Saturday, January 24, 2015

Roan Antelope

The roan antelope is one of the largest species of antelope and gets its name from its reddish/brown color (which is called "roan"). They have what looks like a black mask, with white streaks above and to the insides of the eyes and a white lower muzzle and cheek with black nostrils. The belly is white and the mane is short and erect with the top edge streaked with varying shades of brown. They have ringed horns, slightly shorter in females, that arch backwards slightly.  
Roan antelope at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.
The roan antelope lives in the savanna woodlands and grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa. There are an estimated 76,000 of them in a band across mid-West and Central Africa, a large clump of northern southern Africa (pieces of Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe), a portion of northern South Africa (including Kruger National Park) and a large portion of northwest Tanzania. The largest populations are found in Burkina Faso and Cameroon in West Africa (7,370 and 6,070 respectively), Zambia (5,080) and Tanzania (4,310). We did not see any when we were in Tanzania. 
Roan antelope
We saw a few roan antelope at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas. Unfortunately, we were not able to get too close to them or feed them. They look a lot like sable antelope, although a little lighter. 

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