Skip to main content

Waterbuck

Female Waterbuck
Can you believe that we haven't talked about an antelope since June? And did you know there are around 90 different species, and that almost 3/4 of those live in Africa? I should do an all Antelope theme week... it's been a while since we've had a theme week...

Anyway, today we will learn about one of those 70 or so African Antelope species, the Waterbuck. Waterbuck, not surprisingly, live close to water sources. They feed on the long grasses surrounding various bodies of water, and then use the water to escape from predators if needed. They considered to be strong swimmers. However, of the half dozen members of the Kobus genus, the Waterbuck isn't even the most water dependent. Crazy.

Male Waterbuck are very territorial, and will guard their stretch of land and the cows within it. Females live in loose herds that overlap the males' territory, which means that the bulls with more land will end up having larger harems.

One really neat fact about these guys is that they have really tough, musty, stinky meat. This means that when other prey is available, predators will more of less leave the Waterbuck alone.

There are several different subspecies of Waterbuck, and at one time they were classified under two separate species. However, they are now all lumped under one species, due to the fact that they interbreed with one another when ranges overlap.
IUCN Status : Least Concern
Location : Sub-Saharan Africa
Size : Shoulder height 50in (1.3m), Weight 500lbs (227kg)
Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Bovidae -- Genus : Kobus -- Species : K. ellipsiprymnus
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Burmese Peacock

Polyplectron bicalcaratum Burmese Peacocks are also referred to as Grey Peacock-Pheasants, which is probably a more apt name, as they are not actually Peacocks... though they do belong to the same family. At any rate, they share some physical resemblances to Peacocks- most notably the eyes on their tail feathers. Burmese Peacocks are the national birds of Myanmar, which was called Burma until 1989, though some still refer to it as such. The birds live in several other Southeast Asian countries as well, and are divided into four subspecies. The species as a whole is listed as being of Least Concern , because they have a large range and population size. It unfortunately appears that they may be declining in number, but it is a slow descent that does not yet meet the vulnerability thresholds. The birds are listed under CITES Appendix II, because they can be kept in captivity and grabbing individuals from the wild could become problematic for the species. IUCN Stat...
3 comments
Read more

Bornean Orangutan

The Bornean Orangutan is one of two extant Orangutan species in the world. It is the third largest primate (after Gorillas) and is the largest primarily tree-dwelling animal in the world. Males are substantially larger than females, and average at around 165lbs. Bornean Orangutans are largely solitary. A handful might live within a small range but they will seldom interact with one another. Males and females only meet up to breed, which happens only once every several years. A young Orangutan will stay with it's mother for about five years, and the females tend to go about eight years between births. That is the longest interim period of any animal! Sadly, the Bornean Orangutans are in a lot of trouble. They need large forests in order to thrive, and deforestation and habitat degradation has left many homeless. They are also hunted for meat and for traditional medicines. Conservation areas are being established to help these guys in the wild, and it is believed that there are a...
59 comments
Read more

Four!

For anyone who was counting, yesterday was our birthday-- four years! Four years filled with animals from A to Z, more than 1,100 of them! I can't thank my readers enough, it's been wonderful! And in celebration of that milestone... I'm taking a break. Hopefully not forever, but for a little bit at least. In the mean time I plan on getting a new layout out, along with some updates to some of the older articles. I'll post updates here and on the Facebook page, I'm also brainstorming some new animal-related projects, so keep an eye out! Thanks again for four awesome years!
18 comments
Read more