Next Tuesday, May 22, is International Day for Biodiversity – a day to celebrate what we have and how to best look after it. South Africa is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, both faunal and floral, and we should all be proud of that.
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In fact we have about 227 mammal species, about 80 of which are in the large category. We have the world’s largest land mammal, the elephant; the tallest, the giraffe; the fastest, the cheetah; the smallest, the dwarf shrew and the largest antelope, the eland. We have no fewer than seven cats; lion, leopard, cheetah, caracal, serval, African wild cat and the black-footed cat. As far as dog-like species are concerned, we have the wild dog and several different species of foxes, hyenas and jackals. We have nearly 900 bird species. Off our coast we have some of the world’s largest creatures, the whales, and a little further out to sea the biggest creature on the planet, the blue whale. In all, we have no fewer than 36 species of whales and dolphins, as well as 2 200 species of fish.*
As far as the floral side of things is concerned, South Africa covers just one percent of the world’s land surface and yet we have 20 percent of the world’s flowering plants, in fact we have about 22 000 indigenous seed plants. South Africa represents a fraction of the African continent’s land surface, but we have nearly 20 percent of its flora.
We are the only country in the world with an entire floral kingdom within its borders – that would be the Cape Floral Kingdom with some 9 000 plant species, 69 percent of which are endemic.
Quite a heritage. We must look after it.
This next story lays no claim to biodiversity at all. The Lord Mayor of London is to be taken seriously. It is a position that has been in place for nearly a thousand years, in fact from 1189. There have been 689 Lord Mayors since that time and the 690th is now in office, one Charles Bowman, a Londoner. The first bridge over the River Thames was built by the Romans, who in fact established the city known as Londinium. There have been many bridges over the river over the past 2000 years, the latest one was opened in 1973. Anyway, the potential problem is that the Lord Mayor has the ancient right to herd a flock of sheep over London Bridge, but for some time no Lord Mayor has taken up that right.
However, the current incumbent is the proud owner of a flock of 15 to 20 breeding ewes and a ram on his property in nearby Suffolk and he may just succumb to the urge to herd his sheep over London Bridge, although news reports say Lord Mayor Bowman is more concerned about the effects of Brexit on the City of London than where he may want to herd his sheep.***
*Coming Back to Earth, James Clarke and David Holt-Biddle (contributing editor), Jacana, Johannesburg, 2002. **Wikipedia. ***The Week: The Best of the British and Foreign Media.
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