The eyes and ears are relatively small, and the mobile whiskers are short. ![]() The remainder of the animal, including the undersides, is covered with dark hair. The quills have multiple bands of black and white along their length, and grow from regularly spaced grooves along the animal's body each groove holding five to eight quills. The spines and quills cover the back and flanks of the animal, starting about a third of the way down the body, and continuing onto the tail. An erectile crest of long, bristly hairs runs from the top of the head down to the shoulders. The spines on the tail are hollow, and used to make a rattling sound to scare away predators. The body is covered in long spines up to 50 centimetres (20 in) in length, interspersed with thicker, sharply pointed, defence quills up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long, and with bristly, blackish or brownish fur. They are heavily-built animals, with stocky bodies, short limbs, and an inconspicuous tail. The average weight of males from Zimbabwe was 16.9 kg (37 lb) and while the average for females there was 18.4 kg (41 lb) while in the Orange river valley of South Africa males averaged 12.3 kg (27 lb) and females averaged 13 kg (29 lb). They weigh from 10 to 24 kilograms (22 to 53 pounds), with exceptionally large specimens weighing up to 30 kg (66 lb) males and females are not significantly different in size. ![]() Ĭape porcupines measure 63 to 81 centimetres (25 to 32 inches) long from the head to the base of the tail, with the tail adding a further 11–20 centimetres (4.3–7.9 inches). Indian porcupines are almost the same size on average as well, being slightly heavier on average than crested porcupine but slightly lighter than Cape porcupines. They can most easily be distinguished from them by the presence of a band of short white spines along the midline of the rump. They are similar in appearance to, the slightly smaller and close relatives, the crested porcupines. Cape porcupines are amongst the largest living rodents in the world a few other rodents appear to be larger in body mass such as the capybara and the Eurasian and North American beavers. Almost 33% of the substitute stems did not form disc florets the second third of them formed disc florets with a diameter of 6-8 cm, and the last third set disc florets with a diameter of 8-10 cm.The Cape porcupine ( Hystrix africaeaustralis), Cape crested porcupine or South African porcupine, is a species of Old World porcupine native to central and southern Africa.Ĭape porcupines are the largest rodents in Africa and also the world's largest porcupines. Approximately one half of the plants that had been damaged in early stage died as well as 12.5% of plants that had been damaged at second term the rest produced substitute stems. Browsing significantly affected the yield of seeds. ![]() Sunflower ceased to attract big herbivores in flowering stage. When the plants had reached approximately 15-40 cm in height, deer browsed the top shoots and as the plants grew higher the browsing was restricted to leaves or to substitute stems of the previously browsed plants. Herbivores damaged the sunflower intensively immediately after the emergence at the height of 1 to 2 cm above the ground. We marked out pairs of paired permanent plots and monitored deer impact regularly from the emergence of plants until the harvest. The experiment was carried out in 2006 on a field located near a forest complex. The influence of fallow (Dama dama) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) browsing during vegetation period on sunflower production was studied. Analyses of factors affecting the feeding behaviour of herbivores and consequences of their browsing are therefore highly important both for farmers and for game managers as the protective measurements should be focused on the most threatened fields. Large herbivores are the key species for game management in the Central Europe.
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