Animals of Namibia

We have started to see interesting animals. Basically, Namibia has 2 types of animals: the ones that live in the ocean and the ones that live in the desert. Interestingly, the desert animals also survive other places in the world, but have adapted to this very arid environment.

The Walvis Bay area of Namibia is home to approximately 60,000 migrating flamingos. Picture 1 shows a small number of them. The Bay is also home to the lovely white pelicans shown in Picture 2. Finally, the cute fellow in Picture 3 is an adolescent Cape Fur Seal. He has separated from the pack to get some peace and quiet and rest. When he’s full-grown he’ll weigh 500 lb. or so. If we remember our zoology, fur seals are the only seals with ears.

Moving inland, our first finds were the behinds of ostriches (Picture 4). They moved quickly away from us as we approached.  Picture 5 is a Klipspringer—a small deer-like critter that’s about 2 feet tall to the top of his head. We used lots of zoom, so the picture is not as clear as we would like. Picture 6 shows a Jackal that’s very wary of people in 4 X 4s. They eat dead seals, birds and whatever they can scavenge in the beach area. Picture 7 shows Springbok, which are antelopes that survive on the flowers of a very scrubby-looking beach plant in the sand dunes.

It doesn’t rain in Namibia. The only moisture the plants and animals get is from a fog that rolls in overnight and hangs around until about 11:00 AM. They also get moisture from the plants they eat.  They’ve managed to adapt to this very harsh environment.