Bushbuck
Encyclopedia
The bushbuck is the most widespread antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...

 in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...

, and is found in rain forests, montane
Montane
In biogeography, montane is the highland area located below the subalpine zone. Montane regions generally have cooler temperatures and often have higher rainfall than the adjacent lowland regions, and are frequently home to distinct communities of plants and animals.The term "montane" means "of the...

 forests, forest-savanna mosaics and bush savanna
Savanna
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...

forest and woodland. Recently, genetic studies have shown that the bushbuck, is in fact a complex of two geographically and phenotypically distinct species. The most compelling evidence for the division of the bushbuck into the Kéwel (Tragelaphus scriptus) and the Imbabala (Tragelaphus sylvaticus) is that both species are more closely related to other members of the tragelaphine family (the Imbabala to the Bongo
Bongo (antelope)
The western or lowland bongo, Tragelaphus eurycerus eurycerus, is a herbivorous, mostly nocturnal forest ungulate and among the largest of the African forest antelope species....

 and the Sitatunga
Sitatunga
The situtunga or marshbuck is a swamp-dwelling antelope found throughout Central Africa, centering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and parts of Southern Sudan as well as in Ghana, Botswana, Zambia, Gabon, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.-Description:Situtunga stand about one and a...

, and the Kéwel to the Nyala
Nyala
The Nyala is a Southern African antelope. It is a spiral-horned dense-forest antelope that is uncomfortable in open spaces and is most often seen at water holes. Nyalas live alone or in small family groups of up to 10 individuals.The male stands up to 110 cm , the female is up to 90 cm ...

) than to each other.
The bushbuck ram is regarded by sports hunters as the most dangerous medium-size antelope, as it will hide in the bush after being wounded and charge the hunter when he comes looking for it, impaling the hunter with its sharp horns.

See also Kéwel
Kéwel
The Kéwel is a small to medium sized antelope widespread in west and central Africa. Formerly and alongside the Imbabala it was generically known as the bushbuck, however, it has since been found to be a species in its own right, with a separate geographic distribution...

.

Distribution

The Kéwel is distributed from Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

 and southern Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

 across the Sahel
Sahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....

, east to Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 and Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

 and south to Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

 and the southern DRC
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

. The Imbabala occurs from the Cape in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 to Angola and Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

 and up the eastern part of Africa to the Ethiopia and Somalia. Both species occur sympatrically in northern Angola, southern DRC, around the Lake Albert area, southern Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

 and Ethiopia. The bushbuck will hardly ever be found in an area of close proximity to Nyala
Nyala
The Nyala is a Southern African antelope. It is a spiral-horned dense-forest antelope that is uncomfortable in open spaces and is most often seen at water holes. Nyalas live alone or in small family groups of up to 10 individuals.The male stands up to 110 cm , the female is up to 90 cm ...

 as Nyala will always drive them away. Game Farmers in southern Africa found this out the hard way when they tried to introduce the two species in the same area; the bushbuck being driven away by the Nyala.

Description

The Kéwel is a smaller animal, with a mainly red or yellow ground colour. It is conspicuously striped and patterned and there is little to no sexual dimorphism with respect to ground colouration. As the first of the bushbucks to be described by Pallas in 1766 as Antilope scripta from Senegal, it retains the original species name for bushbuck. Its common name, Kéwel (Wronski and Moodley, 2009), is taken from the Wolof language
Wolof language
Wolof is a language spoken in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania, and is the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger–Congo language family...

 spoken in Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

. As most studies of the bushbucks have focused on the Imbabala, very little is known about the biology of the Kéwel, except for what can be gleaned from museum specimens and hunting trophies.
The Imbabala is larger than the Kéwel and its colouration varies greatly with geography and habitat type. Only the most genetically ancient of the Imbabala populations (from Angola, Zambia, southern DRC, Botswana and northern Zimbabwe) bears any significant striping. And even in these populations the horizontal stripe, if present at all, is broken up into a series of spots. Thick horizontal striping as in the Kéwel never occurs. In general, patterning in the Imbabala reduces with distance away from south-central Africa. Ground colouration is also more variable than in the Kéwel, ranging from yellow to red-brown, brown, olive to almost black. Mountain forms of the Imbabala in the Gregory Rift Highlands, Mt. Elgon, the Imatong Mountains and the Ethiopian Highlands all appear larger, with very dark ground colour and almost no patterning. Much of the variation in ground colouration, especially deviations from red-brown, occurs mainly in males. The first Latin name that can be attributed to the Imbabala was Antilope sylvatica after Sparrman (1780) described from the Cape Colony. Its common name, Imbabala (Wronski and Moodley, 2009), is taken from the Xhosa
Xhosa language
Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...

 language spoken in that part of South Africa. Much of the scientific as well as public interest literature about bushbuck to be found on the internet, pertain only to the Imbabala, not the Kéwel. As in the rest of the text below.

Bushbuck stand about 90 centimetres at the shoulder and weigh from 45 to 80 kilograms (depending on sex). Bushbuck have a light brown coat, with up to seven white stripes and white splotches on the sides. The white patches are usually geometrically shaped and on the most mobile parts of their body such as the ears, chin, tail, legs and neck. The muzzle is also white and horns are found only on the males and they can reach over half a metre with only one twist. At 10 months old, young males sprout horns that are particularly twisted and at maturity form the first loop of a spiral.

Bushbuck eat mainly browse but supplement their diet with any other plant matter
Vegetation
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...

 they can reach. Bushbuck are active around 24 hours a day but tend to be nocturnal near human habitations. Bushbuck tend to be solitary, though some live in pairs.

All bushbucks live within a "home" area they will not normally leave this area, which is usually around 50 000 square metres on the savannah and much larger in the forest. These areas usually overlap other bushbuck home areas. Bushbucks are basically solitary animals and the mature males go out of their way to stay away from each other. Usually bushbuck are most active during early morning and part of the night, therefore are almost entirely nocturnal in areas where they are unlikely to be disturbed.

External links

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