The 2014 inventory lists 1.2 Hippotragus equinus, and 1.0 H. equinus langheldi (East African roan). Anyone happen to know which of the males in the photo is the langheldi subspecies?
My money's on the rearmost - if only because of the slightly different facial markings.
Edit: having read a little further on the subject, my assumption regarding which are males and which are females in this photo may well be wrong!
I don't know but I photographed the Roan at Whipsnade about five years ago and clearly remember there were only four then as well- so their status appears not to have changed since then.
I think the males are the first and last. By colouration they look more like two and two than one and three as far as subspecies goes, to me...
There was always confusion over the Marwell Roan (when there were two herds) some were said to be bakerei but I could never tell the difference visually.
Thank you all for the replies. Looks like this is not an easy one! Apart from the male/female thing of course
I went a'googling earlier today, and managed to further confuse myself: it seems that there is no real consensus re the division of the species (apart from, perhaps, the W African koba).
Groves and Grubb's Ungulate Taxonomy (JHU Press, 2011) states that the southern forms tend to be paler, and the W African forms tend to be much redder in colour.
I think I'll go with "2.2 Roan" for the time being It was nothing more than idle curiosity on my part, having noticed that ZSL had given them two distinct entries in the inventory.
This is another antelope that has never fared as well at Whipsnade as it did at London. They may well have only had a small hardstanding there, but they bred frequently.
This is another antelope that has never fared as well at Whipsnade as it did at London. They may well have only had a small hardstanding there, but they bred frequently.
The Whipsnade Roan are definitely extremely nervous and wary. I find them near impossible to photograph up close, as they always seem to spot me a mile off and head for the centre of the paddock. Perhaps smaller enclosures mean that they quickly become accustomed to people, and they're then able to divert their energies/attentions more to each other? At Whipsnade they seem constantly on the lookout.
I don't know how big the group was at London, or elsewhere where they've bred successfully. Maybe one or two extra cows in this group would kick-start things?
Perhaps smaller enclosures mean that they quickly become accustomed to people, and they're then able to divert their energies/attentions more to each other? At Whipsnade they seem constantly on the lookout.
I think that is true, the bigger the enclosure, the 'wilder' the animals become. The Bongo are another example, being much tamer (or appearing to be so)when they were at ZSL than nowadays at Whipsnade. However I think a larger enclosure is also more likely to stimulate breeding than repress it. For the Roan the answer may be in the small number perhaps but I'd still expect them to breed if healthy/fertile.
Whilst looking for info on subspecies earlier in this thread, I was getting the sense that around 6 was a minimum number for most herds in the wild. A mean of 9 was measured across 100+ herds in one study. One website (I think game-related) mentioned 5-6 being the absolute minimum needed to re-establish a population.
Having said all that, I have several photos - taken a few minutes prior to the one heading this thread - which show one of the males urine-testing both the females. So maybe there's some hope!
