How a dance purifies diet in the Savannah

DAR ES SALAAM: PSYCHOLOGISTS say ritual purification is a feature of many religions. The aim of these rituals is to remove specifically defined uncleanliness prior to a particular type of activity, and especially prior to the worship of a deity.

On the other side, a dance is a performance art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement.

This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture.

In some occasions, domestic cats play with dead bodies of their victims before devouring them.

These kinds of rituals involve specific activities which are believed to make an individual very clean for a very important duty or position in the society like leadership or parenting.

These kinds of ritual may be accompanied by different activities such as offerings of different things such as foods, crops, animals and dancing where in the wild eagles are well known to perform a unique dance in the sky only to clean themselves before assuming the role of being parents.

Eagles are more than 60 species of powerfully built birds of prey which are found Australia, North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa where greater and lesser spotted eagles, crown eagle, martial eagle, African fish eagle and snake eagle are found in different protected areas.

From more than three million years ago after glaciers and deserts emerged in different parts of the world ancestors of eagles were separated into different sub species which are found in different parts of the world.

Snake eagles are identified by their rounded head, a sharp beak and broad wings, they are found in open habitats like plains arid savannah where the prey on small mammals, lizards and snakes which form a large portion of their diet.

The short toed snake eagle also known as short toed eagle, is a medium sized bird of prey which is active only during day time in different protected areas after migrating into Africa from Europe between September and December of every year.

The black chested snake eagle is a large African bird of prey it resembles other snake eagles but the main identifying character of this bird is its dark brown head and chest, to which it owes its name.

Beaudouin’s snake eagle is a species of snake eagle found in the Sahel region of West Africa especially into open woodlands and wooded savannah, normally seen seated on a prominent position such as a pole from dead trees where it waits for prey such as snakes and other small vertebrates.

The list also include the brown snake eagle another species of bird of prey found in West, East and southern Africa where it identify itself with total brown plumage and few white feathers. From Serengeti, Mkomazi and Ruaha in Tanzania to Okavango reserve in Botswana and Kruger national park in South Africa the brown snake eagle is known kill and feed on venomous snakes such as Mozambique spitting cobra, lizards and small mammals.

In East Africa there is southern banded snake eagle which also known as East African snake eagle a species of snake eagle found in sub-Saharan Africa countries.

On the side of lake Tanganyika, there are Mahale mountain and Gombe national parks where the Western banded snake eagle is found in good number because this specie prefers woodlands located along rivers, but they avoid dense forests.

This is a grey brown African raptor with a short tail and a large head which feeds on snakes trailed and ambushed from a high rising point such a rock or tree.

The Western banded snake eagle lives aside with the Congo serpent eagle another species of bird of prey which specialize in hunting snakes, chameleons, and toads which it attacks by dropping on them, its excellent eyesight enables it to hunt in the dark forest.

Unlike others, the southern banded snake eagle is a forest species and it mainly occurs in evergreen coastal forest such as Saadani national park but it may be found in inland forests close to wetlands such Selous game reserve but occasionally it may be seen in more open areas of woodland in Ruaha national park.

The Southern banded snake eagle mainly eats snakes which it targets them from a pole of any tall tree where it seat to scan the surroundings for prey, if a large snake is caught the bird torn up the prey into bite size pieces before feeding, however smaller snakes are swallowed whole head first.

All species of eagle are capable of producing different kinds of sounds whereby the Southern banded snake eagle use a call which sounds “koko-ko-kaw”, black chested snake eagle whistles “kwo kwo kwo kweeoo” and the Western banded snake eagles use “kok-kok-kok-kok-kok” these calls are made as part a ritualized courtship display takes place.

This is a special show whereby an animal attempts to attract a mate and exhibit their desire to copulate, these behaviors often include ritualized movements or dance, vocalizations, mechanical sound production, displays of beauty and strength.

Among all these and other eagles, usually territorial displays, which outnumber breeding displays, occur around the periphery of the bird’s home range while breeding displays are likely to be over or at least near the nest.

This is a beautiful game because the displays consists of a series of steep dives and ascents, with few rhythmical wing flaps at the top of each climb and descending circles which draw number eight in the sky.

During the display which is done to purify themselves for a courtship, during descents, eagles can drop as much as 60 meters at a time before circling back up and during this display, the male is noisy, uttering a shrill sound according to its specie while throwing its head back also singing in a thrilling sound for approximately 30 seconds.

Among eagles, in this kind of display a male partner may reach heights exceeding 900 meters, sometimes even near cloud level at over 2,000 meters above the ground but the adult female may also perform independent display flights, uttering a responding call as its seems to display less.

On another stage of the purification ritual, eagle pairs also perform a spectacular display when arising from the mentioned when they come together after a brief separation in the sky.

The ritualized courtship display is a spectacular tandems, interlocking talons which allow the falling from a high distance in the sky which is very rare among other birds in the savannah.

Despite the spectacular and conspicuous nature of a courtship display in flights, some species of eagles are sometime considered to be awkward movement in sky lacking the grace and speed attributed to a few other species in a high flying context.

However, when faced with different challenges in the savannah eagles are credited with courage and endurance, this is what gave the special positions and respects among human after lions.

At different levels, most of these birds are facing difficulties because of human activities including poaching and deforestation, please take your responsibility today to make the world a better place for every creature! There are different kinds of rituals in the world but purification ritual is very popular among different societies, history tells us that before going into war soldiers were required clean themselves to remove all misfortunes which may block their victory.

The long legged bird is found in a special group of agent called birds of prey which is known for their great ability putting the population of rodents, insects, worms and snakes at a desired level.

Unlike other members of this group, while searching for prey the secretary bird does not fly but walk from one point to another in the vast grasslands of the savannah. Normally the secretary bird targets rats, lizards, snakes but sometime it may go after chicks of other birds such as those of the notorious quelea quelea birds.

Without any known reason, recently it has been discovered that the secretary bird has a special appetite for flesh from venomous snakes such as cobra and puff adder.

Zoologists and psychologists believe that, the rise of taste from these birds for a delicious meat from venomous snake is part of strategic natural methods for making savannah a good place for all of its dwellers.

This is a complex method which keeps down the number of super predators such as lion, leopard, crocodile, and pythons against the fast growing numbers of wildebeests and antelopes. To prove how this method works, normally a pair of secretary birds lay two to three eggs which are hutch after 45 days.

Scientists say when a hen manages to hutch all three chicks, normally the last one is very weak and most of the time nature does not allow it to grow to an adult bird.

Some experienced professional hunters in the savannah believe that as part of infanticide which exists among secretary birds, in order for the first two chicks to live they must kill and eat the last one.

Chicks of the secretary bird begin their lives by depending on supply of food from their monogamy parents who visit them on the time to time.

For not less than 40 days adult secretary birds feed their chicks with liquefied food through regurgitation direct into their mouths, these may be small insects or fragments of flesh from a large prey.

On the other hand this show a weakness on this birds which is caused intentionally by the nature in order to put a flexible grip on the number of the secretary birds.

While this is happening to these avian, in most species of poisonous snakes relationship between a mother and its chicks finish immediately after laying them in a nest.

This is a common character among reptiles which have more experience with the world after being around this planet from 312 million years ago.

Historians say reptiles evolved on the Earth before a birdlike dinosaurs which flew, hover in the sky and hunted different prey on the ground which was changing very fast 160 million years ago.

Scientists say the current hostile behavior between secretary birds and snakes started more than 100 million years ago when the main reptile group was divided into two smaller groups of avian and reptiles.

Unlike mammals that start their lives by depending protection and other services from their parent, chicks from most of reptile are capable of taking care of themselves immediately after hutching.

Thanks to the this natural or inborn ability, from the beginning of time snake and other reptiles were able to spread into many parts of the world until about 44 million years ago when the first generation of secretary bird evolved on earth.

From those days without the presence of birds of prey such as the secretary things could very bard because a single cobra snake is capable of laying between 10 and 22 eggs at once.

These snakes and others have a good ability of selecting a suitable location for their eggs which allow them to hutch freely after 90 days of a self controlled incubation process.

To check this ability of multiplying themselves rapidly, Mother Nature has developed a unique desire on tongues of secretary birds which force them to hunt and eat poisonous snakes such as cobras.

To make things go according to plan, on morphological side secretary birds are given a huge and masculine body which is capable of outfight most of their prey including the notorious Mozambique spitting cobra.

Secretary bird stands from 90 to 137 centimeters tall with a body which stretch between 112 and 152 centimeters from an eagle-like heard to the tail with elongated central feathers.

These birds have very big wings capable of spanning between 191 to 220 centimeters which enables them to airborne a dangerous prey such as cobra to hard rock where it is dropped for quick death and smooth consumption.

Weighing between 3.3 and 5 kilograms, secretary birds have flexible and powerful body which is capable to chase and capture prey using their hooked bill.

These birds have powerful eyes which enable them to monitor a fast moving prey on a chase through a ground which is covered by vegetation and other natural obstacles.

To balance their bodies, while chasing prey secretary birds extend their wing and twist their 75 to 85 long tail on delicate tilting positions.

On the other hand accounts from the paradise indicate that the saturn in a snakelike body deceived Eve who made Adam to commit the origin sin.

It is written that the serpent lured Eve to pick a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and from that the whole world with all its dwellers went into a mess.

From those days to date snakes and humans have become bitter enemies but apart from the sons and daughters of Eve, it is the secretary bird which kills the poisonous reptile by crushing its head.

Secretary birds use their long and powerful legs to throw their potent body weighing up to 4.25 kilograms on heads of snakes to kill and them.

In order to fulfill their desire, secretary birds have developed special ability of throwing powerful kicks on the head of a snake in a speed of light covering 0.015 seconds.

Scientific research indicate that in a blink of an eye a secretary bird is capable kicking a head of a snake with a force weighing up to 21.25 kilograms which more than five times of its own weight.

The research also indicate that this powerful kick is capable to break human arm into two pieces but on another hand it is believed secretary birds developed these tact to avoid being bitten by poisonous snakes.

This tact involve the holding of a snake on the ground using one leg while using the second one to hit its head vigorously until it fall unconscious and killed.

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