MAIACETUS: November 12, 2013: Springing Sitatunga

365 Project, Day 113

Here is my day 113 submission to my 365Project:

This morning I set off after breakfast for another wander around Camp Malongo, Cabinda Province, Angola, where I’ve been waiting to go to the ship since arriving on Saturday. Tomorrow I will be heading back to work for another offshore rotation working as a Marine Mammal Observer (MMO). One of the client reps, who is going to the ship with me tomorrow, asked if he could join me on today’s birding and wildlife adventure and I really appreciated his company because having him along emboldened me to go further afield to check out more of the forest and field areas around the camp.

In the end we were out for three hours wandering along the forest edge, into fields and eventually down to the beach. Although we hadn’t planned to be out that long, and were hot, thirsty and hungry when we got back, it was great for seeing and getting more photos of the local wildlife...today's walk was like going on our own walking safari, fabulous! We saw so much wildlife including more Sitatunga, birds, my first monitor lizard sighting and some entertaining crabs!

As in my previous two posts we saw Sitatunga (Tregaluphus spekii) again but today I finally got some decent shots of one bounding away from us after we, accidentally, startled it from the shrubbery close to where we were walking.

Springing Sitatunga!

Fun fact of the day:

Sitatunga live in swamp and marshland areas of the rainforests of West Africa and wetter parts of the southern savanna. These antelope have great elongation of the hooves, providing wider splay, and unique flexibility of the joints at the feet which are structural adaptations for walking on boggy and marshy ground.

To learn more about Sitatunga check out these webpages:

IUCN redlist webpage on Sitatunga
Animal Diversity Web webpage on Sitatunga
The living Africa webpage on Sitatunga

Here are some more photos from today's fun walking safari adventure:

Village (black headed) weaver (Ploceus cucullatus)

Speckled mousebirds (Colius striata)

Village (black headed) weaver (Ploceus cucullatus)

Black necked weavers (Ploceus nigricollis) - so cool that you can see the female (lower bird) is in the process of catching an insect...while the male looks on :)

Male black necked weaver (Ploceus nigricollis)

Female black necked weaver (Ploceus nigricollis)

White-fronted bee eater (Merops bullockoides) in flight

Sitatunga (Tregaluphus spekii)

This guy was just hanging out on the side of the road in the hot sun

Common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

My first sighting of a wild monitor lizard!
The Ornate water monitor lizard (Varanus ornatus)

Ornate water monitor lizard (Varanus ornatus)

The beach at Camp Malongo

Lesser striped swallow (Cecropis abyssinica)

Pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macroura)

Female pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macroura)

Common greenshank in flight (Tringa nebularia)

Common greenshank (Tringa nebularia)

Another ornate water monitor lizard (Varanus ornatus). The beach at Camp Malongo is a turtle nesting area and this monitor is sitting near a sign marking a turtle nest.