From Opus

Numida meleagris

Photo by rudydbn
Location: South Africa

[edit] Identification

53-58 cm, 1.4 kg. Grey-black and white. Unfeathered head, decorated with a dull yellow or reddish bony knob, and red and blue patches of skin. The wings are short and rounded, and the tail is also short.

[edit] Distribution

Widespread Africa s of the Sahara and extreme s Arabia.

[edit] Introduced Range

Widely introduced into the West Indies and southern France.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies

• N. m. sabyi - NW Morocco
• N. m. galeatus - "West African Guineafowl"; W Africa to s Chad, central Zaire and n Angola
• N. m. meleagris - E Chad to Ethiopia, n Zaire, Uganda and n Kenya
• N. m. somaliensis - NE Ethiopia and Somalia
• N. m. reichenowi - "Reichenow's Guineafowl"; Kenya and central Tanzania
• N. m. mitratus - Tanzania to e Mozambique, Zambia and n Botswana
• N. m. marungensis - S Congo basin to w Angola and Zambia
• N. m. damarensis - S Angola to Botswana and Namibia
• N. m. coronatus - E South Africa

[edit] Habitat

Bushveld, farmlands and open grassland areas.

[edit] Behaviour

Diet includes seeds, bulbs, tubers, berries, insects, snails and millipedes.

The nest is a large scrape on the ground, which is lined with dry grass; It is hidden amidst dense grass cover or under bushes. Up to 30 eggs are laid, and more than one female may lay in the same nest, which then incubate the eggs for 26-28 days.

[edit] External Links