David M. Leslie Jr.
R.L. Lochmiller
J.A. Jenks
J.R. Schuette
1998
<p class="chapter-para">Diets of hartebeest (<i>Alcelaphus buselaphus</i>) and roan antelope (<i>Hippotragus equinus</i>) were assessed at the Nazinga Game Ranch in southern Burkina Faso, West Africa. Microhistological analysis of feces indicated that dietary overlap was high during the rainy (<i>X̄</i><span> </span>= 73.7%) and cool-dry (68.2%) seasons, low during the hot-dry season (48.2%), and lowest during the last month of the hot-dry season (31.5%). As the hot-dry season progressed and food presumably became less available, diets of the two antelopes diverged. Hartebeest maintained a high percentage of grass in their diet, but roan antelope switched from being predominantly grazers (>95% grass) to mixed feeders (<50% grass). As grass feeders, both antelopes have skeletal features that facilitate acquisition and grinding of highly fibrous diets, but 11 of 12 mass-relative indices of the skull morphology of hartebeest exceeded those of roan antelope. Because of those differences in skull morphology, and in keeping with the “long-faced” hypothesis, hartebeest were apparently more capable than roan antelope of acquiring and masticating scarce regrowth of perennial grasses when availability of forage was lowest. Such divergence within a single foraging class of African bovids, such as grass feeders, should reduce competition and perpetuate coexistence.</p>
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10.2307/1382973
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Oxford Academic
Diets of hartebeest and roan antelope in Burkina Faso: Support of the long-faced hypothesis
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