Hanekom Family in Wellington New Zealand
The Malayan Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) is the smallest of the world’s eight surviving bear species but it has the longest tongue.
It is an opportunistic omnivore (of the bears only the polar bear is a true carnivore) that uses its long tongue to get to ants, termites, bugs, honey and other delicacies.
A bear’s age can be determined from its teeth because bear teeth has year rings much like the year rings in trees.
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Rabbits have been domesticated many years ago. Hares on the other hand have not.
Unlike rabbits that burrow for protection hares rely on speed and agility. Hares do not burrow (that’s a rabbit hole) but spend their lives above ground.
While rabbits give birth to blind and naked young in burrows, hares give birth in shallow depressions to young with eyes open and a pelt.
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The Cicada (sonbesie in Afrikaans) lives for several years but of that only a few weeks are spent above ground.
The female lays her eggs in the stems of plants. A few weeks later when the young nymphs hatch they drop to the ground and burrow into it. They live underground through several nymph stages and feed on plant sap from plant roots until they emerge, depending on species, between three and 17 years later (yes that is seventeen).
Once above ground the cicada moults for the last time to reveal the adult form which lives for around four weeks.
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There are three surviving parrot species endemic to New Zealand (and a number of parakeets).
They parrot species are:
The Kakapo is critically endangered and there are to all knowledge only 126 birds alive globally.
The Kakapo is a strange kind of parrot:
It is also the worlds largest parrot (by weight) with males weighing over 2kg (and the heaviest ever recorded weighing 4kg).
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The Bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus pygargus) was endemic to the fynbos and renosterveld habitats in the Western Cape. In the early 19th century the Bontebok was hunted to near extinction. In fact at the turning point there were only 17 of them left.
In 1837 a local farmer, Alexander van der Bijl, realising that these animals can’t even jump over a three foot sheep fence, fenced of a section of his property and persuaded his neighbours to do the same. The Bontebok was in all likelihood saved from extinction by the temporary reserve created by Alexander van der Bijl, his father P van der Bijl and the Van Breda and Albertyn families.
The first official Bontebok National Park was proclaimed in 1931. Today there are an estimated 3,000 Bontebok globally.
Bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus pygarus)
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The blood carries oxygen effectively through a protein called hemoglobin which is present in red blood cells.
All vertebrates also have a protein called myoglobin that does not occur in the blood stream, but rather in the muscles. It is this protein that gives flesh its red colour.
Diving mammals have very large quantities of a myoglobin so much so that their flesh appears almost black. These large concentrations of myoglobin and resulting stores of muscular oxygen is one of the factors that allow these mammals to hold their breath for extended periods.
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Wellington, New Zealand is the windiest city in the world. It does not experience some of the extremely strong winds other places are subject to, but wind gusts in excess of 32knots (about 60km/h) are recorded on average on 173 days a year.
The strongest wind speed recorded is 248km/h and winds in excess of 140km/h are not uncommon.
This results in an annual mean wind speed of 22km/h and thus the windiest city in the world.
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The mushroom fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) contains hallucinatory poisons and can cause death if eaten.
Some of the changes in size and time perception described in Alice in Wonderland are characteristic effects of the mushroom intoxication.
There is some speculation that Lewis Carroll drew inspiration from either consumption of the mushroom or from the then popular book A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi by M.C. Cook.
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Both the German wasp (Vespula germanica) and the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) were accidentally introduced to New Zealand. Both species spread rapidly and became significant pests.
Wasp are particularly problematic in certain parts of the South Island where beech forests are home to a native scale insect that produces large quantities of energy-rich honeydew. This honeydew which is a major source of food for native birds and insects is also a super-fuel for wasps.
These forests now have the highest densities of wasps recorded anywhere on earth.
A survey on public attitudes towards pests identified wasps as the most hated pest in New Zealand.
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Tusks are modified incisors in the upper jaw.
The largest tusk on record is 3.11 meters long and weighs 94 kilograms (they don’t make them like that anymore).
The record breaking tusks are from a bull elephant killed near Mount Kilimanjaro in 1898. They are on display in the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, UK.
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