Choices...

A very hungry hyena went out on the Tanzanian plains to hunt for food. He came to a branch in the bush road where the two paths veered off in different directions. He saw two goats caught in the thickets at the far end of the two different paths. With his mouth watering in anticipation, he decided that his left leg would follow the left path and his right leg the right path. As the two paths continued to veer in different directions he tried to follow them both at once. Finally he split in two. As the well-known African proverb says: Two roads overcame the hyena.

(Story and proverb found in many African languages)

At first glance zebras in a herd might all look alike, but their stripe patterns are as distinctive as fingerprints are in man. Scientists can identify individual zebras by comparing patterns, stripe widths, color and scars.

Zebras, horses and wild asses are all equids, long-lived animals that move quickly for their large size and have teeth built for grinding and cropping grass. Zebras have horselike bodies, but their manes are made of short, erect hair, their tails are tufted at the tip and their coats are striped.

Three species of zebra still occur in Africa, two of which are found in East Africa. The most numerous and widespread species in the east is Burchell's, also known as the common or plains zebra. The other is Grevy's zebra, named for Jules Grevy, a president of France in the 1880s who received one from Abyssinia as a gift, and now found mostly in northern Kenya. (The third species, Equus zebra, is the mountain zebra, found in southern and southwestern Africa.)

The Nyala bull is large, but slenderly built with a very narrow body. It has a white chevron between the eyes with 2-3 white spots on its cheek. The sides of its body has white stripes and there are 2-3 white spots on its thigh. The Nyala bull has a long mane of shaggy black hair under the neck continuing along its underside.
Nyala are almost exclusively browsers except when grass is young and green. They feed on fruits, pods, twigs and leaves.

Habitat is normally dense bush near water.

BLUE WILDEBEEST IN TEMBE ELEPHANT PARK

Blue wildebeest are much larger and heavier than the Black Wildebeest and their horns curve to the side outwards and then up, unlike the horns of Black Wildebeest that curve downward, forward and then upwards from the front. Blue Wildebeest have a black mane and tail (Black Wildebeest have whitish tails and manes)

The African Harrier-Hawk is a Southern African bird that belongs to the Accipitridae bird family group which includes birds such as Raptors, Old Vultures, Osprey.

The description for the African Harrier-Hawk (Latin name Polyboroides typus) can be found in the 7th Edition of the Roberts Birds of Southern Africa. The Polyboroides typus can be quickly identified by its unique Roberts identification number of 169 and the detailed description of this bird is on page 505. You will find a picture of the African Harrier-Hawk on page 433.

NOTE: The reference for the information following is "Roberts Birds of Southern Africa", 7th Edition*. This edition contained a number of taxonomic changes as well as changes to English names used traditionally and in earlier editions of most bird books in South Africa. The following paragraph notes such changes if any.

This bird is known as Gymnogene in the Roberts 6th Edition. There have been no changes in the Latin name for the African Harrier-Hawk between the Roberts 6th and Roberts 7th Edition

The African Harrier-Hawk is known in Afrikaans as Kaalwangvalk.