Project Tag: <span>nature</span>

Mangrove Forest

A local fishermen took me in his canoe down the Ankobra river in the western region of Ghana to look for crocodiles. We did not see any crocs but the mangroves swallowed us up into a different world of dancing shadows and echoing sounds. 


Mangroves are tropical trees that sprawl in forests along coasts and estuaries, providing vital nurseries for many species. Able to deal with salt water, they also store a huge amount of carbon making them vital in the fight to counter climate change. Alarmingly they are under threat worldwide. 

Emperor Scorpion

Emperor scorpions are one of the largest scorpions in the world and live in the savannahs and rainforests of West Africa. Like all other scorpions they glow under ultraviolet light and navigate by starlight. I saw this one in the Atewa Forest in Ghana.

The general rule to assess whether a scorpion poses a danger to humans is if it has a bigger sting compared to its pincers. Emperors, although big, are not venomous enough to kill a person unlike some of the others that live in the same forests and grasslands.