Family: Bovidae.
Status: No special status.
Size: 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16 inches) at the
shoulder; weight 3 to 5 kg (7 to 11 pounds).
Diet: Herbivore.
Characteristics: Shy.
Area: Africa.
Offspring: One fawn, twice per year.
Predators: Hyena, leopard, lion, cheetah, caracal, jackal, baboon, eagle and python.
· Unlike deer, dik-diks grow permanent horns, not antlers.
· Dik-diks are extremely fast runners, reaching speeds of up to 42 km per hour.
· They have excellent eyesight.
·
These tiny antelopes are the size of a large
jackrabbit.
These small, delicate-looking antelopes have soft gray or brown coats with white bellies. The males have short, ringed horns while the females have none. They have long necks, small heads and large ears and eyes. A distinguishing feature of Guenther’s dik-dik is the elongated snout. They live in groups of three animals—a mother, father and a baby. They’re shy and skitterish animals whose first reaction to an intrusion is to freeze and assess the situation. They may then run for cover if a predator is approaching. Another reaction the dik-dik may have is to bounce and then whistle as they land. The whistle sounds like “dik-dik” or “zik-zik,” and is the reason for their name. Dik-diks know their territory well and also may try to hide from a predator, crouching flat on the ground. They obtain enough moisture from plant juices and dew to be able to survive without drinking water. They feed on leaves and flowers, stems, fruit, seeds, grasses, acacias and other shrubs. They’re hunted for their leather, which is sold as gazelle leather and made into gloves. Two dik-dik hides are needed for one pair of gloves.
Dik-diks live in east Africa, in selected areas of Somalia, the eastern and southern Ethiopian lowlands, northern and eastern Kenya, northeastern Uganda and southeastern Sudan. They can usually be found in grassland or woodland, wherever there is enough vegetation to provide them with cover to escape predators, but not too dense, so as to hide the presence of predators from them or allow them to creep up unexpectedly. They’re territorial animals, and mark their boundaries by rubbing branches with a sticky black secretion from a black spot found at the corner of their eyes. The male also urinates, and rubs his horns on tree trunks to mark the territory. The male alone defends the territory.
Females generally give birth twice per year, and the pregnancy lasts six months, which means that most females are perpetually pregnant, even while they’re nursing their current fawn. Fawns begin to eat solid food at one week, but continue to nurse as well until they’re three to four months of age. The father takes part in raising the fawn, including grooming the youngster. Fawns are identical to adult dik-diks at birth, with horns beginning to appear at seven to nine weeks. They reach full adult size by one year and the horns are fully grown at two years. When a dik-dik is between six and seven months, the parents shoo it away so it can find a mate and establish its own territory. The lifespan of a dik-dik in the wild is ten years or more.