When a group of individuals find themselves in a remote area miles from any
pub or casino, their natural instinct will take over and they will immediately
organise a social event or barbeque. I have seen this in the time I have been
here as many rangers and other staff congregate at the fireside with a cold
beer and a funny story or two while we gaze at the sirloin or barbeque sausage
sizzling and spitting away over the fire. But it's only those smelly bipedal
hooligans who run around the bush and drive old Land Rovers who do that. Which
other animal would you think suitable for this behaviour?
Baboons may spring to mind, but lately there have been insanely raucous
internal fights in the local troop so no possibility of a barbeque there. The
Gosa gang? No, Gandalf is too busy watching over Cleopatra and cleaning out
their burrow. The zebras? Giraffe? Warthogs? Springbok? No No No No. There is
one animal who is far more social than any other Kalahari critter and whose
very name even denotes this fact: The Sociable Weaver. These birds are only
found in Southern Africa (as are the crazy kalahari rangers!) and are gregarious;
which is a scientific way of saying that these guys NEVER miss a chance to
party! The birds build huge communal thatched nests in trees which can house
over 100 breeding pairs and can last for over 150 years! Now that my fellow
readers is a kalahari party! The nests are constantly being maintained and
improved and newcomers simply add on to the existing structure. Communal
nesting such as this is related to the age old nature documentary narrative
concerning safety in numbers; If there are many of you, your chances of being
eaten are less. As a further safety feature, the entrance to each individual
nest faces downwards which prevents any other 'party crashers' from entering,
such as snakes or hawks.
However I remember a story told to me by a kalahari ranger some years ago
about how a honey badger had launched a raid on one of these gargantuan
structures only 130km from where I sit now. It was late afternoon, and a honey
badger had been pacing up and down below a large sociable weaver colony. Suddenly,
as if a light bulb went on, the badger started to climb the tree. Higher and
higher he clawed his way up, until he was able to climb on top of the colony.
What happened from here onwards is an extremely rare event. The badger began to
dig downwards into the nest, and in a few minutes had disappeared into the
depths of the straw structure. The weavers went ballistic and birds started
flying out of the colony like fighter jets launching off an aircraft carrier on
high alert. And still no sign of the honey badger. The colony structure shook
violently for around 10 minutes, and suddenly our little mammalian pac-man
appeared out the bottom of the nest...he had dug his way down through the
entire colony!! With an almighty crash followed by a ton of broken straw and
twigs, our badger exited the colony and hit the ground with a solid THUD!
Above, the weavers continued to fly about furiously in a flat panic. Slowly a
little black head appeared out of the scrap heap that had fell from the nest
above, and our badger crawled out like a contented puppy from his blanket.
After a quick shake, the badger took one last look at the colony and trundled
off into the bush. A curious incident, but at the same time one with a very
good explanation. The colony is full of bird nests. Bird nests have eggs. Honey
badgers like eggs. And seeing as you can't get to the eggs from the bottom, the
honey badger climbed to the top and dug his way down, munching on eggs as he
made his way through the weaver nests. I wish I was there to witness this event
for myself, but I'm sure I will have many of my own encounters to recount one
day.
And so in many ways the life of the Sociable Weaver is much like the our
social life in the city; living on top of each other, constant chatter ad banter,
huge parties, and one odd looking character who always seems to invite himself
to a the party which you tried so desperately to keep a secret. Ah we have much
to learn from our little weaver friends!
Rob’s song for the
day: Clocks – Coldplay featuring Beuna Vista Social Club
Keep in touch
Rob
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