Wilkinson's World

Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category

Namibian’s think so highly of the gemsbok, or Oryx gazella that their national coat of arms depicts two of these magnificent animals on either side of a shield covered with the national flag – representing courage, elegance and pride.  If you see these antelope in their desert surroundings, you will understand why they hold such a prominent place in the hearts of all Namibians.

We come across them often in our travels in Namibia and Botswana and they never fail to give us a thrill when we see them.  Their coats vary in colour from light grey to light brown, with patches of white, highlighted by dramatic black lines on their backs, legs and faces. These striking markings are offset by long straight horns that are sported by both males and females – the female’s horns being slightly thinner and longer.

Gemsbok can survive in harsh semi-desert conditions and dry savannah areas as they have adapted to tolerate heat better than other antelopes.  Able to withstand temperatures in excess of 45 degrees C they use rapid breathing to cool the blood that passes through their noses.  This cooler blood is transported to their brains and their body temperature is brought down a few degrees.

They are able to survive for long periods without water. Like most antelopes, they are mainly grazers, but they also eat tsamma melons, bulbs and tubers, which add moisture and fibre to their diet.  During the day gemsbok mostly try and find a shady tree to stand under, as they prefer feeding early in the morning, evening and sometimes during the night, when temperatures are cooler.

Lions,  hyenas and dogs are their main predators, apart from humans, who hunt them for trophies or meat.  We came across a lion kill in the Central Kalahari last year, where a pride of lions had brought down a gemsbok.

The lions guarded their kill very jealously because a large number of black-backed jackals  were keen to get any pickings that they could.

Gemsbok give birth to a single calf, arriving at any time during the year, after a nine month gestation period.  The calf is usually hidden for the first few weeks of its life before it joins the rest of the herd.  The baby’s horns grow very quickly, giving rise to the myth that gemsbok are born with horns, which obviously isn’t true.  As can be seen from the photo below, the baby is brown with very few markings.

Wherever we see them – in the sand dunes of Sossusvlei, the savannah grasslands of Botswana or the arid rocky Etosha game reserve, they remain one of our absolute favourite animals and we always admire their grace and beauty.

Earth consciousness has been practised by indigenous people for many centuries, often through meditation and reflection on their simple lives and surroundings.  Their attunement to nature is borne out by quotes and sayings of the wise ones passed down through the ages.  We can be grateful for these pearls of wisdom that are so applicable in our rushed lives right now.

As one who loves to meditate in quiet, peaceful places, let me share some beautiful spaces with you as we ponder on the wisdom of people gone by.

Honor the sacred
Honor the Earth, our Mother
Honor the Elders
Honor all with whom we  share the Earth
Four-leggeds, two-leggeds, winged ones
Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people
Walk in balance and beauty

Native American Elder

Earth  Teach Me

Earth teach me quiet ~ as the grasses are still with new light
Earth teach me suffering ~ as old stones suffer with memory
Earth teach me humility ~ as blossoms are humble with beginning
Earth teach me caring ~ as mothers nurture their young
Earth teach me courage ~ as the tree that stands alone
Earth teach me limitation ~ as the ant that crawls on the ground
Earth teach me freedom ~ as the eagle that soars in the sky
Earth teach me acceptance ~ as the leaves that die each fall
Earth teach me renewal ~ as the seed that rises in the spring
Earth teach me to forget myself ~ as melted snow forgets its life
Earth teach me to remember kindness ~ as dry fields weep with rain

A Ute Prayer

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.

Ancient Indian Proverb

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.

Chief Seattle, 1854

When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

Cree Prophecy

Have a beautiful, peaceful and reflective day!

Okay! I know that I’ve got the expression wrong and that it should be the famous phrase “Shiver me timbers” as exclaimed by Long John Silver, the pirate in Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Treasure Island, but I thought it was quite a fitting heading for my blog about quiver trees in Namibia.

Quiver trees are so unusual that they do cause one to call out in an exclamation of surprise and pleasure, so do forgive me for my moment of poetic license.

Actually, apart from my incorrect exclamation, there is another error in the paragraph above in that quiver trees are not really trees at all, but are members of the aloe family.  Their scientific name is Aloe dichotoma Masson – dichotoma referring to their forked branches.  This close up photo of the leaves dispels any doubt that they are aloe plants.

However, for the sake of this blog I will call them trees as that’s exactly what they look like.  In Afrikaans they are known as “kokerbome” (koker meaning quiver and bome meaning trees).   And they are known as quiver trees because the San Bushmen used to carve their arrow quivers from the soft, pulpy branches.

These remarkable trees are found in the dry and arid areas of Namibia and the Northern Cape of South Africa as they prefer rocky or hard terrain for their shallow root systems.  They store water in their stems, leaves or roots to enable them to survive for months without rain.  You can see from the various photos in this blog which of the trees has received the most water.  Those that receive little or none are very ‘lean’, whilst the others are positively bloated!

The stems of quiver trees are decorated with golden brown flaky scales and beautiful vertical patterns which make them very photogenic.

Quiver trees can grow up to nine meters tall.  They bear spiky yellow flowers during the winter months of June/July, but not before they are at least twenty years old.  The trees produce a fine white powder that acts as a sunscreen by reflecting the harsh desert sunlight.

Seen standing alone in a vast barren landscape, they have an almost eerie appearance, but to me they represent the desert that I love so much.   They are usually seen individually, dotted here and there on open plains or hillsides, but there are a couple of quiver tree forests that are well worth visiting.  The famous quiver tree forest in Namibia is near Keetmanshoop down in the south of the country, and there is another beautiful one on the short-cut between the Onseepkans border post and Kakamas in the Northern Cape.

I’m not the only one who loves these trees – they are often home to sociable weavers that build enormous nests in their secure branches.   So watch out for these fascinating trees on your next visit to Namibia – they definitely deserve a place on your list of things to see.

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!!

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!”