Rubondo Island on the Lake Victoria is not only fascinating for its
Nile perch fishing, its introduced population of chimps or its beautiful
birdlife. It has a wide range of smaller animals that you don't see on a normal
safari. Few tourists and guests are actually privileged to have visited the
island because the island's attractions are more low-key and esoteric than
those often visited savannah parks. This is changing dramatically nowadays.
Visitors want more on offer. They have already seen the big and usual wildlife,
and now crave for more. In this case unique places such as Rubondo are now
up-market and slowly coming into picture. They definitely do offer spectacular
need-to-see game.
On my recent trip to Rubondo Island Camp, i had a chance to tick off some animals I had waited to see for a long time. Watching the behavior of
these animals was fascinating and so much worth the time i spent. The road
along the park headquarters to the swampy Mlaga bay every evening had a
high concentration of colorful butterflies and the serrated hinged Terrapins,
especially after it rained in the mornings. The serrated hinged terrapins
(Pelusios sinuatus) is a species of turtles in the Pelomedusidae
family. They are only found in tropical East Africa in lakes and rivers. I
spent many evenings watching them bask in mud banks and puddles on the roads
made by wheel tracks. I was even lucky to see a clever one on the back of a
hippo. They usually eat water snails, soft-weed and insects. The female
terrapins are larger than the males with a carapace of up to 55cm long. Males
can also be distinguished from the females by their longer tails.
For defense, the hinged plastron closes to protect the head
and forelimbs, and the terrapin also secretes a foul odor when
threatened.
We had seen many female terrapins having laid their eggs in the
puddles. They usually lay from seven unto twenty two eggs. They are also
quite near to the water. Google states that, they usually lay their eggs from
October to January. Cute hatchlings come to life from March-April. We had
to actually zigzag on the track to make sure we didn't drive over any
terrapin or its eggs.
Rubondo, was once again rewarding.
