440 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



SiTATUNGA 



Limnoiragus 



Limnotragus Sclater and Thomas, 1900, Book of Antelopes, vol. 4, p. 149; 

 type L. spekei. 



The sitatunga has been accorded generic distinction from 

 the bushbuck chiefly on account of its elongated hoofs and 

 the more open spiral of the horns. In shape of body and 

 coloration it closely resembles the bushbuck, but has the 

 white markings of that species much less clearly marked. 

 The tail is not bushy, but rather thin-haired basally, with a 

 tuft at the tip. The ears are smaller than in the bushbuck, 

 but have the same broad shape. The pelage is long every- 

 where on the body, but there is no dorsal mane as in the male 

 bushbuck. The hoofs are very long and sharply pointed, 

 their length being more than twice their basal width. The 

 back of the pasterns and the area about the false hoofs are 

 naked and pad-like as in the lechwi, which is also a swamp- 

 haunting genus. The elongate shape of the hoof is an adap- 

 tation to give the foot greater support in the soft, swampy 

 ground which the animal frequents. The horns are much 

 longer than in the bushbuck, more openly spiral, with usu- 

 ally more than one complete turn, and white tipped for an 

 inch or more at the point. The skull exhibits a much 

 smaller orbit than in the bushbuck, and has much narrower 

 mesopterygoid fossa. Three forms are included which ex- 

 hibit discontinuous distribution paralleling the lechwi some- 

 what in this respect. One of these is known in Uganda, 

 another from the swamps of the upper Zambesi, and a third 

 from the mouth of the Congo and the West Coast of Africa. 

 The differences in these races are in coloration chiefly, there 

 being no difference in body size. 



Uganda Sitatunga 

 Limnotragus spekei 



Native Names: Luganda, chobe ; Karagwe, nzoe. 



Tragelaphus spekei Sclater, 1863, Speke's Journ. Dlscov., p. 223. 



Range. — North and west drainage area of the Victoria 

 Nyanza from Mount Elgon westward as far as Mount 

 Ruwenzori and north to the Bahr-el-Ghazal district. 



