Exciting Expeditions

Expeditions can be very hard work, but you also get some time to relax in camps like this one

Recently, I was lucky enough to visit Honduras in Central America with my friend, Sam.  Sam is an ornithologist (a scientist who studies birds) and is lucky enough to work in many places around the world.

I only stayed for a short time with him in Honduras, but we saw a lot of amazing things and made many new friends!

Visiting Central America was particularly exciting for me because it was the first time I have visited the ‘new world’.  The name ‘new world’ is a scientific name for all of the countries from North, South and Central America.  Many of the species that live here are found nowhere else on the planet, such as hummingbirds.

I got the chance to meet lots of other scientists because we were on a big adventure, which the scientists call an expedition!

An expedition is when lots of scientists work in one place together for a period of time, usually in parts of the world that few scientists have ever been.  This is very exciting because the scientists can find species of animals and plants that have never been seen before.

Can you imagine how many species of animals and plants there are in the world?

The answer is that we really don’t know!  We think that it is around five million.  How sad would the world would be without so many wonderful animals and plants?  I am going to share just a few of these species with you over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

Snowy, sleepy Scotland

The snow reminded me of my home in the winter.  It was only a couple of degrees below freezing in Scotland, but I am used to winters that are much colder.  It can get down to 20 or 30 degrees below freezing!

Even though it is cold outside and it gets dark early, I love winter.  I was lucky enough to go and explore the Scottish highlands earlier this year, a real winter wonderland!

I got a good night’s sleep on the Caledonian Express.  We fell asleep on the train as it left London and woke up in the Scottish wilderness!

I travelled to Scotland by train.  The Caledonian Express is a sleeper train, which means that the train travels during the night.  Instead of a seat you get a bed so you can sleep through the whole journey!  It was great.  We got on the train in London and went to bed, and when we woke up the next morning we were travelling through the beautiful, snowy hills of Scotland.

This is Corrour train station. There are no public roads nearby so you can only get here by train or by walking!

We were visiting a very remote part of Scotland that you can only reach by train.  It was very beautiful. Even though I have lived in Britain for a few years now, I have never seen such a beautiful snowy landscape.  It reminded me that you do not have to travel to new countries to have exciting and interesting adventures!  I’ll tell you a bit more about the animals I saw there in my next post.

 

Why do zebras have stripes?

I met this curious Zebra in Kruger National Park in South Africa

Zebras are one of the world’s most famous and recognisable species because of their amazing black and white stripes.  Scientists are not sure why zebras have stripes but they think it is to help disguise them from predators.  The stripey patterns can confuse any animals thinking of eating the zebra, especially at dawn and dusk or if the zebras are far away.

Each zebra has a unique pattern of stripes, just like humans’ finger prints, so they may also use the stripes to help recognise each other.

Zebras are very handsome animals, don’t you think?

Zebras have a very strong digestive system, so they can eat the rough grass that other animals can’t.  After the zebras have eaten the tough old grass, fresh new grass grows for other animals to eat.  Their ability to eat tough old plants means they can often travel through areas other animals can’t, so zebras are often the first animals to move into new areas of grassland.

I think baby zebras are very cute with their big furry ears.  However, they are very vulnerable to being attacked by predators like lions and hyenas.

Large predators like lions and hyenas think zebras are very tasty and often try to kill and eat them.  Injured or young zebras are very vulnerable because they cannot run away as fast as older and fitter zebras.  If a zebra family is being attacked, they will sometimes form a circle around a weaker family member and try to bite or kick the attacker to chase it away!

If you want to learn more about zebras, you can find more information by clicking here.

Awesome Oryx

How many different types of animal can you see in this picture?  There are springbok in the front, a wildebeest in the shade, and Southern Oryx in the background!

One of my favourite antelopes during my trip to South Africa were the Southern Oryx, which are also called Gemsbuck.  They are not very friendly animals and often fight with their long horns.  When they are together they nearly always stay at least a horns length apart from each other, in case they get into an argument!  It is not their argumentative character that I like but how they look; I think their coats and horns are very beautiful.

A pair of argumentative Gemsbuck sparing with their horns

Gemsbuck have lots of special adaptations so that they can live in very dry places like the Kalahari desert.  They never have to drink because they can get all the water they need from the plants they eat.  To do this they often feed at night when plants contain more moisture.  They also eat wild melons and cucumbers that contain lots of water.

The areas Gemsbuck live are very hot, so they spend most of the day resting in the shade.  However, they can allow their bodies to get up to 45 degrees centigrade; if your body got this hot, you would die.  They stop their brain from overheating using cooler blood from their nostrils to cool down the blood entering their brain!

Don’t you think they are very pretty animals?

I think it is amazing that Gemsbuck have adapted to live in such hot and dry environments.  Can you think of any other animals that have special adaptions to help them live in difficult places?

Making new friends and hearing about their adventures

While I was travelling in South Africa ,I met lots of different animals.  Some were large and some were small.  Others were scary and others friendly.  They were all interesting though!

One day I met a few other animals who, like me, were travelling around with their human friends seeing which interesting animals they could meet.  I had a great lunch with them while they told me stories about all the different animals that they had met or seen; elephants, honey badgers, lions, goshawks and many others!

Do you have a special animal friend that you carry around with you?  It would be great to hear from you if you did, especially if you have pictures of you exploring nature with them and of the plants and animals you find along the way!

You can email any stories or pictures to sashathesaiga@gmail.com, send them to me through my page on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sashathesaiga or tweet them to me @SashaTheSaiga

I look forward to hearing all about your adventures!

More stories from South Africa

Do you remember some of my stories from South Africa, like when I met Rocky the Hyrax, or made friends with the penguins, and that funny looking bird? Over the past few months, I have been telling you about my adventures in the UK.  But now it is getting colder, and I want to remember my warmer adventures in South Africa!  I have many more stories to tell of the places I visited and creatures I met, so keep an eye on the blog so that you don’t miss out!

Here is a taste of some of the adventures coming soon…

Some of the interesting animals, plants and landscapes I visited in South Africa.  Make sure you check back for stories about lions, elephants, zebra, the great grey-green greasy limpopo river and many more!

 

Sasha in Shetland

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything for a while.  Did you miss me?  I have been away on holiday, in one of the remotest parts of the British Isles, the Shetland Islands.  I met many wonderful creatures, but first I am going to tell you about my journey.  It is a long way from Silwood Park to Shetland (757 miles, to be exact).  First, I got a train into London, then a bus to Aberdeen, then a ferry to Lerwick.

Once in Lerwick, my friends hired bicycles from the Shetland Community Bike Project.  They were really helpful, and soon we were on our way!

We cycled south, and crossed over the 60 degrees north line…

… and visited Sumburgh Head, the most southerly point on Shetland’s mainland.  There is a big lighthouse at Sumburgh Head, and a new visitors centre which is well worth a visit!  You can get really good views of sea birds on the cliffs below.  I’ll be writing more about them soon!

From the most southerly point, I headed north.  It took a couple of days, but my friends cycled us up to Toft, where we got the ferry to Yell, one of the Northern Isles.  We cycled across Yell, and got another ferry to the island of Unst.

On Unst, we visited Hermaness Nature Reserve, the most northerly part of the Shetland Islands!  Like at Sumburgh Head, there is a big lighthouse called Muckle Flugga, which means “big, steep-sided island” in Old Norse.

After cycling all the way from the south to the north of Shetland, my friends were pretty tired!  We took a few days to cycle back down to Lerwick, to begin our long journey back to Silwood.  We saw so many wonderful things along the way that I can’t possible describe them all in this blog, so you will have to wait to find out more!

 

Sasha at school

Recently, I visited Corfe Castle Primary School in the south of England.  I told the children all about saigas and the story of my family.  Together, we read the Who am I? page on my blog.  We looked at some of the adventures I have been on and the places I have visited.  Then, I asked the children to imagine taking me exploring with them around where they live.  They wrote some brilliant stories which I will be sharing on here soon.  Follow the blog to see when!

Here I am reading some of the stories after school.

If you would like Sasha to visit your school, please ask your parents or teachers to email me at sashathesaiga@gmail.com.