One of four existing bluebuck skins, Vienna Museum of Natural History. The overall blue colouration is caused by the lighting.
Conservation status
Extinct (1799 or 1800) (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Artiodactyla
Family:
Bovidae
Subfamily:
Hippotraginae
Genus:
Hippotragus
Species:
†H. leucophaeus
Binomial name
†Hippotragus leucophaeus
(Pallas, 1766)
Historical distribution and Holocene and Pleistocene fossil sites of bluebuck (blue), sable antelope (red), and roan antelope (yellow) in southern Africa
Synonyms[2][3]
List
Antilope leucophaeus (Pallas, 1766)
Hippotragus capensis (P. L. S. Müller, 1776)
Capra leucophaea (Thunberg, 1793)
A. leucophaea (Lichtenstein, 1814)
Bubalis leucophaea (Lichtenstein, 1814)
Cemas glaucus (Oken, 1816)
H. glauca (Oken, 1816)
Cerophorus leucophaeus De Blainville, 1816
Oryx leucophaeus De Blainville, 1816
Egocerus leucophaea (Desmarest, 1822)
The bluebuck (Afrikaans: bloubok/ˈblaʊbɒk/) or blue antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus) is an extinct species of antelope that lived in South Africa until around 1800. It was smaller than the other two species in its genus Hippotragus, the roan antelope and sable antelope. The bluebuck was sometimes considered a subspecies of the roan antelope, but a genetic study has confirmed it as a distinct species.
The largest mounted bluebuck specimen is 119 centimetres (47 in) tall at the withers. Its horns measure 56.5 centimetres (22.2 in) along the curve. The coat was a uniform bluish-grey, with a pale whitish belly. The forehead was brown, darker than the face. Its mane was not as developed as in the roan and sable antelopes; its ears were shorter and blunter, not tipped with black; and it had a darker tail tuft and smaller teeth. It also lacked the contrasting black and white patterns seen on the heads of its relatives. The bluebuck was a grazer, and may have calved where rainfall, and thus the availability of grasses, would peak. The bluebuck was confined to the southwestern Cape when encountered by Europeans, but fossil evidence and rock paintings show that it originally had a larger distribution.
During the Late Pleistocene, the bluebuck was common across South Africa, but by the time Europeans encountered the bluebuck in the 17th century, it was already uncommon, perhaps due to its preferred grassland habitat having been reduced to a 4,300-square-kilometre (1,700 sq mi) range, mainly along the southern coast of South Africa. Sea level changes during the early Holocene may also have contributed to its decline by disrupting the population, and it appears that it may have adapted for a low effective population size. The first published mention of the bluebuck is from 1681, and few descriptions of the animal were written while it existed. The few 18th-century illustrations appear to have been based on stuffed specimens. Hunted by European settlers, the bluebuck became extinct around 1800; it was the first large African mammal to face extinction in historical times, followed by the quagga in 1883. Only four mounted skins remain, in museums in Leiden, Stockholm, Vienna, and Paris, along with horns and possible bones in various museums.
^Kerley, G.; Child, M.F. (2017). "Hippotragus leucophaeus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T10168A50188573. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T10168A50188573.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
The bluebuck (Afrikaans: bloubok /ˈblaʊbɒk/) or blue antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus) is an extinct species of antelope that lived in South Africa until...
(51–55 in). The roan antelope shares the genus Hippotragus with the extinct bluebuck (H. leucophaeus) and the sable antelope (H. niger), and is a member of...
Angola. The sable antelope shares the genus Hippotragus with the extinct bluebuck (H. leucophaeus) and the roan antelope (H. equinus), and is a member of...
already limited species can easily lead to its extinction, as with the bluebuck whose range was confined to 1,700 square miles (4,400 km2) and which was...
caterpillars of the Zabulon skipper (Lon zabulon) and vertebrates. The extinct bluebuck (Hippotragus leucophaeus) was known to graze these grasses. The dense bunches...
tragocamelus - Nilgai or blue bull (not to be confused with the extinct bluebuck Hippotragus leucophaeus) †Elachistoceras †Duboisia †Dystychoceras †Eotragus...
was once extinct in the wild, though populations are now recovering. The bluebuck went extinct in the last 200 years, and the aurochs went extinct 400 years...
include several gazelles, the aurochs, the Malagasy hippopotamus, the bluebuck, and Schomburgk's deer. Two species, the Scimitar-horned oryx and Père...
such as the quagga, the great auk, Steller's sea cow, the thylacine, the bluebuck, the Arabian oryx, the Caspian and Javan tigers, the markhor, the Sumatran...
balloon dwindles to nothingness with the loss of hydrogen. The shooting of a bluebuck, now known to be anachronistic since the species was already extinct. In...
the fynbos biome occurred in renosterveld. Thus mountain zebra, quagga, bluebuck, roan antelope, red hartebeest, eland, bontebok, elephant, black rhino...
analysis. Three species have gone extinct since 1500 CE: the aurochs and the bluebuck in Bovidae and Schomburgk's deer in Cervidae. Additionally, the red gazelle...
Most recent remains dated to after 8902-8638 BCE in Kisese II, Tanzania. Bluebuck Hippotragus leucophaeus Overberg, South Africa Fossil evidence and rock...
niger Sable antelope East Africa, south of Kenya, and Southern Africa H. leucophaeus †Bluebuck or blue antelope the southwestern Cape of South Africa...
already limited species can easily lead to its extinction, as with the bluebuck whose range was confined to 1,700 square miles (4,400 km2) and which was...
some 100,000 years ago. According to Marincowitz, bones of the extinct bluebuck (Hippotragus leucophaeus) were found in it. In 1979 the site was declared...
is an extinct species of antelope endemic to South Africa known as the bluebuck. Several antelopes are found in different habitats. Species such as the...
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