THE ADDAX 
ADDAX NASOMACULATUS 
LTHOUGH this fine antelope is the only representative of its 
genus, it shows close affinities in some respects to the 
/ various members of the oryx family, and also resembles 
/ the sable and roan antelopes by the presence of large 
/ w hi te tufts beneath the eyes. But its long, spirally 
twisted and closely ringed horns, and the broad rounded 
hoofs, which remind one irresistibly of those of the caribou or reindeer, 
differentiate it from all its nearest allies. The broad, shallow hoofs of the 
addax are admirably fitted to enable it to move over the sand dunes 
amongst which it lives, without fatigue, just as the hoofs of the caribou 
enable that animal to walk across wet bogs and regions covered with soft 
snow without sinking too deeply. In the winter the general body colour of 
the addax is brownish grey, the hindquarters, tail and hind legs being 
white. The head and neck remain the same colour throughout the year, 
but in summer the hair on the upper part of the body between the neck 
and the hindquarters takes on a darker reddish-brown hue. The forehead, 
both in the males and the females, is covered with a mass of coarse black 
hair, resembling the growth of hair on the forehead of an eland bull. 
Below this dark hair on the forehead of the addax are the white eye tufts. 
Both sexes carry horns in this species, as is the case with its nearest allies, 
the various members of the oryx family, and also with the sable and roan 
antelope. 
In the male addax the horns are beautifully twisted as in the greater 
koodoo, and sometimes develop a third turn, whilst in the female they 
are much slenderer and much less spirally twisted. The longest specimen 
recorded in the last edition of Rowland Ward’s “ Records of Big Game ” 
has a length of thirty-nine and five-sixteenths inches over the curve and 
thirty -four and a half inches in a straight line. Not very much is yet known 
regarding the life history of the addax, but it is known to exist in Sene- 
gambia, to the north of the Senegal River, as well as in the more southerly 
districts of Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli, and it is certainly fairly 
plentiful in the interior of the Dongola province. Its stronghold appears to 
be in the great region of sand dunes which stretches for hundreds of miles 
across the central portions of the great deserts of Northern Africa to the 
101 
