Neotragus pygmaeus (Linnaeus 1758)

[Capra] pygmea Linnaeus 1758, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., Vol. 1: 69.

Type Locality: "Habitat in Guinea, India "; restricted to " Guinea " (West Africa) by Thomas (1911 a:152) .

Vernacular Names: Royal Antelope.

Distribution: Forest zone of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Pallas (1767:6, 1777:18) recognised two different species, Tragulus pygmaeus = Neotragus pygmaeus (Linnaeus, 1758), misidentified as a tragulid, and Antilope pygmaea Pallas, 1777 . Both have types that are royal antelopes and therefore are both homonyms and synonyms. Gmelin in Linnaeus (1788:173, 191) recognised the same two species as Moschus pygmaeus and Antilope pygmaea and Erxleben (1777:278) called them M. pygmaeus and A. regia, speculating that they may be female and male respectively of the same species.