Colours of Wildlife: An Outing to Goro and Chinaka
Created | Updated May 25, 2024
An Outing to Goro and Chinaka
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
On Saturday, 20th April 2024, I accompanied reptile expert Ruan Stander to the Goro Game Reserve and the Chinaka Game Lodge, both in the western Soutpansberg region of Limpopo, South Africa. The Soutpansberg is a low and ancient mountain range, with a variety of geologies and different habitats, from wet mountain rainforest to dry scrub on rocky hillsides to dry woodland on deep sand. We were looking specifically for some digging critters. Ruan is studying dwarf burrowing skinks, and in the region where we went, there are two very similar species living almost in the same place, but the one a bit higher up on the mountainsides, while the other stays mainly in the sandy plains.
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Goro Game Reserve is privately owned and, as I understand it, primarily a hunting farm, accessible only by appointment. Luckily Ruan could get access through his fame. So we went, entering early the morning and heading first of all up the hill to see if we could find the Limpopo Dwarf Burrowing Skink, Scelotes limpopoensis. These are tiny little burrowers, evolutionarily in the process of losing their limbs. We found a juvenile, which you can tell by its blue tail. Finding them entails turning over lots of rocks and fallen trees, and then digging in the soil beneath! This was mostly Ruan's job. And hard work it was! Dwarf burrowing skinks eat a variety of small invertebrates also found in the loose soil, such as ants and termites and their eggs and larvae, small cockroaches, and silverfish.
Along the way I also kept an eye open for plants. The Soutpansberg region has spectacular botanic diversity, and much of it is found in rocky, hilly regions like these. Here first is a small, thorny succulent, Euphorbia aeruginosa. Many euphorbias much resemble cacti, but are very distantly related to them. This one has bluish-green stems and reddish-brown spines. Here they were growing in cracks between rocks. These plants grow to about 15 cm in height.
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We also saw BIG euphorbias! These were Euphorbia excelsa. It took me some help from local botanical expert Norbert Hahn to identify them properly! This species also occurs in the Olifants River Valley in Sekhukhuneland. These are much larger than the previous ones, on occasion reaching 10 m tall! But the ones we saw here were much smaller, about 2-4m tall.
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Another succulent we found on the rocky hills were these Kalanchoe sexangularis plants. Some species of Kalanchoe, especially those from Madagascar, are popular garden plants. These ones are also great for gardens, with their leaves that turn bright red in the sun, and contrasting yellow flowers. They are easy to grow, but can't handle frost. They're excellent for rock gardens or open flower beds in warm, sunny regions.
After having found our lizards up on the hills (but we had to search for them in patches of humus-rich soil, under trees, in level spots between the more rocky parts), we headed down to the sandy plains to look for the other species, the White-bellied Dwarf Burrowing Skink, Scelotes albiventris. We found another juvenile, and here it is! It, too, has a blue tail, which colour it will lose at adulthood. It is extremely similar to the other one, the main difference being that one (I'm not sure which one) has three toes on its tiny forelimbs, the other has only two.
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The vegetation on the sandy plains is much different from that on the rocky hills. Here there must be water deep below the surface, probably flowing down from the mountains, so that trees that can push their roots down deep enough, can access it and grow tall. Here Ruan stands next to a Shepherd's Tree, Boscia albitrunca. This tree is on record for having some of the deepest recorded tree roots, 60 m, for a tree less than 6 m in height! This one is among the largest shepherd's trees I've ever seen. This species is very valuable to the ecology, with many animals browsing its leaves, and both birds and mammals feasting on the fruits.
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Another tree typical of the sandy plains is the Knob Thorn, Senegalia nigrescens. This again is a nutritious tree valuable to animals, both its leaves and pods being high in protein. It is named for the large, knobby bosses that form on the trunks; young trees can be very knobby indeed, but in older trunks the knobs spread and flatten out. This is one of the largest knob thorn trees I've ever seen! It is a favourite food tree for giraffes, who consume the twigs leaves, thorns and all!
Other wildlife we found, include more diggers. Here you see the Stripe-bellied Legless Skink, Acontias subtaeniatus. You may have read the article I wrote about the Miombo Patch in Venda, where I showed you a Giant Legless Skink, Acontias plumbeus. This is a close relative, but much smaller! These, too, we found in sandy soil amidst much leaf litter. It was actually quite common and we found several. But the species itself is overall not very abundant, as it has a small range, centred around this region.
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Here's also a photo of Ruan posing the legless skink. He made use of the opportunity to take some photographs; this species has actually not been photographed much. He goes to much trouble to arrange the hapless lizard into a natural-looking pose!
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Another tiny digger is Delalande's Beaked Blind Snake, Rhinotyphlops lalandei. These are smaller than many earthworms! They eat ants, ant larvae and eggs.
Let's finish up with a couple of invertebrates. First, here is a sturdy millipede! Not sure which species. They can grow much larger still than this! Millipedes are friendly critters, and harmless to humans. Just don't eat them! They have cyanide in their tissues. Still there are some things that seem to be immune, such as hedgehogs and civets, who feature millipedes as part of their diet!
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Here is another friendly little invertebrate, a caterpillar. It is fearless because it is covered in stinging hairs. This is the immature form of a Lappet or Eggar Moth, of the family Lasiocampidae. The adults are also very cute and fuzzy, but they don't sting! We actually didn't find this caterpillar at Goro, but at the Chinaka Game Lodge, which we visited later the day, in search of some more burrowing skinks. We didn't spend much time there, actually. It's a fine reserve, and I hope we'll visit again for a bit longer.
All in all it was quite a rewarding outing. I really want to visit Goro again, perhaps this time with the plant people! Chinaka also; it's actually not that far from Polokwane, and it is a very pleasant piece of Limpopo Valley bushveld.
