Dr. Hoof Stock

Nuggets

The waterbuck were first seen at 7:26AM leaving the pasture just outside the cattle guard of the lodge. They were heading towards the junipter loop.

8:38AM- As the Gemsbok travelled through the area where the waterbuck were, Lucifer displaced one with a head toss and stepping once towards the Gemsbok. As more Gemsbok came, Lucifer relocated near a small group of female waterbuck. He laid down next to blue tag 605 fallow fawn who was it the herd. It seemed as if all the animals were “staging” for feeding.

8:53AM- The female were displaced by two addax passing by to approach the vehicle. Y58 stood next to Lucifer and sniffed him along his back. Lucifer and the fawn were the only two not displaced by the addax.

8:56AM- Single-horned addax approached Lucifer. Lucifer is displaced. Lucifer walked over the females and rubbed his nose on the head and back of one of the females. She got up and walked away and Lucifer followed her and laid down next to blue tag female.

9:12AM-Knobby-knees approached vehicle in a curious fashion. Ears were consistently pointed at the vehicle. Renee had her hand out the window as if she had pellets to see if she would come closer. Soon walked back towards the herd to graze with Y58(mother) and Crooked-tail.

9:36AM-Knobby-knees ducked head under Y58 as if she was going to nurse. She does began nursing, but the bout was interrupted by Y58.

10:12AM- As Crooked-tail was grazing, he has horns showing. It is confirmed he is male.

10:01AM- Lucifer got up and does flehmen to a no tag female. She walked away and he followed. He did a chin rub on her rear and stopped to graze. He approached the same female and does flehmen again and she stepped away. Lucifer laid down approximately 8 feet in front of the vehicle.

10:14AM-Lucifer watched a female walk towards feed truck(?). He got up and did flehmen, chinning, chin rub, and five foreleg kicks alternating legs to Natural notch . She stepped away one or two steps at a time. She continued to graze the entire time.

10:28AM- Lucifer did flehmen to natural notch again. He would sniff and rest his head between her hind legs as she continued to graze. She would step away once uncomfortable. In addition, Toby was watching Lucifer the whole time from across the loop road.

10:40AM- Toby approached Lucifer with his head low and while doing a “chomping” with his mouth and slightly doing a a head toss side to side. Toby sniffs Lucifer inguinal and Lucifer displaced Toby by turning his horns toward Toby. Toby ran across the loop road.

10:44Am-Toby is back in close proximity to Lucifer and both of them were grazing.

10:52AM- Feeding began. The waterbuck were in background as the other species went for the feed. Lucifer attempted a few times to get to the feed, but was displaced by Addax, fallow, and axis deer. At one feed station, Lucifer and an addax lock horns for a few moments. Lucifer leaves and follow the herd to the last feed station in the trees of juniper. This seems to be the place where the waterbuck normally feeds during feeding time.

Dr. Packard, Renee, and Heather

At approximately 12:00PM, the majority of the waterbuck herd was seen lying in the clearing near the crossover. Toby and Crooked-tail were with them as well as two fallow deer. Lucifer was across the road headed toward the pond after a small group of females.

12:37PM: Just downhill of the waterbuck shed (14R0660784 UTM 3495303), Lucifer came into view from through a couple of bushes. A female with a yellow ear tag (unidentified) was present. Split-ear urinated as Lucifer walked toward her, giving a flehman response. Lucifer continued to follow her and appeared to be “encouraging her to urinate” by placing his nose under her rump. Crooked-tail was present. As the others walked off, Lucifer grazed for approximately three minutes.

12:58PM: A female with no tag was drinking from the water hole near the waterbuck shed (14S 0612069 UTM 3559571). After a minute or so, Crooked-tail and Knobby-knees join her and drink. Female yellow tag 58 joins them shortly after. Lucifer is 5 to 6 meters upstream drinking. After having a drink, Crooked-tail walks up the bank to graze. The unmarked female and Knobby-knees soon join him. Meanwhile, Lucifer has finished drinking and is grazing on the bank further upstream. Yellow tag 58 walks further into the water to drink, finishes and grazes on the bank.

1:15PM-Crooked tail is seen nursing from split ear for approximately 2-3 minutes. The mother was displayed by addax and did not voluntarily end the bout.

1:36PM: About 8 females and Lucifer are in a small clearing (14S 0612075 UTM 3559568). Some females are lying down while Lucifer and the other females in the group are grazing. Those females lying down are not chewing cud. There are two fallow deer and an axis deer lying down with the group. Blue, red and yellow tag 62 are present. 1:45 - Another female with no tag approached.

1:55PM- Lucifer does flehmen to yellow tag 64. She stands there as he does a left foreleg kick. She is coy and keeps htail up the whole time as he does a nostril lick and chin rub. He repeats a foreleg kick two more times.

3:42PM- Lucifer and the herd are spotted on the lodge side of creek grazing. We have not seen them there prior.

5:00PM: Three females and Lucifer lye down and chew cud (14S 611292 UTM 3559782) . Another female is grazing. Fallow deer (485?) is grazing and chewing cud with the herd. Only time herd seen chewing cud. 5:29 - Lucifer walks across the road and lies down. While he is down he grazes. His good (right) eye is facing the females. He continues to get up, graze and lie down. While lying down, he thrashes. He seems uneasy.

6:00PM-Lucifer is spotted in pasture across the road from the lodge in full intense display. He is around 15-20 addax from calves to adults. He has his neck arched, head high but pointed down. The addax was in full display as well. Lucifer does intense thrashing on the grass and jumping around as he digs into the ground. Then, Lucifer fought with an addax. Their horns were locked. The addax backed down. Lucifer grazes, thrashes and then approaches the addax again. An addax was thrashing and displaying on a bush, he also defacates twice in a form of display. Lucifer and the addax engaged in a fully escalated fight. Lucifer used his full weight, and their horns were locked. The fight resulted in the addax being rolled on his back and his horned buried into the ground. Lucifer stood next to him waiting for him to get up. The addax seemed to be in a state of shock and shaking. Lucifer moved away standing tall after about a couple of minutes. Then he was displayed by a female addax 433. Eventually, the addax recovered and was fine.

7:37PM-Lucifer does flehmen with split ear near crooked tail and knobby-knees.

7:50PM-Toby approached Lucifer in a submission fashion. He had his head and body low, and hunched over. Lucifer just stands there as Toby licked his side and belly area. Lucifer leaned in and startled Toby. Lucifer does a side to side head toss and fully displaced Toby.

Ended observation at 8pm.

Dr. Packard, Renee, and Heather

The locations of the hay bales are different each time we observe. 

2/17/2008 - NW of Juniper Loop at the “rainbow” pullout; and at the intersection of the Safari Camp road

3/1/2008 - in front of the shed on the cut through dirt road in the Juniper Loop

We noticed green grass sprouting on Feb. 16-17.  By March 1-2, it was showing more and the calves were feeding on the green grass.  

The grass was most visible within the shade and drip line of the liveoaks.  It was also in the draws where there appeared to be silty soils and some drainage.

5 Subadults documented as present

• medium size:  project ID ?807 (Crooked tail, calf of Slit ear born 11/07); project ID: ?806 (Puffybut, calf of Y58, born in 7/2007)
• subadult size:  project ID: F804 (born in 9/2006), F549Red, F545Blue.

2 Adult males: ISIS12023; ISIS 12021

15 Adult females: F56Y (lost tag); F57Y, F58Y, F59Y,  F61Y (Slitear), F62Y, F63Y, F64Y; “Natural notch”, 6 unmarked

Jane & Michael

1. Strong winds blew out the warm air from yesterday and the temperature dropped from high 70’s to high 60’s.  Skies were overcast in contrast to the sunny skies of yesterday.
2. We found all the waterbuck in the SW corner of the Juniper loop at 07:15.  Crooked Tail (CT= 807) was suckling when we drove up.  CT suckled again at 11:27; an inter-bout interval of 4 hrs.  The nursing bout was 4 min duration.  CT interrupted the bout but when CT returned to suckle, Slitear (F61) kicked.  When CT persisted, Slitear walked off.  
3. With all the calves together, I could compare them better than during previous observations.   Checking the ID notes last night, I determined the incorrect identification of the surviving calf as “Thinline (#805)”.  That ID was based on notes about the rump ring.  Based on the suckling bouts we observed yesterday, the calves present are: Crooked Tail (#807), Puffybut (#806), and Knobby knees (#804).  This makes me realize how we need to cross-check our ID’s using a couple criteria.  This week, both Knobby Knees (KK) and Puffybut (PB) had a break in the white ring above the tail, as does Lucifer.   Standing side by side, the sizes are #807<#806<#804.  The hair on the rear of #806 has more of  reddish tinge compared to #804.  I could not distinguish any difference in the cow-hocked stance of #804 compared to the others, which was the original basis for the house name “Knobby Knees (KK)”.
4. Lucifer was tending Y57, at a medium intensity.  He sniffed her rump, licked his nostrils, foreleg kicked, rubbed his forehead on her rump, showed erection and did flehmen.  He did not mount.  She responded with head flicks and short darting bursts away.  She circled and returned to him, occasionally rubbing her head on his flank with a “coy” quality.  Although he repeatedly followed Y57 more than any other female, it was not persistent the whole time.  He also sniffed and did flehmen in response to Y62.  He sniffed but did not persist in following Y64, Y62, Y59, and a female with no tag.
5. Toby rested within view of the herd, in the woods about 18-30 m from Lucifer.  Once, when Lucifer approached him, Toby did a chin stretch with a slight turn of his head and walked away.  I interpretted this as a de-escalation signal, indicating some tension.
6. Lucifer was displaced by Addax (once) when he was lying.  Lucifer sparred briefly with the Addax, which walked away (see video).  Toby & 5 females were displaced by a male fallow deer at the pellets in a trough.  While feeding on pellets in the culvert lane in the woods, Toby pushed past several females.
7. The sandhill cranes fed among the waterbuck.  KK approached them.  When the female crane stabbed at KK, s/he backed off.  We saw 8 turkeys at distance.  A fallow deer suckled briefly (less than 60 s) in the woods.
8. The green grass under the shade of the live oak trees is very noticeable.  Most of the ground under the junipers has no vegetation where there is limestone gravel, but there are a few patches of green under the junipers, maybe where the topsoil has not been eroded.

Jane & Michael

1. 12:30 Lucifer was feeding with two females at a hay bale in front of the shed on the cut-through road. They laid in the shade of junipers NE of the shed.
2. 13:30 Lucifer arose and sniffed the rear of a female, Y57. She got up but he lost interest in her. He was startled when a gemsbock horned him from behind. Lucifer rubbed his forehead on the rump of a female, but lost interest when she stepped away. He sniffed a couple more females, but did not persist in following them. He laid down and female Y59 laid nearby.
3. 14:00 -14:30 When a gemsbock approached Lucifer, he turned away and avoided an encounter by passing to the side of the gemsbock. Although two female waterbuck were feeding at the hay bale with another gemsbock, Lucifer stood nearby until the gemsbock left, then he fed at the hay.
4. 14:38 Lucifer sniffed at the rear of two females (Y59, Y62). He did flehmen for Y62, but did not persist in following her. He walked off toward the woods SE of the road and we lost him.
5. 15:00-17:00 Lucifer laid in the shade in the open near the “rainbow pullout” at the NW corner of the Juniper loop. Twice he approached females, followed them up to the shed on the cut-through road and returned to lie in the same spot. Although he “checked” on females he did not persist in courting any. When an addax approached Lucifer, he got up and stood watching. They sparred lightly and the addax left. Lucifer looked in our direction, toward the females, defecated and approached the females. We lost sight of him as he crossed the road toward the waterbuck shed. We drove there but did not find any waterbuck.
6. 17:05 Two calves, CT and Puffybut, were grazing on short green grass in the draw west of the clinic corral. Puffybut suckled from Y58 and Crooked Tail suckled from Slitear. The nursing bouts were about 4-5 minutes, interrupted by the calf not the mother.(EDITORIAL NOTE:  the ID on the second calf was corrected on 3/3/”2008″)
7. 17:55-18:40 Lucifer joined 9 females feeding at the hay bale near the NE end of the cut-through road. They were joined by two females from the open pasture and groups of 2-3 that came from the woods north of the waterbuck shed road. When Toby approached, Lucifer chased him about 1 m from the hay bale, but Toby circled around and fed on the other side of the bale. This happened again, after a longer chase. We saw 3 calves (Crooked tail, Puffybut, knobby knees) 3 yearlings (red tag, blue tag, no tag). The calves separated from the hay bale and grazed withing 4 m.   Two addax fed with them without interaction.  In total, we counted all 22 waterbuck (2: 17:3). We left them still feeding at the hay bale at dusk.

Jane & Michael

When we first arrived at daybreak, a calf was nursing. We can look at the focal video for more details. It was at the edge of the woods, north of the hay bale where we watched Lucifer Sat. eve.

9:10AM- Lucifer grazing with calf(crooked-tail?) “mimicking”.  The calf followed him for a few minutes.

9:31AM-Lucifer head butt to female and she stood up.  He rubbed his muzzle on left side of her neck.  She sniffed his rear and he laid down.

9:46AM-This was the time we saw Lucifer laying down with head completely on the ground like a calf would.

11:00AM- We noticed Yellow tag female with diarrhea.

11:08AM- Lucifer did a slight head toss to yellow tag female and pointed his horns toward her.  She is displaced for a seond and is back in the same spot feeding on hay bale.

During feeding, we were able to get continuous video. After the other species took over the piles of pellets along the cut-through road, the waterbuck followed the truck to the road near the culvert in the woods. They all had access to pellets, even Blue and Red tags. Lucifer ate with them. There was not much aggression, but we need to look at the video to get some displacements.

After feeding, Lucifer followed a couple females to the Safari Camp waterhole. We lost him in the juniper on the way toward turtle pond.

1:01PM-One of the calves is eating hay with addax sleeping on the pile.  Another comes allow and displaced the calf.

Jane & Reneé