I usually post a lot of pictures of the Big Five and of carnivores. This week I will focus of the herbivores which are great photographic subjects, often ignored on game drives.
Impalas are the most common antelope on Thanda Safari. They always look immaculate because they practice allo-grooming. This means that they groom each other with their special comb like teeth in places they cannot reach themselves.
Male and female look very similar except that the males are larger and have horns. We are currently in the rutting season when males fight for their mating rights. During that time they also make incredible loud grunting noises to get ride of rivals and – I assume 😊 – to attract the ladies.
Theses medium-sized antelopes are found in eastern and southern Africa.
One of the reasons why they usually look so immaculate is because they have a special dental arrangement on the front lower jaw similar to the tooth-comb. This is used for what is called allogrooming. Individuals are ‘combing’ one another’s fur on the head and the neck to remove parasites.
Have you ever wondered why Impalas usually look so immaculately groomed?
The answer is allogrooming (grooming one another with specially designed teeth). Impalas appear to be the only ungulates to display self-grooming as well as allogrooming.
I took this picture of a group of recently born and very cute Impala fawns during this afternoon game drive.
Green everywhere! I had almost forgotten how beautiful Thanda looks when it turns green after some decent rain falls. Since the start of this rainy season we had over 150 mm rain and in just a few days the reserve has turned from brown&grey to green.
Even the behavior of many animals has changed almost over night. Where during the drought they had to spent most of their day to find food and water, they now have extra time to chase one another and be just idle once in a while.