What
is it?
FAIRY CIRCLES
Strange discs of bare red earth
swarm across the sparse grasslands
of south-west Africa, forming
pockmarked patterns that stretch
for miles along the arid Atlantic
strip. Spaced so evenly they appear
to have been stamped, the ‘fairy
circles’ are often the size of a
garden trampoline, but in some
areas reach 20m wide. For half a
century, the formations have had
scientists scratching their heads.
Leading theories to explain them
include feeding activity by termite
colonies, or competition for scarce
water between di erent species of
clump-forming grass. Ben Hoare