Hartebeest

Hartebeest – Alcelaphus buselaphus. This unusual looking species of antelope is divided into 1 extinct and 7 extant subspecies:

  • A. b. buselaphus – Bubal hartebeest or northern hartebeest. Previously found across Northern Africa but now extinct.
  • A. b. caama  red hartebeest or Cape hartebeest. Once wide-ranging in Southern Africa but now confined to the Northern Cape, central and southwestern Botswana and Namibia.
  • A. b. cokii  Coke’s hartebeest or kongoni. Kenya and northern Tanzania.
  • A. b. lelwel – Lelwel hartebeest. Formerly present in much of Central Africa. Remaining populations exist in protected areas only.
  • A. b. lichtensteinii – Lichtenstein’s hartebeest. From the miombo woodlands of eastern and southern Africa.
  • A. b. major – western hartebeest. Once occurred throughout Mali, Niger, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, southwestern Chad, Cameroon, western Central African Republic and Benin. Now confined to protected areas.
  • A. b. swaynei  Swayne’s hartebeest. Now restricted to the southern Rift Valley in Ethiopia.
  • A. b. tora – Tora hartebeest. Small numbers left in northwestern Ethiopia and western and southwestern Eritrea.