There Ain't No Fight Like A Dik Dik Fight !

Masai Mara National Reserve

Novelty’s such a huge bonus in this game of wildlife photography. There’s so many of us chasing that elusive animal, that elusive pose, that elusive behavior and even that elusive environment. It’s a game of chance where your only option for achieving success is to take the calculated, maximized chance given your limited means and hope your wits are about you when the chance you took pays off. Now all animals lose their temper and get into conflict. It was my opinion that all animals, us included get into the most conflict with our own kind and that results in the most deaths of that kind. That assumption of mine was to be shown its exception by the chance meeting of a unique kind of Antelope.

The chance we took that afternoon in Masai Mara was to go with a person from camp who seemed to know the whereabouts of a family of Kirk’s Dik Dik cause he had seen them recently on his way to work. We coulda been chasing Lions instead but it’s a decision I thank my camp’s owner for pushing me towards. I didn’t know what Dik Dik’s were and if I hadn’t gone with his insistence, Id’ve probably lost out on meeting one of the curtest creatures on this planet.

So, these guys are nocturnal dwarf antelope and seeing them for the first time was an epic WTF moment for me. They are miniature man. I was looking at a little goat like creature with a pig like snout and a rear end made for someone double his size. For me, it was unimaginable. What a novelty? Really ! I’d seen no posts from Mara with photos of these guys. I’d lucked out big time. Their reaction to seeing us was to freeze. Perfect for me to get my shots in and then a bit of time would pass and they’d unfreeze again to get back to what they were doing. If we moved the car a little or made a bit of noise, they’d freeze again LOL. Like full statue frozen and then relax again cause we didn’t seem like a threat I guess. I honestly have never seen any creature behave that way ever. They weren’t a novelty just by looks, they were so by behavior as well and turns out that their sightings are so rare that they’re novelties all around. Those horns that are shorter than their ears had me splitting my sides instead of taking pictures. Everything about these guys made me think, “Oh I want to hug them and take one home”. Cuteness overload. Wait it gets cuter. When these guys get into conflict over territory or something, their way of settling the dispute is to run at each other like other antelope and cattle who lock horns or butt heads however, these guys stop right at the last second before impact. They then back up further and repeat the process taking a longer run up. This goes on till one of them yields. It’s a non contact sport. How cute is that? We didn’t get to see any conflict. David, our driver was happy to narrate the funny story of the Dik Dik fight. Few witness it Very small chance apparently.

Kirk’s Dik Dik are the largest amongst Dik Diks at 18 inches tallest and about 7 kgs weight. They’re water independent and get their water from their diet. The live in monogamous pairs, in territories that can be as small as 2 acres. Some couples can spend their whole lives in that territory if everything goes well for them. They are known to mark their territories with dung and urine in a ritual that both partners partake in. They can have upto two offspring per year and produce one offspring per gestation. The offspring stays with the parents till another is born usually after which the young one is chased away by the parents and will go out to find its own partner and territory.

These guys are hunted by pretty much anyone I’d recon. There’s videos out there with these guys taking big risks as a family to escape predators and I think that the freeze reaction I saw is the first step before the bolt. It doesn’t really help that people hunt these poor frozen easy targets for their hides and bones and they’re often caught up in snares as well. Hunters apparently dislike them cause they alert bigger game about our presence adding to the danger that surrounds these cute things. Interestingly, they benefit from slash and burn agriculture as it leads to the regrowth of shrubs and that is what they prefer for food and shelter to taller trees and bush.

Im so glad to have taken the chance at meeting the Kirk’s Dik Dik that afternoon. They really turned out to be a novelty like no other and are probably among the most original creations of Nature. There are 3 other kinds of Dik Dik out there and all of the others are smaller. That said, what I most want with these guys is to capture them fighting. Tough one that. Oh well, a man can dream right?