Fieldnotes September 5, 2009
The highlight today was watching Crooked Tail interact with a young male and calf….with a group of five north of the Lodge in the cleared juniper area….more later
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The highlight today was watching Crooked Tail interact with a young male and calf….with a group of five north of the Lodge in the cleared juniper area….more later
Lucifer (M530B) was with 2 females southeast of the Lodge. Each was grazing. He was not showing any interest in courtship.
Crooked Tail (CT) was northwest of the Lodge in an area where I have not previously seen waterbuck. This is the area where the juniper has been cleared and piled.
At first, CT was with M664O and a juvenile female. The three of them moved in a tight bunch, even though CT was interacting with them. CT horn-tapped the juvenile female, and she head tossed like an adult female. She did not urinate, but she moved away from CT at the same time she circled back around to be near him.
CT did a horn dip to M664O several times. The younger male moved away with a few quick steps but stayed within 3 body lengths.
The three of them went over to a tree where an adult female arose, followed by a juvenile female calf (not the latest born). The four youngsters followed the adult female out of the clearing into the juniper, moving toward the Lodge.
CT was vasectomized and moved from the retirement pasture to the main pasture this week. The reason for this was to give him experience socializing with females and other males. The management goal is to have a vasectomized male that is well socialized when Lucifer is no longer functional due to old age.
Another highlight was a brief glimpse of three mammals that ran together across the road NE of the Lodge, at twilight. They were the size of raccoons, but not the body shape or movement. The tails looked skinny and as long or longer than the bodies. As the interacted, they flipped over each other. The movement was linear, not bouncy like a coon. They did not seem as bushy or substantial as the grey foxes I have seen previously in the main pasture.
By the time I moved my car up to where they had crossed, they had disappeared in the direction of the creek downstream from the swimming pool. My hypothesis is that they were ring-tail or grey fox. I am curious to learn more.
I did not see any waterbuck Sat. morning.
David reported the three males together without signs of aggression. See Reneé Corner for more details.
Reneé