Daily Occurrence of African Game Animals at Water Water Holes During Dry Weather

Abstract

Few quantitative studies have been made of the behaviour or biology of the African game animals, although much has been written about them. The data presented here are derived from 27 observational censuses each lasting 24 hours carried out during 1958, 1959 and 1960 in Wankie National Park, Rhodesia, by members of staff of the Department of National Parks, and involving over 11,000 animals. These censuses are conducted on or near the night of the full moon in late September, October or early November (during the peak of the dry season) when the game animals are concentrated near the few pans or waterholes which still contain water. Most of these pans are supplied with water pumped from boreholes. Contemporary literature abounds in conflicting statements on the daily habits of many of these animals. Information on their diurnal activity and movements is important in strip counts (Dasmann and Mossman 1962a) in studies on predation (Dasmann and Mossman 1962b), and in the general biology of these animals. The animals themselves may take some part in the creation of waterholes (Weir 1962) and it seems probable that the pans play an important part in the social behaviour of the mammal herds which congregate near them in dry weather. While such congregations of herds are often reported (Grzimek and Grzimek 1960, Shortridge 1934, Vesey-FitzGerald 1960 and many others), the behavioural and ecological consequences of such enforced high density congregations on the herds themselves have not been investigated. It is not known whether there is any competition for water or, if there is, which species of animals would be involved in such competition. There might also be competition for time and opportunity to drink as distinct from competition for water.