Logo Description

The logo is stylized from the early life stages of the African Pike, Hepsetus odoe, a fish specifically adapted to the life in seasonal swamps. The spawning adults construct a nest of foam that is floating on the surface and in which the eggs are laid and guarded by the parents. By that the eggs are protected from predators, from the intense tropical heat, they receive oxygen from the air while the water is often anoxic, and the nest affords flotation in an environment with unpredictable fluctuations in water levels. The hatching embryos wriggle out of the nest into the water under it. They have cement glands on their heads by which they attach themselves to the nest, to other substrates and to each other, often forming a ring shaped structure. This does facilitate floatation and save energy as well as protect against predators.

Crystallized from: Merron,G. et.al. 1990. The reproductive biology and early development of the African pike, Hepsetus odoe, in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.- Environmental Biology of Fishes 28 : 215-235.