximately 55m in length. -Tail length: Usually the same as body length however the grass-top skink has a tail that is over twice its body length. -Behaviour: Active by day. Tend to bask in very open positions and do not run away till you get quite close to them. -Food: active foragers of insects such as beetles, grasshoppers and flies. Skinks will also bask in strategic positions that allow their food to come close to them. Some, e.g. the rainbow skink will even eat the young of smaller lizard species. -Predators: Preyed upon by many, the skink uses a method called tail autotomy to help it escape. This means that their tails shed/fall off to distract the predator from its skink prey. Many skinks have a brightly coloured tail to maximise their chances of escape, e.g. the rainbow skink and Angolan blue-tailed skink have bright blue tails. -Social structure: Skinks tend to be found in high density. This causes interaction with fighting of posturing to intimidate eachother for the best basking sites. -Habitat: Can be arboreal, terrestrial or rock dwelling. Skinks are usually able to live in a variety of habitats, however the wedge-snouted skink is restricted to sand dunes and arid scrublands. -Reproduction: Varies even among the same species- their have been recorded cases of certain populations of variable skink (pictured) giving birth to live young, but another population of the same skink will instead lay eggs. -Distribution: Widespread and common, however most species occur in the northern parts of southern Africa. -Did You Know: After shedding its tail a skink will often return and eat it.

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Did You Know – Kudu

Lacey / December 8, 2011 / No comments

Here it is, another factsheet in our South African Wildlife collection. This week is the Kudu – join in the fun next week with the Monday Wildlife quiz on our Umkhumbi Lodge Facebook page.

 

Kudu - scientific name: Tragelaphus Strepsiceros - Description : Extremly shy of humans this South African even-toed ungulate lives in herds of up to 12. Large, with long legs they have 6 to 10 vertical white stripes. Unlike Nyala their horns are not white tipped. - Food : Browsers= Fruit, seed pods, melons - ocassionally will raid crops and is considered a nuisance in some areas. Eats young grass shoots to that have a high water content. This makes them independent of water. - Male and female : Male Kudu are greyer than the cows and calves who have a copper shen to their coats. Only male Kudu have long spiral horns. - Life expectancy : 12-15 years - it is possible to age males based on the shape of their horns. - Behaviour: Usually occur in small herds of 3-10 but have been known to form larger heards. Outside of rutting season, adult bulls are either solitary or in bachelor herds. Usually active in early morning or late afternoon they have taken to nocturnal activity in areas where thy have been disturbed or hunted. - Habitat : Occur only in Savannah woodland, do not occur in open grassland or forest. Have been known to occur along wooded watercourses. Prefer Acacia woodland and rocky hill country. - Reproduction : Most births take place in the summer months however calves are born thoughout the year. The Kudu cow moves away from the rest of the herd to give birth to one calf weighing about 16kg. Gestation period is is around 210 days. The calves hide for a few days until they are able to keep up with the herd. - Distribution : Occur principally in North and Eastern parts of South Africa with isolated populations in the cape province. Widely occur through central Africa south of the equatorial forests. - Did You Know? : • Kudu can easily jump over fences up to 2 metres high! • The inside of a Kudus ear is pink • The longest recorded horn length is 181.6cm - the average size is 120cm

 

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Did You Know – Heady Maiden Moth

Lacey / November 30, 2011 / No comments

Find below our latest factsheet on the Heady Maiden moth
-Heady Maiden Moth -Scientific name: amata cerbera -Identification: Blackish blue wings with transparent spots. Body is a blue/green with red or orange bands. Usually 4 bands. -Male and female: Similar markings on male and female -Body length: One of the smaller moths - 30mm body length -Behaviour: Sluggish, slow flying day fliers. -Food: Adult moths do not need to eat as they obtain most of the food they need as caterpillars and breed quickly. They do however drink.Some with working proboscis (mouth-piece like a straw) suck nectar from plant flowers and tree sap. Larvae feeds on various leaves, flowers, and fruit dependant on region. -Larvae: Larvae have been found in various places from grass to Coffee. -Communicate: Communicate with chemical signals -Habitat: Succelent Karoo to Sub-tropical Forest -Distribution: Eastern Coast of South Africa extending up to Mozambique and as far inland as Swaziland. -Predators: Varied predators from Chameleons to birds. Roughly summarised to 'anything that can catch them'. Parasitic wasps kill eggs. -Did You Know: - The genus name amata means loved : Butterflies have straight antenna whilst moths have ones that resemble TV aerials to help them fly at night : Unlike m

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