Syncerus caffer caffer (Sparrman, 1779)

This is not a water-buffalo.

Semi-captive - photographed on a privately owned game-range, in Lusaka, Zambia, in August 2011 using an Olympus E-420 DSLR with 40-150mm lens. 

As the nominate subspecies, it doesn't really need an adjective, and can just be called the Buffalo. Sorry, Americans, but Bison bison is clearly a bison, not a buffalo. 

As already stated, it is also not a water-buffalo. If you are so attached to your colloquial names for what was formerly the most numerous component of the Nearctic megafauna - a title now held by the cosmopolitan ape, Homo sapiens - then you may refer to this lovely creature as an African Buffalo or, if you are certain that it belongs to this particular (the nominate) subspecies, the Cape buffalo.

If you feel like avoiding the term buffalo altogether, you could call it:

Syncerus caffer caffer

(Sparrman, 1779)

 - Bovini  

- Bovinae 

- Bovidae   

- Pecora       

- Ruminantia  

- Cetruminantia

- Artiofabula      

- Cetartiodactyla  

- Ferungulata         

See also Hipposideros vittatus.

- Laurasiatheria        

- Boreoeutheria          

- Eutheria                     

- Theria                          

- Mammalia                     

- Cynodontia                     

- Theriodonta                      

- Therapsida                          

- Sphenocodontidae                

- Sphenocodontia                      

- Eupelycosauria                         

- Synapsida                                    

- Amniota                                         

See also Synchiropus splendidus, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Zootoca vivipara, Lygodactylus capensis, Troglodytes troglodytes, Chalcophaps indica, Ardea goliath, Sterna hirundo, Burhinus vermiculatus and Tockus alboterminatus.  

- Reptiliomorpha                                       

- Tetrapoda                                                  

See also Rana temporaria and Chiromantis xerampelina.

- Sarcopterygii                                                 

- Osteichthyes                                                   

- Teleostomi                                                         

- Gnathostomata                                                     

- Vertebrata                                                               

- Craniata                                                                    

- Chordata                                                                      

- Deuterostomia                                                                

- Nephrozoa                                                                          

See also Tettigonia viridissima, Stictogryllacris punctata, Heteropternis thoracica, Cyathosternum prehensile, Lobosceliana loboscelis, Humbe tenuicornis, Sibylla, Pephricus, Grypocoris stysi, Ranatra, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Hagenomyia tristis, Phyllobius pomaceus, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus, Oedemera noobilis, Cheilomenes lunata, Melolontha melolontha, Neojulodis vittipennis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Andrena nigroaenea, Panorpa germanica, Chloromyia formosa, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Diasemopsis meigenii, Metadon inermis,Dolichotachina caudata Megistocera filipes, Crambus pascuella, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Metisella willemi, Acada biseriata, Anthocharis cardamines, Sphinx ligustri, Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni, Enallagma cyathigerum , Lestinogomphus angustus, Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Hyllus argyrotoxus, Alopecosa barbipes, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi, Pardosa amentata.

- Bilateralia                                                                               

- Eumetazoa                                                                                

- Animalia                                                                                      

- Eukaryota                                                                                      

  

  

And that, folks, is all. 

This delightful pair were photographed at Parays game farm - like them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Parays-Animal-Sanctuary/168769346520490

 

                                                            

Lygodactylus capensis (Smith, 1849)

We're going to start with a taxonomically irrelevant discussion for this one.

Some years ago, a university friend of a friend said, upon learning that my primary interest in vertebrates was amphibians and reptiles, "What, the relict groups?"

I should note that he was British.

It is easy to get the impression, in the temperate zones and particularly in Western Europe, that amphibians and reptiles as world-wide groups are insignificant and composed entirely of a few species that are clinging on. Bearing in mind that each group on its own is more diverse than the mammals, and the amphibians almost rival the birds in terms of sheer number of species, this is clearly a false impression. Having considered this, I believe that it can only be perpetuated because of two euro-centric factors:

1) Both groups are composed primarily of ectothermic species, which are usually dependant upon periods of warm weather for breeding, so relatively few species have colonised our cold and geographically (but NOT historically) insignificant peninsula since the beginning of this most recent interglacial.

2) Members of both groups suffer disproportionately (among vertebrates) around human settlements, as they lack the dispersive ability of many birds, and unlike mammals, which have popular appeal, amphibians and reptiles both suffer (quite unjustified) persecution at the hands of many ill-informed persons who variously think they are unsightly, dangerous or even evil.

Which is why snakes could make a very good case suing the Vatican for slander.

Before this becomes a religious argument, though, onto the good news: the kind of news that has large, unblinking eyes, a scaly tail and four (often adhesive) feet.

Geckos. (Eukaryota, Animalia, Eumetazoa, Bilateralia, Nephrozoa, Deuterostomia, Chordata, Craniata, Vertebrata, Gnathostomata, Teleostomi, Osteichthys, Sarcopterygii, Tetrapoda, Reptiliomorpha, Amniota, Reptilia, Romeriida, Diapsida, Sauria, Lepidosauromorpha, Lepidosauria, Squamata, Scleroglossa, Gekkota, Gekkonidae)

Many geckos, particularly in the tropics, enjoy a much greater respect from the human population than their less adhesive relatives elsewhere, and a number of species have come to thrive not only on the edges of human settlements, but actually within the concrete hearts, where their habits of eating various pest insects earns them a welcome place in the disused corners of the human home.

Today's species is an imperfect synanthrope, meaning that it can do well out of a certain level of human settlement, but eventually (usually at the point at which people start poisoning ants), it can no longer survive in that environment (in case you didn't work it out, it eats ants. Poisoning ants kills the individuals that then eat those ants, and starves the survivors, who have nothing left to eat. Don't poison ants if you have lizards, frogs or threadsnakes in the area).

Anyway, without further ado;

Lygodactylus capensis

(Smith, 1849)

(Photographed wild in Chongwe District, Lusaka, Zambia in September 2011, Using an Olympus E-420)