ORDER ARTIODACTYLA I EVEN -TOED UNGULATES 705 



Northern Rhodesian Sable Antelope. Zwart- wit-pens (Boer) 



HIPPOTRAGUS NIGER KiRKii (J. E. Gray) 



Aegocerus niger var. Kirkii J. E. Gray, Cat. Ruminant Mammalia Brit. Mus., 

 p. 35, 1872. (Type locality not stated, but shown by Harper (1940, p. 330) 

 to be "Batoka Hills, in the southern part of Northern Rhodesia, more or 

 less north of Victoria Falls.") 



In its main habitat in Northern Rhodesia and the southern Belgian 

 Congo this subspecies has become so rare that it is apparently ap- 

 proaching the danger line. 



It is similar to H. n. niger (Harris) , of the region south of the 

 Zambesi, but the females are much redder, never turning quite black. 

 Horns of male up to 52^ inches, compared with a maximum of 49^ 

 inches in H. n. niger. (Selous, 1914, p. 89; Ward, 1935, pp. 197-198.) 



The range of the present subspecies may be considered provi- 

 sionally to include Northern Rhodesia, southern Belgian Congo, 

 Nyasaland, and inland parts of Portuguese East Africa north of the 

 Zambesi. 



"North of the Zambesi I have met with the sable antelope 

 wherever I have traveled, but it always appeared to me to be rather 

 sparingly distributed through those regions" (Selous, in Bryden, 

 1899, pp. 398-399) . 



"Northward of the Zambesi it was always less common [than to 

 the southward], although the Batoka plateau is one of its present 

 strongholds; and it was never abundant in the Mozambique prov- 

 ince" (Lydekker, 1908, p. 291). 



Hubbard (1926, pp. 190-191) writes: 



This magnificent antelope is found at its best on the Batoka Plateau, and 

 from there it spreads everywhere, and is found in greater or lesser numbers 

 over most of Northern Rhodesia and the interior of Portuguese East Africa 

 where I have been. 



Occasionally one finds sable antelopes in herds of as many as forty indi- 

 viduals, but more often the numbers are around fifteen. The old, black, 

 fully adult bulls run by themselves either singly or in parties of two or 

 three. . . . 



In my operations I have often had [live] young sable antelopes brought to 

 me for sale by the natives. 



In Northern Rhodesia "Sable Antelope are scarce" about Mpika; 

 they are also found about Kasempa (Lyell, in Maydon, 1932, p. 328) . 



The total number of Sable Antelope in this country (excluding 

 Barotse) is estimated at 10,000, according to Pitman (1934, p. 331), 

 who says also (p. 23) : 



This species is most plentiful in parts of North-Western Rhodesia, par- 

 ticularly the Kasempa Province, and the Mumbwa, Mkushi and Serenje Dis- 

 tricts. . . . When wounded it is a savage antagonist and in consequence 



