African Elephant Pictures

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List of African Snakes

Adders

Berg Adder – Bitis atropos
Gaboon Adder – Bitis gabonica
Many-Horned Adder – Bitis cornuta
Puff Adder – Bitis arietans
Rhombic Night Adder – Causus rhombeatus

Blind Snakes

Beaked Blind Snake – Typhlops schinzi
Bibron’s Blind Snake – Typhlops bibronii
Boyle’s Blind Snake – Typhlops boylei
Delalande’s Blind Snake – Typhlops lalandei
Fornasini’s Blind Snake – Typhlops fornasinii
Schlegel’s Blind Snake – Typhlops schlegelii
Slender Blind Snake – Typhlops obtusus

Cobras

Black Spitting Cobra – Naja nigricollis woodi
Cape Cobra – Naja nivea
Forest Cobra – Naja melannoleuca
Mozambique Spitting Cobra – Naja mossambica
Snouted Cobra – Naja annulifera
Western Barred Spitting Cobra – Naja nigricollis nigricincta

File Snakes

Angola File Snake – Mehhelya vernayi
Black File Snake – Mehhelya nyassae
Cape File Snake – Mehelya capensis

Grass Snakes

Olive Grass Snake – Psammophis phillipsii
Short-snouted Grass Snake – Psammophis sibilans brevirostris

House Snakes

Aurora House Snake – Lamprohis aurora
Fisk’s House Snake – Lamprohis fiskii
Brown House Snake – Lamprohis fuliginosus
Olive House Snake – Lamprophis inornatus
Spotted House Snake – Lamprohis guttatus
Swazi Rock Snake – Lamprohis swazicus
Yellow-Bellied House Snake – Lamprohis fuscus

Mambas

Black Mamba – Dendroaspis polylepis
Green Mamba – Dendroaspis angusticeps

Pythons

African Rock Python – Python sebae
Anchieta’s Dwarf Python – Python anchietae

Skaapstekers

Spotted Skaapsteker – Psammophylax rhombeatus
Striped Skaapsteker – Psammophylax tritaeniatus

Slug Eaters

Common Slug Eater – Duberria lutrix
Spotted Slug Eater – Duberria variegata

Thread Snakes

Black Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops nigricans
Cape Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops conjunctus
Damara Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops labialis
Distant’s Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops distanti
Long-Tailed Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops longicaudus
Peter’s Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops scutifrons
Slender Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops gracilior
Tello’s Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops telloi
Western Thread Snake – Leptotyphlops occidentalis

Water Snakes

Common Brown Water Snake – Lycodonomorphus rufulus
Dusky-Bellied Water Snake – Lycodonomorphus laevissimus
Green Water Snake – Philothamnus hoplogaster
Mulanje Water Snake – Lycodonomorphus leleupi
Whyte’s Water Snake – Lycodonomorphus whytii

Wolf Snakes

Cape Wolf Snake – Lycophidion capense
Eastern Wolf Snake – Lycophidion semiannule
Dwarf Wolf Snake – Cryptolycus nanus
Hellmich’s Wolf Snake – Lycophidion hellmichi
Variegated Wolf Snake – Lycophidion variegatum

Other Snake Species

Boomslang – Dispholidus typus
Cape Centipede Eater – Aparallactus capensis
Cape Coral Snake – Aspidelaps lubricus
Eastern Tiger Snake – Telescopus semiannulatus
Flower-Pot Snake – Ramphotyphlops braminus
Mole Snake – Pseudaspis cana
Natal Black Snake – Macrelaps microlepidotus
Red-lipped Herald – Crotaphopeltis botamboeia
Rhombic Egg-eater – Dasypeltis scabra
Rinkhals – Hemachatus haemachatus
Rufous Beaked Snake – Rhamphiophis oxyrhynchus rostratus
Shield-nose Snake – Aspidelaps scutatus
Spotted Bush Snake – Philothamnus semivariegatus
Spotted Harlequin Snake – Homoroselaps lacteus
Stiletto Snake – Atractaspis bibronii
Sundevall’s Garter Snake – Elapsoidea sundevallii
Sundevall’s Shovel-snout – Prosymna sundevallii
Twig Snake – Thelotornis capensis
Yellow-and-Black Sea Snake – Pelamis platurus

This list of African snake species will be updated in future.

Impala Facts

Latin Name: Aepyceros melampus

Lifespan: Up to 12 years.

Weight: Mature males 65 kg, females 40 kg.

Sexual differentiation:
The male is larger than the female and has horns.

Habitat:
Impalas are found in savannah, grassland and woodland biomes, often taking shelter under trees and in rocky areas.

Diet and Feeding:
Impala are predominantly grazers but will browse in the drier months if palatable grasses are less in abundance.

Reproduction and Territoriality:


Herding and breeding takes place in autumn. The dominant male herds as many females as possible into his territory with as many as 100 females or even more.

He defends his territory vigorously by chasing out any males he sees as a possible threat to his breeding herd, the threat being the possible loss of any sexually mature females to another male.

Bachelor herds follow the breeding herd within close proximity with eager males often breaking away to challenge the dominant male for ownership of the breeding herd.

Serious encounters between males may result in rutting which normally ends with the one or the other submitting by running away from the stronger, fitter ram.
Rutting between males may become intense with horns breaking off and rarely but not uncommon, death from piercing horns.

In a single breeding season up to 4 different males may dominate the same breeding herd at different periods.

The dominant male advertises his presence vocally by a series of vocalisations including grunting, snorting and roaring. He also scent-marks his territory by leaving fresh and regular deposits of dung on territory markers called “middens”. The number of middens will vary in number and are found throughout his territory with the more regularly marked middens found along the territory boundaries.

He also scent-marks by rubbing secretions of fluid from his face onto twigs and grasses.

The male regularly tests the reproductive status of females within the breeding herd by tasting their urine.

A small pit found in the males’ upper pallet leads to an organ known as the “Organ of Jacobson”. After licking the females urine, particles of urine are passed from the males tongue into the upper pallet pit then through to the Organ of Jacobson. This organ tests the urine and then sends a signal to the males’ brain to inform him of the reproductive status of the female.

After a successful copulation the female goes through a 7 month gestation period and gives birth to a single lamb, very rarely having twins.

Interesting Facts on the Impala:

•Females that have an excess level of testosterone have been known to grow horns. The horns however may grow disproportionately.

•A pregnant female is capable of extending her gestation period by up to 2 weeks if the start of the summer rains are late, which will result in poor grazing value and thus poor nutritional value of her milk produced.

•An impala can jump as far as 12 meters and as high as 3 meters!

Cheetah Pictures

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For Facts on Cheetah click "HERE"

African Wild Dog Facts

Alternative Name: Cape Hunting Dog

Latin Name: Lycaon pictus

Status: Endangered.

Lifespan: 12 years.

Weight: Both male and female 20kg to 25kg.

Habitat:
Wild dogs take preference to areas with few trees and short grass. They are found in savannah, woodland and grassland biomes, as well as hilly areas.

Diet and feeding:
Prey species include medium to small sized antelope such as waterbuck, impala, springbok and duiker as well as wildebeest and warthog.

Of all the large land predators, the wild dog is the most successful hunter with an average of 80% of its attempted hunts resulting in kills. Wild dogs hunt very efficiently as a pack and rely more on stamina than they do on strength and speed.

Once the prey has been targeted, the dogs then take turns in chasing after the animal at a fairly constant speed of 60 km/hour. The running prey is often forced into the direction of other members of the wild dog pack, who wait ahead to have their turn in chasing after the prey.

The hunted animal, exhausted from all the running slows down or stops, giving the wild dogs the opportunity to grab hold of it with their powerful jaws which they then use to tear off chunks of flesh resulting in the prey dying from loss of blood and shock.

Reproduction:
After a successful copulation the female has a two-and-half-month gestation period. The pups are born underground, usually in old abandoned aardvark burrows. The average litter size varies from 7 to 10 young, with as many as 20. The large litter sizes may be as a result of the very high mortality rate of wild dog pups due to various diseases contracted by domestic dogs and predation by lion, hyena and leopard.

The young suckle for roughly three months but are capable of feeding on meat at 2 to 3 weeks of age. After a successful hunt, the adults then return to the den to feed the young by regurgitating the meat.

Other interesting facts:

Wild dogs have very large home ranges, ranging from 200 square kilometres to over 1000 square kilometres.
Their home rangers may extend into farm areas where they are seen as a threat to life-stock and are often destroyed for this reason.

Wild dogs are highly endangered and many attempts in breeding projects have been unsuccessful with most puppies dying in captivity.

A sad fact is that at a certain stage in time, wild dogs were seen as brutal animals in the way that they hunted and how could such a cruel animal be left to live?, resulting in may of them being destroyed.

Baboon Facts

Chacma baboon

Latin Name: Papio cynocephalus ursinus

Lifespan: Both males and females live up to 18 years.

Weight: Males 32kg, females 15kg.

Habitat:
Chacma Baboons are found throughout southern Africa, except in the very arid regions.

Diet and Feeding:
Baboons are omnivorous feeding on a variety of fruits, leaves, grasses, roots, tubers, tree gum, insects, spiders and scorpions. They will also hunt prey such as reptiles, birds and other mammals.

During the Impala (Aepyceros melampus) lambing season, Chacma baboons have been known to run in and snatch the new-born lambs to feed off them.

Reproduction:
Just below the tail, on the rump area are horny epidermal callosities. With females in oestrus, the callosities swell up substantially and serve as clear signal to the males of their breeding condition.

The dominant males herd and mate with the females in oestrus. The Alpha male does most of the mating.

Young males that have no dominant ranking within the troop have no mating rights. Mature females in most cases won’t give them the opportunity to mate unless the social bond between two is very strong. This type of mating is not tolerated by the dominant males and could prove very dangerous for the young male if caught in the act.

After a successful copulation from one male or a number of different males, the female then goes through a 6 month gestation period and gives birth to a single offspring. Females can give birth at any time of the year.

Youngsters are totally weaned from 6 to 8 months and share a very strong bond with their mothers. In the fist few weeks after birth the mother carries her baby in her hands and arms and as the baby grows it then holds onto its mother by the hair and hangs under her belly while walking. As the youngsters legs get stronger, it then moves onto the mothers back, using her raised tail as a back-rest.

Interesting Facts on the Chacma Baboon:

The canines of a mature Chacma baboon are longer than those of the lion.

Leopard will often hunt baboons, but young and inexperienced leopard can be killed by baboons when mobbed and bitten from different directions by a number of large dominant male baboons.

Young Vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) and baboons will on occasion play together, but as adults baboons will hunt Vervet monkeys.

Male Lion Pictures

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