Hanekom Family in Wellington New Zealand
The Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus) is the largest eagle in Africa and one of the largest in the world. It can have a wingspan exceeding 2.5 meters.
The largest eagle (at least by weight) is Steller’s sea eagle that tip the scales at just shy of 10kg and they can be found in Russia, Korea and Japan.
(#71 of 100)
Autotomy (from the Greek auto- “self-” and tome “severing”) or self amputation is the observed behaviour where an animal discards one or more of its own appendages.
This is usually done as a self-defense mechanism. The lost body part may be regenerated later. The best known example is most probably the gecko’s tail.
Under natural conditions, orb-weaving spiders undergo autotomy if they are stung in a leg by wasps or bees.
(#70 of 100)
The fever tree (Koorsboom in Afrikaans)(Acacia xanthophloea) grows mainly in depressions and shallow pans where underground water is present or surface water collects after summer rains. It is also found in low-lying swampy areas, along the margins of lakes and on river banks.
Early pioneers noticed that some of their parties contracted very bad fevers when or after they have camped near these trees. Due to this association, the tree was considered to be the cause and named “Fever Tree”.
What was not known at the time is that the places where fever trees grow are also ideal breeding grounds for malaria carrying mosquitoes, the real cause of the illness that befell them.
(#69 of 100)
The Cotton Top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) live in small social groups of between two and thirteen individuals.
In this group there is a single dominant monogamous breeding pair. The dominant female uses pheromones to inhibit the reproductive cycle of the other females in the group.
Although all the offspring belongs to a single pair, care for the young seems to be a responsibility shared by the whole group.
(#68 of 100)
Pelicans have no nostrils and breath through their mouths.
(#67 of 100)
The Esmeralda is one of the largest tall ships to sail the world’s oceans.
She is a Spanish manufactured steel-hulled four-masted barquentine (manufactured and delivered as a schooner) taken into service in 1953.
She is used as a training ship of the Chilean Navy and act as a type of floating embassy for Chile.
In spite of her impressive size and a claim during her service to be in podium position for both longest and tallest ocean going sailing ship, she has been surpassed several times by even larger tall ships.
The largest square rigged ocean going tall ship is currently the 5 masted clipper ship the Royal Clipper, with 5202 square metres of sail, launched as recently as the year 2000.
(#66 of 100)
The Cango caves natural monument near Oudtshoorn in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa is one of the first natural resources to receive protection in South Africa. The first Caves Regulation was published in 1820 banning the collection of souvenirs and fines for damaging the caves.
How large the cave complex is is still unknown, but what is known is that it exceeds 5 kilometers in length. The single largest chamber in the complex is 107 meters across and 16 meters high.
(#65 of 100)
The warthog has a relatively short neck. To get its mouth closer to the ground it kneels when it eats and slowly crawls forward on its front knees as it forages.
(#64 of 100)
Legend has it that Chinese alchemist mixed saltpeter (or potassium nitrate) with sulfur and charcoal to form crude gunpowder
sometime between 600 and 900 C.E. while searching for an
elixir for immortality.
Gunpowder was used in fireworks prior to being used in weapons.
The colours in fireworks is due to burning metals. Elements burn at different light frequencies (wavelengths) and different mixes of metals result in different fireworks colours:
(#63 of 100)
The moon is in synchronous rotation with the earth. This means that the moon turns around its own axis at the same speed it orbits earth. The result is that the same side of the moon is always visible from earth.
Due to irregularities in the moon’s orbit, slightly different portions of the moon is visible at different times, but no more than 59% of the moon’s surface can ever be observed from earth.
(#62 of 100)