Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams

In 1989 Douglas Adams (of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame) was asked by the BBC to accompany zoologist and conservationist Mark Carwardine, on a series of conservation expeditions. Their task being to investigate some rare and endangered species. The result of this was a BBC radio series, and also one of my favourite […]

House Guests

House Guests. Until recently, the phrase used to fill me with actual fear and dread. For several years I wasn’t coping at all well (health-wise), and the thought of having to be hospitable and sociable was scary. I was barely getting through the day just looking after myself, and our two pets.  Having to plan […]

Another toad story

Since I already tweaked your interest in toads with my last post, I think you might like this story by The White Coat Underground titled Should I Lick This? It was of special interest to me since Rosie (the dog) likes catching and licking toads, and then comes inside frothing at the mouth and vomiting. […]

Message for chocolate lovers

If you like chocolate you need to be grateful to the Sulawesi Toad (Ingerophrynus celebensis). According to a group of German and Australian agricultural scientists: The world’s supply of chocolate depends partly on hard work by ugly toads in Indonesia . . . The toads like to dine on an invasive pest, the yellow crazy […]

Doing my “homework”

I am currently researching a couple of the blog topics which have been suggested to me (see The Suggestion Box). They’re very good and interesting topics – things I’ve wondered about myself. They just require a little more effort, in research and thought, to put together.  It’s not just a matter of dashing off a […]

Training a SUPERdog

From the first week we had her, I started putting a harness on Rosie (our Staffie puppy) and walking with her in our garden. Later we graduated to the  streets of our neighbourhood, where I would describe it less as me walking the dog, than me being dragged around the neighbourhood by the dog! We […]

Check out these comments

For those of you interested in things ecological see comments under the Kalahari: Herds post: http://southerncape.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/kalahari-herds/#comments

Fighting like cats and dogs

That’s the old saying used to describe amongst other things, how children and siblings, and couples fight. But, it’s not really true. It should be Fighting like cats or Fighting like dogs. The general misconception is that because cats and dogs are different this is going to cause conflict. In reality, as any animal behaviourist, […]

The Suggestion Box

I have now had a couple of people come to me with suggestions for blog posts. Mostly people that don’t have their own blogs, but also bloggers who want to know more about some topic, but don’t want to research or write about it themselves. My interests are fairly broad, but the things I write […]

The Movie versus The Book

I so often hear people say they loved a book, but were horribly disappointed by the film adaptation. Or vice versa. That’s if they bothered to read the book after seeing the film. I feel differently about it. I have always loved movies, and very often saw the film adaptation before I read the book. […]