Archive for June, 2010
Namibia’s Castles of Sand
June 30th, 2010 | 
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Posted in As regular visitors to the central areas of Namibia, north of Windhoek, we have always been fascinated by the enormous termite mounds that dominate the landscape. We were fortunate enough, on a recent guided hike in the Waterberg, to gather some information about these remarkable structures and their creators, the Macrotermes michaelseni.
The termites don’t actually live in the towering structures, but have their nests about a meter or so beneath the ground. Extensive studies have shown that the mounds are built to assist with the ventilation of the subterranean nests and to maintain and regulate the temperature needed to keep the termites alive. The mounds are in a constant state of repair and adaptation to keep up with the needs of the colony.
The termite colony consists of a king, a queen, numerous workers and a few soldiers. The queen lives in a queen cell that is only accessible by small portholes, through which the workers remove her eggs (which she lays every three seconds), her waste and bring her food. The soldier termites have distinct cutters to assist with their food gathering duties.
One of the amazing features of the termites is their symbiotic relationship with a certain fungus, Termitomyces, the culture of which makes a compost of the digested grass, wood and waste from the termites and recycles it into food for them. At the same time, the fungal spores produced grow into enormous mushrooms, known locally as Omajowa. These mushrooms sprout at the base of the mounds during the rainy season and can weigh up to a kilogram each. Neither the fungus nor the termites could exist without each other. The Omajowa mushrooms are harvested by the locals, who eat them as a replacement for meat, or sell them to earn some income.
We were also told that the indigenous tribes use the sand from disused termite mounds to build their huts. The red sand is mixed with cow dung to form clay for their walls.
Although for the most part the termites are useful in nature, they are also quite a destructive force, as once they build their nests around trees, the trees usually die off, as can be seen from the photo above of a covered branch.
It’s common to see animals and birds on the termite hills – obviously a good look-out place to watch the world go by!!
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Bird of the week – Week 26 : White-backed mousebird
The mousebirds are quite appropriately named, as they are distinctly mouse-like as they move about through the branches of the trees that they inhabit, feeding on a variety of fruit, flowers, and leaves. They are often seen perched on a branch facing the sun, legs spayed and belly exposed to the warm rays. The White-backed mousebirds are about 34 cm in length, of which roughly half is the pointed tail. The upperparts, head, prominent crest and breast are grey; the lower back white, bordered with black; the rump maroon; the belly buff. The bill is bluish white with a black tip, and the legs and feet are red. Sexes are alike in plumage and the males are slightly bigger than the females.
The White-backed mousebird is endemic to the Southern African region, where it prefers dry habitats, such as thornveld, scrub and semi-desert, and is a common throughout the drier areas of Southern Africa. It also makes itself at home in farmyards, gardens and, being a lover of fruit, in orchards. They are conspicuously gregarious, found in groups that interact with mutual preening and communicate with sharp krik-krik vocalisations and a variety of other sounds, including a pleasant whistled zwee-wewit. They roost in tightly-knit groups at night.
The White-backed mousebirds are monogamous and the paired birds both participate in building an untidy nest in the shape of a bowl, with a diameter of about 6 cm, from dry plant material that is usually lined with fine plant material. The nest is usually located in a bush or tree, well above the ground. The clutch is most often 2 to 4 eggs, and these hatch after an incubation period of about 13 days.
The scientific name of the White-backed mousebird is Colius colius. The derivation of colius seems to be the subject of some conjecture, but may be from the Greek koleos meaning a scabbard or sheath, presumably referring to the long tail. Seems a bit odd, though, doesn’t it?
The wild horses of the Namib Desert
Visitors en route to Luderitz mostly have to pass through the plains of the Garub – a vast, barren expanse of land that is part of the Namib desert. In this unlikely territory one can see the wild horses of the Namib – a unique breed of horses that has adapted to survive in isolation in the harshest environment imaginable. With limited food and water and extreme weather conditions, their existence in this part of the world is nothing short of remarkable.
Part of the mystery of these feral horses is that no-one is one hundred percent certain of their origin, although there is speculation that their forebears were domesticated and worked in the service of the German cavalry at the time of the occupation.
Other theories include horses swimming ashore when a ship was wrecked off the coast at the mouth of the Orange River, and horses escaping from Duwisib Castle, where Baron Hans-Heinrich von Wolf bred horses before his death in the First World War.
Every year thousands of visitors are fascinated by these wild horses and the sheer beauty of the area that they live in.
There have been interventions by humans on behalf of the horses in times of severe drought and a water hole has now been established with a hide overlooking the site. Visitors are often lucky enough to see other indigenous wildlife drinking water, as the horses share the area with ostriches, gemsbok and springbok as well as the numerous birds of the plains.
The closest campsite (approx. 20 kilometers) to the Garub plains is at Klein Aus Vista, appropriately named the Desert Horse Campsite, where we spent the night before driving on to Luderitz. Here they have ten well-appointed sites under camel thorn trees.
Surrounded by the Aus Mountains, the energetic visitor can take a short hike up the hill and be rewarded with a spectacular sunset over the sweeping desert plains. A wonderful spot and seeing the wild horses is even more rewarding!
Bird of the week – Week 25 : Violet-eared waxbill
A grenadier may be an infantryman equipped with grenades, as in the familiar Grenadier Guards in the British Army. Or a grenadier may be a fish with a large head and body and long tapering tail. Or it may be a common name for any member of the waxbill family of small birds. Thus the Violet-eared waxbill, one of the most colourful and beautiful of the waxbills, is also known as a Common grenadier. The waxbills are also known as Cordonbleus, but a bird by any other name…
The Violet-eared waxbill is a small bird with a length of about 14 cm, and although the males and females are the same size, the female is paler and less brightly coloured than the male. With its violet cheeks, red bill, rump and forehead of blue, and deep chestnut body, the male is gorgeous and is, as a result, quite highly prized as a cage bird in some parts of the world.
It is locally quite common in the drier parts of Southern Africa and also further north into Angola and Zambia, especially in those areas with acacia thickets and riverine bush; also in cultivated fields, where they forage on the ground, feeding mainly on seeds and insects. They often forage in the deep shadow of dense bushes or thickets.
Violet-eared waxbills are usually to be found as solitary birds, in pairs or in small groups and are often found in the company of Blue waxbills.
The call of the Violet-eared waxbill is a repeated tiu-woo-wee and it also has a song not unlike a canary twittering. The nest is a ball of dry grass stems, with a side entrance and is often lined with feathers. The female usually lays 4 or 5 eggs that hatch in about 12 days. It is sometimes parasitised by the Shaft-tailed whydah (Vidua regia).
The scientific name of the Violet-eared waxbill is Granatina granatina; granatina from the Latin for a garnet, a reference to the birds purple cheeks and ear-coverts. And repeated for emphasis!
Warthogs – Nature’s Ugliest Piggies
We’ve all heard the expression “he’s so ugly only his mother could love him!” Well, I think the saying originated when man got his first glimpse of a warthog. These denizens of the African bushveld, with wart-like bumps and course whiskers on their flat elongated faces, are downright ugly.
Warthogs are found south of the Sahara and are all over Namibia. They’re mostly seen grazing at the side of the road in small groups. Their solid little bodies are a real hazard to traffic and hitting one in a fast-moving vehicle is not recommended, hence the need for warning road signs wherever they are prevalent.
Warthogs are supposed to have poor sight, but if you stop at the side of the road to photograph them, they run off at high speed with their tails in the air. Either their eyesight is better than we think or they have an inbuilt radar system to warn them of our presence. Their hearing and sense of smell is apparently very good.
They can exist on very little water, but if there is water around they drink regularly. They love to wallow in mud or roll in sand so are mostly seen caked in dirt.
They live in burrows, usually those already dug by aardvarks, and if they are threatened, they slide backwards into their holes so that they can defend themselves with their tusks, which both males and females have. Their main predators are leopards and lions, so they aren’t under threat very often.
We met this tame little warthog at a campsite recently. It was about six months old and had been hand-reared. He was a talkative little fellow and grunted his way through a long conversation with me, between attempts at untying my shoelaces and nibbling my jeans!
Litters are limited to four babies, as female warthogs only have four teats and the young suckle from their own teat for at least four months. When grazing they bend their well-padded and calloused front knees to enable them to pick up food from the ground. Their diet consists of grass, seeds, bulbs and tubers.
The scientific name for a warthog is Phacochoerus aethiopicus. I’m not sure of the direct translation of that name – perhaps it is ‘ugly of uglies!”
