Family Affairs: Courting and Bonding in the Serengeti

The Serengeti is a haven for hundreds of species, from huge herbivores like the elephant to fierce predators like the lion. Each animal species is unique, with its own habits and adaptations to the environment. Yet for all of these animals, reproduction is a common thread. Without the rituals of courting, mating, and rearing young, these animals would become just a memory. Each species has its own special way of finding mates and raising offspring, which is part of what makes the Serengeti such a fascinating cradle of African wildlife.

Rites of Courtship

For many species, courting is an important part of the mating process. Courting rituals separate the strongest, fittest animals from the pack, allowing the best genes to pass into the next generation. Cheetah males fight over the right to mate with females, sometimes to the death. Male ostriches perform an elaborate dance to impress potential mates. Warthog boars ram and push each other with their heads and tusks until one boar gives up, allowing the victor to mate with the sows.

The "warts" on the warthog cushion blows during fighting so that that boars rarely injure each other.

Even the most dominant males may still need to work hard to attract a mate. When a warthog boar wants to attract a female, he produces a series of rhythmic grunts. These boars also sniff out the burrows of females in heat, intending to waylay them as they emerge in the morning. In a similar way, cheetahs attract females with a unique "stutter bark."

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Article by Valerie Deveraux
Photographs by $PLAYER

In the characteristic ostrich mating dance, the male ostrich sinks slowly to the ground and begins to wave and shake the feathers of first one wing and then the other while moving his tail up and down. Next, he rises and moves toward the female, stamping and holding his wings out. If she approves of this display, she will mate with him.

After mating, a male warthog will return to a solitary life until the next mating season.

Zebras are pregnant for more than a year before they finally give birth.

Play behavior is common in many animals and helps develop coordination.

Raising Offspring Raising newborns in the Serengeti is no easy task. Young animals of virtually every species are the targets of predators, and many do not survive their early months. Among cheetahs, 90 percent of the cubs in the Serengeti die before they reach three months of age. Cheetah moms, who normally live alone, keep their cubs with them for 18 months. During this time, the mother cheetah will spend a lot of time teaching her young to hunt. She may do this by bringing live antelopes to the cubs and releasing them so that the cubs can practice chasing and catching them. After the mother leaves her cubs, siblings will stay together for about six months, after which the females leave the group and the males form small coalitions, sometimes with other males.

Cheetahs nurse their young for two to three months, but cubs may also start to eat meat at about three weeks of age.

Unlike cheetahs, warthog mothers will join forces with their sisters or daughters to raise their young. Female warthogs will even nurse each others' young. Piglets remain in the burrow for six or seven weeks, then follow their mother everywhere, traveling behind her in a fixed order. Because warthogs have no insulating hair or fat, the young are particularly vulnerable to cold and damp. The warthog's deep burrows keep them warm - and safe from predators like lions and leopards.

Warthogs enter their burrows backwards so that they can dart out quickly in the morning to escape any waiting predators.

Ultimately, warthogs leave the burrow, cheetahs go out on their own, and countless other animals take their places in the Serengeti ecosystem. With sustained conservation of these remarkable animals and their habitat, this circle of life will continue unbroken.

A mother cheetah will bring her cubs to feed on a kill.

Cheetah coalitions typically consist of three or four males.

A group of warthogs is called a sounder. Warthogs, each with 2 to 4 offspring of their own, may raise litters together of up to 16 hogs.

For more information, visit: African Wildlife Foundation: Cheetah African Wildlife Foundation: Warthog Cheetah Conservation Fund Wildwatch - Warthogs - Africa's Jester

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