likely the result of the high digestibility (Talbot et al., 1965). The data
presented also support the previous findings of Rogerson (1968) that
the wildebeest has a 20–30% higher maintenance requirement per
kg75 than that of the domestic species. Fig. 1 depicts the amount of
food digested and intake by East African ruminants given ad libitum
food and water at an ambient temperature of 22 °C.
In conclusion, for the smaller species of ruminant, food intake per
kg body mass appears to be a more meaningful expression of productivity
than that of food intake per kg 75 since the gazelles eat less
food per kilogram of body mass than their domestic counterparts, the
sheep and goat. Furthermore, these gazelles appear much more digestive
efficient than any of the other species. However, these results are
only suggestive, and a detailed investigation of digestive efficiency on
different planes of nutrition and under controlled laboratory as well as
varied field conditions needs to be conducted before definite conclusions
can be drawn. While studies are currently in progress in our
laboratory, aim at investigating the low metabolic rate and metabolic
adaptation for surviving famines in zebu cattle, it would also be
interesting to find out if small wild and domestic desert ruminants
have a “metabolic switch” for surviving food shortages inherent in arid
habitats as suggested by Merkt and Taylor, (1994) and Choshniak et al.
(1995)