AboutJonathan Wright Expertise I can answer questions about wild mammals, as well as other wild animals. I can also answer questions on extinct animals and zoos.
PLEASE DON'T SEND ME ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT PETS. IF YOU ARE REALLY WORRIED, YOU SHOULD CONTACT A VETERINARIAN. PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME THAT UNPAID PEOPLE ON ALLEXPERTS ARE AVAILABLE 24 HOURS A DAY AND WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH ADVICE THE MOMENT YOUR ANIMAL GETS ILL. Find out how to look after a pet before you get it. It is unfair to keep an animal in inappropriate conditions and give it the wrong food. If you can't keep an animal in good conditions, please don't bring it into your home. I'm not a vet and I don't have any expertise in animal medicine and care. I don't agree with people taking animals out of the wild and then expecting other people to give free advice on how to look after them. It is cruel to take animals away from their parents, who are able to look after the babies and may look for them, while putting their other babies at risk. You may need a licence to look after some animals. You may be breaking the law by keeping wild animals; please check with a local wildlife organisation.
IF YOU FIND AN INJURED ANIMAL, PLEASE CONTACT A WILDLIFE VETERINARIAN OR CHARITY AND LET TRAINED STAFF LOOK AFTER THE ANIMAL. DO NOT TRY TO LOOK AFTER AN INJURED ANIMAL IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
Please do not remove eggs from nests. The mother birds will know the right temperature for the eggs and will not sit on them if the temperature is warm enough for them to develop naturally. It is illegal to remove eggs of some species and, unless you have an incubator or a broody hen, the egg may not develop. If you are allowed to touch the eggs, you can candle them (check details on websites) to see if the eggs are fertile. If the eggs are not fertile, they will not hatch.
I do not agree with fights between different animals. Please do not ask me questions about them.
Experience I have a zoology degree and have been interested in animals since I was two years old. I am a zoo volunteer at London Zoo. I have appeared on a BBC Radio Quiz, 'Wildbrain'.
Organizations World Wide Fund for Nature. Zoological Society of London. London Bat Group.
Publications Newsletters of London Zoo volunteers and the London Bat Group
Education/Credentials BSC degree in Zoology. 'A' levels in Zoology and Chemistry. 'O' Level in Biology.
Question I am thinking of visiting Uganda in the not-too-distant future, and would like to do some birdwatching and wildlife watching. What is a COB, as in Ugandan Cob? Why is this different from antelope or deer?
Answer Dear Jim
Thanks for your question.
The Uganda kob is a type of antelope. Basically speaking, the word 'antelope' is used for the more graceful members of the hollow-horned even-toed hoofed mammals, to distinguish them from goats, sheep and cattle. Antelopes are divided into several tribes and subfamilies, with some being more closely related to goats or cattle than they are to other antelopes. Hollow-horned even-toed hoofed mammals have hollow horns covering a bony outgrowth from the skull and do not shed their horns. Deer do not have hollow horns. Most male deer have antlers, which are usually branched and are shed once a year, but are regrown in time for the breeding season.
Basically, Uganda kobs differ from most other antelopes because of their habit of breeding in areas called leks. I have given details about leks below.
The Uganda kob (Kobus kob thomasi) lives in Uganda to the south of Lake Victoria. Kobs range in moist savannah zones across sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal and the Gambia to western Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia. They are numerous in western Uganda, but is far less common now in other areas of East Africa. It was once found in western Kenya and northern Tanzania but has not been seen there in recent years. The Uganda kob is ecologically restricted, preferring open low-lying, flat grassy plains or gently rolling hill country, including lightly wooded savannah, floodplains and the margins of adjacent woodlands. Kob are usually found near permanent water sources. It prefers country free of seasonal extremes.
The kob is similar in appearance to the impala, but the two species are not related. It is a graceful, sturdily built, medium-sized antelope. The Ugandan kob generally has a short, reddish-brown coat, but other subspecies range from light brown to almost black. The underside of the body is white, a white ring appears around each eye (unlike Kobus kobus kob), and a white patch or chevron appears on the throat; a black stripe runs down the front of each foreleg. The sexes look similar, but the male is robust and thick-necked and has lyre-shaped horns, which are thick and have transverse corrugations or rings almost to the tips, where they turn. The horns have a S-shaped curve when seen from the side and are about 44 cm long. The females are more slender and graceful. The kob is 120-180 cm long with a 10-40 cm tail. The male is 90-100 cm high at the shoulder, the female is 82-92 cm. The kob weighs about 77-120 kg.
Kobs are mostly active in the morning and evening hours. They may migrate to graze along watercourses. One population in southeast traveled 150-200 km in the dry season. Populations may reach great densitites (1000 kob/sq km) during these migrations.
Kobs usually live in single sex herds of 20-40, up to 100 and often occur at high densities. There are no discrete social units or stable assimilations in either sex, but it seems that herds are oriented around traditional breeding grounds. Herds of of 30-50 females and their young sons (under 8 months old) are sedentary over much of the year, but may vary greatly in size over short time periods. Females occupy large, overlapping home ranges, apparently moving in response to food availability. During prolonged dry seasons and drought, they congregate with males in very large numbers wherever green grass is still available. The social structure is based on small herds that come together into larger groups of up to 1,000 animals during the rainy season. These large groups will contain 30 to 40 breeding males that hold territories. Breeding only occurs within areas controlled by an individual territorial male. But the kob, unlike other antelopes, has taken the system a step further by establishing permanent breeding grounds, some of which are used for at least 50 years.
Males' movements are more restricted than those of females and they commonly remain close to lek areas, but there may also be herds of non-breeding males. Populations vary widely in density, with 8-124 kobs per square km in suitable habitat. This variation in density affects male mating strategies. Males may move in herds, have single territories, or defend lek territories. Higher populations favour lek mating, but kobs on the Ivory Coast have low popualtion densities and do not lek. The lek mating system may have evolved in areas where males cannot defend the widely-dispersed food resources or the dynamic and temporary female herds.
Kob usually have a lek mating system, where males defend small closely spaced territories (leks) clustered on traditional mating grounds. Lekking grounds are roughly circular areas, 9-100 metres in diameter and usually located on a knoll or elevated area near water. Within a lek, 20-200 males defend territories 15-200 meters in diameter. Male territories are smallest and most highly-contested in the center of the lek, where most matings occur. These territories maintain their popularity among females despite rapid male turnover, with different males occupying these areas throughout the year. In areas of lower population density, males are spaced farther apart and hold their territories for longer periods of time.
In western Uganda, the traditional breeding grounds contain 10-20 males in closely packed central territories of 15-35 metres in diameter, surrounded by a similar number of slightly larger and more widely spaced peripheral territories. The whole traditional breeding ground is usually 200-400 metres in diameter and situated on smooth, slightly raised ground, which is trampled and grazed short.
Each lek is associated with a female herd of about 100 individuals. Females move freely over the general area during the year, but when they are in heat they go directly to the breeding grounds or leks to mate. Larger numbers of females associate with larger leks, possibly because females stay on the lek longer when more males and other females are present. The females seem to seek out three or four of the innermost territories, where activity is intense. The females seem to be attracted by the concentrated deposits of hormone-rich urine that attracts them, rather than a specific male.
The holder of a territory is constantly being challenged. When females enter an innermost territory, this triggers off a chain reaction of clashes and ritualised displays between males. Two males will interlock their horns to dispute dominance. If a male loses his territory, through a fight or by leaving it to graze or drink, he joins a bachelor herd of males. When he recovers his strength, he will try to regain his territory. The kob seldom holds his territory for more than a week, and often loses his territory within a day.
Other aspects of the social organization resemble to those of other medium-sized antelopes, where there are also territorial males, free-roaming herds of females with their young and herds of bachelor males. If dry season forces a move, kobs may dispense with this system and adopt one where males and females assemble and move as one large body.
Kob are herbivorous. They eat grasses and reeds, and may migrate great distances to graze along watercourses. They usually feed in the morning and at dusk. They enter water during the day and feed on water plants. Kobs often associate with larger animals such as hippos, buffalos, topis and hartebeests. These animals help keep the grass short, as the kob prefers to feed on shorter grass than does the waterbuck. During the rainy season, large concentrations of kobs keep grasses short and in good grazing condition for continuous cropping. In the dry season, patches of green grass may attract kobs from long distances, leading to the formation of large assemblages. Like reedbucks and waterbucks, kobs develop attachments to particular localities, returning to the same grazing areas and watering places day after day, season after season.
Females prefer high-visibility mating sites with short grasses and few thickets, perhaps to avoid lion predation. The pre- and postmating behavior of kobs differs from that of other antelopes. The male is not as rough with the female and does not attempt to force her to stay within his territory. Instead, he seems to convince her gently. He makes soft noises during courtship play, repeatedly whistling through his nostrils after mating. The sound carries across the breeding grounds and may be echoed by the other territorial males. The male holds his head high when approaching a female. The female mates soon after giving birth, so two births may occur in a year. Males provide no parental care.
The single newborn is born after 8-9 months; in the boma population of Uganda this occurs at the end of the rains, in November-December. The calf is suckled for 6 to 7 months and is half the adult size when weaned. Young males begin to grow their horns at 5 months, and by 1 year the horns are about as long as the ears. Kobs become sexually mature between 13 and 14 months. Females begin to mate at the age of one, but males must normally wait for a few years. A male will not be active in the breeding grounds until he is 3 or 4 years old, when he has become strong enough to vie for a territory. A kob may live for 20 years.
During the first 7 months of life, the mortality rate is high, with only about half of the kobs surviving predators such as lions, leopards, spotted hyenas and hunting dogs. When threatened, the solitary kob will lie flat and still or take to water to escape its hunters.
Kobs compete for space with farmers. Kobs are commonly hunted for sport and food. In the Cameroon ranked kob as the third most favored species of animal for bushmeat, being surpassed only by the North African porcupine and guinea fowl. The kob's range is greatly diminished, but kob are still common in national parks Kobs in the Boma grassland ecosystem form the second largest population of antelope in Africa.
I hope that this will give you the information you want about Uganda kobs and I hope that you will have an enjoyable time if you visit Uganda.
