 They're near the Buffalo River in Namaqua land. Senior lecturer Michelle Francis says the mounds existed while saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths roamed other parts of the earth. And the mounds are a termite version of an apartment complex, having been consistently inhabited by termite colonies. Francis says the southern harvester termites are experts at capturing and storing carbon by collecting twigs and other dead wood and putting it back deep into the soil.