To Sweetwaters We Shall Go
Woooooooooo off to Sweetwaters!
Some simple Grant's gazelle analysis:
The gazelles were awesome, Evander and Vinnie are total studs (hot young rising stars!), and Arnold and Abdul are the bigwigs. Hermann (the gazelle formerly known as loser) is still a loser, really. Tony Hawk is a bit of an enigma. Zoolander proves everything, so he rules. We observed lots of territorial behavior from all the males, and variable success partially determined by the weather - Zoolander had a fairly barren territory with good visibility but very little vegetation, and we observed him in the same area, alone, several days in a row. Then the grasses all started responding to the rainfall, and Zoolander's territory greened up - little shoots peeping through the bare ground, it was AWESOME. Sure enough, on March 4th we spotted Zoolander with 12 females and 5 bachelor males trying to get in on the action. After about 45 minutes of observation, Zoolander decided to assert himself, and ran the bachelors off of his territory.
It was good to see. The basic idea of Resource Defense Polygyny is that the landscape has variable resource richness, and females wander around in herds (to reduce the risk of predation) from area to area according to where the best food is. Males, in order to maximize their reproductive success, set up a territory on an area that they consider to be good - in this area, about a kilometer across, though territories can be MUCH bigger in different areas. They mark the boundaries with dung piles and by patrolling, and wait for females to wander in. Once the females enter their territory, they defend the territory from the incursions of bachelor males (non-territorial males, travelling in herds for protection) and try to keep the females in their territory so that if one of them comes into estrus they can attempt copulation. It's hard work being a territorial Grant's gazelle.
The other two projects - on dik-dik land use, and parasite levels in different ungulates, were also very interesting. No time to describe them... But let me tell you, dik-dik dung piles are a mystery just begging to be unravelled. As are parasites. How would YOU feel if you had upwards of 2000 parasite eggs per gram of dung?
Back to the campsite, pack pack pack, and then to Sweetwaters! Catch up with you in a fortnight.
Jenn
Some simple Grant's gazelle analysis:
The gazelles were awesome, Evander and Vinnie are total studs (hot young rising stars!), and Arnold and Abdul are the bigwigs. Hermann (the gazelle formerly known as loser) is still a loser, really. Tony Hawk is a bit of an enigma. Zoolander proves everything, so he rules. We observed lots of territorial behavior from all the males, and variable success partially determined by the weather - Zoolander had a fairly barren territory with good visibility but very little vegetation, and we observed him in the same area, alone, several days in a row. Then the grasses all started responding to the rainfall, and Zoolander's territory greened up - little shoots peeping through the bare ground, it was AWESOME. Sure enough, on March 4th we spotted Zoolander with 12 females and 5 bachelor males trying to get in on the action. After about 45 minutes of observation, Zoolander decided to assert himself, and ran the bachelors off of his territory.
It was good to see. The basic idea of Resource Defense Polygyny is that the landscape has variable resource richness, and females wander around in herds (to reduce the risk of predation) from area to area according to where the best food is. Males, in order to maximize their reproductive success, set up a territory on an area that they consider to be good - in this area, about a kilometer across, though territories can be MUCH bigger in different areas. They mark the boundaries with dung piles and by patrolling, and wait for females to wander in. Once the females enter their territory, they defend the territory from the incursions of bachelor males (non-territorial males, travelling in herds for protection) and try to keep the females in their territory so that if one of them comes into estrus they can attempt copulation. It's hard work being a territorial Grant's gazelle.
The other two projects - on dik-dik land use, and parasite levels in different ungulates, were also very interesting. No time to describe them... But let me tell you, dik-dik dung piles are a mystery just begging to be unravelled. As are parasites. How would YOU feel if you had upwards of 2000 parasite eggs per gram of dung?
Back to the campsite, pack pack pack, and then to Sweetwaters! Catch up with you in a fortnight.
Jenn
posted by Jenn at
1:07 PM
2 Comments:
jesu Kristo!
What gave you the idea to go off to africa nd run around with Gazelles?
Sounds like a good one to me....
no gazelles here, lots of Spaniards though.
Tell me, how do you post more then one picture in a blog at a time?
Anyway, glad your seeing stuff. Its good for the spirit, and you will know more about what you want when you get back to the hole.
Peace Love and Respect
OMG!!! I can't believe you cut it all off!!!
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