I knew that Liberians eat snails, and that there were huge snails that came "from the bush", as they say, but I had never seen them for myself until I encountered these wheelbarrows full on Benson Street today. Rather than eat these guys, I'd be more inclined to keep them in a terrarium, but that would involve finding someone to building one, and cutting glass is still not a common trade here.
I didn't buy any of these fellas and haven't tasted this local dish, but it was remarkable to come across a small mountain of fist-sized tree snails in the center of the city.
I am relatively certain that this is a Duiker, which is apparently a house pet of the Royal Hotel at 15th Street, Sinkor. It wandered up to my table at dinner last night, licked my hand, pooped, then walked away. I've seen it sleeping in the bushes during the day, and it also seems to be friends with the cat, who had kittens recently, and I've seen the kittens sleeping with duiker during the day. I don't know if its native to Liberia, or what-- I know that duiker is a Dutch word from South Africa.
I don't know how many West African cities have large populations of large bats, but I can say that both Monrovia and Accra are filled with humungous colonies, which take over entire trees in the downtown area. At first, they look like dead trees, with dry leaves clinging to the undersides of the branches, until you realize that you are looking at clusters of sleeping bats.
I'm not really afraid of animals, but I have to say that I think bats look sort of diabolical.
Anyway, today was quite an event on Snapper Hill, when, just as we were driving by, a huge crash came from one of the giant trees nearby. It sounded like a strike of lightning, or an auto accident. Instead, it seems as though we witnessed an incident of the straw that broke the camel's back: there were just too many bats on this one branch, and it all came crashing down. Pretty fascinating, from a physics/mathematics point of view.
Well, this resulted in bat pandemonium. The bats, being nocturnal, were mostly asleep, and I also wonder whether their eyes are even worse in broad African daylight than in their normal night-time setting. The bats panicked, and thousands of them started flying all over the place. Some right into the ground, others into chain-link fences. One or two hit the side of the car.
This, in turned, caused a rush from all the people nearby-- running to catch them with their hands or even buckets and nets. Not a quarter hour later, there were bats for sale in the streets, a few blocks away (I was tempted, but didn't buy one…)
Bats for dinner across the city tonight!
I've mentioned seeing baby Chimpanzees on the street before, but here was one just sort of hanging out on a storefront on Benson Street this morning. Still cute, still sort of sad, and still a mystery exactly what the plan once it is no longer a cuddly infant.
I didn't get my camera out quite fast enough, but I was able to get this shot of a baby chimpanzee, which for some reason was hanging out in the guard house of an apartment complex on Sekou Toure Avenue in Mamba Point. I am guessing the guard working there was trying to sell it foreigners in the area. They are unbelievably cute, although what you do with them when they become larger and several times stronger than adult humans is another issue. There are a few in cages at Thinker's Beach, and I've heard that there is an island near Marshall with wild groups. Other than that, you occasionally see chimps, as well as monkeys, around town.