Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Things I Nearly Stepped On, Part 2

Though the presence of humans caused most of the animals to flee our camp (see prior post), other animals were a bit slow in getting the proverbial hint. Anytime one chose to walk about the camp, it was imperative to keep an eye out for creatures that might be willing to sting, bite, or otherwise cause one harm. This was particularly true at night, when the predators were active. Walking alone at night without a flashlight (torch) would have earned me a nice tongue lashing from the instructors; in the bush, it's always entirely possible that I could have been attacked and eaten by the resident lions. I'm pleased to report that I wasn't.

That said, I did encounter a few dangerous cohabitants of the Karongwe Game Reserve, including at least three of which could have easily introduced me to my demise:

Though often quite diminutive, the puff adder (pictured at left) is the deadliest snake (at least for humans) in all of Africa. This isn't because the puff adder is particularly aggressive, but because he is particularly lazy. You see, as you're out walking in the bush, snakes can feel you (or at least the vibrations you create) long before you get anywhere near to them. Since they'd rather not be bothered with you, snakes typically slither away to safer environs before you even notice them. Not the puff adder; he just sits lazily and, should you be unfortunate enough to get near to him, he'll casually strike. And he's got one of the fastest strikes in all of snakedom (Yeah, I made that word up. So what?), so you've no hope of out-maneuvering him. Worse, even 1 ml of his venom will do you in. In short, you do not want to get in close confines with a puff adder. Incidentally, my friend Pieter and I found this little guy slithering alongside our camp's swimming hole. Mistaking him for another species of snake, we promptly set to putting him in a cardboard box to play "show and tell" with the the other students back at camp. This won't go down as one of my smartest decisions. If you're feeling extremely adventurous, you can view post-bite photos of a puff adder victim by clicking here.

As it would happen, lions can be somewhat hard to see when they're dozing away the day in a thicket of brush. Those are two lions in the photo at right. And, yes, it was just as difficult to see them in person as in that photo. As I approached these two, I didn't see them. Fortunately for me, I was driving a Land Rover. Unfortunately for them, they were directly in my path. Had my instructor not implored me to stop (I couldn't imagine why he was asking me to do so), I would have run over these two girls. I can only imagine the paperwork I would have had to fill out had that happened. Of course, that lions are often camouflaged so well is exactly why one must take care when walking in the bush. Stumbling across a rare species of flightless bird is one thing; stumbling across a pride of voracious predators is quite another.

Speaking of well-camouflaged predators, you may notice something rather peculiar in the photo at left. That is a Nile crocodile which, curiously, can no longer be found anywhere along the River Nile. In South Africa, however, they can be found all over the place. Crocodiles are most notable for their least endearing attribute: they are the only predators that actively hunt humans. This little guy was approximately 2 meters (6 feet) in length, and would be happy to ruin anyone's sunny afternoon swim.

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