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The Reduncini evolved over 15 million years ago (Cottrell 2000).
The oldest known fossils from East Africa are some 11 million years
old and the antelope group formerly occurred in Asia – at least
until 5 million years ago.
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Figure 1: Taxonomy of the Antelope Family
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The taxonomy
of Macdonald (2001) has been used in this study. The Wetland
Grazers are in the Tribe REDUNCINI (antelopes of wetlands and tall
or tussock grassland) of the Subfamily HIPPOTRAGINAE (the grazing
antelopes) in the Family BOVIDAE (bovids) which is in the Suborder
RUMINANTIA (ruminants) of the mammalian Order ARTIODACTYLA (even-toed
ungulates). This background study includes four species
- Southern Reedbuck – Redunca arundinum (Boddaert 1785) subspecies
R.a. arundinum
- Common Waterbuck – Kobus ellipsiprymnus (Ogilby 1833), subspecies
K.e. ellipsiprymnus
- Red Lechwe – Kobus leche (Gray 1850), subspecies K.l. leche
- Puku – Kobus vardoni (Livingstone 1857)
The Grey Rhebok (Pelea capreolus , Forster 1790) is a fifth species
in the REDUNCINI which has been in recorded in Namibia (Griffin,
2004). Since Griffin photographed the species near the Orange River
in southern Namibia in 1992, numerous sightings have been made between
Noordower and southeastern Sperrgebiet. Although Pelea appears to
differ from the other REDUNCINI species and has from time to time
been placed in its own subfamily (Smithers 1983), it is now considered
a primitive taxon of the tribe (Pocock 1910). The species is not
included here because it is not a wetland antelope and is widely
separated geographically from the other species.
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There has been a tendency in the recent past to recognise numerous
subspecies of the species in the REDUNCINI.
Reedbuck
Cottrell (2000) lists 8 subspecies of Redunca arundinum which are
now all included in R.a. arundinum and the only other subspecies
now recognised is R.a. occidentalis, the Northern Reedbuck.
Cottrell (2000), however, notes that locality of the transition
from the southern to the northern subspecies of reedbuck is far
from certain and that the two subspecies may simply be part of a
continuum.
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Waterbuck
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Figure 2: Abundance and Distribution of Waterbuck in Africa
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The greatest proliferation in subspecies definition has occurred
with waterbuck. Ansell (1972) listed four subspecies of Common Waterbuck
(K. ellipsiprymnus) and nine in the Defassa Waterbuck (K. defassa).
MacDonald (2001) recognises only one species of waterbuck and refers
to two major taxonomic groups of subspecies – the K.e. ellipsiprymnus
group and the K.e. defassa group, with the original subspecies of
Ansell still being recognised. Here the classification of the Antelope
Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (ASG 1998)
has been adopted which simply recognises two subspecies – The "ellipsen"
or Common Waterbuck, K.e. ellipsiprymnus. and the Defassa Waterbuck,
K.e. defassa. The
continental distribution of these two subspecies is shown in Fig.2.
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Lechwe
There seems to be general agreement on three subspecies of Lechwe:
the Red Lechwe, Kobus leche leche, occurring in northern Botswana,
the Caprivi, south-eastern Angola and western Zambia (where the
largest population is on the Busanga Plain in the north-west of
Kafue National Park); the Kafue Lechwe, K.l. kafuensis, found only
on the Kafue Flats in Zambia; and the Black Lechwe, K.l. smithermani,
found only in the Bangweulu Basin in Zambia.
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Puku
Although Ansell (1972) listed two subspecies of Puku (K.v. vardoni
and K.v. senganus) and these are mentioned in Smithers (1983) and
Macdonald (2001), the Antelope Specialist Group (ASG 1998) recognises
only the main species.
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