MICRO ADVENTURES

I feel that the field mouse is no less intriguing than the lion; the culture of the ant no less facinating than that of the African Wild Dog. Micro adventures at home can be just as rewarding as ocean dives or game drives. If you have window sills, there will be spiders. Look through the bushes with a torch at night, to find chameleons. Behind the lavender could be skinks or mice, maybe slug eating snakes around the pond. Listen, at night - you could hear the hoot of an owl; even have one nesting nearby. A garden is really a mini nature reserve. Ours is full of squirrels (they're nuts for nuts), fieldmice, rats, robins, owls, chameleons, brown widows, hunting spiders, slug eaters, beatles, bumble bees, lizards, skinks, starlings, hadedahs, honey birds and wasps.

Gotcha >

When did you last see a chameleon? Maybe I mis-remember, but I am sure they used to be more plentiful!

A friend of mine was sharp enough to spot this tiny baby chameleon on a farm near Stellenbosch last week. So small yet perfectly formed.

I think it's a bearded chameleon, from the spikes on his chin.

Small miracle

One night in late summer, my wife and I found one of the garden's resident skinkss in our dogs' paddling pool, at the bottom of 20cm of cold water. I remembered I had filled the pool about 15 minutes earlier. Since the lizard must be dead, I scooped him out carefully - only for him to take a huge gasping breath. After that, nothing; limp, lifeless. I thought well, that was the poor thing's dying breath.

I left him on the back verandah, sad. But later, when we checked on him - a gasping breath again? Incredible. I thought no, this is just post-death reflex. We hung him upside down; tried to get him to cough up water. No dice.

For some reason I decided to place him under the heater lights in the bathroom; something just told me to. Within 5 minutes - a heartbeat and a slow blink. Within 20, the heart was beating normally again and he was moving his feet. 45 minutes later and the little guy was racing around trying to leap out of his tupperware. I carried it out to the wooden bench at the back - where he had seemed to be living - and off he wriggled into the night.

Truly amazing to see such a small, beautifully formed animal practically come back to life. Still can't believe it when I see him basking in the sun on the back garden's paving stones.

Give me all the nuts.

One of the four squirrels in our garden. Every morning and night they tap on the window for nuts. But if you think they're nuts for nuts, you should see how they react to Black Cat peanut butter. Bug-eyed!

The night of the hunter

About a year ago this spider bit Christelle on her hand while she was cutting back the bushes. Painful but not for more than an hour or two. It's a rain spider or hunting spider and we've seen it several times since, on our bedroom wall, above the TV during the news...on the curtains... I think it wants another go at us.