Dr. Hoof Stock

Wes F., Lindsay D. and I conducted observations. Below are the highlights from the weekend.

1. B530 was spotted in Juniper loop Sat morning at 6 am. He was alone grazing and then laid down to chew cud until feeding time.

2. During feeding, B530 was persistent at feeding at one trough no matter who approached the trough. He fed with axis deer, gemsboks, and next to the sable. He escalated on several occasions and de-escalated a few times to circle back to the same trough. About an hour after feeding, an addax with one horn displays his horns and thrashes them on the ground. B530 was watching and immediately the addax charges B530. B530 “defends” himself from the persistent addax as they sparred for a few minutes. They both walked away.

3. He stayed in the loop until the afternoon and he headed north of the loop and into the trees.

4. He was spotted again at 545pm with 9 waterbuck female in between the lodge and the creek bed. He was grazing and not courting any females. Something spooked the females and they went running into the trees. B530 followed them after a few moments.

5. 13 waterbuck returned to the same place an hour later (11 females (Y57, “natural notch”, slit ear, Y672, the rest were untagged), the male calf, O664). With B530 following one female and he did flehmen once. She was untagged. He went to graze and did not tend another female the entire time. The females moved north of the lodge into the trees and B530 followed.

6. Sunday morning, B530 was in the loop again alone moving to a place to lay down and chew cud. He remained there the entire time.

Renee

July 7 was B530 first day back in the pasture. He was released and he moved quickly around enclosed pasture. He eventually darted into the open pasture just East of the juniper loop. He grazed around in what it seemed to be in no particular direction.

Later in the day he was with Y58 and Y63 by the access road to safari camp. He engaged in low intensity courtship with both females, but he mostly grazed. He then left towards the northeastern part of juniper loop.

Just before sunset, he was approaching 18 waterbuck. This was the first time they had seen him. Most of the females approached him to sniff him with their heads low. They circled him as he circled them to sniff each others’ rear. After a few moments he left to approach the other females who did not come up to him. They were crossing the large pasture before juniper loop. The calf male was following in the distance. M530 followed the females to the large water pail along the fence. The six females circled him as he did the same. He followed one female back across the pasture past the sable and axis deer. He stopped in the middle of the pasture and laid down. The other five waterbuck slowly came in close proximity to him and grazed.

In the morning, he was in the last place I had seen him with 18 waterbuck including the juvenile male and the male calf. He was lying down chewing cud while the others grazed towards the trees out of view. He followed soon after and was out of view.

Renee Jones

This is the day that the males were switched….Renee will fill in the details later

Sat, 7/11/09

A grey fox crossed the road on my way in this morning, at daybreak!

Shortly after daybreak, the waterbuck females gathered on the Juniper Loop, then crossed over to Turtle Pond.  They drank and grazed near the pond.  It is very low, yet there is green vegetation around it.  I noted this because I have never seen the waterbuck at that pond.  The Gemsbock, Addax and fallow deer each separately also gathered there later in the day.  The female waterbuck passed on over to the meadow south of the creek, where they grazed near the northeast shed.  Later in the day they split into two groups, both on the lodge side of the creek (see details below).  One group was southwest of the road to the lodge (SW group), and moved parallel to the road near dusk.  The other group was northeast of the swimming pool (NE group) and moved northeast.

Lucifer (M530B) spent the morning near the food troughs on the Juniper Loop, disappeared around 1 pm  and by evening was grazing near the NE group of females. He was clearly not herding them, merely moving slowly in their direction while grazing.  When the females moved out of view, he approached the two who were remaining (FNT & M91).  After interacting with M91 (see below) Lucifer did not follow these two and drifted over in the direction of the other group when I left at dark.

In the morning, the youngest (4-mo) male calf (M91) nursed from Slit-ear (F61Y).  Although he suckled for only 3 minutes, the interaction continued for 6 minutes (videoed).  He bumped her udder repeatedly and she darted away from him, using much the same quality of movement as when a female is evading a courting male.  However, she kept standing for him and he kept trying to gain access.  Finally she walked away.  He held his head low near her udder, in a similar stance to the way Toby (C-male) used to approach Lucifer (V-male).

At the end of the day Slit-ear’s calf (M91) was separated from his mother, she was in the southwest group of females and he was following an untagged female initially in the northeast group.  The two of them (M91 & FNT) were separated from the NE group when they were grazing and did not notice the other females move off.  The southwestern group included the juvenile male (M664O), F58Y, F6?Y, F63Y, F61Y(Slit-ear),  F549R and 3 untagged females.  I watched an untagged female followed by F59Y  moving in their direction on the other side of the creek.  The northeastern group included F64Y (backwards tag), juvenile F672Y, F545B, calf M91, and 5 FNT (9 total).  Total count was 9 + 9 + 2 + Lucifer = 21 waterbuck.

M91 interacted briefly with Lucifer, approaching him with horizontal neck and head tossing repeatedly.  Lucifer reached out to M91 as if to sniff his side, and the calf side-stepped quickly, as if nervous.  After a slight horn dip from Lucifer, the calf circled behind Lucifer and sniffed his rear.  Then both moved on as if ignoring each other.

Lucifer did not move with the females at all during the morning or midday.  He was grazing north of Safari Camp, and moving toward Juniper Loop.  I took one video sample before losing him.  When I finally picked him up again, he was resting north of the Cut-through shed on Juniper Loop.  Several times, he stood or moved away from approaching gemsbock.  He licked an empty trough and moved over to the edge of the woods where he could see the feed truck approach.  He was able to feed at two troughs, in between displacements.  In the context of food pellets, he stands up to addax, but de-escalates with Gemsbok and completely avoids Sable.  He may tolerate one fallow buck at the trough, but avoids several.  In the evening, he displaced Addax twice, near the Lodge, not in the context of pellets.  He approached the Addax directly, no horn contact, the Addax moved away.

Sun 7/12/09

At daybreak, I drove into the retirement pasture and parked near the troughs.  At first only 2 sable were visible grazing in the middle of the pasture.  Over the next hour, I observed the following:  4 addra, 2 vicuna (+ 1 lama?), 2 zebra (Hardeman’s), 3 fallow deer, 2 wildebeest, 1 red deer (F159R), 2 M white-tail, M664Y +3 scimitar-horned oryx, 2 arabian oryx, 3 addax + M575G (speckled grey).

Crooked tail (M624Y) appeared in the last 8 minutes, grazing alone near the gate.  As a yearling, his horns are now about 12 inches long.   The intact male waterbuck (M42O), was in a separate enclosure

—Jane

This  is the title of a book by Norm Owen-Smith, which has been influencing my thinking….