Dr. Hoof Stock

We collected some anecdotal observations on waterbuck and videos of deer rutting vocalizations….

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

This is our last observation scheduled on the protocol for Renee’s graduate research!  My highlight was watching the courtship interactions between Lucifer (M530B) and F63Y.  When he stopped mounting her, she mounted him!

When I first located Lucifer, he was off the road between the Addax shed and Turtle Pond.  He was grazing on a patch of green grass across from where the juniper has been cleared.  He then walked toward the Safari Camp and I picked him up again on the Juniper Loop.

F63Y found Lucifer and approached him.  He courted her intensively, including foreleg lift, horn taps, following and mounting.  When his interest waned, she reciprocated with foreleg lift, horn(less) taps, following and mounting.  The video is in sequential 6-min focals, about 24-30 minutes total.

The pair moved toward a group of 10 female waterbuck on the main meadow near the clinic.  Although the other females moved on, Lucifer and F63Y remained grazing.

The next morning, I found the females and Lucifer in the same location before daylight.  The other females moved to the Juniper Loop at daybreak.  Lucifer followed them, as they entered the woods south of Safari Camp.  I did not locate him for the rest of the day.

Renee will fill in more details about what was observed….

These are the highlighted behaviors and events of M530B in the main pasture

8-4-09

7pm to sunset- M530B grazed with 5 females about 35 yards away in the opening before crossing the creek towards the Lodge. They moved slowly and eventually crossed the road near the addax and white-tailed deer. Five male white-tailed came running from the southeast which spooked all the females and the addax. M530B just watched as they went by.

8-5-09

7am- M530B was courting an untagged female as two other females darted and ran away them. He went out of view at 740am. They were in the same spot from previous night.

8am- M530B was in juniper loop standing over a female with an erection.

9am- He was grazing near 4 females in juniper loop.

925am- He was courting an untagged female. They stood next to each other and then he moved to lay down near the other females.

After 11am I could not find him all day.

6pm-he was spotted in juniper loop courting a female. She was untagged and she did a chin rub on his rear. She continued to court him while he grazed or just stood there. She would walk away and he followed. They both grazed and then either her or him would approach another to begin courtship. This seemed like a process that kept repeating itself until sunset. As a side note, she approach my car while she was grazing. I have not experienced a waterbuck walking up to the vehicle like the addax until now.

8-6-09

730am- M530B was at the west end of juniper loop with the same female. He mounted her and was successful. This was the first time seeing him complete a courtship with a successful mount.  Afterwards, she mounted him and she did a chin rub on his rump. He was grazing and then they stood next to each other for a while. They grazed and went out of view towards the waterbuck shelter.

Renee

The highlight was a tremendous thunderstorm Saturday afternoon with rainbows in the evening!  During the storm, the waterbuck huddled under trees. When the rain slowed down, they grazed, occasionally shaking water droplets off their heads.

At noon on Saturday, Lucifer (M530B) was on the Juniper Loop and walked into the woods by the NW shed.  By 1530, he was between the Lodge and the creek, in the general area of females (total of 14).  He remained in that general area until he crossed over to the Juniper Loop on Sunday morning (by 9 am).  No food was delivered while I was watching on Sunday.  He drank from the rain water in the pellet troughs and he grazed with other species (mostly sable) on the pasture east of Juniper Loop.  No females appeared on Juniper Loop.

Lucifer checked out a few females very briefly and did not persist  in following them.  He briefly escalated with an addax, who de-escalated.  He watched addax.  He was not following the female that gave birth on 7/28.  She was still bagged up.

Although M664O was with the rest of the group prior to the rainstorm, he was with the male calf and a female SW of the Lodge Road (by the Creek) Saturday evening and Sunday morning.  I saw no interactions between Lucifer and the young males (M664O is a yearling with horns about 6-10 inches, and M91′F61 was born in 4/09 so is about 3-4 months with horn buds 2-3 inches).

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