Faszination Afrika 3D Page #2

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The greater kudu lives mostly

in philopatry herds...

... of 3 to 10 individuals...

... roaming an area of

about 50 square kilometres.

The males live in their own

bachelor groups or as loners.

They only come to visit the females

during the mating season.

As a general rule,

kudus have one kid at a time...

... that weighs about 16 kilograms...

... and is born during

the rainy season.

The heraldic animal of the Republic

of South Africa is the springbok.

The springbok's appearance

resembles that of the thomson gazelle.

They also have a dark

reddish brown stripe...

... that divides the upper side

from the white stomach side...

... going from the eyes down to

the upper corner of the mouth.

The longer back hairs can only be

seen when the animal is pronking.

This means jumping up with

stiff legs and bent backs...

... which gives the

springbok its name.

Both genders, male and female

have curved wire-shaped horns.

That of the female, however,

is slimer.

They got the name springbok, thanks

to their vertical jumps into the air...

... whenever they are

frightened by something.

They can jump up to 3.5 metres

high from a standing position.

While they are pronking,

they keep their legs stiff...

... and their backs

are arched upward.

And only then a skin fold opens up

and the white hair becomes visible.

This behaviour may well be

a warning that a predator is near.

The damara dik-dik is the

smallest of Africa's antelopes.

Even though it prefers

dense vegetation...

... it can also be found in biotopes

with meagre grass growth.

Kirk dik-diks are able to exist

even in areas with sparse vegetation.

Their main habitat lies in

the rich shrub territories...

... of Central and North Africa...

... where they can feed on the

large number of plants available.

They are very selective in choosing

only certain parts of the plants.

Kirk dik-diks are monogamous

and they live in fixed territories.

The males are very dominant...

... and defend their territories

against intruders of any kind.

As soon as the male offspring

are half-grown...

... they are chased away

by their fathers.

Although they have not yet

reached sexual maturity...

... they go out to find a partner...

... and immediately start

marking their territory.

My brothers and sisters

of the Sand People...

... belong to one of the

oldest tribes in the world.

We prefer to live

in large groups...

... so we can share the work

that needs to be done.

We only live off the things

that nature has to offer.

We live in straw huts and

spend the whole day together.

We stay in our village

or go out into the nature.

We have no bosses or kings...

... nor rankings or any sort

of relationships of dependency.

Anytime we can't

come to an agreement...

... we just vote

and the majority wins.

Everything we need

for our everyday life...

... we produce ourselves.

We can make great tools.

String, shoes, clothing...

... and containers

to store our food.

But what we are best at,

is our handmade jewellery.

And we wear it

on every possible occasion.

We live off nature.

We have a very

great knowledge of it...

... that helps us to survive

everywhere and anytime.

We even find water

during the dry season...

... and something to eat

in the barren landscape.

We're famous for

being able to do so.

In successive generations...

... we've learned to use plants as

remedies to cure various diseases.

We've found working remedies in

preparations for stomach pains...

... fever, muscle aches,

headaches, the flu...

... and many more

successful remedies.

European pharmaceutical

corporations have repeatedly...

... come to us to get

information on our cures.

Our hunting methods

are also extremely creative.

We can build weapons

and traps which help us...

... in providing food

for our families.

My grandfather

was a very wise man...

... and he told me a legend

about a giraffe...

... that helped our tribe to

survive over several decades.

The bushmen legend says that

ever since the beginning of time...

... the sun could not find

its way across the sky.

The giraffes though, had the nosy

habit of staring at everything new.

It came to the Creator's mind

to give the giraffes the task...

... of watching the sun

so it wouldn't get lost.

The giraffes took

this duty very seriously...

... and in fact,

they did a very good job.

Because the sun

remained on course...

... and has never taken

a wrong turn since.

The Creator was

so proud of them...

... that he created a giraffe

figure of stars in heaven.

This Zodiac sign

can still be seen today.

The bushmen call

this sign "Tutwa"...

... giraffe.

And it's still used today

for orientation...

... on their nightly excursions.

The giraffe is a mammal...

... and is one of the

even-toed ungulates.

It's the tallest living

land animal in the world.

The giraffe's neck

is exceptionally long.

Nonetheless, the cervical spine

is made up of...

... seven strongly extended

cervical vertebrate.

The neck is always supported

by one very strong tendon...

... at an angle

of about 55 degrees.

The tendon runs from the back

of the giraffe's head to the tailbone...

... and is responsible for

the hump that you see...

... between the neck

and the body.

If there is no movement...

... it holds the neck and head

in an upright position.

But in order to move

the head downward...

... to i.e. for drinking purposes...

... the giraffe has to do

actual muscle work.

On account of

the length of the neck...

... the giraffe's heart

is particularly powerful.

On average,

it weighs 12 kilograms.

It can pump 60 litres of blood

per minute through the body...

... and ensure a blood pressure that

is 3 times as high as that of humans.

Giraffes prefer to graze in treetops,

and their favourite is the acacia.

With their tongue, they grab a twig

and pull it into their mouths.

And while pulling their heads back,

they strip the leaves off.

The consistency of

the tongue and lips...

... make sure that even if the twigs

have thorns, the giraffe is not injured.

Everyday, the giraffe consumes

about 30 kilograms of food...

... and it takes them

about 16 to 20 hours.

The major part

of their liquid demand...

... is covered

by the food they eat.

This makes it easy for giraffes to go

without water for weeks at a time.

The African elephant is a member

of the mastodon family.

It's the largest

land mammal in the world.

In contrast to the Asian

and Indian elephants...

... the males and females

usually both have tusks.

The male elephant's tusks can

occasionally measure up to 3 metres...

... and weigh 100 kilograms.

One difference from the Asian

elephant is the noticeably larger ears...

... which can be

up to 2 metres long.

On the end of his trunk,

the African elephant has two "fingers."

The Indian elephant only has one.

Most of the time, he has

4 toes on his front feet...

... and only 3 on the hind feet.

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