How goggas jus' chill when the heat is on

The ninth Yebo Gogga Yebo Amablomo 2012 kicks off on the 16^th of May 2012 at 09:00 at Wits University. 

The five-day exhibition will focus on how living things keep their cool and this year’s theme is fittingly called Jus’ chillin. Hosted by the Wits School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, Yebo Gogga is an annual exhibition filled with displays of fascinating spiders, snakes, bugs, beetles, plants and animals.

During those lazy summer holidays, beach sand can get much hotter than 37°C in the sun and yet we are able to lie on the sand without overheating. Chilling allows us and other animals to survive temperatures greater than our optimal body temperature.

This year’s exhibition will focus on how living things keep their cool. The exhibition will investigate just how some bugs, plants and animals survive and thrive in extreme temperatures. 

Plants, for instance, grow in cracks in roads surrounded by very hot surfaces, yet they survive and perhaps even thrive in these conditions. How do they do that? Some answers can be found in strategies they apply, such as avoidance, cooling and adaptive behaviour. These ensure that life tolerates a temperature range far greater than would be possible if living things did not know how to chill.

While hundreds of learners from schools across Gauteng will visit the exhibition at the Life Sciences Museum and the Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building at Wits over the next three days, the public is also invited to bring their children, especially to a fun-packed weekend on Saturday, 19 and Sunday, 20 May when various talks on spiders, snakes and aloes will be presented. Entrance is free to all.

Programme of talks at the Oppenheimer Life Sciences (OLS) Building:

Saturday, 19 May 2012:

10:30 Talk on spiders by Astri Leroy (Venue: OLS 3)

11:30 Talk and visit by Byron the Cheetah from the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre (Venue: OLS 4)

12:00 Talk on aloes by Stephen Cousins (Venue: OLS 3)

13:00 How to make a Mopane Pizza! (Venue: OLS Lower Ground)

14:00 Talk and demonstration on snakes by Clive Reid from Snake City (Venue: OLS 3)

Sunday, 20 May 2012:

10:30 Talk on spiders by Astri Leroy (Venue: OLS 3)

11:30 Talk and visit by Byron the Cheetah from the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre (Venue: OLS 4)

13:00 How to make a Mopane Pizza! (Venue:  OLS Lower Ground)

14:00 Talk and demonstration on snakes by Clive Reid from Snake City (Venue: OLS 3)

Visitors can also enjoy the various exhibitions presented by organisations such as the Snake City from the Huyani Reptile Education and Breeding Centre that will show how their slithery friends take time out to chill. Jo’burg Zoo will be “Chilling out with Guttural Frogs” at their stall, while visitors roaming around the exhibition might also find the answer to how climate change affects insects. View a list of the other exhibitions here. 

This nature-fest begins on Wednesday, 16 to Sunday, 20 May 2012 from 09:00 to 16:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 16:00 on weekends. 

Venue: Life Sciences Museum and areas of the Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building, East Campus, Wits University. Click here to visit the Yebo Gogga website.

MEDIA COVERAGE:

 Students having a gogga of a time -  Wits Vuvuzela, 18 May 2012

 Online coverage

 TalkRadio 702 - 18 May 2012