Zingela Safaris

Light wooded open savannas and short grass plains are the ideal conditions for Wildebeest.

Wildebeest are gregarious animals, concentrating in herds of up to a few thousand individuals, if conditions are propitious. There is no stable social groupings in the herd. Adult bulls establish their own territories within the herd, where they try to retain the cows and their calves. Fights amongst adult bulls consist mainly in a lot of pushing, each contender on his knees, not causing any body harm at all. Young Wildebeest are evicted from the breeding herds at the age of 12 months, forming "bachelor groups" of up to 40 individuals. The female Wildebeest does not leave the herd to give birth. Although it's fragile appearance at birth, the calf is able to follow his mother within about 2 hours. Wildebeest have two annual cyclic migrations coinciding with the rainy Summer Season and the dry Season in Winter. They follow fixed migration patterns, with the same wet and dry season concentration areas used every year. Adult bulls can weigh up to 250kg and cows up to 215kg. and have a life span of about 20 years.

Wildebeest are exclusively grazers and prefers growth less than 10 to 15cm high.

Cows give birth to a single young in November and December after a gestation period of 250 to 260 days and give birth from for the first time at the age of 3 years. The calf is born strikingly different from the adults.