So beautiful seeing a bird fly in the blue skies and a little bit of clouds in the background.
Whether you're in a vacation somewhere or just happen to be sitting on your balcony enjoying a cold drink and watching the blue skies and a bird or birds fly about, it's so much more refreshing.
Nature is art and if you like either, it's hard to separate.
The story is really sad and not to forget that Katherine Chappell had so much love for wildlife and that's why she went to the lion park, to begin with. In situations like this where such a horrible tragedy happens, it does bring a lot of questions as to why it happened.
Some questions bring legitimate concerns while others might just be finding something to blame.I was watching this story on the news and I thought to myself, you know two things happened here that led to someone losing their life.
Who's to blame because obviously many people make mistakes and we continuously see tourists in African game parks breaking rules at even much larger magnitudes than just rolling the window down.
Certainly, I don't believe it was her fault and I don't think it's the lioness's fault either, everything seemed to have gone wrong at the time it did.
Just to exclude this story for a minute and focus on some very unruly tourists that get out of cars in game parks and really almost harass wildlife and personally those are the kind of people that I believe should face some severe punishment.
On the other hand, a lion's curiosity never leads to a good outcome. Their survival in the wild depends on taking down prey or competition and they have adapted that way for generations.
Semi-taming lions which I believe is what this park does probably has benefits like some good zoos of educating people and creating awareness but also brings along some really dangerous situations.
Naturally in the wild, lions do not associate humans with food or competition and in this case, they do, because they get fed by humans on a daily basis. In most cases in the wild, lions really don't bother humans and if more focus is directed at their conservation in the wild, which is where they belong, tragedies like this will be very rare.
The African or Cape buffalo is just one of those wild animals you do not want to encounter while taking a walk somewhere in Africa and for wherever reason if that ever happens,then you better have a tree in sight and close proximity to climb. They are extremely bad tempered and anything they view as a threat and that is especially humans and lions,then be prepared to face grave repercussions because the one and only plan they have is wiped you off the face of the planet,literally. They're brave, resilient and more than half the time will always face their opponent face to face and that sometimes especially when isolated from their herds or weaker for some reason plays against them and no better predator has mastered that,than lions.
On the other hand,the Eland which is the largest antelope on the planet,is always cautious and wary and like most of the smaller antelopes in Africa,the Eland hardly grazes for more than five minutes without looking out for predators.A mature male Eland weighs up to 2,000 lbs which is about the same for a mature buffalo,but the advantage the Eland has over the Cape buffalo is it's wary nature added with speed.Even with the same weight,the Eland is just way faster than a Cape buffalo and that is a big challenge for lions.
The Eland still does have some weaknesses over the Cape buffalo and some of them are living in much smaller herds and it isn't hard to find most just wandering on their own,which is what most predators aim for,especially lions.Cape buffaloes can have as many as 300 animals in one herd,and are very effective especially in protecting their young and maybe that's why so many of them exist today,despite so much predation.
It's pretty clear just looking at the numbers and obviously numbers don't lie,is that the disadvantage the Eland have in protecting mostly their young which is the most dangerous times for any wild animal in the African wild,might have led to so many not making it to maturity.Am not sure between the two species,who's more suited for survival in the dangerous African wild and am sure the debate will continue.
I thought it's interesting that the savannah buffalo is almost twice as big compared to the forest buffalo and the forest Eland is larger than the common Eland,mostly found in the African savannah.A fully grown male common Eland still weighs up to 2,000 lbs,while the forest counterpart might way about 200 lbs more.
It's always important to know too,that most forest animals in Africa,like the forest elephant,buffalo or eland are mostly found in Central and West Africa while their savannah counterparts are mostly found in East and Southern Africa.The confusion comes for instance when you find buffalo or elephant in forested areas of East or Southern Africa,and in that case they're still savannah animals.
There's so many things that defy the regular assumptions when it comes to this bird's anatomy,I mean was it supposed to be a bird,obviously there's a lot of birds that can't fly like penguins but there's nothing on land that walks on two legs that could possibly get any closer to the speed of an ostrich. The ostrich is the Ferrari in the world of bipedalism reaching speeds of 70km or 43miles/hr,that is 20km/hr faster than an emu.The emu is kinda strange too and incase you didn't know it's meat is completely black.
The ostrich and emu obviously look related and probably survive some of the most unforgiving landscapes of Africa and Australia respectfully,but am not here to talk about the emu today so let's move on to the ostrich.What's even more interesting is how could such an enormous bird with a brain the size of a peanut be so intelligent,even it's eyes are larger than a peanut.Am not relying on any scientific data here but if you actually see the eyes,they appear larger.The regular assumption is the smaller the brain,the less space there is,I suppose to store or process data.
As an animal in the African wild the law of nature is you better be more intelligent and physically fit or you are prey and no one is above the law of nature. While drinking from rivers, crocs look beneath the waters and territorial hippos will be more than happy to get rid of anything that gets too close.On land there is lions, hyenas, leopards and cheetahs constantly looking for prey.The ostrich though somehow has managed to outsmart a lot of these predators and actually survive pretty well compared to most herbivores that obviously have much larger brains.The intelligence of some predators especially lions is undeniable but still even finding a healthy ostrich as prey in the African savannah remains a rare sighting and that is a testimony of the intelligence that these birds possess.
Just thought I would share this video of an ostrich chasing cyclists,it's so hilarious!
Saltwater water crocodile is widely known as the largest crocodile followed by the Nile crocodile as the second largest,but what's interesting is the aggressive nature of these different species makes them one of the most lethal killing machines in the world.
Their ability to pretty much classify anything and everything that walks or swims as food has made them one of the most deadliest creatures ever,no wonder they've managed to live as long as they have from the age of dinosaurs.
Lolong the largest saltwater water crocodile ever caught,20ft 3inches long and weighing 2,370lbs and unfortunately later died in captivity and the largest male Nile crocodile ever measured was in Mwanza,Tanzania at a mind blowing 21ft long and weighing 2,400lbs.
Despite the fact that generally saltwater crocodiles are known as the largest,some Nile crocodiles have been mentioned in some parts of Africa as larger than real,for instance Gustave the man-eater crocodile in the northern shores of lake Tanganyika in Burundi is claimed to have killed 300 people and claimed by locals to possibly reaching 25ft and today its whereabouts are unknown.If Gustave left Rusizi river into lake Tanganyika there's no doubt that he's probably still alive in the second deepest lake in the world and second largest freshwater lake in the world and last but not least the longest freshwater lake in the world,ambushing prey and the hunted might never see it coming.
In some parts of Africa for instance in the Mara river,bordering Tanzania and Kenya,some very large Nile crocodiles probably upto 19ft long inhabit this waters,no one has ever captured one to measure them but if you have seen them feeding on wildebeest,zebra or antelope.It's hard to deny their size when you see a gazelle getting swallowed whole!
Potentially in some very remote parts of Australia,Philippines or Africa there could be a giant crocodile that's living beneath the waters.
Warning:Video below may not be appropriate for some viewers.
