Hippotragus niger (Harris 1838)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Artiodactyla, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 637-722 : 718

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.7316519
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/7FEF245E-8617-8C2C-3DE4-A9CF5006E1A1
treatment provided by	Guido
scientific name	Hippotragus niger (Harris 1838)
status

Treatment

[Hippotragus] niger (Harris 1838) , Athenaeum, 535: 71.

Type Locality: "The great mountain range in the county of Mataveld", and "On the northern side of the Cashan range of mountiains, about a degree and a half south of the tropic of Capricorn", since specified as South Africa, North West Prov., Krugersdorp and Rustenburg, Magaliesberg ( Grubb, 1999).

Vernacular Names: Sable Antelope.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Hippotragus niger subsp. niger Harris 1838

Subspecies Hippotragus niger subsp. anselli Groves 1983

Subspecies Hippotragus niger subsp. roosevelti Heller 1910

Subspecies Hippotragus niger subsp. variani Thomas 1916

Distribution: Savanna woodland in Africa; giant sable (variani) in C Angola (between Cuanza and Loando Rs.); other subspecies in E Angola, N Botswana, S Dem. Rep. Congo, SE Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, NE Namibia (Caprivi Strip), NE South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix I as H. niger variani ; U.S. ESA – Endangered as H. n. variani; IUCN – Critically Endangered as H. n. variani, otherwise Lower Risk (cd).

Discussion: Includes variani; see Ansell (1972:47). Original publication usually assumed to be Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1838:2 (publ. July, 1838), but McAllan and Bruce (1989) showed that an earlier publication is The Athenaeum (publ. 27 Jan., 1838). Subspecific synonymy follows Ansell (1972:47). In phylogeographic studies, Matthee and Robinson (1999) distinguishsed niger , kirkii and variani from " roosevelti ", and Pitra et al. (2002) recognised clade I (" roosevelti " of Matthee and Robinson, in W Tanzania and merged with clade II), "pure" clade II ( niger including kirkii ) and clade III (roosevelti). Cotterill (2003 a) treated anselli (mtDNA not studied) as specifically distinct from niger .