Dawid van Lill - African Wildlife Trivia

WORLD RECORDS

• Highest sand dunes
• Largest desert
• Oldest desert
• Longest freshwater lake
• Longest river
• Largest rift valley
• Largest inland swamp
• Highest free-standing mountain
• Place experiencing most thunderstorms
• Hottest place on earth

• Second largest freshwater lake
• Second deepest freshwater lake
• Fourth largest island
• Second highest waterfall
• Second largest canyon

• Largest land mammal, with longest teeth and nose, and largest ears and legs
• Second and third largest land mammals
• Tallest land mammal, with longest tail and neck
• Largest primate
• Largest antelope
• Four of the fastest land mammals
• Largest living bird, with longest neck, legs and toes, as well as largest egg
• Fastest bird on land
• Fastest flying bird
• Bird that can dive the deepest
• Largest mammal
• Fastest fish
• Largest fish
• Largest predatory fish

• Venomous snake with the longest teeth
• Snake responsible for the most fatal bites
• Fastest poisonous snake
• Smallest tortoise
• Largest and smallest chameleons
• Largest frog
• Largest land snail
• Noisiest insect
• Most destructive insect
• Largest, heaviest and strongest beetle
• Largest bacterium
• Bird with the largest wingspan

DID YOU KNOW?

Africa is a treasure trove of wildlife. One lifetime will not be enough to discover all the hidden wonders of this continent, and this book gives just a glimpse of the wonders that can be found on and around this continent. If the focus does sometimes wander to another continent, it will just be to compare it to Africas wildlife. Dont worry, the main focus will remain firmly on all things African.

Enjoy the journey!

Africa is world famous for its abundance and variety of wildlife, making it a great attraction for hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

• the second largest continent
• the hottest continent
• the only continent crossed by the equator, the Tropic of Capricorn, the Tropic of Cancer and the Greenwich meridian (0 longitude)

DID YOU KNOW?

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is an old concept that referred to solar time (or sun time). The term that is now used for the Greenwich time zone is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), while Universal Time (UT) replaced the original Greenwich Mean Time.

• Africa has a greater variety of large ungulates (90 species) and freshwater fish (more than 2 000 species) than any other continent. It also boasts more than 1 000 mammal species and 2 300 bird species.
• Africa has 60 carnivore species, most of them natural enemies of the herbivores living on the continent.
• Among the primates are 45 baboon species, and two species of great ape the chimpanzee and gorilla. A large number of monkeys and bushbabies live in Madagascar, which is home to most of the worlds lemur species.
• A rich variety of mammals live in the oceans and seas around Africa, such as Cape fur seals, dugongs and manatees. Dolphins and whales (including toothed whales) from other parts of the world are also frequent visitors.
• Africa boasts 24% of the worlds bird population (2 313 bird species from 111 families). About 1 800 species and 20 bird families are endemic to Africa, which means that they are found only in Africa.
• The islands off the African coast have huge seabird colonies and an extended range of endemic species. The Seychelles, So Tom and Prncipe, Comoros and Mauritius all have a number of interesting and unique species, while Madagascar alone has five endemic bird families and more than 120 endemic species.
• Large birds include the ostrich, secretary bird, kori bustard (the largest flying bird), guinea fowl, pelican and flamingo. Forests are home to brightly coloured birds, such as the Knysna lourie; water birds, such as herons, storks and ibises live in Africas large rivers and lakes, and thousands of seabirds, including the penguin, live along the continents coasts.
• Most of Africas large variety of snakes are not venomous, but those that are may strike fear in the hearts of other creatures. Among the poisonous are the gaboon viper and other adders, cobras, mambas (black and green) and the boomslang. The python is not venomous, but constricts and suffocates its prey. Another dreaded predatory reptile is the Nile crocodile.

Africa is the second largest of the worlds seven continents, with a surface area of 30 365 000 km, or just more than 20% of the earths total land area. It is the hottest continent, mainly because the largest part lies in the tropics, between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

The animal world consists of millions of species, varying from small single-cell organisms to the giant blue whale that is as large as a school bus. Most of the animals on earth (about 85%) are insects, while only 0,3% (just more than 4 200 species) are mammals, and 0,7% (about 9 700 species) are birds.

DID YOU KNOW?

• East Africa has more endemic mammal species (55%), birds (63%), reptiles (49%) and amphibians (40%) than any other part of the world.
• Madagascar is the African country with the most endemic species, and ranks sixth on the world list of higher vertebrates (mammals, birds and amphibians), with more than 300 endemic species.

There are over 4 260 species of mammals on earth, as well as 6 787 species of reptiles, 9 703 species of birds and more than 28 000 fish species. The invertebrates outnumber all the vertebrates put together, with 80 000 molluscs and more than 1 million insects. Arachnids number only 44 000 species. These figures are always fluctuating because scientists keep discovering new species, while others become extinct at an alarming rate.

• The African elephant is the largest land mammal. It is also the animal with the longest teeth and nose, and the largest ears and legs.
• The gorilla is the worlds largest primate