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SAFARI OLYMPICS
I’ve been in the bush throughout the Olympics, so I barely know who’s won what.
I’m sorry to have missed it, but my consolation is that I’ve got a ringside seat for competitions of a different kind.
The qualities on show at the Olympics — speed, agility, strength — have all evolved as humans have competed with other humans and other species for survival. I watch those struggles play out daily and it’s one of the most fascinating parts of what we do.
They may not always have the glamour of the Olympics, but the contests we witness on safari have an added drama because the gold medalist generally gets to eat the silver medalist.
So, in the spirit of London 2012, and the Olympic motto of faster, higher, stronger, I’ve picked the following team of animal Olympians.
For pure speed, I’m going with the cheetah, which is the quickest mammal on the planet. To make up a team of four for the relay, I’m going to add in a dragonfly (the Southern Giant Darner which can reach 60mph), a tiger beetle (22 times faster than Usain Bolt, given its size), and a peregrine falcon, which has been clocked at 200 mph when it’s diving onto prey.
To compete in the high jump events, I’m taking two from my native South Africa: the Klipspringer antelope, which can leap 15 times its own height – about 25 feet, and a galago, or bushbaby. My long-jumper is a flea.
For strength, I’m choosing animals from opposite ends of the size spectrum. My super heavyweights are the elephant and the gorilla, which weighs up to 450 pounds and can reportedly lift 10 times that weight.
My featherweight contenders for strongest animals are the rhino and dung beetles, each of which can lift many hundred times its own weight.
Of course, the contests we witness on safari are not purely physical. Cooperation, guile, and sometimes selflessness have their counterparts in the bush just as they do in the Olympics. But the gold medal in nature usually confers nothing more than another day of life and the chance to pass your genes on.
A PASSION FOR AFRICA: About Michael Lorentz
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