Roan Antelope Update
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After arriving at Fossil Rim they underwent a 60-day quarantine. Now they can be seen in the pasture near our offices where one of the females gave birth to a son on June 11th. They will remain in this pasture for a while longer so we can more closely monitor their diets and give the baby a chance to get more comfortable before turning them out into the front pasture where they will live. If you look closely you might catch a glimpse of them in the pasture just after you pass 'Magnum', our Ankole / Watusi / Scottish Highland bull who can be seen behind the front entry.

The mature females of a herd establish a dominance hierarchy among themselves through extensive fighting, and the highest-ranking individual initiates most herd movements, even in the presence of the adult male. Females are capable of producing a calf every 10 to 10 1/2 months. Their gestation period is about 9 months. Once born, the young will be kept hidden for around 10 days. The head and body length is1,880 to 2,670 mm, shoulder height is 1,000 to 1,600 mm and weight I 150 to 300 kg. Males are typically one-fifth larger and heavier than females. They are a pale, reddish brown color with white under parts. The skin is thick and tough and both sexes possess stout, heavily ringed horns. Their ears are about the same size as their horns, which led the first Europeans to spot these hearty animals to believe they had four horns.

Roan are active early in the morning and late in the afternoon and feed exclusively on grasses and herbs. If disturbed, they utter a snorting sound before fleeing. Roan will go down on their 'knees' when they fight. This relatively shy animal is among the relatively few horned ungulates which, when pursued, will stand their ground and defend themselves with their horns. Where not persecuted, these antelopes are not extremely wary, often running a short distance and then stopping to look back. When closely pursued, however, they can run as fast as 57 km/hr with great endurance. When wounded or cornered, they become savage, charging and using their horns with amazing speed and dexterity.