Finding my passion in the small and curious: work on southern African small mammals
By Tasha Oosthuizen (@tasha.oosthuizen.5)
The small and curious, the cute and cuddly, the fluffy and sometimes ferocious small mammals of southern Africa have a way of plucking at your heartstrings even when you least expect it. Starting my degree in Zoology in a naturally diverse country like South Africa I had so many options for a favourite animal. There is the majestic lion, the magnificent elephant or even the captivating cheetah. Even people who are not that interested in nature are aware of these animals, have heard about them or watched a random Animal Planet documentary with one of them or all of them as a feature. They all have such a diverse range of characteristics making them unique and well-known around the world, everyone is well aware of the Big Five. I was always drawn to the cheetah as it represented the overlooked big cat in my eyes. Tourists were more concerned about seeing the leopard and lion to be able to say they saw the amazing Big Five whilst in Africa. However, the cheetah had so many things going for it; the fastest land mammal, the amazing tear-like streaks running down its face to protect it from the sun and the flexible tail to improve its balance. There has been so much research done on all of the bigger mammals because they are so mesmerising and intriguing. However, during my Zoology journey, the opportunities to work with these animals were scarce with the majority of the volunteer opportunities being at rehabilitation centres where you need to pay to volunteer. Not the greatest option for a budget-bound student with a burning passion for animals.
However, I was lucky enough to have wandered upon a research project close to home needing volunteers to help with research on small mammals. Coming from a household where family members were either scared out of their mind of these small, misunderstood creatures or just not interested enough to raise an eyebrow at the mention of them, I wasn’t interested in the study subject but rather the opportunity to have a look inside the very diverse field of Zoology. I went with these researches to a nature reserve located in Gauteng, South Africa. The main aims of the project were to live-capture small mammals, collect their ectoparasites and get the body measurements of the mice for a long-term data set.
The experience literally changed my life. Never being bothered to look into small mammals long enough to realise that there are more species than a rat, a house mouse, and a field mouse. Maybe it was the passion the post-doc had towards the mice and how easily she handled them and spoke to them as if she knew each one of them individually. Or even how they did not seem to be scared of her, she seemingly whispered to them what she needed them to do. Or it was just the mice, how amazing each one was with their different personalities, seeing the different species and what made them so unique made it such an unforgettable experience.
The main character of the memory was an animal called the Namaqua rock mouse that is considered to be a rock specialist, spending the majority of its time on and in-between the rocks. The females have this strange ability to give birth to altricial offspring, completely dependent on the mother for survival, that then attach to her nipples while she runs and jumps around in search of food.
However, amazing as this is, it is even more bizarre how these animals can have too many mites and fleas living on them for my comfort. If you think the weirdness stops there just wait, these animals even allow you and enjoy, from what we can tell, scratches behind their jawbone under their ear like a puppy enjoys a belly-rub.
This species was caught quite often, I fell in love with their bizarre characteristics. But then we captured my new favourite animal a few times, the Eastern rock elephant shrew or sengi. This animal blew my mind. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I could actually see them and work on them so up close and personal. The elephant shrew got its name from its trunk-like snout. Weighing a whopping 60g on average with the softest fur I’ve ever experienced, this little creature was so fascinating to watch.
The amazement does not even stop at the big eyes and trunk-like snout but this small mammal even drums its hind feet. Foot drumming is a feature seen in a few rodent species including gerbils. They drum their feet when they feel threatened and want to either scare off the predator or warn their fellow sengis of a potential threat. They have a super long tongue as they are insectivorous, eating mainly insects, and don’t have long front teeth like most rodents but rather longer canines, making them look like mini vampires.
The freakiest thing though was the number of ticks these small mammals could have. The ridges of their ears were covered in little ticks, their bums were covered in ticks and sometimes they even had some big ticks on their backs, which they can’t reach so the ticks just grew until they were fully fed.
All fascinating facts about these small mammals aside, I never knew or even expected that such interesting creatures were walking the same earth as we do. Busy with their own thing and we barely even notice they are there or that they too contribute to the ecosystem and food chain that we very often take for granted. Well in the last year of my degree I made the switch from the sexy, charismatic cheetah to the incredibly diverse small mammals. I did my honours project on the population changes seen between the Eastern rock elephant shrew and the Namaqua rock mouse. I am currently doing my Masters on the personality types in the Namaqua rock mouse and I see more small mammal-related projects in my future. My work on small mammals even motivated me to get a pet gerbil who still fascinates me daily with the things she does.
What do I want you to get from this article? Just because they are small and not as well-known, don’t underestimate them. These small mammals still have so much to teach us and show us, we just need to be willing to pay attention long enough to see it. Next time you go on a hike, on a game-drive or even just sitting in your garden pay a little attention to the small things, the great things, the things that will most likely blow your mind or at least make your day a little brighter.
