Waterbuck

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Waterbuck

Female

Conservation status

Conservation Dependent

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Bovidae
Genus:	Kobus
Species:	K. ellipsiprymnus

Binomial name

Kobus ellipsiprymnus
(Ogilby, 1833)

Range map

The Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is an antelope found in Western, Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa.

Waterbuck stand 100 to 130 centimetres at the shoulder and weigh from 160 to 240 kilograms. They are also very heavy. Their coats are reddish brown in colour and become progressively darker with age; they also have a white 'bib' under their throats and a white ring on their rumps surrounding their tails. The long spiral structured horns sweep back and up, they are found only in males.

Waterbuck are found in scrub and savanna areas near water where they eat grass. Despite their name it seems that Waterbuck do not like to enter the water. Waterbuck are diurnal. Females gather in herds of between two and six hundred individuals. Males keep territories of around three hundred acres (1.2 km²) during their prime. They usually lose their territories before the age of ten.

A waterbucks flesh apparently has an unpleasant taste. Lions will not kill them unless their hunger is such that they become less choosy.

The Defassa Waterbuck is a subspecies (Kobus ellipsiprymnus defassa) in which the ring on the rump is solid white.