Tag Archives: Africa
E is for Elephant
This gorgeous image of a mother and baby elephant was taken by Mara 1 on Flikr. The more I read about elephants the more amazed I am by the stories and scientific evidence that shows they one of the most highly intelligent, empathetic, loving, noble and social creatures in the world. Elephants are the largest …
Z is for Zebra
Image by amateur_photo_bore on Flikr. . There are three species of zebra – Plains zebra (with 6 subspecies, one extinct), Mountain zebra (with 2 subspecies) and Grévy’s zebra. Although some species overlap in their habitat, they do not interbreed, and although in captivity Plains zebra can interbreed with Mountain zebra, Grévy’s zebra suffer a high rate …
R is for Rhinoceros
Image © International Rhino Foundation on Flikr. . All five rhino species still around (Black, White, Indian, Sumatran, Javan) are in extreme peril – from poaching, habitat loss and from humans encroaching on their habitat with settlements. There are only 35 Javan rhino left. What prompted me to write the poem above was seeing a terrible …
G is for Gorilla
Photo by Christoph Würbel on Flikr. . . . . There are 100,000 western lowland gorillas left in the wild – less than the population of Crawley, West Sussex. There are 17,000 eastern lowland gorillas left in the world – the same population as Ripley, the fourth smallest city in the UK. There are 880 mountain …
E is for Elephant
On the National Geographic site, ‘A Voice For Elephants’, Daphne Sheldrick, who has worked with elephants for many years, says: “Elephants share the same emotions as ourselves, with a strong sense of family and the same sense of death. Like us they mourn the loss of loved ones. Each has an individual personality just like us. …
R for Rat
Naked Mole Rat . Yes, we’re BALD, Butt naked, and BARE. . We have no clothes, we have no hair, and we don’t care. . We’re NUDE. Not a stitch. In the BUFF. . To be honest, love, we just can’t get STARKERS enough. . EXPOSED, IN THE RAW, and WRINKLY. . In the absolute …
Q is for Quelea
A male quelea – taken by Alan Manson, creative commons license here. . Quelea . Flying in shifting umbras, a hurricane flock of quelea . darkening. . All the air winging, . their calls the sound of insanity. . A madness only surpassed . by the roar and flash of a bomb, . and rain …
C is for Cheetah
Cheetahs are the fastest land animal, reaching speeds of up to 70 mph. They have extra large lungs and passages to allow the consumption of oxygen needed for such huge bursts of speed – massive muscles in their back legs to power them, and the muscles themselves use glycogen which breaks down more quickly than …
U is for Upland Horseshoe Bat
All horseshoe bats have strange horseshoe-shaped nose leaves – unlike other bats, their ultrasound call comes through their nose and not their mouth, and it is thought that the shape of their nose helps to direct the ultrasound frequencies more accurately. The upland horseshoe bat lives in West and Central Africa, in caves in both …
S number 1 is for Shoebill Stork
. Shoebill storks live in Africa, and are unusual, prehistoric-looking birds, about one and half metres tall. They have extraordinary, up to 30 cm long, shoe-shaped bills from which they derive their name. Not a huge amount is known about them – they hunt at night, are quite solitary, and live in impenetrable marshes. They …
lizbrownlee - poet 