Binghamton Zoo Animals

Gunther’s Dik-dik

(Madoqua guntheri)
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Genus: Madoqua
Species: Madoqua guntheri

HABITAT AND RANGE: Gunther’s Dik-dik’s can be found in Northern Uganda, eastwards through Kenya and Ethiopia to Ogaden and Somalia. They prefer semi-arid scrub, and also depend on dense bushy area in which to hide.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: These animals are one of the smallest antelopes measuring about 28 inches in length, plus a short tail. They measure about 14 inches tall at the shoulder and only weigh 8-10 pounds. Males have short pointed horns and are slightly smaller than the hornless females. Dik-diks have large facial glands present and there is a distinctive shock of hair spiked up on the forehead, and their eyes are large. The nose is greatly elongated and can be turned in all directions. The back and flanks are speckled gray, and the forehead and nose are reddish while the under parts are white. The narrow, long, pointed hooves have very small pseudo-claws, which are still visible.

ADAPTATIONS: Gunther’s Dik-diks are more active at night, especially on moonlight nights. They are exclusively monogamous and closely associated. When startled they dash off in a series of erratic, zigzag leaps, uttering a call resembling “zik-zik” or “dik-dik”. The pronounced proboscis is an adaptation for cooling. Venous blood is cooled by evaporation from the mucous membrane into the nasal cavity during normal breathing or under greater heat stress from nasal panting. Dik-diks have an arched-back profile, giving them a crouching appearance. This body shape is well suited for life in the dense cover of their habitats. Females are larger than males. This is because of the burden of having and rearing the young. Only the males mark with their preorbital glands. Pawing, urinating, defecating, and marking in male dik-diks has become so linked in a sequence that right next to each pile of feces a strongly marked grass or twig can be found. The females use these piles of feces too, but without pawing. Sometimes the male will “demand” that she does, then he will paw her feces apart and then places his own excrements on top of them.

DIET: The dik-dik will eat young leaves and buds, fruit roots and tubers, fallen leaves, and green grass. They are able to survive on the moisture from the vegetation they eat, and may go for long periods without drinking.

REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Births may occur at any time during the year but are usually timed to take advantage of new growth, lush vegetation that comes up after rains. After a gestation of 6 months, a single calf is born. It generally lies out in the brush for the first few weeks, with the mother returning to feed. It is fully grown at 12 months, but may be sexually mature at six months.

STATUS IN WILD: Currently dik-diks are not under threat but they are very vulnerable to habitat alteration. Dik-diks are hunted extensively in some areas and their skins are used in the manufacture of gloves. It takes two skins to make one pair of gloves.