And many animals here choose
the simplest option of all
staying hidden all day
and only venturing out in the course of the night
as darkness falls.
Animals appear from seemingly nowhere,
and among them, inevitably
a hunter’s
one of the most voracious nocturnal predators.
It’s also one of the hardest to see.
This mysterious creature
hardly ever appears on the surface of the dunes,
but there are signs on the sand
that can give it away.
He lives only here, where the sand grains are so perfectly
dry and polished that they flow almost
like water.
It’s no bigger than a ping pong ball.
A golden mole.
It’s totally blind,
but there’s nothing to see on the ground
anyway.
Instead, it has superb hearing
and its entire head
acts as an amplifier that picks up vibrations through the sand.
So to locate prey on the surface of the dune,
it has paradoxically to thrust its face into the dune.
Termites.
Not easier to catch when you’re blind.
Better to go into stealth mode.
Once below the sand,
it can detect the slightest movement,
allowing it to strike
with pinpoint accuracy.
Well, most of the time
it can travel a kilometer
a night in search of its dinner.
And right now,
it has just detected its main course.
Little wonder is sometimes called the shark of the dunes.
