seletiva dos animais que exibiam marcas levando a maiores chances de sobrevivencia e reproducao bem sucedidas. Certamente, nao podemos imaginar uma marca tao simetrica aparecendo de uma so tacada, mas seu gradual estabelecimento atraves de varias geracoes de waterbucks. E sempre bom pensar em evolucao na frente de animais tao diversos e belos!Before entering the road toTransport Dam we saw 3 female waterbucks by the road, in between the grass. Wecan see one of them in the first picture. AsAfrican Buffalos, waterbucks are not threatened, but their populations are declining.Even though they have water as a suffix, these big antelopes neither arereally aquatic nor are at home in water. They have this name because they takerefuge in water to escape predators. However, this use of water may have led toadaptations, if we interpret the smelly, oily secretion that covers their furas playing the function of waterproofing. Older waterbucks are also avoided by predators because their meat has anunpleasant odor, resulting from the waterproofing secretions of its sweatglands. Predators tend to prefer, then, other preys. Probably because bad smellusually means unpleasant food, poisonous, toxic, or something like that, it iscommonly thought that waterbuck meat is not edible. This is not true, the meatis safe to eat. We didnt find it to eat in the Kruger restaurants, but in Wikipedia, one says that it is not especially tasty. Waterbucksdo inhabit areas close to water in savannah grasslands, gallery forests andriverine woodlands. In these habitats, they have enough food, provided by longgrasses, but also find watery places to flee from predators. It is interestingthat they consume coarse grass species seldom eaten by other grazers, andoccasionally browse leaves from certain trees and bushes.Theyare mostly sedentary and territorial animals. Young males form herds, but asthey mature, they turn into more territorial behavior. However, they do notscent-mark their territories. Females are found in herds, but so loosely formedthat they are not really social groups, but just groups of individuals withoverlapping home ranges. It is easy to differentiate females from males,because they are smaller and exhibit no horns.In the second picture, we see another great contribution to the animal butts calendar. Thewaterbuck back is a target! Well, only an animal with so many predatoravoidance strategies could have a target at its back! Just kidding. Here is avery nice African tale about how the waterbuck got its white circle: http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view_print.php?book=5272 Wehave this tale in a book of African tales we bought in the Kruger. Fantasticbook! My daughter has now just 4 months. As soon as she can understand more, I am eager to read the tales to her.Inthe tale, we curiously find a functional explanation for the white ring: it isuseful because it shows up in the dark and the young ones are able to follow their mother to the safety of the forest! It is indeed an accepted explanation for thefunction of the white ring. It is a follow me marking, regularly found inmammals, which allows animals to follow each other, particularly young animalsfollowing their mothers. This is, then, a nice example of traditional andscientific knowledge in agreement! Evolutionarily,we