Roan Antelope

Description:

Considered Least Concern by IUCN. Distribution remains widespread and total numbers were estimated to be 76,000, with 60% in protected areas. About one-third of the total population was estimated to stable or increasing, with the rest declining. As yet, the evidence does not indicate that these declines have reached a level that would qualify for Near Threatened or Vulnerable. However, if present trends continue, the Roan Antelope’s status may eventually decline to threatened as it disappears from large parts of its current range because of poaching and loss of habitat to the expansion of settlement. This trend will only be reversed if more of the surviving populations receive adequate protection and management.

Habitat:

The Roan Antelope formerly occurred very widely in the savanna woodlands and grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, but has been eliminated from large parts of its former range. Remarkably, the species remains locally common in West and Central Africa, while in East and southern Africa, the traditional antelope strongholds, the species is now very rare. The species is now locally extinct in Burundi, Eritrea and possibly Gambia. It was also eliminated from Swaziland and later reintroduced to the privately owned Mkhaya Nature Reserve (East 1999; Chardonnet and Crosmary in press).

Notes:

Taken at Safari West in Santa Rosa, CA.