page_title: Hartebeest
section_title: Subspecies
hierarchical_section_title: Hartebeest / Taxonomy / Subspecies
caption_attribution_description: 1 Bubal Hartebeest 2 West African hartebeest 3 Tora hartebeest 4 Neumann’s hartebeest 5 Swayne’s hartebeest 6 Coke’s hartebeest 7 Cape hartebeest 8 Jackson’s hartebeest 9 Lichtensteins’s hartebeest
context_page_description: The hartebeest, also known as kongoni, is an African antelope. Eight subspecies have been described, including two sometimes considered to be independent species. A large antelope, the hartebeest stands just over 1 m at the shoulder, and has a typical head-and-body length of 200 to 250 cm. The weight ranges from 100 to 200 kg. It has a particularly elongated forehead and oddly shaped horns, short neck, and pointed ears. Its legs, which often have black markings, are unusually long. The coat is generally short and shiny. Coat colour varies by the subspecies, from the sandy brown of the western hartebeest to the chocolate brown of the Swayne's hartebeest. Both sexes of all subspecies have horns, with those of females being more slender. Horns can reach lengths of 45–70 cm. Apart from its long face, the large chest and the sharply sloping back differentiate the hartebeest from other antelopes.
  Gregarious animals, hartebeest form herds of 20 to 300 individuals. They are very alert and non-aggressive. They are primarily grazers, with their diets consisting mainly of grasses.
context_section_description: Eight subspecies are identified, of which two – A. b. caama and A. b. lichtensteinii – have been considered to be independent species. However, a 1999 genetic study by P. Arctander of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues, which sampled the control region of the mitochondrial DNA, found that these two formed a clade within A. buselaphus, and that recognising these as species would render A. buselaphus paraphyletic (an unnatural grouping). The same study found A. b. major to be the most divergent, having branched off before the lineage split to give a combined caama/lichtensteinii lineage and another that gave rise to the remaining extant subspecies. Conversely a 2001 phylogenetic study, based on D–loop and cytochrome b analysis by Øystein Flagstad (of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim) and colleagues, found that the southern lineage of A. b. caama and A. lichtensteinii diverged earliest. Analysis of skull structure supports partition into three major divisions: A. b. buselaphus division (nominate, also including A. b. major division), A. b. tora division (also including A. b. cokii and A. b. swaynei) and A. b. lelwel division. Another analysis of cytochrome b and D-loop sequence data shows a notable affinity between the A. b. lelwel and A. b. tora  divisions.
  The eight subspecies, including the two controversial ones, are:
  † A. b. buselaphus (Pallas, 1766) : Known as the Bubal hartebeest or northern hartebeest. Formerly occurred across northern Africa, from Morocco to Egypt. It was exterminated by the 1920s. It was declared extinct in 1994 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
  A. b. caama (Saint-Hilaire, 1803) : Known as the red hartebeest or Cape hartebeest. Formerly occurred in southern Angola; northern and eastern savannahs of Namibia; central, southern and southwestern Botswana; Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State, Northwest and Gauteng provinces and western KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa. Presently has been eliminated from all these areas except Northern Cape, central and southwestern Botswana and Namibia. Major re-introductions have taken place in these countries. The population of this hartebeest is on the rise.
  A. b. cokii (Günther, 1884): Known as Coke's hartebeest or kongoni. Native to and confined within Kenya and northern Tanzania.
  A. b. lelwel (Heuglin, 1877) : Known as the Lelwel hartebeest. Formerly found in northern and northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo; southeastern and southwestern Sudan; and the northwestern extreme of Tanzania. Drastic population decrease since the 1980s has confined most individuals to protected areas inside and outside its range.
  A. b. lichtensteinii (Peters, 1849) : Known as Lichtenstein's hartebeest. Inhabits the miombo woodlands of eastern and southern Africa. It is native to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
  A. b. major (Blyth, 1869) : Known as the western hartebeest. Formerly occurred widely in Mali, Niger, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, southwestern Chad, Cameroon, western Central African Republic and Benin. Nowadays it occurs in much lower numbers mainly in protected areas of these countries. It is probably extinct in Gambia.
  A. b. swaynei (Sclater, 1892) : Known as Swayne's hartebeest. Restricted to the southern Rift Valley in Ethiopia. It formerly occurred throughout the Rift Valley, and its range extended eastward into northwestern Somalia. It has disappeared from Somalia by 1930. Its populations are very low and on the decline.
  A. b. tora (Gray, 1873) : Known as the Tora hartebeest. Formerly occurred in northwestern Ethiopia and western and southwestern Eritrea. Its present status is unclear, though locals have reported small numbers from these areas.
caption: Hartebeest subspecies: Bubal hartebeest (centre); (clockwise from top-left corner) red hartebeest, Lelwel hartebeest, Swayne's hartebeest, western hartebeest, Neumann's hartebeest, Lichtenstein's hartebeest, Coke's hartebeest and Tora hartebeest, from Great and Small Game of Africa
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