Tanzanian Wildlife - what we've learnt

Birds

Lilac breasted roller:

Creates a small whirlwind by flying round in circles to trap insects

Ostrich

Male is black and female is brown because the male guards the eggds at night and the female in the day.  The male mates with more than one female but only one female stays to help raise the chicks.  Ostriches always leave one egg outside the nest – undefended therefore when a predator comes it takes that egg and is satisfied.  So it doen’t attack the nest, minimising the number of casualties.

Little Egret:

Has yellow feet to attract fish (prey)

Yellow-billed stalk:

Has a yellow bill to attract fish (prey)

Open billed stalk

Has a gap in its bill (like a nutcracker) which is more sufficient for catching and crushing fish because it has no teeth.

Pied Kingfisher

Hovers, looking for fish then dives just in front of its prey so when it tries to swim away it always swims away it always swims forward because it’s the fastest escape.  It swims right into the bird’s beak.  This method is commonly used by kingfishers world-wide.

Cattle Egret

Pecks parasites off cattle and many other large mammals.

All Weaver species

Males compete for the females by seeing who can build the best nest – this ensures only the best nests have eggs in them.

Ospreyes

Travel over 15 times the width of the English channel from Britain to East Africa.  They pair for life and are an endangered species.

Secretary bird

Hunts snakes by flying about 1 to 1.5 ft before stomping with their exceptionally strong legs on the snakes throat.  It regularly, when hunting, twists and turns to surprise attack hiding snakes.

Bare-faces Go-Away bird

Its danger call sounds like the words go-away, as if it where telling other animals ‘Go-away, danger, danger.  Hence the name.

Hornbills

Eat lizards, nuts anfibians, insects and seeds and fruit.  They are called a hornbill because their bill is shaped like a horn and they make a sound like a horn.

African pied wagtail

Often attacks its reflection because it thinks that it might be challenging its territory

Reptiles

Crocodile

In hot weather it flies flat with its mouth open to increase its surface area and keep cool.

Lizzard

Male bobs its brightly coloured head up and down to intimidate preditors and impress females.

Fish

Syclades

There are over 70 different species of Syclades in Lake Victoria alone.  They are the primary food for over 60% of the lakes fish eating birds and also for about 20% of the lake’s carnivorous and omnivorous fish.

Nile Perch

Can grow in the right conditions to 300lbs maximum.  Their diet is mainly syclade and weed.  They are Lake Victoria’s most sought after catch by fishermen but are extremely hard to find and reel in.

Mollusces

Bilharzia

Is a water snail which lives in big lakes – speicifically rocky areas.  It is the only bearer of a certain worm species which can travel through your feet and live in your eyes, slowly making you blind