The list is available to you in three forms. If in doubt, I would suggest you use the first option.
Animals seen: saved in pdf format, for Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Animals seen: saved in ods format, for the excellent, free Open Office.
Animals seen: saved in xls format, for Excel. This copy may lag the others; they may have newer edits.
Open Office is a free alternative to fueling Mr Gate's hegemony. I use it for all of my wordprocessing and spreadsheet needs. It also includes a powerful database, a drawing program, and a Powerpoint alternative.
SEE ALSO: A small page with notes on the list.
The list has not been done "scientifically". It is just a reminder for others on the trip of some of the things some of us saw, and an encouragement to anyone considering such a trip.
Some members of our group saw over 100 different species of bird on the trip.
There may be slight errors in some of the bird names. I am an experienced birder, so I know my guides didn't give me three names for three instances of one bird. Did they identify it correctly? Yes, in most cases. In every case? I am not competent to judge. Any errors in the list are more likely to be errors by me!
There may well be animals which were not "ticked" as often as they should have been. You try.....
... while bouncing about in the back of a Land Rover. Our drivers were very skillful, but the roads were not those of Kansas. And in Botswana, we were often not on even what is locally judged "a road".
© TK Boyd 12/07
Insects: As those of you who know me will attest, I am very fond of the wonderful world of insects.
Sadly, I just didn't have the resources to list for you the insects we saw. We were there during the hot, dry season, and so the insect life was keeping it's head down. None- the- less, we did see some marvelous matises, beetles, antlions, butterflies, dragonflies, moths, etc, etc.... not to mention serving up a buffet to chiggars and flies... (not too bad)... but I have failed to record them. Sorry. Go and see them for yourself!
You know that in some places, when you run water for a bath, it is as well to let the first water out of the system down the drain? At one place we stayed, the local ants decided that the water in the tap was for them, and so when running a bath, one had to start by dealing with a small flow of ants.
Small reptiles: I have always been fond of geckos. (Long before Geico.) Not least for their fly eating activities. I startled a small one when taking something from a shelf one day. As it was 2pm, it was hot, and I had no shirt on, but found myself "wearing" a cute little gecko. On another occasion, we had a huge (15 cm / six inch?), thick set gecko on our screen. These weren't the only sightings. We also frequently saw small skinks, etc, in the grounds of our camps. And a few people were lucky enough to see the occasional snake, but not me, alas. None seen in camps.
Amphibians: Plenty of small frogs were about. At Mfuwe, after dark, there was one place in the nearly- dry riverbed below the lodge where "rain frogs" congregated. Twice when, after dark, I shone my heavily red-filtered flashlight on that stretch of the riverbed, the frogs exploded into singing.
Finally, apologies are also due the non-animals. The animals couldn't exist without the plants, of course, and the African plants are amazing... but I can't report on everything!
Remember that these lists were drawn up in the period 26 October- 7 November. The only organism listed which wasn't seen at either Chitabe (Okavango, Botswana) or Mfuwe (South Luangwa, Zambia) is the crested guinnea fowl, which I saw in the grounds of the Zambezi Sun, Livingstone, Zambia.
© TK Boyd 11/08. Click here to contact him.