Patterns in ears of antelope
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by
jcbrstege
Sometimes I come across photos showing an ear and not much more. All the antelopes seem to have patterns in black and white in their ears. Are these distinct enough to be of any help in classifying?
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dms246
moderator
You know, I've been wondering that too, and wondering if the addition of ear close-ups to the example images (similar to the rump shots for gazelle and impala) might be worthwhile. We'll see what @kosmala says.
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aliburchard
scientist, translator
That's a great question. First, I'll say that if you see any horizontal black ear bands, you're probably looking at a zebra (I've been puzzled by those before). For the brown ears, it's harder. Impala hav ears with black tips -- the black typically extends a bit down the back of the ear as well. Grant's tend to have a tiny bit of darker fringing along the edge of their ear, and tommys seem to have slightly paler ear-backs. Even after several years in Serengeti, I often check out Arkive.org for pictures of a specific body part when in doubt...
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dms246
moderator
in response to aliburchard's comment.
Thank you for the reference to Arkive.org, Ali. I've never come across that website before, but it looks like an invaluable resource! Heh... wish I'd known about it back at the start of the project! 😃
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jcbrstege
If there are good pics of ears could they get a set of buttons like rumps in the menu?
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