Category Archives: Natural history

My bruised human ego

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This is the best photo I got of a group of baboons who gave me quite an experience the other day.

On a sandy fynbos trail, I rounded a corner obscured by vegetation and came abruptly face to face with a troupe of seven of these creatures. The closest member was only 3 metres from me. All of them were stopped, standing or sitting,  looking at me as I did the same. My first reaction was one of awe, these creatures are impressively muscular and intimidating up close. One of them, a very large male, was wearing a radio collar. My second instinct was to take advantage of the photo opportunity, but my camera was in my backpack.

My only close experience with monkeys comes from Indonesian macaques, and extrapolating from the damage these ones wreak on tourists’ belongings I was not keen to get the baboons interested in anything I owned. I was also aware that some baboon troupes in the Cape have a reputation for raiding. Bins, bags, picnics, cars, houses are all fair game. They have overcome their fear of humans and are now a famous nuisance requiring full time management.

My bag therefore remained zipped and in place on my back. I raised my arms and hissed, to try and persuade them off the trail. One of the leaders began to advance on me, and the others stood up to follow suit.

Finally, I was forced to concede the path to the baboons. I back-stepped into the bush beside the track, allowing them a 2 metre thoroughfare which they calmly took in an orderly and nonchalant fashion. Only after passing me, when their backs were exposed, did they pick up speed into a quick trot for a dozen metres to put some distance between us.

 

Red Hill fynbos track

Kleinplaas Dam fynbos track

 

A most engaging mantid

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Recently, I was fortunate enough to spend eight days in Ndumo Game Reserve, where for several hours a day I remained perched above clusters of large flowers smelling rather like a long-drop toilet. Tagging along as help on a study of Stapelia gigantea promised to be a chance to see a new South African biome and the wonderful creatures that come along with it.

The carrion flower (Stapelia gigantea, bottom right) in rural Zululand aloe country.

Driving to and from the field site every day we would encounter giraffe, wildebeest, nyala, impala and warthogs going about their daily activities. At dusk we’d sit in a bird hide, count waterfowl and watch crocodiles cruise on by. Our nights were serenaded by the wailing bush baby, the guttural grunting of wildebeest, the booming-bass of hippos and occasionally the manic whinny of a hyena, while the porch light drew in a bewildering buffet of invertebrate curiosity.

Croc on dusk, silently sweeping past the bird hide.

But perhaps the most endearing animal found all trip was one of the most captivating mantids I have ever seen. She is a cryptically coloured Hymenopodidae, belonging to the same subfamily as the spectacular orchid mantis. Unlike other mantids I have encountered she is very easy to handle and shows no desire to flee the hand or captivity. She is a voracious feeder and any moth or fly introduced to her enclosure scarcely lasts 5 minutes before straying too close to her raptorial forelimbs. On her second night in our field accommodation she had already laid a small ootheca.

She also displays a charming and unusual shadow boxing routine complete with weaving, jabs and feints.

Edit: I have since learned that she belongs to genus Oxypilus, a group of mantids called “Boxer mantis”, for reasons made obvious in this video. (Thanks Mantidboy for the ID).

The above video was shot with a Canon 500D, Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro in an improvised stove-top studio. A piece of white paper provided the background, the camera was stabilized on a bag of rice. This left my hands free to experiment with the lighting, provided by a cheap head torch.