We know that herbivores get eaten by predators. But sometimes, rarely, animals die without any obvious cause of death. While measuring grass one day, my guard Barnaba and I found this dead male Grant's gazelle. Only a small part of its abdomen had been opened up (seemingly by a bird, as there were no bite marks like from a jackal or other mammal) and the rest was still untouched. We couldn't find any visible wounds like from a fight with another male Grant's. Sometimes they do stab each other with their horns, and this can be fatal-- but there were no apparent stab marks. So we left it be. The next night I went back and this time only the skeleton was left. Most of the meat had been eaten by scavengers and there was a jackal just chewing on the last of the scraps.
A few days later, near that same spot, I also found two male cheetahs. For some reason, predator sightings have been very scarce this trip. This is only my second sighting of cheetahs in over 6 weeks. And I think these are the same two males I saw the first time. I watched them cross the road through the bush, then eventually settle down under a tree for a nap. Their bellies looked full-- like they had already eaten sometime last night or that morning-- so they weren't too interested in chasing anything. But the zebra and gazelle nearby sure took notice of their presence and moved away. So I had to move on too, to find a different group of grazers to do a focal sample on.
And a final sighting for this post-- this big black rhino hanging around one of my study sites with a second horn bigger than his first! Poaching is still a major problem-- there was even an attempt just the other night. So this guy better keep hidden. Some people would love to have his horns. But I think they look better on a live animal than ground up as fake medecine...
No comments:
Post a Comment