A YEAR IN THE WILD
EP.4. It is April, and large groups of blacktip and tiger sharks are gathering off the South African Coast. They are waiting for the onset of one of nature’s most spectacular mass migrations: the annual sardine run. Like the cold ocean current that gives rise to the extraordinary numbers of African pilchards and their predators during the Sardine Run, the frigid Benguela current that runs northwards along the arid coastline of Namibia also supports a remarkable diversity of life. Monk parakeets are highly sociable, quirky South American parrots, but unlike all other parrots, they build complex nesting structures that can reach the size of a car, with individual compartments for each nesting pair. South American parakeets aren’t the only birds turned architects: the social weaver birds of southern Africa also construct permanent nests on trees, large enough to house dozens of bird families, often stretching across several generations at a time. Like the weaverbirds, bats, too, tend to roost in large numbers. At this time of year, mothers and their young form part of the colony, with the young clinging closely to the front of their mothers until there are weaned at 6 months of age. In the Thong Pha Phoom National Park in Thailand, a pair of greater coucals have built a nest and laid a clutch of 4 eggs. By now, massive shoals of around 10 million Southern African Pilchards have gathered in the coastal waters of South Africa and begun their migration northwards. Like the dolphins during the Sardine Run, lions tend to work in teams when hunting large prey like buffalo. And right now, the need for the Xakanaxa pride to hunt and provide for their expanding family is greater than ever: they have new cubs to feed. A group of meerkats in South Africa is also busily caring for their growing family. Most of the clan has already left the family burrow to forage for insects and other small prey. In the Okavango Delta’s grassland, a pair of puff adders is engaged in a lengthy mating ritual.
