Southern Black Korhaan

Afrotis afra

The ground-dwelling Southern Black Korhaan is endemic to South Africa’s Eastern, Northern and Western Cape Provinces. The IUCN sites a loss of habitat as the major cause for its declining population and considers the species to be vulnerable. It is very closely related to the Northern Black Korhaan and the two were previously considered races of the same species.

An inhabitant of the fynbos, Klein Karoo and Namaqualand, the Southern Black Korhaan is an omnivore that feeds on a variety of plant material (mainly seeds and shoots), insects and even small reptiles. They are usually seen alone, except for females with their latest chick. During spring and summer male Southern Black Korhaans mate with as many females as possible and play no role in the incubation of the eggs or rearing of the chicks. The female doesn’t build a nest and lays her single egg (2 eggs in a clutch is exceptional) on the bare ground in an area where she feels well hidden. Fully grown they’ll measure about 50cm in length and weigh around 700g.

Female Southern Black Korhaan

Immature Southern Black Korhaan

Male Southern Black Korhaan

Female Southern Black Korhaan

Southern Black Korhaan male

Ground Agama

12 Replies

Agama aculeata

Ground Agamas are, as their name implies, largely terrestrial by nature, though they will climb into low bushes to bask in the sun or, in the case of breeding males (distinguished by the blue sides of their faces), to display or look out for rivals.

Ground Agamas live in a wide array of habitats, ranging from semi-desert to savanna. They feed mainly on ants and termites and the occasional beetle, and hide in short tunnels dug in soft soil, usually at the base of a bush or rock. These tunnels are also used by females for laying between 8 and 18 eggs in the summer breeding season. The eggs hatch within two months. Fully grown adults measure up to 10cm in length (excluding their tail).

In South Africa, Ground Agamas are found in all our provinces, though there is disagreement in the scientific community as to whether the population in Kwazulu-Natal belong with this species or rather with Peter’s Ground Agama (A. armata). Beyond our borders Ground Agamas occur as far north as Angola and the IUCN lists it as being of least concern.

Ground Agama

Ground Agama (photo by Marilize)

Ground Agama male displaying in small bush

Ground Agama male displaying in small bush (photo by Joubert)

Ground Agama

Ground Agama in a tree

Southern Ground Agama

Cape Girdled Lizard

11 Replies

Cordylus cordylus

The Cape Girdled Lizard is endemic to South Africa’s Eastern and Western Cape Provinces; its distribution stretching from the Lesotho border to the Cederberg and Paternoster on the West Coast. The IUCN considers it as being of least concern though it is listed under CITES Appendix II (species that could be threatened by unregulated trade).

Cape Girdled Lizards are small reptiles – less than 10cm in length without including the tail – that live in dense colonies in suitably rocky habitat, where they will lodge themselves tightly into crevices and cracks to evade predators. Within these colonies the adult males have a strict dominance hierarchy, established and maintained by frequent altercations that involve the combatants circling each other while bobbing their heads and arching their backs and erupting into an all-out brawl if neither male is sufficiently intimated by the ritual. They are diurnal and prey on insects. Females give birth to 1-3 live babies in mid-summer.

Cape Girdled Lizard

Common Whimbrel

6 Replies

Numenius phaeopus

The Common Whimbrel is another wading bird that visits South Africa only during our summer months, with most birds arriving locally after an arduous trek from their breeding grounds in Russia at the start of spring and staying until early autumn. During their time in this country they’re seen quite commonly along the coast and (much less frequently) at inland bodies of water. Our largest single population is probably found at the Langebaan Lagoon in the West Coast National Park. A fairly significant portion of their local population, probably youngsters, overwinter in South Africa. The Whimbrel is found, for at least part of the year, on the shorelines of and at large lakes and wetlands on all the continents except Antarctica though some authorities consider the Hudsonian Whimbrel that lives in the Americas to be a separate species. The IUCN considers it to be of least concern.

The Common Whimbrel feeds on aquatic invertebrates, found by probing the wet sand and mud in lagoons, estuaries and marshes with its exceptionally long bill. The bill is in fact 2-2.5 times longer than their head! Fully grown Whimbrels measure about 43cm long and weigh around 400g. They’re usually seen singly or in loosely associated flocks, often in the company of other wading birds.

Common Whimbrels

Common Whimbrel

Common Whimbrel feeding on a ghost crab

Common Whimbrel flying away with a ghost crab

Common Whimbrel

Common Whimbrels

Whimbrel

Blue Duiker

12 Replies

Philantomba (Cephalophus) monticola

The Blue Duiker is the smallest antelope found in South Africa, standing only about 30cm high and weighing about 5kg. It is found only in moist forest habitats with a permanent canopy and alternating pockets of open and closed underbrush. They feed on a wide variety of leaves, twigs, flowers, berries, fruit, pods and fungi, often following birds and primates to feed on the fruit they drop from high up in the trees, and drink water regularly.

Blue Duikers are usually seen in pairs that occupy a small shared territory, marked by both sexes using the prominent pre-orbital scent glands and dung heaps. Single individuals are usually newly independent youngsters in search of a mate and territory. They are usually most active from the afternoon, through the night (resting up during the night) and into the mid-morning, usually venturing into more open areas only under cover of darkness. They regularly use the same paths to move through their territory, making them vulnerable to predators (anything from leopards to pythons and crowned eagles) and poachers.

Blue Duiker ewes give birth to single lambs at any time of year, probably with a summer peak in South Africa, after a 6 month gestation. The lamb weighs only about half-a-kilogram at birth and is weaned at 3-4 months old, though it stays with its mother until her next lamb is born – ewes can lamb every 7-9 months under optimal conditions. In the wild they can live to between 6 and 10 years of age.

In South Africa the Blue Duiker is found in isolated pockets from Kwazulu-Natal to the Garden Route, and considered to be vulnerable. Overall though the IUCN lists it as being of least concern, given an extensive distribution throughout Africa’s equatorial forests, stretching from Nigeria to Kenya and from the DRC to Zambia, conservatively estimating a population of 7-million animals.

Blue Duiker

Crowned Cormorant

7 Replies

Microcarbo (Phalacrocorax) coronatus

The Crowned Cormorant is a coastal seabird endemic to the Atlantic coasts of Namibia and South Africa, with vagrants occasionally venturing as far east as Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth). They frequent rocky shores and offshore islands, where they forage for slow-moving fish, crustaceans and molluscs in the rock pools and among the breakers and rarely in estuaries. They can stay submerged for up to a minute and usually fly and forage alone.

Crowned Cormorants breed in small colonies of less than 30 monogamous pairs in locations inaccessible to terrestrial predators, like offshore islands, sea cliffs and shipwrecks, and often in close proximity to the nests of other kinds of birds. Females construct the platform nests using sticks, seaweed, feathers, bones, guano and, sadly, garbage found drifting in the ocean. They may breed at any time of year, though mainly in spring and summer. Clutches of 2-3 (sometimes up to 5) eggs are incubated by both parents for approximately 3 weeks. The chicks can fly by the age of about 7 weeks and remain with their parents for about 3 weeks thereafter before dispersing, often a considerable distance of several hundred kilometres away. Fully grown they measure about 54cm in length and weigh around 750g.

The IUCN updated the conservation status of the Crowned Cormorant from near-threatened to least concern in 2020, siting the population being apparently stable despite being rather small at less than 4,500 mature individuals. Threats to their existence include disturbance by humans at their breeding sites, pollution, and predation by an increasing Cape Fur Seal population.

Crowned Cormorant

Crowned Cormorants

Crowned Cormorant

Crowned Cormorant chick

Bank Cormorant

20 Replies

Phalacrocorax neglectus

The Bank Cormorant is an endangered species restricted to the Atlantic coastlines of Namibia and South Africa’s Northern and Western Cape Provinces, where an abundance of kelp (sea bamboo) occurs. It has a population estimated at only 2,500 breeding pairs (7,500 individuals), declining from an estimated 9,000 breeding pairs in the 1980’s due to human and seal disturbance at breeding sites and a reduced food supply. Away from the breeding colonies (where they often occur alongside other kinds of cormorant) they’re usually only seen alone or in small groups.

While the Bank Cormorant is strictly a marine species it seldom ventures further from the coastline than 10km seawards, where it catches fish, octopus, lobster, shrimp and other invertebrates by diving up to 30m deep and staying submerged for up to 80 seconds.

Bank Cormorants form monogamous pairs, breeding in small colonies of 20-100 pairs at any time of year. The pair works together to construct the large platform nest of seaweed, sticks and feathers glued together by guano on inaccessible rocks on the shore or on islands. The parents take turns to incubate the clutch of 1-3 eggs over a month-long period. The chicks take flight for the first time when they’re 8-10 weeks old but remain dependent on their parents until they’re about 6 months old. Fully grown they weigh about 2kg, measuring around 76cm in length.

Bank Cormorant

Botterboom

9 Replies

Tylecodon paniculatus

The Botterboom (“Butter Tree”) is a xerophytic plant native to the Succulent Karoo, occurring from the Eastern Cape to central Namibia. It is the largest species of its genus, growing up to 3m tall, and usually grows on rocky slopes. Botterbome make wonderful feature plants in a water-wise indigenous garden, but as it is poisonous will cause paralysis and even death in livestock that feeds on it.

The Botterboom flowers from November, seeding in autumn in time for the sparse winter rainfall season in its native range. It is pollinated by nectar-feeding birds. The plants drops its leaves at the onset of the flowering season, photosynthesizing through its fat, yellow-green stem during the very hot and dry Succulent Karoo summer and carrying leaves only from autumn to spring.

Botterboom (Tylecodon paniculatus)

Small Striped Swordtail Butterfly

7 Replies

Graphium policenes

Despite a wingspan of up to 7cm, the Small Striped Swordtail is one of the smaller butterflies in the family. In South Africa it is found in coastal bush and forests in Kwazulu-Natal and the extreme north-east of the Eastern Cape. They usually fly high and very fast, but do congregate at mud puddles from time to time. Adults are on the wing through the warmer months from September to April.

Small-striped Swordtail

Small-striped Swordtail (photo by Joubert)

Pincushion

17 Replies

Genus Leucospermum

The Pincushions are a key component of South Africa’s Cape Floristic Region, an area of incredible floral diversity and endemism known as fynbos, the smallest of the world’s six floral kingdoms and a recognised World Heritage Site. Among the 48 currently recognised species in the genus are species that grow prostrate along the ground while others grow as large shrubs up to 5m tall. Most of these species have a limited distribution and 40 of them are threatened to some degree or another by inappropriate land use, incorrect fire management and invading alien plants and ants. Only 5 species occur outside the Cape Floristic Region.

Pincushions are evergreen and grow in relative depleted soil. The flowers are pollinated by nectar-feeding birds and rodents, and once the seeds have been formed these are carried underground by native pugnacious ants (genus Anoplolepis). The seeds remain dormant underground until a fire sweeps through the fynbos above, at which point the seeds germinate and establish a new generation of Pincushion plants.

Pincushions are popular in gardens and in the cut flower trade.