Our Rare Animals

Rare Animals

The following are snippets from the drop down tab:
 

Armour Plated Artichoke

Primitive Armor

Say “hello” to another one of Africa’s bizarre, nocturnal, ant-eating creatures, otherwise known as a pangolin! Despite all visual evidence to the contrary, this armored car on four legs is a mammal.

The large, hardened keratin overlapping plate-like scales that cover its skin are an adaptation making this mammal look more than a little reptilian. And pangolin are African (and Asian) …

Pangolin come equipped with short legs and sharp claws, useful for digging up termite and ant mounds, as well as climbing. The really long tongue is perfect for lapping up the ants and other insects these nocturnal animals find with their acute sense of smell. After an exhausting night hunting grub, a pangolin spends most of the day curled up, sleeping.

Africa’s Benguela Dolphin

Cousins to the Killer Whale

Should you find yourself on South Africa’s West Coast, somewhere between Melkbos and Springbok, keep an eye out for Benguela dolphins. Often, when walking a windswept beach, pursuing the perfect bit of driftwood, you’ll catch the flash and glimmer of creatures playing in the swells. But stop for a moment, really look and the image resolves into a group of exceptionally small *killer whales!

No, can’t be *killer whales – these are much too small… maybe porpoises? But the markings are black and white? These pretty little marine mammals, cavorting just offshore, are the Heaviside’s dolphin – Cephalorhynchus heavisdii, better known as the Benguela dolphin; found only off the coast of Namibia, Angola and the West Coast of South Africa in the cold, Benguela current and nowhere else on earth.