life in the desert

This corn cricket joined us for a beer. He sipped a few large drop-mugs and walked away as if he had nothing but water to drink.

The corn crickets are tough residents of Namibia. They excrete large green droplets from the thorax which must taste awful as they have very few enemies that will eat them. Thus they move around quite fearless, as even humans will jump out of the way.

The young animals are vegetarian but grown corn crickets must eat some protein to reproduce. Nature is ruthless when reproduction is at stake. Corn crickets are not hunters but they will eat anything that can not move away fast enough - including each other. One gets run over by a car on the road and the others will know that in no time. As they start to eat another car comes by - this time the meal is larger and more come for the feast ... etc.

Nature has a tough time against humans, but in a country like Namibia there is more than enough space away from roads for the corn crickets to go on creating life.



The mountain monitor is out looking for a mate. The monitor was roughly 1 m (just over 3 feet) long. They are generally higher up in the mountains between boulders, it must be love that brought him down in the open. There is no time to waste, the good time after the rain does not last long. The hot sun and dry air scorch away anything green.