Animal Facts Flashcards
Black Backed Jackal
Activity
Nocturnal
Mainly nocturnal but often active during the day too
Blue Duiker
Habitat
Most widespread of all the first duikers. Comparatively little undergrowth to obstruct vision or movement.
Eland
Antipredator Behavior
- Defend calves alone or with a group (of moms)
- Adults cannot or do not flee
- Cooperative maternal defense
- Their size acts as a deterrant
Eland
Activity
Variable
Depends on temperatures, season, etc.
May feed mostly at night
Eland
Diet
Browser
Primarily browse but also fruits, pods, seeds, herbs, tubers, and grasses when they are green and tender.
Eland
Water Dependence
Water Independent
Greater Kudu
Antipredator Behavior
(2)
“Crypsis”
They rely primarily on concealment. A person can come within 40 feet of a Kudu before they’ll flee.
During flight, they can clear obstacles up to 8.2 feet.
Roan
Diet
Selective grazer on perineal grasses.
They brose some 10-20% on forbs, leaves, and pods.
Roan
Water Dependence
Water Dependent
Caracal
Predatory Behavior
Kills medium sized antelope up to twice it’s size by using the same techniques as bigger cats: suffocation with a neck bite.
Uses jumping and climbing ability to catch Rock Hyrax, takes sleeping birds from their nests including martial and tawny eagles. Sandgrouse, doves, pigeons, etc. are vulnerable when they’re drinking at a watering hole with nearby cover.
Has killed hares by pinning them to the ground and kicking / clawing with hindfeet if the prey struggles.
Usually leaves some meat uneaten and avoids eating hair by shearing meat closely. They do not eat meat that has started to go bad though they do often return to kills. Some small kills may be cached in tree forks.
Genets
Habitat
Can survive almost anywhere there is sufficient cover to hide and food to eat
Equally at home in the trees and on the ground
Bat-Eared Fox
Habitat
Can be found above the Letaba River in Kruger–they prefer Mopane Shrubveld and can be found in grasslands in the east.
Gray Mongoose
Predatory Behavior
General Behavior
How do they attack snakes?
Another specific example of what they eat and how they acquire it.
When they stumble upon prey or flush it from hiding, they lunge suddenly. If it misses, may “Continue restless quartering” but will more often lie tense on the ground or stand immobile before rushing and grabbing its prey.
Attacks snakes from the rear and retreats
Digs out crocodile eggs.
Black-Backed Jackal
Habitat
Arid Zone, absent from Miombo Woodland Zone. About equally common. In longer grassland and along woodland edge.
In Southern Africa they inhabit a wide range of habitat including more open and arid but still prefer areas with scattered bush.
Blue Duiker
Habitat
Most widespread of the forest duikers.
Comparatively little undergrowth to obstruct vision or movement.
Blue Duiker
Antipredator Behavior
- Snorting (short range)
- Whistling (High intensity Alarm)
- Stamping with hindfeet (High intensity alarm)
Respond to alarm signals by running into cover and hiding. They also respond to alarm signals from other species.
Louder snorting or whistling = higher urgency of alarm.
Buffalo
Habitat
Lowland rainforest, arid biomes wherever there are rivers, lakes, and swamps.
Well watered savannas. Dense cover such as thickets and reeds. May also live in open woodland.
Buffalo
Diet
Bulk grazers, can subsist on tall coarse grasses and are less partial to short young grasses.
Buffalo
Activity
Mainly Nocturnal
Herds which are not subjected to human predation are equally active day and night. Herds which are subjected to herd predation are more active at night.
Main day grazing hours may be from 3-6 pm
Main night grazing hours may be from 10 pm - 3:30 am
Ruminating period often exists between 3:30 am to sunrise.
Buffalo
Antipredator Behavior
- Alert Posture
- Advancing to Investigate
- Head-Tossing
- Wheeling and Flight
- Stampeding
- Individual and Group Attack
Mobbing is usually triggered by a calf’s distress call.
Giraffe
Antipredator Behavior
- Size
- Superior Vision during the night and day
- Formidable hooves.
Mostly invulnerable to predators.
Lions can occasionally kill grown giraffes.
Giraffes hide and stand over their young to protect them.
Bushbuck
Activity
May enter the open at night and retreats into cover soon before dawn.
Bushbuck
Diet
Eats tender new grass but is primarily a browser. Herbs and shrubbery, leguminous plants.
Fond of flowers, figs and other fruits. Frequently found beneath feeding baboons and other monkeys
Bushbuck
Habitat
Montane
Not found anywhere open without sufficient cover to conceal it.
Forest-edge antelope
Usually found near water and in ravines and along watercourses.
Bushbuck
Antipredator
- Freezing
- Running to Cover
Almost invisible standing in thicket as long as it is still. Hyenas and Lions have passed as close as 33 feet without seeing them.
Bushpig
Diet
(8)
Omnivorous
Roots, bulbs, and fallen fruits.
Leaves, carrion, excrement, and small mammals and birds.
Roan
Activity
Diurnal
Late risers, especially on cool mornings when grass is covered in dew.
May rest until 9am grazing from 10-11 am with a resting peak at 2 pm.
Feeding peak in the last hour before sunset.
Roan
Antipredator Behavior
- Alert Posture
- Alarm Snort
- Self-Defense
- Flight
Tendency towards aggressive and effective self-defense
Genets
Activity
Nocturnal
Most active in the first part of the night and also unusually active by bright moonlight.
Lion
Diet
Eats a variety of animal food and will scavenge a meal instead of hunting if they can.
Lion
Activity
Usually spends 20-21 hours a day resting. More likely to become active in the late afternoon. Suckling, play, etc. happen early or late at night.
Lions hunt at night and early morning most of the time but will seize opportunities to capture prey at any time, even if they are gorged.
Prides in woodland habitat with plenty of cover hunt during the day more often.
Lion
Habitat
Plains and savanna habitat where large herbivores are around.
Some live in denser woodland.
Leopard
Predatory Behavior
Leopards are an ambush and stalking predator. Leopards sneak up on prey and pounce before its prey can react. Sneaks to within 16-66 feet from its prey before it pounces, preferably 16 feet
Leopards seldomly chase if it misses and if it does, for no more than 165 feet. Even though its estimated top speed is 37 mph.
Leopards aren’t often successful hunting during the day, missing 61 out of 64 attempts in one Serengeti study.
May sometimes hunt cooperatively in pairs but it’s uncommon except with their young.
Leopard
Activity
Nocturnal
Spend days and part of nights inactive, usually lounges in a tree or in dense thicket.
½ hour before dark, they start moving up to a couple of hours after dawn.
May rarely rest in the same place 2 nights in a row.
Bushpig
Antipredator Behavior
- Alarm Grunts
- Flight
- Concealment
- Distress Sequeals
- Threat Grunts
- Threats and Actual Attack (Including Mobbing)
Leopards and hyenas are their most important predators.
Warthog
Antipredator Behavior
- Trotting with tail vertical
- Alarm grunt
- Distress squeal
- Growl Grunt
- Woomph Call
- Mock and Real attack
- Flight to underground refuge and defense of.
Bushpig
Activity
Mostly Nocturnal
Less nocturnal when protected.
Leopard
Habitat
Occurs throughout Africa where ever there is sufficient cover for concealment.
Ranges in Montane Forests
Wildebeest
Habitat
Plains and acacia savannas. Favor plains covered by colonial grasses that regrow rapidly
Hartebeest
Habitat
Plains antelope but enters open woodland more readily than Wildebeest and topi. Found on the edge more often than the plains.
Hippopotamus
Diet
Eats grasses at night. Short grasses are preferred over longer, coarser grassland.
Hippopotamus
Activity
Feed at night on land and rest and digest during the day in the water.
Begin to commute to inland pastures shortly before dark along branching paths.
Return to water before dawn walking 3-5 kms
Hippopotamus
Habitat
Requires water deep enough to submerge in and nearby grassland. A gently sloping firm bottom is preferred and rapids are avoided.
Leopard
Diet
eats a variety of small to medium sized mammals. Will consume protein in almost any form, from beetles to antelope twice its own weight.
Readily eats carrion and caches sizable kills in trees. Medium sized antelopes and young, large ones most common. Also eats smaller carnivores such as birds, reptiles, small mammals, baboons.
Wildebeest
Antipredator Behavior
- Powerful alarm snorts
- Stamping
- Bunching together
- Alert Posture
- Style-Trot
Usually the preferred prey of lions and spotted hyenas.
Wildebeest mothers defend their calves with considerable success including against lone hunting hyena.
Savanna Baboon
Habitat
Grassland, savanna, and arid biomes. Wherever trees, water, and cliffs occur.
Availability of water and secure sleeping sites in trees and cliffs.
Savanna Baboon
Activity
Diurnal
Usually becomes active well after dawn.
Savanna Baboon
Diet
Use almost all accessible edible plants supplemented with animal foods.
Grasses, flowers, fruit, seeds, buds, leaves, shoots, twigs, bark, sap, roots, tubers, bulbs, aquatic plants, mushrooms, lichens.
Grasshoppers, Spiders, Scorpions, Others.
Vertebrates are rarely sought but readily taken.
Vervet Monkey
Antipredator Behavior
Vulnerable to more predators than any other African Primate. Two largest eagles, leopards, and serval, lions, and cheetahs are the most dangerous.
Use different alarm calls fro ground and air predators and for snakes.
Rarely leave more than a few 100 meters from cover\trees. Respond to other animals alarm calls too.
Vervet Monkey
Diet
Omnivore
Opportunistic omnivore. Fruits, seeds, seedpods, leaves, buds, sap, flowers, various herbs, grasses, invertebrates, occasionally vertebrates.
Vervet Monkey
Habitat
Savanna adapted to almost all wooded habitats outside of rain forests.
Cannot afford to venture far from trees. They are also more dependent on trees for food.
Edge species usually associated with riverine vegetation, savanna, fever trees.
Sykes Monkey
Antipredator Behavior
- Alarm Calls
- Threat Displays
- Mobbing
- Hiding
Little predation other than man, though crowned hawk eagles elicit intense alarm calls.
Sykes Monkey
Activity
Typically Spend ⅓ day eating, ⅓ resting. 16.5% of their days is spent moving, 6% grooming, and 6% other.
Ranges may be 4-10 ha.
Moved most from 7-8 am and 5-6 pm. Least active from 1-2 pm. Rain inhibits movement. Extensive grooming after rain.
Sleeps in trees.
Sykes Monkey
Diet
Omnivore
More folivorous than most. Fruits and leaves. Invertebrates and flowers, seeds, nectar, galls, and unidentified plant balance. Each month they focus on 1-2 specific foods. Foliage most common from March to May.
Sykes Monkey
Water Dependence
May drink from the tree hole after it rains but is water independent.
Sykes Monkey
Habitat
Various evergreen forests, including rain forest, montane forest, coastal mangrove forest, southern savanna wherever there are patches of forest.
Highly arboreal frequenting the middle zone at 39-66 feet in primary forest and is intolerant of strong sunlight.
Greater Bush Baby
Foraging Behavior
Spends several hours in a fruiting tree. They keep returning as long as ripe fruit lasts.
Ficus trees. Diospyrus acacia are mainstays.
Doesn’t pursue interests.
Greater Bush Baby
Antipredator Behavior
- Alarm Calls
Little reason to fear arboreal predators like Genets, Palm Civets, and any anything other than the largest bird of prey.
Slow movements while foraging and concealment avoid attracting predators.
They are, however, vulnerable while they are on the ground.
Greater Bush Baby
Activity
Nocturnal
Wake at twilight, departs sleeping place for individual foraging.
Peak activity and calling early and late at night, returning to sleeping site before dawn.
Greater Bush Baby
Diet
Mainly eats fruits and gums supplemented by
- nectar
- seeds
- insects
- fruit
- flower secretions
- seeds
- insects
Greater Bush Baby
Habitat
Largely confined to dense evergreen forest and riparian bush. Can live in many man-made habitats.
Available fruit is the main limiting factor in distribution.
Some overlap with lesser bush babies. Greater bush babies usually live in denser, wetter habitats. Average densities are 72/km2 in lowveld riparian bush and savanna and up to 110/km2 in mixed woodland.
Lesser Bush Baby
Antipredator Behavior
Vulnerable to almost all aviary and arboreal predators.
They rely on concealment during the day and agility and jumping at night.
Easily captured on the ground.
Alarm calls, mobbing, and maternal transport of young.
Lesser Bush Baby
Foraging Behavior
Insects are caught by leaping and grabbing them often as they take flight. Prey is always taken by hand and not by mouth
Once it catches its prey it bites their head to kill it.
Lesser Bush Baby
Activity
Nocturnal
Peak activity occurs in the first two hours of the night. Secondary peak is in the hour before dawn.
Weather has little effect on activity. Move around even during heavy rain and thunderstorms.
On an average night they may travel 2 km and visit up to 500 different trees.
in primary forest they are extremely reluctant and seldomly need to descend to the ground. In open country with scattered trees and bushes they are more likely to cross the ground.
Lesser Bush Baby
Sleeping Sites
Nesting
In nests or on branches 13-20 feet off the ground in dense vegetation such as bush acacia. 52% in nests, 40% huddled in branches and 6% in hollows.
Nests are platforms constructed of broad soft fresh leaves. Size relative to the number of occupants.
Hyrax
Habitat
Wherever there are rocky cliffs, boulder screes, or rock outcrops with cavities sufficient enough to shelter colonies.
Must have some tree or bush cover with multiple cavities too small for most predators, facing away from prevailing winds within a few kms of another cliff.
Impala
Antipredator
- Alert Posture
- Alarm Snorting
- Flight Intention Movement
- Flight & Height Jumping
Unusually alert and quick to take flight if they can’t identify something, moves their head up and down and sideways.
Impala are a staple prey for most predators and martial eagles can carry off fawns.
Lesser Bush Baby
Habitat
Found in all types of wooded habitat outside of main forest blocks. Peak abundance in savanna habitat, especially acacia savanna and Miombo Woodland.
Perfectly at home in thorny thickets where few others venture.
Mainly on tree gum.
Lesser Bush Baby
Diet
Survives mainly on tree gum and various insects, acacia gum and arthropods.
No interest in vegetation or small vertebrates.
At least in the wild, they’ve never been seen drinking water but will in captivity.
Lesser Bush Baby
Water Dependence
Water-Independent
Clawless Otter
Predatory Behavior
Dive to hunt and prefer things easier to grasp. Frogs versus fish they ate while treading water. When pursuing fish they choose the first one to break rank.
Average duration of dives is 18 seconds. Typical variation is 14-24 seconds.
Almost all prey is caught with their hands and they can eat with it’s head underwater, but usually tilts head back while eating
After hunting, cleans it’s face and feet in the water in an elaborate ritual
Klipspringer
Antipredator Behavior
- Male sentry duty
- Alert Stance
- Fixed Stare
- Stamping
- Alarm-Whistling (Most often male and female in synchrony)
- Bounding Flight
- Jumping in Place
Usually a single alarm call and flight for 30-50 meters to a higher place.
Nyala
Habitat
Closely corresponds to the area of Mozambique coastal plain and the valleys of nearby major rivers.
Distribution is spotty but Kruger National Park is one of the best places to find them in the world.
Low-Lying densely wooded habitats generally near water.
Overlap with Kudu, Common and Red Duiker, Bushpig, and Bushbuck.
Clawless Otter
Activity
Day or Night
More active in the late afternoon and early evening, sometimes early morning
active all night until 7 am with a peak at 8-10 pm. (Coastal Otter)
Occasionally they come out even on the hottest of days.
Clawless Otter
Diet
Fish are a small portion. Other prey includes insects, snakes, waterbirds, and mollusks.
Clawless Otter
Habitat
Small and large streams, lakes, ponds and swamps. Is frequently absent from large river including parts of the Limpompo.
Less aquatic.
Wildebeest
Water Dependence
Water Dependent
Needs to drink daily to every other day during the dry season
Wildebeest
Diet
Prefer colonial grasses that regrow rapidly.
Wildebeest
Activity
Active night and during the day.
Move to daytime pastures and water during the heat of the day when predators are least active.
White Rhino
Antipredator Behavior
Few reports of predation, though only calves are vulnerable to hyenas and lions.
When alarmed, companions press their hindquarters together and face opposite directions.
White Rhino
Habitat
Good habitat includes trees, ample water, and open grassland.
White Rhino
Water Dependence
Water Dependent
Often drinks twice daily but can go 2-4 days without drinking if water is distant.
White Rhino
Diet
Pure grazer. Lips are flat to help it eat short green grass more efficiently.
Waterbuck
Antipredator Behavior
- Alert Posture
- Snorting
- Stotting
- Trotting
- Running into Cover
- Lying out
- Self-Defense in Males only
Waterbuck
Habitat
Limited to grassland within a few km from water. Requires cover, open grassland, and water.
Distribution along drainage lines and valleys
Frequents woodland in the wet season.
Warthog
Habitat
Only pig adapted for grazing and savanna habitats. Avoids forest and dense undergrowth.
Zorilla
Predatory Behavior
Quarters at a trot, nose to the ground with sudden stops to poke its nose into litter or dung for insect prey.
Sense of smell and sight well developed with primary importance on smelling. Makes no attempt to catch flying prey.
Prey is usually stalked then grabbed with mouth or forefeet, then bitten in the head or neck.
Very large rats were killed with a throat bite. Rarely rolls and bites
Attacks snakes like mongoose do. Bites and retreats then eventually bites and shakes vigorously.
Zorilla
Activity
Strictly Nocturnal
Rarely seen before 10pm and retires before dawn.
One of the more strictly nocturnal carnivores.
Zorilla
Habitat
Savanna and arid zones. Absent forest.
Scarce but dense woodland and savanna with thick cover and can subsist in coastal sand dunes. Most common on relatively open rangeland where ungulates keep grass short.
Zorilla
Water Dependence
Water Independent
Can subsist on water derived from food. But they will drink water sparingly.
Zorilla
Diet
Carnivorous
All kinds of small vertebrates. Small hares, mostly hunts insects, rats, and ,mice.
Will hunt lizards, snakes, scorpions, dung beetles, grubs, grasshoppers, crickets.
Refused toads, snails, slugs, millipedes, and stinkbugs.
Will not eat fruit.
Striped Weasel
Habitat
Southern Savanna, often seen in open savanna but probably more common in closed habitats with more rainfall.
Probably only common where rodent populations are perennially dense. Good grass cover that aren’t burned every year.