Discussion

The evening recorded the highest behavioural activities which matches the known literature, but it was still interesting to see a high activity in the afternoon (walking and sniffing), since it is considered to be their resting period. Studies have shown that animals tend to change their activity patterns when encountering disturbance, perhaps this could be the reason for such behaviours.

  • Humans and dogs did not have an impact on the bushbucks behaviours
  • Less flight response when dog were present, this could mean a possible habituation to disturbance; the more the bushbucks were exposed to the dogs presence, the less frightened they were and less likely to flee
  • More flight response when dogs were absent, this could be due to the fact that the cameras could not record what was chasing the bushbuck or other factors could have influenced this behaviour
  • More research should be done to understand if its habituation or perhaps other factors