| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Size: | Height: 3.9 to 4.75 feet (1.18 to 1.44 m) at shoulder |
| Weight: | 165 to 350 pounds (75 to 158 kg) |
| Diet: | Mainly grass, sometimes leaves and fruit |
| Distribution: | Africa |
| Young: | 1 |
| Animal Predators: | Spotted hyena, jackal, leopard, cheetah and lion |
| IUCN Status: | Lower Risk, Conservation Dependent |
| Terms: | Young: Calf |
| Lifespan: | 11 to 20 years. |
· Hartebeest is an Afrikaans word meaning “tough beast.”
· Female herds are made up of a mother, her female children and grandchildren.
· Hartebeests are gregarious and herds sometimes intermingle with zebra and other antelope herds.
Both males and females have similar appearances, although males are slightly larger. They both have horns with an S-shaped curve and long faces. Their colouring can range from reddish brown fur to sandy brown, and some subspecies have black areas along the legs.
Almost their entire diets are made up of grass, but they sometimes eat leaves and fruit.
Females will leave the herd and find a secluded area
surrounded by brush and long grass when they are about to give birth. Pregnancy
lasts seven to eight months and one calf is born. The calf lies quietly in its hiding
place while its mother feeds, returning for brief periods to nurse. The calf joins the herd a few weeks
later. Calves are weaned at four months. Young males stay with
their mothers for two to three years, when they leave to join a bachelor group.
Females stay close to their mothers until it is time for them to give birth to
their own offspring.
Hartebeests live in herds of up to 300, made up of smaller groups that are separated into young males; females and their young; territorial males and non-territorial males. When a predator approaches the herd, one or more hartebeests give off an alarm snort and they gallop away in single file at speeds of up to 50 miles (80 km) per hour.
Hartebeests were once the widest-ranging antelopes in
Africa, but hunting, urban development and competition with domestic herds of
cattle have limited their range and numbers. They are now found only in select
portions of African countries such as Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe,
Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania. A subspecies, the bubal hartebeest that once
ranged through Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia became extinct in the
1920s.
http://library.thinkquest.org/16645/wildlife/hartebeest.shtml?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0228
http://www.ultimateungulate.com/hartebeest.html
http://www.awf.org/wildlives/121
http://www.on-the-matrix.com/africa/wildebeest.htm
http://www.sa-venues.com/wildlife/wildlife_hartebees.htm
http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/walkers_mammals_of_the_world/artiodactyla.bovidae.alcelaphus.html
http://www.americazoo.com/goto/index/mammals/399.htm
Hartebeest Wildlife Fact File, IM Pub, US