the skeleton coast.

the skeleton coast

this morning i caught the end of a national geographic channel documentary called ‘living wild, secrets of the night’. the segment i watched was about the strandwolf or brown hyenas that live in what is called the skeleton coast in namibia. i was fascinated not just by the animal and it’s characteristics but by the landscape of it’s habitat.

i watched about a female hyena and her pups and their possiblity of survival. a nomad male was spotted in her territory and the battle of dominance between the two began. later, the documentary went to show how the nomad male crossed boundaries where clans of seals laid about off the shore, claimed a seal pup and brought it back to the female and her pups as an offering. he was accepted into her clan with much enthusiam by his new adoptive pups. the narrator went on to mention that their survival rate went on to be the best it could because of the offering and that the next litter of pups would likely be his.throughout the documentary, they showed scenery of the skeleton coast. amazing. heavily fogged, it looks haunting and yet still inviting, especially to someone with taste like my own. according to wikipedia, the bushman called it the region “the land God made in anger”, while portuguese sailors once referred to it as “the gates of hell”. interesting, isn’t it? also, the coast is named for the shipwrecks caused by rocks offshore and from the skeletons of those who died in the desert.

other wildlife existing there are some of my favorites such as elephants, lions and giraffes along with rhinos, vultures, ghost crabs (seems appropriately named), jackals, gemsbok, springbok and the common cape sparrow (ah, i love sparrows).

while ‘writing’ this blog, i’ve been going through several websites. if you are interested in finding out more about the skeleton coast and its wildlife visit the following sites:
skeleton coast safaris, namibia skeleton coast, skeleton coast namibia safari parks, brown hyena research project, naturetrek, etc…

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(photos googled)