At the height of apartheid, South African radio DJs were playing a song, which included instrumentals of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, the forbidden anthem of the then banned African National Congress. Apartheid South Africa enjoyed this protest song so much, that it was number one for two weeks on Radio Five, a government radio station! It seemed that while the people were rocking to Weeping, the grey censor men were sleeping.
Travellers along the scenic R58 between Aliwal North and Burgersdorp in the Eastern Cape Province will notice the massive, flat-topped Kramberg Mountain to the south. It is an outlier of the magnificent Stormberg Mountain Range further south, itself part of the Drakensberg, South Africa’s longest and highest mountain range.
South Africans have always looked up to Lesotho, quite literally, as the entire landlocked country is on average 900 metres higher than South Africa (Midgley et al. 2023). The high altitude also means that Lesotho has more abundant alpine vegetation (in this case meaning vegetation above 2800 metres above sea level) and harbours a greater diversity of alpine-adapted species.
Travelling through Brazil you find yourself in the Cerrado, a vast tropical savannah just southeast of the Amazon rainforest. Stopping under one of the trees, you sit down for a quick rest and to take in the natural beauty around you. Your eye then caches the movement of a fly landing on the rough bark of the tree and, ever ready as you are, you reach for your camera and inch closer to try and take a good macro photo.
Introduction
– Animal body size, and in particular body mass (live weight), determines many biological and ecological traits including food intake, metabolism, thermoregulation, generation time, longevity, growth rate, home range size, reproductive strategy, extent of sexual dimorphism and even extinction risk (e.g. Peters 1983; Damuth & MacFadden 1990). Being large comes with certain competitive advantages.