ALOE BROOMII

Aloe broomii has several common names, among these are Mountain Aloe and Snake Aloe. The first because it occurs on rocky slopes at an altitude of between 1 000 to 2 000 metres above sea level; the second because of its long, snake-like racemes. The species is named after the anthropologist Robert Broom (1866-1951), who first collected it in 1905 at Pampoenpoort, between Carnarvon and Victoria West.

The plants grow as large, multi-leaved rosettes. Their yellowish-green leaves are spear-like with short, sharp teeth along their margins. The inflorescence is distinctive with the short, stubby, greenish flowers being densely packed. They arise erect from each rosette and have no branches as we commonly see in other aloes.

The flowers are short and broad with only their stamens visible because they are completely hidden by longer bracts. They nonetheless attract a variety of pollinators, such as bees, wasps and ants, as well as sunbirds.

Aloe broomii grow in the Karoo region, which becomes very hot during the summer and very cold in the winter months. The plants are often solitary or may be branched into two or more heads which divide to form groups of up to three rosettes. These ones are growing in the Mountain Zebra National Park.

 

CAPE PORCUPINE

Note: I hope you will not mind me using photographs that have appeared in my blogs before.

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We sometimes come across porcupine quills lying in the road or along paths when we are driving or walking in the countryside. They are fun things to pick up and to stick into things. Some people even cut them into short lengths to make attractive necklaces out of them. Having said that, I cannot find a single quill in our home! We used to have so many of them lurking in boxes or drawers – they have probably gone the way of grandchildren or been disposed of over the years. I don’t bother to pick them up anymore, merely enjoying seeing them in situ.

Don’t bother to pick them up? Of course I did when our children were small and when our (then) young grandchildren were with us. There is something really special about holding a light black-and-white quill that tapers to a very sharp point in your hand – especially as they are dropped by an animal one seldom sees.

The Cape Porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) is the largest rodent in southern Africa and one of the largest in the world. That honour goes to the South American Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris). Apart from wishing to obtain food, rodents gnaw on all sorts of things to control the growth of their teeth. Some of the trees in the rest camp area of the Mountain Zebra National Park have, for example, had to be protected from being gnawed – and possibly ring-barked – by roaming porcupines.

These porcupines have a single pair of sharp, continually growing incisor teeth that they use to gnaw through and rip up tough plant material. They also have long claws that they used to dig up roots and tubers. Other food forming part of their diet includes fruit, bark, and occasionally carrion. They sometimes chew on bones in areas with deficient phosphorus levels – a condition called osteophagia.

I can recall seeing a Cape porcupine only once and that was while we were camping in the Addo Elephant National Park many years ago. Regular campers in the park told us that a porcupine sometimes made its way through the camping area at night, entering close to where we had set up camp. They suggested we scatter some cut apples nearby.

Whether or not that was a good thing, I don’t know, but we did. Nothing happened. Darkness fell and, because the weather was particularly hot, one of my sons decided to set up his camp bed in the open outside. Much later that night he was woken by something vigorously shaking his camp bed: it was the promised porcupine!

Cape porcupines are widely distributed over South Africa. Males and females look the same, their bodies covered with flattened bristly hairs, spines which are up to 50 cm long and stout quills that grow up to 30 cm long and erect for self-defence. That is why their quills can be found all over, even if the animals themselves are not seen that often – while they may be active during the day, they are mostly nocturnal.

There is an interesting myth about porcupines that, for some reason, gets passed down from one generation to the next: that porcupines shoot out their quills when defending themselves from being attacked by other animals.

They don’t. The quills actually come off fairly easily when touched, and their sharp tips and overlapping scales or barbs make them difficult to remove. So, the quills merely get stuck into whatever comes too close to the porcupine. That said, it is a mystery to me how this Cape buffalo ended up with a quill stuck into it. Perhaps it picked it up after rolling on the ground.

Cape porcupines are occasionally preyed on by leopards, lions or hyenas for meat. As you can imagine, the success rate is very low as they are not easy to attack. When disturbed by predators, the porcupines tend to stand motionless and only turn aggressive when they are cornered. When this happens they lash around and charge sideways or backwards to lodge the razor-sharp quills into the predator should it persist. I presume this leopard, seen in the Kruger National Park, may have had such a close encounter with a Cape porcupine.

https://www.sanbi.org/animal-of-the-week/cape-porcupine/

 

SCENES FROM NATIONAL PARKS

South Africa is blessed with several national parks. It takes time and travelling long distances to visit even some of them, yet none disappoint. Today I will feature scenes from a few of them. The Addo Elephant National Park is not very far from where we live and so, every now and then, we go there for a day visit. Given its name, visitors naturally expect to see elephants there:

It is also a good place for birding, where one might be fortunate to see raptors such as this Jackal Buzzard:

The Mountain Zebra National Park is also easily accessible to us and is the perfect place to spend a few days. Visitors here would obviously expect to see mountain zebras:

However, one might also be fortunate to spot a cheetah lying in the yellow grass:

There are red hartebeest in the Karoo National Park – which makes a good stopping point between where we live and Cape Town:

One can also enjoy seeing ostriches striding along the open veld:

The world famous Kruger National Park is several day’s journey from here and hosts an enormous variety of plants, birds, insects and animals. When we consider the alarming rate at which rhinos are killed in this country, we cannot help but feel privileged to see them from close quarters here:

The name on every visitor’s lips is ‘lion’. Mention the word and people speed up and jostle for space to see even the tip of the tail of one. Equally exciting to see though are leopards:

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is the furthest away from us and – despite its remote location – is such a popular destination that one has to book accommodation about a year ahead. This is an incredible place for seeing lions:

It is also a marvellous place for seeing the very beautiful crimson-breasted shrike:

BIRD BATHS AND BEES

Just as people, birds and animals seek water to drink when the weather is hot and dry, so do bees. The water in this shallow bird bath at the entrance to the Mountain Zebra National Park is edged with bees and flies taking in much-needed moisture.

Communal taps inevitably drip. Some taps in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park have simple cement bird baths placed under them which both helps to save water and provides for the thirst of bees – lots of them. One actually has to approach these taps with care.

Birds and animals have to approach these watering points with care too.

I was thus impressed to see that in the Karoo National Park not only are bird baths provided under the communal taps, but clear signs warn one to be careful of the bees that will inevitably come to share the water during the hot weather.

Or … perhaps these signs sensitize visitors to the importance of bees and the role they play in keeping our environment healthy.

Either way, it was good to see them.

GREY RHEBUCK

I have driven along the Highlands road so many times over the past two years that I can guess with a degree of accuracy where we might spot what wildlife – although there are always surprises in store. One of these surprises was our first sighting of a small group of about five Grey Rhebuck (Pelea capreolus) that had been resting in the tall grass and jumped up to run away as we approached them along the road. As they tend to be territorial animals, I have seen (presumably) that group a few more times in more or less the same place. Grey Rhebok are usually seen in rocky hills, on grassy mountain slopes, as well as on plateau grasslands, so this – and the places described below – is a recognised habitat for them. These ones were sighted in the Mountain Zebra National Park.

A chance sighting of a small group of these animals on the lower slopes of a hill alerted us to another place where we have been able to observe them from time to time. Then, late one afternoon, a large empty grassy valley, which we had always thought to be devoid of any wild animals, yielded a much larger herd – again we have spotted them there more than once. Lastly, we have discovered a small family group that is frequently visible on some rocky slopes as the road dips down towards some farmland. The photographs in this post are all from that group – by far the closest I can get to them by road. The colouring isn’t all that good for these photographs were taken through a fence shortly before sunset.

Their cryptic colouring of a grey woolly coat with white underparts makes the Grey Rhebuck difficult to see even when the sun is shining brightly. Only the rams have upright, straight, spike-like horns.

Grey Rhebuck are able to derive sufficient moisture from the plants they graze and browse, so they do not need a stable source of water to survive. I have not seen any farm dams, for example, within their immediate vicinity. This final photograph was also taken in the Mountain Zebra National Park.