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Project Noah Nature School
Damaliscus korrigum
The topi is a large antelope with a distinctive hump at the base of the neck, a brownish coat, and beautiful dark-purplish markings on the upper leg. Spotted here in the Masai Mara, where they were quite abundant at the time of visit.
Grasslands and light woodlands. Distribution: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia,Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. Regionally extinct in Burundi, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau,Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal.
Topis spend much of their life with other antelopes such as wildebeest, and with zebras and ostriches. While still a numerous and widespread species, it is locally threatened by hunting and habitat degradation, and has now disappeared from large areas of its former range.
Spotted on Aug 28, 2011
Submitted on Oct 3, 2011
35 Comments (1–25)
Great spotting!
Thanks zapabio!
Great Spot!!!
Thanks Berndt! Added to the mission.
A double thank you Surekha!
And congratulations for the SoD :)
Such a beautiful antelope, he almost looks like a walking abstract painting! Love the fabulous shots, Daniele!
Thanks Pulkit!
beautiful animal !!
Thanks for the language precisions Scott and Ashish! For the animal's vernacular name all I have been able to find is that it is probably of Swahili origin. Interestingly, when they are in groups a topi will stand at the edge of the group on TOP of a termite mound to watch out.
Yes we also called Topi or टोपी in Marathi for simple Headgear or Cap.
Congratulations Daniele, nice spotting! Topi indeed does mean hat in (bahasa) Indonesia(n).
Thanks Marta! So you're learning some Flemish:-) It seems that topi is a hat in a few Asian languages...
Congratulations, Daniele! all your pics from Kenia are very nice!
BTW, toppie (sounds as topi to me) is said here in Flanders when something is very nice, so what better name for this animal :-)
Thanks Doina and Ashish! Doina I do hope you can make it there one day.
Congrats Daniele... Appreciate your efforts of making a ideal spotting...besides shooting an Organism...!!
so beautiful animal! great spotting, Daniele, as usual! ....I hope to go in Kenya (in this life!:) )
Thanks MohamedHasan and auntnance123.
Auntnance, the okapi remains one of the coolest animals ever! I'd love to see one in the wild!
That's even cooler than an okapi.
very nice
Thanks Atul!
Congrats Daniele, hope something is done soon to revive the habitats of this beautiful and graceful creature.
Thank you Peter and Will! This is a beautiful and not so well known antelope in the general public. While there is no particular/urgent conservation issues with it, it's habitat is locally threatened and it has disappeared from several of its original areas of distribution.
congrats again Daniele ,a well deserved Spotting of the day.
These are wonderfully sharp and clean pictures! Your work is great!