We Found Faries!

Yes! We finally found FAIRIES! See the photo to check out the sign of fairies’ presence.

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 “Fairy circles in Namibia”, by Thorsten Becker. National Geographic, 28^thMarch 2013. URL: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/03/Namibian-fairy-circles.jpg (accessed on 2nd April 2013)

The Myth…

The place is actually Marienfluss Valley in Kaokoveld, Namibia Desert. Along the valley scattered with circular formations of grass with barren centers, these are so called “fairy circles”.  Locals believe they are formed by super natural entities such as the footsteps left by their ancestor – Mukuru or poisonous gas emitted by a dragon.

However…

I think these supernatural stories cannot convince you, neither do our great scientists believe. Scientists have been actively seeking the answer.  The possible answers are these fairy circles are created by harvester termites such as Hodotermes mossambicus, toxic gas released from ground and competition between different plants.  However these possible answers all having flaws. For example, Harvester termites forages over long stretches of land, not in circles. And there are not solid data and evidences to prove competition between plants could form the neat and evenly distributed circles.

The Truth…

Nobert Juergens, a biologist from the University of Hamburg who has published “The biological underpinnings of Namib Desert fairy circles” on Science,  28^th March has seem found out the answer. These fairies are sand termite Psammotermes allocerus, which are creating an ecosystem around these circles. So why these termites build these circles. The idea is simple. The desert is short of water. The termites eat all the grass within a circular patch, exposing underlying sand grains that store any falling rainwater. In this way, the water will be trapped and stored and help the insects to protect against their desert habitat. And this behaviour in the end also helps to create the ecosystem. As if without these termites, grass would grow with the rains, then rapidly use up all the water and die, and the desert will be forever barren.

Anybody keen to know more can read up the journal at Science website [here] , for those lazy ones can read at secondary source at National Geography [here]. For those even lazier, you can check out the Youtube below

Reference:

“Fairy circles in Namibia”, by Thorsten Becker. National Geographic, 28^thMarch 2013. URL: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/03/Namibian-fairy-circles.jpg (accessed on 2nd April 2013)
“Fairy Circle Mystery Possibly Solved in Africa”, by Slatester. YouTube, 29^thMarch 2013. URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak3XK9sC1Vg (accessed on 2nd April 2013)
“Africa’s Weird Fairy Circles are Termite-Built Water Traps”, by ED Yong. National Geography, 28^thMarch 2013. URL: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/28/africas-weird-fairy-circles-are-termite-built-water-traps/ (accessed on 2nd April 2013)
Norbert Juergens, 2013,The Biological Underpinnings of Namib Desert Fairy Circles, Science, Vol. 339 no. 6127 pp. 1618-1621