Tangled World

For travellers in a global society

The case of the curious noise

In Africa you get used to the usual daily noises and the unusual cannot be missed. It has to be said that the rainy season brings new harmonies: frogs and toads tune themselves with hyenas and hyrax while cuckoos and kingfishers spread clearly the news of their arrival.

The normality broke up a week ago in the evening: a hollow sounding, mournful wailing voice, starting low and rising in pitch at the end and repeated every few seconds, became our obsession. Searches made clear that it wasn’t an owl. But face to face contact with the call originator eluded us. The call, audible by night and on overcast days, was coming from a thick canopy of bushwillows: a fortress of branches and leaves so intricate that no light could pass through it.The curiosity and interest spread rapidly. Most of the camp staff had a clear idea of what was going on. They told us that at home, in rural conditions, rains start and the same noise arrives… because chameleons give birth! The popular belief says that chameleon females give birth in such a dramatic way that it can only be described as an explosion. So painful it is that the poor female has to scream before she dies.

Science says that chameleons are almost mute: they do give notice of their mood by changing colours, so they don’t need a voice. In many chameleon species the female lays eggs while others give birth - but they don’t die. However all legends originate from a basic truth.

Experience proved that to be true in this case. Any time we went in search of the originator of the mysterious call we found a chameleon! Chameleons and the call originator appear with the rain; just a matter of coincidence of timing generated a myth.

But our mystery wasn’t solved! We worked on with patience and constancy: torches pointed in the direction of the howling, which was making a mockery of us.
But finally a glimpse - and it was a bird: quail size but with peculiar red breast and head, spots everywhere else. No way it could escape being identified - the Buff Spotted Flufftail (Sarothura elegans). Not recorded yet in Ruaha National Park!

This was sent into us by the staff at Mdonya Old River Camp, in Ruaha Game Reserve, Tanzania.  It is a fabulous small safari camp in one of the scenically most diverse parks in Africa.