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Kirk's Dik-Dik
Paignton Zoo is home to 3 female Kirk’s dik-dik, mum Eclair and her two calves. They live just down from Baboon Rock.
The name "dik-dik" takes inspiration from their distinctive alarm calls, while this particular subspecies was named after Sir John Kirk, a 19th-century naturalist from Scotland.
Class:
Mammals
Order:
Cetartiodactyla
Family:
Bovidae
About the Kirk's dik-dik
Dik-diks are small antelopes native to the shrublands and savannahs of northeast Africa.
They are herbivores and eat a diet of mostly leaves, shoots and fruit. Kirk’s dik-dik also produce the driest faeces and most concentrated urine of any hoofed animal... This allows them to conserve as much water as possible as an adaptation to the dry, arid environments or their native range.
A fully grown dik-dik stands about 40cm tall and weighs around 5kg. This makes it around the same size as a domestic cat.
Their Bambi-like appearance is due in part to their large eyes and the tear gland under each eye, which secretes a dark, sticky fluid used for scent marking.
Conservation
While Kirk's dik-dik don't face any major threats at present, increased habitat loss and hunting remain a potential threat in the near future.
Our Kirk’s dik-dik are part of a European Studbook which aims to ensure that the captive population in European zoos remains fit and healthy.