Monthly Archives: February 2012

So this is what killed Spencer the Rhino

Posted on February 28, 2012 by

Spencer the Rhino’s, post-mortem and a toxicology report are out. And it reads like that of an overweight middle aged man, carrying a fatal underlying condition. I had almost expected to read that Spencer had a bottle of Scotch a … Continue reading →

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Zoo trot

Posted on February 26, 2012 by

A lion roars, and just maybe the beast makes some of those runners pump their legs a little faster. This lion resides in the middle of Joburg, but it is safely tucked behind some high walls and moat. All it … Continue reading →

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Recovered from the bellies of fish, hands of prisoners and the claws of family cats

Posted on February 24, 2012 by

Spent last weekend with a bunch of ornithologists trying to catch a white bellied bustard. This is not a particularly rare bird, but it does seem to have an inkling of what those pesky humans are up too with their … Continue reading →

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The dung ball boogie

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

A dance on a ball of dung that has got the US airforce all jiggy. Professor Marcus Byrne of the Wits School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Studies and his team have been studying this dance of the dung beetle … Continue reading →

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Myth confirmed

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

My great grandfather wasn’t lying. Polar bears were sighted in the north Atlantic. In a previous blog I told the story of my great grandfather William Frank Christie’s passage across the Atlantic in 1905. It is titled WF’s great north Atlantic … Continue reading →

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Death on the job

Posted on February 10, 2012 by

We didn’t know the rhino was dying. For about 45 minutes we, the press corps, crowded around the darted beast struggling to get a clear picture or even a glimpse of what the wildlife vets were doing. The rhino appeared … Continue reading →

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WF’s great North Atlantic adventure

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

Every family has them, heirlooms handed down from previous generations. Each has a tale and continuing with the artefacts from the attic series, here are some of mine and the stories they carry. Here two objects tell the story of … Continue reading →

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So…who did break Kosie’s nose.

Posted on February 1, 2012 by

There are two sides to a story, or at times three, four or even five. No story is as it seems, that is until it has been told from every angle. Take this one that landed in The Star newspaper’s … Continue reading →

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