EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Tiny Antelope of the African Bush

Kirk's Dik-dik (Madoqua kirkii), Family Bovidae
Masai Mara, Kenya, East Africa

Explanation:  Usually quiet and hiding in patches of African bush is this diminutive Kirk's dik-dik, one of the smaller species of family Bovidae.  

Kirk's is one of four species of dik-diks.  It indeed is a tiny antelope by any measure, weighing in at only 11 pounds (5 kg).  Newborn fawns, in fact, weigh only 1.5 pounds (690 g)!  

So hide it must ... from predators galore that inhabit this northern corner of the Serengeti savannah ... including jackals, eagles, hyenas, wild dogs, leopards, and other big cats.  Their fawns are also preyed upon by baboons and snakes including pythons.  It's not safe out there! 

Kirk's dik-dik males defend their territories of African bush patches.

As tiny as they are, they still play ecological roles in these savannah and woodland ecosystems, by the males concentrating nutrients through their territory-marking communal dung heaps.  

Dik-diks also eat mostly flowers, fruits, and seedpods, and thereby might serve as dispersal agents for some species of plants.  

Kirk's dik-dik is characterized by its tiny horns (in the male), 
very large eyes, white patches around the eyes, a long and flexible nose,
and prominent preorbital scent glands (the dark patch between
the eye and nose).

But they take as well as give.  As African elephants take down umbrella trees (Acacia tortillis) to get at the canopy foliage that contains less thorns, parts of the tree is also eaten by dik-diks.  

Kirk's dik-diks also have a patch of elongated hair on the forehead, and a pelt of gray-brown with more tawny-colored legs and head.

Like dik-diks, other ungulates such as duikers and the suini also take cover and refuge in the interiors of bush patches.
  

Dik-diks can cool themselves by panting through their long nose,
as it provides high surface area for evaporative cooling.  

Information:
     Estes, R. D. 1999. The safari companion: a guide to watching African mammals. Chelsea Green Publishing Co., White River Junction, VT. 459 pp.
     Kingdon, J. 1997. The Kingdon field guide to African mammals. Academic Press, San Diego. 464 pp.
     Stuart, C., and T. Stuart. 1997. Southern, central and east African mammals. A photographic guide. New Holland Publishers Ltd., London. 144 pp.
     Withers, M. B., and D. Hosking. 2000. Wildlife of east Africa. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford. 248 + index pp.