Lunar cycle and timing of mating season in Serengeti wildebeest

Details Lunar cycle and timing of mating season in Serengeti wildebeest Lunar cycle and timing of mating season in Serengeti wildebeest

Jun 1977

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1977natur.267..832s&link_type=abstract

Nature, Volume 267, Issue 5614, pp. 832-833 (1977).

Mathematics

Probability

Scientific paper

WILDEBEEST (Connochaetes taurinus Thomas) herds numbering nearly 1 million (refs 1, 2) on the Serengeti Plains, Tanzania, produce about 80% of their young during a 3-week period in January or February3. This is short compared with the 2-month birth period of the wildebeest in South Africa4, or to the 3-4-month birth period of buffalo and other grazers in the Serengeti5. A suggested advantage for the closely synchronised wildebeest birth period is that it reduces the probability of hyaena (Crocuta crocuta Erxleben) predation on the young3,6-8. I report here evidence which suggests that the lunar cycle is the external timer for the synchronisation.

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