Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Cephalo­phus zebra is found in pri­mary for­est areas in the mid-west­ern part of Africa; It in­hab­its the re­gions of Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast, but is most com­monly dis­trib­uted in the east­ern cen­tral coun­try of Liberia (King­don, 1997).

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

The zebra duiker is found in pri­mary forests from low-ly­ing areas such as river val­leys to hill-for­est habi­tats (King­don, 1997).

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Cephalo­phus zebra, also known by the com­mon name zebra duiker, has black ver­ti­cal stripes over a cream col­ored area which is lo­cated dor­sally on the mid-torso. The ven­tral sur­face is a solid cream color. The head, neck, rump, and limbs are red-brown with some patches of black found near the joints of the limbs (King­don, 1997).

Zebra duik­ers have a short, yet mus­cu­lar stature, stand­ing ap­prox­i­mately 40-50 cm tall and weigh­ing up to 20 kg (King­don, 1997). The limbs are short in re­la­tion to the body. Cephalo­phus zebra also has a pair of short and rounded horns, these horns taper sharply and point pos­te­ri­orly (King­don, 1997). Sex­ual di­mor­phism oc­curs in this species with fe­males being con­sis­tantly larger than male duik­ers (Wil­son et. al., 1984). (King­don, 1997; Wil­son, et al., 1984)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range mass

  15 to 20 kg

  33.04 to 44.05 lb

Re­pro­duc­tion

Breed­ing in zebra duik­ers oc­curs about once a year with a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of about 221 to 229 days. Fe­males can mate again ap­prox­i­mately ten days after giv­ing birth (Schweers, 1984). The rather long ges­ta­tion pe­riod is pos­si­bly an ex­pla­na­tion for the larger size of fe­males (Wil­son et. al., 1984).

Scented se­cre­tions are found in sev­eral glands on the body. These se­cre­tions seem to aid in sex­ual com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Male duik­ers se­crete a more con­cen­trated scent than that of the fe­male (Burger et.​al., 1990). The glands occur in the pre­or­bital re­gion, below the cal­ca­neum on the hind legs, and in the groin (King­don, 1997).

It is thought that monog­a­mous pair bonds are main­tained (King­don, 1997).

• Key Reproductive Features
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual

• Range number of offspring

  1 (low)

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  7.37 to 7.63 months

• Average gestation period

  7.43 months

• Parental Investment
• extended period of juvenile learning

Be­hav­ior

Zebra duik­ers are soli­tary an­i­mals ex­cept when paired with a mate or when rais­ing an in­fant. Mat­ing pairs often en­gage in mu­tual rub­bing or lick­ing of pre­or­bital glands (Vaughan et. al., 2000). Mat­ing pairs are also de­fend their ter­ri­tory. Both sexes have horns and will use them to at­tack in­vad­ing duik­ers.

The stripes on the back of Cephalo­phus zebra are a vi­sual de­fense mech­a­nism. A preda­tor's at­ten­tion is fo­cused on the an­i­mal's move­ment, rather than their body out­lines (King­don, 1997).

In­fant care in zebra duik­ers is ex­tremely im­por­tant for both fe­males and males, es­pe­cially be­cause of the long ges­ta­tion pe­riod. In ad­di­tion, zebra duik­ers ma­ture slowly "sug­gest­ing that pro­longed learn­ing may be nec­es­sary for suc­cess­ful ex­ploita­tion of a dif­fi­cult en­vi­ron­ment," (King­don, 1997).

• Key Behaviors
• motile
• solitary

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Zebra duik­ers are fruit and fo­liage browsers. Their diet in­cludes leaves, shoots, and sea­sonal fruits (Owen-Smith, 1997). Due to the duiker's short stature, they are not able to for­age on fruits and leaves that exist in tall trees. Much of the food they con­sume is pro­vided by climb­ing or fly­ing an­i­mals such as mon­keys, bats, or birds which will ac­ci­den­tally dis­lodge fruit or leaves to the for­est floor dur­ing their nor­mal for­ag­ing ac­tiv­i­ties. Duik­ers will then feed upon this dropped veg­e­ta­tion (King­don, 1997).

Cephalo­phus zebra have a thick­en­ing of the frontal bone in the skull which seems to serve as a tool for crack­ing open hard-shelled fruits (King­don, 1997). This en­ables them to ac­cess a food source which is not avail­able to many other for­est in­hab­i­tants which can­not open these fruits.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hu­mans rarely en­counter zebra duik­ers in the wild but they are some­times hunted for their meat (King­don, 1997).

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Zebra duik­ers are lim­ited to pri­mary for­est areas which are cur­rently be­com­ing re­stricted due to log­ging and de­vel­op­ment. Cephalo­phus zebra is con­sid­ered threat­ened due to for­est de­struc­tion. In areas such as Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast pop­u­la­tions are con­sid­ered close to ex­tinc­tion (King­don, 1997).

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• US Federal List

  Threatened

• CITES

  Appendix II

Other Com­ments

Zebra duik­ers as well as other mem­bers of Cephalo­phus are be­lieved to re­sem­ble an­ces­tral bovids (Vaughan et. al., 2000).

Con­trib­u­tors

Michelle Mijal (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Burger, B., P. Pre­to­rius, H. Spies, R. Bi­galke, G. Gri­er­son. 1990. Mam­malian Pheromones VIII. Chem­i­cal Char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of Pre­or­bital Gland. Jour­nal of Chem­i­cal Ecol­ogy, 16: 397-416.

King­don, J. 1997. The King­don Field Guide to African Mam­mals. Lon­don: Aca­d­e­mic Press.

Owen-Smith, N. 1997. Dis­tinc­tive Fea­tures of the Nu­tri­tional Ecol­ogy of Brows­ing Ver­sus Graz­ing Ru­mi­nants. Zeitschrift fuer Saeugetierkunde, 62: 176-191.

Schweers, V. 1984. On the Re­pro­duc­tive Bi­ol­ogy of the Banded Duiker Cephalo­phus Zebra in Com­par­i­son with Other Species of Cephalo­phus. In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal of Mam­malian Bi­ol­ogy, 49: 21.

Vaughan, T., J. Ryan, N. Czaplewski. 2000. Mam­mol­ogy. Or­lando, FL: Saun­ders Col­lege Pub­lish­ing.

Wil­son, V., J. Schmidt, J. Hanks. 1984. Age De­ter­mi­na­tion and Body Growth of the Com­mon Duiker Sylv­i­capra- Grim­mia Mam­malia. Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 202: 283-298.