Page 34 - Kyalami issue 4 2021

Kyalami Estates Corporate Brand Bible Design 26
3.0 Folder (Inner)
NATURE
Kyalami Estates Corporate Brand Bible Design of Lovegrove’s book embraces 23
its potential effects on such a finely
tuned ecosystem. He is worried his thoughts on ‘global heating’
because, during the years he has (he prefers this phrase to ‘global
worked in the deserts, retrograde
3.0 Invoice Template warming’) which, he avers is a threat
changes have already manifested.
to this nation that few South Africans
take seriously. Its quite rapid onset
He writes for fellow scientists as well
as for students and for the growing has been scary and Lovegrove is
mass of people interested in natural concerned by the changes he has
history. He writes of the amazing witnessed during his working life as a
adaptations shown by creatures biologist.
in order to survive in desiccated The author devotes a chapter to a
environments. topic that was underplayed in his
previous book on the desert biomes.
One of the most astonishing
adaptations he mentions concerns the The new chapter provides a fascinating
Namaqua sandgrouse. Although its view of the Karoo’s beginnings and
chicks are able to run around and feed its extraordinary yield of magnificent
on seeds from the day they hatch, they fossils of its prehistoric population of
cannot drink. They can’t drink because vertebrates from the Middle Permian
they can’t fly and the nearest water around 270 million years ago, and
including the bizarre early Jurassic
might be 50 to 60km away. The male INVOICE
sandgrouse then has to carry water to around 190 million years ago.
them. It sits in the water fluffing out its The 300-page book provides a highly
feathers to absorb as much as possible readable account of this unbroken
– these feathers can hold more water Entity: Kyalami Estates
80 million year fossil record of the
Entity VAT No: 2018/031605/07
per unit weight than a kitchen sponge. Entity Reg No:
ancestors of today’s mammals and
birds, which are being unearthed in
Daily it flies back to its young, which Invoice Date: xx May 2019
take the wet feathers in their beaks the Karoo. His account also includes
and strip the water. Very little water is the greatest extinction event in the
lost during the return flights to the nest planet’s history.
because the bird holds the soaked Bill to:
feathers against its body effectively The Karoo Basin formed 320 million
reducing the airflow over them. years ago when there was only one
Attention:xxxxx xxxxx giant continent on Planet Earth –
Tax Invoice No: xxxxx xxxxx
Southern Africa has nine biomes, Pangea. The South Pole was then in
Xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx
Recipient VAT No: xxxxx xxxxx
ranging from four desert biomes in the the middle of the slab that eventually
Xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx
PO Number: xxxxx xxxxx
west to the greener wetter biomes east became Southern Africa.
of here. Yet, whether rainforest or arid
land, each biome is rich in its variety Living Deserts contains spectacular
of creatures and plants. Deserts take photographs and many handy maps
up 50% of Southern Africa’s land mass and drawn illustrations. Tax Reference:
Account:
Your Reference:
and the four desert biomes have as Kyalami Estates Kyalami Estates
Kyalami Estates
Published by Struik Nature R450
many species as the moist biomes.
Mary and I described a visit to one of
them in 2019 – the Tankwa Karoo,
which despite its baking, gravelly
Description:
plains, is part of our largest desert Unit Price Tax Reference:
biome, the plant-rich ‘Succulent R000 0000 R000 0000
Xxxxx xxxxxxxxx
Karoo’ which includes Namaqualand R000 00000 R000 0000
Xxxxx xxxxxxx
and the Richtersveld. As a desert
region of this size, it has the largest
number of succulent plants in the
world. This150km wide belt running
Sub Total: R000 000.00
parallel with the Atlantic coast starts
VAT 15%: R000 000.00
not very far north of Cape Town and Total: R000 000.00
extends into Namibia. Its rainfall is
between 20 and 290mm a year, yet
it has 6 356 known species, many of
Account Name: Kyalami Estates
them dependent on the nightly fogs.
Bank: Investec
Biologists across the world are Account: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
fascinated by the Succulent Karoo Account Type: Current
which is considered to be one of the Branch Code: xxxxxx
planet’s most interesting and diverse
arid ‘hot spots’. Estate Office & Administration
Tel: (011) 468 3001/2 | Fax: (011) 468 1246
One of the most interesting parts Email: info@kyalamiestates.co.za
PO Box 50, Kyalami Estates 1684
30 32 Kyalami Estates • CONNECT • Issue 4 • 2021
Kyalami Estates • CONNECT • Issue 2 • 2021