I confess, I am guilty of forgetting about many of the animals that we see here! Guilty as charged!
Truth is, we have several hundreds of species on this reserve, so when you visit here, then you will see so much more than this blog suggests. Some of these animals are so “common” that I forget to even mention them, but that’s not doing them justice, because they are all beautiful … and important.
Chad took some nice shots of an animal that one doesn’t see see quite that often (unlike, say, impalas, wildebeest or even Kudus).
So curtain open to … the Tsessebe!
They used to be very common all over Africa, but their numbers are now shrinking (due to habitat loss mainly), but not yet to the level of them being threatened. They are certainly doing very well on our reserve, which is great news.
They are grazers mainly, with some behavior patterns that are, well, odd. They sleep with their mouth flat on the ground for instance, and the horns straight up in the air. That’s not really seen with any other antelopes. Otherwise, they are territorial, with one dominant male (lucky him!) with 6-10 females in one herd (ok, maybe not so lucky after all 😉 ). Young male bachelors form their own male-only clubs (party all night!), while they wait to get stronger to the point of being able to challenge for a female herd. Survival of the fittest (and strongest!) that is.
Tsessebe are also very fast runners, with speeds of up to 80km/h, so once they get going, it’s tough for a predator, as they have good stamina as well.
So, here Chad’s photos:
