The living desert, Swakopmund, Namibia

The Living Desert - Swakopmund, Namibia

There is a great company in Swakopmund called Living Desert Adventures that gives guided tours on the ecology of the dunes. They advertise seeing "the little five", snakes, scorpions, lizards, geckos, and spiders. I of course jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the desert.

When Chris, the owner of the company, picked me up that morning I was struck by his enthusiasm. So often in Africa I go on these tours and the guides just don't seem to care. His excitement made me even more excited for the day.  The rest of the tour group consisted of americans and canadians. It was really nice being with my own kind for the morning.

Chris is a passionate environmentalist and has fought for years (and suceeded!) to outlaw offroad quad biking in Namibia. Quad biking has a huge environmental impact and will kill and drive wildlife from the dunes. It took him over a decade, but now there are well established protected areas in the dunes and the wildlife has returned.

The yellow dunes outside Swakopmund are the only ones in the world that have a grey sky every morning.  The air coming off the ocean smells so clean and the air is moist, for a desert.  Succulents that look like jade plants pepper the landscape. These plants can hold a lot of water, which Chris demonstrated by squeezing some of the leaves. The leaves have a high salt content and are not good to eat. I was surprised over the amount of water that was squeezed onto the sand since there hadn't been a proper rain in 21 months.

Dunes are made of shifting sand. They can move at a speed of 3 m/year. The side not facing the wind sits at a 35 degree angle, which is the degree at which the sand begins to run.  In these protected areas bits of plant matter collect, providing food for the beetles, which feed the snakes, skinks and geckos, which feed the jackals and the birds, and so forth.

The most amazing part of this tour is that nothing is immediately present on the sand. Chris would walk up to a sand dune that had a completely flat expanse and start digging. He would then pull all manner of creatures out of the sand.

The first creature was a dancing white lady spider.  They are a type of trapdoor spider and usually nest at the top of the dunes. If a predator comes to eat them, they will drop along the dune, spinning the entire time, and will land in a ninja position. Hence the dancing name.  The spider we found ended up biting Chris as he was taking its picture.

Next up was the Namibian Dune gecko. This may be one of the most beautiful lizards I've ever seen. It has a stunning rainbow appearance, with pinks, yellows and blues present on the body against a white background.  They are nocturnal and have huge eyes. In addition, the gecko has 4 webbed feet which help with digging and not sinking into the sand. Just like snow shoes.

After 3 tries, Chris finally managed to grab a legless skink. They move very fast through the sand, like water.

Shovel nosed lizards move opposite in response to hot sand.

Tenebrionid beetles are everywhere.  They have very long legs which hold them above the ground. This small difference reduces the temperatures they are exposed to by 15 degrees.

We didn't find any snakes, specifically the side winder adder. But we did see tracks left by one.  They sit under the sand with only their eyes protruding, waiting for prey. They will also wiggle the tip of their tails to attract prey to within striking distance.

Finally, we found a desert chameleon.  They are different from most because they prefer life on the ground, not in trees.  The female we found started as a nice white color but as she grew more stressed darkened to a charcoal grey. Chris baited her with a mealworm and she climbed right onto his hand. He gave a feeding demonstration. Her tongue could stretch so far!

Afterward the animals we had a scenic tour of the dunes.

I would highly recommendthis tour to anyone visitng Swakopmund, even if you aren't a biologist. It was fantastic.