Gibson’s World

Madagascar Tree Boas are probably the most interesting out of the 72 snake species in Madagascar. They are members of the Boidae family which is made up of large, non-venomous, constricting, primitive snakes. On some Boidae snakes, you can even see one or two toes sticking completely out of the skin because snakes evolved from lizards.

Madagascar Tree Boas are really beautiful snakes (in my opinion). They are grayish-green snakes with black diamonds or cross-bars all over their bodies. The only exceptions are  juveniles, which can be bright red in color but they still have the black markings on them!  Madagascar Tree Boas have triangular heads which are characteristic of both Boidae and a Viperidae snakes. They also have a thick black stripe behind the eye which is a great field identification characteristic. These thick snakes have been measured at more than 7 feet long!!

The Madagascar Tree Boa?s biology is amazing. Despite Their name (Madagascar Tree Boa),they are commonly found on the ground as well as in the trees. They also give birth to live young instead of laying eggs as most snakes do. Madagascar Tree Boas will feed on many animals including birds, lizards, frogs, and small mammals. They will even eat some small lemurs!!

While we were in Madagascar we were lucky enough to see a Madagascar Tree Boa (baby) in the wild. It was really interesting and I hope to come back to Madagascar some day to see more of these snakes and many other animals.

Southern Africa is one of the best places in the world for mammals. There are over 140 species and many are endemic. On our trip we were able to visit Southern Africa and went to South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana.We had great luck and saw almost everything we wanted to see with our guides, Trevor (Most of Southern Africa) and Craig (Cape Town) including the “Big Five” (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, and African Buffalo). We also saw the “Super Six” which is the “Big Five”+Cheetahs. Below are the most interesting animals that we saw in the wild (except for the Eland, which was in semi-wild). Each animal description below has a matching picture that I took of the animal while we were in southern Africa.  

Impala

This is by far the most common antelope in most of southern Africa. They were everywhere while we were in southern Africa. They usually live in herds of more than 20. When a male breaks its antler off, they immediately drop to the bottom in the ranks because they can no longer fight with other males. (African antelopes? antlers DO NOT ever re-grow).

Springbok

Springbok are the national animal of South Africa and are very common in some areas. Unlike the Impala, Springbok are more solitary although you may occasionally find them in herds. They are only found in the western part of Southern Africa, since Impala have taken over the more humid East.

Common Eland

Eland are huge antelope and are southern Africa?s biggest antelope. The females ?moo?, the males bellow, and the babies bleat. Eland can easily jump 2 meters/ yards high. They are usually in herds of 8-12 individuals.

Gemsbok (Oryx)

Gemsbok have huge, long horns and are white, light-brown, and black colored. They live in herds of 12 or more and can survive for long periods of time without water. They live in the north-western part of southern Africa.

Klipspringer

Klipspringers are very small, but interesting antelope. They live on big boulders and look out for predators. They are very good at climbing boulders and usually are solitary or found in pairs. Their coat is thick to provide protection against bumping into rocks. Klipspringers’ horns are short and straight.

Bontebok

Bontebok are rare antelope restricted only to the cape area. At one point, there were only 42 left, but today there are about 2000. They are easily spotted because of their bright white patches on their head and bottom.

Blue Wildebeest

Blue Wildebeest are very common in the northern part of southern Africa and can be found in implausibility (herds) of up to 30 individuals. They can easily be told apart from the Black Wildebeest by the entirely white tail and the forward pointing horns. Blue wildebeests are often seen in large groups especially during migrating as shown in The Lion King.

African Buffalo

Being a member of the ?big five?, African Buffalos are considered to be one of the most dangerous African animals. They form huge obstinacies (herds) of several hundred while migrating only. when they are not migrating, buffalos will usually form groups of up to 30 animals.  They look very similar to cows.

Plains Zebra

Zebras are one of the most well-known African animals. They form huge dazzles (herds) while migrating and the stripes make it difficult to make out individuals or to hunt them. A few years ago, just

Cape Porcupines are really fascinating rodents.  They are also one of my favorite animals because they are so different from most other animals.  Some people don’t like them, though, because they believe that porcupines can shoot their quills, which isn’t true.

Cape Porcupines are big, nocturnal  rodents covered in black fur on the head and legs, but long, sharp quills on the rest of the body.    Porcupines are usually 10-24 kg., the female being bigger than the male.  The quills are about 30 cm. long and are banded with black and white.  The quills are also modified hairs and are hollow to keep warm. On our trip, we have found several porcupine quills and they were really sharp.

These rodents have some interesting habits.  Cape Porcupines eat plants and sometimes insects. They are usually solitary, but may share a burrow with up to three other porcupines.  Its predators are cheetah, leopard, lion, and caracal, so Cape Porcupines need to be able to run fast when they are chased.  They also will back into the predator, growl, snuffle, teeth-chatter, or rattle their tail quills.  The porcupines’ best and most famous defense, though, is the quills.  When the cape porcupine succeeds in jabbing the enemy, the predator will often get infected because porcupines have very dirty quills. 

Porcupines are very well camouflaged because their quills blend in with the tall grasses in Africa. Our guide said that is was very rare to see porcupines  because of their camouflage. Although Cape porcupines have some great defenses, sometimes predators come in large numbers and usually succeed in killing the hopeless porcupines.  They often kill the porcupine by flipping it over to reveal the unprotected throat and belly.

Cape Porcupines are fascinating animals.  While we were at Jack’s Camp, Botswana, we got to see a Cape Porcupine and it was really interesting to see it in the wild.  

King Tut or Tutankhamen was an Egyptian Pharaoh.  He lived from 1341 B.C. to 1323 B.C. and died at only the age of 19. Although King Tut lived for a short amount of time, even by ancient Egyptian’s standards, he still ruled for 10 years starting at the age of nine.

King Tut’s tomb was discovered completely intact by Howard Carter in 1922.  It was only robbed once but nothing valuable was stolen besides some clothes, amulets, and some other small items.  Even though Howard Carter was supposed to be an archeologist, it sadly turned out that he too was a robber and stole some items from the tomb. They haven’t been found yet even today.

The cause of King Tut’s death is unknown.  Some people think that he was murdered and some people think that he died of a  fractured leg bone.  In 1968, a group of Egyptian scientists did an x-ray of King Tut’s mummy.  They found a place in the back of his head that looked like it had been caused by a blow. Therefore they concluded that the King was murdered. Horemheb and Ay were both in line to be king of Egypt, so the scientists thought that one of them may have murdered King Tut.

Then, in 2005 another group of scientists x-rayed King Tut’s body.  This time, they found nothing on the back of the head besides a hole in which the ancient Egyptians used during mummification.  They also found a fracture in his leg.  They found out that King Tut had died soon after the fracture took place, so they thought that he may have died from falling off a chariot.

King Tut did not rule for very long and didn’t do anything great as a pharaoh, yet he is the most famous pharaoh.  The only real reason for this is that his tomb (not pyramid) was the only one found intact in the Valley of the Kings.  Also, his tomb was made for a priest, so it isn’t even half as big as the average pharaoh got. The reason that King Tut had a tomb instead of a pyramid was because every single pyramid had gotten robbed after only 1000 years, so the Egyptians moved to underground in order to protect the valuable buried with each pharaoh or queen.

While we were in Egypt, we got to see King Tut’s tomb, mummy, sarcophagus, and much more.  The tombs of all of the pharaohs were really amazing because the colors were still there. Some tombs  looked almost newly painted.  Ancient Egyptians especially King Tut are really interesting and I hope to learn even more about them sometime.