Sunday, February 21, 2010

Other Ugandan Wildlife

There are many creepy crawlies in Africa, but thankfully I hardly see any, especially compared to the -ugh- countless creepy crawlies in South America. Anyway, the first of these 2 pics below is of Logan ACTING as if he is going to eat a grasshopper- a common "delicacy" here but not this type.
The other is not so harmless. It is about a centimeter long and you do not want to touch it or have it touch you (while sleeping, falling on you, or crawling on your clothes and then on you...). It is called a Nairobi Eye (no idea why) but if you try to brush it off you will get acid on you which will burn with blisters and all. Thankfully I've never touched one, but this one was in my bathroom on vacation at Christmas.




FYI you never need to play with caterpillars here in Uganda like we might have as kids in the USA. I remember "woolly worms" that would curl up into a ball as soon as you touch it... but all the caterpillars here are poisonous. They look cute and lightly hairy, but those hairs carry their poison.
One of these days I will remember to take a photo of all the flying ants that come in a swarm from time to time. They just came on Saturday morning, kind of freaked out my friend Janie who was visiting, since there were hundreds of these ants crawling into her room around the screen frames and under the door. Africans gather these ants to fry and eat, but I have never done this myself. I'm just not sure I could get past the crunch and squish as you bite down.