Tragelaphus spekii Speke 1863

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 : 699

Tragelaphus spekii Speke 1863

Tragelaphus spekii Speke 1863 , Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile: 223 (footnote).

Type Locality: Tanzania, Karagwe, E of Lake Victoria, at a lake named "Little Windermere" by Speke; identified as Bukoba district, Lake Lwelo, 2°S, 30°57'E by Moreau et al. (1946:441).

Vernacular Names: Sitatunga.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Tragelaphus spekii subsp. spekii Speke 1863

Subspecies Tragelaphus spekii subsp. gratus P. L. Sclater 1880

Subspecies Tragelaphus spekii subsp. larkenii St. Leger 1931

Subspecies Tragelaphus spekii subsp. selousi W. Rothschild 1898

Subspecies Tragelaphus spekii subsp. sylvestris Meinertzhagen 1916

Distribution: Disjunct. Swamps in Gambia, W Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and S Senegal; not authentically recorded from Sierra Leone and doubtfully recorded from Côte d’Ivoire ( Grubb et al., 1998). Rainforest and swamps in C and E Angola, S Benin, N Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad (Lake Chad only), Dem. Rep. Congo, Equatorial Guinea ( Mbini), Gabon, SE Ghana, W Kenya, Mozambique (W Tete Prov. only), NE Namibia (Caprivi Strip only), Niger (Lake Chad only; extinct), S Nigeria (and Lake Chad), Republic of Congo, Rwanda, S Sudan, W and NW Tanzania, Togo (extinct?), Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (extreme NW). Occurrence in Ghana only recently confirmed (East, 1998).

Conservation: CITES – Appendix III ( Ghana); IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Speke (1863) described and illustrated the 'nzoé' or 'water-boc' and reported in a footnote that Sclater had named the species Tragelaphus Spekii [sic], but this is insufficient to make Sclater the author of the name (Article 50.1.1, International Code of Zoological Nomenclature; International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999). Subspecific systematics from Ansell (1972:22).