Observations
WELCOME to the Observations portion of the blog, initially designed by Hollie Colahan.
Each of our partnering institutions has a page for the results of their studies. Use the links provided above for Texas A&M University (TAMU) and University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL). Observations by staff at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center follow.
FOSSIL RIM PERSPECTIVES
This section will be comprised of interview transcripts, personal communications, and observations and reports of the waterbuck made by Fossil Rim staff.
A great deal of information about the waterbuck at Fossil Rim resides in the memories of the staff here. This “institutional knowledge” is key to finding solutions to the management challenges ahead. As part of our week here at Fossil Rim, we conducted interviews with staff members who have worked most closely with the waterbuck herd. Summaries of those interviews will be posted here, along with additional comments from staff, volunteers and students.
The interview questions:
1. What would you like to learn more about?
How the waterbuck spend their day - where are they spending time, who are they interacting with, etc.
More information about inter-species interactions, particularly aggression. What are the precursors? Why do the waterbuck leave most of the time but occassionally stay and fight?
Is it better to keep a vasectomized male in the herd rather than no male at all?
What percentage of the day to they spend alone and in groups?
Where do they spend their time? Does the bull influence their movements?
What are they doing and where are they doing it?
What are they eating and what time of day are they eating?
2. What are the biggest challenges with managing the waterbuck?
Individual identification
Calf mortality
Parasite/disease issue in winter
Other species displacing the waterbuck from food
3. What differences in behavior have you seen in the herd when a bull is present vs. when one is not?
Herd spends more time in close proximity
Herd spends more time spread apart
No difference (this was during a short absence of only a few weeks)
Responses to the following questions will be posted in Possible Solutions:
4. What factors do you think are contributing to calf mortality? How would you address it?
5. What impact do you think switching out a viable bull and a vasectomized bull will have on the rest of the herd?
have you witnessed any interactions between the sable and waterbuck?
Since January, I have not seen any interactions between sable and waterbuck. The sable usually are in a fairly close and cohesive group. In contrast, the waterbuck females join each other and split, loosely in 3-4 groups, that may be separated among the different meadows and patches of woods in the main pasture.
This is a good question, because one might predict more inter-species interactions between woodland-adapted species (sable & waterbuck) than between desert grassland species (addax, gemsbock) and the woodland species. Maybe we need to be more aware that the waterbuck are really marsh-adapted.
Jane…
Here are some useful sources:
The Encyclopedia of Applied Animal Behaviour & Welfare. 2007. Editted by D.S. Mills. ISBN 978 0 85199 724 7
Improving Animal Welfare: a practical approach. 2009. By Temple Grandin, Colorado State University. ISBN 978 1 84593 541 2
from the CABI books catalogue
http://www.conbio.org