For the identification of insects and other fauna and flora of South Africa.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Some old wildlife slides - Part 2

The Serval is of the cat species and are never seen during the daylight hours, preferring to hunt at night. Their main food consists of rats and mice. They have very long legs and have been know to jump great lengths and heights in order to pounce on their prey.
The Sable antelope is one of our most beautiful animals. It stands approximately 5 feet at shoulder height. Groups consist of mixed males, females and juveniles. There are not often seen as they prefer dense bush in which to live and browse.
When they flap their ears, elephants are using this as a means to cool the blood in the thick veins situated at the back of them.
Leopards are creatures of the night. Mainly they eat medium sized buck which they are capable of taking high up into the trees so that lions, hyena’s and other predators cannot take it away from them.
The Tsama Melon is also found in these arid regions and supply out larger antelope species with water as there are not many river or streams there. They are about 6/7 inches in diameter and extremely hard to break open.
The Warthog has to be the most ugly creature we have and is similar in size to a wild hog. They eat a great variety of food and are known to dig up bulbs and tubers in times of drought.
We mostly see two species of squirrel, the Ground and Tree Squirrel. This is the Ground Squirrel and is found in our more arid, semi-desert areas. They live in burrows under the ground and fold their tails up over there heads for shelter as there is not much else to shade them from the hot sun.

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