Blue Duiker
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| Cephalophus monticola Thunberg, 1789 |
Blue Duiker (Cephalophus monticola) is a small forest dwelling Duiker found in the Central Africa and southern South Africa.
Blue Duikers stand around 35 centimetres tall at the shoulder and weigh 4 kilograms. Blue Duikers have a brown coat with a slight blue tinge - hence their name - and a white underside. There is a gladular slit beneath both eyes and a very slight crest between the ears. Blue Duikers have simple conical horns of 2 to 10 centimetres. Females don't always have horns.
Blue Duiker live mainly in rainforests, where they eat fruit, flowers and leaves, which have fallen from the canopy as well as eggs, insects and small birds. It is, in turn, the prey of the ferocious Crowned Eagle. Blue Duiker are nocturnal and solitary or form mating pairs. They are very territorial animals, patrolling the borders of their territory and marking it with their dung and excretions from glands above their hooves and under their eyes. They will chase off any intruders and only tolerate their children's presence until they reach 18 months.
Blue Duiker are not at all endangered and are in fact quite common - in Gabon they can reach population densities of almost 80 animals per square kilometre.
[edit] References
- Antelope Specialist Group (1996). Cephalophus monticola. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
