Black Wildebeest

The **Black Wildebeest** appeared in 2019 videogame called *Kemono Friends 3*. The Black Wildebeest is a type of Bovid Friend that appeared in Guidebook 4.

Black Wildebeest has short brown hair with a long white fragmented ponytail with dark tips, tied by a blue ribbon. Parts of her hair reach her shoulders and her ears. Similarly to the black wildebeest's muzzle, her front fringe is black. She wears a V-neck sweater with short sleeves and a slash pocket on her left chest. Under this latter, she has a shirt and a short circular skirt. She wears a pair of high brown tights and boots with black ribbons. Faithful to the animal's colors, Black Wildebeest's outfit is entirely dark brown and light brown. As many other Friends, she shares some characteristics with the original animal she's based on such as the strong horns curved forward resembling hooks, her bright-white tail, her ears, the bushy tie she's wearing, which may refers to the long, dark-colored hair of the black wildebeest under its belly, and her ponytail which clearly resembling to the dark-tipped manes of the black wildebeest. On top of that, she carries a weapon-like tool with the black wildebeest horns.

The black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu (Connochaetes gnou) is one of the two closely related wildebeest species. The Black Wildebeest can be distinguished from the Blue Wildebeest by its white rather than black tail. The alternative name of these two species, “gnu”, comes from the male’s characteristic nasal call, described as “ge-nu”. Wildebeest can be found in the plains and acacia savannas of Eastern Africa.

Wildebeest are continually on the move, as they seek favorable supplies of grass and water. Black wildebeest eat the foliage of karroid bushes and shrubs. They live in somewhat arid regions and can subsist without drinking every day.

Despite their size, the black wildebeest is a very fast runner so that they can escape from their main predators, lions, leopards, hyenas and African wild dogs. They have been measured at up to 80 kph.

Black wildebeest were never studied in their natural habitat, interacting with natural predators (Lions, cheetahs, African wild dogs and hyenas), however they seem to be more aggressive than their wild cousins, and have attacked and killed keepers while in captivity. Unlike common wildebeest, black wildebeest do not groom each other or rub their foreheads on other wildebeest's croups because of the projection of their horns. However, they occasionally rub their cheeks on companions' necks.

Historically, the main threat to this species was hunting pressure, habitat loss, and periodic outbreak of disease. However, now that the species has recovered and numbers are increasing, the only significant threats are hybridisation with the Blue Wildebeest, which can occur when the two species are mixed unnaturally on fenced land and loss of genetic diversity from existing in isolated fenced areas, leading to isolation from the wider gene pool of the species. About 20 percent of the black wildebeest population occurs in protected areas, with around 80 percent on private farmland and conservancies. This species has also been bred successfully in a number of zoos around the world. The largest conservation need at present is to prevent the blue wildebeest and black wildebeest from occurring in the same area, to avoid hybridisation.