Hippotragus leucophaeus

Geographic Range

Fossil and historical evidence documents that bluebucks once had broad distribution, spanning an area at least 4300 square kilometers along the southern coast of Africa. This region included the southern and western coastal plains of southern Africa’s Cape Floristic Region (CFR) and extended beyond the CFR into the highlands of Lesotho.

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian ethiopian
  • native native

Habitat

Bluebucks are thought to have been grazers, as suggested by dental similarities to their grazing congeners: roan and sable antelope , and accounts of bluebucks grazing in sheep pastures. Consistent with this reconstructed diet, bluebucks probably favored grassy habitats. This can be inferred from observations that bluebucks tended to be most numerous in fossil assemblages dominated by other grassland species. Bluebucks appear to have preferred somewhat more open habitats than roan antelope , with which it apparently overlapped frequently.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate temperate
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland savanna or grassland

Physical Description

Bluebucks were rather large, bluish-grey antelope with horns that were more or less intermediate size between those of roan and sable antelope . These horns were black and rather strongly ringed. To date, there are only five mounted hides of bluebucks located in museums; they can be found in Leiden, Amsterdam, Paris, France, Stockholm, Sweden, Uppsala, Sweden, and Vienna, Austria. One skull is located in the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, Scotland. One frontlet (a frontal bone or brow band) with attached horns is preserved in the British Museum of Natural History in London, United Kingdom. Museum collections have yielded important physical data about bluebucks. Height at the withers (the highest part of the back at the base of the neck) was 119 cm and length of the horns to the curve was 56.5 cm. Compared to data from other preserved specimens it is possible that this is the largest known example of this extinct species. Females are thought to have been slightly smaller than the males, similar to roan and sable antelopes. There are no photographs, and most of the available sketches and descriptions are probably inaccurate in one respect or another. Peter Kolb, who published the first paper about bluebucks, drew these animals with a beard because at the time they were thought to be related to goats . Reviews of other drawings and descriptions pertaining to bluebucks indicate that scientists have frequently contradicted each other, as well as differing from mounted specimens found in European museums. However, much can be surmised about bluebucks from examination of their closest living relatives, roan and sable antelopes.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• ornamentation ornamentation

Reproduction

Little to no scientific data has been gathered on bluebuck mating systems; however, there have been data collected for roan and sable antelope, two closely related species. Bluebucks may have been polygynous, as both roan and sable antelopes exhibit polygyny. Roan and sable antelope have different estrus cycles, which makes it difficult to infer anything about cycles in bluebucks. Roan antelope do not typically reproduce seasonally, whereas sable antelope have only one breeding season each year.

• Mating System
• polygynous polygynous

The seasonality of rainfall and forage across the prehistoric range of bluebucks raises the possibility of pronounced breeding seasonality in this species, meaning they may have mated and calved only during only certain times of the year. The calving schedule of roan and sable antelope varies over their geographical range, with the southernmost populations characterized by more pronounced seasonality. In southern Africa, most sable antelope are born between January and March, coinciding with summer rains and peak forage availability. Roan antelope are generally considered to be seasonal (i.e., not seasonal) breeders, although they exhibit similar summer peaks in some parts of South Africa.

• Key Reproductive Features
• semelparous semelparous
• seasonal breeding seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• viviparous viviparous

Female bluebucks are said to have neglected their young, but this reputation could result from leaving offspring alone in a safe area and only returning to feed them. This is common behavior for other species in the genus Hippotragus . Bluebucks are thought to be altricial (young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state), as both roan and sable offspring are altricial.

• Parental Investment
• altricial altricial
• female parental care female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

There have been no observations of bluebuck lifespan; however, it has been estimated at around be 18 years (216 months) based on the evaluation of dental eruption and tooth wear.

Behavior

Both roan and sable antelope are gregarious, with roan antelope typically associating in small herds of 5 to 12 individuals and sable antelope in herds of 10 to 30. Historical records confirm the same gregarious behavior in bluebucks. Female bluebucks were reported to exhibit behavior similar to that of roan and sable antelope, leaving young alone and only returning to feed them. In terms of social interactions, one study of roan antelope identified sex and age as the most consistent factors explaining interaction and associations. Adult roan antelope males are central in social networks. Roan antelope herds are made up of a core set of adults, one adult male and around 5 adult females, with varying numbers and sexes of juveniles. Bluebucks were likely to be nomadic, as are their close relatives .

• Key Behaviors
• cursorial
• terricolous
• diurnal diurnal
• motile motile
• nomadic nomadic
• social social

Home Range

Nothing is known about home range size in bluebucks.

Communication and Perception

Little information exists on communication and perception in bluebucks. Their close relatives, roan and sable antelopes, have also received little study as far as communication or perception, but both are known to have tactile (use of touch) and chemical (smell) perception channels, in addition to visual and acoustic senses.

• Communication Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

Close relatives of bluebucks, roan and sable antelopes, are specialized eaters. This in part has led to hypothesis that the decline in bluebuck numbers over the last 30,000 years may reflect a similar a level of specialization, and in particular, sensitivity to competition from introduced domestic stock in the last 2,000 years. A study was conducted in Dinder National Park, Sudan on roan antelope eating habits, indicated that they are mixed feeders but prefer grassy and woody plants. Some specific example of forage preferred by roan antelope include: Eragrostis spectabilis , Pennisetum pedicellatum , Cassia mimosoides , and Indigofera spectabilis . The diet of bluebucks is thought to have been very similar to roan antelope.

• Primary Diet
• herbivore herbivore
  • folivore folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• wood, bark, or stems

Predation

In addition to natural predators, the added impact of over-hunting by Europeans may have caused bluebuck population reduction. Within the 150 years of European arrival and hunting with firearms this species went extinct. Anti-predation adaptations and behaviors in bluebucks are not known but, like their relatives, they probably relied on their herding behavior and ability to outrun predators.

Ecosystem Roles

Because they are extinct, bluebucks no longer have any ecosystem importance. At one time they may have been an important prey for larger predators and have impacted vegetation in the grasslands where they grazed.

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

There is no economic importance for humans because bluebucks are extinct.

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

There is no economic importance for humans because bluebucks are extinct.

Conservation Status

Bluebucks were the first large mammal to become extinct in Africa during historic times. The last individual was shot around 1800, marking the first African antelope species to be hunted to extinction by European settlers. Competition for grazing especially with domestic sheep also negatively impacted bluebuck populations, driving them towards extinction.

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Nathan Stack (author), University of Wyoming, Hayley Lanier (editor), University of Wyoming - Casper, Tanya Dewey (editor), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

References

Awad, N. 1985. Food Habits of Giraffee, Roan Antelope, Oribi and Camel in Dinder National Park, Sudan . Colorado State University: UMI Dissertations Publishing.

Broom, R. 1949. The extinct Blue Buck of South Africa. Nature , 164: 1097-1098.

Carpenter, L. 2010. Utilizing Social Networks Analysis In The Characterization of African Ungulate Social Structure . University of Maryland: UMI Dissertations Publishing.

Faith, T., J. Thompson. 2013. Fossil evidence for seasonal calving and migration of extinct blue antelope ( Hippotragus leucophaeus ) in southern Africa. Journal of Biogeography , 40: 2108-2118.

Kerley, G., R. Sims-castley, A. Boshoff, R. Cowling. 2009. Extinction of the blue antelope Hippotragus leucophaeus : modeling predicts non-viable global population size as the primary driver .. Biodiversity & Conservation , 18: 3235-3242.

Klein, R., K. Cruz-Uribe. 1984. The Analysis of Animal Bones from Archeological Sites . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Klein, R. 1974. On The Taxonomic Status, Distribution and Ecology of the Blue Antelope, Hippotragus leucophaeus (Pallas, 1766). Annals , 65: 99-116.

Mastin, N. 2000. The African antelope. PSA Journal , 66: 27-28.

Van Bruggen, A. 1959. Illustrated Notes on some Extinct South African Ungulates. South African Journal of Science , August 1959: 197 - 200.