User:Drakenwolf

Hello all, I am a 30-year-old South African who lives in Cape Town, South Africa. I count myself fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

I have a Bachelor of Business Administration degree (BBA) from UNISA, majoring in Communications and Business Management.

I love wildlife, nature, hiking, working out, reading, gardening, games, hanging out with friends, and good food.

I am interested in history (both human and natural) and nature, politics, business and current affairs of the world. I enjoy political satire, especially cartoons by Zapiro.

Books
I like reading books, both fiction and non-fiction. I greatly enjoy reading on my Kindle Fire. These are my favourite genres:

Fiction
1. Fantasy

Of this genre, I enjoy Harry Potter, the Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, the stories set in Midkemia by Raymond E. Feist (such as the Riftwar trilogy), the Heritage of Shannara by Terry Brooks, and several others.

2. Mystery/Thriller

I really enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.I also enjoy the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz and Barry Eisler's espionage novels starring John Rain.

I generally do not enjoy science fiction, but I did very much like Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking series.

Non-fiction
1. Science (evolution, zoology, ecology, Green issues, etc)

Richard Dawkins's The Ancestor's Tale is an excellent book, if a little heavy with the amount of content.

2. History

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel is another excellent book; it attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations (in which he includes North Africa) have survived and conquered others, while refuting the assumption that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral or inherent genetic superiority. Another book of his, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, is another good read, and Diamond's exhortation to the reader is a good one, in my opinion: learn from history.

3. Environmental issues and the Human relationship with nature


 * The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
 * The God Species by Mark Lynas
 * Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand

3. General knowledge

The Internet
I also frequent several platforms in addition to Wikipedia such as Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram. I follow several nature-oriented blogs, such as Tetrapod Zoology by Darren Naish, and take part in a couple of forums such as Carnivoraforum.

Contributions To Wikipedia
Note that the lists below do not necessarily follow any particular order.

Creation of Articles
I have created the following articles, from most recent to least recent:


 * Protea repens
 * Thamnochortus cinereus
 * Erica nana
 * Erica patersonii
 * Watsonia borbonica
 * Cussonia sphaerocephala
 * Picea critchfieldii
 * Leucospermum reflexum
 * Monkey beetle
 * Trichostetha fascicularis
 * Fauna of South Africa (Work in progress)
 * Protea roupelliae ‎
 * Aloe broomii
 * Erica verticillata
 * Aloe plicatilis
 * Aloe africana
 * Aloe albida
 * Renosterveld
 * Thamnochortus insignis (the first article I ever created)

Major Edits
I have contributed to and expanded the following articles:


 * Cheetah
 * Protea cynaroides
 * Red-winged Starling
 * African Fish Eagle
 * Tecoma capensis
 * Springbok
 * Klipspringer
 * African Penguin
 * Carpobrotus edulis (added the In South Africa section)
 * Table Mountain National Park

Minor Edits
I have made some minor contributions to the following articles:


 * Caracal (Lead section and In culture section)
 * Peregrine Falcon (Current Status section)
 * Cheetah Reintroduction in India (Fixed grammar errors)
 * Blyth's Tragopan (Improved structure of article)
 * Brown Fur Seal
 * Chinkara
 * Common Bulbul
 * Mediterranean climate
 * Grassland (Fauna section)
 * Himalayan Tahr (As an Alien Species section)
 * Eastern Gray Squirrel (Introductions section pertaining to South Africa)
 * Mimetes
 * Pachnoda sinuata
 * Oriental Darter
 * African Darter
 * Marbled reed frog (added distribution map)
 * Wild Horse (added Ecology section and minor restructure of the article)
 * Lanner Falcon (expanded Lead section a little)

Pictures
I have contributed photographs of my own work to the following articles:


 * Red-winged Starling
 * Acacia sieberiana

My Species List
I have a keen interest in birds and mammals. For now, I will list the wild birds I have seen:

Africa
TOTAL: 168 species
 * Red-winged Starling
 * Common Starling [Introduced to South Africa]
 * Common Myna [Introduced to South Africa]
 * Pied Starling
 * Cape Glossy Starling
 * Burchell's Starling
 * Greater blue-eared starling
 * Red-billed Oxpecker
 * Olive Thrush
 * Groundscraper Thrush
 * Familiar Chat
 * Cape Robin-chat
 * Ant-eating Chat
 * African Stonechat
 * Mocking Cliff Chat ♀
 * Karoo Scrub-Robin
 * Cape Grassbird
 * Levaillant's cisticola
 * Grey-backed cisticola
 * Lesser Swamp Warbler
 * Karoo Prinia
 * Cape Bulbul
 * Common Bulbul
 * Terrestrial Brownbul
 * Sombre Greenbul
 * Cape Batis
 * Fiscal Flycatcher
 * African Paradise Flycatcher
 * Ashy flycatcher
 * Cape White-eye
 * Cape Sugarbird
 * Orange-breasted Sunbird
 * Southern Double-collared Sunbird
 * Malachite Sunbird
 * Amethyst Sunbird
 * House Sparrow [Introduced to South Africa]
 * Cape Sparrow
 * Southern Masked Weaver
 * Cape Weaver
 * Sociable Weaver
 * Southern Red Bishop
 * Yellow Bishop
 * White-browed Sparrow-weaver
 * Common Waxbill
 * Swee Waxbill
 * Pin-tailed Whydah
 * Shaft-tailed Whydah
 * Cape Canary
 * Yellow canary
 * Red-billed Firefinch
 * Common Chaffinch [Introduced to Cape Town]
 * Red-billed Quelea
 * Pied Crow
 * White-necked Raven
 * Cape Crow
 * House Crow [Unintentional introduction to South Africa]
 * Hartlaub's babbler
 * Southern Fiscal
 * Magpie Shrike
 * Crimson-breasted Shrike
 * Southern Boubou
 * Bokmakierie
 * Black-crowned Tchagra
 * Fork-tailed Drongo
 * Yellow-throated Longclaw
 * Neddicky
 * Red-breasted Swallow
 * Pearl-breasted Swallow
 * Wire-tailed Swallow
 * Cape Wagtail
 * African Pied Wagtail
 * Emerald-spotted Wood Dove
 * Laughing Dove
 * Red-eyed Dove
 * Lemon Dove
 * Speckled Pigeon
 * African Olive Pigeon
 * Feral Pigeon [Introduced to South Africa]
 * Namaqua Sandgrouse
 * Grey Go-away-bird
 * Knysna Turaco
 * Crested Barbet
 * Black-collared Barbet
 * Lilac-breasted Roller
 * Blue-cheeked Bee-eater
 * Southern Carmine Bee-eater
 * Little Bee-eater
 * White-fronted Bee-eater
 * Spotted Eagle Owl
 * Pel's Fishing Owl
 * Cape Vulture
 * White-backed Vulture
 * Lappet-faced Vulture
 * African Fish Eagle
 * Verreaux's Eagle
 * Martial Eagle
 * Long-crested Eagle
 * Bateleur Eagle (juvenile)
 * African Harrier-Hawk
 * Black-winged Kite
 * Yellow-billed Kite
 * Rock Kestrel
 * Peregrine Falcon
 * Lanner Falcon
 * Secretary Bird
 * Cape Francolin
 * Red-billed Spurfowl
 * Helmeted Guineafowl
 * Crested Guineafowl
 * Egyptian Goose
 * White-faced Whistling Duck
 * Red-billed Teal
 * Cape Shoveler
 * Knob-billed Duck
 * Yellow-billed Duck
 * Mallard [Feral, introduced to South Africa]
 * African Black Swift
 * Alpine Swift
 * Sacred Ibis
 * Glossy Ibis
 * Hadeda Ibis
 * African Spoonbill
 * Hamerkop
 * Grey Heron
 * Black-headed Heron
 * Purple Heron
 * Goliath Heron
 * Striated Heron
 * Squacco Heron
 * Cattle Egret
 * Blue Crane
 * Grey Crowned Crane
 * Greater Flamingo
 * Lesser Flamingo
 * Common Moorhen
 * Red-knobbed Coot
 * Denham's Bustard
 * Kori Bustard
 * Marabou Stork
 * Saddle-billed Stork
 * African Openbill
 * African Penguin
 * King penguin (vagrant to Buffel's Bay beach at Cape Point, 30 Oct 2019)
 * Ostrich
 * Kelp Gull
 * Hartlaub's Gull
 * Grey-headed Gull
 * Common Tern
 * Whiskered Tern
 * African Jacana
 * Spotted Thick-knee
 * Water Thick-knee
 * Pied Avocet
 * African Black Oystercatcher
 * White-fronted Plover
 * Crowned Plover
 * Three-banded Plover
 * Blacksmith Lapwing
 * Fiery-necked Nightjar
 * Striped Kingfisher
 * Pied Kingfisher
 * Malachite Kingfisher
 * Half-collared Kingfisher
 * Giant Kingfisher
 * African Hoopoe
 * Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
 * Southern Red-billed Hornbill
 * Southern Ground Hornbill
 * African Grey Hornbill
 * Great Crested Grebe
 * Eastern White Pelican
 * White-breasted Cormorant
 * Reed Cormorant
 * Bank Cormorant
 * Cape Cormorant
 * African Darter
 * Speckled Mousebird
 * Red-faced Mousebird
 * White-backed Mousebird

Europe
TOTAL: 6 species
 * Mallard
 * Mute Swan
 * Rook
 * Great Tit
 * Rock Dove
 * Grey Heron