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Did you know?
- The stomach of crocodile has a size of football ball, he eats little, but many times per day.
- Hippo weights 3,2 tones and is one of the heaviest land mammals.
- Giraffe is one of the rare animals that have horns at birth.
- The elephants walk on tiptoe, because under their heel they have thick layer of fat.
- The biggest snakes of the world can eat a human in one time and a meal lasts for one year.
- Flamingos get the color of their feathers because of their specific nutrition.
- African elephant can run faster then a human and can walk several hours without any rest.
- In first year of hippo’s life 45% of them die.
- Shark is swimming with average speed of 3km/h and maximum speed of 95 km/h.
- Giraffe has a same number of vertebrae like most of the mammals, but theirs are much longer.
- Bushbabies got a name because of their sounds that reminded first explorers of crying babies.
- Elephants communicate through vibrations that they make by hitting the ground with their feet.
- Most of the elephants sleep standing and only 2-3 hours per day.
- Hippo can stay 5 minutes under the water-surface and can even run on the bottom of the lake.
- The biggest known shark in the world was 13 meters long and had 15 tones
- Leopard likes to drink water everyday, but he can stay without it up to one month.
- Wild elephant can eat 230 kg of food and drink 125 liters of water per day sometimes at once.
- Near relative of African ostrich is South American nandu and Australian emus.
- Ostrich, zebra and giraffe can kill with their kick even the mighty lion.
- Turtles, birds and crocs like to rest on the backs of hippos.
- African tribes are hunting bushbabies by leaving a palm wine in the forest and collecting drunk animals from it.
- Warthog can run 50 km/h and they are very skillful to defend themselves.
- The head of the rhino weights 200 kg.
- Black leopard or Panther was first considered as different species, but in same family can be puppies of normal and black colour.
- The biggest turtle in the world is belonging to the species of leatherback and weights 752 kg.
- The grey rat is living everywhere in the world except polar countries. One couple can have up to 800 babies in just one year.
- Insect-eating bats produce ultrasound of very high frequency, with echoes that bounce back, they get all necessary information.
- One of the most shamefaced animals in area of high and low tide is octopus.
- The longest recorded jump of bushbaby from one branch to another was more then 7 meters.
- From 1830 on each year 10 to 30 thousand slaves were sold at slave market on Zanzibar.
- Coconut palm can live up to 100 years but can reproduce only 20 years.
- Warthog’s only enemies are lion and leopard.
- In darkness leopard can see 6 times and hear 2 times better then human.
- Monkey species of red colobus are living only in forest Jozani on Zanzibar Island.
- Cheetahs are running 120 km/h, but only 20 seconds. This is still enough for successful hunting.
- Insectivorous bats obtain most of the water they need from their prey, cave bats can lick up condensation.
Lake Nyasa
It is the third largest lake in Tanzania after Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. It has another name so some people name it Lake Malawi. It is more then 550 km long and up to 75 km wide. In some parts it is deeper then 700 meters. It surface is 29.600 km2. The largest tributary is the Ruhuhu and its outlet is the Shire River, a tributary of the Zambezi River.
Location
Lake Nyasa borders 3 neighbouring countries: Malavi, Tanzania and Mozambique. Lake Malawi lies in the rift valley formed by the East African Rift where the African tectonic plate is splitting in two. The lake itself is approximately 40,000 years old. It is approximately 350 km south east of Lake Tanganyika.
History
David Livingstone was the first European to reach the lake, arriving at its shores in 1859 and naming it "Lake Nyasa. Much of the area surrounding the lake was subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom to form the colony of Nyasaland. Today they form lacustrine enclaves: Malawian territory surrounded by Mozambique waters.
Origin of the name
The name of the lake itself is also disputed. Malawi claims the lake is named 'Lake Malawi' while international maps and other countries (most notably Tanzania) claim the name of the lake to be 'Lake Nyasa'. The origins of the dispute in the name have their background in geopolitical disputes that began prior to Malawi's independence in 1964, when it was previously known as Nyasaland.
Flora
A notable feature of both islands is the large number of Baobab trees. The islands support a population of several thousand people, who, besides fishing the waters of the lake, grow cassava, bananas and mangos.
Fauna
Lake Malawi has traditionally provided a major food source to the residents of Malawi as it is rich in fish, the most famous of which are the chambo, consisting of any one of four species of the cichlid genus Nyasalapia, as well as the kampango, a large catfish (Bagrus meridionalis). The fish are an important export for Malawi, but wild populations are increasingly threatened by overfishing and pollution. Other wildlife resident in the lake includes crocodiles, hippopotamuses, monkeys, and a large population of African Fish Eagles which feed off the fish population.
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