Tag: Namibia

Word power: (un)common sense on cats as pets, in Australia (with cat-connected Namibian & Tunisian bonus content)

Published November 15, 2023 by Pelidoug

Word power: (un)common sense on cats as pets, in Australia (with cat-connected Namibian & Tunisian bonus content)

“Our” world is so oversaturated with sensationalism, misrepresentation, haranguing, intolerance, name-calling, “cancelling”, “virtue signalling” and the “100% this versus 100% that” school of argumentation.

It has become an increasingly rare pleasure to read a measured and sensible newspaper article, devoted to a highly contentious topic.

The relevant piece was published this week in the Australian edition of The Guardian.

Fully cognisant of cats’ devastating impact on Australian wildlife, it addresses this question:

can we have cats (as pets) in a sustainable and ethical way?

You may be surprised to know that the answer is yes, albeit yes, if…

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Quirky moments (#16 in series: big numbers/small numbers)

Published September 2, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#16 in series: big numbers/small numbers)

This post’s featured image was taken beside a waterhole in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia.

Visible are two members of one species, and more than hundred of another.

A mature African elephant is currently “our” planet’s most massive terrestrial animal.

Imagine this:

On one side of a colossal pair of scales you place one of the pictured elephants.

In order to balance those scales you would then need at least forty thousand of the pictured birds…and if a substantial flock of red queleas was present, forty thousand would not be an unusually high number!

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Quirky moments (#15 in series: mammalian avatar, with musical bonus)

Published August 31, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#15 in series: mammalian avatar, with musical bonus)

If you are a Pelican Yoga regular, you have already seen Barbara Cartland’s and Barbie’s avian avatars. (in #10 of the “quirky moments” series)

This post’s “punkish” cub is a member of Africa’s most oft-misrepresented mammal species.

His kind are very much smarter and much more “social” than most humans realise.

Contrary to common human belief, spotted hyenas are primarily predators rather than scavengers.

Lions are much more likely to “steal” from hyenas than vice versa, and spotted hyenas are much the more efficient hunters.

Over the last several thousand years hyenas have had rotten “press”, but they are not rotters.

Nonetheless, the young hero of this post’s appearance and demeanour were decidedly “Rottenesque”.

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Quirky moments (#14 in series: asymmetric oryx)

Published August 30, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#14 in series: asymmetric oryx)

The gemsbok – Oryx gazella – is the largest of four oryx species.

This superbly-adapted desert specialist is Namibia’s suitably majestic, emblematic mammal.

Gemsbok are also found in neighbouring southern African nations, and are sometimes known as “South African oryx” or “African oryx”.

They have striking, long, spear-like horns.

Atop the head of each adult male and female, the pair of horns is usually an example of nigh-perfect symmetry.

Not so, here!

Q: could this deformity cause any serious problem for the pictured individual?

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Quirky moments (#10 in series: avian avatars)

Published August 23, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#10 in series: avian avatars)

I dislike anthropomorphism, especially when it “cutesifies” animals that are not cute.

I wish we humans would learn to appreciate other animals in their own right, as themselves, rather than wilfully misreading their behaviours and facial expressions.

For instance, quokkas’ characteristic facial shapes/expressions do not in fact signify happiness.

That said, I am sometimes hugely amused by a particular animal’s fortuitous resemblance to a particular, famous/infamous human…or human-made humanoid.

One crisp Namibian morning I saw and heard a very loud local bird; its common name refers to its alarm call.

Why would a “Go-away bird” remind me of England’s self styled “Queen of Romance Fiction”?

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Quirky moments (#9 in series: big bird)

Published August 22, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#9 in series: big bird)

The ostrich is the biggest living bird.

It is numero uno in other respects, too.

Intelligence is definitely not one of them.

To a human – this human, at least – the ostrich is one of “our” planet’s quirkiest birds.

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Quirky moments (#4 in series: amazingly fleet, fog specialist)

Published August 14, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#4 in series: amazingly fleet, fog specialist)

If beetles had their own Olympics, the one you are looking at would be an unbackable “certainty” in sprint events.

When the pictured individual “took off”, haring across a dune above Sossusvlei, I could barely believe my eyes.

As I later discovered, the Namib Desert’s dune-dwelling Toktokkies are believed to be the fastest runners in all beetledom.

And that is not this particular Toktokkie’s most amazing aspect!

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Leopard, hunting (Etosha National Park, northern Namibia)

Published August 6, 2023 by Pelidoug

Leopard, hunting (Etosha National Park, northern Namibia)

This post documents the last of our four close encounters with leopards in Namibia during November 2022.

The featured image shows “our hero”, not long after we had noticed him.

He was to our right; his quarry (a springbok) was where all the visible grazing mammals were at that time – to our left, on the other side of the relevant road.

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African leopard, Indian leopard (teaser)

Published August 4, 2023 by Pelidoug

African leopard, Indian leopard (teaser)

Pictured above is a leopard, stalking.

He had targeted a springbok, on the morning of 07 November 2022 in Etosha National Park, northern Namibia.

Almost exactly four months later, in very different habitat we enjoyed our first Indian sighting of a leopard.

The next two Pelican Yoga posts will feature each encounter, separately.

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Warthogs and water

Published August 2, 2023 by Pelidoug

Warthogs and water

Every living thing needs water.

However, different living things’ particular ways of accessing/consuming/conserving/using water, are hugely variable.

So are the quantities they require, how often they need to drink – if they do need to drink – and even the very nature of their relationship to water.

Certain terrestrial creatures absolutely relish water…and not just as something to drink or to swim in.

In this respect, warthogs are nigh-peerless.

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