Everyday Wildlife

Everyday Wildlife

The following are snippets from the drop down tab:

Our Bushveld Yard Animals

The Summer Change

Immediately outside our African yard, the tawny, grey, sun-baked landscape of the bushveld winter has been transformed in a few short weeks into a lushly fertile paradise. Then, a grey veil of dry branches hid the game behind a mist of twigs. As the rains have come and gone and come again, the trees turned green, and smaller creatures began showing themselves, popping up all over the yard when least expected.

Look closely at the photo of the river and you may be able to make out the Egyptian Geese on the sandbank, another in the water, and there’s even a mama goose with four youngsters – see if you can spot them.  Standing around on the river bank are Cattle Egrets and a lone Heron (only visible if the photo’s enlarged,) while Weaver nests dangle in the trees in the foreground and on the far bank.

Wild Neighbors, Secret World of Giant Lizards

Are Animals Really Smart?

Leguaan, why leguaan? I could have written about rhino, elephant or even martial eagles. Instead, I have written about an animal closer to home, because I think some of our readers may be as un-informed about one of their closest neighbors as I was. And another reason is that it’s about the largest wild animal that would live in your attic in the same way these ones do. By the way, leguaan is pronounced le-ga-vaan and is in fact a rock monitor lizard and the largest lizard of its kind in Africa. It’s close relative is the water monitor lizard and not as big, although a lot more attractive.