Posts tagged as:

antelope

Japan Benefit: ニホンカモシカ (Japanese Serow) (Capricornis crispus)

by JR Kinyak on March 27, 2011

in Mammalthons,Ungulates

Today begins our week-long Mammalthon to benefit Japan. As I’m sure you know, Japan was hit by a major earthquake and tsunami earlier this month. Tens of thousands of people have died, and hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. The Daily Mammal would like to do something to help in some small way.

Both of today’s drawings have sold, but all week, Coco and I will be posting drawings of Japanese mammals. You can buy the original drawings and 100 percent of the purchase price will go to benefit victims of the Japanese earthquakes: half to the American Red Cross and half to Animal Refuge Kansai, a Japanese organization that’s rescuing pets who lost their homes in the earthquakes and tsunamis.

You can buy just a drawing—mine are $50 and Coco’s are $25—or get it matted for $10 more. We’ll cover the shipping, and we’ll send them all out at the end of the week. Please note that if you want a matted drawing, you’ll have to wait an extra week or so because while I’ve ordered mats, I don’t have them yet.

Click the “Donate” button at the bottom of this post if you’d just like to donate to our fund without buying a drawing.

Japanese serow (click image to enlarge)

0369

Today’s mammal is the Japanese serow, a goat-antelope that is endemic to the mountains of Japan. It’s particularly widespread on the islands of Honshu and Shikoku. The IUCN says it’s a species of least concern. As I’ve been researching and drawing these wild mammals, I’ve been wondering about how they’ve been affected by the earthquakes. I don’t think anyone’s had the time to find out yet. Here’s Coco’s drawing of the serow:

Japanese serow by Coco, age 12 (click image to enlarge)

Japan designates certain places, minerals, plants, and animals as natural monuments deserving of recognition under the country’s laws that protect cultural properties. There are about 1,000 so designated natural monuments, and 75 of them are further classified as special natural monuments. The Japanese serow was named a special natural monument in the 1950s. At least one of the other species we’ll be meeting this week also has this prestigious designation.

Tagged as: antelope, coco, goat, japan

{ 2 comments }

Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra)

by JR Kinyak on March 11, 2011

in Ungulates

Blackbuck (click image to enlarge)

0361

I do love seeing that mammal counter inching toward 365! Say good afternoon to the blackbuck, an antelope native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, but now extinct everywhere but India—and Argentina, Australia, and Texas, where it has been introduced. I’ll try to tell you what I’ve learned about the blackbuck roughly in the order of my learning about it:

1. According to the IUCN, there are some 50,000 blackbuck remaining in India, an increase from 22–24,000 in the 1970s. But there are at least 35,000 in Texas. As far as I can tell, those are all on game ranches, for “an exotic hunt would not be complete without a Black Buck Antelope,” according to the website of one of the ranches. I think the blackbuck in Australia are also confined to ranches, but there may be a feral population in Argentina.

2. Blackbuck are protected as endangered species in India, but they are still poached. In fact, Salman Khan, the star of one of my favorite Bollywood movies, was sentenced to five years in prison for poaching blackbuck (in addition to another protected species, the chinkara, I think—some of the news accounts are a little obscure on this) in 2007. IMDB says that Salman Khan is known as “Bollywood’s Bad Boy” and “Controversial Khan.” His court case continues, apparently. An Indian cricket star named Mansoor Ali Khan was also sentenced to prison time, in 2005, for poaching blackbuck.

3. In Living Mammals of the World, Ivan T. Sanderson writes: “Blackbuck have been the target of sportsmen, real and otherwise, since time immemorial and have been hunted with everything from Cheetahs to machine-guns—until this last revolting practice was summarily stopped.” My first reaction to that was “You can hunt with cheetahs?” Sure enough. I found the below video on YouTube. It purports to be from 1939, but it looks more 1950s to me, and the voice sounds quite contemporary, but wherever it’s from, it does show people using cheetahs to hunt blackbuck.

Coco also drew a blackbuck. It’s so hard to draw a straight-on portrait of an antelope because of the foreshortening of the nose and the way the eyes bulge out, but she completely nailed it. Here it is:

Blackbuck by Coco, age 12

Tagged as: antelope, coco, humans, ivan, threats

{ 4 comments }

Mating Week: Klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus)

by JR Kinyak on March 1, 2011

in Theme Weeks,Ungulates

Klipspringer

Klipspringer (click image to enlarge)


0352

The klipspringer is a little-bitty antelope that lives in eastern and southern Africa on rocky cliffs. I originally picked it for my planned Mammal Mating theme week because it is a rare example of a monogamous mammal. (Most birds are monogamous; most mammals are not.) And what’s interesting is why it’s monogamous. And I also find it interesting that we humans—just apes, really—are able to reason out why other animals do things by analyzing their behavior and habitats and things like that.

Klipspringers are monogamous because monogamy gives them their best chance at avoiding predators. Most small mammals avoid predators by what’s called crypsis—either camouflaging themselves or hiding—or by running away. Klipspringers avoid predators by climbing up onto clifftops where it’s hard for predators to get and where the klipspringers can watch for trouble. But their food is at the base of the cliffs, and if your head is down and you’re eating, it’s easy for a lion to sneak up on you.

So klipspringers pair off—one male and one female—and take turns being lookout while the other eats. The female has to eat more, and also has to bear the children, so the male spends more time and energy watching for predators. The male’s increased alertness allows the female to be more relaxed and concentrate on reproduction and raising her babies. It’s also the male’s job to make sure the female never gets too far away—usually within five meters. She just munches along, knowing that he’ll keep track of her and let her know if trouble is near. (This is also more or less why I got married.)

It makes sense that a pair is the best size group for this. A male with a harem herd would have trouble keeping track of so many gals, and a large herd of males and females wouldn’t be able to so easily get up on the cliffs and away from danger. And a pair of females would both have to eat more to support reproduction and baby-raising, so neither of them could concentrate on guarding.

Tagged as: antelope, mating

{ 2 comments }

World Cup: The Rest of Group D

by JR Kinyak on June 28, 2010

in Bats,Marsupials,Theme Weeks,Ungulates

Topi (click image to enlarge)

0325

Because I missed a few days and because if I don’t step on the gas the World Cup will end before the World Cup of Mammals does, tonight I’m posting the final three mammals of Group D (the other being Serbia’s marbled polecat from the other day). This first one is the topi (Damaliscus korrigum), an antelope representing Ghana. Ghana was the only African nation to make it to the Round of 16, in which they beat the USA. Ghana plays Uruguay in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Bechstein

0326

Die Bechsteinfledermaus (Myotis bechsteinii), of course, represents Germany and is known as Bechstein’s bat in English. It was named after a German naturalist named Johann Matthäus Bechstein. Germany beat England in the Round of 16 and is going up against Argentina in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Long-nosed bandicoot (click image to enlarge)

0327

We must have a marsupial to represent Australia, and the long-nosed bandicoot (Perameles nasuta) has volunteered for the task. This bandicoot lives only in western Australia, and right now it’s widespread, but the rate at which its population is declining is a bit disturbing. Australia didn’t make it out of the group stage in the World Cup.

Group D Results

We read about how the marbled polecat is a virtuoso of killing, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it should win this group. Of the others, I think the topi has the edge because of its size and the hardness of its hooves. So the two mammals continuing on from Group D are:

Marbled Polecat (Serbia)
and
Topi (Ghana)

Tagged as: antelope, bat, World Cup

{ 4 comments }

Gemsbok (Oryx gazella)

by JR Kinyak on September 12, 2009

in Ungulates

Gemsbok (click image to enlarge)

Gemsbok (click image to enlarge)


0285

At long last, an update for the Daily Mammal. For those who hadn’t heard, about a month ago my husband and I adopted two kids, a 13-year-old and a 10-year-old. It’s going wonderfully—we love them so much—but becoming a mother to two half-grown humans all of the sudden has definitely changed my world, and it’s taking some time for me to get it all reorganized. I’ve actually finished 7 mammal drawings, but I haven’t done the research or writing on them. I’m going to start posting them now, trying, as always, for daily posting, and, also as always, probably falling short.

The gemsbok is a large antelope in the oryx genus. It lives in southern Africa and, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know, is not really in any danger of extinction. In fact, its numbers are increasing in some places. While there was a time when the gemsbok’s range was constricted by human encroachment and development, the animal’s value as a trophy for hunters means it’s not likely to die out on private land anytime soon. Plenty of gemsboks are thriving in protected areas, too.

Here’s a video of a mother gemsbok defending her calf from a pair of hungry cheetahs.

Tagged as: antelope, oryx

{ 3 comments }

Scientific Names Week: Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus)

by JR Kinyak on May 3, 2009

in Theme Weeks,Ungulates

Nilgai (click image to enlarge)

Nilgai (click image to enlarge)


0254

The nilgai is an antelope that lives in India and parts of Nepal and Pakistan. For an antelope, it has a weird scientific name: Boselaphus tragocamelus means ox-deer-goat-camel. Perhaps they just really didn’t know and wanted to hedge their bets. The word nilgai comes from a Hindi word meaning “blue bull.” (The male nilgai’s bluish gray hide reminds me of grulla, my favorite color in Ben K. Green’s The Color of Horses. When I was a kid, my dad and I enjoyed looking at that book at B. Dalton or Waldenbooks while my mom and sister were shopping elsewhere in the mall.)

Some 35,000 feral nilgai roam ranchland in Texas. In the 1930s, the King Ranch decided to experiment with breeding the hardy antelope in tough Texas as an alternative source of meat. That didn’t really take off. Now, the Texas nilgai are handy targets for trophy hunters.

Tagged as: antelope, books, horse, humans, names

{ 2 comments }

Common Eland (Taurotragus oryx)

by JR Kinyak on June 21, 2008

in Ungulates

Take this mammal home with you! Buy the original drawing!

click image to enlarge

0178

Elands (of which there are two species, this one and the giant eland, which isn’t actually any more giant than this one, although this one is a bit more common than the giant one) are huge antelopes that live in Africa. Because they have very nutritious milk and decent meat and useful hides, people have tried, with varying success, to domesticate them as ranch animals. Overhunting is a threat to the eland, but it’s not in dire straits just yet.

Consecutive days of mammals: 1
Previous record: 16

Tagged as: antelope, humans, threats

{ 0 comments }

← Previous Entries