Relationships between male giraffes’ colour, age and sociability
In species in which males signal competitive ability through secondary sexual traits, males with different levels of trait expression may adopt different reproductive tactics to maximize their reproductive success. In fission-fusion social systems, the most dominant males often roam widely in search of females in oestrus, and thus exhibit different patterns of sociability from subordinate […]
Darkening coat colour reveals life history and life expectancy of male Thornicroft’s giraffes
Much of the information available about the life history of the giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, is derived from captive studies or short-term field studies. The coat colour of male giraffes, especially the blotches, darkens with age, but no studies have systematically mapped the colour transition with chronological age based on long-term data. We examine the value […]