Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Fun Facts About the Dik-Dik
Dik-diks are tiny, adorable antelopes native to the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa. You can tell the sexes apart by the larger size of the females and the presence of short horns on the males. Male dik-dik horns only grow to about 3 inches long, slant backwards, and are grooved.Read on to meet the miniature, hoofed mammals with enviable eyelashes.
1. Dik-diks are tiny. Fully grown, dik-diks stand about 12-16 inches tall at the shoulders and weigh 7-15 pounds.
2. Their small size makes them easy pickings for a variety of predators. Dik-diks are hunted by big cats, jackals, monitor lizards, hyenas, wild dogs, pythons, birds of prey, and humans. They stand a chance against such predators because of their excellent eyesight and ability to reach speeds up to 26 mph.
3. Dik-diks are named for a sound they make. When alarmed, dik-diks run in a zigzag pattern and make an alarm call that sounds like "dik dik" by whistling through their noses. This shrill sound alerts other dik-diks, as well as larger animals, of nearby danger.
4. Dik-diks are one of the rare monogamous mammals. Most grazing animals live in herds, but not dik-diks: they form monogamous pairs that oversee a patch of territory. Females only give birth to one offspring at a time, up to twice a year. The baby stays with its parents until it's about seven months old, at which point the parents chase it off the family territory.
5. They mark their territory with a "defecation ceremony." First the female defecates and urinates at a specific site with the male standing directly behind her. Then he sniffs at her droppings and urine while curling his upper lip and baring his teeth. The male scrapes her feces with his front legs and deposits his own feces and urine over hers.Conflicts between neighbors are not common, but when they do occur, the males from each territory run at each other, stop short, and then nod their heads and turn around. They repeat this, starting at greater and greater distances from one another, until one gives up. Then they both paw the ground, urinate, and defecate.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
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