Common Waterbuck - Game Haven and Majete Game Parks, Malawi

Every week, I am trying to bring you a different antelope that I saw on safari and this week it is the turn of the beautiful Common Waterbuck.  Some of the shots were taken at Game Haven and others were taken at Majete, both games parks at in Malawi.

The Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is placed in the genus Kobus of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. The thirteen subspecies are grouped under two varieties: the Common or Ellipsen Waterbuck and the Defassa Waterbuck.

The head-and-body length is typically between 70–93 in and the average height is between 47 and 54 in.  A sexually dimorphic antelope, males are taller as well as heavier than females.  Males typically weigh 437–578 lb and females 355–472 lb.  The coat colour varies from brown to grey. The long, spiral horns, present only on males, curve backward, then forward and are 22–39 in long.

The Waterbuck is of a robust build. The shaggy coat is reddish brown to grey, and becomes progressively darker with age. Males are darker than females. Though apparently thick, the hair is sparse on the coat.  The hair on the neck is, however, long and shaggy. When sexually excited, the skin of the Waterbuck secretes a greasy substance with the odour of musk, giving it the name "greasy kob".  This secretion also assists in water-proofing the body when the animal dives into water.  

The facial features include a white muzzle and light eyebrows and lighter insides of the ears. There is a cream-coloured patch (called "bib") on the throat. Waterbuck are characterised by a long neck and short, strong and black legs.

The principal differentiation between the two types is the white ring of hair surrounding the tail on the rump, which is a hollow circle in the Common Waterbuck but covered with white hair in the Defassa Waterbuck.  It is known as the 'toilet seat' antelope and  that made it easy for me to ID!!

Waterbuck are slower than other antelopes in terms of the rate of maturity. While males become sexually mature at the age of six years, females reach maturity within two to three years.  Females may conceive by the age of two-and-a-half years, and remain reproductive for another ten years.  

In equatorial regions, breeding takes place throughout the year, and births are at their peak in the rainy season.  However, breeding is seasonal in the Sudan (south of Sahara), with the mating season lasting four months.  The season extends for even longer periods in some areas of southern Africa. Oestrus lasts for a day or less.

Mating begins after the male confirms that the female is in oestrus, which he does by sniffing her vulva and urine. A resistive female would try to bite or even fight off an advancing male. The male exhibits flehmen, and often licks the neck of the female and rubs his face and the base of his horns against her back. There are several attempts at mounting before the actual copulation. The female shifts her tail to one side, while the male clasps her sides with his forelegs and rests on her back during copulation, which may occur as many as ten times.

The gestational period lasts for seven to eight months, followed by the birth of a single calf. Twins are rare. Pregnant females isolate themselves and into thickets as parturition approaches. 

Newborn calves can stand on their feet within half-an-hour of birth.  The mother eats the afterbirth. She communicates with the calf by bleating or snorting. Calves are kept hidden for two to three weeks or even two months. 

At about three to four weeks, the calf begins following its mother, who signals it to do so by raising her tail. Though bereft of horns, mothers will fiercely defend their offspring from predators.

Calves are weaned at eight months, following which time they join groups of calves of their own age.  Young females remain with their mothers in nursery herds, or may also join bachelor herds.

The Waterbuck lives to 18 years in the wild and 30 years in captivity.

I hope you enjoyed this post about the Common Waterbuck.

Thanks for visiting.

Many thanks for  leaving your kind comments on my post

WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY - Jackdaw

The Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) is a lively, diminutive member of the crow family.  It appears to have totally dark plumage from a distance, but on closer inspection it can be seen that it is dark grey in colour with a lighter grey nape and sides of the neck.  The beak is short and slender, the eyes are a unique pale blue, and it walks with a quick 'jaunty' step , all of which allow this bird to be distinguished from the Carrion and Hooded crows or the Rook.

Males, females and juveniles are similar in appearance.  The name 'daw' for this bird has been used since the 15th century; it is probably imitative of the call, but also means 'simpleton'. 'Jack' is often used for small animals, and, like knave, means rogue, yet it may also be derived from another call, 'tchack' which is a high-pitched, metallic sounding which might account for the ‘jack’ in their name. 

The Jackdaw is a highly sociable species outside of the breeding season, occurring in flocks that can contain hundreds of birds.  Within flocks there is a strict hierarchy, with a head bird. Occasionally the flock makes 'mercy killings', in which a sick or injured bird is mobbed until it is killed.

The Jackdaw typically feeds on the ground, taking insects and insect larvae, young birds, fruit and acorns. This is a playful species, performing aerobatics such as turning over in strong winds and diving; occasionally entire flocks may perform such displays at the same time.

Males and females pair up in their first year of life, but they do not begin to breed for another year; the pair remains closely tied for life.  Nests are usually constructed in some type of crevice, the pair drops sticks into the crevice until some become lodged; the nest is then built on this platform.  This behaviour has often led to chimneys being blocked and even nests, with the Jackdaw present, crashing down into fireplaces.  The pair defend their nest vigorously against intruding Jackdaws.

Four to six greenish-blue eggs are laid and incubated for up to 17 days by the female.  Both parents feed the chicks for around 30 days.

A special name for a jackdaw flock is a "clattering”.

This bird is smaller than both the Rook and the Carrion crow, and is a renowned thief.

Typical Lifespan: 5 years

 Maximum recorded age of a ringed bird - actual age may be greater Maximum Recorded Age: 17 years 0 months 22 days (set in 1980).

Although this is a common bird, I still love watching and photographing them and I hope you enjoyed this post.

I am linking this post with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.

Many thanks for visiting.

Many thanks for comments left on my post.

Birds and Autumn Colours

These are a few photographs I took on my home as I travelled along the coast road so sit back and enjoy.

Black headed Gull with only 1 foot.

Hooded Crow

Carrion Crow

Starling

Pied Wagtail

Hooded Crow

I saw this Maple in a garden so stopped the car to photograph it.

This is a small Maple tree from my own garden normally a burgany colour  turning a redder colour and below a few days later turning more orange with Elaeagnus x ebbingei beside it.

I hope you enjoyed this short post.

Thank you for visiting.

Many thanks for your comments.

Sunday Thought - Dead Baby Elephant

 The fat of an animal found dead or torn by wild animals may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it.

Leviticus 7:24

Baby Elephant found dead.  
He cannot have been dead long
 otherwise the Vultures would have been there.

Photographed

Kruger Game Park

14 September 2014

Thank you for visiting.

Many thanks for all your comments.

SATURDAY CRITTERS - Stand off with Elephants at Majete Game Park

Today I am taking you on a safari to the Majete Game Park and hopefully we will all fit into the transport.  Although we saw a lot of others animals that day (will show you more in a later post), I am showing you the herd of elephants we came upon very suddenly on the narrow road with no way out so we had to make a hasty retreat.  As most people know about Elephants I tried to find some interesting facts that people may not know.

Now this shot is the moment we realised that this Elephant was not for turning so we had to back away fast!  As Elephants can charge up to 25MPH, it was a very good decision!  So really this should be the final shot but I will show you now the sequence of shots up to that point and then at the end you can watch a video.  

The African Elephant is the largest land mammal.

Male - height 3.3m at shoulder weight up to 6000kg, (same as 10 small cars!)

Female - weight up to 4000kg. They can grow up to 4 m tall - the height of a double decker bus!

Both African and Asian Elephants have a pregnancy that approaches two years—22 months, to be exact. This is the longest gestation period for any land animal, and one of the longest for any animal on earth. Elephants produce one baby at a time, and the youngster weighs around 230 pounds at birth.

They are herbivores eating fruits, grasses, bark and roots.  They need to eat 136 kg a day. Their large thin ears, shaped a little like the continent of Africa, act as large radiators allow excess heat to escape.

Their trunk is actually an extension of their upper lip and nose breathing through two nostrils at the end of it.  It contains over 40,000 muscles, divided into as many as 150,000 individual units! Compare that to the human body, which contains a paltry 639 muscles, and you start to get an idea how intricate the appendage is.  

  With no bones in the trunk they can use it to such delicacy to be able to pick a blade of grass.  With it they can suck up 3 gallons of water in one go and spray it over themselves to keep cool.

African elephants move around in herds of females or “cows” with their calves.  Adult male “bulls”only join them during the mating season. They continue to grow throughout their lives which means that the biggest elephant in a herd is usually the oldest.

Their tusks are really extended teeth which also continue to grow.  During their lives they may have 6 sets of teeth but by the time they are 40 - 60 they don’t grow any new ones and so it is not uncommon for them to starve to death.  Indeed an “elephant graveyard” could be such a place where elephants go to look for softer vegetation to eat.  They use their tusks for a number of purposes such as digging up tree roots and stripping bark off trees to eat and digging holes to reach underground water sources.

African elephants are very important to the eco-system in which they live.  In fact the role they play is so important that they are known as a “keystone” species on which numerous other species rely.  Some plants need to be digested by an elephant before the seeds will germinate, including up to a third of tree species in their habitat.

Their large size and taste for roots leads to pathways through forests being cleared.  This allows sunlight into an otherwise dense and dark forest giving the opportunity for a wider variety of flora to grow which in turn encourages a wider variety of fauna.  These pathways  act as natural firebreaks.  Some of the ancient ones are so well established that they have been turned into roads!

Unlike their cousins the Asian elephant, African elephants aren't easily domesticated.  There are between 470,000- 690,000 African elephants which is down from 1.3 million in the 1970s, mainly due to poaching for ivory during the 1980s.

In 1989 there was an international ban on ivory although it is still sold illegally to markets in Africa and Asia.  Although the overall number of elephants in Africa has declined, certain populations are doing so well that they have had to be culled in order to maintain the habitat where they live. and due to human settlements and crops restricting the areas within which they can move.  This can bring them into conflict with humans, especially if they trample on their crops.  

The Massai people, however, live in harmony with them since their staple food is cows which they keep out in the open.

In parts of Africa elephants and people have not been getting on.  The elephants trample and eat farmers' food and people kill and hunt elephants to keep them away from their land, but for many farms there is now a solution - BEES!

How can one of the largest land mammals on earth be afraid of tiny bees?  Well, have you ever been stung by a wasp or a bee?  It hurts!  And elephants, who are famous for their good memory, never forget.  This discovery came after researchers in Africa noticed that elephants did not feed from trees that had bee hives in them.  Armed with this new knowledge a British biologist named Lucy King carried out tests to understand and document the elephants behaviour and reactions to the buzzing bees.

'Once stung, twice shy' is true for elephants too as they avoid bees, beehives and behave very well around them in order not to stir them up.  A solution to keep elephants away from farms became clear - the researchers attached beehives to fences that were usually bulldozed to the floor by hungry elephants.  Now, when elephants disturb the fence and try to push their way through they stir up hoards of angry bees and scarper quickly!

During a test this technique reduced the number elephant break-ins by a whopping 93% leaving both farmers and the elephants happier.  In the past, elephants and people have been fighting for space, with both struggling to find or grow food.  Farms are spreading and the elephants' habitat is getting smaller.  

Some African elephant species are endangered as the illegal trade in ivory (elephant tusks) and poaching continues, but this solution to the problem of sharing land will hopefully help improve elephant populations and get their relationships with humans buzzing.

Life-span: 60 years - more than 80 years in captivity.

  I hope you enjoyed this post and now for the video.  Listen to near the end of it when you may hear fear and apprehension from my granddaughter voice!

CLICK HERE to access the video if it does not appear below. 

Now were there some things you did not know about the African elephant?  Certainly there were for me.  If not, then I hope you enjoyed seeing these wonderful gentle giants.

I am linking this post to SATURDAY CRITTERS.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also to the people who leave kind comments.