#022 - Quelea

"There's a starman waiting in the sky He'd like to come and meet us But he thinks he'd blow our minds" The southern sky by night could be indeed mind blowing. In this last episode we reach for the stars… A Late Night Talk with Russel Crossey about astronomy and ancient beliefs.

They form one of the biggest crowds in the bird kingdom: Quelea. Sometimes they appear as enormous morphing clouds at the sky. Ross Hawkins tells us how they manage to do this.

Your are not thaaaat into birding? No problem. Even without thorough knowledge of the rarest LBJs you can enjoy the colourful flying variety… Ross Hawkins explains what a huge amount we could learn by only looking at their beak and wing design.

Birder or twitcher? No matter what. You will find birds on every safari, even if the big game plays hide and seek. Ross Hawkins introduces us to the world of feathered creatures and to the citizen based science and conservation program of the Southern African Bird Atlas Project.

After their relocation in apartheid times, the Makuleke people started to claim back their land. The story of their success and what their future plans are is told by Eric, chairperson of the royal family of Makuleke.

Nature conservation can't be regarded high enough, but sometimes it goes hand in hand with tragedy. In this episode, Norman, the chief of the Makuleke royal kraal, tells what happened to his village and makes the concession in northern Kruger possible.

Lanner Gorge in the Pafuri region of South Africa got its name from the lanner falcon, which you could watch from the rim soaring on your eye level… But that's not the only sight. Looking down into the gorge, it seems the earth opens up as a history book. In this episode we have a chat with Ross Hawkins about geology and the breaking up of Gondwanaland.

Can nature build its very own cathedral? Yes, it can. With pastel green trunks as pillars and a leafy canopy more impressive than every elaborate rib vault. The hymns are sung by countless birds and high mass is every day every time. Quentin Swanevelder calls this place, the Fever Tree Forest in northern Kruger, his workplace.

Is there a mind in the mound? The witch hat like constructions are an iconic feature of the African landscape. But their inhabitants are not only gifted builder, they also farm fungus and have an elaborate social system. In this episode, Ross Hawkins talks about termites.

Don't trust Hollywood. Not only the movie "Lion King" portrays hyenas as ugly and mean creatures. In fact they are intelligent and co-operative with strong social bonds within their well-organised clans. Moreover With only four extant species, the Hyaenidae is the fifth-smallest biological family in the Carnivora, and one of the smallest in the class Mammali. Russel Crossey talks about the two most common species: The brown and the spottetd hyena.