Snapshot Serengeti Talk

Young wildebeest?

  • Lewa263 by Lewa263

    Multiple times I have seen a wildebeest which is pretty close to full size and no longer tan-colored, but has horns that are still sticking almost straight up. Should I be marking those as young wildebeest or not?

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  • AowlanCrystal by AowlanCrystal moderator

    Depends on how close to full size they are, I usually go on if they still have some baby colouring left in the case of wildebeest, how much of the mane do they have, compaired to an adult, sometimes its a close call and possibly sometimes I've picked ' young present' and othertimes haven't, I think it depends on each picture and if you feel they have enough elements to be still classed as youngster, or if they have reached young adult.

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  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator

    The Scientists would need to decide what they consider young. Wildebeest reach full size at 2-3yrs, and during their first yr their horns grow from nothing to straight spikes to "parentheses"

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  • sisige by sisige

    Is there a guide to the characteristics of 'young' animals of the different species? It would be helpful to know of any definitive characteristics that tell you an animal is young, beyond very obvious size differences. Thanks!

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  • AowlanCrystal by AowlanCrystal moderator

    I think what Davidbygott is possibly suggesting (please correct me if I'm wrong), that if there is a chance we think a wildebeest might still be classed as being in the young bracket, its possibly therefore better to check the 'young present' box and then when the scientists come to look at the pictures and look at those we have suggested have young in them, they will decide if they too would class them as young still or not.

    But of course they will also be looking at the other Classified as 'wildebeest' or having wildebeest in a mixed species capture photo, that haven't been checked with 'young present', just incase we have missed some that are still in the young category, and correcting that error on our part.

    I suppose in future, if someone, was interested in if the dates changed, year to year, as to when the wildebeest calved, then this could be found out, with this information, by looking at the 'young present' images and I assume the dates will be kept with the data, so someone could see if the climate changing has any impact, if an early/late rainy season or dry season caused later or earlier mating that year, so calving was later or earlier, or if it was pretty much uniform each year. also could be told, if the Wildebeest always reached a certain (camera trap) area to calf, or if they calf in different areas, depending on the weather/grass growth and so on, when you really think, how much data these pictures can and could create/provide for alsorts of scienists, it really is truely an amazing project.

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  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator in response to AowlanCrystal's comment.

    Very astute comment! I agree.

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  • mistyfriday by mistyfriday

    I wish in the photos to aid us in identifying animals there were 4 views: 1. from the front; 2. from the side; 3. from the rear. showing tails; 4. a photo of a young animal since they can look so much different from an adult. The horns can be so different in a young animal and an adult. It took me quite a while to figure that one out.

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