Endangered
Nile lechwe
Kobus megaceros
Nile lechwe is a mammal in the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla) — Kobus megaceros, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
Females are golden-brown with white underbellies and no horns. Juveniles also have a golden-brown coat, but the color changes to dark brown in young males when they reach two to three years of age. Adult males are blackish-brown to russet with white 'hoods' over their shoulders and small white patches over their eyes.
Males are an average of 165 cm (65 in) long and 100–105 cm (39–41 in) tall at the shoulders, and weigh between 90 and 120 kg (200 and 260 lb), while females are an average of 135 cm (53 in) long, 80–85 cm (31–33 in) tall at the shoulders, and weigh 60–90 kg (130–200 lb). The horns of the adult males are 50–87 cm (20–34 in) long, strongly ridged at their bases and are curved at the tips.
Range and habitat
The Nile lechwe typically occur in shallow waters bordering deeper swamps, where the water is 10–40 cm (3.9–15.7 in) deep. Nile lechwe are endemic to South Sudan and Ethiopia. In South Sudan, the majority of the population occurs in the Sudd swamps, and in the Machars near the Ethiopian border in smaller numbers.
In South Sudan, Nile lechwe populations occur in three protected areas: Zeraf Game Reserve, that extends over 9,700 km2 (3,700 sq mi) along the Bahr el Zeraf. Fanyikang Game Reserve, north of Bahr el Ghazal, covering over 480 km2 (190 sq mi), and Shambe National Park, that stretches over 620 km2 (240 sq mi) along Bahr al Jabal.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
The Nile lechwe has been classified under the Endangered category by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). In 1983, aerial surveys gave a total population estimate of 30,000-40,000 individuals, of that 95 percent were concentrated in the Sudds and the rest occurred between Sudan and Ethiopia. In the 1980s, the population in the Machars was estimated at 900.
A population of around 150 was also reported from the swamps in Gilo River in 1967. There is also an increasing population held in captivity.
Nile lechwe is 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 Nile lechwe, Wikidata item Q608656. 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.
