Dec 132015
 

Loving Bananas

 

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Suppers over… any bananas left?

 
Banana! Even the name sounds silly. But, I suppose when you’re a berry… that grows on a tree… built like a cucumber… colored red, green, purple or yellow… that everything wants to eat… a silly name would be the least of your worries!
 

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Did you say banana… Where! I can smell em you know. Just point me in the general direction.

 
Around these parts, almost everyone loves a banana, although I’m not so sure about the lions and the leopards and I’ve never personally seen a hyena or a rhino eat one? But hey, that leaves more for the rest of us!
 

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Hey, you may think you’re some kind of lark but stay away from MY banana!

 
M and I and every monkey, baboon, bush baby, banded mongoose, hippo, leopard tortoise, giraffe, bushbuck, duiker, warthog and hinged tortoise around here absolutely adore bananas! And the birds-riot when we bring out the fruit. If the banana is missing, it has been known to cause “hurt feelings” and the “sulks.”
 

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So sad… all gone!

 
In the case of the yellow-billed hornbills, it was “no-speaks” for over two days with the red-billed hornbills, who don’t even eat fruit!
 

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Look mom banana. Oooh…I love bananas

 
Bananas were introduced early into Africa from Southeast Asia and Madagascar by early Austronesian sailors during the first to sixth centuries AD, so they’ve been around a while.
 

Wildmoz.com-Banded-mongoos-after-banana.

You gave me that banana right? Watch this. (We spared you the banana fight).

 
Early Portuguese explorers would have spread them around the continent from West Africa and were later responsible for distributing them as far as the Caribbean.
 

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I eated the last banana. Not for nothing are we called the flying bananas. (Say’s he while sunbathing) Oh, don’t worry, they are natural comics.

 
There’s even a Legend – although it’s actually a true, verifiable story! All about a man who survived on bananas as his only food for some three months… When he made it back to civilization, he had lost over sixty kgs and perfectly fit. With no fat and loads of vitamins and minerals, bananas are truly one of Africa’s super foods.
 

Wildmoz.com-Turaco-purple-crested-banana-hunting

Hmmm, I say, banana… a suitable offering for a midday snack.

 
We haven’t told the starlings that they can get snacks anywhere else. They may go off to look and then where would we be, without competition for the Louries (Go-Away Birds), the Barbets, the Bulbuls, or the Turacos?

 

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Meet Our Authors: The Wildmoz team, Cari and Moz, have a lifelong passion for the Bushveld and share adventures and stories about Africa's good things. Wildmoz is Africa - the cradle of life! Travel writing about wildlife, African folklore, wildlife art, Kruger Park and wildlife safari info! Taste life as it is in Africa.
 Posted by on December 13, 2015