An Ostrich is about the size of a cantaloupe. They are so hard so much that the baby’s head cannot break the through the shell on its own. They are so thick that three-dimensional details can be carved into the shell producing decorative and attractive effects.
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White Rhino

The Rhinoceros is not a particularly friendly animal and that’s that. Most of the stone carvings depict the solitary animal, which is how they are seen in the bush. Rhinos will occasionally be seen in pairs and these are generally young males who appear to “lerate” one another. There is presently no great concern about the diminution of the species-at least since the taking of Rhino horns for medical and other use has been controlled in most Southern Africa.

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These are tropical reptiles. They are thick skinned and lizard-like in shape. The African crocodile is recognized by its narrow snout. It has three or four rows of protective scales on the back of its neck, which merges with scales on its back. The fourth tooth of the lower jaw of the crocodile sit outside the lip even when its mouth is closed

For years we were told that Shona, Ndebele and other African art carvers were not partial to cats in general. Cats in their natural state tends to feed on cattle and other domestic animals as these are easier to hunt than Zebras and other animals native to the bush veldt in Southern Africa. The ……. Among the artists has changed and we are now seeing some very attractive renderings of lions and leopards.

Hippopotamus is an animal that spends a great deal of time lolling around rivers and other bodies of water. The soft round shape of the Hippo and the fact that they are seen to spend their time lying down make them a natural for carving out of the softer Rapoko stone in their favorite supine position. We have Serpentine and Verdite pieces.

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The cheetah originated about 4,000,000 years ago, long before the other big cats. The oldest fossils place  it in North America in what is now Texas, Nevada and Wyoming. It was common throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and North America until the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, when massive climatic changes caused large numbers of mammals to disappear. All cheetah in North America and Europe and most of those in Asia and Africa vanished. Some experts think our present populations were derived from inbreeding by those very few surviving and closely related animals. This inbreeding "bottleneck", as theorized, led to the present state of cheetah genetics: all cheetah alive today appear to be as closely related as identical twins.

Hippopotamus is an animal that spends a great deal of time lolling around rivers and other bodies of water. The soft round shape of the Hippo and the fact that they are seen to spend their time lying down make them a natural for carving out of the softer Rapoko stone in their favorite supine position. We have Serpentine and Verdite pieces.

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