Hypsodonty and tooth facet development in relation to diet and habitat in herbivorous ungulates: implications for understanding tooth wear

1. The evolution of high-crowned teeth or hypsodonty in herbivorous mammals is widely interpreted as a species specific adaptation to increasingly wear-inducing diets and environments at evolutionary time scales, with internal abrasives (such as phytoliths in grasses) and/or external abrasives (such as dust or grit) as putative causative factors. The mesowear score (MS) instead describes […]

Ramifying effects of the risk of predation on African multi-predator, multiprey large-mammal assemblages and the conservation implications

Impacts of predators on prey populations are incurred not only through mortality inflicted, but also from how the risk of mortality affects the behaviour, spatial distribution and resource access of potential prey species. This risk is governed by exposure to predators and vulnerability following encounters. Behavioural responses to reduce risks have ramifying consequences for habitat […]

Long-term population dynamics of African ungulates in Waterberg Plateau National Park, Namibia

The current study was undertaken to determine long-term population trends (33 years) of ungulate species in the Waterberg National Park (WNP), Namibia, using aerial and waterhole counts of ungulates during the years 1980−2013.We tried to establish how rainfall influences the multi-species population dynamics. During this period sixteen ungulates species were recorded. Among these, eight have […]

Placental morphology in African antelopes and giraffes

Delivered placentas from nineteen antelopes and five giraffes and placentas from five antelopes dead during parturition and eight antelopes dead during advanced pregnancy were morphologically examined. Placental length and weight, arrangement, number and size of cotyledons, and other features were recorded wherever the conditions of placentas permitted. Cotyledon rows corresponded to the caruncle rows on […]

Tick-borne pathogens in the blood of wild and domestic ungulates in South Africa: Interplay of game and livestock

We screened for tick-borne pathogens blood samples from 181 wild and domestic ungulates belonging to 18 host species in 4 South African Provinces. Polymerase chain reaction followed by reverse line blotting and sequencing allowed detecting 16 tick-borne pathogen species belonging to the genera Babesia, Theileria, Anaplasma, and Ehrlichia. Ten pathogen species were involved in 29 […]

Mother-young relationships in captive ungulates: variability and clustering

We recorded four measures of mother-young association and the percentage of time the young spent lying during the first week after birth for 59 mother-young pairs belonging to 22 species and seven families of ungulates. The measures of mother-young association were positively correlated with each other and negatively correlated with the percentage of time the […]

Osteophagia and bone modifications by giraffe and other large ungulates

Ungulates often gnaw on animal bones, antlers, horns, and ivory in order to maintain certain nutritional requirements. The resulting modifications to bones and other skeletal elements have been variously described and reported, but are largely absent from most taphonomic reference works. Previous accounts of such gnawing behaviors have been restricted to smaller ungulates. Here we […]

Season of birth affects juvenile survival of giraffe

Variation in timing of reproduction and subsequent juvenile survival often plays an important role in population dynamics of temperate and boreal ungulates. Tropical ungulates often give birth year round, but survival effects of birth season for tropical ungulate species are unknown. We used a population of giraffe in the Tarangire Ecosystem of northern Tanzania, East […]