We are fortunate to have made a trip to East Africa some years ago (thankfully, long before the current unrest there) for an extended camera safari, and while there we were naturally interested in learning about the local mushrooms.
Unlike the animal world, there is very little literature about African mushrooms, and none of the camps where we stayed in Kenya and Tanzania had any books on the subject.
We did find mention of mushrooms in the book Savage Paradise by Hugo van Lawick, which included this paragraph:
One of the most amusing incidents I witnessed with jackals concerned the eating of mushrooms. This took place in the Ngorongoro Crater when I was watching a family of two adults and four cubs. The whole family had been eating mushrooms of various types, but one day I saw one of the cubs eat a species I had not seen jackals eat before. Ten minutes later the cub seemed to go mad. He rushed around in circles and then, to my amazement, charged flat out, first at a Thomson's gazelle and then an adult wildebeest. Both animals stared at the tiny creature and hurriedly got out of its way. Unfortunately, I could not find another mushroom of that type for identification. I am convinced the cub was suffering from hallucinations.
We saw mushrooms in various places, but the fungal highlight of our trip came at Serengeti Mara. On game drives, guests are forbidden from walking around, because of the ever-present possibility of a big cat or other dangerous animal lurking unseen in the tall grass. In a Land Cruiser, it is as if you disappear; you never hear of an animal attacking someone in a vehicle, even an open one; on foot, it's a whole different story.
We were driving through an area of scattered trees one afternoon when we spotted a vervet monkey off under a tree, eating something. Our guide, Yusuf, said it was a mushroom (all African guides have almost supernatural eyesight!), and when we expressed great interest in seeing it and any other mushrooms we can, he was quickly out of
the Land Cruiser and walking purposefully toward the monkey. The little vervet, astonished at this development, dropped the mushroom like a hot ember and scampered up the tree. Yusuf brought the mushroom back to us, and we took notes and photographs (seen here, half eaten, held by our guide). When we were done, he carefully returned it to the base of the monkey's tree.
A little later on, we spotted another mushroom by the side of the road, which we stop to examine and photograph. Yusuf says this one isn't good to eat, but the one the monkey had was a type he had eaten and enjoyed. When we ask how they can tell a good one from one that isn't, he explains that if the monkeys eat them, they know they are okay for humans, too.
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