Lovely Antelopes that Pair for Life

Dik dik

These tiny and adorable animals, barely large enough to prod their heads above the tall savannah grass, have some of the most unique traits. 

Their name, dik dik, is derived from the sound they make when alarmed, zik zik as they run in a zigzag. They make the sound by whistling through their noses.

They have an elongated snout. This snout is very useful in cooling. It is an advanced cooling mechanism that stops the dik dik from overheating, even in extreme temperatures of up to 40°C. The diks pant to pump blood through their elongated snouts, where airflow and evaporation cool the blood down before it is pumped to the rest of the body. These remarkable antelopes can also lower their metabolic rate and adjust their body temperature based on the conditions.

Dik-dik do not live in herds. For them it is perpetual intimate. It is till death do us part.  Extramarital affairs are unheard of.  They pair for life! If by bad luck, one of them dies due to any circumstance, the remaining one becomes suicidal. The remaining one can even surrender to a predator due to loneliness.

Mothers are responsible for telling their daughters to leave. The fathers on the other hand must chase off the males. This happens before the baby dik-dik has reached eight months of age!

Dik-dik marks their territory with tears.  They release a special eye secretion from a bare black spot below the inside corner of each eye (preorbital gland). This gland produces a dark, sticky secretion. Diks poke their eyes in grass stems and twigs to spread the secretion, scent-marking their territories.

Dik diks are peace loving. They rarely fight. Instead, they use faeces to show how powerful a couple is by building up sizeable heaps of dung. The higher the dung the more impressive the couple. Some cunning families look for head starts by depositing their faeces on top of buffalo or elephant dung. 

These toilet-trained champs keep their territory clean, by depositing their faeces all in one place.

Unlike other antelopes, where the male is bigger, for the diks the females are bigger

The diks are not water reliant. They receive adequate water from the foliages, shoots, fruits and berries they eat.   When they do drink, which is rare, they lap water like a cat. They have the most concentrated urine and driest faeces of any ungulate.

They have a much ritualized breeding behavior. When ready to mate, the female stands very straight, with her back curved and her tail upright, and allows the male to mount her for a brief mating.

In Swahili they are known as Digi digi or Suguya 

Unfortunately, man is the greatest threats to the diks. For some strange reason, some people use their skin to make gloves. One Dik-dik can only make one pair of gloves. Imagine taking a life to make a pair of glove?  Stressing the surviving partner to even contemplate suicide? Shame on us, humans.