I just saw a capture of two small grey duikers, one following close behind the other. The second one was trying to sniff the hind end of the first, which one of the moderators on Snapshot Serengeti said was mating behavior ( Thomsons gazelles, as I remember) and the male sniffs the female to find out is she is receptive. In this case, unlike the other, I saw no sign of female receptivity such as urination, but I'm assuming the first one was female and the second one male.
But he was following her very closely, and she would jump and seem to twitch and hop forward. this happened about 3 times during the time they were visible. Once, I clearly saw what looked like an attempt to bite her on the rear.
Is this mating behavior? Aggression? Something else?
Unfortunately I can't give you the number or other info about this capture because while I was annotating I was suddenly bumped to the main Zooniverse home page and couldn't get back to that capture. I've reported that on the Help/technical board.
Hi @Shiphrah!
I can´t tell you for sure without watching the video, but you think that they were male and female...in this case, duikers in general are solitary animals or female + 1 lamb; male and female only come together for mating purposes.
One thing that could help too is to have a look at the date: lambs are born at any time of the year, but possibly with a peack in sommer...they have a gestation period of three months (or more! up to 7), which means that if the video was taken, let´s say in April, she was likely to be receptive.
On the other hand, if it was an aggression behaviour, they would be two males or two females...duikers are territorial chasing away others only of the same sex.
Thanks for your response @NuriaM ! I gather from your answer was that the behavior I saw is not a very common.
I hadn't checked the date when I lost the capture, so can't say. The two seemed just about the same size. The idea that it was a female being followed by a male is conjecture. It wasn't a fight. Each time the second one's snout got very close to the rear of the first, close enough to touch, the first gave a little jump or twitch, then hurried on. One time it definitely looked like an attempt to bite but could have been a lick; the second one's mouth was definitely open towards the first one's rear. I didn't see a tongue but might have missed it.
Oh, well, I suppose I should just forget it. Others will see that capture so the data won't be lost. Thanks again for your reply!
by
Shiphrah
by
NuriaM
scientist, moderator