130 TROPICAL SAVANAS 



The last group of African antelopes includes the 

 large wildebeest or gnu, the hartebeests, and the bless- 

 bok. The wildebeests (Comiochoetes) are ungainly 

 looking animals, with some resemblance to oxen, which 

 inhabit open coimtry in South and East Africa. The 

 genus Bubalis includes the somewhat stag-Uke harte- 

 beest, the blessbok, and the bontebok. All the three 

 mentioned are exclusively African, though one member 

 of the genus extends into Syria, and frequent grassy 

 plains, especially those which have so grea.t an exten- 

 sion in Southern Africa. 



Generally, we may say that very many of the African 

 antelopes are typical savana animals, but some, like 

 the gemsbok, extend into the desert proper, a few, like 

 the duikerboks, into the tropical forests, while not a few 

 extend their range up the moimtains, the khpspringer 

 being a typical example, and some, hke the water-buck, 

 frequent the swamps, and seek safety there. Those 

 which inhabit open plains find security in their numbers, 

 the strength and powerful horns of the bucks, and their 

 swiftness. Less powerful and slower forms must haunt 

 country which offers some form of shelter, as e. g. rocky 

 regions, thorny jungle, or swampy districts. 



The resistance which these wild forms offer to the 

 diseases carried by tsetse-flies and ticks must have been 

 a factor in their persistence, for these diseases form the 

 greatest obstacles to the introduction of domesticated 

 ungulates into the great plains of Southern Africa. 

 The wild antelopes (cf. negro children and malaria) 

 are apparently tolerant of the parasites of the various 

 diseases, which affect them but httle. They thus serve 

 as reservoirs of infection, by means of which introduced 

 forms may be infected. The virtual absence of wild 

 ungulates in South America when it was colonized from 



