Can You Have Too Much Knowledge?

 Trust but verify has been a motto of mine for a long time. I believe almost everything and then I check it out if possible. So when I watched "Seabiscuit" I had to go read the book, and when I watched "Anastasia" I had to go online and get the real story. Accepting the fable is just fine and then I want to know the truth behind it.

Going to Shai Hills Resource Reserve I listened to some stories and then tried to look them up without much success. But I did run into a paper about the animals there by googling animals in Shai Hills resource reserve and clicking on images. Here is the title:

Predation on the Kob (Kobus kob) by the African rock python (Python sebae) at Shai Hills Resource Reserve, Ghana 

Raymond A. Antwi1, Benjamin Y. Ofori1,*, Daniel K. Attuquayefio1, and Erasmus H. Owusu1,2 

Does it pay to do some homework? Not always…..

So I did find out what kind of animals have been observed here (but only by scientists):

 

“The reserve harbours several species of reptiles, including snakes, monitor lizards and crocodiles, birds, bats, non-volant small mammals and large mammals. The large mammals include olive baboon (Papio anubis), kob (Kobus kob), bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus), oribi (Ourebia ourebi), green monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus), and lesser spot- nosed monkey (Cercopithecus petaurista) (SHRR Management Plan, 2006). The African civet (Civettictis civetta) is believed to be present in the reserve, but this has not been confirmed, making P. sebae the topmost predator and keystone species in the reserve.”

At the beginning of the paper:

“The African rock python, Python sebae (Gmelin, 1789), is Africa’s largest snake species and one of the six largest snakes in the world (Branch and Hacke, 1980). This non-venomous snake, which is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, can reach about 7.5 m in length in its natural habitat (Starin and Burghardt, 1992). Its range extends from Senegal to Ethiopia and Somalia, then southwards into northern Angola (Murphy and Henderson, 1997). It is adapted to forests, grasslands and human-modified landscapes, but usually occurs near water bodies…” 

This paper goes on to describe out they found a python in the park eating an antelope or Kob in 2019 – they even have a picture…..Oh joy….and I really wanted to know there were crocodiles and monitor lizards – but no one seems to mention them in any current tourist articles…hmmm. Glad I had a good stress free day.

Oh joy - not! - this python looks just the same color as all those "roots" in the cave. Where do pythons live?