Hirola

Appearance

The Hirola is a medium-sized antelope, tan to rufous-tawny in colour with slightly lighter under parts, predominantly white inner ears and a white tail that extends down to the hocks. As Hirola age their coat darkens towards a slate grey and the number of ridges along their horns increases. The following are maximum and minimum values taken from all sources: height at the shoulder: 99–125 cm (39–49 in. 3.25–4.10 ft), body weight: 73–118 kg (161–260 lb), head and body length: 1.2–2 m (3 ft 11 in – 6 ft 7 in), horn length: 44–72 cm (17–28 in; 1.44–2.36 ft), horn spread (greatest outside width): 15–32 cm (5.9–12.6 in), tail length: 30–45 cm (12–18 in), ear length: 19 cm (7.5 in).

It has very sharp, lyrate horns that lack a basal pedicle and are ridged along three quarters of their length. It is not stated whether horn length was measured direct from base to tip or along the curve of the horn.

It was first described by the big game hunter and zoologist H.C.V.

Range and habitat

The Hirola, also called Hunter's hartebeest or Hunter's antelope, is a critically endangered antelope species found as of now, only in Kenya along the border of Somalia. According to a document produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature "the loss of the Hirola would be the first extinction of a mammalian genus on mainland Africa in modern human history".

The Arawale National Reserve was created in 1973 as a small sanctuary for them, but has been left unmaintained since the 1980s. As of 2014, a 23 km2 (8.9 sq mi) predator-proof fenced sanctuary has been constructed at Ishaqbini and a founding population of 48 Hirola is breeding well within the sanctuary.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

In crisis

The global Hirola population is estimated at 300–500 animals and there are none in captivity. The Hirola's natural range is an area of no more than 1,500 km2 (580 sq mi) on the Kenyan-Somali border, but there is also a translocated population in Tsavo East National Park. The natural population in the 1970s was likely to number 10,000–15,000 individuals but there was an 85–90% decline between 1983 and 1985.

A survey in 1995 and 1996 estimated the population to number between 500 and 2,000 individuals with 1,300 as the most reasonable estimate. A 2010 survey estimated a population of 402–466 Hirola.

Hirola is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Hirola, Wikidata item Q623439. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.