Thursday, September 30, 2010
Narina trogon.(Apaloderma narina)
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| Narina trogon.(Apaloderma narina) |
The species name is Khoikhoi in origin, believed to be named after Narina, the mistress of the French... ornithologist François Le Vaillant.
Bird Watching is the Strongest point in My Guiding.
Ornithology in generals is an overwhelming subject for many, with over 900 local spices that exhibit a bewildering array of behaviors and traits.
BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH-Birds, should have a place in my library.
This book takes the life of birds and makes it easy for the lay – men to grasp, by presenting the fundamentals in a question and answer format illustrated with full color photographs.
There are a number of excellent bird books specializing in specific topics that are of interest to the average birder, but this is the first that attempts to bring all these topics together in one appealing volume
For anyone with more than a passing interest in our fascinating and spectacular avifauna – BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH-Birds, is a MUST have/Read.
Member:Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association
Member:Nature Kenya
Africas Small five
Africa's Small 5
Not many people are aware that there is also a "Small 5" in Africa. and as you can see, the names relate somewhat to the Big 5. The Small 5 are:
Elephant Shrew
Red Billed Buffalo Weaver
Ant Lion
Leopard Tortoise
Rhino Beetle
The Elephant Shrew
Description
Head and body length: 3.7- 4 inches. Tail length: 3.7- 5 inches. Weight: 1-1.7 ounces. Color: fur is long and soft; the upper parts are sandy brown, pale buff, orange buff, or pale grayish buff.
Range - Nambia, the Cape province of South Africa, and extreme southern Botswana.
Habitat - Gravelly, sandy, thornbush plains.
These animals are mainly solitary in the wild. Breeding season is around August- September. The gestation is 56-61 days. The usual litter size is 2.
The Ant Lion
The antlion larva digs its pits in dry, sunny spots sheltered from wind and rain, particularly on south-facing slopes. The soil must be light and easy to shift. Pushing itself backward, the larva first draws a circle on the ground. Then, digging deeper and deeper, it spirals in toward the center. The dirt that is dug out is thrown out energetically with the head. After only about 15 minutes, the antlion has made a funnel-shaped crater in the earth. The antlion larvae prepare the sides of their pits with fine sand or soil particles so ants that fall in can't climb out, and land in the jaws of the "doodlebug" waiting at the bottom. It buries itself at the bottom so that only the head, with opened jaws, can be seen, and there it waits for its prey.
The Red Billed Buffalo Weaver
Very similar in habit and appearance to the White-billed Buffalo-Weaver. The female and juvenile birds are quite distinctive being brown above and spotted or streaked below. The Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver builds massive thorny nests in acacia or baobab trees and these are used as communal roosts. They are noisy and gregarious birds, frequently found feeding on the ground alongside starlings.
The Leopard Tortoise
The Leopard tortoise is a large and attractively marked tortoise which has a wide distribution in sub-Saharan Africa, including recorded localities in southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Eastern Africa (including Natal), Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Angola and Southwest Africa. In this species males may attain a greater size than females, a characteristic shared with certain other members of the genus Geochelone, including Galapagos tortoises. Large examples may be 60 cm (over 2 feet) long and weigh over 35 kg (about 80 lbs.).
The Rhino Beetle
Rhinoceros beetles grow to be between 1 and 2 1/2 inches long.
Both sexes have horns, making it difficult to distinguish between them. Male beetles use these horns for fighting rival males over feeding sites or females. Rhinoceros beetles also use their horns for digging, climbing and mating.
Member:Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association
Member:Nature Kenya
Not many people are aware that there is also a "Small 5" in Africa. and as you can see, the names relate somewhat to the Big 5. The Small 5 are:
Elephant Shrew
Red Billed Buffalo Weaver
Ant Lion
Leopard Tortoise
Rhino Beetle
The Elephant Shrew
 |
| Elephant Shrew |
Description
Head and body length: 3.7- 4 inches. Tail length: 3.7- 5 inches. Weight: 1-1.7 ounces. Color: fur is long and soft; the upper parts are sandy brown, pale buff, orange buff, or pale grayish buff.
Range - Nambia, the Cape province of South Africa, and extreme southern Botswana.
Habitat - Gravelly, sandy, thornbush plains.
These animals are mainly solitary in the wild. Breeding season is around August- September. The gestation is 56-61 days. The usual litter size is 2.
The Ant Lion
 |
| Ant Lion |
The antlion larva digs its pits in dry, sunny spots sheltered from wind and rain, particularly on south-facing slopes. The soil must be light and easy to shift. Pushing itself backward, the larva first draws a circle on the ground. Then, digging deeper and deeper, it spirals in toward the center. The dirt that is dug out is thrown out energetically with the head. After only about 15 minutes, the antlion has made a funnel-shaped crater in the earth. The antlion larvae prepare the sides of their pits with fine sand or soil particles so ants that fall in can't climb out, and land in the jaws of the "doodlebug" waiting at the bottom. It buries itself at the bottom so that only the head, with opened jaws, can be seen, and there it waits for its prey.
The Red Billed Buffalo Weaver
 |
| Red Billed Buffalo Weaver |
The Leopard Tortoise
 |
| Leopard Tortoise |
The Leopard tortoise is a large and attractively marked tortoise which has a wide distribution in sub-Saharan Africa, including recorded localities in southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Eastern Africa (including Natal), Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Angola and Southwest Africa. In this species males may attain a greater size than females, a characteristic shared with certain other members of the genus Geochelone, including Galapagos tortoises. Large examples may be 60 cm (over 2 feet) long and weigh over 35 kg (about 80 lbs.).
The Rhino Beetle
 |
| Rhino Bettle |
Rhinoceros beetles grow to be between 1 and 2 1/2 inches long.
Both sexes have horns, making it difficult to distinguish between them. Male beetles use these horns for fighting rival males over feeding sites or females. Rhinoceros beetles also use their horns for digging, climbing and mating.
Member:Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association
Member:Nature Kenya
Many Species, One planet, One Future
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| Balck Rhino & Calf |
The Kenyan Black rhino, Hirola, Grevy Zebra,Cheetah,Macows Shrew,Tana river Red Colobus and Ultimate Shrew are some of the species that are endangered.
The critically endangered species like the roan Antelope in the Ruma National Park has a total of 56 remaining. If a disease strikes they will be gone forever.
Currently the country has a total of 610 Black rhinos out of a total 4230 in Africa.
In 1969 there were 65000 Black Rhinos in Africa.
Efforts to tag the Black rhinos in 14 rhino Sanctuary with a tracking device has been successful e.g. Nakuru & Nairobi National Parks.
While the future of black Rhinos look assured, the future of other Species like the Macows Shrew, Ultimate Shrew, Cheetah, Bongo, and Hirola remains in Darkness.
The Hirola Also known as the hunters Hartebeest, is one of East Africa’s Endangered Species of Antelopes.
There are 90 Hirolas left in Kenya. The Antelope Species is found in Garsen, Bura, Galma and Gala in North eastern Kenya and South west of Somalia.
There is a small Translocated population in Tsavo East National Park, out the species natural range, the animals were move from Garissa in 1963.
Five Antelope Species are at critical stage. They are:
Dama Gazelle (Nanger Dama)
Aders Duiker (Cephalophus aderis)
Saiga Antelope (Saiga Tatarica)
Hirola (Beatragos Hunter)
Addax (Addax Nasomaculatus)
The Scimitar-horned Oryx is already extinct in the wild. I hope if there are efforts to reintroduce it.
The Grevy Zebra Found in Northern Kenya, with the largest population in Lewa Conservercy .Kudos to the Proprietor Mr. Ian Craig for his efforts in protecting the species.
The Grevy entered the endangered species in 2006 & declared critically endangered last year (2009).
Kenya has an estimated population of 2600 from a population of 15000 in the early seventies.
Basically, Kenya is the only remaining country with the main population of Grevy Zebra, because there were 120 in Ethiopia but was decimated by Anthrax and 2007 drought.
In My Opinion, it is our will to protect and Conserve Mother Nature.
Member:Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association
Member:Nature Kenya
RESTORING REPUTATION FOR SNAKES
The biblical story of Eve and the snake will remain one of the most powerful information strategy of all times having succeed in painting the reptile as the source of evil and deceit.
In an effort to rehabilitate the reptile reputation alternatives for teaching will encourage people to realize the ecological significance of snakes and be able to consider alternative perspectives, especially towards harmless ones. “That is alternative to killing them”
In our African way of belief, people handling snakes are seen as witchdoctors and witches and should be stoned.This was a milestone.
Snakes are an integral part of our environment, but for most people, the only good snake is a dead one since the time of Adam and Eve.
Snakes are perceived as “poisonous” that attack and kill at any given opportunity.
However there are no poisonous snakes in the world. There are only venomous snakes. “The difference between the two terminologies is that poisonous refers to substance being lethal when ingested.
In the case of snakes, you can eat any snake in the world and won’t be poisoned, but venomous means that when a snake or any other creature bites, the venom injected can cause injuries and if not taken care soon after the bite, leads to death.
To prove this issue about the venom, there are three types:-
Cytotoxic: adversely affecting tissues and cell formation.
Neurotoxic: toxin present in venom that acts on nerve tissue
Haemotoxin: a venom component which adversely affects the blood or the circulatory system
Not all snakes are venomous. Some species are very venomous, some mildly and some meek and harmless and can’t hurt a child.
Most people suggest that all green snakes are green mambas, and would prefer to kill one on the sight. According to a Kenyan scientist from the Herpetology department of the National Museums of Kenya which boasts of its biggest collection of reptiles in East and Central Africa, “not all green snakes are the highly venomous mambas”
Snakes are cold-blooded or ecotothermic which means that they regulate their body temperature mainly by external source of heat. Cold greatly reduces the metabolic rate in snakes and consequently a greater number of species is found in tropical and sub-tropical areas than in temperate zones or at the poles.
Some of the harmless snakes are:-
Brown house snake {lamprophis fuliginosus}
Common egg eater {dasypeltis scabra}
Sand Boa Eryx colubrinus
When you see a snake, just turn around and walk away.
Member:Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association
Member:Nature Kenya
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