A national animal that doesn't live in the country
Most of the time a country's choice of national animal is pretty obvious, but in the case of Lesotho, the fact that the crocodile has been awarded this honour is somewhat bewildering!For one thing, there are no crocodiles in Lesotho. The climate is too cold, and the rivers generally too rocky, shallow and fast flowing to provide the sort of warm, slow moving environment that crocs need to thrive. Granted there are dams, but these are deep, steep sided and freezing cold, and don't provide the shallows and sand banks that crocs relish.So why on earth choose the crocodile? Well, the best explanation that I've been able to come up with is that one of the tribes that became part of the Basotho nation (the Bamokotleli) when it was pulled together by Mosheoshoe I in the early 19th century were closely related to the Bakoena tribe in Bechuanaland (modern day Botswana), who were known as the...
