Behaviour of impalas (aepyceros melampus) and Uganda kobs (kobus kob) in captivity, case study: Uganda wildlife conservation education center.

Abstract

Activity pattern plasticity in ungulates serves as an evolutionary adaptation to optimize fitness in inconsistent environments. Given that time is a limited and valuable resource for foraging wildlife species, provisioning and attraction may affect the activity pattern plasticity and reduce complexities of time partitioning for different activities by Impalas and Uganda kobs in captive environments. Through the use of focal animal sampling technique, I assessed the activity budgets of five Impalas (two males (M) and three females (F)) six Uganda Kobs (two males (M) and three females (F)) in captivity. There was no statistical difference among the observed activity states for all Impalas and Uganda Kobs. Both Impalas and Uganda Kobs spent more than 40% of their daily time resting. Female individuals spent more time exhibiting vigilance tendencies than the males. Thus females were more active than males. However, nursing animals (i.e. Female impala F1, Figure 1) expressed elevated vigilance tendencies than other animals.