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Flightless Dung Beetle

One of the smallest but best known inhabitants of the Addo Elephant National Park is the Flightless Dung Beetle (Circellium bacchus).  The Flightless Dung Beetle is endemic to the Addo Elephant Park and surrounds and very unique in the fact that they can't fly and hence the name.  This fact also makes the beetle a vulnerable species as they only use elephant and buffalo dung to feed off and lay their eggs in and at the time when these animals…

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19/12/2011
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Langa massacre photographic essay

The last in this short series on the Red Location Museum in New Brighton covers "You are my witness", a photo essay dedicated to the mothers, fathers, women, men and children of the Langa massacre, who sacrificed their lives for the liberation struggle of South Africa.  The massacre took place on 21 March 1985 in Langa township in Uitenhage when mourners, peacefully marching in solidarity to a funeral of those who lost their lives while protesting against grave oppressive conditions, were violently massacred…

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18/12/2011
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Memory boxes

Today's post is the second of three posts about the Red Location Museum in New Brighton.  One of the main concepts of the museum are the Memory Boxes.  These boxes were inspired by the boxes that migrant workers used to accommodate their prized possessions when separated from their families.  The Museum has twelve 6 meter by 6 meter and twelve meters tall, rusted boxes offering a set of different memories of struggle in South Africa.  The boxes aren't identified from outside and the contents are…

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17/12/2011
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Zebras

Donkeys in pajamas must be one of the animals that visitors to game reserves love seeing most.  The Burchell's Zebra is the most common zebra that you will find in the game reserves of the Eastern Cape.  They are identifiable by the fact that the stripes go all the way underneath their stomachs and by the brownish phantom stripes visible on their wide white stripes.The endangered Cape Mountain Zebra are found only on a few game reserves in the province. …

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17/12/2011
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Hall of Columns

The Red Location Museum in New Brighton was the first museum to be purpose built in a township in South Africa and remembers the struggle era, especially in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage.  Although there is much room for improvement the museum has a number of very good exhibits.  As you enter through the main entrance the Hall of Columns is on your right.  Each of the 15 columns have a different struggle hero from the Nelson Mandela Bay area on…

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16/12/2011
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South African Junior Chess Championships

For the last week some of the brightest young minds in the country have been taking part in the annual South Africa Junior Chess Championships, this year hosted at the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan University right here in Port Elizabeth.  I popped down to the Indoor Sports Centre to have a peek and nearly fell on my back when I saw the amount of participants.  More than 2000 kids from all over South Africa are taking part in this event…

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15/12/2011
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Blue Crane

The Blue Crane is South Africa's national bird and its always a pleasure to see them in the wild.  They normally live in pairs and nest in grasslands which means that many end up occupying agricultural areas.  You often see them driving along the N2 through the Overberg where they feed on seed and insects on the fields.  Unfortunately due to poisons used by farmers on their fields a lot of these birds are killed and due to this the…

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15/12/2011
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Celebrations

Celebrations as the All Blacks receive the trophee as winners of the South African leg of the IRB 7's World Series in Port Elizabeth.Another reason to celebrate is the fact that today is Port Elizabeth Daily Photo's 1500th post and thus my 1000th post since taking over the blog from Max and Sue.  This comes shortly after I recently did post number 1000 on The Firefly Photo Files as well.  Thank you to all the loyal followers of PEDP for your regular visits as well…

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14/12/2011
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Running out for the final

The Blitzbokke (South Africa) and the All Blacks (New Zealand) takes the field for the start of the final of the South African leg of the IRB 7's World Series in Port Elizabeth.  The crowd went mad every time the Boks touched the ball and I think most people were on their feet for just about the whole game.  Unfortunately for us the All Blacks got the ball seconds before the end of the game and went over for the…

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13/12/2011
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IRB 7’s action

On Friday and Saturday (9 and 10 December 2011) the South African leg of the IRB 7's World Series took place at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium for the first time.  Getting the 7's to the city was a big scoop and the action on and off the field didn't disappoint.  The event truly lived up to it's billing as "Rugby's Biggest Party".  Below are a couple of snaps I took from both next to the field as well as…

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12/12/2011