Botswana Travel Guide
Botswana Travel Guide
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Wildlife guide
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Large antelope
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Roan antelope
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Botswana Travel Guide

Roan antelope



Hippotragus equines Shoulder height 120–150cm. Weight 250–300kg.
This handsome horse-like antelope is uniform fawn-grey with a pale belly, short decurved horns and a light mane. It could be mistaken for the female sable antelope, but this has a well-defined white belly, and lacks the roan's distinctive black-and-white facial markings. The roan is a relatively rare antelope; common almost nowhere in Africa (Malawi's Nyika Plateau being the obvious exception to this rule). In Botswana, small groups of roan are found in the Chobe and Kwando-Linyanti areas, and occasionally some will wander as far as the drier parts of the Okavango Delta – but they're always something of a rarity. Ngwezumba Pans is probably the best location to search for them, but they're not seen regularly even there.

Roan need lots of space if they are to thrive and breed; they don't generally do well where game densities are high. This alone precludes them from success in most of the Delta. Game farms prize them as one of the most valuable antelope. They need access to drinking water, but are well adapted to subsist on relatively high plateaux with poor soils.


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