EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Remains of the Kill

Antelopes (probably Impala, Aepyceros melampus, Family Bovidae)
Left:  Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya ... Right: Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Explanation:  Antelope don't climb trees.  But these two somehow surmounted the obstacles with a grisly fate.  

This is open savanna in east Africa, home of wildebeest and zebra, lion and cheetah.  But none of these creatures were the cause of these scenes.

East Africa has been in a drought for a number of years, making food and water tough to come by.  Ungulates such as these unfortunate impala live in a complex ecosystem with many other grazers, big and small.  

Studies have shown that populations of small grazers such as gazelles and impala are regulated more by high grass quality and predators, and large grazers such as African buffalo are regulated more by forage abundance but not predation risk.  

Next week we'll be encountering the reason for finding impalas in trees. 

Information:
     Bhola, N., J. O. Ogutu, H.-P. Piepho, M. Y. Said, R. S. Reid, N. T. Hobbs, and H. Olff. 2012. Comparative changes in density and demography of large herbivores in the Masai Mara Reserve and its surrounding human-dominated pastoral ranches in Kenya. Biodiversity and Conservation 21(6):1509-1530. 
     Hopcraft, J. G. C., T. M. Anderson, S. Pérez-Vila, E. Mayemba, and H. Olff. 2012. Body size and the division of niche space: Food and predation differentially shape the distribution of Serengeti grazers. Journal of Animal Ecology 81(1):201-213.