THE SITUTUNGAS 
TRAGELAPHUS [LIMNOTRAGUS] SPEKEI 
OF EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 
TRAGELAPHUS [LIMNOTRAGUS] GRATUS 
OF WEST CENTRAL AFRICA 
TRAGELAPHUS [LIMNOTRAGUS] SELOUSI 
OF SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA 
LTHOUGH the word “situtunga” is only used by one small 
tribe of African natives to designate a certain species of 
/ ^ antelope nearly related to the bushbucks, which is found 
I ik in t ^ ie £ reat reed beds and papyrus swamps of the Upper 
i Zambesi, the name has now been adopted by all sports - 
^ men and naturalists for all the geographical races 
of these water -loving antelopes wherever they are met with throughout 
Africa. 
Wherever great reed beds and papyrus swamps exist in that continent 
there situtungas of one kind or another are sure to be found. In the southern 
race, whose habitat extends from Lake N’gami to Lake Bengweolo, both 
males and females, when adult, are of a uniform light brown. The young 
are much darker in the general colour of their coats, which are, too, 
beautifully striped and spotted with yellowish white. I once obtained from 
a native on the Chobi the skin of a young situtunga, taken from its mother’s 
womb just before birth. This little skin was the colour of a very dark 
moleskin, beautifully banded and spotted with yellow. Below the stripes 
a line of spots ran from the shoulders to the haunches, which latter were 
very profusely spotted. The whole pattern of the spots and stripes on the 
skin of this foetus situtunga was identical with that attained to by the 
fully adult male bushbucks found in the dry forest -covered ground along 
the southern bank of the Chobi. Nothing, I think, could prove more con- 
clusively the common origin of these two species of antelopes, although 
to-day they are found living under such very different conditions. Besides 
the southern race of situtungas, two or three other nearly allied forms 
are recognized. In the race which is found in Uganda and which seems to 
extend southwards as far as the Upper Zambesi, where it intergrades 
with the southern form, the young are red in ground colour, spotted and 
striped with white, and although the males, when adult, become dark 
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