Africa Geographic’s science editor Tim Jackson answers your questions about wildlife. Send yours to leni@africageographic.com and you could win one of Struik Nature’s books on African flora and fauna! Question: We were walking along the beach at Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape after a spring tide when we noticed a seagull pecking at something […]
Author Archives: Tim Jackson
Africa’s Animal Q&A
Africa Geographic’s science editor Tim Jackson answers your questions about wildlife. Send yours to leni@africageographic.com and you could win one of Struik Nature’s books on African flora and fauna! Question: We have observed male nyalas moving in slow motion, carefully lifting one foot and just as carefully setting it down again, as if they were […]
What is the function, if any, of a hornbill’s casque?
Africa Geographic’s science editor Tim Jackson answers your questions about wildlife. Send yours to leni@africageographic.com and you could win one of Struik Nature’s books on African flora and fauna! Question: What is the function, if any, of a hornbill’s casque? Kian Kista, via e-mail Answer: Now that’s a topic of much debate, and there is […]
Nine Unforgettable Ballooning Moments at the Cradle of Humankind
Tim Jackson contemplates his ancestory while drifting over the famous Cradle of Humankind, just outside Johannesburg, South Africa. 1. Testing, testing! The first great whoosh of the gas burners was a ferocious one as Warwick Cook, our balloon pilot, tested his burners. The noise and heat cut through the chill morning air of the pre-dawn. […]
Stand-up comedians – listen to these dassies!
Listen to this. It certainly had us laughing in the office! http://blog.africageographic.com/africa-geographic-blog/files/2012/11/Amiyaal-Ilany_hyrax_song_small.mp3 When I first heard that rock dassies (or rock hyraxes if you like) sing I will admit to reacting with a good deal of scepticism, if not downright disbelief. It’s not that I haven’t spent any time watching dassies, it’s just that, well, […]
The Golden Gate Vulture Hide: Photography Tips
Recently Tim Jackson and Morgan Trimble took a trip to try out the new Sasol-sponsored vulture hide at the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. Here he gives you the low-down from a photographer’s persepctive… The hide You approach the hide, on top of a ridge, from a car park a couple of hundred metres […]
Africa’s Animal Q&A
Africa Geographic’s science editor Tim Jackson answers your questions about wildlife. Send yours to leni@africageographic.com and you could win a pair of Lynx binoculars! Question: Cuckoos are well known for laying their eggs in the nests of other species and leaving the chicks to be raised by the host birds. But do any cuckoos build […]
Fear of flying, or how Malawi got its new lions
Africa Geographic science editor Tim Jackson isn’t usually scared of flying. But then he isn’t usually sharing a seat with two (partially) sedated lions either. It’s not every day I get an e-mail asking me to fly to Malawi from South Africa. So when the message came through to visit Majete Game Reserve, I didn’t […]
Myths about manta rays
Africa Geographic’s scientific editor, Tim Jackson, catches up with Andrea Marshall, director of the Marine Megafauna Association in Mozambique, and asks her about the top five myths that loads of people seem to believe about mantas. Myth 1: When giving birth, mantas eject their babies like popcorn. There is a famous communication from 1916, in the days […]
5,000 elephants killed in Republic of Congo
Understandably there has been a major outcry over the killing of hundreds of elephants in Cameroon. Here elephants, numbering into their hundreds, have been gunned down for their ivory. The finger has been pointed at armed horseman from Sudan, more than 1000 kilometres away. According to Richard Carroll, vice president of World Wildlife Fund U.S. […]
Ol Pejeta – thirsty for rhinos
Ol Pejeta, in Kenya’s northern Laikipia District, is East Africa’s largest black rhino sanctuary. It stands to reason that during my trip there for Africa Geographic – see the full feature in our May issue – that I should come back with some pictures of the beasts. Trouble is that I was only booked in […]
AWFs Maasai Steppe Heartland
At the moment I’m sitting here in Arusha, after a trip to visit the African Wildlife Foundation’s Masai Steppe Heartland. The thing that struck me about the visit wasn’t the wildlife per se, but the efforts the AWF put into the people side. Working almost exclusively outside formally protected areas the organization is putting considerable […]
Manyara Ranch Conservancy
Set between Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks lies the Manyara Ranch Conservancy. The initiative, driven by the African Wildlife Foundation and the Tanzania Land Conservation Trust, has seen a government cattle ranch turned back to land for both wildlife and a dry season refuge for local Maasai herders. Nestled on the property is the […]
Udzungwa Mountains
A couple of weeks ago saw me travel to Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains National Park. The area is a far cry from the regular tourist circuit of the Serengeti and Mount Kilimanjaro. The beauty of the area isn’t the big mammals – of which there are several – but the whole potpourri of life the mountains, […]
