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Did You Know – Large Striped Swordtail Butterfly

Lacey / October 5, 2011 / No comments

See below for the latest in our ‘Did You Know’ educational factsheet series.

Sword tail butterfly Scientific name: Graphium antheus Identificaton: Upperside: Black with turquoise bands and spots. Transverse bands in forewing are wavy. Underside: Similar pattern but grey/brown with pale green markings. Behaviour: Flight is high and rapid. Both sexes visit flowers. Males tend to be found in hundreds on wet mud. Larvae and caterpillars are diapausal meaning that if the environmental conditions are not right they will continue to 'sleep'. Wingspan: Male - 65-70mm Female - 70-75mm Male/ female: Similar markings on male and female Diet: Adult butterflies do not need to eat as they obtain most of the food they need as caterpillars. They do however drink. Using their proboscis (mouth-piece like a straw) they suck nectar from plant flowers and tree sap. Males will also suck up salts from the drying mud. Larvae feeds on various leaves, flowers, and fruit dependant on region. Communication: Communicate with chemical signals Distribution: Within South Africa: From, coastal lowland forest from Eastern Cape to savannah in KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo province. Habitat: Forest edges and flatlands. Predators: Varied predators from Chameleons to birds. Roughly summarised to 'anything that can catch them' Did you know: - You can tell moths and butterflies apart by their antenna. Butterflies have straight antenna whilst moths have ones that resemble TV aerials to help them fly at night. - Butterflies only fly in the daytime

Category: Albizia camp, Bushwire, Environmental Awareness Course, Our animals / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Did You Know – Spotted Hyaena

Lacey / September 28, 2011 / No comments

See below our fact sheet for the spotted Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta)

Spotted Hyaena (hyena) Scientific name: Crocuta crocuta Description: Largest of the hyena family, look bearlike. Hyena are carnivores that are related to the mongoose. May have originated in Asia 5 million years ago. Coat is short and thin. Colour reddish brown/tan coat which gets lighter and less spotted with age. Natal coat is black, no spots. Yearling coat grey and heavily spotted. Habitat: Found in savannah and where ever there are antelope and zebra. Life expectancy: Males and females can live 20-25 years in the wild. Captive hyaena have been known to reach 40. Communication: One of the most vocal African animals. Have 11 different calls. - Groans and squeals - greeting - Whooping - contact call - Fast whooping - Rally call - male calls tend to be ignored. - Lowing - shows impatience, usually when waiting at a kill. Diet: Carnivore, rarely eats insects/fruit/vegetable. Unlike other carnivores eats most of animal (other carnivores can waste up to 40%). Hyaenas have the ability to eat and digest everything, even bones, hooves, teeth and smaller horns which are all digested within 24 hours. Hyaenas eat everything except the stomach content of their prey. Taking the easy way for food they will scavenge or pick young/injured animals. But they are capable of taking down wildebeest three time their size. Social structure: Live in large groupd to defend territory. But unlike other social carnivores; - compete more and co-operate less. - Females are bigger than the males - Females compete for rank and food - No cross suckling of young - Males play no parental role - the few that are allowed near the cub dens are bullied by higher ranking offspring. Male/female: Not as easy as you'd think... Males: height 79-86cm Females: Larger than males height 84-89cm. Both sexes have 2 teats and boneless penis 14.5-19.5cm. Female penis changes at puberty as urethral opening splits open and teats enlarge. Behaviour: Movement - rarely trots, moves at about 6mph. Can run 25-31mph but only for a few miles. Predators: No real predators, but heavy competition. Spotted hyaena practice mobbing attacks against rival clans and lions - usually to claim a kill. Lack of cooperative defense does put hyaena to disadvantage. Use vultures as indicator of carcass. Did You Know: -Their jaws are capable of exerting pressures of up to 800 kg/square inch! -Another name for the spotted hyena is the “laughing hyena”.

Category: Albizia camp, Bushwire, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Did you know? – Toad Tree

Lacey / September 14, 2011 / No comments

Part 3 of our factsheet series

Toad tree Scientific name: Tabernaemontana elegans Description: Shrub or small deciduous to semi-deciduous tree with single upright trunk. Habitat: Bushveld and coastal areas of North-East South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique. Bark: Thick and cork like with longitudinal fissures. Leaves: Found at end of branches. Glossy dark green on upper side, underside contains prominent hairless veins in lateral pairs of up to 22. Large; 90-200mm x 50-70mm. Fruit: Hang like pendulums on stalks from branches. Are joined at the base in pairs. Semi round with three ridges, they vary in colour from dark green to grey. Surface is covered with light grey cork-like warts. Sometimes covered in a white latex wax. Seeds are contained inside within a bright orange pulp. Uses: The leaves are suitable for browsers. The pulp of the fruit when ripe is edible. Pulp can also be used to curdle milk. The latex is used for birdlime and to stop bleeding. The root is thought to have medicinal properties. Flowers: Occur in fragrant bunches at the end of branches. White corolla lobes approx 10mm long and twist to the left. Did you know: Hang like pendulums on stalks from branches. Are joined at the base in pairs. Semi round with three ridges, they vary in colour from dark green to grey. Surface is covered with light grey cork-like warts. Sometimes covered in a white latex wax. Seeds are contained inside within a bright orange pulp.

Category: Albizia camp, Bushwire, Did you know?, Environmental Awareness Course / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,