Do ruminants and hindgut fermenters differ in their activity? Comparison of syntopic black wildebeest and Cape mountain zebra

What is it about?

We contrast the activity patterns and time spent feeding of the black wildebeest (a ruminant) and the Cape mountain zebra (a hindgut fermenter) living together, using data from camera traps. The ruminants’ more efficient digestive system, requiring lower volumes of forage, is predicted to provide an advantage over hindgut fermenters with respect to foraging effort, but this may be offset by their need for higher quality forage. We tested the volume-requirement and the nutrient-driven hypotheses seasonally. Zebra and wildebeest activity varied seasonally, potentially due to differences in resource availability. In winter, a greater proportion of wildebeest were recorded grazing relative to zebra, supporting the nutrient-driven hypothesis, whilst the inverse occurred in summer, supporting the volume-requirement hypothesis. Seasonal variation in resources may provide temporal foraging trade-offs of benefits for ruminants and hindgut fermenters.

Featured Image