The kob (Kobus kob ) is an antelope found across Central Africa and parts of West Africa and East Africa. Together with the closely related reedbucks, waterbucks, lechwe, Nile lechwe, and puku, it forms the Reduncinae tribe. Found along the northern savanna, it is often seen in Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda; Garamba and Virunga National Park, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as grassy floodplains of South Sudan.Kob are found in wet areas (such as floodplains), where they eat grasses. Kob are diurnal, but inactive during the heat of the day. They live in groups of either females and calves or just males. These groups generally range from five to 40 animals.
Among the kobs of eastern Africa, the Ugandan kob (Kobus kob thomasi ) appears on the coat of arms of Uganda, and white-eared kobs (Kobus kob leucotis ), found in South Sudan, southwest Ethiopia, and extreme northeast Uganda, participate in large-scale migrations.
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DiurnalDiurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
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HerbivoreA herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example, foliage, for the main component of its die...
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GraminivoreIn zoology, a graminivore (not to be confused with a granivore) is an herbivorous animal that feeds primarily on grass. Graminivory is a form of g...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
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CursorialA cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to run. An animal can be considered cursorial if it has the ability to run fast (e.g. chee...
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GrazingGrazing is a method of feeding in which a herbivore feeds on plants such as grasses, or other multicellular organisms such as algae. In agriculture...
Among animals, viviparity is the development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. The term 'viviparity' and its adjective form 'viviparous'...
A territory is a sociographical area that which an animal consistently defends against the conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against anima...
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HerdingA herd is a social grouping of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form of collective animal behavior associated with...
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Dominance hierarchyA dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social gr...
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MigratingAnimal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migrati...
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starts withThe Kob is a species of antelope native to more than 15 African countries. They resemble the impala but are more heavily built. Males are more robust than females and have horns. Kobs are typically golden to reddish-brown in color. Their throat patch, eye ring, and inner ear are white, and the forelegs are black at the front. Males get darker as they get older.
Kobs are found across Central Africa and parts of West Africa and East Africa. They live currently in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. Found along the northern savanna, kobs are often seen in Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda; Garamba and Virunga National Park, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as grassy floodplains of South Sudan. These animals usually inhabit wet areas such as floodplains and grasslands near water.
Kobs are diurnal animals, but inactive during the heat of the day. They live in groups of either females and calves or just males. These groups generally range from 5 to 40 animals. Females may also live in herds numbering in the thousands. They move more and are more social than territorial males. During the daily movements to water, females are at the front and young learn where to go from their mothers. Males are also present in the migratory herds and follow the females. All-male herds may number in the hundreds and accompany females as they travel during the dry season. Adult males try to establish their territories in the best habitat available, which are inhabited by herds of females and their young. Young males, live in bachelor herds and are segregated from the females by the territorial males. On floodplains, males establish traditional territories, while the rest live in clustered territories known as leks. Lek clusters are located on patches of short grass or bare ground within comparably tall grassland.
Kobs are herbivorous (graminivorous) animals that feed on grasses and reeds.
Kobs have a lek breeding system. Leks are permanent breeding grounds, where almost all mating takes place. Females visit these leks only to breed. In lek clusters, the most dominant males occupy the center and the number of males in the center of a lek ranges from 3 to 7. Competition for central territories is fierce, and males hold their territories for only a day or two before turnover. Females give birth to a single calf after a gestation period of around 8 months. For their first month, calves hide in dense vegetation. Mother and calf can identify each other by their noses. As they get older, calves gather into crèches. When they are 3 to 4 months old, the young enter the females' herds and stay with mothers until 6 to 7 months, by which time they are weaned. When they mature, males join bachelors groups. Females in this species become reproductively mature at 13-14 months of age.
The main threat to kobs is overhunting for meat. During the 1990s poaching has caused huge declines of kob populations in such areas as Comoé National Park, Côte d'Ivoire and northern and eastern Central African Republic. Another serious threat to these animals is the loss of habitat due to agricultural development, expansion of human settlements, and competition with livestock.
According to the IUCN Red List, the total population size of kobs is 500,000-1,000,000 mature individuals. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List but its numbers today are decreasing.
Social animals are those animals that interact highly with other animals, usually of their own species (conspecifics), to the point of having a rec...