Lowland Nyala facts 🦌 Nyala 🦌 highest sexual dimorphism among the spiral-horned antelopes 🤩
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The lowland nyala or simply nyala is a spiral-horned antelope native to southern Africa.
The coat is maroon or rufous brown in females and juveniles, but grows a dark brown or slate gray,
often tinged with blue, in adult males.
Females and young males have 10 or more white stripes on their sides.
Only males have horns and are yellow-tipped.
It exhibits the highest sexual dimorphism among the spiral-horned antelopes.
The nyala is mainly active in the early morning and the late afternoon.
It generally browses during the day and during the night in the rainy season.
As a herbivore, the nyala feeds upon foliage, fruits and grasses, with sufficient fresh water.
A shy animal, it prefers waterholes rather than open spaces.
The nyala does not show signs of territoriality,
and individuals' areas can overlap each other's.
They are very cautious creatures.
Old males live alone, but single-sex or mixed-family groups of up to 10 individuals can be found.
These inhabit thickets within dense and dry savanna woodlands.
The main predators of the nyala are lion, leopard and cape-hunting dog,
while baboons and raptorial birds hunt for the juveniles.
Mating peaks during spring and autumn.
Males and females are sexually mature at 18 and 11 to 12 months of age respectively,
though they are socially immature until 5 years old.
After a gestational period of 7 months, a single calf is born.
The nyala's range includes Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
It has been introduced to Botswana and Namibia,
and reintroduced to Swaziland, where it had been extinct since 1950.
Its population is stable and it has been listed as of least concern
by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The principal threats to the species are poaching and habitat loss resulting from human settlement.
The males are highly prized as game animals in Africa.
As a herbivore, the nyala's diet consists of foliage, fruits, flowers and twigs.
During the rainy season they feed upon the fresh grass.
They need a regular intake of water and thus choose places with a water source nearby.
However, they are adapted to live in areas with only a seasonal availability of water.
The nyala inhabits dense lowland woodlands and thickets,
mainly in southern Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and eastern South Africa.
It chooses places with good quality grasslands as well as provision of fresh water.
They also inhabit lush green river country.
The nyala's natural range stretches across southeast Africa from the Lower Shire Valley
in Malawi through Mozambique and Zimbabwe to eastern South Africa and Swaziland.
Today over 80% of the total population is protected in national parks and sanctuaries,
mostly in South African protected areas.
These are the Ndomo Game Reserve, Uomkuse Game Reserve and Lulue-Umfertse Game Reserve
and Kruger National Park.
10 to 15% occur on private land.
They mostly occur in South Africa due to the high demand for adult males as game trophies.
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