Field guide of East African Mammals

AFRICAN ELEPHANT (Loxodonta africana)

 Description

It is the largest terrestrial mammal. Regardless being the biggest mammal on the land, an
elephant appears to be a dwarf to the blue whale which is the biggest animal on the earth being
eleven times bigger than the African elephant.

 Social Behaviour

Elephants live in matriarch societies whereby the family unit is made up of around 10 closely
related females and their calves, and the group is leading by an older female. Matured males
form liquid alliances with other males. Elephants communicate by vocalizations that are beyond
human sense of hearing and there are emotional animals.

 Reproduction

Elephants have the gestation period of 22 months giving birth to a calf that weighs almost 150
kg. Males will rarely fight for females using their tusks and trunk and they start to compete for
mating when reach 20 years. Young elephants wean for 6-18 months although they may continue
nursing for 6 years. Females are fertile between 25-45 years

 How reproduction is brought about

Adult bulls go through periodic episodes of elevated testosterone and heightened aggressive
states called musth. Musth bulls can be recognized by the large amounts of thick fluid draining
from the temporal glands located just behind the eyes.

Musth bulls show several unique behaviors including: ear-waving to spread the musth scent, a
musth rumble (or low frequency vocalization announcing his presence to cycling females), a
musth walk with head and ears held high above their shoulders as a visual display to other bulls
and aggression towards everything in its path. All of these make the musth bull a formidable
opponent. Musth bulls are frequently successful suitors for cycling cows.

A cycling female or cow may vocalize and show greater interest and enthusiasm for bulls. Bulls
will test the cow’s readiness to breed by performing a flemen behavior, which uses his trunk to
bring urine samples to the vemeronasal receptors in the roof of the mouth. These sensory
receptors send chemical signals to the elephant’s brain telling him if the female is ready to breed.
Courtship may last from 1 hour to 4 days where the bull will stay near the cow and guard her
from other bulls while he occasionally mates with her.

Agonistic behaviors, such as one elephant charging at another, are typically used by older adults
to assert their dominance or between young calves or juveniles. As elephants mature, males more

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frequently perform agonistic social behaviors than females. Agonistic social interactions between
any age and sex class occur most often in the early morning and late evening hours.

BLACK RHINO (Diceros bicornis)

 Description

Black rhino have two horns, which grow continually from the skin at their base throughout their
life (like human fingernails). Rhinos from different areas can have horns of different shapes and
sizes.

The shape of the horn also differs between sexes: with males tending to have thicker horns and
the females often longer and thinner ones. The horn is comprised of thousands of compressed
hair-like strands of keratin (like hair and fingernail fibers), making it extremely hard and tough,
but it can be broken or split during fighting. The front (anterior) horn is longer than the rear
(posterior) horn, averaging at around 50 cm long.

Black rhinos are smaller than white rhinos, and have less of a pronounced hump on the back of
their necks. They have a smaller head also; as unlike the white rhino, they are browsers, so eat
from higher trees, requiring less muscle strength around their necks than white rhinos. The most
distinguishable characteristic between a black and a white rhino is that black rhinos have a
hooked lip, as opposed to a flat-based lip, which is related to their eating habits.

 Social Behavior and Territory

 Sociability

Black rhinos can be either solitary and territorial, or semi-social and less aggressively-territorial,
depending on the habitat. A group of black rhinos congregating socially at a waterhole, thus
disproving myths that black rhinos are strictly solitary.

 Male territory

A typical bulls' territorial range is generally around 3.9km -4.7km. Adult male black rhinos tend
to live on their own, except when courting females. Among males, there are dominant and
subordinate animals. Subordinate rhino within these ranges are often young adults, who must be
submissive to the dominant bull. Young bulls and old males who cannot defend themselves as
strongly are often killed or injured in aggressive territorial interactions, or become confined to a
small area until they die.

 Female territory

This tends to range from 5.8km-7.7km. Females tend to remain solitary, and are usually only
found in the presence with their latest calf.

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 Scent-marking

This is a crucial method of communication for rhinos, as they have extremely poor eyesight and
often live in solitary. Urine spraying is a common form of scent marking, both for males seeking
to mark their territory, and also for females to signify to nearby bulls when they are in estrus.
Spraying bursts can reach up to a 3-4 meters range, and can be found along feeding and water
tracks also. Dung piles are also a common scent-mark, known as 'middens'. Black rhinos may
defecate repeatedly in one spot, or distribute dung piles across their home range. Head rubbing is
also a form of scent marking. Black rhinos leave a distinctive scent against a rock or tree by
rubbing a scent gland located on their skin to mark a territory.

 Sounds

Sniffing and snorting are the most common noises made by rhinos, especially when disturbed.
Some grunting between social groups has also been observed as a form of communication.

 Daily activity

Black rhinos can be active both day and night, but are least active during the hottest parts of the
day (around 10am-3pm), where they seek shade under large rocks, trees and mud wallows.

 Breeding and Birth

 Mating and courtship

These are very similar to that of the white rhino; upon sensing that a female is in estrus, a bull
will approach the female, gradually moving closer during the days that she is in estrus. When the
female has accepted his presence, she will cock her tail ready for mating. Copulation usually
lasts around half an hour, but pairs may stay together for up to 30 days.

 Gestation and birth

Females will reach sexual maturity and may have their first calf at 3.5- 4 years old. The gestation
period of a black rhino is 15-17 months, and when a female is preparing to calve, she will find a
solitary, sheltered spot to give birth.

 Calves

At birth, calves can weigh around 30- 45 kg, and can usually stand within the first few hours
after being born. They will suckle for the first two months of life, when weaning usually occurs,
but may sometimes continue suckling for up to a year. Black rhino calves stay with their mother
for 2-4 years before being rejected, usually when the female is ready to calve again. After a
newborn calve is around 6-8 months old, a female may allow a previous calf to rejoin her,
although these have normally established their own territory by this point

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 Other interesting facts

 Food

Black rhino are browsers (i.e., they eat trees, bushes and shrubs), compared to their cousins,
white rhinos: which are grazers. When they bite off woody plant parts they often leave a clean-
angled (pruning-shear type) edge (elephant tend to shred the ends of branches like a toothbrush),
achieved by the shape of their hooked lip. This neatly bitten, woody material can be clearly seen
in the traces of their dung.

 Senses

Like white rhinos, black rhinos have poor eyesight, and cannot easily detect an observer standing
more than 30 metres away. However, they do have excellent senses of smell and hearing.

 Footprint

Like all rhino species, they have three toes, and thus three stout nails, which leave impressions
on the ground to the front and side of a softer wrinkled sole. The front feet are bigger than the
back feet.

 Running speed

Black rhino can move extremely fast, and have been recorded at highs of 55 km/h. They can
change direction surprisingly quickly, and can run right through scrub and bushes.

 Longevity

Black rhinos live up to 30-35 years in the wild and 35-45+ years in captivity.

 Friendly relations

Red and yellow-billed ox-peckers are often seen with rhino and benefit them by removing ticks
and clearing parasites from any open wounds, and also by raising the alarm if there is any danger
approaching.

 Gender ratios

More male calves are born than female calves, but male mortality rate is higher, leading to adult
sex ratios biased towards females.

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HIPPOPOTAMUS (Hippopotamus amphibious)

 Description

They have no sweet gland but have mucous glands that secret a viscous red fluid that dries that
serves to protect the thin epidermis disease against water loss, sunburn and perhaps infection.
They need a deep enough water that can submerge then so as to avoid overheating and
dehydration.

 Social organization

Hippos are highly gregarious when in water but solitary when foraging with an exceptional to
female with dependent offspring. Herds typically range from 2-50, crowding is more during the
dry season, and hippos disperse more during the rainy season. Female herd composition will
remain consistence for several months at a time there appear to be no close ties between cows.

 Communication behavior

Visual signals are mostly in threat display such as yawning, and dung-showering. Olfactory
communication is done via urine testing with the vomeronasal organ function to communicate
their reproductive status of female and male as well.

 Territorial behavior

Wheezing, dung-showering

The territorial bulls have frequent ritualized encounter after approaching the common boundary.
When approaching new territory they stop and turn their backside towards the area, lift their rear
in the air and release dung and urine.

Yawning, water scooping and head shaking, rearing ,lunging, and chasing and dung showering
shows dominance or threat display

 Defensive behavior

Facing aggressor with the mouth open, turning tail, slow tail-paddling while urinating, lying
prone. Fighting behavior: Tusk clashing, rearing, and pushing with lower jaws engaged, slashing
and beating.

 Reproduction

Hippo are polygamous means specifically male mates with several females ,breeding most
occurs in the dry season but during wet season is the time of birth. Gestation period is about7 to
8 month

 Sexual behavior
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Bulls request mating by sniffing at the cows’ backside

 Parental care

Cows isolate before calving, on land or in shallow water, rejoining the herd after 10-14days

 Ant predatory behavior

A hippo’s jaws are wide and power full enough to bite a 3m crocodile and their predators are the
lions and crocodiles.

CAPE BUFFALO (Syncerus caffer)

 Habitat

The African buffalo can inhabit practically any habitat with permanent water and grass. They are
found in dense lowland forests, lowland rain forest, montane forests and grassland. But the
preferred habitats of Cape buffalo are open and wooded savanna with suitable grass cover. They
seek out good grazing in the early morning and late afternoon hours. They need water every day.

 Food habits (foraging)

African buffalo are grazing ruminants and devote a large proportion of their time to feeding and
extracting nutrients from food. After grazing grass and sedges, they spend time chewing their
cud to extract more nutrients. They prefer the leaves of grass, which dominate their diet during
the season.

 Social organization and communication

African buffalo are social and congregate in herds ranging from few individuals to over a
thousand. They form two types of herds which are: (a) Large, mixed sex and mixed age herds
also called breeding herds and (b) Small all male bachelor herd. The herd size depends on
habitat and pasture productivity, the more open and productive the range, the larger herds tends
to be.

 Sociable behavior

There are many social behaviors that the Cape buffalo tends to shows in the herds and also as a
means of communication, which include the following:

 Nose-to-nose contact: Usual greeting and identity check upon meeting. (This is an
olfactory communication)
 Social licking: the primary form of social grooming, partners take turn but the prevailing
direction is from the lower to higher ranking.

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 Herd coordinating call(auditory communication)

Low pitched 2-4 sec, call repeated at 3-6 sec interval: Signal to move. Creaking-gate sound:
Direction giving signal emitted by herd leaders during movement. Extended maaa call: Emitted
by one or a few buffalos up to 20 times/ min before and during movement to water. Also, they
most depend on visual communication as a main means of detecting and escaping the predators.

 Reproduction

African buffalo are promiscuous. As mating season nears, males in bachelor herds rejoin mixed
herds to begin seeking proestrous females. But most of the reproduction is dominated by largest
male because it tends to gird the female in estrus period. Mating and births can occur throughout
the year because female are polyestrous, with a cycle lasting 21 to 22 days. The majority births
occur during the wet season. The gestation period is 11.5month (about 340 days), and females
provide extensive care for young.

 Lifespan

African buffalo can live up to 22 year in the wild and have been recorded living 29.5 year in
captivity.

 Predators of Cape Buffalo

The healthy adult buffalo are vulnerable manly to lions, but also the spotted hyenas are main
predator for young buffalo.

 Difference between Cape buffalo and Forest buffalo

The water (forest) and Cape buffalo have a number of different in addition of their horns. The
frontal forehead of Cape buffalo is covered by a large born-like structure that extends from the
bottom of its horns. Additionally the Cape buffalo has a smaller less played foot structure than
the water buffalo which has adapted to harder surface that lives upon.

PLAIN ZEBRA (Equus burchelli)

 Description

There are other two species of Zebra which are mountain zebra and grevy’ zebra. Grevy’s zebra
is the largest species and have narrower stripes with white bellies. The other species is mountain
zebra which have medium sized body with white bellies and they have narrow stripes but not like
the narrower stripes of the gravy’s zebra.

 Physical Characteristics

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They posses short tail ending with a small tuft of black hair. They posses broad and boldly white
and black stripes decreasing southward, natal coat longer and softer with brown stripes. They are
medium sized and thick bodies with relatively short legs.

 Sexual Dimorphism

There is no gender difference but male zebra tend to be a little larger than the females and also
they have thicker necks.

 Ecology

Plain Zebra utilize a broad range of savanna habitats from treeless short grassland to tall
grassland and open woodland. They are most adaptable and successful grazers. They are
equipped to deal both with long, tough stems and early stages of a flush.

 Social Organization and Behaviour

They are non territorial and nomadic animals. They stay in family groups known as harem(one
stallion with several mares and the foals) and bachelor group. A stallion will defend his group
from other males. When challenged the stallion ensure the warning to the invaders by rubbing
their nose or shoulders with him. Zebra fights become very violent ending in biting each others
necks, heads and legs. The bachelor group consists of 2-15 males with an age-based; they stay in
a group until they are ready to start a harem.

 Predators

The main predators are the lions and hyenas. Also the wild dog, cheetah, and leopards tend to
attack the young zebra (foals).

 Communication

Tactile communication is by social grooming and greeting ritual. Olfactory communication is by

nasogenitalia contact and greeting ceremony. Vocal communication is by barking and snorting.
Visual communication occurs when there is mobility of the lips and significance of teeth in
fighting and social. Zebras are hindgut fermenters that is they have less efficient digestive system
thus is why they spend a lot of time foraging.

 Reproduction

Zebras breeds throughout the year but mostly they breed during the rainy season. A female
entering estrous urinates more often and the urine has a milky colour. Also when the female
zebra are in fully estrous they tend to spread their hind legs, open their mouth and rise up their
tail. The female give birth to one foal as twins are rare. The gestation period is 12-13 months.
The foals are precocial. The life span of zebras is 20-25 years in the wild and 40 in captivity.
Zebras are polygamous that is one male mate with several females.

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 Function of the Stripes

 Motion camouflage- that the stripes affect predator’s judgement of the zebra’ size,
distance and what direction is going in.
 Temperature regulation-this helps for cooling effect.
 Insect repellent.
 To hide from predators.
 Social recognition.

 Agonistic Behaviour

Zebra shows agonistic behavior which are categorized in three forms.

 Dominance display.

 Submissive display.

 Fighting.

 Parent-Offspring Behaviour

 When the mare give birth she will be watching over from the nearby with the rest of the
herd grazing 50m away.

 Whenever the stallion or other herd members came near the foal for the first few days,
the mother laid back her ears and chased them away.

 The previous offspring is also rejected but later may establish bonds with its siblings
through mutual grooming.

 Ant predatory Behaviour

 When hyena approach a herd that has a young colt, the mother hides with it behind other
family members. By staying close together instead of leaving behind a weak or sick
animal, the whole herd cooperates to protect any threatened member.

 Zebra have the ability to sleep while standing and this is because they have so called stay
apparatus which help them to lock their knees straight and make them able to sleep while
standing and this help them to confuse the predator.

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GIRAFFE
 Description

Sexual dimorphism: Males are larger than females, male possess thicker ossicones horn like
projections. Giraffe is extremely tall ungulates with long neck and long legs. Front legs are
longer than the back legs and back slopes to the rumps. Body covered with beautiful lattice
pattern consists of large irregular patches shade separated by network of light colored bands. Has
very large eyes and ossicones on their heads, female horns are thin and tufted, males horns are
thick and hair are smooth sparring

 Habitat and range

Preferred habitat of Giraffe is dry and arid savanna with some plant trees.

 Diet

 Growing tall enable giraffe to take 2m foliage.

 Feed in Acacia spp, Combretum spp, Terminalia spp and Commiphora spp.

 Horn papillae protect the lips and tongue from thorns.

 Prehensile tongue 45cm long enable them to strip leaves off branches.

 They feed selective and consume up to 34kg.

 Drinks water at interval of 3 days when available.

 Social Organization

 They are social animals that living in unstable herds of 10 to 20 individuals

 Females bond well together help each other in nursery group rearing calves. They are 10-
12 of females in a nursery

 Matures males leave their born and stay solitary until mating periods

 Young bulls disperse from their birth range when they are 3-4 age.

 Range of mature bulls average small compared to those of cows, young bulls range
widely and they are non territorial

 Vocal communication

 Giraffe calves tend to make a mooing/mewing call

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 Courting bulls they tend to make a raucous cough

 chemical communication

 Posses a Jacobson organs detecting pheromones released through urine

 Visual communication have very good visual contact

 Agonistic behavior

 Defensive display/submissive; head and ears are lowered with chin in and jumping
aside, retreating

 Fighting Head to body slamming necking (sparring)

 They feed both night and day time but activity is greatly reduced during hottest hours

 Giraffe walk in slow motion, pacing walk in amazing rapid and involves swinging of two
legs in same side of the body forward almost same time.

 They do not defend territory but occupy large home range 20 to>120km square, size
depend on resource availability

 Reproduction

 Female became receptive at the age of 4 while the male at 7 years

 Lone matures go from herd to herd looking for female reproductive status by urine testing
through flehmen response

 Bulls careful guide the estrus female from other male then court by rubbing the rump and
back of the female with his head ,licking the tail

 Gestation

Usually last for 15 months; always reproduce a single young stand up steadily after being born

 Giraffe are polygynous males having several partners

 Ant predatory Behavior

 Great size, superior vision, speed, and formidable hooves these features makes giraffe
invulnerable to predators

 Another defensive strategy is concealment

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LION
 Description

 Male lion have mane

 They have black tailed tuft and long tail

 Limbs short and massive

 Head wide with short, powerful jaws and long canines

 Male weight 189kg

 Female weight 126kg

 Ecology

 Savanna and plain habitats with greatest variety and biomass of hoofed mammals.

 Social Organization

 Lion live in a pride, the basic unit of lion society are prides of male and females each
pride residing in a territory.

 Lion are territorial; Territory is marked by scent, urine spraying.

 Resident adult males are immigrants that have gained custody of a pride range in a
competition with other males.

 Mating System and Reproduction

 Lion are polygyny, Means one male with several females. The size of lion determines its
chance to monopolize reproduction of a whole group of female.

 Female Lion copulate an estimated 3000 times and estrus last four days, coalition
partners fight hardly over mating rights.

 The first to reach a female in heat becomes her consort until and unless he has had
enough.

 Gestation period is 3.5 month but as a result of male takeovers and infanticide female
become receptive in 9month

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 Foraging Behaviour

 Lion are carnivore, hunting in groups have high success rate compared to single hunters,
lion cooperate in hunting big mammals such as buffalo but if the prey is small like
wildebeest only one lioness can hunt.

 If the kill is small also, the smallest and weakest lions lose out, hungry mothers wont
share even with their youngsters.

 Parental care

 Parental care is done by females, mothers tend to hide their cubs for 4 to 8weeks after
that they begins leading cubs to nearby kills or rarely bring live prey for cubs to practice
catching.

 NURSING is a job shared by all mothers in a pride but if other mothers stay awake they
will not let cubs than their own

 Cubs survival is highest when reproduction is synchronized since suckling is most

equable when there are no bigger cubs to hog the milk.

 Cubs born weighing 1-2kg

 Eyes open at 3 to 11 days, run at 1month

 Cubs remain dependent until 16month at least

 Communication

 Tactile communication, example,

 Greeting ceremony, lion lean on one another so hard that when one is lying the other
often falls on top

 Cubs more often run against adults and female run against male the direction being from
weaker to stronger.

 Female and male coalition partners lying in contact

 Olfactory communication; scent marking urine spraying regularly patrol and spray bushes
in currently defended part of pride territory

 Vocal communication; example roaring ,humming

 Visual communication; example head low throat indicate dominance, ears twisted
indicate defensive display

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 Male Coalition

 Coalition partners are usually related males that left their pride as adolescent and stayed
together as nomadic until mature and ready to compete.

LEOPARD
 Description

 Leopard have broad head and their massive skull allows for powerful jaws

 Have short legs relative to their body.

 Have scapula specialized for attachment sites for climbing muscles

 Have small round eyes, long whiskers extending from dark spots on the upper lip and
long whiskers in the eye bow.

 Their body is covered by black rosettes

 They have solid black spots on their chest, feet and face and rings on their tail

 Leopard are sexual dimorphism as male tend to be larger than female.

 Height and weight male have 35-65 kg with 60-70 cm and female has 28-58 kg with 57-
64 cm.

 Life span 12-19 years in wild and 23 years in captivity.

 Feeding Behaviour

 Leopards are versatile when it comes to food , they are also opportunistic carnivores as
they eat birds, reptiles ,rodents, and arthropods.

 Also feed on mid sized ungulates which include all s small antelopes, gazzelle, deer ,
pigs, primates and domestic livestock

 They do prefer prey that weigh between 10 and 40 kg

 They are scavengers eating rotten carcass

 They are known to cache food and may continue hunting despite having multiple
carcasses already cached.

 Habitat

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 Leopard inhabits a wide range of terrain. Most populous in woodlands, grassland

savannah and forest. They also occupy mountainous, and desert habitats.

 They favor trees throughout their entire geographical range distribution.

 Reproduction

 Leopard are polygamy, male have multiple partners.

 Parental care by females.

 Female starts breeding at 2 years.

 Estrus last 7 days, recurring every 25 to 58 days until conception.

 Gestation is 90-100 days.

 Cubs are altricial (becomes active after being born) and weigh 400-600 g at birth and
their eyes remain closed for the first week and are hidden 6 weeks in the dense
thickest, cave or hollow tree and moved periodically.

 Cubs are independent at just under 20 months.

 Social Organization

 A typically solitary cat, the leopard hunts and live alone, but they meet only during
mating and when rearing cubs.

 Territorial and they mark their territory by using urine , feces,

 Have overlapping home range; male home ranges tend to overlap with multiple
females.

 The home range of a leopard is expected to be dependent on resources availability.

 Hunting Behaviour

 Hunting behavior of leopard consist of stalking and followed by short chase at the end
and the stalking distance of leopards did not vary between prey species, individual
leopards or between male and female.

 The hunting behavior of leopard consist of stalking without being detected by prey until
few meters from the prey

 After catching the prey the leopard normally drag the carcasses either to the trees, or to
the thick underground or vegetation

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 Communication

 Olfactory communication, scent marking by using urine spraying, claws sharpening and
feces.

 Vocal communication, by making a rasping cough to advertise their presence to

conspecifics to announce territorial boundaries. , purring while feeding, grunting male
tend to call each other and female tend to call potential mates when in estrus.

 Visual communication, leopard leading cubs arches tail over back conspicuous white tip.
It’s a follow me signal visible in dark, also emphasize tail position and movement in
social organization.

 Predators
 Human are primary predators of leopard, lions, tigers, spotted hyena, and wild dogs.

CHEETAH

 Description

Cheetah is a member of the cat family (felidae) with slender bodies with long legs, built for
speed and not strength or power and that’s why it’s the fastest animal on land.

The uniqueness of the cheetah is reflected in its scientific name, Acinonyx jubatus: Genus
Acinonyx derives from the ancient Greek words akantha, a thorn, and onux, a claw, referring to
the dog-like claws showing cheetah’s poorly developed ability to retract its claws.

Species name Jubatus derives from the Latin Jubatus, meaning ‘maned’, referring to the
distinctive cape of light fur that cheetah cubs are born with. * (Though it is definitely a felid, the
cheetah is sometimes considered dog-like because of its semi-retractable claws, greyhound-like
shape, and habit of hunting during the day.)

Cheetahs have two distinct black ‘tear marks’ from the corner of each eye to the corner of the
mouth.

 Social Organisation

Cheetahs are said to be “kind of social” since males form coalition while females live solitary
unless they have dependent cubs, the coalition consist of 2,3 up to 5 members who are usually
brothers but many contain unrelated males.

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There’s no dominant male cheetah in the coalition all share equal access to food and females
and they form coalitions for defense of territories, better success in mating, success in hunting
and greater food intake.

Scent is the main means of communication since they have their own pungent scent which
enables them to recognize alien scents.

Cheetah has two vocalizations which are churring and chipping for communication purposes.

They face high interspecific (with others large cats such as lion and leopards) competition which
makes them to avoid living in protected areas.

Female’s urine-mark when they are in estrous.

 Feeding and Hunting Behaviour

Cheetahs hunt in the morning and in the afternoon when they are really hungry and an
opportunity arises.

Cheetah is a fast, frequent and successful hunter and fast swallower, which are adaptations to
counter losses to scavengers and other predators.

Their favorite prey is medium sized antelopes such as Gazelle, impala, dikdik, and also warthogs
and hares and young ostrich because the Cheetahs are limited by their own strength, physical
traits and size when hunting.

Stalking, pulling down and killing prey is learnt through long training period, watching their
mothers hunt and eventually help their others hunting before they can do it on their own.

Single and female Cheetahs hunt on small prey while a coalition of males may hunt larger
animals such as Hartebeest or young giraffe.

Cheetahs select lone animal’s tree less vigilant, and not the ones who are weak in herds and that's
why most Male springboks are being preyed upon by Cheetahs since they are usually alone
maintaining territoriality in Kalahari.

 Habitat and territory

Cheetahs are found in open plains, woodland, savanna, shrub savanna and highlands up to 2000
and regions extending desert fringes avoiding woodlands with thick understory and tall grass as
well as dense forest

Their habitat is more determined by abundance of prey and lack of other big predators than by
terrain and vegetation.

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They have unique ranging and social behavior among cats; solitary, nomadic females and
generally social, sedentary males.

Males secure small territories which are aggregates for females to come and feed while females
roam over large home ranges.

When female cubs leave their mother, they remain within maternal home range but usually avoid
each other.

 Breeding and reproduction

Female Cheetahs reach sexual maturity at 20-24 months while males reach sexual maturity at 2-3
years.

Females have polyestrous cycles (having several cycles of between 10 and 21 days), and have no
specific breeding season.

About 1-2 weeks before being ready to mate, a female produces urine and feaces with high
reproductive hormone content whose scent attracts males

Duration of estrous cycle of sexual receptivity lasts 1 to 9 days.

If female doesn't become pregnant the mating cycle repeats itself after 10 days.

Breeding behavior in males include Flehmen response when smelling female's urine, increased
urine spraying to keep other males away and aggression within coalition.

Copulation is infrequent, about every 8 hours and lasts only few minutes.

Gestation period is 90 to 95 days.

3-5 average cubs are born, with 150-350 grams and up to 30cm long, blind and helpless, open
their eyes after averagely 10 days, crawl after 3 days and can walk after 3 weeks.

 Parental Care

The mother hides the cubs in dense vegetation and returns at night to suckle and groom the cubs
for the first 6 weeks of their lives. Females may shift her cub’s tother area if there is any sign of
dangerous predators or moving them closer to her area of hunting by carrying one at a time by
the nape of the neck. Females call the cubs by chirping.

 Communication

Olfactory Communication

Females produce urine with high reproductive hormone whose scent attracts males through
Flehmen response.

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Vocal Communication

Mother calls her cubs by chirping (bird-like sound) to confuse the predators.

Tactile and Visual Communication

Rolling on the ground, rubbing objects,genital licking and keeping tail erect shows a male that a
female is in estrous cycle

 Conservation Status

The leopard is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because Cheetahs populations are
threatened by habitat loss and loss of ungulates herds the Cheetahs depend on.

AFRICAN SERVAL CAT

 Description

The serval has a slender build and long legs. It has a distinct, elongated skull, with a small, slim
head, set gracefully on a long neck. The ears are large and erect; black with distinctive central
white bars. Servals have the largest ears and the longest legs, in relation to their body, in the
entire cat family. The tail is spotted, with six to seven black rings, a black tip, and a white or
light tan underside. The coat is yellowish tan with black spots, bands and stripes, and each serval
has a unique coat pattern. Background fur colours vary from buff red to a pale gold. Some
servals have a large number of small spots, giving them a speckled appearance.

Servals in dry habitats usually have larger and more pronounced black markings. Black servals,
also referred to as ‘melanistic’, have been seen in mountainous regions of Africa. There are also
white servals, but these are extremely rare.

A serval weighs 13–19 kg. Its body length is 70–100 cm with an added tail length of 35–40 cm.
The height at the shoulder is about 60 cm. Males are slightly larger than females. Except for the
short tail and large ear size, a serval physically resembles the cheetah.

 Mating system

They are polygynous. After gestation period female serval cat give birth of 2 to 3 kittens. These
young have about 250g at birth, double in size in their first 11 days. They are weaned in 5
months and their permanent canine is developed by 6 months of age.

Young serval stay for up to a year with their mother until kicked out to find their own territory.
Male take 1 to 2 years to establish a new territory.

Sexual maturity occurs between 18 and 24 months.

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 Parental Care

Parental care is done by female. The female serval protects her kittens in a den or lair,
surrounded by dense vegetation, or in an abandoned burrow; however, she will frequently move
them to new hiding places after birth to protect them. Females may also use tree hollows to hide
kittens. Like the cheetah, female servals raise their kittens by themselves, and must leave them
while hunting.

 Social Organization

Male and female servals maintain separate territories and lead solitary lives. Social interaction is
restricted to mating. Servals are occasionally seen in pairs, or a female will be in a group with
her kittens.

Female servals hold exclusive territories from 2–9 km². Territories held by males are usually
twice the size of a female’s, and will overlap two or more female territories.

Boundaries are clearly defined with frequent scent and scrape marks. Servals continually spray
with urine to mark their territories. This is a very effective warning to a serval from an
overlapping territory to keep its distance. Male servals display ritualistic aggression by sitting
and facing one another and one animal puts his front paw on the other’s chest. The second serval
then bobs his head and may bite the upraised paw. This exchange can escalate into a fight, but
more often remains a protracted ‘stare-off’.

 Diet and hunting Behaviour

The serval is an opportunistic generalist predator whose prey includes small animals such as
lizards, snakes, frogs, small birds (quails, quelea, and teal), insects, fish, ground squirrels,
hyraxes, mole rats, and domestic poultry. More than 90% of the serval’s diet is composed of prey
that weighs less than 200 g.

Servals use a variety of hunting techniques: stalking and pouncing, zigzag bounding, vertical
leaping, hunting in water, digging for animals such as mole rats, looking in holes and crevices
for animals, hunting in trees . Servals use their large, sensitive ears when hunting for prey such
as rodents. They can be very patient and will wait for long periods to accurately detect the
location of their prey. Once located, the prey is then stunned or killed instantly when the serval
leaps with all four feet off the ground and hits its victim with its forefeet. If the initial attack is
not successful, the serval can then make a series of quick stiff-legged jumps to kill its prey.

Servals are also capable of hunting larger animals such as small antelope, flamingoes, rats, hares
and duiker . Servals also is able to kill animals as large as a female impala (45–50 kg) and adult
duiker (up to 45 kg); however, prey of this size is normally hunted in pairs.

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When hunting, the serval’s ears would go forward to listen to prey. Once the prey was detected,
the serval would slowly stalk its prey, keeping its body and head motionless. The serval would
pounce when it was close enough to the prey, leaping up to 1.5 m high. The forelimbs were used
to hit the prey, the impact of which usually killed it.

Servals are mostly nocturnal, although this depends on the seasonal activity of their prey items.
This is because prey such as rats and frogs are active at this time.

 Communication

Being a solitary animal, African servals only interact with other members of their species when
mating, caring for young or fighting for territory. Chemical communication of adults is limited to
scent markings emitted from urine and glands in the cheeks.

 Predators

Natural enemies include hyenas, African wild dogs and leopards.

CARACAL
 Description

Caracals are the largest of the African small cats and usually have a robust build, caracals have
brown to red coats varying among individuals. Thus female are typically lighter than males.

The trademark features of caracals are their elongated and black-tufted ears.

The face is marked with black markings near the base of the whiskers, the inside of corners of
the eyes to the nose and above the eyes. The caracal’s claws are retractable. Have average head
and body length of 87cm (males) and 82cm (females). Average weight 13kg (males) and 10kg
(females).

 Distribution

The distribution of caracals is from Arid zones to dry savannah of Africa.

 Habitat and social organization

Caracals are solitary, except for the duration of mating and rearing of kittens. Both sexes are
territorial and maintain an active home range.

They territory male caracals have an active home range of about 31 to 65 km square, female
caracals also maintain a home range of 4 to 31 km square

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They are also primarily nocturnal, although caracals are crepuscular can be seen during the day,
especially in undisturbed regions. Though they are terrestrial, they are also skilled climbers with
tenacious attitudes.

 Hunting behaviour and diet

Hunting behaviour is classically feline: prey detected by sight or sound, stalked and rushed from
close range and pounced on and killed with a bite to the neck or throat.

Hunting time is usually determined by the activity of prey, but C. caracal is most often seen
hunting at night.

Their diet consists mainly of mammals up to the size of medium-sized antelope weighting about
40kg: Steenbok, Springbok, and others. They can eat small carnivores, birds, reptiles,
amphibians and arthropods.

Unlike leopards, caracals rarely hoist their kill into trees. In undisturbed environments, caracals
will instead scrape earth over an unfinished carcass and continually return to feed until it is gone.

 Communication and perception

Like other felids, caracals have well-developed senses of hearing and sight. caracals can also
detect small prey by sound alone. Once prey are detected, keen eyesight is used to narrow in on
the target. The exact function of the ear tufts on C. caracal is unknown.

Caracals are known for their grating vocalizations. These cats communicate with a series of
growls, spits, hisses and meows. Tactile communication, such as sparring and huddling, has been
observed during mating periods.

 Reproduction

Before mating begins, chemical signals in the female’s urine attract and notify the male of her
readiness to mate. A distinctive “cough-like” mating call has also been reported as a method of
attraction. There have been several different forms of mating systems observed for caracals.

When a female is being courted by multiple males, the group may fight to mate with her or she
may choose her mates, preferring older and larger males to younger and smaller males.

Mating may occur with multiple individuals over the course of about a week. When a female
chooses a mate, the pair may move together for up to four days, during which copulation occurs
multiple times.

Caracal’s copulation lasts for less than five minutes on average. Females almost always copulate
with more than one male.

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Infanticide by males has been observed. This may be to induce ovulation in a female undergoing
lactational amenorrhea.

They also have a gestation average period of 79 days and produce about 1 to 3 kittens, weighing
an average of 250g.

 Mating system

Polyandrous (promiscuous)

Polyandry is a class of mating system where one female mates with several males in a breeding
season. Polyandry is often compared to the polygamy system based on the cost and benefits
incurred by members of each sex.

Although both sexes are sexually mature at 7 to 10 months, the earliest successful copulation will
occur around 14 to 15 months of age. Some biologists believe that sexual maturity is indicated
by a body mass of 7 to 9 kg.

 Anti-predatory behaviour

Camouflage is a primary defence against predators. When threatened in their preferred, open
habitats, caracals lie flat and their plain, brown coats act as instant camouflage.

Agile climbing abilities also aid caracals in escaping larger predators such as lions and hyenas.

WARTHOG
 Description

Level-backed, nearly hairless swine with large, flattened heads

Have Prominent tush (modified canines but tusk are modified incisors) and facial “warts” in
adult males.

Skin gray with scattered bristles

Teeth reduced to 32-34, molars and jaw articulation modified for grinding grass

Have “warts” made of thickened skin and gristle. Male has 2 pairs of prominent wart-like
structure on face, female 1 pair. Tusks smaller and much less developed in females.

Tusks and preorbital glands in both sexes but more developed in males

 Ecology

Warthog are the only pig adapted for grazing and savanna habitats, the warthog avoids forest and
dense undergrowth; Warthog drinks and wallows daily on hot days

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In the wet season it grazes, in the dry season it specializes on the underground rhizomes of
perennial grasses and sedges, also bulbs and tubers, which it unearths, even in hard ground, with
its tough snout.

It grazes and roots while resting and walking on its calloused “knees”

 Social organization

Matriarchal, traditional home ranges shared by filial sounders, bachelor and solitary males

The basic social unit consists of females and young, usually 1 mother with young of the year, but
also 2 or more sows with assorted offspring up to 2 years old. Sounders may include up to 16
hogs

The bonds between mature females and between mothers and female offspring can be stable and
continue through successive breeding cycles.

Sub adult males often associate in bachelor groups of brothers or unrelated males. individual
males remain associated for only a few months and become solitary as adults

Boars only accompany sounders containing estrous females

Group members greet after a separation with explosive grunts and nose-to-nose contact

They also possess social-groom, which may include stripping the long mane hair through the lips
or incisors.

 Communication

Both sexes mark objects and one another with the tusk and preorbital glands, but males more
frequently. Boars but not sows urinate in their wallows.

Common warthogs have poor eyesight, but their senses of hearing and smell are keen. A
common warthogs when alarmed run with its tail upright as an alarm for conspecifics.

 Reproduction

Wherever there are marked seasonal climatic changes, warthog are seasonal breeders, rutting at
the end of the rains or early in the dry season and furrowing near the beginning of the rains.

Gestation is 160-170 days and the average liter is 2-3(range 1-8)

Both sexes reach puberty at 1.5 years

Common warthogs have a polygynandrous mating system. Both males and females have many
mates. Males do not defend territories, but when females are in estrus ritualized fighting between
males does occur.

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 Sexual behavior

During the rut, boars locate estrous females by visiting burrows, and either wait for them to
emerge or tract them

Estrous females urinate frequently. Males intently check the urine and may deposit their own

A boar first struts to demonstrate his dominance, the follows the female closely in a springy, tail
out and bent, and tries to rest his chin on her

Copulation may take less than a minute; estrus lasts up to 3 days

 Parental care

Sows separate from their families to furrow in a hole where the young remain for 6-7 weeks

The mother rarely leaves the hole in the first week. Between 3 and 6 weeks the young are
suckled 12-17 times a day at about 40 minute intervals.

 Ant predatory Behavior

Alarm grunts, snorts, feinted and real attack, including mobbing, defensive ring, standing at bay

Piglets are vigorously defended both by sows and the family boar against hyenas (the main
predator) and leopards

Piglets freeze when they hear the single alarm grunt

Adults surround piglets when threatened in the open

 BUSHPIG
 Description

The bush pig is pig like in appearance, well haired and with longer mane of hair on neck and
shoulders. Head rather long, usually with grayish-white facial mask in adults and ears often with
terminal tuft. Overall color of the Bush pig is grayish-brown to reddish brown but variable.
Piglets dark brown with pale longitudinal stripes along body .Tail held down when running.
Males have a bony ridge and warts on the snout

 Habitat

Dense bush cover required, it might either be a forest, woodland or reed beds

 Behavior

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Are mainly nocturnal but sometimes can be seen during the day in undisturbed areas. Live in
sounders of 2-15 animals, sometimes more, usually each with dominant boar, other boars often
solitary.

Dominant boar and sow in sounder probably defend a resource territory and boar plays active
role in raising and defending piglets.

When foraging, will move into more open areas, sometimes in close proximity to warthogs

Bush pigs can be very aggressive especially when they have young’s

 Food

True omnivores, eating wide range of plant food .Dig with snout for roots, bulbs and insects
.Readily scavenge from carcasses of dead mammals. On some occasions, especially during
drought, Will attack sheep and goats .Can is serious nuisance in croplands, such as maize,
sorghum, potatoes and groundnuts.

 Mating system

The bush pig have a polygnous mating system where in male bush pigs exclude other males from
access to a group of females, Males. Compete to access to females by butting heads and having
forehead shoving matches.

Also Males play an active role in rearing young and defense of the young.

 Calls and Occurrence

The bush pigs normally communicate by grunting, with infrequent squeals and roars. They make
a long, resonant growl as an alarm call.

Greeting bush pigs wheeze (blowing breath at each other)

They also have exceptional hearing and sense of smell, but poor eye sight.

Occurrence, they are generally common over much of its range and present in many protected
areas.

 Predator

Mainly leopard and spotted hyena, followed perhaps by lion; down to eagles and snakes, to
which piglets are vulnerable.

 Response to predators

Freezing and hiding by piglets up to a half a year

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Cornered pigs roar and squeal with nose to ground and mane bristling

 Difference with a warthog

Head large with flat face

Prominent tush

Have prominent warts (thickened skin and gristle) below eyes.

Skin grey, mane and tail tuft dark

Habitat (prefer savannah)

Diurnal

HYENA
SPOTTED HYENA

 Description

They have broad massive head with rounded ears.

Has a sandy, yellowish or gray coat with black or dark brown spots on the over most of the body.

The front legs are longer than the hind legs.

Females are larger in size than males.

Have Sloping back.

 Social organization

Highly gregarious and polygynous.

Lives in territorial clans and dominated by females.

Independent and cooperative hunting. Scramble and compete at kills.

Female cooperates for rank and Communal Dens but no cooperative suckling or provisioning of
offspring.

Forms the largest social groups that outnumbers all other large carnivores.

 Social Behavior

Spotted hyenas are social animals which live in large communities (referred to as "clans") which
can consist of at most 80 individuals.
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Group-size varies geographically; in the Serengeti, where prey is migratory, clans are smaller
than those in the Ngorongoro Crater, where prey is sedentary.

Females dominate males, with even the lowest ranking females being dominant over the highest
ranking males.

High-ranking hyenas maintain their position through aggression directed against lower-ranking
clan-members.

Spotted hyena hierarchy is nepotistic; the offspring of dominant females automatically outrank
adult females subordinate to their mother.

Female offspring remains in their natal clan, males disperse at around 2yrs.

Individual spotted hyenas only care for their own young, and males take no part in raising their
young.

Territory size is highly variable, ranging from less than 40 km² in the Ngorongoro Crater to over
1,000 km² in the Kalahari, defended through vocal displays, scent marking and boundary patrols

Males are more likely to enter another clan's territory than females are, as they are less attached
to their natal group and will leave it when in search of a mate.

An intruder can be accepted into another clan after a long period of time if it persists in
wandering into the clan's territory, dens or kills.

 Communication

Group members recognize each other individually on the basis of distinctive vocalizations, visual
cues, and odors.

The long-distance vocalizations of spotted hyenas, called ‘whoops,’ are the sounds heard most
commonly at night in the African bush.

Whoops function as rallying calls to gather scattered clan members together to defend the
territory boundaries, food resources, the communal den, or clan-mates in danger.

Spotted hyenas also sometimes whoop to recruit hunting partners, or to reunite mothers and
offspring.

Finally, whoops are also used as a form of individual display, particularly by adult immigrant
males of high rank.

Olfactory communication plays an important role in advertising territorial borders and to

maintain social cohesion among adult females.

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Spotted hyenas regularly engage in ritualized greeting ceremonies during which two clan
members stand parallel to each other and face in opposite directions to sniff each other’s
anogenital region.

Greetings are most common when clan members reunite after being separated.

The unique aspect of greetings in the spotted hyena is the prominent role of the erect phallus in
animals of both sexes.

Greetings occur between hyenas of all ages. Cubs can erect their penis or clitoris and engage in
greeting ceremonies as early as 4 weeks after birth.

Scent-marking; Spotted hyena routinely mark tall grass stems with their anal glands.

Social grooming: Mother and cubs lick and nibble-groom one another but social grooming
between adults is uncommon.

Hyena shows their moods and intentions quite plainly;

Different tail postures

Straight down;- when the hyena is standing or walking along undisturbed.

Stuck its tail between its belly;-when its frightened by another hyena, a lion a man or vehicle.

Straight up;- aggressive and about to attack or hunting.

Held up and pointing forward;- Extremely exited in social situation.

Ears Postures;

Held flat against the head, indicates that the hyena wants to flee.

Ears pointed forward, Hyena might approach or attack.

 Mating and Reproduction

Mating in spotted hyenas is non-seasonal, and the gestation period is 4 month, Maturation is 3
years but females later than males.

Sexual Facts

The females urogenital tract opens at the end of clitoris, and the male must insert penis into
clitoris.

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The mating process is complicated, as the male's penis enters and exits the female's reproductive
tract through her pseudo-penis rather than directly through the vagina, which is blocked by the
false scrotum and testes

This may sound impossible but it’s not; during copulation the males penis is erect and the
females clitoris is not.

In fact when the female is in oestrus, the opening at the end of the clitoris swells and widens,
thus intromission become possible.

“Patterns of erection during the meeting ceremony is not motivated by sexual drives but has
probably become divorced from sexual behavior during evolution”

The females give birth through their penis-like clitoris. During birth, the clitoris ruptures to allow
the young to pass through.

The length of the gestation period tends to vary greatly, though 110 days is the average length of
time.

Cubs are born with soft, brownish black hair, and weigh 1.5 kg on average.

Lactating females can carry 3–4 kg of milk in their udders, milk has the highest protein content
of any terrestrial carnivore.

Cubs will nurse from their mother for 12–16 months, though they can process solid food as early
as three months. Mothers do not regurgitate food for their young.

 Foraging

The spotted hyena is an opportunistic carnivore and scavenger wherever animal waste, from
other carnivores or humans available.

 Ecology

Most carnivores to largely vertebrates especially ungulates.

Rarely eats vegetables or fruits, also scavenge about 40% of other carnivores kills.

 Forging

Foods taken range from invertebrates, mudfish, reptiles ( such as tortoises) to large mammals.
Some social hunts begin as group and when kill the prey they attracts others by noisy.

The spotted hyena foraging singly (especially in low-density areas) or may live and hunt in
groups. Distance covered vary from a kilometre or so to 80km and foraging may take up to 1 or 2
hours to a greater part of the night.

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Sometimes an entire clan of over 50 adults may feed together and with every animal competing
to swallow as much food as fast as possible.

AFRICAN HUNTING DOG

 Description

African Wild Dogs are large but lightly built canids, with long, slim legs and large rounded ears.

It is the only canid species which doesn’t have dewclaws on the forelimbs i.e. only canid with
four claws on each paw.

Unlike the domestic dog and the wolf, Wild Dogs do not bark or howl.

The coloration of the coat is distinctive but highly variable, with a combination of irregular
black, yellow brown and white blotches on the back, sides and legs.

Each animal’s coat coloration is unique, like a human fingerprint, and this can be used to identify
individual animals

 Habitat

• Open grasslands

• Woodlands

• Bushveld

 Range

They are not territorial

They have large diffuse home ranges (e.g. in Serengeti up to 1,500 sq.kms. and in Selous of
between 150 – 850 sq.kms.)

They remain and hunt in a more restricted area around their den site when pups are born and
raised for 3-5 months of each year

When the pups are old enough to join the adults, the pack can then range widely

Many wild dogs emigrate from their natal pack in single sex groups when 18 months -3 years old
and often travel very long distances searching for mates

 Breeding

Typically only one pair in the pack breeds

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Very rarely will a second female give birth and if this happens the dominant female may kidnap
and raise her young

In extreme cases, she will even kill these pups to maintain an optimum pack size

Wild dog mothers have their pups in underground holes like old aardvark diggings

Males will stay in the pack and help raise subsequent litters

The pups begin to wean at only two weeks of age

The whole pack regurgitates meat for them will contribute to raising them if the mother dies

 The Pack-Social Organization

African Wild Dogs are highly social pack animals; hunting, breeding and dispersing in close
cooperation with other pack members.

Packs are dynamic and may fluctuate rapidly in numbers. Packs average 8 adults and yearlings
but may be as small as a pair, or may number over 30 adults, yearlings and pups. A typical pack
consists of an alpha (dominant) male and female which dominate breeding, their siblings and
several related pairs of subordinate females and males.

 Alpha status

In wild dogs the alpha male/female retains his/her alpha status only until his or her alpha
female/male mate dies, then a male/female from the youngest cohort (age group) present will
take over as alpha male without any overt aggression but then the pack will split into single sex
adult groups a process known as Pack Dissolution or Pack Fission

Thus there is no close in-breeding

 Hunting

African Wild Dogs are cursorial predators, chasing prey to exhaustion at speeds of up to 65
km/h. They can maintain 45 km/h for 5 km, although most chases are generally within 1-2 km.
No other African mammal can match their combination of speed and endurance.

Through specialized cooperative hunting and killing strategies African Wild Dogs can subdue
prey far larger than their body size

Their killing method of disembowelment is often wrongly interpreted as cruel, when in fact it is
highly efficient and specialized, dispatching the prey quickly

They also have the highest bite force relative to their weight of any living carnivorous mammal

As a result of cooperative hunting each dog has a higher foraging success

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African Wild Dogs have the highest success ratio of hunts to kills of all large carnivores in
Africa, exceeding 75% in many studies.

 Feeding Hierarchy

Unlike the lion, there is no fighting over food as there is a strict feeding order, young African
wild dogs are the first to feed after a hunt, and older or wounded individuals are not excluded:
the rest of the group feeds them on pieces of regurgitated meat.

 Communication

African Wild Dogs have a complex communication system incorporating olfactory, visual and
auditory systems

When they are excited, such as before a hunt or just after a kill they will give a high-pitched
twitter

These African animals have a very strong body odor

Dogs separated from the pack track their way back to it by smell

Their long-range contact call is a musical "hoooo" that carries for 2 to 3 km

They also whine when begging

Urine scent marks are used to show that an area is occupied

The dominant female will also scent mark to advertise that she is sexually receptive

The dominant male immediately urinates on top of her scent marks, to deter competitors

African wild dogs also communicate by body posture and tail position

Tail tucked between the legs signals fear and submissiveness

A friendly dog has an upright posture and it curls its tail up over its back

An aggressive dog will be rigidly upright

Adults, as well as pups, play

AARDWOLF
 Description

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The aardwolf (Proteles cristata) also known as “earth wolf” is a small, insectivorous
mammal native to east and southern Africa. The aardwolf is the same family as the hyena but
subfamily protelian in which is the only animal found in that subfamily.

Aardwolf live in open, dry plain and bush land avoiding mountainous areas due to their specific
food requirements.

Aardwolves are more slender muzzle, black vertical stripes on a coat of yellowish fur and a long,
distinct mane down the midline of the neck and black and also have one or two diagonal stripes
down the fore and hind quarters.

They are legs are all black when have long forelimb with five toes while hind limbs are shorter
with four limbs and have a black tipped bush tail.

 Ecological Behaviour

Aardwolves are shy, and nocturnal sleeping in underground burrow during the day and emerging
at night to seek food but this happen particular during summer since they specialized on
consuming one genus of the termite Trinervitermes so they feed on this member of termites at
night since these termites leave their nest at night by the thousands and crawl around on the
ground to harvest dried grass but during the cold winter these termites become in active and
aardwolves switch to feeding in afternoon on the diurnal harvester termites hodotermes

 Feeding Behaviour

Aardwolves are insectivorous and solitary forager and so highly adapted to eat termites.

Aardwolves don’t dig nests of termites rather they wait for the termites to move on the surface
and consume them off the ground and they take special care not to destroy the termite mound or
consume the entire colony which ensure that the termites can rebuild and continuous supply food

A foraging aardwolf walks quietly across the grassland with somewhat below the shoulder level
covering perhaps 1km in an hour at a walking pave of 3-4kph between feeding and scent-
marking stops.

Aardwolf can consume anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 termites by using their acute hearing
to detect termites in the ground and then using their broad sticky tongue to lap them up.

 Breeding Behaviour

Aardwolves are monogamous and it is believed that mating occur through out the year though
most young are born during the rainy moths.

Since they are monogamous so little about courtship display is done through defending of
territory done by male.

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Territorial boundaries are often violated during the mating peak . Despite the spirited defense of
the resident males, intruders sometimes can succeed in mating with resident females.

 Reproduction

Copulation lasts between 1 to 4.5 hours

Gestation last for 90-100days

When 2-5 cubs are produced

The first to eight weeks are spend in the den with their mother.

After three month they begin supervised foraging and by four month are normally independent.
However they will often use the same den as their mother untill the next breeding season.

 Parental Care

Parental care in aardwolf provided by both male and female since they are monogamous in
which a female bear children till the time of birth but after birth a male participate in parental
care. A male spend up to 6 hours a night on guard while a mother forages.

 Territory

Their territory is about 1-4 square km depending on food availability and they mark it with urine
dung and secretion from their anal grand, and when attacked they may fight or a musky smelling
fluid is emitted.

 Communication

Olfactory communication: they mark territories by black scents excreted behind using anal sac
secretion on grass stems, bushes

Vocal communication: when defending itself r fighting they growl, bark and roars loudly
compared to their small animal bodies, other than that they are very quiet animals.

Visual communication: that they use to recognize each other.

 Predators

Predators of aardwolf are lion, spotted hyena, leopard, wild dog as well as human because of the
mistaken belief that they prey on livestock.

Anti-predatory

It particularly adept at fighting off predators by using its canine

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It may raise their mane in an attempt to appear more menacing and larger.

It also emit a foul-smelling liquid from its anal glands

 Conservation

The aardwolf has not seen decreasing in number and they are not common throughout their range
as they maintain a density of number more than 1 per square km if food is good. So because of
these factors it is listed as least concern by IUCN red list

ELAND
 Description

Common elands are spiral-horned antelopes with females being smaller than the males. Females
weigh 300–600 kg; Male elands can weigh up to 1,000 kg.

Both sexes have horns. The horns of males are thicker and shorter than those of females (males'
horns are 43–66 centimeters long and females' are 51

–69 centimeters).

They consist of dark markings on their legs with coat composing rough mane that turns more
darker as the animal ages.

Males use their horns during rutting season to wrestle and butt head with rivals, while females
use their horns to protect their young from predators.

The eland's life expectancy is generally between 15 and 20 years; in captivity some live up to 25
years.

 Feeding habit

Elands are herbivores, they browse during winter and adapt on grazing during the rainy seasons
since they need a protein rich food hence utilizes much of the succulent leaves and grasses.

Elands eat during the night and sleep a lot of hours during the day, they also obtain their water
from food that they eat. Many of them are said to have a capability of staying without water for
a long period of time.

They use their horns to break of branches that are hard to reach and also they eat seeds and
tubers.

 Habitat and distribution

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Elands prefer to live in semi-arid areas that contain many shrub-like bushes, and often inhabit
grasslands, woodlands, sub-desert, bush.

The places inhabited by elands generally contain Acacia, Combretum, Commiphora, Diospyros,
Grewia, Rhus and Ziziphus trees and shrubs; some of these also serve as their food.

Elands are non endangered species though their population tends to decrease as the result of
habitat loss and poaching.

 Reproduction and parental care

Females are sexually mature at 15–36 months and males at 4–5 years.

Mating may occur anytime after reaching sexual maturity, but is mostly seen a female chooses
the most dominant and fit male to mate with. Sometimes she runs away from males trying to
mate, causing more attraction.

This results in fights between males, in which their hard horns are used.

After birth the juveniles are hidden by their mothers for at least 24 hours then they are allowed to
join the group to which male juveniles leave and form their own group after 1- 2 years.

 Sociality and Predation

Males, females and juveniles each form separate social groups. The male groups are the smallest;
the members stay together and search for food or water sources. The female group is much larger
and covers greater area. Males sometime wonder around individually.

The typical predators of Eland are Lions, Wild dog and Hyenas. Oryx uses its speed to avoid
predators.

If eland bulls find any of their predators nearby, they will bark and attempt to attract the attention
of others by trotting back and forth until the entire herd is conscious of the danger.

 Communication and mating

Common elands communicate via gestures, vocalizations, scent cues and display behaviors.

Also clicking sound produced by their splayed hooves can form one of the auditory
communications.

The men response also occurs, primarily in males in response to contact with female urine or
genitals. Females will urinate to indicate fertility during the appropriate phase of their estrous
cycle, as well as to indicate their lack of fertility when harassed by male.

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The elands mate at higher rates during the rainy season and a lot of speculation speak of August
and October as their mating season.

WATERBUCK
 Social and mating system

They are polygamous

Although males do compete for and hold territories, the waterbuck is generally a quiet, sedentary
animal.

Like some other antelopes, the male does not mark his territory with dung or urine, as his
presence and smell are apparently sufficient.

 How It Move

Lacking speed endurance , the waterbuck depends on cover as a refuge from predator such as
hyenas and wild dogs.

Troting is an important gait.

 Reproduction

• They reproduce once a year in equator and high latitude, calving during the rainy season.

• Gestation 8 to 8.5 months.

 Parental care

Calves are generally born throughout the year, although breeding becomes more seasonal in
some areas, after which a single young is born.

The mother hides her young for about 3 weeks, returning three to four time/day.

 Home Range

Home ranges and territories vary in size, depending on the extent of preferred habitat ,
population density , and age (older animals have smaller home range and territories than prime
animals) females have large home ranges and, in herds of 5 to 25, are constantly crossing in and
out of males territories.

 Ecology

Living up to its name, the waterbuck has even less tolerance for dehydration than domestic cattle
and has to stay within a few miles of water to drink every day or two.

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 Activity

Day and night

 Why the meat is not preferable by hunters?

Experienced hunters have discovered that it is the skin and hair of the Waterbuck that give off an
unpleasant oily smell which affects the meat. As long as you ensure that the outside of the skin
and hair do not come into contact with the meat during the skinning process, the meat is indeed
edible and even tasty

COKE’S HARTEBEEST
 Description

Hartebeest are tall bovines with bracket shaped horns

They have elongated head , high shoulders and sloping back

Differences among subspecies is observed through skin colour and markings , horn shape and
size

Their skin coat is smooth and glossy with varying colour, from lion toned cokes hartebeest with
lighter rump and almost no dark markings to the gaudy red hartebeest with white rump patch and
belly , brown black thighs and legs

 Distribution

Hartebeest inhabit dry savannas, open plains and wooded grasslands, often moving into more
arid places after rainfall.

 Sexual Dimorphism

Male hartebeest are relatively larger compared to female hartebeest in body size

Also male hartebeest have larger and stronger horns than the female hartebeest, this is because
the horns in males are used for fighting to defend their territories (male to male competition)

The young hartebeest (calf) are small and have no horns

 Foraging

Hartebeest prefer the edge to the middle of open plains associated with medium length grass, to
allow easy detection and escape from predator

Hartebeest are pure grazers feeding

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They are less water dependent thus can feed on even less succulent grass but have to drink or eat
melons when fodder is dry

 Reproduction

Hartebeest are polygynous ( resource based)

Mating takes place through out the year with one or two peaks depending on location and
population

Gestation period; 8-9 months bearing a single calf

Courtship is by sniffing of vulva, chasing and herding, rubbing preorbital glands on females
rump.

 Maternal care

Female hartebeest play major role in parental care

The females isolate themselves in scrub areas to give birth unlike the wildebeest which give birth
in groups on the plains.

Female then leave their young hidden in the scrub for a few weeks, and come back to suckle

Calves lie out for 2 weeks before joining the mothers herd

 Social behavior

Hartebeest are territorial animals living in groups called herds

They occur in small to medium herds accompanied by 1 territorial male and segregated bachelor
herds

Females and young may move in and out of the territories freely following the best grazing, this
accounts for the reproductive success of males owning territories with good resources

Meeting behaviour; the animals sniff or nibble each others head and neck for greeting

Defence against predators; hartebeest are noted to be very cautious and alert.

They rely on their vision to spot predators, they snort to warn each other of danger and gallop
away in single file to escape danger

‘snorting refers to sudden explosive voice produced through the nose especially when the animal
is frightened’

 Territorial advertisement

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Territorial male stays 90 yards away from the female herd, standing erect posture on mound

They mark grass stems with preorbital glands such that other males stay away from the territory

Soil horning and/not mud packing, head shaking and shoulder wiping

Wildebeest

What is it ? It is large, high shouldered antelope with broad muzzle and cowlike horns. Male
have longer and much thicker horns with a more developed boss.

Diet and Foraging

Wildebeest are purely grazing herbivores feeding on short grasses .They have a broad muzzle
with wide incisor row and loose lips which enable to graze on short grasses.

 Habitat and social organization

Habitat

Wildebeest favor plains covered by grasses.

 Social organization

They are non territorial, highly gregarious in mobile aggregation or dispersed in sedentary herds.

 Mating system and Parental Care

Mating system.

Wildebeest practice a polygyny kind of Mating system where by a male defends a resource such
as shade as the results gets the chance to meet with the females that come to utilize that particular
resource. This aspect of is Known as resource defense polygyny

Parental care

Parental care is done by female where it the mother’s responsibility to stay with her calf for the
day or needed to become imprinted upon her which begins with the first successful suckling.

 Communication and Predators

Communication involved include:-

• Vocal communication

• Visual communication

• Olfactory and tactile communication

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Predators of wildebeest :-

Lion, spotted hyena, Leopard, Crocodile

 Reproduction and Migration

Reproduction

Male wildebeest mature at 3 – 4 years and females at 2 – 3 years. Mating activity is seasonal,
calves are born after 8 and a half months of gestation period. Calves are suckled by their mothers
for 6 months although they are able to eat grass after 10 days.

Migration;

Wildebeest migration is the movement of vast numbers of the Serengeti's wildebeest,

accompanied by large numbers of zebra, and smaller numbers of other antelopes.

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GRANT’S GAZELLES
 Description

Grant's gazelles are large, pale gazelles with long horns and legs.

The most distinguishing feature of this pale fawn gazelle is the distinct vertical black stripe that
runs down either side of the white buttocks(rump)

They are scientifically known as Gazella grantii

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 Sexual dimorphism

Males and females are dimorphic. Males are larger than females, and they have longer, thicker
horns, ranging from 50 to 80 cm. The horns are ringed. In contrast to males, females have
smaller horns (30 to 40 cm) that are thin and symmetrical

 Habitat and Geographical Range

Grant’s gazelle habitat consists of semi-desert, open savannas, and treeless plains. They avoid
acacia forests unless they are traversed by well traveled paths

Grant’s gazelles migrate seasonally over a large part of their range preferring higher, well
drained areas during the rainy season, and moving to lower, grassy valleys during the dry season

They are not dependent on water and, consequently, they migrate in the opposite direction of
water dependent species such as Thomson’s gazelles, wildebeest, zebras and topi. In doing so,
Grant’s gazelles avoid competition and are able to survive on vegetation found in this semi-
desert environment.

 Behavior

Grant’s gazelles are migratory and they move seasonally throughout their range, except in areas
within the year around with supplies of forage.

Herds may segregate into separate groups of bachelor males and females with dominant males.

Social rank in this species can be seen in the way males are organized when migrating. The less
dominant, younger males are towards the front of the unit, whereas the more dominant males are
in the back.

This organization also results in equally matched opponents in fights, as it is more likely that
nearby males will display dominance and fight one another.

Males usually shows territorial dominance

 Ways of showing dominance

There are three common ways

 They mark areas with a combination of feces and urine

 Through side by side strutting. In strutting alongside other territorial males, a male may
express his dominance by raising his neck and tilting his horns slightly

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 Through fighting. When two males approach each other to fight, they quickly move their
heads downwards and towards one another as one tries to throw the other off balance.
Fighting displays the contender’s neck muscles

 Mating system

Polygynous

In grant’s gazelles one dominant male mates with many females

Grant's gazelles reach sexual maturity at three years of age for males and about one and half
years for females. Timing of the mating season depends on location. For example, in southern
Kenya and Tanzania, mating takes place throughout the year.

The gestation period is about 27 weeks

 Reproduction

When a female gazelle is in estrus, her urine contains sex pheromones indicating her
reproductive status to males. In order to detect these, males perform flehmen behavior. Males
curl their lips and suck air into their vomeronasal organs to detect whether sex pheromones are
present.

If pheromones are detected, the male actively pursues the female. Courting takes place, in which
the male prances with his head held high and his tail held horizontally. This eventually leads to
copulation. However, if no sex pheromones are detected, the male does not further pursue the
female.

 Parental Care

After birth, the fawn is completely cleaned of any fluids by the mother. The fawn then drinks its
first meal of milk and seeks protection near its mother. If the mother is going out to graze, the
fawn remains in a secure hiding place which is observable to the mother from where she is
grazing. The mother fawn relationship is the only persistent stable relationship in granti gazelles.

 Association

Grant’s gazelles are prey for cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), and golden
jackals (Canis aureus). They are also important herbivores in the habitats in which they live.

Grant gazelles inadvertently affects the population density of pouched mice (Saccostomus
mearnsi) in eastern Africa by depleting the supply of food for these rodents. In areas where
Grant’s gazelles are less common, S. mearnsi populations flourish.

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Ecosystem Impact: disperses seeds; creates habitat

 Feeding System

They are primarily browsers, rather than grazers. A large part of their diet consists of leaves and
stems.

Since they live in an arid environment, water conservation and consumption is important for
survival. While Thomson’s gazelles use evaporative cooling as a method of decreasing body
temperature, Grant's gazelles allow their body temperature to rise with air temperature,
dissipating body heat to the surrounding air when temperatures fall.

At night they may also eat leaves, which contain more water during the cooler, nighttime hours.

Plant Foods: leaves; wood, bark, or stems

Primary Diet: herbivore (Folivore)

 Communication

Chemicals: use of chemicals from vomeronasal organs to detect females estrus cycle

Tactile: when fighting

Visual: when running away from predator and when giving alarms due to presence of predators

Auditory: when hearing some sounds from themselves and from predators

THOMSON’S GAZELLE
 Description

Facial characteristics of the gazelle include white rings around the eyes.

Black stripes running from a corner of the eye to the nose , rufous stripes running from the horns
to n the nose, a dark patch on the nose, and a light forehead. The coat is sandy brown to rufous;

A distinctive black band runs across the flanks, from the upper foreleg to just above the upper
hind leg

A buff band can be seen just above the black stripe. Short, black streaks mark the white rump.
The black tail measures 15–27 cm (5.9–10.6 in).

Male have well-developed Pre orbital glands near the eyes which are used for scent-marking
territories.

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Both sexes possess horns that curve slightly backward with the tips facing forward. The horns,
highly ringed, measure 25–43 cm (9.8–16.9 in) on males and 7–15 cm(2.8–5.9 in) on females.

Grant's gazelle is very similar to Thomson's gazelle, but can be differentiated by its larger size
and a large white patch on the rump.

 Food and Habitat

Thomson's gazelles live in dry, short grasslands and shrubby savannas

They are an arid-adapted species and are able to stay in dry grasslands for longer than other
plains ungulates in the same region, which migrate towards more moist habitats.

They follow a similar sort of seasonal migratory pattern as other ungulates in their range, but
they stay for longer on the wet season range and don't migrate as far north in the dry season.

They eat twigs, seeds, angrasslands that cannot support larger ungulates

 Reproduction

Thomson's gazelle males defend small territories and attempt to mate with females in that area.

Females prefer rich foraging grounds, so preferred territories are those in areas with good
grazing.

Males use markings from pre orbital glands and dung to advertise their territories and actively
defend them against other males.

They sometimes attempt to "herd" females in order to keep them in their territory for longer.

Mating system: Polygynous

 Breeding Season, Gastation Period and Parental Care

Thomson's gazelles breed twice yearly.

A male gazelle follows a female and sniffs her urine to find out if she is in estrus, a process
known as the Flehmen response.

Gestation is for 6 months and the majority of births occur right after the rainy season, with a
single calf being born at 2 to 3 kg.

Thomson's gazelle calves are precocial at birth, able to stand and walk soon after, although they
spend their first days hidden and motionless in the grass.

The mother will leave the young in high grass and frequently come back a few times during the
day to nurse.

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After this hiding period, the young follow and accompany their mother with the herd.

 Lifespan or Longevity

Thomson's gazelles typically have a lifespan of (10 -15) years in the wild. Approximately half of
calves will die within their first year.

 Social Behaviour

Thomson's gazelles are social animals that are nomadic or migratory and specialized for cursorial
locomotion.

Thomson's gazelles usually form groups with a fluid association of 5 to 60 individuals, although
temporary associations can number in the hundred.

Groups split and join readily and do not seem to have any permanent or exclusive membership
or social hierarchy.

They are also found in mixed-species herds with impalas and Grant’s gazelles.

Males defend small territories during breeding seasons that they hope will attract females for
mating opportunities.

Younger males usually spend their time in bachelor groups, and are prevented from entering the
territories.

Females form migratory groups that enter the males' territories, mostly the ones with the highest-
quality resources.

As the female groups pass though and forage, the territorial males may try to herd them, and are
usually successful in preventing single females from leaving, but not whole groups.

If a bachelor male should be passing through a territorial male's region, the male will chase the
offender out of his territory.

If a male is chasing an escaping female, he will stop the chase if she runs into another territory,
but the neighboring male will continue the chase.

Outside of the breeding season, males form small bachelor herds or associate with females in
loose groups.

 Communication and Perception

Thomson’s gazelles are fairly silent animals that communicate more visually.

When alarmed they will communicate to conspecifics by stotting, which is a stereotyped series
of high jumps with the head held high and the legs stiff.

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Males communicate to other males and females by marking territories with their scent glands,
including pre orbital glands that they use to mark grasses and stems.

Males also drop dung at spots in their territory to advertise ownership.

 Predation

Predators of Thomson's gazelles include lions, spotted hyenas, wild dogs, cheetahs, leopards, and
jackals.

During the calving season, the young are easy prey for all of these predators, as well as yellow
baboons and pythons.

Thomson's gazelles travel in small herds, which help to protect individuals from predation. They
are alert and can run quickly.

IMPALA
 Description

Impala is a medium sized gazelle- like antelope, with a brown or yellowish brown back.
Underside, chin,mouth,ear linings are white. Has large black tipped ears. The males have horns,
while female have no horns.

The under parts, belly, throat and chin are white, as is the tail, which has a thin, black line down
its centre A black line also extends down each buttock

Two subspecies are recognised,the common impala, and the larger and darker black-faced
impala.

The black-faced impala is confined to southwestern Angola and northwestern Namibia, the
common impala is widespread across its range and has been reintroduced in Gabon and southern
Africa.

 Feeding Behavior

Impala are herbivores which means they only eat vegetation. They browse as well as graze,
depending upon the availability of resources.

 Diet

Impalas eat tender young grass shoots in the wet season and herbs and shrubs at other times.
During the dry season they must drink daily.

 Social Behaviour

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Three distinct social groups, the territorial males, bachelor herds and female herds. The territorial
males holds territories where they may form harems of females,

The impala may be gregarious or territorial depending upon climate

Territorial behavior is only during the few months of the rut(mating period),and rain season.

In drier years the animals have to travel ,Territories are abandoned with large mixed tranquil
herds of females and males form. When feed conditions improve, impalas revert to the territorial
system and many smaller herds of females form.

When a territorial male begins to lose weight from his frantic activity, he is defeated and must
return to the bachelor group to recuperate

Territories are marked with urine and faeces and defended against male intruders.

Bachelor herds tends to be small with less than 30 members. Female herds vary in size from 6 to
100 herds occupying a home range of 80 -180 hectares. Female herds have no obvious
leadership.

Allogrooming is an important mean of social interaction in bachelor and female herds, they are
in fact the only ungulates to display self grooming as well as allogrooming.

 Reproduction

Breeding season begins towards the end of the wet season. During this time the males coat
darkens, neck thickens and acquire a musky odor.

Mature males fighting males who enters, they also walk stiffly while displaying their horns.

A male who wins the right to mate will find a female who is ready to mate by testing the
females urine to detect oestrus.

Before giving birth, a female leaves a herd. A gestation period lasts six to seven month. Birth
occurs in the midday, single calf is born, and is suckled for four to six months, and 12 to 18
months the calf is matured

 Caring of the Young

Gestation lasts six to seven months, following which a single calf is born and immediately
concealed in cover.

If the fawn is born at a time when there are few other young around, the mother will stay with it
in seclusion spot for a few days or even leave it lying out for a week or more before returning to
the herd.

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If there are many other fawns, may take it back to the herd where a nursery group may form.
Because predators have more difficulty selecting an individual from a nursery group, the fawns
are safer there.

Calves are suckled for four to six months; young males—forced out of the all-female groups—
join bachelor herds, while females may stay back.

 Distribution and Habitat

Impala are found in “edges” between grassland and denser woodlands, notably acacia are
preferred.

Impalas inhabits woodlands due to its preference for shade during dry seasons, grassland is
occupied during the rains. Places close to water sources are also preferred during dry season.

Another factor that could influence habitat choice is vulnerability to predators ,impalas tend to
keep away from areas with tall grasses as predators could be concealed.

 Predators

The young are killed by jackals and the smaller cats, baboons, eagles and pythons. When in
danger, impalas will "explode" in a magnificent spectacle of leaping.

In their zig-zag leaps, they often jump over and across their companions, probably to confuse
predators.

 Communication

 Olfactory communication through the strong smell secretions of the forehead skin
released by males to show its dominance status.

 Vocal communication through roaring

 Leaping

 Allogrooming

 IUCN Conservation Status

The Impala is assessed as a species of Least concern in the IUCN red list as Impala are still
relatively widespread, common and abundant in numerous protect areas.

OLIVE BABOON
 Description

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The savanna baboon has longer legs and slimmer body. The head has a more dog like appearance
hence it is name cynocephalus or dog-headed

 Communication

 Vocalization-generally only used in antagonistic and defensive display

 Olfactory communication

 Tactile communication

 Habitat and distribution

Baboon seem to be everywhere, in fact they are the most successful ground-living primate next
to man. They range from the tip of South Africa right up into Ethiopia and Sudan and across the
red sea into Saudi Arbia and they span the whole Africa continent from east to west. They can
adapt to condition as diverse as semiarid bush to tropical forest and from sea level to the slopes
of high mountains. Baboon seem to be everywhere, in fact they are the most successful ground-
living primate next to man. They range from the tip of South Africa right up into Ethiopia and
Sudan and across the red sea into Saudi Arbia and they span the whole Africa continent from
east to west. They can adapt to condition as diverse as semiarid bush to tropical forest and from
sea level to the slopes of high mountains.

 Friendship in savanna baboon

• Why friendship?

• Female often form a long-lasting , social relationship with a male in her troop , known as
a “friendship”

• from these relationship female gain protection from threat to themselves and their infants

 Single sex friendship, it happen for both female and male.

 Different sex friendship. in this, the initiator may be either the male or the female, and
the approach may be in a sexual or a nonsexual context.

 -in the nonsexual context, the new male may consistently approach and try to interact
with a particular female who is not in estrus. When female is the initiator she approaches
and tries to groom the male.

 -in the sexual context, the new male may make friends with a female by becoming her
consort while she is in estrus and then continuing the companionship afterward.

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 Another way of making the friendship in savanna baboon is through the use of a black
infant.

 Baby baboons are born with black coats that make them conspicuous; most troop
members are attracted to them and inhibit their aggression toward them

Note. Some times a black infant used as solution for many conflicts that happens among male
baboon.

 Social organization

• Savanna baboon tend to live in troop averaging about fifty animals.

• The size of the troop depend on food availability and environmental condition.

composition of the troop

troop consist the following.

 7 or 8 adult males

 15 adult females

 25 sub adult, juvenile and infants.

• Note. The females are the most stable element in the troop.

• Sub adult male leave the troop nearing maturity. why ?

 Reproduction

• Savanna baboons are promiscuous

• Reproduction usually occur in rain season

• Gestation length is 5 to 6 months.

• Female reach sexual maturity much earlier than do males, male age of sexual maturity is
7 or 8 while female is 4.

• About estrus, estrus is highly conspicuous state in baboon. Baboon posses the “sexual
skin” which during the estrus it change to pinkish and begin to swell. As estrus progress
the pink get more brighter and swelling get more, until the whole area is swollen mass of
red fresh.

• When the female is in estrus, she presents to adult males which is her way of soliciting
their attention. She approaches a male, turns her backside to him and lifts her tail,

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turning it to one side. He may or may not respond by copulating; he may just put his nose
to her rump or groom her.

• When the female is in estrus, she presents to adult males which is her way of soliciting
their attention. She approaches a male, turns her backside to him and lifts her tail,
turning it to one side. He may or may not respond by copulating; he may just put his nose
to her rump or groom her.

 Parental care

• Olive baboons do not seems to practice cooperative parenting, however it is not unusual
for a female to groom an infant that is not hers Sub-adult and juvenile females are more
likely to care for another's young as they have not produced offspring of their own yet.

 Males groom infants, reducing the amount of parasites they many have, and calm them
when they are stressed. Also, a male will occasionally "baby-sit

 Lifespan

• The average life span of baboon living in the wild may be only 30. while in captivity live
up to 45 years.

 Diet

Savanna baboons are catholic and eclectic.

 Relationship with other animals

• Baboons also seem to have a special relationship with impalas –they are often found
feeding together.

• But what baboon gain from impala ?

• And what impala gain from baboon?

 Conservation status

• The olive baboon is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN because "this species is very
widespread and abundant.

SAVANNA (VERVET) MONKEY

 Description

 These are common small monkeys of the African savanna with slender form and long
tail.

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 long, sharp canines present in both sexes.

 Color: varies geographically, from silver-gray to olive-, yellow-, or reddish green; white
to yellow-white under parts
 Habitat

 In a savanna habitat

 vervets are frequently pests around lodges and campsites

 Ecology

 Lives in nearly all kinds of woodland, especially along edge with grassland.

 One of the few guenons that left rainforest to forage in grasslands, but vervet’s
dependence on trees for safety keeps it from venturing very far. Often associated with
riverine vegetation, especially groves of fever trees (Acacia xanthophloea), which
provide both safety and sustenance year-round

 Feeding behavior

 Vervets eat the most abundant fruits, seeds, seedpods, new leaves, buds, sap, flowers,
herbs, and grasses, along with invertebrates and some small vertebrates (lizards, birds’
eggs, and nestlings).

 Social system

 Savanna monkey live in troops of 11 monkeys: 2 adult males, 4 adult females, and 5
young, at a density.

 The basic units of vervet society are family groups of females and young that share and
jointly defend a traditional home range. A number of attached males jointly defend the
females and their land against males from other territories, while also competing with one
another for social and reproductive dominance.

 Unlike females, male vervets transfer to another troop as they mature, ending 2 to 3 years
of harassment by dominant males beginning with development of colorful genitalia in
adolescence

 Reproduction

 Seasonal, timing depending on climate, Gestation 165 days; most females breed yearly,
beginning at 3.5 to 4 years. Males begin at least a year later

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 Vervets don’t form consort pairs and copulate usually only once a day, mainly with
dominant males. Periods of sexual receptivity range from 7 up to 66 days, but copulation
not limited to estrus: females routinely copulate even during pregnancy.

 Usually there are no external signs of estrus, but in some populations estrous females
develop sexual swellings colored like male genitalia

 Parental care

 Is done by females

 After a comparatively long gestation, vervet infants are more precocious and develop
faster than other guenons.

 The first few hours, mother clutches baby. Babies of few days old nurse sitting
between mother’s legs, sucking both nipples at once.

 Within a few weeks, babies begin expanding their network of playmates and
babysitters, soon associating in cohesive subgroups with peers or older juveniles, but
remain strongly dependent on mothers the first 3 months for food, warmth, and
security

 Predators

 Vervet monkeys are preyed on by leopards ,cheetah, lions, snakes and in some cases even
baboon ,crowned hawk eagle, chimpanzee.

 Communication

 Visual signals are more important for vervets than for other guenons, both because they
live in relatively open, brightly lit habitats and in socially complex

 At least 60 physically distinct gestures have been described(movement of part of the

body)

 Vocal repertoire includes no less than 36 distinct sounds. Most, however, are similar to
the visual and vocal signals of other guenons.

 Why does a male VERVET monkey have blue testicles

 A blue color on their testes is due to tyndall (particles in very fine suspension) scattering
over a layer of melanin

 Difference Between Male and Female

 Males are slightly larger than female and easily recognized by their blue scrota

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 Males are bright colored than female

 Females have one pair of mammary glands on their chests

 Babies are dark with pinky faces

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