Wilkinson's World

Archive for January, 2010

The “Red List” records the African black oystercatcher as “Near threatened”, which means that it could be threatened with extinction fairly soon if there isn’t a turnaround in its dwindling numbers. On the southern coast of Namibia and also parts of the South African coast, though, this oystercatcher is locally quite common and it presents a splendid sight as it searches for food along the rocky coastline, avoiding the thundering waves with great agility.

The African black oystercatcher is a large (approximately 40 cm long) wader with totally black plumage and with bright red legs, red eyes and a strong red bill with which to open shellfish such as mussels, limpets whelks, and periwinkles that make up a large part of its diet. But strangely, they don’t often eat oysters. Although the sexes are alike in plumage, the adult females are larger than the males.

The oystercatcher is apparently monogamous and the pairs mate for life – they can live for up to 35 years – and the female lays 2 to 4 eggs in a shallow scrape in the sand on an exposed beach or rocky area during summer. The human activity on the beaches at the height of the holiday season makes it difficult for the birds to breed; the eggs and nest are not easily visible and many eggs are probably lost under the trampling feet of holidaymakers. It is this increased human presence along the coast that poses a significant threat to the survival of the species.

They are usually to be found in pairs or in small groups, and are fascinating to watch as they forage for food within the rocky intertidal zone, dodging incoming waves with an uncanny sense of timing. Often the breaking waves seem to be directly overhead before the birds react, but they never seem to get caught and dragged off the rocks.

They call while on shore or while flying, a loud klee-weep, klee-weep and several birds may call together.

The binomial for the African black oystercatcher is Haematopus moquini.  Haematopus being from the Greek words for “blood” and “foot”, referring to the colour of the legs and feet, and moquini after Horace Benedict Alfred Moquin-Tandon (1804-1863), a French collector, ornithologist and author.

“He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, but quite like a weasel in his head and his habits. His eyes and the end of his restless nose were pink; he could scratch himself anywhere he pleased, with any leg, front or back, that he chose to use; he could fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottle-brush, and his war-cry, as he scuttled through the long grass, was: ‘Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!’”

Congratulations if you recognized that quote from the short story in “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling, a description of the heroic Rikki-Tikki-Tavi that leads a short while later to the graphic description of the little mongoose’s fight-to-the-death with Nag, the cobra. No prizes for knowing who won! Written well over a hundred years ago, the Jungle Book remains an absolute classic.

The story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is, of course, set in India, but Namibia too has an abundance of mongooses.

We are always interested to see which of our blogs attract the largest number of hits, and one of the most searched items is the humble mongoose!  This is quite surprising as a mongoose is not a  particularly exciting animal to look at, but obviously it generates a lot of interest on the Internet.

These little mammals are quite common in Namibia and we even see them in the grounds of our townhouse complex on the outskirts of Windhoek.  The most common variety in this area is the yellow mongoose, easily distinguished by its light yellowish coloured coat and the white tip on its tail.  They are very shy animals and will scurry away quickly, or duck into whatever shelter is closest, as one approaches   We often see them in pairs when we go on our walks to the nearby Avis Dam.

Further north at Etosha, in the Caprivi region and on the eastern border of Namibia the banded mongoose is more common, very similar in looks to the slender mongoose, except that it has a number of stripes on its back.

This creature, unlike its cousin the yellow mongoose, prefers woodland and riverine forest as its habitat.  It also breeds during the summer months and has between two and eight young.   The gestation period for all breeds of mongoose is approximately eight weeks.  Their diet consists of lizards, beetles, termites, birds eggs, mice and fruit.

Eggs present no real challenge.and the mongoose will often pick up the egg in its front paws and then slam it  onto a rock or onto the ground to break it open.

At the Harness Wildlife Foundation we were amused to see dozens of slender mongooses follow the voluntary helpers around at feeding time – it looked like a scene out of  the Pied Piper of Hamelin!

They are extremely sociable animals and live in groups of twenty or more.

We unfortunately don’t have photographs of yet another variety of mongoose found in Namibia, namely the black mongoose, due to it’s elusiveness and rarity.  The black mongoose is endemic to Namibia and is found mainly in the Erongo mountains.  Not much is known about this species so a number of scientists are conducting studies on the black mongoose at the moment.  We have seen them on three different occasions, which makes us feel extremely priviliged.

If you are walking quietly through the veld, trying to catch a glimpse of an elusive Tchagra or some other well-hidden bird, the sudden, raucous, ear-splitting  kraaak, kraaak, krraka krraka kraka, kraka of a male Northern black korhaan bursting from the grassland a few metres ahead provides a heart-stopping moment.

It is wonderful to watch these birds in ungainly flight, as they do not usually cover too much distance before coming back to earth with their legs dangling comically and their wings flapping rapidly.

They are quite large birds, about 50 cm in length, and the males are usually conspicuous walking slowly through the grass, quite striking with their black and white plumage and bright yellow legs. When disturbed he will often run with his head lowered, and then stop with his back towards the intruder, making him surprisingly difficult to see. Further perceived threat may see him taking to noisy flight. The females are less colourful than the males and in consequence are less frequently seen.

Korhaans feed on a wide variety of insects, termites, beetles, ticks, spiders and also seeds. They forage while walking slowly, pecking food from the ground and chasing after insects.

They are polygynous and their courtship is elaborate, with one male displaying for several females. He engages in undulating flight displays, playful chasing and displaying his white breast patches. He is very protective of his 200-300 square metre territory, ejecting male intruders by striking at them with his wings. Females, of course, are welcome.

They breed year-round, but do not build a nest, instead laying one or two eggs directly on the ground, among grass tufts and shrubs, sometimes under small thorn trees.

The scientific name for the Northern black korhaan is Eupodotis afraoides, eupodotis from the Greek meaning “good feet”, perhaps referring to the birds fleetness of foot, and afraoides from the Latin for “like afra” (afra meaning from Africa), meaning that it is like the Southern Black Korhaan  - Eupodotis afra. Thus, a swift bustard that is like its southern relative.

Encountering African wild dogs on a game drive is about as exciting as coming across a lion or a leopard.  These animals are endangered and it is a rare privilege to see them.  They travel in packs of  between six and twenty, so one is always going to see more than just a lone wild dog.

We saw our first African wild dogs at the Harness Wildlife Foundation in Namibia, an ex-cattle farm now dedicated to saving endangered wild animals.  The orphaned animals that they rescue are housed in large enclosures so they maintain the appearance of living in the wild.  All the proceeds taken from tourism are ploughed back into the project and into helping the surrounding local communities.

Excited to be able to observe them being fed, we climbed up to a lookout platform above their feeding area and were amazed by their strange behaviour when they sensed food was in the offing.  The dogs started to run around each other making strange high-pitched growling noises that sounded decidedly eerie.  Within minutes they were in a feeding frenzy and soon gulped down the food that was thrown into the enclosure.

They are formidable hunters and their strong jaws make short work of their prey.  In the wild they tend to go for the weak and sick animals.  They work as a team to down their targeted prey and never show aggression towards each other during the hunt.

No two dogs have the same markings, which makes them quite unique.  Unlike domestic dogs that have five toes, wild dogs only have four toes on each foot.  They have magnificent mottled brown, yellow and black coats and bushy tails with white tips.  Their hearing is enhanced by their large bat-like ears.

We came across a pack of wild dogs quite by chance in the Mdumu National Park in the Caprivi.  We’d had a dismal day of animal spotting and the birding wasn’t offering up much either, when we rounded a bend and saw the dogs lying quite near the road.  The excitement that this generated made up for the disappointing hours before and we left the Park later feeling like we’d hit the jackpot!

The Mdumu Park has the typical habitat for these dogs – woodland – where they are able to prey on young buck, warthogs and any other small animals, birds and rodents.

There is usually only one breeding pair in the pack.  The rest of the group consists mainly of male dogs, as females tend to leave the group in search of their own packs once they pass the nurturing phase.  Occasionally there will be a secondary breeding pair, but this is rare.  Female wild dogs give birth to between ten and sixteen pups (usually more males than females) and these are reared by all the males in the pack.

During the hot summer months the reed beds around Windhoek are spotted with small bright red birds with black masks and black bellies that buzz around looking like giant bumblebees, calling in a sizzling “zik-zik-zik”. Making no attempt to hide themselves as they puff their feathers out in a display designed to impress the more numerous females, these are the beautiful male Southern red bishops.

Seemingly proud of their colourful plumage, perhaps celebrating the wonderful transformation from their drab eclipse plumage of winter, the males flaunt themselves over their small territories; as small as 3 square metres in the dense reed beds and up to a hundred times larger than this in the more open grasslands.

This small, short-tailed weaver, just about 12 cms long when fully grown, is common through most of Africa south of the equator. The females are slightly smaller than the males and do not adopt the colourful plumage of the males during the breeding season, remaining rather drab and hard to identify little brown jobs.

The bishops are polygynous and the more successful males can attract up to eight females, and in consequence are kept quite busy building nests. The oval, woven nests are often built over water; the males being responsible for the basic structure, while the lining of the nest is contributed by the female, who will lay 1 to 5 eggs. The bishops are parasitised by the Diderick cuckoo (Chrysococcyx caprius)

Bishops feed mainly on seeds, for which they are well equipped with short heavy bills, but will also take insects and nectar. Gregarious throughout the year, non-breeding flocks can number hundreds of birds, and they are no friends of the farming community when they cause heavy losses to grain crops.

The scientific name for the Southern red bishop is a rather pointless Euplectes orix – Euplectes is from the Greek, meaning “well woven”, presumably referring to their nests, and orix from the Greek meaning “rice”, perhaps referring to the birds diet, which is mainly seeds. Not really descriptive, is it? Especially as the nests are not really well woven when compared to some of the other weavers, and they certainly don’t eat rice in Namibia. Why wasn’t that gorgeous male just called Rufus episcopus – the Red Bishop? Now that would have made sense!