Nov 09 2020
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Hippos @ Sibaya Lake – Sodwana Bay ~ South Africa

By Sodwana Bay

The hippopotamus is recognisable by its barrel-shaped torso, wide-opening mouth revealing large canine tusks, nearly hairless body, columnar legs and large size; adults average 1,500 kg (3,310 lb) and 1,300 kg (2,870 lb) for bulls and cows respectively. Despite its stocky shape and short legs, it is capable of running 30 km/h (19 mph) over short distances. Source: WikiPedia See if you can spot the Baby! [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb_QqCS11sE[/embedyt] Below is a picture of our Second encounter with Hippos… This time were able to find not just 1, but a whole pod of Hippos with babies as well… They were basking close to the Shoreline. At first we thought it was a carcass, but upon closer inspection found out it was a pod of Hippos! Our Second encounter with Hippos… This time were able to find not just 1, but a whole pod of Hippos with babies as well… They were basking close to the Shoreline. At first we thought it was a carcass, but upon closer inspection found out it was a pod of Hippos! Fun facts about the Hippo’s of Lake Sibaya: Lake Sibaya has the second largest population of Hippos in Kwa-Zulu Natal! Unfortunately this number is decreasing due to poachers, erosion and loss of habitat! We need to protect these gorgeous creatures, especially with Lake Sibaya been a world heritage site and a wetlands park protected area! Have any suggestions? Try stay clear of these unpredictable animals! Although it is amazing to find a hippo and see them in their natural habitat, you definitely don’t want to be to close to them, if you find a hippo to close to land or outside the water rather stay in your car or put some distance between you and the hippo, before admiring these majestic animals… They will charge if spooked or feel threatened… Think of a Hippo as a miniature Elephant! Hippos are the third largest land mammal after the Rhino and Elephant! I always thought a hippo was bigger than a Rhino – Guess I was mistaken… Interestingly enough hippos are more closely related to dolphins, whales and porpoises among other mammal sea creatures! Hippos can hold their breath up to 5 minutes underwater, which is quite impressive for such a heavy animal! Hippos spend up to 16 hours a day in the water! They try stay mostly in water to keep their skin cool and moist… Although Hippos are actually not great swimmers! They mostly stay in shallow waters where they can submerge to the point where only their eyes and nostrils breach the surface, the don’t go much deeper than what they can stand, the deepest a Hippo will go is how deep it can bounce off the surface and reach the water surface to breath…. Meaning don’t underestimate shallow waters, keep your eyes open for strange movements in the water! It is certainly not recommended to swim in a Hippo or Crocodile infested lake or any water bed! If the crocodiles don’t object to your presence the Hippos certainly will… Hippos are very social animals, but also a close community… They don’t just let anyone join in on their group especially if they have young! Hippos Schools usually consist of about 10 – 30 members per School, although some Schools have been reported to have almost 200 individuals in 1 school… Never the less – Hippos are not sexist like most other herding/pack animals  they don’t mind having males and females in their herd… Although there is always an alpha male that should never be challenged and always respected! Hippos are nocturnal grazers, every night in the coolness of the dark skies hippos will start grazing on grass. An adult Hippo can eat up to 35 kg in a single night and travel up to 10 km just to get their fill! Now that’s devotion. Hippos can live up to 3 weeks without food and although mostly herbivore – It has been observed that hippos eat carcasses of dead animals as well including dead hippos! Female Hippos pregnancy lasts about 8 months in total! That’s almost as long as a human pregnancy… The calf will suckle on it’s mom for the first 8 months of it’s life and will reach maturity between 5-7 years… The average life span of a hippo is 35 years! Our factual sources for this article came from: Sodwana Bay Information, WikiPedia and Live Science

Aug 31 2020
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An unwelcomed guest in my Bed!!! The Herald Snake/red-lipped snake

By Sodwana Bay

Imagine getting into bed just to feel something wriggle or even bite you! I would definitely scream like a girl! Well I did scream like a girl on Christmas night 2019 when my cat decided to bring me a live Christmas present – a giant rat bit my finger, but that’s a story for another day! No this article is about our poor pups that got a seriously unwelcomed cuddle buddy in their kitchen bed! What we presume to be a baby herald snake also known as the Red lipped snake was looking for some warmth on a cold winter’s night, unfortunately it did not get the welcoming party it expected! Tom was in the bedroom and I was enjoying a nice warm shower, when all of a sudden 1 of our 4 pups – Racer started barking. Now although these pups are already huge for their age, they are still babies and are scared of everything, so they tend to bark at anything and everything that goes bump in the night! And this snake was no exception! This is the very first time these puppies have ever seen a snake and I am so grateful they rather bark at their fears then bite the thing that scares them. At first we thought Racer was barking either at his siblings or he got a fright for something… Tom and I got to the kitchen almost at the same time and at first were confused about why Racer was barking at his bed; of course the rest of the pups had already retreated to the bedroom not even taking chances with this strange creature! Sorry for the poor quality pics – We only had our cellphone cameras on hand and wanted to get this poor snake back to safety as soon as possible! The little snake was very courageous in trying to ward off the giant! It tried blowing its head up and standing up like a cobra, although a cobra has a hood and this little guy/girl did not! – Fun fact this is typical defense mechanism for them… Although they are mildly venomous they pose no threat to larger mammals only toads and frogs! – Click the link below to find more fun facts like this 1! Flicking its tongue and hissing it pretended to be a mighty snake although it was really small. It definitely worked in scaring off the enemy. We were fortunate to have been able to catch the poor snake before the Jack Russell’s got their chance to jump in. Unfortunately these small dogs were bread to hunt and bite before they think! Our little snake friend luckily calmed down real quick after a couple tries in getting it in the container to set it free! It was a little bit of a mission as it kept flicking itself out with the back of its tail every time we put it in the jug! Well I guess it’s not the easiest thing in the world catching a snake with oven gloves/mittens and trying to chuck it in a small jug that is a little shorter than the snake itself! I am just so grateful this snake was harmless and that it doesn’t appear to have bitten any of our pups… Now our puppies are super cautious going to lie on the bed. They sniff and lift everything up before lying down just to make sure there’s nothing waiting to chase them off again! Click on the link to find out all the fun facts about the herald snake/red-lipped snake!  >>>>>> Herald/Red Lipped Snake

Mar 10 2020
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The Brown House Serpent! – Brown House Snake

By Sodwana Bay

Boaedon capensis, the Cape house snake, also known as the brown house snake, is a species of lamprophiid from Botswana, South Africa (from KwaZulu-Natal all the way through to the Western Cape), Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They are a non-venomous lamprophiid. This species was previously grouped in the genus Lamprophis but is regrouped with the genus Boaedon. I have always heard of brown house snakes, but never took the time to look them up and see what they look like. All I knew was they like living in peoples homes, are very tranquil, non-venomous and of course hence the name are brown snakes. But I always imagined the snake been a boring plain ugly brown color… So imagine my surprise to find out that they are not such ugly snakes and that have beautiful white markings on their face, almost like the Indian tribes…. We were cleaning up our yard  and found this cute snake underneath a pile of junk under an old trailer, we obviously suspected there would be snakes around and under the trailer, hence the clean up (less place for the snakes to hide in)… We were always quite concerned about that area because unfortunately our dogs never back down from a fight, would rather not take a chance in finding a venomous snake that could potentially kill our dogs… I was really not expecting to find a small brown house snake underneath there. As I mentioned before it was much prettier than I expected, if the dogs weren’t so volatile to strange creatures I might’ve tried keeping it as a pet. Well at least this one did not have an encounter with the dogs and got to see another day, at least I hope nothing else caught it later… I will definitely not consider a brown House Snake ordinary after seeing this one… Their Appearance: Cape house snakes are usually dark brown on top, but the color varies greatly from almost black through brown to olive green. The stripes that stretch from the rostral scale through the eye to the back of the head are very strong, thick, and bold. This species may have a lateral stripe running down the flanks, often resembling the links of a chain. They also sometimes have lateral stripes running along either side of the spine. Linking lines between the lateral striping is not uncommon. These body markings tend to be a paler brown/cream in color on top of the often dark, chocolate-brown base tones. These markings normally fade two-thirds of the way down the body until only the base color remains, but there are exceptions to the rule. Individuals without pattern are often found in the wild. These individuals have the head markings but no other markings on top of an often pale-brown body. Like all house snakes, Boaedon capensis is very iridescent, their scales often shining with an oily sheen in certain lights. Some fun facts about this Snake, their habitat and size: Like most frogs, the female Brown house Snakes grow larger than the males – Males will only grow up to 61–76 cm and the Females can grow up to 120 cm. Most probably the one we found was still a juvenile, cause it was relatively small compared to these measurements…. Contrary to popular belief, humans very rarely will introduce Brown House snakes to their homes, instead these snakes will rather welcome themselves into your home and help keep your rodent problem at bay… Their favorite food is of course  small rodents such as mice and rats and won’t mind eating a whole nest of mice/rats in one sitting. Although most people hate any kind of snake – I guess it’s in our human nature, since they did betray us on the garden of Eden- they an still be useful, if I have to choose between a non-venomous snake and rats that chew all your furniture and eat your food, I will definitely choose the snake that eats the mice/rats, also I doubt the snake will bite you for no reason like mice and rats do… Mature Brown House Snakes generally breed 1 or 2 times a year. These snakes are completely harmless, but don’t annoy them they might not like it and bite you… Depending on the person the snake bites, the poor snake might loose it’s life for human negligence… Don’t kill these snakes because you don’t feel like rehabilitating them, remember they are helping you get rid of your pests for FREE… So have a bit of respect for them! The Brown House Snake is the largest of it’s species – there are 7 different similar snakes which are classified under the same name. Like most reptiles they use the sun to warm up their bodies These snakes are not total savages, they at least kill their prey before consuming them, like most non-venomous snakes they are constrictors and will suffocate their prey before eating them, like a Python. These snakes to have teeth so be careful when handling them, you won’t die, but I can’t imagine it been a good experience been bitten by any snake Brown house snakes try act like possums in the face of death! For those who don’t know the possum way, they play dead in the face of prey… Some of their natural predators include owls and larger snakes Thanks for reading this post and hope you found this useful Info… Our factual sources for this article came from: Wikepedia and Animal Talk Send us an email about any exotic or scary encounters you have had under the water or on land and your story might go viral! Please go checkout our  Patreon Page Below… We wanna start giving you guys who are committed to us exclusive content and be able to further our channel and provide better content to our Patrons… To do this we need funds and all the support we can get… Also check out our YouTube Channel when you done reading this… Every view is one step closer to our goal, we need 4000 hours of our subscribers views and 1000 Subscribers to be able…

Mar 03 2020
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The Shady one – Roman spider @ Sibaya -Sodwana Bay – South Africa

By Sodwana Bay

Solifugae is an order of animals in the class Arachnida known variously as camel spiders, wind scorpions, sun spiders, or solifuges. The order includes more than 1,000 described species in about 153 genera. Despite the common names, they are neither true scorpions (order Scorpiones) nor true spiders (order Araneae). Much like a spider, the body of a solifugid has two tagmata: an opisthosoma (abdomen) behind the prosoma (that is, in effect, a combined head and thorax). At the front end, the prosoma bears two chelicerae that, in most species, are conspicuously large. The chelicerae serve as jaws and in many species also are used for stridulation. Unlike scorpions, solifugids do not have a third tagma that forms a “tail”. Most species of Solifugae live in dry climates and feed opportunistically on ground-dwelling arthropods and other small animals. The largest species grow to a length of 12–15 cm (5–6 in), including legs. A number of urban legends exaggerate the size and speed of the Solifugae, and their potential danger to humans, which is negligible. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugaehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae I think this is the hardest I have laughed and screamed in a really long time… Now living out in the bush and having a braai can sometimes be a tricky business. Tom has this super crazy phobia of this specific spider… The red Roman Spider or more commonly known globally as the Sun spider… Tom has a funny personality on his own already. He loves making jokes and and overall is mostly a funny guy outside of work. He can really be a class clown, when he’s in the right mood… I think I laugh the most when he is super scared of something, never ask him to be your knight in shining armor when it comes to freaky, ugly creepy crawlies like this one. Well at the time when we caught this monster of a creepy crawly, I wasn’t aware they are actually aggressive and can bite really sore. We were sitting outside having a great chat about our dreams and what we would love to do still within this year, when suddenly Tom felt a weird tickle on his foot. At first he didn’t take note of it and thought it might just be a piece of grass, but this grass started to move, right now I am so wishing I had the camera ready to video him… I think it was the fastest I have seen Tom jump on anything before and that’s saying a lot… since we use to work in construction. For some reason Roman Spiders/Sun Spiders seem to really be attracted to Tom’s Shadow. Besides that I have this really bad habit of putting my feet up on chairs and couches all the time. I can even walk past the stupid things and they will never chase my shadow, maybe they after Tom’s hairy legs or something (Read facts below)… I sound like a really bad fiance, but I love watching Tom run away from these freaky looking critters… HAHAHA! On this occasion I had to be the hero in his story, but he does save me more often then I save him, so I don’t mind saving him once in a while… when he has to save me almost everyday… Unfortunately we do not have our own photo of this freaky creature, he was way to fast tryna get away from the light and any footage we have is super blurry… A few facts about this scary Critter that roams our sandy planes: Despite their name they are not actually spiders, the only thing they have in common with a spider is their 8 legs! You know that feeling, when you think something is stalking or watching you out in the bush, maybe just check your shadow there really might be something following you in the dark of night or in the daytime… These creatures are supposedly daytime dwellers, running from shadow to shadow, but we have only encountered these shady creatures at night, much delight to our kitten and Puppy… No, they do not have 10 legs as popular belief might suggest, I guess it just makes them sound even more scarier and more alien like, but there front lobes are more like feelers than legs and are way to short to use as legs… Although it is not a spider it is still classified as a Arachnida. Ok, so here is some good and bad news all in one go – Roman/sun spiders are not poisonous, but tend to be quite agressive and can apparently bite really sore – I seriously hope never to be bitten by one these scary creatures… They tend to shave your hair for you while you sleep… Reports might suggest that these creepy crawlies will give you a really bad free beard trim and all they ask for in return is that you donate your hair to their nests. There has been cases where animals have been left with bald patches after an unexpected visit from mister Sun Spider. These things are super vicious – they eat – spiders, scorpions, even small reptiles, but you wanna know the worst part – they will even prey on each other and eat their prey alive, that’s just horrible. They have super strong pincers like a crab which helps them successfully catch and eat their prey… They can grow between 70 -160 mm. The bigger the scarier… I am a lover of almost any creature, but never been a huge fan of Spiders – Especially – Hairy, aggressive, huge and poisonous ones!!!! Please go checkout our  Patreon Page Below… We wanna start giving you guys who are committed to us exclusive content and be able to further our channel and provide better content to our Patrons… To do this we need funds and all the support we can get… Also check out our YouTube Channel when you done reading this… Every view is one step closer to our goal, we need 4000 hours of our subscribers views and 1000 Subscribers to be able to start making money and better content for you guys, YouTube is free please watch all our videos till the end… and subscribe…

Feb 18 2020
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Shove It! – East African Shovel snout snake @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Full Name: East-Africa Shovel-snout (Prosymna stuhlmanni) Classification: HARMLESS A smallish snake averaging around 22 cm and inhabits lowland forest and moist savanna where it may be found under rocks or logs or in leaf litter. Whilst getting ready for bed, we found a little worm like creature slithering around in the corner by our bedroom door post. We have grown a custom to Shongololos (giant African millipede), our Jack Russel pup loves it when they crawl into a ball, she will always push them with her nose until they curl up and wait till they open up again and do it all over again, unless the next  bug comes a long, especially her puppy bugs (Fork-nosed Dung Beetle). Luckily she is already ready for bed when we start packing up to go to bed… Tom was busy taking things to the room when  he noticed our slithery friend tryna climb up the wall or just get into the crack of the wall to hide, since it is such a tiny snake. At first I thought it was a baby, but research suggests this is not such a baby, as they don’t grow very long. We have a WhatsApp group for family and friends, where we inform them of all the weird and wonderful things we encounter. I think we scared everybody half to death with this little guy, not because its a snake but because of what snake we thought it could: A stiletto snake (Dangerous). Luckily for us it was a sweet harmless East-African Shovel-snout. They are fairly small snakes and mostly eat reptile eggs. Well of course what it can fit in its mouth. The one we found seemed quite curious about us and would rather try get away than pretend its dangerous. We were able to go visit Sodwana Bays local snake guide and he informed us that there was no panic needed and that it was a harmless shovel snout. But it is still wise to be careful of any unknown  snake… Although this awesome wildness can get a little scary sometimes it is so cool that we can experience Africa for its true beauty and no more the fake big city life. A few nights later we found another little one on its way to our house. We not sure if its the same one, cause we took the first one quite far from the house. This one was super friendly, went straight into the container we used to take it away from the house and just kept on looking at us like it completely trusted us. We don’t necessarily  worry to much about harmless snakes near our house but the problem comes in the dogs don’t like anything foreign near us, so for the snakes safety we move them where the dogs can’t get to them? More about this cutie pie – Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake: Most Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake only grow up to 22 cm. Their main habitats are moist Savannah and lowland forests. Makes sense there is water atleast on 2 sides of us less than 5 km away. The Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake does not coil up like their cousins when threatened. Easiest way to identify this specific species of Shovel Snout is their cute yellow snout. Right on the tip their snout they have a yellow spot, some of them also have white spots on their backs. They feed on small reptile eggs, of course any egg that can fit in their mouth they will consume, oddly enough they love hard shelled gecko eggs. Its kinda strange to me since the are so tiny! Theses snakes are also super shy and really don’t like being center of attention…Sounds like me!!! Source of all factual info: africansnakebiteinstitute.com  

Feb 18 2020
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Mr Frog, what on earth are you thinking – The African common toad or guttural toad @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

The African common toad or guttural toad (Sclerophrys gutturalis) is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae.[2] It is found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion, Somalia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, dry savanna, moist savanna, temperate shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland, intermittent rivers, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, arable land, pastureland, rural gardens, urban areas, heavily degraded former forest, ponds, and canals and ditches. Of course since coming here, I have this weird fascination of toads and frogs. I guess I get that from my mom, she use to love frogs and always tried to protect them. But my fascination is not that they cute or kinda almost alien looking but why do they always smile, I know our grey foam-nest froggie hates it when its overcast. He always has a sad face when it rains or the sun doesn’t shine, but this frog constantly smiles and he is only active at night, maybe he’s feels like the luckiest frog alive, his species is thriving, I guess there must be a lot of bugs around, but I wonder if he has ever considered the snakes that might be lurking around looking for such a yummy meal like him? I guess we will never know… This big guy we often see when we take the dogs for their last walk before we go to bed, its kind of a nightly ritual for us. Sometimes the dogs will even come remind us to take them for their walk around the garden. Lately every night while on our walk Mr frog is seemingly sitting and waiting for us to pass by, all the dogs and even the cat greet him on the walk and when we come back say goodnight. We love all our Sibaya creatures, it reminds you of how wild South Africa truly still is… A few fun facts about this amphibian: They are a large specie of frog, males can grow up to 90 mm and females up to 120 mm. Like most frog species the female is larger than the male They are super adaptable to change in their environment, so habitat is never an issue for them, although they do prefer savanna and moist areas. The upper surface is buffish brown with variable irregular dark brown markings. There are two pairs of brown spots between the eyes making a cross-like mark, and there is often a pale stripe down the spine. The arms are edged by distinctive white tubercles and there is a red patch on the back of the thighs. The underparts are pale and granular and the male has a dark throat. The parotid glands are prominent and the toes are only slightly webbed. The guttural toad is very common. It is spreading through southern Africa as its population increases. It can live in a variety of environments, and is very adaptable. It has no major predators and does not suffer much from habitat loss. Source of all factual info: Guttural toad