Bohor Reedbuck

Fascinating facts about the Bohor Reedbuck

• Males tip the scales at up to 65 kg, about the weight of a small adult human, while females stay under 45 kg. Their bodies stretch 100-135 cm from head to tail, with males standing 75-89 cm at the shoulder and females a bit shorter at 69-76 cm. Only the males grow horns, 25-35 cm long, that curve forward.
• A single calf is born after a seven-and-a-half-month gestation, then hides for up to eight weeks while the mother stays within 20-30 m, protecting it from lions, leopards and hyenas. The newborn nurses for two to four minutes, and by two months it joins its mother grazing, staying with her until weaning at eight to nine months.
• During the dry season, hundreds of bohor reedbucks crowd riverbanks. Male territories expand to 25-60 ha and female ranges 15-40 ha, yet still overlapping. Reckless hunting and habitat loss have driven numbers down despite a total population over 100,000.
• Bohor reedbucks are picky grazers, favoring high-protein, low-fiber grasses like Sporobolus consimilis year-round and switching to species such as Cynodon dactylon in the wet season and Sporobolus pyramidalis in the dry. They can meet water needs from green pasture alone, but still stay close to water sources. This diet flexibility lets them thrive on flood-prone grasslands and even feed on wheat in farmlands, linking them directly to human agriculture.
• When a male spots a rival, it whistles a sharp, vibrating call that makes its whole body quiver, then performs a stotting leap with a white throat patch exposed. Up to three whistles may be followed by a few bounds, serving both as a territorial marker and an alarm to the herd. This acoustic-visual display replaces scent-marking and can involve up to 40 males gathering in a one-hectare arena, highlighting the species' reliance on sound over smell for social coordination.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Bohor Reedbuck

In the sun-drenched grasslands, the Bohor Reedbuck moves with a quiet elegance, its large, dark eyes ever-vigilant for the lurking presence of predators, as it navigates the tall, whispering reeds with a gentle, fluid stride. With its reddish-brown coat glistening in the warm light, this nimble antelope weaves through the dense vegetation, its slender legs carrying it swiftly and silently across the landscape. As it pauses to graze on the lush aquatic plants, its delicate features and graceful demeanor belie a deep-seated resilience, honed from generations of thriving in this challenging, beautiful world.

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