Alcelaphus buselaphus (Pallas 1766)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Artiodactyla, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 637-722 : 673

Alcelaphus buselaphus (Pallas 1766)

[Antilope] buselaphus Pallas 1766 , Misc. Zool.: 7.

Type Locality: No locality cited but the name is based on "Le bubale" of Buffon, "en Barbarie & dans toutes les parties septentrionales de l'Afrique", and on other sources. Restricted to Barbary by designation of the "Vache de Barbarie" of Perrault as the lectotype ( Ruxton and Schwarz, 1929:575). Further restricted to Morocco (Lydekker, 1914 a:5) .

Vernacular Names: Hartebeest.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Alcelaphus buselaphus subsp. buselaphus Pallas 1766

Subspecies Alcelaphus buselaphus subsp. cokii Günther 1884

Subspecies Alcelaphus buselaphus subsp. lelwel Heuglin 1877

Subspecies Alcelaphus buselaphus subsp. major Blyth 1869

Subspecies Alcelaphus buselaphus subsp. swaynei P. L. Sclater 1892

Subspecies Alcelaphus buselaphus subsp. tora Gray 1873

Distribution: In N Africa, now extinct but within historic times occurred in N Algeria, Libya (marginally), N Morocco, and Tunisia. In West and Equatorial Africa in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, S Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, N Dem. Rep. Congo, N Eritrea, Ethiopia (outside highlands), Gambia (extinct or vagrant), Ghana, E Guinea Bissau, Guinea, S Kenya, S Mali, Niger (marginal in SW), Nigeria, Senegal, NW Somalia (extinct), S Sudan, N Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. No authentic records from Sierra Leone ( Grubb et al., 1998).

Conservation: U.S. ESA – Endangered as A. b. swaynei and A. b. tora; IUCN – Extinct as A. b. buselaphus, Endangered as A. b. swaynei and A. b. tora, otherwise Lower Risk (cd).

Discussion: More than one taxon is included among the syntypes of Antilope buselaphus Pallas, 1766 , hence the designation of a lectotype was necessary. Six species recognised by earlier authors ( buselaphus , cokii, lelwel, major, swaynei , tora) were all assigned to A. buselaphus once hybridization between some of them was recognised ( Ruxton and Schwarz, 1929); caama later included (Ellerman et al., 1953:202); lichtensteinii has also been included ( Haltenorth, 1963:102; Kingdon, 1997:429) but not by most workers. The species can be partitioned into nominate buselaphus division (including also major), lelwel division, and tora division (including also cokii and swaynei ) on the basis of skull morphology, but cytochrome b and D-loop sequence data (Flagstad et al., 2000) suggest a close affinity between lelwel and tora divisions. Synonymy modified from Ansell (1972:53).