African Nature Notes and Reminiscences 9

African Nature Notes and Reminiscences 9

As to the theory that the long neck and the peculiarly formed head

of the giraffe have been evolved in order to protect this remarkable

animal against its carnivorous foes, by giving it the appearance of

a dead or decayed tree, I personally consider such an idea to be so

fantastic and extravagant as to be unworthy of serious consideration.

 

In the course of my own hunting experience, I have shot a great many

giraffes to obtain a supply of food for my native followers, and under

the guidance of Bushmen have followed on the tracks of many herds of

these animals until I at length sighted them. In certain parts of the

country frequented by giraffes in Southern Africa, large camel-thorn

trees (_Acacia giraffae_) grow either singly or a few together amongst

a wide expanse of wait-a-bit thorn scrub, which is from 6 to 12 feet

high. From time to time these large trees die and decay, until nothing

is left but a tall straight stem, standing up like a telegraph pole

(only a good deal thicker) amongst the surrounding scrub. When, whilst

following on giraffe spoor through such country, something suddenly

comes in view protruding from the bush, perhaps a mile ahead, the

Bushmen will stop and take a good look at it. Of course at a very great

distance it is impossible for even a Bushman to distinguish between the

tall straight stem of a dead tree standing up out of low bush and the

neck of a solitary old bull giraffe. But if the latter, it is sure soon

to move, unless it is standing watching its human enemies approaching,

in which case it will not be very far away, and I have never known a

Bushman to mistake a giraffe for a tree at any reasonable distance.

 

As regards the coloration of the species of giraffe inhabiting

South and South-Western Africa, it assimilates very well with its

surroundings, when amongst trees and bush; but as giraffes spend a

great deal of their time passing through open stretches of country

on their way from one feeding-ground to another, they are often very

conspicuous animals.

 

With respect to the Somali giraffe (_Giraffa reticulata_), a photograph

taken by the photographer who accompanied one of Lord Delamere's

expeditions, showing some of these animals feeding amongst mimosa

trees, gives the impression of a most marvellous harmonisation of

colour and arrangement of marking with their surroundings. But I

cannot help thinking that the facts of the case have been very much

exaggerated in this photograph, which has eliminated all colours from

the picture except black and white. In life, the foliage of the mimosa

is very thin, and I think it probable that the rich dark chestnut

blotches divided by white lines of the Somali giraffe would show

through it at least as distinctly as would the colours of the southern

giraffe in a like position. The Somali giraffe cannot constantly live

amongst mimosa trees, as these only grow in valleys near streams or

dried-up watercourses, and only cover a small proportion of any country

I have yet seen either in South or East Africa.

 

I must say that I rather distrust the camera as a true interpreter of

nature, as I have seen so many photographs of the nests of small birds

in bushes in which it was very difficult even for a trained eye to

find the nest at all, although in all probability it would have been

comparatively easy to detect these nests in the actual bushes in which

they were placed.

 

Speaking of the Somali giraffe, Colonel J. J. Harrison, in a footnote

to a photograph of one of these animals shot by himself right out

in open country, which appeared in the _Bystander_ for January 30,

1907, says: "These handsome coloured giraffes are very striking when

seen standing in the sun. Of a rich bright chestnut colour, with pure

white rings, they stand out splendidly as compared with the dull grey

colouring of the more southern giraffe."

 

However, it appears to me that to whatever extent the coloration of

the various races of giraffes harmonises with their surroundings,

that result must have been brought about by the influence of their

environment rather than by the need of protective coloration, for

I cannot believe that the struggle for life against the attacks

of carnivorous animals can have been sufficiently severe to have

influenced the colour and the arrangement of markings in giraffes.

That lions occasionally attack and kill giraffes is an undoubted fact,

and, as I shall relate in a subsequent chapter, I have also known a

case of a very young giraffe having been attacked by two leopards; but

in South Africa giraffes are found in the greatest numbers in those

parts of the country where, except during the rainy season, there is

very little surface water, and where other species of game are far from

plentiful. Into such districts lions do not often penetrate, and when

giraffes are found in country where there is plenty of water, zebras,

buffaloes, and antelopes of various kinds will also be numerous, and

these animals will certainly be preyed upon in preference. At any rate,

my own experience would lead me to believe that although lions can and

do kill giraffes upon occasion, they do not habitually prey upon these

animals. Moreover, when giraffes are killed by lions, they are in all

probability followed by scent and killed in the dark.

 

Altogether, the theory that the colour of the giraffe has been evolved

by the necessity for concealment and protection from the attacks of

carnivorous animals does not seem to me to be at all well supported by

the life-history of that animal as seen by a practical hunter; but the

fact that the coloration of this remarkable animal assimilates very

well with the dull and monotonous shades of the trees and bushes in

the parched and waterless districts it usually frequents, is a strong

argument in favour of there being a law which, working through the

ages, tends to bring the colours of all organic beings into harmony

with their surroundings, irrespective of any special benefit they

may receive in the way of protection from enemies by such harmonious

coloration.

 

Turning to the striped and spotted forest antelopes inhabiting

various parts of Africa, I think there is some misconception amongst

naturalists who have not visited that country as to the general

surroundings amongst which the various species live. The magnificent

koodoo, with his long spiral horns, striped body, spotted cheeks, nose

marked with a white arrow, and throat adorned with a long fringe of

hair, is often spoken of as an inhabitant of dense jungle. This is,

however, by no means the case, for although koodoos are never found on

open plains, they are, on the other hand, seldom met with in really

dense jungle.

 

The range of the koodoo to the south of the Zambesi extends farther to

the south and west than that of the sable antelope, but I think I am

justified in saying that up to the time of the deplorable visitation

of rinderpest in 1896, wherever, between the Limpopo and the Zambesi,

sable antelopes were to be met with, there koodoos were also to

be found, and outside of districts infested by the "tse-tse" fly,

excepting amongst rocky hills, I have never met with the latter animals

in any country where I was not able to gallop after them on horseback.

 

Living as they do in surroundings so very similar to those frequented

by sable antelopes, I have never been able to understand why koodoos

should have such much larger ears than the former animals. I have never

been struck with the acute sense of hearing in koodoos as I have been

in the case of the moose of North America, and I should scarcely think

that this sense would often save them from the noiseless approach of

such animals as lions or leopards, to which they very frequently fall a

prey, judging by the number of the remains of koodoo bulls which I have

found that had been killed by the former animals.

 

I have often wondered whether the large size of the ears observable in

the African tragelaphine antelopes, which are all forests dwellers

(with the exception of the situtunga, which lives in dense beds of

reeds), may not be useful to them by enabling the males and females

to hear one another's calls during the mating season. The large

ears and exquisite sense of hearing of the moose, which is also a

forest-dwelling animal, have undoubtedly been developed for the purpose

of enabling the males and females to find one another in the breeding

season, and not for protection against the attacks of wolves. I have

frequently heard both koodoos and bushbucks calling by night and also

in the early morning. The noise they make is a sort of bark or cough.

 

Antelopes inhabiting open plains are very gregarious, and in the

daytime would always be able to find their mates by sight. I have never

heard them making anything but low grunting noises. As it is often

assumed by naturalists that all bush-haunting species of antelopes have

very large ears, it is perhaps worth noticing that in the little blue

buck and the red bush duiker of South-East Africa, which both live

in dense jungle near the coast, the ears are very small; whilst in

the steinbuck, on the other hand, which is always found in very open

country and never in thick bush, the ears are very large--both long and

broad.

 

The coloration observable in the different races of bushbucks

inhabiting different localities, as well as in the situtunga and inyala

antelopes, is, I think, very interesting and suggestive. It may, I

think, be taken for granted that all the races of African bushbucks

have been derived from an ancestral form which was both striped and

spotted; but in the bushbucks found near the coast of the Cape Colony

and Natal, the adult males are deep dark brown in colour, often

absolutely devoid of any white spots or stripes on face or body, whilst

the adult females are yellowish red, with only a few white spots on

the flanks. Now these most southerly of the African bushbucks live

in really dense bush, and often in deep ravines, where the sun never

penetrates. Their habitat too being near the sea-coast, the climate

must be damper than in the interior of the continent. In the northern

parts of Mashunaland and along the Central Zambesi and Chobi rivers

the bushbucks live in forest and bush which is seldom very dense,

and through most of which the sunlight plays constantly. In these

districts the males are, when adult, beautifully striped and spotted,

and the ground colour of their coats is rich red and dark brown, the

females being of a dark rich red and also well striped and spotted.

The situtunga antelopes live (on the Chobi and Central Zambesi) in

immense beds of reeds which are always of one dull monotonous greyish

green or brown. The adult animals are, as might be expected by those

who believe in the direct influence of environment, of a uniform light

brown colour, except that the spots on the cheeks and the arrow-shaped

mark across the nose, present in most tragelaphine antelopes, are

still discernible. In the inyala antelope, which inhabits thick jungly

tracts of bush along the south-east coast of Africa, the adult male

is of a deep dark grey in general body colour, with a few scarcely

visible vertical white stripes. The young males and the adult females

are, however, of a brilliant light red colour, profusely striped and

spotted with white. The young of all bushbucks and of the inyala are

reddish in ground colour, striped and spotted with white. The fœtal

young of the situtunga found in the marshes of the Chobi are of the

colour of a dark moleskin beautifully banded and spotted with pale

yellow, and it is, I think, a very remarkable fact that these stripes

and spots are identical in position with those found on the adult Chobi

bushbuck, which is strong evidence, I think, that both these animals

are descended from one ancestral form.

 

Now the only animal that preys habitually on bushbucks, inyalas, and

situtungas is the leopard, and as leopards hunt by night and by scent,

I cannot believe that the very different outward appearance of the

various races of bushbucks inhabiting different parts of Africa is to

be accounted for by the theory of protective coloration. The males

and females of the Cape bushbuck and of the inyala antelope are very

different one from another in the colour of their coats, but this does

not seem to be prejudicial to either sex, though there is absolutely no

difference in their habits or their habitat. In all the different races

of bushbucks, however, with which I am acquainted, the males are much

darker in colour than the females, so that it is not so very surprising

that in the case of the inyala and the Cape bushbuck the males should

have been the first to lose their stripes and spots in a sombre

environment. In the case of the Cape bushbuck the adult females have

already lost all the stripes and most of the spots of the ancestral

form. The female inyala is, however, one of the most distinctly striped and spotted representatives of the tragelaphine group.