July 17, 2008
The Myth of King Mufasa: Lions & Hyenas
Perhaps you've seen the Disney animated movie, The Lion King.
Lions are often made out to be regal, the kings of the African savannah. Hyenas, on the other hand, are made out to be trixy, thieving and sneaky dogs. (Current-day hyenas have more in common with big cats than dogs, you know.)
The truth is not so simple. The truth is, kill-stealing happens all the time in the wild. For survival.
Stalking, chasing, killing, and protecting a kill all takes vital energy from the hunter. It is also not without risk. The hunter has to leave their den (and little ones behind are left alone) and the hunter risks getting hurt in the hunting process, if the prey strikes back.
The cheetah is an excellent example here: she's the fastest predator on the plains, but after her sprint to catch her dinner, she has to catch her breath for several minutes before she even has the energy to EAT. And in those critical moments, her kill could be taken with little effort by another hungry animal.
A kill site in the wild is a complex place, with a progression of animals showing up for their turn. For example:
A pride of lions brings down a cape buffalo.
They eat the parts they like best. The stomach, etc.
Some hyenas show up. The lions, full or outnumbered, back off.
The hyenas eat what lions cannot. Bones included.
The smaller jackals have been watching and waiting.
Eventually, the hyenas get full, too. Too full to chase the jackals.
The jackals are followed by the vultures.
The vultures are followed by other, smaller, hungry mouths.
Finally, the insects take over.
And lastly, the plants benefit from the nutrients of the remains.
It's true that lions don't particularly like hyenas. And hyenas don't particularly like lions. But this is because they are both the top competitors for food in the ecosystem.
Lion and Hyenas At A Kill. Copyright © 2003. Lauren Darcey. This photograph was taken on my first trip to Africa. Hyenas confronted a single lion over a giraffe kill. The hyenas won out, but they had probably been the ones to take down the giraffe in the first place, since the single lion was sick with TB and likely a rogue scavenger.
Lions routinely steal kills from hyenas. In fact, when we were first in the Kruger in South Africa, several guides told us that hyenas were bringing down more animals, and the lions were the ones stealing the kills.
They joked: "Lions are lazy. They let the hyenas do all the work."
That progression I illustrated above could just as easily have started with:
A pack of hyenas take down a cape buffalo.
They eat the parts they like.
A bunch of lions show up, full or outnumbered, they back off.
The lions eat the parts they like.
The jackals have been watching...
You get the picture.
Posted by sorsha at 2:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 16, 2007
Limb-Loving Lizards: Crocodile Bites Off Hand But...
I was browsing through National Geographics week in pictures over the weekend when I suddenly stopped and my jaw dropped. Behind me, my husband stopped talking and started gawking at my screen.
The amazing picture of a big crocodile with a bloody fist in its mouth looked surreal. It took me a good few seconds of staring at it before my husband nudged me to look at the follow-up picture of the smiling vet waving at the camera after his hand was reattached hours later.
Veterinarian Chang Po-yu was reaching through iron bars to remove tranquilizer darts before treating the 440-pound (200-kilogram) reptile when the inadequately sedated animal bit the vet's forearm off.
But for the vet, it wasn't quite a farewell to arm.
After being shot at twice, but apparently unhit, the croc dropped the arm. After seven hours of surgery, doctors successfully reattached the appendage...
More At: National Geographic Week In Photos: Croc Bites Off Hand
That's some amazing surgery. I hope they meant shot with a tranq, not killed, but somehow I doubt it.
Find out more about Nile Crocodiles in our African Field Notes.
Posted by sorsha at 10:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Grass Guzzlers: White Rhinos For Sale
Your average cow might need about 25lbs of grass per day to eat, while a white rhino needs more like 100lb of grazing material daily. This translates to about 23 acres of bermuda grass to feed a single rhino for a year. Hippos also eat about 100lbs of grass per evening.
Clearly quite a bit larger than my backyard, bummer. There goes my idea of getting a pet hippo or a pet rhino. Still, zoos and game farms buy excess wildlife from parks like the South Africa's Kruger National Park each year. This legitimate wildlife trade keeps parks from becoming overpopulated and overgrazed, as well as enhancing the genetic diversity and range of species.
South African National Parks is selling as many as 100 white rhinoceroses from Kruger National Park to the general public. The rhinos will cost from $9,000 to $37,000 each, depending on sex. Females are most expensive and are sold with their young so as not to separate mother and calf.
...
There are an estimated 13,000 white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) in South Africa, where they are endemic. Kruger is home to as many as 7,000 of the endangered herbivores, accounting for roughly half of the worldwide population. Sales of various animal species, including elephants, antelope, and buffalo, generated about $1 million for SANParks last year.
More At: National Geographic News: Your Own Pet Rhinoceros?
You can find out more about African rhinos in our African Field Notes.
Posted by sorsha at 4:58 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
March 12, 2007
An Avian Admirer
As I've mentioned before, I'm not much of a birder, but the more I take pictures of them, the more aware I become of what differentiates one from another.
Size, feather coloring, beak shape, habitat, coloring of talons... Just knowing what details to mentally (or physically) record help a lot in identifying it later.
Still, I'm a take-a-picture-first-before-it-flies-away-while-I'm-trying-to-unpack-Sibley's kind of girl. I'll ID the bird later, at home. Or I'll let my long-suffering assistant (aka my husband Shane) do it while I'm shooting.
Nowadays, I've actually come to like birds enough that I even have a favorite group (actually a Suborder: Alcedines) - the Kingfishers. This cute little guy is an African Pygmy-Kingfisher (Ispidina picta) and I took this picture just outside our tent at Finch Hatton's Safari Camp in Tsavo National Park, Kenya.
Posted by sorsha at 10:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Egypt Revisited
My husband Shane and I visited Cairo and Giza in Egypt on our trip around the world last fall. You might remember that I posted a couple photos from our trip back in September, including a visit to The Saladin Citadel and The Great Pyramids.
Shane is now reliving his experiences on his blog, and talking about the lasting impressions of the trip. His candor often makes me chuckle, as I am reminded of his worldliness from before I met him (he had never left the time zone).
Within the Citadel, I happened across the filthiest restroom I'd ever seen. It was also probably the oldest. Scary, too, was the fact that locals were filling up their water bottles. From the looks of it, it would have been safer to fill up a water bottle from a puddle in an overcrowded cow pasture.
...
The last impression was the absolute chaos at the airport on the way out. I wrote about that before, so I won't go in to much detail now. Suffice it to say, if there had been a panic from real or a false threat, people would have died.
Read More At Shane's Blog: Egypt: In Retrospect
Reading his post on Egypt has reminded me of my own experiences in Cairo. As Americans, we were very much not welcomed, as we learned when we first arrived. We had, perhaps stupidly, not arranged for transport from the airport to Giza in advance, wanting to do things on our own. The chaos that greeted us made us very uncomfortable and we kept being followed around (get used to it). We eventually brokered a not-terribly-overpriced taxi ride to our hotel by vetting it with a third party, a woman at one of the hotel desks, who vouched for the individual offering us a ride.
Arriving at our hotel with a view of the pyramids (about a 15 minute walk if you don't believe the directions of the camel riders) we had our car bomb sweeped. Like seriously sweeped. We stopped at those moveable bomb blocking cyliders and talked to guys with guns vaguely pointed in our direction. They had dogs, they checked the trunk, they had mirrors and checked under the car. They questioned the driver, and us. Then they let us through and we went to the entryway. We didn't want to leave our bags outside, so Shane checked us in while I watched our bags (1 suitcase plus two carry-ons). The hotel staff kept saying I could go, but I just laughed and stayed. You might think we were being overly cautious. Perhaps, but we never insulted anyone and we tended to make friends instead. Also, we made it through a trip around the world and didn't lose a single thing to slippery fingers, even in some of the most common places for thievery.
When white guests and women went into the hotel, the staff didn't make them go through the metal detectors, but when anyone else did, they made them. I admit, all the bomb stuff made it both interesting and a bit nerve-racking to eat at the cafe in the lobby since the State Department told us to avoid hotel lobbies and such places. We did, for the most part, but if we had totally hid in our rooms, it would have defeated the purpose of the visit, right? Besides, the food there was awesome and we got to see an Egyptian wedding that was held there and do a lot of people watching without having a single person hit us up for something. The day we arrived in Giza, bird flu broke out there. Great! Poultry, one of the staple safe foods when properly cooked is now rather off the menu. Still, the food we had in Egypt was actually really good. Lamb became our primary meat course.
Having a working GPS was a must for us in Cairo. Whenever we got in a taxi, we were able to see whether or not we were headed in generally, the right direction. It was especially useful for the return trips, which were often hailed ourselves. We could see that the driver was following a similar route back to our hotel. We had our concierge write us little notes like "Please take us to the ABC Hotel in Giza" so we didn't have to worry about the language barrier, or even speak English in front of anyone, just work out fees on a calculator and smile and chuckle.
The Khan el-Khalili shopkeepers didn't know what to make of us. We didn't respond to English, so they'd switch to French, Spanish, German... Perhaps I should have covered my hair but I had read that only certain women did so and I did not want to misrepresent myself. Despite attaching myself to Shane in the crowds, I got the worst groping of my life there and while I can safely say the guy regretted it (I elbowed him hard in the gut), it was a bit upsetting. We left the market and went into Old Cairo where people still have careers making brass lamps and baskets. The roads are very narrow and filled with all sorts of vehicles. Here the locals are shopping, and no one bothers us, although we are almost run over on several occasions. I'll never forget the giant rotary where we finally hail a cab home - it's a swirling vortex of buses belching black smoke, honking taxi cabs, people on bikes holding the corners of cars and overloaded donkey carts.
The Citadel was fantastic, a beautiful historical monument with a view the city for miles around it. Pyramids vaguely visible through the heavy haze. We happened to be there for the afternoon prayer call which we got on video. As the sun set, a guard showed us some of the closed-off areas like the prison. We had to stay hydrated and so Shane visited the restroom. As a girl in visiting the third world, you quickly learn to pee standing up. Luckily, backpacking teaches you that, too. Still, after a very brief visit to the airport bathroom early on in the trip (frightening, I think I saw lepers) I decided I would avoid public restrooms in Egypt whenever possible. Going in meant being disconnected from Shane, which was dangerous, and was disgusting in almost all cases anyway.
As Shane described, the Cairo airport scene on our way out was beyond description. A mob scene in which we we initially thought something must be very wrong, and people were trying to leave the country en masse. Of the hundreds of people there, we were the only whites and stood out. Tour groups did not go through this but had a special other entrance. The chaos was balanced with very friendly guards. When we finally got into a line of sorts, we were surrounded by women with large groups of children and even more luggage (like contents of my first apartment). All of which stared at us openly, but wouldn't smile. The women eyed us suspiciously. At one point, a woman's cart had been pushed over by some men pushing to the front to argue with the counter staff (this happened a lot). She was older and had a baby in her arms, so I picked up her cart and righted it for her, fixing her luggage. After that, she nodded regally to me and others nearby murmured, and I felt I'd gotten a reprieve of sorts.
We were screened repeatedly for weapons. All the metal detectors everywhere were going off constantly, but no one was stopped. They just shoved through, sometimes three at a time. Same for the luggage. Finally, at the gate, we were screened again by two guards. Shane and I were wearing the EXACT same gear - our REI hiking boots, light-weight cargo pants and shirts. Yet Shane went through fine and I kept beeping. It must have been underwire. I tried emptying pockets, offered to take off my shoes. They wouldn't wand me, even though I would have been ok with it. I felt bad for making trouble for them. Finally, the guard just decided to ask me if I was carrying weapons and take my word for it.
"Are you carrying any weapons?" the guard looks amused.
"No," I smile.
"Are you carrying any bombs?" the guard laughs.
"No," I chuckle, feeling rather ridiculous.
"Ok, go on through."
And so we were off to Kenya.
Posted by sorsha at 8:04 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
October 25, 2006
Stellenbosch Wine Route - Tasting Notes
The Stellenbosch region of the southern cape of South Africa is a great place to visit and go wine tasting. The wines are a nice mix of reds, whites and dessert wines. Surrounded by mountain ranges, you can travel from winery to winery very quickly compared to larger areas like Napa in California.
The wines are complex, but we found the quality varied more than we've found in California. By this I mean that there were some fantastic wines, and some exceptionally not-so-good ones. But one thing is for certain, the prices cannot be beat. The price of a good bottle of wine, even a flagship bottle, is often exceptionally reasonable by US standards. The trick, however, is how to get it home. Shipping is very expensive and not doable to many places, so you're often forced to carry it on yourself. We bought enough wine to carry on the rest of our honeymoon around the world as well as the rest of our time in South Africa.
We used this map of the Stellenbosch wine route to plot our course.
Tasting Notes
Avontuur
Our Notes: Overall one of our most pleasant wine tasting experiences in South Africa. Margaret and Natalie were very good to us. The 2005 Vintners White was nice and sweet and the 2003 Shiraz was quite mellow. The 2001 Baccarat was nice and tart. All the Avontuur wines had character, which made them well-rounded.
We walked off with:
- Avontuur Baccarat 2001
- 2005 Avontuur Vintners White
- 2000 Avontuur Above Royalty
- Avontuur Estate Brandy NV
Visit Avontuur's website.
Spier
Our Notes: Deli was fantastic
We walked off with a lunch of bagettes, grain mustard and brie, olives and dolmades, a lemon tart and Grapetizers.
Visit Spier's website.
Asara
Our Notes: Most reds a disappointment. The 2006 Dry Rose was mediocre, while the 2002 Shiraz, 2001 Cape Fusion, 2001 Merlot, 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1999 Bell Tower Estate Wine were only ok. The 2003 Noble Late Harvest was good, but the 2004 Spirit of Chenin had a very strong alcohol taste, making it feel too young.
We walked off with:
- 2003 Noble Late Harvest
Visit Asara's website.
Waterford
Our Notes: The 2006 Pecan Stream Rose was very tart, fruity but not citrusy. It should be paired with something sweet. the 2006 Sauvignon Blanc was a bit boring, but the 2006 Chenin Blanc was fruity, crisp and had nice body. It was roughly equivalent to a Bonny Doon House White. We've always been partial to Malbec, so we enjoyed the 2004 Shiraz/Cab blend.
Still, it was the chocolate and wine pairings that really made Waterford one of our favorite tasting experiences.
- Masala Chai Dark Chocolate + Shiraz (Excellent!)
- Rock Salt Dark Chocolate + Cab Sauv (Interesting)
- Rose Geranium Milk Chocolate + Heatherleigh Family Reserve (Exceptional)
It's too bad they don't sell the chocolate with the wine...
We walked off with:
- Waterford Family Reserve - Heatherleigh
Visit Waterford's website.
Muratie
Our Notes: Yummy port!
We walked off with:
- Cape Vintage Port 2004
- Cape Ruby Non-Vintage
Visit Muratie's website.
Delheim
Our Notes: Great german style whites and desserts
We walked off with:
- 2004 Rhine Reisling
- 2005 Edelspatz Noble Late Harvest
- 2005 Spatzendreck Late Harvest
- Cape Fortified Red
Visit Delheim's website.
Posted by sorsha at 3:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 16, 2006
African Field Notes: The Baboon
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Baboons are found in surprisingly varied habitats and are extremely adaptable. All they need is a water source and a safe sleeping place, such as a tall tree or a cliff face.
When water is readily available, baboons drink every day or two, but they can survive for long periods by licking the night dew from their fur.
They spend a lot of time grooming each other while the juveniles play – pick off bugs and eat them. Yum!
One interesting phenomena is that you often find impala and baboons coexisting. The reason for this is unclear. Baboons are more vigilant – baboons forage for seeds on the ground and the impala nibble on new shoots on the bushes.
Sometimes, the male baboons will eat young impala. The impala drop their young after the first rains and there were large numbers of very young calves around. The baboons have been known to grab the baby impala and violently eat them, yet the impala herd does not show any distress over this. Baboons are generally messy feeders and drop a lot of food onto the ground from trees which the impalas feed on.
Latin Genus: Papio
A Group Is Called: A Troop (More Group Names At: Critter Collectives)
Posted by sorsha at 5:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 15, 2006
African Field Notes: The Greater Kudu
The Greater Kudu is perhaps my favorite kind of African antelope. You'll often see their horns used as decoration in game lodges, but the real live thing is a beautiful member of the African animal kingdom.
The Kudu is rather large, with very distinctive spiral horns, that can grow as long as 72 inches, making 2 1/2 graceful twists. They have brown fur with stripes and spots.
Kudu live in the woodland bushveld. They eat grasses and leaves.
Kudu also are a very tasty game meat, often found in biltong, a South African dried meat snack.
Another weird fact: There's a rather disturbing sport in Africa called Kudu Dung Spitting, which sounds exactly like it is...
Latin Name: Tragelaphus strepsiceros
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Posted by sorsha at 9:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The African Elephant
The African Elephant is the heaviest, largest land mammal in the world. Some adults weigh more than 14,000 lbs & their brains are 3-4x the weight of the human brain.
Elephants have lots of blood vessels in their ears. They flap their ears and their blood pumps through, cooling and then circulates back to the rest of the body. This is important because elephants don’t sweat. If they get overheated and cannot find water, they can stick their trunk down into their own stomach to get a bit of water to spray over their back.
The elephant's trunk has approx 150,000 muscles, and its used as a nose, arm and hand. Babies don’t know how to use trunk when they are born, instead they drink with mouth. Sometimes they just wiggle their trunks or suck on them like a baby would on a thumb.
Family units are led by the oldest female, who is often 40 or 50 years old, while males visit only for mating. It takes almost two years got a baby elephant to gestate – the longest of all land mammals. When an elephant is about to give birth, other female elephants may act as a midwife and comfort the expectant mother.
They communicate using something called infrasonic sounds, which are very low noises that can be heard for miles. There have also been instances of mimicry – like an elephant mimicking the noises of a truck.
Elephants also communicate thru scent – giving off smells when ready to mate, when they’re sick or about to give birth but what is most interesting is how they show empathy for each other. Elephants are known to care for others in their family. They’ll often slow down or help physically support an ailing fellow, even bringing food if they cant for themselves.
Elephants grieve, sometimes for months – especially youngsters who lose their mothers. When an elephant dies, it is not just abandoned. The family unit stays with the corpse, sometimes for days. Then, after a while, one by one they touch the body and turn away. Sometimes they will even cover the body with brush and dirt. Elephants ignore the bones of other creatures, but if they come upon elephant bones, even years later, they will stroke them, and then sometimes scatter them.
Latin Genus: Loxodonta
A Group Is Called: A Parade (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Little Big Things: The Discovery of the Pygmy Elephant
Photos: San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park: African Elephant
Posted by sorsha at 9:46 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Cheetah
Cheetahs can sprint up to 75mph, even turning in mid-air to continue pursuit of prey.
But these sprints often tire them. Cheetahs often lose their kills to other predators if they do not eat quickly. It's also very difficult to feed their young. Cheetahs are daytime hunters, likely because many of the predators that would steal their kills are noctural hunters.
This cheetah spent hours stalking this impala. I know because we watched it happen. After catching the antelope, the cheetah was so exhausted, it took an exceptionally long time for the impala to die. The cheetah just help onto its neck while the impala gasped, and then finally died. It was a very primal experience, not particularly pleasant, but necessary.
Cheetahs are not a threat to humans. In fact, at one time, they were used as pets.
Latin Name: Acinonyx jubatus
A Group Is Called: A Coalition (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
The Asian Cheetah
He Wants To See The Cheetahs
Posted by sorsha at 9:46 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Waterbuck
It's easy to identify a waterbuck from behind - it's got a big white ring or target, on its backside.
The waterbuck has a long-haired, often shaggy brown-gray coat that emits a smelly, greasy secretion thought to be for waterproofing.The meat of older waterbuck takes on an unpleasant odor from the waterproofing secretions, prompting predators to choose other prey.
A male waterbuck may have a harem of cows. Other males will challenge him for his mating rights. Below we have a challenge to a male with the harem in the picture below.
Latin Name: Kobus ellipsiprymnus
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Posted by sorsha at 9:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: Birds
There are some more recent pictures of birds from our trip to Kenya and South Africa in the Special Assignment: Around The World In 40 Days.
Giant flocks of flamingos migrate to southern African. You'll see them hanging out in the marshes near Cape Town. They are pink because of their diet, and young are born like ugly gray fuzzy featherless turkeys.
Ostriches can run quite fast, and like to hiss. They have a wicked back claw that can eviscerate a predator. You'll often see farms of ostriches, as the steaks make good eating. You can often buy ostrich biltong (dried meat snack) from the locals.
The spoonbill has a very unique beak that looks like a wooden spoon. You'll see the spoonbill at waterholes. Both sexes share incubation and feeding the young.
One easy way to find a kill site is to follow the vultures. You'll see them circling a kill site, and hanging out in the trees, waiting for the opportunity to partake in a meal themselves.
The Ground Hornbill looks like a large black and red turkey. They are endangered.
There are a variety of colorful birds in Africa. The bee-eaters are very pretty, feasting on dragonflies and often living near water.
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
The Reluctant Bird Buff (Avian Admirer?)
Birds As Carriers: From Avian Flu to Toxic Poop
Posted by sorsha at 9:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Warthog
Warthogs are fun to watch. Disney's Pumba is really quite like the warthogs of the wild - skitish and very round. And while its difficult to call them nice looking, they have a sort of ugly charm, you know?
When scared, their tail sticks up straight in the air like an antennae as they run away. When they run, they sortof prance along on very delicate hooves. They are a favorite food of the leopard.
Female warthogs only have four teats, so litter sizes usually are confined to four young. Each piglet has its "own" teat and suckles exclusively from it. Even if one piglet dies, the others do not suckle from the available teat.
Latin Name: Phacochoerus africanus
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Photos: San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park: Warthogs
Posted by sorsha at 9:44 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Leopard
The leopard is the most elusive of the Big Five, those being the most dangerous animals to hunt in Africa. The Big Five are: the lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros.
Leopards love to eat warthogs but are known to eat all sorts of other animals. They have incredible strength. A leopard can climb as high as 50 feet up a tree holding a dead animal in its mouth, even one larger and heavier than itself! 
They often stash food up high so other predators like lions or hyenas can’t get it and steal it from them. Then they can return and eat more later.
I believe that I've read somewhere that the leopard's spots are unique, much like the stripes of a zebra.
Your best bet for seeing a leopard is in a tree, lounging during the day, waiting for the hunt at night
Latin Name: Panthera pardus
A Group Is Called: A Leap (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Posted by sorsha at 9:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Lion
Lions are very social creatures. They live in prides and often act like large housecats - sleeping, napping, and resting for most of the time. They also have short bursts of activity for hunting and playing.
South African male lions have manes, unlike their Kenyan relatives, the Tsavo lions, which are maneless.
Males do less hunting, but they guard the pride’s territory. Males battle for dominance in the pride. When males take over a pride, they usually kill the cubs. The females come into estrus and the new males sire other cubs. Males also guard the cubs while the lionesses are hunting, and they make sure the cubs get enough food. Cubs are taken care of by the whole pride – nursing from any of the mothers.
Lions kill be knocking down their prey and going for the throat. Being smaller, faster, lighter and more agile than males, the female lion does most of the hunting. They hunt in a coordinated fashion. Smaller females chase the prey towards the center. The larger and heavier lionesses ambush or capture the prey.
Lions digest their food quickly, which allows them to return soon for a second helping after gorging themselves. You’ll often see them with HUGE stomachs, just laying around a kill.
Lions can often survive in extreme drought conditions, eating tsama melons for moisture in the desert.
Because they often take over kills made by hyenas, cheetahs and leopards, scavenged food provides more than 50 percent of their diets in areas like the Serengeti plains.
Latin Name: Panthera leo
A Group Is Called: A Pride (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Photos: San Francisco Zoo - Adult Male Lion
Bats In The Belfry & Lions In The Tower
Canis Africanus
Posted by sorsha at 9:43 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
More Africa Entries
African Field Notes: The Spotted Hyena
Hyenas have some of the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom. With their powerful teeth and jaws and efficient digestion, the spotted hyena can utilize virtually everything on a carcass except the rumen contents and horns. The parts they cannot... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Crocodile
In Africa, you need to tread lightly near rivers and streams. Otherwise, you might find yourself being a meal for a 20 ft long croc! You will often find hippos and smaller crocs cohabiting, along with birds and other marine... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Giraffe
Giraffes are the tallest land mammal, adults growing up to about 18 ft tall. Very thick drool and a long tongue almost 2 feet long help them to eat acacia trees with wicked thorns. The drool allows them to swallow... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Wildebeest
Both males and female wildebeests have curving horns. You'll often see them grazing along with zebras. Why? Because one species likes short grass and the other likes long grass. The wildebeest graze on short grass and it can be any... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Rhinoceros
There are two kinds of rhinos in South Africa – the black and the white. Both have two horns, unlike the Asian rhinos. Rhinos have poor eyesight and excellent hearing. Because they are very nearsighted, they often charge when they... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Zebra
I was surprised when the zebras started making noise. I'm used to quiet horses, but zebras make a sort of donkey-like noise, and they buck and such as well. When a zebra is attacked it will kick hard with its... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Hippopotamus
Hippos are the third largest land mammal. Although they are hooved, they also have webbed toes since they spend a lot of their time in the water. At night, they leave the safety of the water and forage, even miles... Read More Here
African Field Notes: Cape Buffalo
Both male and female buffaloes have heavy, ridged horns. The horns are formidable weapons against predators and for jostling for space within the herd; males also use the horns in fights for dominance. Sight and hearing are both rather poor,... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Black-Backed Jackal
Black-backed Jackals live singly or in pairs, and are sometimes found in small packs. Jackals can best be described as opportunistic omnivores, I've seen them feeding on the outskirts of kill sights along with the much-larger hyena. Black-Backed Jackals are... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Duiker
Duikers are small antelopes that inhabit forest or dense bushland. They regularly run through these areas and when disturbed, plunge into thick cover to hide. This trait is the source of the name "duiker," which in Dutch means "diver."... Read More Here
African Field Notes: The Impala
One of the first animals you're likely to see on a game drive is a herd of impala. My friend Monika calls them the rats of the desert, the most common type of African antelope you’re likely to see. You'll... Read More Here
The Constant Gardener
It's been too long since I've seen a really good movie - one that sticks with me days after leaving the cinema. British spy novelist John le Carré's The Constant Gardener is one of those movies - it's potent, exciting... Read More Here
Some Facts About Africa
I'm always looking for interesting information about Africa. We didn't study much of Africa in school, and I'd be hard-pressed to name all the countries and their capitals (although this is shortly to be remedied). Fact: Current research has led... Read More Here
The Ultimate X-File: King Tut's Demise
How cool is this? National Geographic has just released its new virtual tomb of King Tutankhamun. Especially surprising to me - the Royal Wrapping feature shows that King Tut wasn't resting in one sarcophagus but more like a set of... Read More Here
Killing More Than 3000 African Children A Day - That's 1 Every 30 Seconds
Go to the doctor before a trip to Africa, they'll tell you a couple of things: Get immunized for Hepatitis, Typhoid, and Yellow Fever Don't drink the water, or eat raw foods Wear your seatbelt - the last thing you... Read More Here
If You Can't Give A Man A Fish, He May Resort To Lion...
Many people seem to think that distasteful subjects like the bush-meat trade as an African problem. What they fail to realize is that every thing we take from Africa tends to have a profound effect. Fishing has long been a... Read More Here
Kenya and al-Qaida
Until quite recently, I did not have a very refined understanding of the geographic of Africa, especially Eastern Africa. I didn't quite realize how close countries like Kenya were to the Middle Eastern troubles. I assumed embassy bombings of the... Read More Here
Baby-Faced King Tut?
It almost sounds like an X-File, how modern technology is being used to give us a new perspective on an ancient time. Forensic artists and scientists are using facial reconstruction to determine not only if those bones found along the... Read More Here
Great African News Feeds
I'm trying to keep up with foreign affairs in Eastern Africa and Egypt in order to be better informed for our honeymoon next year. Here are some of the news sites I plan to try to check regularly. General Africa... Read More Here
BBC East African Border Crossings
A very interesting recount of driving from Kampala - the capital of Uganda, through Kenya and into Tanzania. We're considering a driving safari in Eastern Africa and I am always looking for specifics on driving in Africa, across borders, and... Read More Here