Waterbuck

It wasn’t until I was reading a Mammal’s of Africa reference book five years ago that I learnt that there were different subspecies in Africa. I promised myself that I would have to get to see the Northern subspecies sometime in my life and I had that opportunity on a trip to Kenya’s Masai Mara.

The Defassa Waterbuck and the Ellipsen Waterbuck were formerly regarded as distinct species of buck as they were found in 2 main groups in Africa. Recently, as many as 13 subspecies have been identified and named with interbreeding occurring where the subspecies overlap.

Ellipsen Waterbuck

Ellipsen Waterbuck

The Ellipsen Waterbuck is the species that I grew up with in South Africa’s national parks.  It can be identified by the grey-brown coat and the wonderfully ridged horns that sweep in an arc upwards (found only in males of both subspecies.). They also have small white bibs below their chin and the customary white ring on their rump.

Defassa Waterbuck

Defassa Waterbuck

The Defassa Waterbuck is found across northern sub-Saharan Africa and has a more pronounced reddish-grey coat than its southern cousin. Although it also sports a white bib under the chin, it has a solid white patch on its rump which is the main distinguishing feature. It took me a long while to get to photograph both these species.

Species Details

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Artiodactyla

Family: Bovidae

Subfamily: Reduncinae

Genus: Kobus

Species: Kobus ellipsiprymnus

Sub-species:     Kobus ellipsiprymnus ellipsiprymnus

Kobus ellipsiprymnus defassa

For a quick read of all the other subspecies – Wikipedia

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