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Ron Fredrick | all galleries >> Africa - 2017 >> African Mammals > Blue Wildebeest
(Connochaetes taurinus)
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27-MAY-2017 Ron Fredrick

Blue Wildebeest
(Connochaetes taurinus)

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

It wasn't at all uncommon to see lone wildebeests running for no apparent reason_as in this case.




From Wikipedia: The wildebeests, also called gnus, are a genus of antelopes, scientific name Connochaetes.
They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep and other even-toed
horned ungulates. Connochaetes includes two species, both native to Africa: the black wildebeest,
or white-tailed gnu (C. gnou); and the blue wildebeest, or brindled gnu (C. taurinus). Fossil records
suggest these two species diverged about one million years ago, resulting in a northern and a
southern species. The blue wildebeest remained in its original range and changed very little from
the ancestral species, while the black wildebeest changed more in order to adapt to its open
grassland habitat in the south. The most obvious way of telling the two species apart are the
differences in their colouring and in the way their horns are oriented.


In East Africa, the blue wildebeest is the most abundant big game species; some populations perform
an annual migration to new grazing grounds
, but the black wildebeest is merely nomadic. Breeding in
both takes place over a short period of time at the end of the rainy season and the calves are soon active
and are able to move with the herd. Nevertheless, some fall prey to large carnivores. Wildebeest often
graze in mixed herds with zebra which gives heightened awareness of potential predators.
They are also
alert to the warning signals emitted by other animals such as baboons. Wildebeest are a tourist attraction
but compete with domesticated livestock for pasture and are sometimes blamed by farmers for transferring
diseases and parasites to their cattle. Some illegal hunting goes on but the population trend is fairly stable
and some populations are in national parks or on private land.




AB2A0259-1W.jpg

Canon EOS 7D Mark II ,Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II USM
1/640s f/11.0 at 286.0mm iso640 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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