Ecology and Conservation:
The African spoonbill is common.

• Its bill acts as a scythe (hooked tool) to catch its food.
• Prey is trapped between the broad mandibles and tossed into the back of the throat.
• African spoonbills nest in colonies of up to 250 or more pairs, often nesting with comorants, dartes, herons or sacred ibis.

General Description:
A tall, majestic bird with a “crown” of golden feathers. It has large white cheek patches with a small red patch at the top.  They are slate gray with white upper and under wing coverts, black legs, and a black bill.

Ecology and Conservation:
Many swamps and marshes where crowned cranes nest are being drained for agriculture. They are popular attractions in zoos and are often the victims of illegal trade. Although not yet considered endangered, their future is far from certain.

• Young able to fly at 10 weeks of age. Chicks are precocial, able to run as soon as they hatch.
• A symbol of longevity in the Japanese culture.
• Stamping their feet as they walk, East African crowned cranes flush out insects which are quickly caught and eaten.
• Loud, melodious call, usually given in flight, may have given rise to some of the beliefs held by the African people who share their habitat.
• The crane’s long legs and necks and excellent peripheral vision help them spot predators in the tall savannah grasses.
• All cranes are noted for their spectacular dances which involves head-bobbing, wing fluttering, leaps and bows. Both sexes dance, and immature birds join the adults. Dancing is an integral part of courtship, but also may be done at any time of the year.
• Crowned crane parents often pretend to be injured to lure predators away from their nestlings.

Fun Facts:

• Their alarm call ia a piercing, rattling cry and when disturbed, they will fly up into trees crying loudly.
• They make a soft chuckling sound when feeding.  

General Description:
The largest living bird, male ostriches are jet black with white plumage and bright red or blue skin and females are fairly uniform in color, with earthy gray-brown plumage and skin color. The feet are designed for running with only two toes on each foot, and a large nail for protection.

• One ostrich egg equals up to 24 chicken eggs and takes approximately 2 hours to boil!
• Ostriches can run up to 40 mph and can outpace most pursuers, such as lions, leopards, and hyenas.
• It is the largest and heaviest living bird. It is unable to fly and does not possess a keeled sternum (breastbone) common to most birds.
• Ostriches stretch out their neck and lay their head on the ground to keep from being seen, hence the myth that ostriches hide in the sand.
• Ostriches are so powerful that a single kick at a predator, such as a lion, can be fatal.
• A female ostrich shows a remarkable ability to recognize her own eggs even when mixed in with those of other females in their communal nest.

General Description:
A large vulture with a bare head and neck, cream and black feathers, and a heavy bill. The feet are broad and chicken-like with weak talons that are adapted for walking and are not suitable for grasping. 

Lifestyle:
Social life: Nests in colonies of up to 1000 pairs or more. In flight, each bird scans 50 square miles from altitude of 2000 feet, keeping each other in sight. They follow carnivorous mammals and migratory herds. They have no territorial behavior.
Habitat: Central Africa, the Serengetti plains in Tanzania, Kenya in open savanna or semi-desert.
Diet: Scavenge for carrion. A full crop may contain over 3 lbs of meat.     Lifespan: Up to 75 years in captivity.

• This vulture can spot an object 5 inches long from a height of ½ mile.
• Its huge wings allow the bird to glide for hours with little effort.
• It lacks a syrinx (vocal organ for birds) and therefore can only grunt, cackle and hiss.
• During a dry spell, the vulture may travel over 60 miles to find food for its young.
• This species has the highest credible altitude record for any bird; one having been killed by a jet aircraft at 37,000 ft.

General Description:
It is massive in size, has red skin on the head and light gray feathers. It has a high pitched call, louder then any other crane.

• Saurus cranes mate for life. The bond is so strong, these birds are a symbol of marital fidelity in many Asian cultures.

General Description:
Bright red feathers in both sexes with a long neck, long curved probing bill, black tipped feathers and perching feet that are only slightly webbed. 

• The young are first featherless, and then grow dark brown feathers, which slowly change to the red of their parents as they age. 
• The brilliant red color of the bird comes from pigments in the bodies of crustaceans on which it feeds.

General Description:
The pigeon is very similar in color & shape to the other "crowned" pigeons. The breast area is dark purplish red or maroon becoming greyish towards the rear & merging into the blue grey belly, thighs & undertail coverts. The wing patch is a pale greyish blue edged with dark purple red or maroon. The iris is dark red, the orbital skin dark grey, the bill slaty-grey with brownish tip, and the feet a dull purplish red.

Conservation and Ecology:
Adult birds are prized by hunters for meat and feathers and nestlings are taken and reared for food. Logging is a major threat to the Victoria crowned pigeon. In addition to destroying habitat, the logging roads open up access areas for bird hunters. When scared, Victoria crowned pigeons fly into trees, roosting in low-lying branches, making them easy targets for hunters. Today, laws are in place to help protect the Victoria crowned pigeon.

• Victoria crowned pigeons exhibit a large variety of vocalizations including a rumbling threat call and a loud “boom” that is returned by flock members.
• Adults feed the young with a substance called "pigeon milk" or "crop milk" which is produced in the lining of the crop.

• Waldrapp ibis were once revered as a holy bird in Ancient Egypt.

General Description:
Both sexes have horns. Unlike many antelope species, the female's horns are as long as the males. They have a mat of brown hair on their forehead while the rest of their body is grayish-white.

Lifestyle:
Social Life: Historically, addax traveled in large groups of hundreds in a nomadic fashion. Today, they travel in groups of 1 to 4. Each group is led by an older male.
Habitat: Addax are found in sandy and stony regions of the Sahara Desert, particularly dune regions.
Diet: Addax eat desert succulents, grasses and herbs, and leaves of small bushes.
Lifespan: They usually live at least 20 years in captivity.

Ecology and Conservation:
Addax are nearly extinct in the wild, having been eliminated from much of their original range. These antelope have been hunted for their skin and meat. Since they are so heavily built they are not capable of great speeds and are easily overtaken by horses and dogs. Antelope are an important component of habitats as grazers and browsers. They are also important as prey for carnivores.

• Addax possess broad, flat hooves with flat soles that help prevent them from sinking into the desert sand.
• These desert antelope's coat color changes from dark grayish-brown in winter to white in the summer.
• Addax dig depressions in the sand in which to rest. These are often located partly underneath boulders that give shade and protection from the wind and sun.
• They rarely drink since they are able to get most of the water they need from the plants they eat.

General Description: 
They are generally uniform brown, and sometimes lighter- almost beige. Their coat is dense and of average length, with a long fringe of soft and very light-colored hairs on the throat, chest, and front legs. Their horns are thick and up to 33 inches long in males.

• They can clear a 6.6 foot obstacle with ease from a standing start.

Ecology and conservation:
Endangered. They live in groups of 2-5 individuals, thought to be an adult mated pair and their young. Greetings are very ceremonious involving reciprocal grooming. They mark their territory by screaming and by scent. During the day the lemur sleeps in a hollow tree curled up into a ball. It is a nimble climber, most active at dusk and during the first part of the night, when it forages for fruit. It normally progresses by walking or running on larger branches and leaping from tree to tree, rarely descending to the ground.

Fun Facts:

• Ruffed lemurs are quadrupedal, using all their limbs for locomotion. Their long tails allow for even better stability in the trees. In fact, most hang upside down, holding on by their feet, when feeding!

General Description:
The Blue Duiker is the smallest species of duiker and one of smallest antelope. Their coat is short and red as a kid changing to bluish/gray as an adult. The hair on the inner parts and under the tail is whitish in color. The triangular horns that emerge from a patch of hair in the middle of the head are 2-10 centimeters long in males and 4 centimeters long in females. Some females may lack horns. 

Ecology and conservation:
They are considered endangered. They are killed by farmers when invading crops, and are also hunted for their meat, skin and horns. The Duiker population is also threatened by the killing of monkeys, whom they depend on to provide them with fruits from high trees. Blue duiler are also preyed upon by hyenas, wild dogs, cats, crocodiles, baboons and snakes.

Fun Facts:

• They have scent glands located under each eye. These look like diagonal gashes that run from the upper cheek towards the mouth and are used mainly for marking their territory.
• They use their long hind legs and short forelegs for diving into bushes when threatened or disturbed.
• They are the only antelope that includes meat in its diet such as rats, birds and carrion.

General Description:
The dark silver-grey body is marked with dark vertical bands on the front quarters. They have a long black mane and a beard of hair hanging from the throat and neck. Both sexes grow short curved horns. In adult bulls, the horns are heavily bossed.

Ecology and Conservation:
Not regarded as endangered but mostly found in conservation areas. Today about 1.5 million white-bearded wildebeest are believed to be present. However, the expansion of human settlements along their northern migration routes has begun to disrupt their natural patterns.

• Calves can run with the herd within minutes after birth.
• Has to drink every day or 2 in dry season.
• The bull's deep grunts sound like a giant croaking frog.
• Amazingly, about 80 percent of the females calve within the same 2- to 3- week period, creating a glut for predators and thus enabling more calves to survive the crucial first few weeks.

General Description:
Caramel colored hide marked with bright white stripes. Both sexes have horns that spiral in one complete twist. The head is wide with enormous ears. They have vivid white-yellow markings that include 12-14 torso stripes, chest crescent, cheek patches, ear edging and nose chevron. The legs are banded in black and white. A white and black dorsal mane runs almost the entire length of the spine.

Lifestyle:

Social Life: They are the only forest antelope to form herds. They are very shy, and males tend to be particularly solitary.
Habitat: Bongo live in the lowlands and mountain forests and rainforests of West Africa and Congo Kinshasha east to Southern Sudan.
Diet: Bongo are browsers, eating leaves, flowers, twigs, thistles, and bamboo.
Life Span: Up to 19 years observed in zoos; wild unknown.

Ecology and Conservation:    
They are so secretive that scientists find it difficult to gather data on them. As browsers, they are important to the habitats they live in by keeping vegetation from becoming overgrown. They also serve as prey for leopards and sometimes hyenas. Since these animals are so dependent on dense vegetation, habitat destruction is their greatest threat. Currently fewer than 100 of these beautiful animals are estimated to remain in the wild. 

• Bongo are the only forest antelope to form herds. Largest, most colorful and sociable forest antelope.
• They belong to the Tragelaphini tribe, a group of medium to large antelope with spiral-horns. Both males and females have horns.
• They have been known to eat burned wood after lightning storms. This behavior is believed to be a means of getting salt or minerals.
• Bongo are great high jumpers but prefer to go under or around obstacles.
• One of Africa’s most spectacular mammals.
• Uses its long, mobile tongue to grasp and bundle leaves and its horns to pull down and break hard to reach branches.

Key Facts:
Size: 3.3-5.6 feet tall at shoulder; 7-11 ft.
Weight: 935-2000 lb., females are smaller.

General Description:
Large, dark brown to black hoofed mammal, with drooping fringed ears and large curved horns.

Lifestyle:
Social Life: Cape buffalo are non-territorial and extremely sociable, living in large, mixed herds that inhabit exclusive, traditional home ranges.
Habitat: Open savannahs and grasslands near a permanent source of water in eastern and southern Africa.
Diet: Herbivore that eats tall, coarse grasses. Herbs and foliage amount to 5% of diet.
Lifespan: 15-25 years.

• Horns are an excellent indication of age and gender. The females and young males do not have the hard shielding that protects the base of the skull in large adult males.
• Extremely social and live in large, mixed herds of up to 2000 members.
• Always within a day’s walk of a water source.
• They have the reputation of being dangerous when they are cornered or injured.
• Healthy adults are vulnerable only to lions.
• Responsible for more human deaths than any other large animal, except for the hippopottamus.  
• Spend more time feeding at night than in the day.

General Description: 
Unlike other cats, it has a leaner body, longer legs and has been referred to as the “greyhound” of the cats. It is built for speed. Distinguishing marks are the long tear-drop shaped lines on each side of the nose from the corner of its eyes to its mouth. The coat is tan, or buff colored, with black spots measuring from ¾ to 1 ¼ inches across. There are no spots on its white belly and the tail has spots which merge to form 4-6 dark rings at the end. Male cheetahs are slightly larger than females and have a slightly bigger head. Only cat that, while sprinting, can turn in midair to follow their prey. Their paws have only semi-retractable claws and offer the cat extra grip in its high speed pursuits. It hunts mainly by day and follows its prey from a distance. Cheetahs seldom drink water, obtaining most of their moisture from their prey.

• The cheetah’s excellent eyesight helps it find prey during the day.
• Can reach speeds of 70 miles an hour over short distances.
• After a chase, a cheetah needs up to half an hour to catch its breath before it can eat.
• When a cheetah is running at top speed, it covers about 23 feet in only four footfalls.
• Female cheetahs have been known to catch live prey for their cubs to use as hunting practice.

General Description:
An antelope in an ox’s clothing. It is the biggest African Bovid. Its coat is light tan, darkening to gray in older males. There are usually a few light stripes on the forequarters, black and white leg markings, and a black tuft on the end of the tail.  Both sexes have horns that have 1-2 beautiful spirals 3 feet long. The spirals are 17-26 inches; they are longer for males than females which are 20-27 inches but much thinner. The eland has 10-16 torso stripes and white markings on its legs.

• Startled eland display a jumping prowess by leaping effortlessly over a companion’s back. Youngsters can clear a 10 ft. fence from standing start.
• The eland is the slowest antelope. It runs no faster than 25 mph and quickly tires but can maintain a fast trot (13.5 mph) indefinitely. 
• Adult males produce a clicking noise when walking, possibly originating in the tendons of the front legs. The click is much louder than the clacking of the hooves and can be heard over a mile away in still conditions. The sound may serve to warn younger males there is a large dominant male around.
• The eland is the animal most often depicted in the early rock art of East Africa.

General Description:
The gemsbok is a very striking animal with dramatic features and long spear like horns. It has a thick horse like neck with a short mane that runs from the head to the shoulders. The distinctive black and white markings on their faces are said to have contributed to their name gemsbok, given to them by the Boers, which means chamois. There is a black band that separates their gray-fawn colored flanks and the white under parts. All four legs are black on their top half, with white below the knees and black patches on the shins. Males and females are difficult to tell apart. Both sexes have horns that are long and extend straight back from the head and diverge rather widely at the tips. 

Ecology and conservation:
Excessive hunting has wiped out many gemsbok populations. The gemsbok's natural enemies include lions, leopards, hunting dogs and hyenas. Cheetahs and jackals pose additional threats to young. Recent estimates have placed the total gemsbok population at over 275,000. Although their numbers are relatively high, habitat loss, climatic changes, agriculture and grazing by domestic livestock continue to threaten the gemsbok.

• Giraffes strip leaves from thorny acacia trees, sometimes colonized by ants, with their 18 inch long, prehensile tongues. Prehensile means it can grab and hold onto objects.
• Bull giraffes forage higher in trees than cow giraffes which reduces food competition between the sexes.
• Long-legged giraffes walk with the limbs on one side of the body lifted at the same time.  This gait is called a pace and allows a longer stride which saves steps and energy.
• A mother giraffe often gives birth while standing so that the newborn’s first experience outside the womb is a 6 ft. drop.
• Can run 35-miles and hour when threatened.
• For the first four to five months, calves congregate in nursery groups called crèches to rest and socialize while mothers forage in the distance.
• Usually giraffes drink or rest in shifts so that at least one giraffe is always on the lookout for approaching predators.
• Some scientists believe that other animals – such as zebras, antelope and wildebeests – often congregate near giraffes to take advantage of their ability to see danger from a distance.
• Giraffes rarely sleep, usually only getting about 20 minutes of sleep a day.
• The Swahili name for giraffe is "Twiga".

Ecology and conservation:
The greater kudu is extremely wary and depends on woodlands and thickets for concealment as it browses, limiting habitat choices. The horns of the greater kudu are prized by sportsmen for their trophy value. Kudu are harvested as a meat source and sometimes killed by farmers when they damage crops. These factors, along with habitat destruction, have greatly reduced their range and overall numbers.

Fun Facts:

• The male is further distinguished by his long horns which make two or three complete twists as they diverge. The horns can grow over four feet long.
• Greatly enlarged ears suggest an acute sense of hearing.
• Seldom vocalizes except for an alarm bark and a few mother/infant calls.
• Has the often fatal habit of stopping after a short run from danger to look back.
• The gait of the greater kudu may appear clumsy but its leaping ability is remarkable.
• Second tallest antelope with the most spectacular horns.

Ecology and conservation:
Despite their great leaping abilities, impala form the bulk of the diet of all large carnivores excepting the lion which generally prefer larger prey. Individual males of four years or more challenge each other in noisy, boisterous challenges in a struggle to gain and hold a territory. The explosive barking call of the rutting males has frightened the wits out of more than a few trailists and campers, for it is often mistaken for the roar of a lion!

Fun Facts:

• The distinctive “fetlock glands” are perhaps the most conspicuous specialities. These tufts of black hair on the hind legs cover scent glands which release a pheromone (chemical) under certain circumstances (such as when being pursued by a predator).
• Famous jumpers. Alarmed impala high jump 10 ft. and broad jump 36 ft.
• Impala are actually able to survive without a drink for months on end in summer and for up to a week in the dry winter months.
• Extremely agile and capable of spectacular leaps and raised kick-backs. Long jumps of up to 11 meters have been recorded and individuals have been seen to clear 3 meter high obstacles.

Classification:
Common Name: Nyala
Class: Mammalia (animals with milk glands)
Order: artiodacctyla (even-toed hoofed mammals)
Family: Bovidae
Genus Species: Tragelaphus agasi 

 Key Facts:
Size: Length of a male: 6.8 ft. (plus tail 1.4 ft.); females 5.8 ft (tail 1.2). Height of a male: 3 ½ feet; females 3 ft.
Weight: 216-275 lbs. males/ 121-132 lbs females.

General Description:
Nyala are sexually dimorphic (the male and female look different). The female and young have a smooth, bright chestnut coat with light stripes and spots, and a chest and nose chevron. The bull also has a chest and nose chevron, but the coat is hairy, charcoal gray with a fringe of dark hair from the throat to the hindquarters, a white dorsal crest, and tan lowers legs. Stripes that are reduced or absent on the male. Males have spiral horns that twist backwards in the plane of the face, with unpigmented lips. Both sexes have large ears.

Lifestyle:
Social life: Because of their more specialized diet, nyala groups are small and  move very erratically as they forage. Their specialized diet may be the reason they are not numerous or widely spread. Males disperse into bachelor groups, becoming more solitary toward maturity. Female groups will be followed by a variety of males until the breeding season arrives. Then, only the dominant bull of the area will stay with the group.
Habitat: Dense bush near water only in southeast Africa, and in riverside thickets and dense brush and fringe forests in the eastern part of South Africa. They are never far from water.
Diet: Almost exclusively browsers. Fruits, pods, twigs and leaves. Foliage gleaners that carefully select higher quality food items including fruit, seed pods, flowers, and tender leaves.
Life Span: 14 years.

Ecology and conservation:
Nyala are affected by habitat destruction and are susceptible to rinderpest.

Fun Facts:

• When nyala bulls fight, it is preceded by a display which involves raising the crest on the back, making the bulls look much bigger than they really are. In these fights, it is the male whith the longest hair that often wins.

Classification:
Common Name: Ring-tailed Lemur
Class: Mammalia (animals with milk glands)
Order: Primate
Family: Lemuridae
Genus Species: Lemur catta

Key Facts:
Size: Head and body length: 19-20 inches; tail length: 24 inches.
Weight: 7-8 lbs. 

General Description:
Active primate that lives in spiny desert and dry forest habitats. Has a fox-like nose and whiskers, gray fur on the back, white underparts, and a black and white ringed tail. Also called prosimians, which means “before apes.” Lemurs maintain primitive primate features such as a small brain case and a prominent nose. 

Ecology and conservation:
Lemurs fill an important ecological role in Madagascar. These primates often feed on an assortment of seasonal fruits and as they travel throughout the environment, they disperse undigested seeds in their manure within 2-3 hours.  The seeds soon sprout to replenish the vegetation that sustains Madagascar’s unique habitants. This is very important on an island where 80% of the original habitats have been lost to logging and agriculture.

Fun Facts:

• Ring-tailed lemurs are quadrupedal, using all of their limbs for locomotion. Their long tails allow for even better stability in the trees.
• Lemurs rely on their sense of smell as a way of communicating with other animals. They have special scent glands on their wrists and bottoms that leave scent trails on branches to mark their territories.
• A lemur’s soft, broad fingers and toes have flat nails that allow it to grip objects and groom other lemurs.
• Ring-tailed lemur troops have a dominant female in charge!

Safari West Ring-tailed Lemurs:

• We have eight lemurs on lemur island. There are 4 males, 3 females and 1 unknown, and range in age from 1 year to 7 years old.

• The scimitar-horned oryx has a number of physiological adaptations to conserve body water that help it survive in its desert habitat. For example, its kidneys are very efficient at minimizing the loss of water in urine, and it sweats only when its body temperature exceeds 46 deg C (116 deg F).

• Their name arose from their habit of leaping 9-10 feet into the air when startled or at play.
• Males mark their territories with urine and dung piles.
• They have been clocked at 55 mph. They trot more often, however, and perform a variation of stotting called pronking. Stotting is when they jump in the air keeping all four legs straight when running from a predator.
  

General Description:
A waterbuck's physique resembles that of a red deer. Only the males have horns, which can be up to 40 in. long and are slightly curved to the front. The waterbuck’s hair is long, straggly and of different shades of brown depending on the population’s distribution. It is permanently greased with an oily, water-repellent secretion of the perspiratory glands.

Ecology and Conservation:
The greasing of the hair is significant for the waterbucks’ ecology, since they prefer living near lakes and rivers and enter the water often. They are good swimmers, which try to escape into the water when hunted by lions, leopards or African hunting dogs.

• Waterbuck is also known as “Heirschantilope” in German, which can be translated as “Deer Antelope.”
• Adult bucks may be territorial and defend an area of 150-600acres.
• Not until a buck has reached an age of six years is it endeavored to establish a territory.
• Lack usual scent glands but greasy coat emits musky smell.
• The meat of older waterbuck takes on an unpleasant odor from the waterproofing secretions of its sweat glands, prompting predators to choose other prey.
• The Swahili name for waterbuck is "Kuro".
  

• These cattle were kept by nomadic herders as symbols of wealth rather than sources of food.
• These regal animals can easily trace their ancestry back more than 6,000 years and have often been referred to as the "cattle of kings."

• Resting zebras often sleep soundly, but at least one herd member remains standing and alert.
• No two zebras have the same set of stripes, just like human fingerprints!
• Stripes may help to confuse predators, but because the stripes make zebras easily recognizable to each other, they encourage zebras to make friends.