- WOLWEDANS CAMP -- One of
Africa's most mysterious natural phenomena still cannot be explained despite
25 years of research, scientists admitted yesterday.
-
- Rings known as "fairy circles" that pockmark
vast areas of desert in Namibia and South Africa have baffled botanists
from the University of Pretoria and the Polytechnic of Namibia.
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- They have ruled out termite activity, poisoning from
toxic indigenous plants, contamination from radioactive minerals and even
ostrich dust baths as possible causes.
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- "At this stage I suppose we could say that fairies
are as good an explanation as any," Gretel van Rooyen, professor of
botany at Pretoria, told The Telegraph.
-
- The findings will come as a relief to the region's bushmen
who have traditionally attributed magical, spiritual powers to these desert
rings.
-
- Some tribes say each marks the grave of a bushman killed
in clashes with colonialists, both black and white, who over the centuries
have wiped out their hunter-gatherer, nomadic lifestyle.
-
- And there is something other-worldly about the circles
at Wolwedans desert camp in Namibia, perhaps the best place to see the
phenomenon. The symmetrical divots in the sand stretch as far as the eye
can see across vast, open plains like a giant terrestrial form of chickenpox
or, as one Austrian holidaymaker put it, like splash marks from giant raindrops.
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- Such figurative thoughts were far from the minds of Prof
van Rooyen and her team when they began to analyse the circles, which are
to be found about 100 miles inland, in a band stretching 1,500 miles south
from Angola. The territory is among the most remote and inhospitable on
the planet which may explain why so little scientific research had been
done on the rings.
-
- In 1978 a long-term project was started when researchers
hammered metal stakes into the centre of numerous circles. It had always
been assumed the circles moved and the stakes would show how far and in
what direction.
-
- When the researchers eventually returned to the test
circles after 22 years, they found they had not moved an inch.
-
- "That showed these things are not dynamic and so
we then focused on what characteristics of the desert soil might explain
less growth in some places and good growth in others," Prof van Rooyen
said.
-
- "But one by one we tested the theories and one by
one they were disproved."
-
- Received wisdom was that termites caused the circles,
foraging from underground nests the same distance and keeping a patch of
desert clear of any new growth.
-
- But the scientists showed that the right foraging habits
of the only termites in the region did not fit this theory.
-
- Samples of soil from the circles were then taken back
to Pretoria for analysis. "We did all the basic soil tests for nutrients
and minerals but found no explanation," Prof van Rooyen said.
-
- The findings of her team's research was published in
a 19-page article in The Journal of Arid Environments.
-
- "What we need to do now is more research on the
detailed breakdown of that soil using a mass spectrometer to find out what
is different about that soil, she said.
-
- "Until that research is completed in a few more
years, the fairies remain the best explanation for this African quirk of
nature."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/10/
wcirc10.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/10/ixworld.html
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