Alien space creatures mystify farm boys in Kalahari, South Africa

Alien space creatures mystify Kalahari boys

May 16 2013 – Strange little creatures which look like tiny aliens from a science-fiction film, sporting cute little antennae, briefly appeared in a farm-dam in the Kalahari desert after recent rains.

Seven-year-old Afrikaner boy Gert Fourie and little brother Vian 4 were fishing in the dam on their Kalahari farm just after rains had filled it up. Rain is very unusual in this bone-dry region and the boys were excited that they could do a bit of fishing.

And they became even more excited when they found the mud swarming with hese odd little animals which their mom, teacher Charmaine, said she also couldn’t identify.  She took pictures of the creatures, and 62-year-old neighbour De Wet got so curious he climbed on top of a high wall to try and get a better cellphone reception from the desert region so that he could ask the experts.

A quick response was received from Prof Jo van As, head of the Free State University’s entomology department, who said the animals are — what he referred to in Afrikaans — as ‘ frogfish-shrimps’.  He said these animals live in the mud of such temporary water pools with a high saline content and are not very often seen, as their life-cycle is very short.

“It’s only a question of weeks before they are adults. They lay eggs in the mud and as soon as the water evaporates and the little shrimps die, the eggs remain dormant inside the dry soil. “These eggs have an incredible adaption-ability and can survive extremely hot conditions for years.  As soon as there’s enough rain, they hatch and repeat their life-cycle’.  “People think they are scarce because they live such a short period of time and one doesn’t really see them often.’