How do Gerenuks adapt to their environment?
They are diurnal, active during the day, when predators are easier to spot. Their coloring provides camouflage allowing them to freeze and hide in bushes, using their long necks to watch predators; hiding behavior is important because they are not fast runners. ‘
Do Gerenuks drink water?
This unique-looking antelope, called a gerenuk can survive its entire life without ever taking a drink of water. Instead, the gerenuk derives water from the foliage that it eats. To better reach this foliage it has evolved a long, slender neck upon which is perched a disproportionately small head.
Why do Gerenuks have long necks?
Gerenuk Diet They are herbivores and use their long necks to reach up for high growing plants, sometimes as high as 6 – 8 feet. They are able to stand on their hind legs to feed, using their forelegs to pull down branches of trees. This is quite different from other antelopes who tend to be more ground eaters.
How fast can Gerenuks run?
Gerenuks also run or gallop toward a place of safety. Although these antelopes are not particularly fast, reaching speeds of only about 35 miles per hour, they are difficult to chase because they dart in, around, and between the bushes and trees. Males are solitary and very territorial.
How many gerenuks are there?
Although approximately 80 different species of plants make up their diet; including tender leaves and shoots of prickly bushes along with a nutritious mix of buds, flowers, fruit, and climbing plants.
What are the gerenuks predators?
The gerenuk does not drink water regularly. Major predators of the antelope include African wild dogs, cheetahs, hyenas, lions and leopards.
How many Gerenuks are there?
What are the Gerenuks predators?
Where are gerenuks found?
East Africa
Gerenuks make their home on the dry savannahs of East Africa. One of the most desert-adapted antelopes, gerenuks are able to survive for long periods without water. The males with their lyre-shaped horns are usually found overseeing small herds of females and their calves.
Are gerenuks endangered?
Near Threatened (Population decreasing)Gerenuk / Conservation status