Nature Skills: August Monthly Overview
Week 5
This week we wanted to make a point and highlight the massive diversity South Africa possesses by discussing all nine biomes that are found in South Africa. The biomes are as follows:
Fynbos
Succulent Karoo
Desert
Nama karoo
Grassland
Savannah
Albany thicket
Indian coastal belt
Forests
We discusses the meaning of the word biome, listed them all for the boys and went through some identifying features of each one with some visual aids to help the kids remember the differences. The key biomes we delved into a bit deeper than the visual pictures and brief descriptions were the ones that we have interacted with already as well as some that we plan on visiting in the future.
Fynbos biome is all around us in the area that we live in and has one of the most diverse concentration of wild flowers on earth and includes the national flower of South Africa the king protea as well as + - 9000 other species found nowhere else, it stretches all the way from the northern cape through the Western Cape up to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape and is know as the cape floral kingdom, and is a massive draw for all those who venture through the Garden Route in South Africa.
Albany Thicket and Succulent Karoo are the biomes that comprises the area that Kuzuko is situated in, so we discussed a lot about the succulents and typography of the area and why it is of such importance to be conserved. One ion the main threats for this area currently is the poaching of the vast and beautiful succulent plants that are found in that area, they are taken and sold world wide due to the beauty and ease of growth these plants have, but the scars that this leaves will be catastrophic for the area if it is not addressed immediately. We also went over some of the animal species that are only found in this area, as well as the spekboom plant, more on that next week.
Forest biomes in South Africa are basically extinct due to deforestation and encroachment of people on natural spaces we have scattered forest spaces left in the country that are heavily protected, the biggest is the Knysna forest found not far from where the kids live. This biome is a magnet for local and foreign travellers and still to this day has an unknown population of forest elephants left, no one knows how many there are but tracks and signs are prevalent in the forest. The forest is well looked after and a perfect place for our young enthusiasts to utilise the skills we have been working on with them.
It was a great lesson but did seem to drag because of all of the new terminology we introduced to them. We will definitely go over this section again.
Week six
We are in process of planning out the next trip to Kuzuko, and one of the main projects they are running there is the world renown Spekboom reintegration project. Spekboom is a great little succulent that grows easy in dry arid regions, they have a high water and nutrient makeup, so all browsing animals love eating it, and it has one of the highest rates of Carbon emission absorption in the world. We set up a few pots of spekboom cuttings from our garden and put together a presentation about how to propagate and care for them and we gave the task to the boys to keep their plants alive till the next trip so we can go out and plant them to add to the massively successful project. It should be a fairly easy task as these plants are quite notorious for surviving anywhere, but we will see :)
Homework:
Keep that plant alive.
Week 7
This was a great week to do a little deep dive into some of Africa’s most famous animals, you know, the ones that people from all over the world spend thousands of dollars a year to see. I am of course talking about the Big Five, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Elephant and the black Rhino.
We had a wonderful discussion about various aspects of these magnificent animals everything from the Latin classifications and descriptions of the names given to them, the gestational period, various Biomes where these animals are found, diet, life expectancy, social group structure and make up, communication used between individuals, and a lot more. The boys did really well because some of these topics we have discussed with them before but never in this much detail.
These boys are super immersive, the topics discussed and the information given is well above the age group they are in, some of the terms are only introduced to people after general education in tertiary institutions, of course they cannot yet fully grasp all of it, but it is impressive none the less that they are absorbing it.
With our next trip in the works we really want these boys to be as informed as possible so we can test the practical application of all of the theory we have been mentoring them in.
Homework:
For each of the big 5: based on what you observe, are they better at hearing, seeing, smelling, or all? (Example: White rhinos have poor eye sight, but good hearing and sense of smell)
How many types of grass do white rhinos eat?
Can black rhinos eat poison plants?
How high can a leopard jump?
What method does a lion use to hunt?
Who leads an elephant herd?
Week 8
Following up on the Big 5 lesson we wanted to dive into some more info on each of the animal, and introduce some animals that most people are unaware of that exist in South Africa. They are special animals that also have their own classifying groups. We all know the first group.
Big 5:
Lion
Leopard
Elephant
Black Rhino
Buffalo
Elusive 5:
These are animals that are really scarce and extremely shy, in the guiding industry these are a bigger rush to find than the aforementioned Big 5 and includes the:
Aardvark
Aardwolf
Bat Eared Fox
Meerkat/Suricate
Porcupine
Ugly 5:
As the name describes they are the ones people generally look at and go “eeeew how ugly”, we feel they are cute in a different way.
Warthog
Hyena
Vulture
Wildebeest
Marabou Stork
And last but not least…
Small 5:
They are various species of animals from reptiles to insects that share a portion of their names with the Big 5.
Antlion
Leopard Tortoise
Elephant Shrew
Rhino Beetle
Buffalo Weaver
Homework:
Focusing on the Big 5, research and find a fact about each of the Big 5.
