Animal of the week

Introduction Soil microorganisms form an important link between soil and plants, a link characterised by ecosystem processes that keep both […]

Official Common name: African Wild Dog, Cape Hunting Dog, Painted Hunting Dog French: Cynhyene, Loup-peint, Lycaon Spanish: Licaon Xitsonga: Hlolwa […]

Common name: Paradise Skipper (English); ibhabhathane (isiXhosa); paradys-dartelaartjie (Afrikaans), phaphatani (Xitsonga) Abantis paradisea is commonly known as the Paradise Skipper. […]

Official Common Name: African Wood Owl Derivation of scientific name: The African Wood Owl and a number of Neotropical owl […]

Derivation of scientific name The scientific name derives from frugiperda, which is a Latin word meaning lost fruit. It is […]

Common names: Barn swallow (English); Europese swael (Afrikaans); Ucelizapholo, Udlihashe (Xhosa); iNkojane (Zulu); Lekabelane (South Sotho); Nyeganyenga (Shona); Inkonjane (Swazi); […]

Common names: Cape grey mongoose, small grey mongoose (Eng.); kleingrysmuishond, Kaapse grysmuishond (Afr.), maxindyani (Xitsonga) The Cape grey mongoose is […]

Common names Southern Ground-Hornbill (Eng.); Bromvoël(Afr.); Intsikizi (isiXhosa); Ingududu/iNsingizi (isiZulu); Nghututu (Xitsonga); Dandila (Tshivenda); Mahutuhutu (Sepedi); Lehututu (Setswana). Introduction The Southern Ground-Hornbill (Bucorvus […]

Derivation of scientific name The Western Cattle Egret was first described by Linnaeus in 1758 as Ardea ibis, and was later moved […]

Derivation of scientific  name: Connochaetes is derived from the Greek word kónnos, which means ‘beard’, and gnou originates from the […]

Derivation of scientific name The common name, leopard, is a combination of the Greek words leōn (lion) and pardos (panther), […]

Derivation of scientific name  The genus name, python, is a Greek word referring to the large serpent ‘Delphi’, slain by […]

Official common name: Bisexual mussel, Dwarf mussel The bisexual mussel, Semimytilus algosus, occurs in two types of different forms, where […]

At first glance one would think this beautiful creature is a plant – surprisingly it’s not! It’s a water-based animal […]

Common names Japanese skeleton shrimp (Eng.); koshitoge-warekara (Japanese). Japanese skeleton shrimp have a very slender built, similar to that of a […]