Mountain Reed Buck and Duiker.

Took a drive out on the Loteni road, a round trip of about 140km. I was looking for interesting landscapes to photograph. Along the road I stopped to photograph a tree, when I heard a loud, sharp whistle, the alarm signal of a male, mountain reed buck.  

Click to enlarge.

He ran for quite a distance then stopped to look at me, if I was a hunter this would have been a fatal mistake. Fortunately for him I was only shooting with a camera. This is big buck, with a huge pair of horns, a real trophy set.

Mountain reed buck live at altitudes of 3000 - 5000 meters, they usually live together in small groups, while they graze at least one is on guard ready to give the alarm whistle should it spot danger.

On my way back I spotted this Duiker, (Dutch for diver, from it's habit of diving into thickets when alarmed), crossing the road in front of me. True to form it dived into a patch of thick grass next to the road when it saw the car. I stopped, got out with my camera to see if I could get a photo. The Duiker bounded out of the long grass when I was almost on it, jumped over the barbed wire fence next to the road and into the veld. Just as the reed buck did, it ran then stopped to look back at me, just before it disappeared over the ridge.

I suppose this what you would call "a clean pair of heels," as it heads over the ridge.