Small Game
This category includes all the mammals on Kukama Hunting Safaris with a weight class of +/- 10 - 60 pounds. The Duiker, Steenbuck and Klipspringer are also known as "Dwarf Antelope"
Duiker
Duikers are shy and elusive creatures with a fondness
for dense cover; most are forest dwellers and even the species living in
more open areas are quick to disappear into thickets.
Their name comes
from the Afrikaans/Dutch word for diver and refers to their practice of
diving into tangles of shrubbery. With a slightly arched body and the
front legs a little shorter than the hind legs, they are well-shaped to
penetrate thickets. They are primarily browsers rather than grazers,
eating leaves, shoots, seeds, fruit, buds and bark, and often follow
flocks of birds or troops of monkeys to take advantage of the fruit they
drop.
They supplement their diet with meat: duikers take insects and
carrion from time to time, and even stalk and capture rodents or small
birds
Steenbuck
The Steenbok is
a small antelope of southern and eastern Africa. It is also known as
the "Steinbuck" or "Steinbok"; not to be confused with the
Dutch-language "steenbok" which is an ibex.
Steenbok resemble small
Oribi, standing 45–60 cm at the shoulder. Their pelage (coat) is any
shade from fawn to rufous, typically rather orange. The underside,
including chin and throat, is white, as is the ring around the eye. Ears
are large with "finger-marks" on the inside.
Males carry straight,
smooth, parallel horns 7–19 cm long. There is a black crescent-shape
between the ears, a long black bridge to the glossy black nose, and a
black circular scent-gland in front of the eye.
The tail is not usually
visible, being only 4–6 cm long.
Klipspringer
Klipspringer (literally "rock
jumper" in Afrikaans / Dutch), Oreotragus oreotragus, also known
colloquially as a mvundla (from Xhosa "umvundla", meaning "rabbit"), is a
small African antelope that lives from the Cape of Good Hope all the
way up East Africa and into Ethiopia.
Reaching approximately 58 cm (22
inches) at the shoulder, Klipspringers are relatively small animals
compared to some of their larger antelope cousins. Only the males have
horns that are usually about 10–15 cm (4–6 inches) long. They stand on
the tips of their hooves. With a thick and dense speckled "salt and
pepper" patterned coat of an almost olive shade, Klipspringers blend in
well with the kopje (rock outcrops, pronounced "kah-pee") on which they
can usually be found. Klipspringers are herbivores, eating rock plants.
They never need to drink, since the succulents they subsist on provide
them with enough water to survive.