I promised a post just about the animals that I see, so here we go:
Spitting Cobras
I can't say that I am pleased to have seen one of these, but it was a memorable experience. Several alumnae were visiting the school and were sitting on the porch. The snake must have come out of the grass, and it came within a foot of one of the women. When people saw it and screamed and pointed, the woman jumped, the snake reared and put out its hood. Lots of adrenaline all round. The woman got away, the men went for bricks and rocks and eventually a metal bar used to bar the doors at night.
The snakes,I've been told, are more present during the rainy season in the evenings and hang out in the tall grass. This fact led to a very touching encounter. One evening, I was walking home and paused in the twilight to send a text. A teen who I've seen at daily Mass frequently came up to me with a very concerned look. She said, "Hannah muyende ku nyumba." Followed by something that I didn't understand. I replied, "Ndikupita." "I'm going," but made no move to go. She repeated herself, then pointed at the tall grass, made a wriggling motion with her arm and added "njoka" "snake." That I understood, and I I made a hasty retreat to my house.
(The baby pictured is not hers; it is her aunt's)
And where there are cobras, God in His wisdom put mongoose as well.
I saw a whole family if them run across the road. They remind me rather of the otters back home, much to cautious and quick to let me get close enough for a good picture. They are called gologolo and some people here eat them. Apparently they taste like mouse, not that that helps you. Although, I can say the flavor is good, and as gologolo are likely not eaten with the fur, probably nicer than mouse, however, why you would want to trap and thereby lessen the number of something that eats deadly snakes is beyond me. I wish them all happiness and a fruitful family life!
Chameleons
There are 9 species of chameleon in Malawi. I have seen two of them. As far as sightings go, they are seasonal when they come down to the ground, so unless you are very good at spotting them hiding in trees you'd never know they were here.
The Trioceros melleri is the largest in Africa. He largest recorded specimen being 59.9cm. In chingoni it is called Kailombe and kanganjovu in chichewa. They like high branches in Savannah woodlands and are usually only seen when on the ground to lay eggs or to move to another tree.
They mostly eat bugs but sometimes baby chameleons of other species.The females lay 38-91 eggs in late December. For an unsure reason, the people of Malawi think that the females hurl themselves from trees in order to give birth by bursting on impact. Their tongue is also thought to be poisonous but is not. On occasion, I have seen people run and scream away from them.
The other species,Chameleoni dilepis, I have not had the pleasure of seeing alive. In fact, I knew I had found the correct chameleon in the guide book, because it mentioned that lots of them end as road kill. Initially I thought they were juveniles of the Kailombe as they are less than half the size. The Yao call them Dwidwi and the Tumbuka call them Lwivi. Like their larger relatives, they live in savannah woodland and acacia scrub. They are very common and one of the best known in Africa. Often seen walking on the road, usually in the morning, which accounts for the high of road kill rate. Nov- Jan mostly male it is mostly males sighted. From Feb to Apr it is gravid females.
I have no picture, because little blue-green squashed chameleons are sad to see.
Mud Frogs
These are my favorites. They only come out at the beginning of the rainy season when the ngumbe, flying ants come for a week or so. All the rest of the year, apparently they live underground.
Tortoise
I need to research these little tortoises more.
Nasty Biting Ants
These guys are another rainy season phenomenon. You can tell if they're the biting kind as opposed to harmelss sugar ants, because they look like they're moving at hyper speed. Really truly, they look fast forwarded. In some places they are more spread out and if you walk through their highway, they invariably get on you no matter how quickly you dance your way across. They have a nasty pinch of a bite. Invariably, if some get on you, one will wait to bite until it is well up under your clothes. The head teacher at the local primary school lost a flock of chickens to these guys overnight. He found a few still alive flopping around, horribly bitten. In the rainy season they appear out of nowhere and can stay for a day or a matter of hours before vanishing elsewhere. They came through a corner of my yard for about 24hrs and in through a window of my house and out by a crack for a day. They kept to their path, and I nervously moved into a far room for a night. I'm not a fan of chemicals, but if the spray can of Doom left by the previous resident hadn't been empty, I probably would have used it.
And for a bigger scale, here are our houses at school. I've been petitioning that since there are no Tigers in Malawi, that the tiger house be changed to baboons, but the girls don't like the idea. They vetoed hyenas as well even though there are lots of those around.
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