Chimp & See Talk

Why so many types of duiker?

  • kosmala by kosmala

    I was just wondering why you're so interested in splitting out the duiker species and then lumping all the other ungulates into "large" and "small" groups. (And, as a note, I'm finding it hard to distinguish duikers because the videos are often black-and-white, whereas the Field Guide gives the coat color as the main method of distinguishing between them.)

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  • DZM by DZM admin

    My guess is because the zebra duiker and Jentik's duiker are extremely rare endangered species, and finding one would be an important indicator for conservation? A good question!

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Hi @kosmala! Great question! In an ideal world we would have you guys identify every type of duiker and antelope, but that isn't really possible, so we tried to find a way to keep it easy for you while also being informative for us. Zebra and Jentik's duikers are pretty easy to tell apart from all other duikers and antelopes thanks to their distinctive markings. Small dark duikers are fairly easy to tell from the medium sized red ones (I know this is harder at night!) and larger ones (which can be red or dark). The antelopes are pretty hard to tease apart by non-experts so we felt we better lump them together into just two categories. I know the night video makes things more difficult but just do your best and try not to get discouraged 😃 Thanks so much for your help!

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  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    Hi @MimiA , I'm facing the same problems with the duikers. At night it's nearly impossible to tell whether it is a small grey or a red duiker without having a reference. A comparison chart of the three groups (small grey, red and big) with pictures at night and day would be very helpful. 😃 If this is too much work you might give us a more elaborate description (size, behaviour etc.) in the field guide. Thanks a lot!

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  • Quia by Quia moderator

    This is why we love talk 😃 It's great for assembling giant collections of examples.

    Collections of various hashtaged animals: http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP0000007/discussions/DCP00000as

    A conversation about IDing a specific species of 'red duiker,' with a ton more examples http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP000000d/discussions/DCP00000bs

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Thanks @Quia and I hope that helps @Boleyn

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