Palm Trees, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique

Top pic is a Borassus Palm and above the Lala Palm. The fruit of the Lala Palm is favored by Baboons. They tear open the very tough, fibrous outer skin and eat the contents. I think they eat the pith around the innermost kernel, which is a small round, white ball and this is known as vegetable ivory. It is extremely hard, about the size of a ping pong ball and hollow. Baboons must have incredibly strong teeth and jaws that they can tear the outer skin off.

Ground Hornbill, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique

An unusual experience; this Ground Hornbill stuck around for me to get in a good pic. These are big birds and they have an incredibly strong beak, which they use well to break open tortoise shells, their favorite food.

Baby Herald Snake

This little Herald, no more than 10cm in length showed typical aggression firmly believing he is invincible. One of my favourite snakes, completely harmless to man with a very mild haemo-toxic venom. They are back fanged, the fangs re-curved and blade like and rather than the usual puncture appearance the bite looks like two little incisions. Bites bleed freely for 10 to 15 minutes then the bleeding stops and that is the full extent of the symptoms.

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