Update

Hey guys, sorry this is so late.

So, the past few weeks have been a bit hectic. They've included a trip to Rondevlei, a snake practical, another two Nature Studies tests, countless PoE activities and a basic fire training prac.

Short description:

The Rondevlei prac involved an ecology lecture, a Californian king snake, an egg eater, a couple of molesnakes, a Western leopard toad, several species of water birds, a study of the grasses and a very friendly porcupine named Pippa :)

The snake practical was pretty cool. The first snake out of its box was a Cape cobra, followed by a puffadder, and then a molesnake. We were then able to handle a couple of egg eaters, a skaapsteker, a red-lipped hatchet and an olive house snake.

The first Nature Studies test was on classification and taxonomy, bacteria and fungi, plants, arthropods and molluscs. The second was a nation-wide rewrite of the first semester's test, on geology, astronomy, weather and climate, ecology and biomes. Yay.

The PoE activities were pretty boring, so I won't go into details, but let's just say that they involved grasses and leaves. Exciting, huh?

The fire training we did today, and it was refreshing to do some physical activity for a change, crawling through pipes, using fire extinguishers, playing with fire hoses, carrying bricks through a burning building [container] and extinguishing fires with the hose :)

Anyways, on Monday I shall be off on a four-and-a-half-week EcoTraining course at Selati Game Reserve (west of the Kruger National Park), where I'll hopefully obtain my FGASA Level One. If I study. Which I may not. Oh well. I'll be keeping a log of everything. If I remember. Which I very well may not.

Ok, cheers. See you in five weeks.

Frogs 'n Toads

Ok, so, I didn't go to last Thursday's prac, because, well, I overslept.. ahem..

Anyway, today in Nature Studies we went through Chapter 11: Amphibians. You can imagine my excitement (me being partial to frogs and all).

We went through some interesting things about life cycles, habitats, reproduction, etc. etc., but I found a couple of things that really boggled my mind:

There are a few species of large frogs and toads: the giant toad, the Goliath frog/toad and the giant bullfrog. The giant bullfrog, a species from Western Africa, can be up to one metre in length - from the tip of the snout to the tip of the toe (outstretched) --->

I also found out about the South African platanna. In the early 1900s, the frog was used to test for pregnancy. A sample of urine would be taken from the suspected woman and this would be injected under the frog's skin. If the platanna then began to develop eggs, this meant that the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin, which in turn would indicate the woman's pregnancy. This method of testing for pregnancy is still used, and is regarded as one of the most reliable pregnancy tests.

I'll post a link to the Two Oceans Aquarium's site, where you'll be able to read up on the platanna. Google the others - there are some awesome pictures :)

Peace,

Andy