Zebra duiker
- Gestation lasts 221–229 days — one of the longest among duikers of this size — and the female usually produces a single calf.
- The zebra duiker is one of the most brightly coloured duikers: 12–16 black transverse stripes on a golden-rufous background make it look like a miniature zebra in the forest.
- Females are larger than males and the horns are short and sharp; the animal can crack extremely hard fruits by head-butting them with a reinforced forehead.
- The stripe pattern is unique to each individual and serves as camouflage in the dappled light of the understorey.
- The population is estimated at fewer than 15,000 individuals and continues to decline.
- The species is mainly diurnal and feeds on fruit, leaves and sometimes insects on the forest floor.
- The species is endemic to the Upper Guinean forests (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea) and prefers primary lowland rainforest.
- The zebra duiker is highly sensitive to forest disturbance and suffers heavily from hunting and logging, which is why it is assessed as Vulnerable.
Age
The zebra duiker typically lives for 7 to 15 years, with a maximum recorded lifespan of 22 years and 9 months, and a theoretical lifespan ranging from 17 years to 28 years and 5 months. The age at which the species reaches sexual maturity is between 1 year and 4 months and 2 years and 2 months. The young are born with their eyes open and begin walking immediately. The embryo develops inside the mother for approximately seven months. The newborn, a duiker offspring, remains hidden in dense vegetation while the mother provides milk. This infant stage lasts from 1 day to 6 months. Following this, the animal enters the adult stage, which lasts from 6 months and 3 weeks to 13 years and 8 months, during which it lives independently and can reproduce.
Phenotype
The zebra duiker is a species possessing four slender legs allowing for rapid movement across the forest floor. Both female and male individuals have from 12 to 15 vertical black-and-white stripes on their back and sides, which aids in camouflage within the forest. The offspring has stripes on its back and sides for masking, while the adult male is characterized by short, straight horns for protection against enemies.
Physiology
The zebra duiker has a body length ranging from 45 to 60 centimeters; its mass varies from 16.19 to 17.22 kilograms. The young of the species have a body length ranging from 30 to 45 centimeters and a body mass from 1.6 to 4.5 kilograms. Adult banded duikers possess a body mass from 15 to 23 kilograms and a body length from 45 to 60 centimeters.
Habitat
The zebra duiker inhabits tropical moist forests, always hot and humid, with large trees and vines, and occurs at elevations up to 1 kilometer. This species is found in terrestrial landscapes, including forest areas, experiencing a climate that is consistently hot and wet year-round, with frequent rains but occasional dry periods; summers bring heavy rainfall while winters have little precipitation; the climate is always hot, very hot throughout the year, with rains occurring often, although sometimes it can be dry; summers are characterized by abundant rainfall, whereas almost no precipitation falls in winter.
Shelter
The zebra duiker inhabits dense thickets of forest and lacks a permanent or long-term shelter. The species does not have a fixed refuge, and its shelter serves for protection from predators and for resting. Banded duikers do not utilize any specific, consistent hiding places.
Geography
The zebra duiker’s biogeographical regions include Afrotropics and Palearctics. The species inhabits subtropical evergreen forests of the Yunnan Plateau, which are its ecosystems.
Feeding
The zebra duiker consumes leaves, fruits, seeds, and young shoots of plants, selecting the most nutritious parts and primarily feeding early in the morning or in the evening; it obtains food by plucking plants with its front teeth, including leaves, fruits, seeds, shoots, young shoots, sprouts, and coniferous cones. The species employs foraging and grazing strategies to meet a daily food requirement ranging from 400 grams to 0.9 kilograms; young zebra duikers are fed milk. The diet also includes insects such as beetles, butterflies, diptera (two-winged insects), hymenoptera (membrane-winged insects), bedbugs, orthoptera (straight-winged insects), dragonflies, mayflies, and net-winged insects.
Reproduction
The zebra duiker is a terrestrial species that develops and lives on land, away from bodies of water, and its young develop in nests built on the ground or close to it, specifically located directly on the surface of the soil. The female carries a single offspring for about seven months and gives birth to it on land, where the mother hides the young in thickets and returns to feed it; a litter has one individual. Gestation lasts six months, and the species reproduces through sexual reproduction, always involving fertilization without generational changes. The female reaches maturity from one year to one year and six months. The interval between reproductions is from eight months to one year. Only the mother demonstrates parental care for the young in nests located directly on the surface of the ground. The young are born live, not hatched from eggs or larvae.