I made some trips to South Africa for work.
I always arrived in Cape Town, on the Western Cape.
When I hear the word Africa, I do not think penguins - I rather imagine them on icebergs in Antarctica. However, not far outside Cape Town, at Boulders Beach on the Cape Peninsula, there is a colony of Jackass Penguins (Spheniscus demersus), found only on the southern African shores. The monogamous couples return to the same beach every year to nest together in scrapes in the sand.
A strangely familiar bird may also be seen walking along the shore - an Oystercatcher, but without a white belly. It is the African Oyster catcher (Haematopus moquini) - completely black with a bright red bill.
Out in the bay is Seal Island. It is only two hectares large, yet holds a colony of over 50,000 Cape Fur Seals (Arctocephalus pusillus). Although called seals (which are in the family Phocidae), fur seals are more closely related to sea-lions (both being in the family Otariidae) - like sea-lions they walk upright on their flippers, rather than wobbling about on their bellies like seals. A sub-species (A. p. doriferus) is found on the coast of southern Australia.
The Cape has a climate akin to southern Europe. Apples grow there, and I worked on preventing caterpillars from eating them. (There are also good vineyards in the Cape, but they don't have any insect pests - so I just drank the pinotage wine).
Another speciality of the Fynbos is the Cape Sugar Bird (Promerops cafer). Like the Sunbirds, it has a long curved beak evolved to extract nectar from the local flowers.
North of the Cape lies the vast arid area known as the Karoo.
Even here crops are grown, using wells for irrigation. It is the dominant area for Afrikaners, who farm here.
It is also home to the Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) after which the South African rugby team is named.
The Ostrich (Struthio camelus) is the largest living speices of bird, it lays the largest eggs of any bird, and it has the fastest land speed of any bird - quite some records. Four to five sub-species have been recognized, the one isolated in southern Africa being S. c. australis. They are farmed here for their eggs, meat and leather.
West of the Karoo is the small village of Velddrif, on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Bergriver. A boat ride along the river yields many water birds: Blacksmith's Plover (Vanellus armatus) - it's call thought to sound like a blacksmith's hammer hitting an anvil; Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis); and the Greater Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii) - first described in 1823 by Martin Hinrich Carl Lichenstein, founder of Berlin Zoological Gardens, and named after Karl Heinrich Bergius - a Prussian naturalist who had won an iron cross as a cavalryman in the Napoleonic wars, and died of TB in Cape Town in 1818. It is the nominal of five subspecies found on coasts from here to Australia.
Also Hartlaub's Gull (Larus hartlaubii), only found on this coastline and named after the 19th century German ornithologist Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub...
...and the South African Shelduck (Tadorna cana).
After visiting the south, I used to fly up to the most northerly province of South Africa, Limpopo - bounded by Botswana Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Here the climate is sub-tropical. I visited cotton and banana plantations, but also the ZZ2 farm - the largest tomato producer in the southern hemisphere. I was interested in their insect pests, but they said they had a problem with vervet monkeys stealing the fruit.
Tomato production is the same the whole world over. First, the seeds are placed in trays.
Also the same the whole world over, women bear the weight of having to work whilst looking after a family - here literally, by bringing their babies to work on their backs.
The seeds are germinated, and the seedlings reared (along with the babies) in greenhouses...
...where more baby backpack mums will harvest...
At the weekends, I would go with my South African colleagues to the wild savannah on the border with Mozambique - the Kruger National Park. By the entrance to the park, on Sunland Farm at Modjadjiskloofwe, we visited a giant boabab tree (Adansonia digitata): 47 metres in diameter, and carbon dated to be at least 1,000 years old.
In a hollow inside the tree a bar had been built, where my colleague Frans van Eeden and I cooled off with a beer. Sadly, Frans died a few years later in an accident on one of South Africa's dusty roads. The tree would last until 2017, by which time most of it had split and collapsed - a fate which, for reasons unknown, has been met five of the six largest boaba trees in Africa since the year 2000.
The Kruger National Park covers nearly 20,000 square kilometres. Most of my time there was spent looking across the savannah out of the window of a van, crawling along the road at a snail's pace, straining my eyes to see any wildlife. Great!
Therer are a lot of weaver birds in southern Africa - named after their elaborately woven nests. This is the Lesser Masked Weaver (Ploceus intermedius).
Trees provide perches on which birds can easily be seen. Among the raptors waiting for prey, an African Fish Eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer) - similar in appearance to the American Bald Eagle...
Other perching birds included Burchell's Coucal (Centropus burchellii) - named after William John Burchell, a naturalist who collected specimens in South Africa in 1815. He was born and died in Fulham, a few kilometres from my childhood home.
...Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus)...
Bee-eaters are sexy birds, and the White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) is up there with the best. It's found on the savannahs of south-east Africa.
But it has big competitiion from the Southern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides).... and, strangely, the ground feeding Swainson's Francolin (Francolinus swainsonii) in a tree. It was named in 1836 by the Scottish physician and naturalist Andrew Smith, who had been sent to South Africa to treat soldiers. He met Charles Darwin that year, when the latter docked in Cape Town on the Beagle. William John Swainson, after whom the bird is named, was another London naturalist, best remembered for his colourful illustrations.
On the ground, where it belongs, the Natal Francolin (Francolinus natalensis).
Other birds walk around the rivers and ponds in search of food - the Goliath Heron (Ardea goliath), the largest heron in the world...
...and Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea).
The Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) - named in dutch after the hammer head it appears to possess.
On the water line, a star amongst plovers: the Threebanded Plover (Charadrius tricollaris).
A more tentative Spotted Dikkop (Burhinus capensis).Other bird species specialise on food in the grasslands - the Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori) may be the largest living animal capable of flight, the males weighing up to 20 kg. It was named by Burchell in 1822 after the Tswana Bantu name for the bird.
The Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius), which hunts on stilt-like legs, is actually a bird of prey. It was first described in the Netherlands from a live bird that was shipped there by the Dutch East India Company. The common name most likely comes from Dutch settlers, who domesticated the bird to control pests around their homesteads.
Southern Yellowbilled Hornbills (Tockus leucomelas) are commonly seen looking for scraps around picnic areas...
...and are overshadowed by their huge relative the Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri), which can have a wingspan of 1.8 metres. This one has caught a snake.
Under foot a ball-rolling dung beetle, a telecoprid. It's hypnotic to watch the males in a hand stand position trying to push a ball uphill with their hind legs. A female will lay her eggs in the ball.
Reptiles warmed themselves in the sun - the Flap-necked Chameleon (Chamaeleo dilepis)...
...Giant Plated Lizard (Gerrhosaurus validus)...
...Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus)...
There are twelve species of tortoise in South Africa, of which three occur in the Kruger Park. I believe this to be an old Leopard Tortoise (Geochelone pardalis).
But the animals most people will observe on the savannahs of Africa are the hooved grass-feeders, known as ungulates. One group has evolved to bear their weight on two toes in their hoof, and includes the Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). It is seen more in water than on land, coming out at evenings to feed. It's closest relatives are the whales, which are ungulates that ended up in the water full time.
Another close relative, the Warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) - definitely land bound.
The biggest group of two-toe-walking ungulates are the ruminants, which 'chew the cud' and digest grass by fermentation. Those in Africa, such as the herds of antelope, are far more beautiful than herds of swiss cows - but usually not as tame as this Bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus).
I watched this petite Steenbok (Raphicerus campestris) walking among the bushes.
Kudo (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) is a name from the indigenous nomadic pastoralist Khoekhoe people, who were called 'hottentots' by the British.
The Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus), as the name implies, likes to be close to water - as are these females and their young...
...whilst the males rest in the grass. And behind them, Impala (Aepyceros melampus).
Impalas - also a Tswana Bantu word - described by Lichenstein in 1812. To avoid predators Impala can jump 3 metres high and cover a distance of 10 metres - they show how the struggle to survive and reproduce can mould something of equisite proportions and balance. So don't look at lumps of white marble in museums - go to Africa and watch Impalas!
Is it a case of beauty and the Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)? Another species described by Burchell, you may know it from its Khoekhoe name 'Gnu'.
Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardis). They can grow to almost 6 metres, half of it neck. How did that evolve? Competition for food? Competition amongst males? Greater vigilance? The jury's still out.
Currently nine sub-species of Giraffe are recognised, the nominal one being in South Africa.
An unexpected one-toe-walking relative of the Zebra is the Rhinoceros. Two species are found in South Africa, the Square-lipped (or White) and the Hook-lipped (or Black). Unfortunately the lips cannot be seen in this picture, but other characters tell it is the White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) - a long and heavy head with a long front horn, pointed ears, and a flat humped back. It is also huge. White rhinos can reach over 2 metric tons, whilst the Black rhino is a mere tiddler at just over a ton.
There are two sub-species of White Rhinoceros, the nominal one being in the south. The northern sub-species became extinct in the wild in 2008, and only two are left in captivity - two females in Kenya.
Elephants are in a group of their own, and a class of their own. The African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the largest land animal in the world, growing up to 4 metres at shoulder height. What can match watching a herd pass by, and being stared at by a huge ear flapping adult as the babies trot alongside them.
Male Vervet Monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) have definitely gone for the body attitude means of communication - the male shouting with his bright blue testicles and scarlet penis.
We are fascinated by those at the top of the food chain, the predators, who hunt down their plant eating prey using guile and speed. Spotted Hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) hunt in clans. The females are dominant, and the males must show persistrent submissiveness to them before they are allowed to integrate. The females even have a pseudoscrotum and a pseudopenis - so convincing that it is difficult to tell the sexes apart.
I was lucky enough to see a rare site - a pack of Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) swaggering along the road. They live in packs and hunt antelopes, and only fear lions and hyenas.
Although broadly distributed over Africa, they are endangered due to habitat fragmentation, hunting and disease. There are now less than 7,000 left.
Lions were common in ancient Greece. In Turkey they survived until the end of the 19th century. In Iran the last wild lion was seen in 1942. In the 1960s they became extinct in north Africa. There are now around 20,000 left in sub-Saharan Africa. There are an estimated 600 million pet cats in the world.
