Duiker Common

A duiker is a small to medium-sized antelope species from the subfamily Cephalophinae native to Sub-Saharan Africa. Duikers are shy and elusive creatures with a fondness for dense cover, most are forest dwellers. With their slightly arched body and front legs a little shorter that the back enables them to disappear quickly into thickets.

Their name comes from the Afrikaans word for diver and refers to their practice of diving into tangles of shrubbery. They are primarily browsers rather than grazers, eating leaves, shoots, seeds, fruit, buds and bark, and often follow flocks of birds or troops of monkeys to take advantage of the fruit they drop. They supplement their diet with meat: duikers take insects and carrion from time to time, and even stalk and capture rodents or small birds. They stand approximately 50cm (20 inches) at the shoulder and weigh 25kg (55lbs), have a grey-brown coat and a tuft of hair on it head with short horns in the male, and a black streak running down the nose.