Menelik Bushbuck | Online Record Book Preview

Tragelaphus scriptus meneliki

Also called Arussi bushbuck or black bushbuck. Named after Emperor Menelik II (1844-1913) of Ethiopia.

DESCRIPTION Shoulder height 28-30 inches (71-76 cm). Weight 100-120 pounds (45-55 kg).

A very handsome, medium-sized bushbuck with a rather long coat of very dark brown (sometimes almost black) hair. Usually, there are contrasting white patches on throat, base of neck and inside of legs, and a few white spots on the thighs. The head is reddish brown with a black nose stripe and an imperfect white chevron between the eyes. Females and immature males are reddish in color.

The Menelik bushbuck is somewhat similar in appearance to the mountain races of East African bushbuck in Kenya and the Cape bushbuck in South Africa.

DISTRIBUTION Endemic to Ethiopia in high-altitude forests of the Chercher, Din Din, Arussi and Bale mountains, the mountains of western Shoa Province, and high areas in Illubabor Province.

TAXONOMIC NOTES Includes meneliki and powelli, with meneliki Neumann, 1902 having priority. The powelli race is the so-called Shoan bushbuck, which most zoologists do not accept as a valid subspecies. It was described from the Managasha Forest west of Shoa by Matschie, in 1912, as having similar white body markings to meneliki but a somewhat lighter general color. The female was bright rufous, with a dark suffusion on neck and saddle. We follow Grubb (in litt.) and Yalden (1984) in regarding it as a synonym of meneliki.

Bushbucks that are thought to be hybrids between the montane Menelik and lowland Abyssinian forms are known to occur in the Rift Valley and possibly elsewhere. Any such hybrids entered for the Record Book will be considered individually.