Otters give a grunting cry, which can occasionally be heard when camped near rivers and lakes. They are found on all the large bodies of water, and a favourite haunt is the muddy swamps surrounding Lake Bangwelo.

Civet Cat (Viverra Civetta)

Native Names

Good average skin...... 3ft. 9in. straight.

Fairly numerous, but seldom seen except by the natives, who kill a few when their dogs disturb and tree them.

The Angoni have three different names for the civet cat, which I give above. The skin is black, with greyish spots and stripes, and from the back of the ears to the tail the hair is long, especially about the rump.

They feed mainly on fruits and berries, although they probably eat meat when they can get it.

It is almost wholly a nocturnal animal, and, during all the years I have lived here, I only remember seeing one in the day time, which I saw on the side of a rocky hill when after klipspringers. They live in holes, and possibly in hollow trees at times.

Antbear (Or Aard Vark) (Orycteropus Afer)

Native Names

Chinyanja - Zimba.

Chingoni - Pendwa.

Approximate weight... ... ... 1301b.

This is one of the strangest denizens of Africa, and it is purely nocturnal in its habits. Its abandoned holes will be seen all over this country, as it spends its time digging for termites. It is not difficult to notice when it is " at home," as the earth will be seen to be newly dug, and the fresh spoor of the animal's entrance will be seen. Then it has to be dug out, which will take some time, as the earth is often caked and hard. Its claws and paws must be very powerful, considering the work it does, and, if any animal works hard for its living, surely the antbear does.

Its tongue is long and pendulous and covered with sticky moisture, and it licks up the ants when it finds them in quantities. The Boer name "aard vark" means "earthpig," and in some ways it is not unlike a pig, as it has a long snout. The colour is bluish grey, and it is almost hairless, and the skin is thickly covered with a fatty substance which makes it most difficult to cure, and the only way to preserve it is to thin it down. I never saw one of these animals alive, but I have seen three dead ones killed by the natives.

I will now give a list of other animals and birds to be found here.

Flies And Insects, Etc

Birds

Snakes

The ordinary word for a snake is njoka, and natives do not differentiate unless asked to do so.

I do not know the Chinyanja names for many of the above snakes, and I have got several Chingoni names from an old chief named Shauri, which I could not identify with many I know, as his description was too vague. I have written against each whether it is dangerous, and he seems to think that most of them are, and even states that the python will kill men, and in doing so thrusts its tail in the victim's nose ! The mbevu, mamba, piri, and mbobo, he considers very "bad" snakes, and the latter he affirms kills by hanging from a tree and biting at anything that passes beneath, with fatal results to the passer-by. Few natives can distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes, although they naturally know which are the most dangerous.