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Dik-dik
Related Category: Vertebrate Zoology
see antelope.
More on Dik-dik
Antelope - name applied to a large number of hoofed, ruminant mammals of the cattle family which also includes the sheep and goats.
Dik-diks thrive in the vegetation that invades disturbed areas such as slash-and-burn agriculture. They depend on dense bushy areas in which to hide. All four Dik-dik species live in dry bush and mixed grass-bush regions of East and Southwest Africa.
Kirk's dik-dik
Taxonomy Madoqua kirkii [Günther, 1880]. Citation: Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1880:17. Type locality: Somalia, Brava.
Click on the pictures above for a larger view of the photographs ...
"Dik-dik" is the eastern African word for the animal, probably derived from the sound it makes.
For example, dik-diks whistle when alarmed, warning other animals of danger as well. This characteristic makes dik-diks less favorable prey for hunters. Generally, though, sight is a much more common form of communication than sound among antelopes.
From all the preceding the tiny dik-diks (Madoqua) of NorthEast Africa differ by their hairy noses, expanded in some species into short trunks; while the widely spread klipspringer, Oreotragus saltator, with its several local races, ...
This animal is the largest of the dwarf antelope, a group that includes royal antelope, dik-diks and klipspringers. It is the only antelope that feeds mainly on grass. The oribi lives in places where the grass is short so it can look out for danger.
Diet: mainly small to medium sized antelope such as impala, duiker, hartebeest, dik-dik, springbok, kudu
Breeding Season: throughout the year
Sexual Maturity: 456 days
Gestation: about 95 days
Number of Offspring: 1-8 ...
Some are very small, such as the dik-dik or the royal antelope in Africa, which is about 25 cm high at the shoulder. The largest is the eland (say ee-land), also found in Africa, standing at about 1.
In Namibia, cheetahs have been seen preying on dik-dik, steenbok, scrub hares, duiker, kudu, oryx and hartebeest. There is a healthy prey population on Namibian farmlands to sustain cheetahs and other large carnivores.
When startled they will take off in a zig-zag path of escape, calling 'zik-zik' or 'dik-dik', which is where they get their name.
This inflatable, humped, and movable nose looks very similar to the noses of tapirs or dik-diks, and makes the head look unusually large, and bulging.
Subfamily Antilopinae (antelopes, dik-diks, gazelles, and relatives)
Genus Ammodorcas (dibatag)
Genus Antidorcas (springbok) ...
The male's advertisement call is a rapid, long-continued series of raspy notes reminding one of the sound made by a riveting machine, or else someone tapping wildly at a telegraph key: "dik-dik-dikadikadikadickadicka.
Some antelopes include the gazelle, eland, impala, springbok, klipspringer, oryx, saiga, waterbuck, suni, hartebeests, topi, nyala, bongo, dik-dik, kob, duiker, gemsbok, etc. They are hunted by lions, leopards, wild dogs, and other predators.
Later biologists recognized that they were not closely related to shrews and variously classified them with rabbits, primates, and ungulates (hoofed mammals). In fact, they look like miniature versions of duikers or dik-diks, ...
 See also: Antelope, Gazelle, Duiker, Sheep, Impala
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