Did You Know That Bush Babies Pee On Their Hands For A Better Grip!
Since that day and date a subtle change – and perhaps not too subtle – took place in my wife. That’s when the banana ritual really took-off. At night chairs were arranged in a semi-circle to give the audience the best views. Appointments were suddenly made around the bushbabies’ timetable of comings and goings. “See you just after six. I just first want to feed my bushbabies.”
Tokkie kept me well informed. If I did not respond enthusiastically enough, I received angry looks. She obtained her knowledge from a variety of books – and also first-hand insights from David and Handa Zeller, who had considerable bushbaby experience. Babies that went astray, were often found on the floor of their office. These received the personal devoted attention of the Zellers. Foundlings were kept warm during the day, are fed a little snack in the afternoon and then placed in a tree as soon as other bushbabies became active. Then the mothers would fetch their stray babies.
I heard of their agile hands (like those of gymnasts) with thumbs, extra long, for better grasping of branches, their eyes (so large that they can hardly move within their sockets) and their necks (which they can rotate a full 180 degrees, to see what is directly behind them). “Don’t attempt to copy it to keep an eye on me,” I joked. But Tokkie did not appreciate the wit.
Bush Babies also spent almost their entire life in trees.
At the feet of Tarlehoet’s resident lecturer in bushbabyhood, I learnt that these little animals spent almost their entire life in trees. They like nesting in holes in tree trunks, sometimes in used bird nests. Mommies “park” their babies in a branch when searching for food. There these little ones cling for dear life until just before daybreak when the moms finish their night shift. Tokkie shared with me the knowledge that bushbabies pee on their hands for a better grip. Oh yes, that explains the fresh droplets every morning on Colin’s table and on the stoep. They also twist human beings around their little fingers. This is not book knowledge. I experienced it – first-hand. Watch my lips.
Every evening Tokkie armed herself to the teeth against owls, fruit bats, snakes or whatever danger threatened the existence of her bushbabies. She even allowed herself to be intimidated into rising from a cosy bed to place a midnight snack on the table for the moaners. Then they were satisfied.
My wife blossomed as a first-rate nurse. This role she assumed after an exceptional experience that was later identified as the anxious actions of a concerned bushbaby mother. That tiny animal acted very strangely.
She sat watching us from the stoep wall, climbed down to the ground and afterwards leapt around on the wall with typical kangaroo leaps. Then she stretched her little body in order to see further; stood erect on her long hind legs, and studied the surroundings very thoroughly.