Safari Ants :Natural Wound Sutures?

Siafu.  Safari ants also referred to as ‘driving ants’, ‘legionary ants’, or ‘visiting ants’. They exhibit extremely aggressive nomadic behaviours and indiscriminately kill by overwhelming prey with their massive numbers. True to their name, they are always in large numbers on safari, visiting or attacking. They do not stay. They pass through an area like a swarm of locusts and wipe out anything in their path. The only way to escape their attack is take off or remain motionless. 

                            Solder Safari ant

The safari ants’ society has three main castes each with specific roles and responsibilities. 

Soldier ants, the large ants with an oversized head and gigantic mandibles, are the defense force.  The defend the family. Their mandibles are actually so large that soldier ants can't feed without assistance from the smaller worker ants.

Worker ants are smaller in size and have smaller mandibles. They are responsible for everything from fighting on the front lines to carrying food back to the nest to caring for the queen and her eggs. Workers tend to live about a year. 

Queen is the only reproductive female of the colony. She is protected and cared for by her colony, as she is what unites the nest and so her survival is very key. She can live up to 20 years. She is the largest of the ants, with an oversized abdomen for accomplishing her reproductive needs. As the only reproducer, the entire colony (some 300,000 to 50 million ants) are most likely all her offspring. 

The entire colony made of females. The male ants are bred for reproductive needs only.  These alates (winged drones) are formed during mating season. They are larger than solders, have wings and bloated sausage like abdomens. No wonder they are sometimes referred to as Sausage flies.  They leave the colony soon after hatching. Once they reach sexual maturity, they are drawn to the scent trail left by a column of siafu.  When a colony encounters a male, the tear off his wings and carries him back to the nest to mate with the queen. The male dies about 48 hours after mating with the queen.  The queen lays up to 1 million eggs per month. 

                    Saugage fly - Male Safari Ant

The safari ants are blind. They can only sense light intensity, but not discern anything in front of them. They rely on a form of chemical communication called pheromones, which they taste and/or smell with their antennae. They use up to 20 different pheromone cues to communicate with their colony as well as discern friend from foe. Some beetles, wasps, and millipedes are able to produce a chemical that mimics the army ant pheromone scent. This way they can actually conceal themselves from safari ant detection and avoid being attacked and eaten.

                  Solders' guarding on a trail

The siafu bites are used as natural emergency sutures (wound stitches). The solder ants are allowed to bite on both sides of the gash, then break of the body leaving ants head act as makeshift surgical staples creating a seal that can hold for days allowing natural healing to take place

                                    Soldier's Bite

King Cheetah - 'Nusu Fisi'

The King Cheetah arguably has the most beautiful unusual coat in the Big Cat family. Its coat features cream-coloured fur marked with large, blotchy spots and three dark, wide stripes extending from the neck to the tail. In Zimbabwe it is known as ‘nsuifisi’ as it was thought to be a cross between a leopard and a hyena!

So how on earth does a cheetah get stripes? Remember that high school biology class when the teacher talked about dominant and recessive genes? Remember? Or were you daydreaming?

Well, the king cheetah’s striped pattern is caused by reinforcement of a recessive gene. When two mating cheetahs are heterozygous carriers of the mutated allele, a quarter of their offspring can be expected to be king cheetahs. Bear in mind that on average the cheetah gives birth to three to four cubs! Cheetah cubs have a schockingly high mortality rate (up to 95%!).

The King Cheetah is so rare. Its world population is just under 30 individual cheetahs, with merely a possible 10 living in the wild scattered throughout Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.

Some years back, a spotless or golden cheetah was spotted and photographed in Kenya in Kapiti Plains.

This cheetah has no spots or markings at all apart from the tear drop Instead they have some light freckles on their backs. They are very rare but do exist.

Scientists believe it is a 'morph' due to a recessive gene and not an albino or leucistic variation which makes this cheetah. It is believed that the genetic throwback may actually help the golden cheetah thrive in the wild as it could be mistaken for a lion.

Cheetahs can reach speeds of up to 130km/h over short bursts, and can accelerate from 0 to just over 95km/h in just 3 seconds. The cheetah’s tail help to steer the cheetah as it runs, like a rudder on a boat.

The national wildlife census 2021 states there are  1,160 cheetahs in Kenya. 

 

Over Billion Birds on Transit

The Palaearctic-African migration is on. This is a rare occasion in bird migratory phenomena in the world. It comprises enormous numbers of birds travelling between Europe and Africa. Approximately 2.1 billion songbirds and near-passerine birds migrate from Europe to Africa from August to December.

Blacksmith plover

These long-distant migration patterns are complex. They have evolved over thousands of years and are controlled at least partially by the genetic makeup of the birds. The migrating birds get compass information from the sun, the stars, and by sensing the earth’s magnetic field. They also get information from the position of the setting sun and from landmarks seen during the day. There’s even evidence that sense of smell plays a role, at least for homing pigeons.

For the last 51 years, bird ringers from Europe and Kenya meet in Tsavo West National Park at Ngulia Safari Lodge to participate in the ringing of these Palaearctic migratory songbirds. These birds breed in Europe and Asia and migrate to spend the winter in Africa. 

Most of these birds fly south at night, passing over Tsavo West National Park in November and December. On dark, misty nights, the migrating songbirds become disoriented and land in the bush around the lights of the lodge.

The birds are gently caught, carried in cloth bags, identified, measured, and fitted with a light metal ring on one leg. Then they are released to continue their journey. Since 1969, a total of 597,694 Palearctic migratory birds of 72 species and 15,570 individuals of Afrotropical birds of 234 species have been ringed at the Ngulia Ringing Site.

In 2020, a total of 11,254 birds, comprising of 10,666 Palaearctic migrants of 32 species and 588 Afrotropical birds of 75 species, were captured and ringed.

This year this two-week ringing session starts on 30th November to 10th December 2021 at Ngulia Lodge.

.    European stork

Bird ringing of the migratory birds is most birdwatchers desire.  It helps in getting crucial information for conservation. By knowing where birds are and when, important conservation decisions can be made, such as placement of wind turbines and reducing building lights on specific high-migration nights, to prevent the deaths of millions of birds.

Migrating birds cover thousands of kilometers in their annual travels, often traveling the same course year after year with little deviation. First-year birds often make their very first migration on their own

Some species, particularly waterfowl and cranes, follow preferred pathways on their annual migrations. These pathways are often related to important stopover locations that provide food supplies critical to the birds’ survival. Smaller birds tend to migrate in broad fronts across the landscape. Studies using eBird data have revealed that many small birds take different routes in spring and fall, to take advantage of seasonal patterns in weather and food.

                           Black-headed heron

The white stork avoids crossing over Mediterranean sea and detours via the Levant in the east or the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, because the air thermals on which it depends for soaring do not form over water. 

Palearctic migrants arrive in the northern tropics south of the Sahara between August and October, as the local rainy season ends. Some species remain in the Sahel and Sudan zones throughout the overwintering period. Others seem unable to tolerate the increasing aridity as the dry season progresses. These remain in the Sahel and Sudan zones for 1–2 months and then fatten before performing a second migration further south, either to dry Guinea savannas in West Africa, or to rainy conditions in equatorial East Africa or southern Africa, where there are short rains.

Between March and May, as southern Africa enters its dry season and the rains begin in the northern tropics, these movements are reversed, but the northward migration is much more rapid than southward migration. Birds that overwinter too far south to reach the Palearctic in a single journey, put on enough fat to reach the southern edge of the Sahara, where they refatten finally for the Saharan or Arabian desert crossing.

                               Little grebe

Taking a journey that can stretch to a round-trip distance of several thousand miles is a dangerous and grueling undertaking. It is an effort that tests both the birds’ physical and mental capabilities. The physical stress of the trip, lack of adequate food supplies along the way, bad weather, and increased exposure to predators all add to the hazards of the journey. In recent decades long-distant migrants have been facing a growing threat from communication towers and tall buildings. Many species are attracted to the lights of tall buildings and millions are killed each year in collisions with the structures. 

Dugongs and Manatees: The Mythical Mermaids?

Mermaids. The mythical creature with great seductive powers. The femme fatale, with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish.

As long as there have been seafarers, it seems, there have been mermaids to mess the minds of these intimacy deprived sailors.  

The male equivalent of the mermaid is the merman. The male and the female collectively are sometimes referred to as merfolk or merpeople.

Do these seductive creatures really exist?  Maybe in form of Dugongs and Manatees which have breasts and suckle their young ones above water, in human fashion. 

When dugongs surface to breathe, they sometimes “stand” on their tail with their head above water. With poor lighting, imaginations and of course dry spell, to the sailor this looked like the head of a beautiful seductive lady..

Dugong also known as sea cow, is known as Nguva in Swahili. It has a simple scientific name: Dugong dudong. They are found tropical waters from East Africa to Vanuatu, about 26 degrees both north and south of equator. They are only found in the salty waters of the oceans. They are the only exclusively marine mammals that are herbivorous. In Kenya Dugongs have been sighted in Kiunga Marine Park. 

          In serach of the dugongs in India Ocean

On the other hand, Manatees are found in shallow, slow moving rivers, estuaries, saltwater bays, canals and oceans. They live in both freshwaters and saltwaters of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Amazon basin and West Africa. 

Even though the dugongs and manatees are marine mammals, they are more closely related to elephants than dolphins or whales. 

The key difference between the dugongs and manatees are: 

Tail shape

Dugong tails have flukes made up of two separate lobes joined together in the middle and look similar to whale or dolphin tales. 

Manatees have a horizontal paddle-shaped tail with only one lobe to move up and down when the animal swims.

Mouth shape

Dugongs have a longer, broad, short trunk-like snout and agile upper lip used to munch on seagrass. It faces downward with a slit for a mouth, useful for feeding off the ocean floor. 

Manatees have a divided upper lip and a shorter snout.  They are able to both gather food and feed on plants growing at or near the surface of the water. 

Body size

Manatees are larger and can grow up to 4 metres (13 feet) long.

Dugongs are smaller and rarely get larger than 3 metres (10 feet) long.

Habitat 

Dugongs never leave saltwater. They spend their entire life in shallow, sheltered coastal areas such as bays and mangrove swamps.

Manatees, on the other hand, can be found both in fresh and saltwater. West Indian and West African reside primarily in salt water but migrate to warmer freshwater areas in the winter. The Amazonian manatee lives only in fresh water.

Teeth

Dugongs have overgrown incisors set at the front of the mouth that resemble small tusks. They are well developed and only visible in adult males and old female dugongs.

Manatees do not have the ‘tusks’. They have the marching molars (hind molar progression). Manatees constantly grow molars in the back corners of their mouth. As the front teeth grind down and eventually fall out, the molars fully emerge, pushing new teeth forward

Reproduction

Dugongs have a very long reproductive cycle. Female dugongs start conceiving at the age of  10 years. They only give birth every three to seven years. 

Female manatees typically have their first baby at age three and have more babies every two to three years.

Manatees are devout polygamists. A male manatee can have several female partners.

Dugongs, on the other hand, have different sexual lifestyles depending on the locality. In some areas, they are monogamous with only one mate, and they live as a couple for life. In other areas they are polygamist and polyandrous. They even display a mating behavior similar to lekking -  a lek is a traditional area where male dugongs gather during mating season to participate in competitive activities and displays to attract females.  

Once they success in attracting the female, they proceed through three phases.  In the following phase, a group of males follow a single female attempting to mate with her. This prompts the fighting phase whereby the males fight to determine who will mount the female. The winner enters the mounting phase where he mounts the female from underneath as the losers continue to fight for mating rights. The male is thus mounted several times by the competing males. This almost guarantees conception.

Humpback Whales Migration

It is that favourite season for the whale watchers again. The Humpback whales back at the Kenyan Coast to mate and give birth.

 

The humpback whale gets its common name from the distinctive hump on its back.  Its long pectoral fins inspired its scientific name, Megaptera novaeangliae. Megaptera, means “big-winged” and novaeangliae, which means ‘New England’ in reference to the location where European whalers first encountered them.

The humpback whales have one of the longest migrations of any on the planet. They swim over 5,000 kilometers annually from colder polar feeding waters (high latitude grounds) to the warmer mating and calving waters (low latitude grounds).

Humpbacks are massive. They range from 12 to 16 meters (39 to 52 feet) in length and weigh approximately 40 tonnes. They are mainly black or grey with white undersides to their flukes, flippers and bellies. 

Despite their massive size, the humpback whales feed on krill (small shrimp-like crustaceans), plankton, and small fish. They catch them by straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates, which act like a sieve.

They use a unique method of feeding called bubblenetting. They dive deep then swim up in a spiral pattern, while releasing a steady stream of bubbles from their blow holes. As the bubbles rise they form a "net" that surrounds the whales' prey. The whales swim up through the centre of the bubble net and feed on the prey trapped inside.

The humpbacks are one of the most acrobatic cetaceans. They frequently breach by leaping belly-up completely clear of the water, then arching backward and returning to the surface with a loud slapping sound. When beginning a deep dive, they hunch their back and rolls steeply forward, bringing its tail out of the water and perpendicular to the ocean surface.

Humpbacks are famous for their "songs." Male humpbacks produce a long series of calls that are normally heard during the winter breeding season. The whales may repeat the same song for several hours.  The songs appear to be shared by all singing members in the same area of the ocean: as the song changes, all members sing the new song. The same song is sung in spite of the great distance between groups in the population (up to 5000 km). This sharing of songs may occur when groups intermingle during migration or in shared summer feeding grounds.

The humpbacks have complicated courtship behaviours. Often, many males will surround a single female hitting each other in a competition to get close to her. Females become pregnant about every two to four years, and are pregnant with each calf for about 11 to 12 months. The calves can grow 0.5 metres every month while nursing on their mother’s rich milk. Females nurse their newborn calves in warm, shallow water. 

After spending two months breeding and nursing their calves, the whales will then make their journey back to Antarctica around September.

Elephant Trunk - Exceptionally Delicate yet Tremendously Strong

The most distinguishable and unique features of the elephant is its trunk. It is the elephant’s most conspicuous body part, and also the mostly used part of the elephant.  Strangely, if you were to look at the elephant’s skeleton, you would never realise elephant had a trunk since this massive appendage does not have a single bone!

      

The elephant’s trunk is a fusion of the nose and upper lip. It is the elephant's most versatile tool.  An adult African elephant's trunk is about 6 to 8 feet long (taller than most of us) and has a diameter of about 15 centimetres at the tip, with nostril diameter of 2 inches. 

The elephant's trunk contains over 40,000 muscles. The human body only contains 639 muscles!  The trunk is so delicate it is at times used to wipe or clean their eyes. On the other hand, the trunk is an extremely powerful tool that can pull out trees and lift up to 350 kg!

The trunks have "fingers" (finger-like appendages that act like opposable thumbs). African elephant have two fingers while Asian elephant have only one finger. That is why the African elephant is able to grasp objects by pinching the opposing tips of the trunk. The Asian elephant must wrap its trunk round objects like a boa constrictor (it holds objects against the underside of the trunk).

Using the fingers, the elephant is able to crack a peanut shell with its trunk, without breaking the nut.

The elephants use the trunks to snorkel. They are the only animals that can snorkel without aid. By holding the tips of their trunks above the water's surface, elephants can traverse rivers totally submerged.

The trunks give elephants an incredibly powerful sense of smell – twice as sensitive as a bloodhound! It can smell of food and water from incredibly long distances – almost 20 kilometres away. Key to this ability is millions of receptor cells housed in the trunk’s upper nasal cavity.

An adult elephant trunk can hold roughly 10 litres of water. Contrary to popular belief, elephants do not drink with their trunks; they suck water up into them and then spray it into their mouths. They also use the water to spray over themselves to cool off. 

Elephants use their trunks to show compassion or comfort to another elephant. They rub each other with their trunks  as an act of compassion. Unconditional love! 

The elephant trunk is a versatile tool used for breathing, smelling, touching, grasping, and producing sound. It's probably the most amazing body part in the animal kingdom!

Brutal Man Eaters of Tsavo

The Uganda Railway line was a key infrastructural development in East Africa. It was a major tuff of power during the First World War within East Africa. This lunatic line was constructed from 1895 to 1901.  Its cost was exorbitant. It literally claimed lives of 2,500 Indian workers, unknown number of Africans.  A staggering 5.5 million sterling pounds were used. By then annual British government expenditure was around 113 million pounds.

Section of the railway line in Tsavo

Thousands of Indian labourers, derogatorily then referred to as coolies, were shipped to Africa to lay the lunatic line across some of the most hostile territory in the world. The railway climbs from sea level at Mombasa through Taru desert, grass plains, mountain and forest to cross the equator at an altitude of 2,785 metres before descending to 1,520 metres on the humid shores of Lake Victoria. The collies laid 1.2 millions sleepers and more than 2000,000 rails. The complete line boasted of 43 stations, 35 viaducts and 1,280 bridges.

In 1898, as the line approached Tsavo, a horrifying story unfolded. Two man eating lions systematically devoured at least 28 collies and unknown number of locals. The maleness brutes were real daredevils.

                 A lion at night in Tsavo 

They caused panic and fear among the railway workers.  Imagine retiring to bed pretty sure that one of your colleague will be missing in the morning roll-call courtesy of these brutes?  At one time the coolies vowed to return to India stating categolically they had come from India on an agreement to work for the government, not to supply food for the lions.

For weeks the two lions tactfully avoided elaborate traps laid by Lt. Col. J.H. Patterson. For several nights, Patterson sat on top of trees, with his rifle cocked with a goat or donkey bait tethered nearby, only to hear agonizing scream from distant camp as one on the worker was dragged and mauled by the lions. With time, the lions grew bolder, forcing their ways through the thorn fences (bomas). The workers became so terrified to extent that they believe the lions were devils.  Many collies slept in holes dug in the floor of their tents. The lions changed tactics and started attacking in pair. Initially, only one lion attacked, while the other waited in the nearby bush. 

    The maneaters cave where the lions lived

The brutes would get into the camps (bomas) without making a noise, grab one of the man from the tent and devour him quite close to the camp. Patterson narrates how on one particular night, the brutes seized a man from the railway station and brought him close to Patterson’s camp to devour. Patterson could plainly hear the lions crunching the bones and the sound of the lions dreadful purring filled the air.  

                  A lion feasting on a zebra 

On December 9, Patterson was successful in killing one of the man-eaters. The second lion killed three weeks later, on December 28th.

The skulls of the two maneater lions of Tsavo are 'preserved' at Chicagos field museum (FMNH 23970 and  FMNH 23969).