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Rarely seen
There are some animals that one sees often, like impala in the bushveld for instance, or snappers on a marine reef – then there are shy creatures, those that hide, those that camouflage themselves really well, and those that are rarely seen.
Rare sightings
Over the past two years Earth-Touch film crews in a variety of different locations have managed to locate some of the more elusive species that inhabit our beautiful planet
paperfish
The white ‘scales’ that hang off the skin of the paperfish are old, dead skin. Twice a month, these fish actually shed their skin, like reptiles do.
The eye of the paperfish is like mercury, a highly reflective little mirror that picks up the colour of its body. For a glimpse of a paperfish, visit Bikini Reef yields another variety of paperfish or Rare species on Ribbon Reef. Both clips were filmed at Sodwana Bay, South Africa.
Puff adders
Puff adders are thick, robust snakes with large, flat, triangle-shaped heads. Their colouring ranges from yellow-brown to light-brown and they have black chevrons on their backs.
These snakes emerge in the early evening to take up a position from which they can ambush their prey, mainly rodents. The species is not that rare, but few people have seen a pair mating, as in the clip Puff adders mate, filmed in Botswana
Seahorses
Some people believe that these delicate little creatures are the stuff of fairytales, but we can prove that they really do exist.
Seahorses are small fish with horse-like heads, plates covering their bodies, and a longish tail which they use to cling to seaweed. They are equipped with a dorsal fin, but tail and anal fins are absent.
View a seahorse in the clip Seahorse sighted again, filmed in Sodwana Bay, South Africa after much searching by the film crew.
Red duikers
Red duikers are tiny, thickset antelopes which are usually solitary, though you might spot a pair or even three of them if you’re really lucky.
They are native to South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia, and occur mostly in indigenous forests and shrubland.
Red duikers (Cephalophus natalensis) are shy, and will dive for cover at the slightest hint of danger. Although they have bright red coats that you would think would make them stand out, their colouring actually helps to camouflage them in the forest undergrowth, so they are hard to see. Red duikers like to eat leaves, flowers and fruit that have recently fallen from the forest canopy above them.
View red duikers in the wild in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in the Earth-Touch videos, Timid red duiker in coastal forest and Red duikers emerge after rain.
roan antelope
In South Africa’s Blyde River Canyon, Earth-Touch captures footage of a shy roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus). In this particular clip, Elusive roan get frisky, there is a breeding herd of roan, numbering about 17 animals, comprising a large dominant bull, about six adult females, juveniles and calves.
This antelope’s name is a reference to its colouring, which has hints of pinkish-red. Roan are found in wooded savannah with open grassland and a ready supply of water. Their sharp, thick horns are used in defence against strange males or in tussles for dominance, when the horns are used in a backward sweeping motion, which often results in severe injury.
Predators include leopard, lion, hyena, wild dog and crocodile.
bird dropping spiders
On location in Thailand, Darryl Sweetland recorded this interesting diary entry: “Today I saw a particularly large ‘dropping’ which appeared to have a fly feeding on it. On closer inspection this turned out to be an extraordinary spider, and the fly, far from being the diner, was actually the dinner.
“The spider’s body pattern not only mimicked the darker part of a bird dropping wonderfully well, but it also held its white legs out sideways and together to mimic the white part that droppings often contain.
“The fly was still intact and must have just been caught. While the spider was feeding on it, an ant approached several times, seemingly also attracted to the ‘dropping’, and the spider appeared to make a grab for it despite being already busy with the fly.” Watch the mimicry in Green cat snake escapes floodwaters.
This spider derives its name from mimicking bird droppings to avoid predators like birds.
For more information on other species of bird dropping spiders, click here.
labeo
On location in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, while diving in the Nxamaseri Channel, the Earth-Touch crew came across a strange-looking fish with a distinctly long and almost lacy-looking dorsal fin and tail on a mudfish-type body.
They identified it as an upper Zambezi labeo – a rarely seen fish. View it on Unusual labeo’s lacy fins.
bateleur
Widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of deserts and lowland forests, the bateleur (Terathopius ecaudatus) is usually found either singly or in pairs.
With its unmistakeable black, white and chestnut plumage and short tail, the bateleur flies fairly low, at speeds of around 65kmph (39mph). It hunts during the day, feeding on reptiles and birds. When in flight, the bateleur makes a loud flapping sound with its wings.
In Botswana’s Leroo La Tau, our crew captured a rare moment as one of these majestic birds stood in the shallows to drink. See the clip Vultures gather to drink.
Rare behaviour
It’s usually the female lions that take turns to watch over young cubs when there is a hunt on, but in the Xakanaka pride of Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana, there are two male lions (Panthera leo) that are so gentle with their cubs that this important task is often left to them. For a window to this rare behaviour, click on the clip Lionesses set off to hunt.
One of the largest antelope species found in the bushveld is the kudu. A female kudu can weigh up to 200kg (441lb), especially if she is pregnant. (Southern Africa’s Mammals – A Field Guide, Robin Frandsen, Honeyguide Publications, Sandton, 1998.) These animals are primarily browsers, but sometimes eat grass … and in the clip Odd meal for a kudu we see a pregnant female chewing on an old buffalo skull.
Kudu are large antelope with delicately marked faces and huge ears. Since they frequent thick bush, they rely mainly on their keen sense of hearing to detect predators. The irregular striping down their flanks serves to break their profiles to better disguise them in thick, scrubby bush. They also have a very high length-to-breadth ratio, so their narrow bodies are perfectly adapted to weave with precision through the vegetation.
Kudu males do not generally have particularly aggressive encounters, since most disputes are settled by visual displays of size. Kudu males develop heavy manes which make them appear larger and more impressive. When, on occasion, they do engage in physical encounters, they lock horns and a tug of war ensues. In rare cases, two males intertwined like this can become inextricably locked and subsequently die. View three magnificent males on Kudu males make a rare appearance.
African wild dogs (Lyacon pictus) are an endangered species, found in packs of up to 40 animals.
Hunting is carried out by the whole pack, which chases after the prey until the animal is exhausted. It is then brought down by a well-aimed bite.
In Botswana, Earth-Touch crew members filmed some young wild dogs that had broken away from their pack in order to find females and form a pack of their own. One of the wild dogs slowly started to approach a herd of African buffalo, putting his head and shoulders in a low stalking position. He jumped towards the large bovines and darted back and forth in front of them as if inviting them to chase him.
Occasionally one of the buffalo would lunge forward in an attempt to free itself of the canine irritation, but they never showed any aggression and were not too bothered by the dog’s harmless and playful interaction with them. See this unusual behaviour in the clip African wild dogs tease buffalo.
Also see African wild dogs cross Imfolozi flood plain, Wild dogs follow buffalo herd to the river and Wild dogs rest and play
A male blue stingray (Dasyatis chrysonota) tries to mate with a female, but it is not to be. See his mating attempt in New behaviour on rocky reef.
These stingrays are found in sandy, shallow marine habitats. They have a brownish disc with blue mottled patterning. They wriggle their way under the sand on the seabed and lie in wait for passing small fish and crustaceans on which they feed.