How did you do with our Great April Fool challenge?
Throughout the day we posted 7 articles about Africa and its animals. Of them, 3 were true and 4 were April fools. Here are the answers, together with a little background to all the stories.
9 am: International “Tusk force” aims to paint Africa blue.
April fool. The Lusaka Agreement is a genuine agreement committed to by many African countries to protect elephants but at present they have no plans to dye tusks blue. Sadly Dr Sammy Utani does not exist, the word “utani” being Swahili for “joke”. It was a popular idea however, with plenty of support on social media. Perhaps we’ve stumbled on something…
10 am: Cheetahs outrun by angry Kenyan farmers.
This one is, amazingly, true. Nur Osman Hassam got so fed up of losing his goats he did give chase with some friends and catch the two cheetahs. Cheetahs are build for sprints not marathons, and while trying to digest a bellyful of goat meat are not at their most lively. Still, hats off to Mr Hassam.
11 am: Extreme weather: Eritrea knee deep in ice.
True. In a similar fashion to weather all over the world, Eritrea has also experienced some freak conditions. A metre of hail in an hour and a half is pretty extreme and brought Asmara to a complete standstill.
Noon: Adreneline junkies rush to do “the fall” at Victoria Falls.
April Fool. There are plenty of exciting things you can do at Victoria Falls, but hurtling down the river in a barrel is not one of them. As for going over the Falls themselves, I don’t think I’ll be queuing up any time soon for that one…
1 pm: Girl power: Record-breaking female dung beetles discovered in Kalahari.
April fool. Anyone who has seen a dung beetle rolling a large ball of dung up a slope knows how strong and determined these beetles are. Its now known that they use the moon and stars to navigate by and find their way home (not an April fool..) but sadly a new super-dung beetle has not been discovered in the Kalahari.
2 pm: The Tanzania school with 160 pupils and one dad.
True. This Masai elder has accumulated such wealth that he has eight wives (although some reports say as many as 22). He founded a new village and therefore its school is exclusively full of his children and also his grandchildren.
3 pm: Chimp “village” found in the Congo.
Sadly, April Fool! A large new population of chimps has indeed been found in the Bili-Uele forest in Congo and they have been spotted eating leopard. The tools they use are, however, the same as other known chimp populations so they haven’t (yet) built villages or designed a shower system.
How did you do? Whether you are a fool or a guru, we hope you had fun reading the articles.
