Kobus ellipsiprymnus
The Waterbuck remains widespread across western, central, eastern and southern Africa. East (1999) estimated the total population at about 200,000, over half of which occurring in protected areas. No subsequent global population estimate is available. The species is susceptible to poaching and several population declines, some of them severe, have been documented.
The species is suspected to be declining overall, but there is no evidence so far to confirm that the rate of decline has reached a level that would meet the requirements for Near Threatened or Vulnerable status. However, if the declining trend continues, and reliable population estimates become available, then the status of the species may warrant uplisting in the near or medium-term future.
Not many fossils of the waterbuck have been found. Fossils were scarce in the Cradle of Humankind, occurring only in a few pockets of the Swartkrans. On the basis of Valerius Geist's theories about the relation of social evolution and dispersal in ungulates during the Pleistocene, the ancestral home of the waterbuck is considered to be the eastern coast of Africa - with the Horn of Africa to the north and the East African Rift Valley to the west.
Kobus ellipsiprymnus
The Waterbuck remains widespread across western, central, eastern and southern Africa. East (1999) estimated the total population at about 200,000, over half of which occurring in protected areas. No subsequent global population estimate is available. The species is susceptible to poaching and several population declines, some of them severe, have been documented.
The species is suspected to be declining overall, but there is no evidence so far to confirm that the rate of decline has reached a level that would meet the requirements for Near Threatened or Vulnerable status. However, if the declining trend continues, and reliable population estimates become available, then the status of the species may warrant uplisting in the near or medium-term future.
Not many fossils of the waterbuck have been found. Fossils were scarce in the Cradle of Humankind, occurring only in a few pockets of the Swartkrans. On the basis of Valerius Geist's theories about the relation of social evolution and dispersal in ungulates during the Pleistocene, the ancestral home of the waterbuck is considered to be the eastern coast of Africa - with the Horn of Africa to the north and the East African Rift Valley to the west.