Oltukai Conservancy

Category: Wildebeest, general wildlife, predators | Date: Apr 04 2008 | By: admin

The Wildebeest (Eastern Race of the White-Bearded Gnu, not to be confused with the Serengeti gnu’s, the Western Race) are normally associated with flat open land areas, and that these animals will therefore do well only in the Northern grassland savanna areas where scattered trees also occur.These Wildebeests prefer an open land of Tarangire-Manyara ecosystems (including OL Tukai village, where The Conservancy is operating).

The social structure consists of a territorial bull with few cows and calves.Such groups may join up with other groups( they are really moving in a hundreds and thousands herds). Normally these are also bachelor herds of young, older bulls and mixed herds. The mating season occurs in April and may, where the gestation period is about nine months, and the Calves are born, during late January and February.The Calves are able to walk ten minutes after birth and join the herds, The Calves hide in the tall grasses for the first week after birth. Later they walk with their mothers. The Wildebeests are actually grazers, in which they can eat up to one third of their weight in a short time.Their food consists almost entirely of grasses, but ocasionally seeds, stalks and leaves.

Lions, Hyenas and Leopards are responsible for predation of Wildebeests. Although it is young, weak and old animals which are mostly attacked/killed by Lions, Hyaenas and Leopards,
Below find the pictures of the Wildebeests while grazing in the open land.
Thank you for your interest on these animals.
Boniface Ngimojino.

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6 responses so far

Category: Wildebeest, general wildlife, predators | Date: Mar 25 2008 | By: admin

Hallo All!

Just received the latest report from the game scouts at Ol Tukai. For the first time in years we have wildebeest breeding again in Ol Tukai. This is a wonderful development and really bodes well for our effort. The scouts got a photo which shows the young wildebeest, its not the clearest image but the animals are there!

We also have more and more predation within the conservancy…now on wildlife as opposed to livestock…which is a great relief and another demonstration of how the land set aside for wildlife is recovering well.

Also we had a lovely herd of Elephants in Ol Tukai last month. They were very nervous and stuck to good cover but the scouts managed to get a decent photo of them…

Thanks again for all the support!

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2 responses so far