Roan antelope

Roan antelope
Roan antelope ( Hippotragus equinus ) in Mokala National Park
Systematics
without rank: Forehead weapon bearer (Pecora) Family : Horned Bearers (Bovidae) Subfamily : Antilopinae Tribe : Horse rams (Hippotragini) Genre : Horse antelopes ( Hippotragus ) Type : Roan antelope
Scientific name
Hippotragus equinus
( É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , 1803)

The roe antelope ( Hippotragus equinus ) is an antelope from the group of rams and one of the largest African antelope species. It occurs from Senegal and Guinea-Bissau to the west of Ethiopia, also in Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, in the north-east of Namibia, in the north of Botswana and in the north-east of South Africa.

features

The roan antelope is one of the larger African antelopes and can reach a body length of 200 to 220 cm, a shoulder height of 125 to 145 cm and a weight of 215 to 280 kg (females) or 235 to 300 kg. The fur can be almost whitish, medium brown or dark brown. The face is mostly black, the muzzle and nose are white. The ears are large and curved back. The neck and withers have a mane of upright hair, another mane extends from the throat to the chest. The black, 60 to 75 cm long tail ends in a tassel. Both sexes have horns. These are slightly longer than the head and clearly curved backwards. Young animals that are younger than four months have a reddish coat. The dental formula is: . ${\displaystyle {\frac {0.0.3.3}{3.1.3.3}}}$

Habitat and way of life

Roan antelopes in the bushy Chobe National Park

The range of the roan antelope

Roan antelopes occur in savannas , especially in wet savannahs with lots of trees and tall grass. However, the animals are flexible and can also be found in some semi-arid areas, but there are almost always near watering points. In the South African Nylsvley Nature Reserve they prefer the open grassland but in the Madrid Game Reserve, also in South Africa, they stay more than other ungulates in regions with a denser canopy. Females, young animals and adolescent males live in small, usually somewhat scattered groups of 6 to 20 specimens. Every now and then they join together to form larger herds with over 100 animals. The territory inhabited by the small troops is 40 to 120 km² in size and there are also one or more males who mark the boundaries of the territory with dung or by damaging shrubs and low trees with their horns. In contrast to the sable antelope, they do not scratch the ground before they settle their droppings. The territories are defended by the males about 300 to 500 meters from the actual border against rival males, where they use the horns and often sit down on the "knees" (pastern joint, carpus joint) of the forelegs. When migrating, the small herds are led by a dominant female, which adult males can also follow. Larger young animals and adolescents sometimes separate from the females for a few hours or days.

nutrition

Roan antelopes feed mainly on grass. Analyzes of tooth enamel show that they make up around 90% of their diet in southern Africa and almost 100% in East Africa. In the West African Burkina Faso, however, they also ate legumes and the leaves of bushes during the hot rainy season . After fires in the savannah, the animals prefer the freshly grown green. As a rule, they only eat the higher grass sections and bite them off about 80 mm above the ground, while fresh grasses are grazed up to a height of 20 mm. Roan antelopes also go into relatively deep water to get to aquatic plants. You start feeding around 10 a.m., rest in the heat of midday and have a second feeding period from late afternoon to evening, often well into the night.

Reproduction

Fighting males in Senegal

Roan antelopes breed all year round. The oestrus only lasts for a day or two and the males smell the females' urine to know when they are ready to conceive. During estrus, the females mate frequently. They urge the males to mate with submissive behavior, the animals circle each other twice and the male then follows the female and touches a hind leg of the female with one foreleg. The gestation period is 276 to 287 days. A few days before birth, the pregnant female leaves the herd and then stays with the newborn for a period of five days. Then she returns to the herd and only visits the little one in the morning hours and sometimes at night to suckle. Otherwise, the mother animal and the young animal keep in contact with each other by soft calls. The young are suckled for about half a year. The next ovulation occurs one month after the birth and around ten months pass between two births. Female roan antelopes become sexually mature at two years of age.

Systematics and taxonomy

Internal system of the rams according to Themudo & Campus 2018   Hippotragini     Addax    Addax nasomaculatus   Oryx    Oryx beisa      Oryx dammah      Oryx leucoryx      Oryx Gazella   Hippotragus    Hippotragus equinus      (†) Hippotragus leucophaeus      Hippotragus niger

The roan antelope was scientifically described for the first time in 1803 by the French zoologist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire under the name Antilope equina . Today it forms together with the sable antelope ( Hippotragus niger ), the East African sable antelope ( H. roosevelti ) and the extinct bluebock ( H. leucophaeus ) the genus of the horse antelope ( Hippotragus ), which in turn together with the mende antelope ( Addax nasomaculatus ) and the oryx antelope ( Oryx ) forms the tribe of the rams (Hippotragini). Within the horse antelope, the horse antelope faces the various sable atelopes and the bluebuck as a sister group . Up to six subspecies are distinguished, but this division is controversial. In a nature guide published in 1997, Jonathan Kingdon distinguishes between two main populations, one in the north and one in the southeast of the range, which he divides into a total of five provisional subspecies. The system was expanded in 2013 in the standard work Mammals of Africa to six subspecies with three main areas of distribution:

• Western group:

• H. e. koba ; Senegal to Nigeria

• Central group:

• H. e. Sharicus ; Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic
• H. e. bakeri ; Chad to Ethiopia

• Southern group:

• H. e. equinus ; southern africa
• H. e. langheldi ; eastern africa
• H. e. cottoni ; central africa

The subspecies were first distinguished in 1972 by William Frank Harding Ansell . But they are generally not recognized. There are also certain overlaps, as for example H. e. Sharicus hardly from H. e. koba can be separated, only a more pronounced red coloration is recognizable in the former. According to genetic studies, the roan antelope shows only a few variations with around 1.9% deviations across its range. However, the West African populations emerged more clearly, which may indicate the independence of H. e. koba speaks as a subspecies.

Colin Groves and Peter Grubb refrained from naming subspecies for the roan antelope in their revision of the systematics of ungulates in 2011. However, they list the scientific names and the associated terra typicas that are available if the roan antelope should be divided into subspecies. In the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (2011) the species is considered monotypical .

Danger

Roan antelope's footstep (photo from Pendjari National Park )

The IUCN has rated the roan antelope as safe. Overall, it is estimated that there are still 76,000 specimens in all of Africa, 60% of which live in protected areas. Most roan antelopes live in Burkina Faso (over 7300), Cameroon (over 6000), Zambia (over 5000) and Tanzania (over 4300). There are fewer than 500 copies in South Africa. The roan antelope has been reintroduced in some protected areas where it was already extinct.

literature

• Philippe Chardonnet and William Crosmary: Hippotragus equinus Roan Antelope. In: Jonathan Kingdon, David Happold, Michael Hoffmann, Thomas Butynski, Meredith Happold and Jan Kalina (eds.): Mammals of Africa Volume VI. Pigs, Hippopotamuses, Chevrotain, Giraffes, Deer and Bovids. Bloomsbury, London, 2013, pp. 548-556
• Colin Peter Groves and David M. Leslie Jr .: Family Bovidae (Hollow-horned Ruminants). In: Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 2: Hooved Mammals. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2011, ISBN 978-84-96553-77-4 , pp. 444-779 (p. 685)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Colin Peter Groves and David M. Leslie Jr .: Family Bovidae (Hollow-horned Ruminants). In: Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 2: Hooved Mammals. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2011, ISBN 978-84-96553-77-4 , pp. 444-779 (p. 685)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Gonçalo Espreguira Themudo and Paula F. Campos: Phylogenetic position of the extinct blue antelope, Hippotragus leucophaeus (Pallas, 1766) (Bovidae: Hippotraginae), based on complete mitochondrial genomes. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 182, 2018, pp. 225-235
3. ↑ Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire: Catalog des mammifères du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris, 1803, pp. 1–272 (p. 259) ( [1] )
4. ↑ Gonçalo Espregueira Themudo, Ana C. Rufino and Paula F. Campos: Complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the endangered giant sable antelope (Hippotragus niger variani): Insights into conservation and taxonomy. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 83, 2015, pp. 242-249
5. ↑ Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Gaik Tamazian, David Wildt, Pavel Dobrynin, Changhoon Kim, Paul B. Frandsen, Raquel Godinho, Andrey A. Yurchenko, Aleksey Komissarov, Ksenia Krasheninnikova, Sergei Kliver, Sofia Kolchanova, Margarida Gonçalves, Miguel Carneiro, Pedro Vaz Pinto, Nuno Ferrand, Jesús E. Maldonado, Gina M. Ferrie, Leona Chemnick, Oliver A. Ryder, Warren E. Johnson, Pierre Comizzoli, Stephen J. O'Brien and Budhan S. Pukazhenthi: Whole Genome Sequencing and Re- sequencing of the Sable Antelope (Hippotragus niger): A Resource for Monitoring Diversity inex Situand in Situ Populations. Genes, Genomes, Genetics 9, 2019, pp. 1785-1793
6. ^ ^{A b} Colin Groves and Peter Grubb: Ungulate Taxonomy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, pp. 198-199
7. ↑ Jonathan Kingdon: The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals . A&C Black Publishers, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-7136-6513-0 (first edition: 1997).
8. ^ ^{A b} Philippe Chardonnet and William Crosmary: Hippotragus equinus Roan Antelope. In: Jonathan Kingdon, David Happold, Michael Hoffmann, Thomas Butynski, Meredith Happold and Jan Kalina (eds.): Mammals of Africa Volume VI. Pigs, Hippopotamuses, Chevrotain, Giraffes, Deer and Bovids. Bloomsbury, London, 2013, pp. 548-556
9. ↑ DL Alpers, BJ Van Vuuren, P. Arctander and TJ Robinson: Population genetics of the roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus) with suggestions for conservation. Molecular Ecology 13 (7), 2004, pp. 1771-1784
10. ↑ Hippotragus equinus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2017. Posted by: Antelope Specialist Group, 2016. Accessed July 27 of 2019.

Web links

Commons : Roan Antelope ( Hippotragus equinus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hippotragus equinus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2017. Posted by: Antelope Specialist Group, 2016. Accessed July 27 of 2019.