Hartebeest Facts

Hartebeest Profile

Wildebeest get a lot of attention for their phenomenal migration and the fact that one of their stampedes killed Mufasa. But there’s a slightly smaller version in the same family who’s worthy of attention and respect too! 

Hartebeests look a bit like a practice wildebeest and have a lot of the same charm. 

Hartebeest Facts Overview

The hartebeest’s ability to live off grass and take part in enormous congregations make them one of the more iconic species on the savanna, but they’re a species in turmoil, despite what the IUCN leads you to believe. 

Various subpopulations have been decimated, and the species as a whole reduced significantly. While they are at no imminent risk of dying out, their existence is an echo of what it once was, and subpopulations are still dying out all over the continent.

Interesting Hartebeest Facts

1. Deer beast

The Dutch did a pretty poor job of naming the animals they came across when colonising the South of Africa, but of all the animals to call a “deer beast”, this is definitely the best candidate. 

Hartebeests look like goat-deer hybrids, and in a way, that’s what they are. Lie goats, they’re bovids, that fill a very deer-like niche in the grasslands of Southern and Central Africa

Once ranged the entire continent from Morocco to South Africa

Currently 8 subspecies, but this is likely to be subject to change, as there are common hybrids in areas where their ranges overlap, and at least two of the subspecies may be considered divergent enough to become grouped as different species. 

The Latin name isn’t much better: Alcelaphus translates to “moose deer”. ¹

2. They’re very generalist grazers

Among antelope, and other herbivorous mammals, there are two main strategies when feeding, which generally represent opposite ends of the spectrum. At one end, you have the narrow-mouthed browsers, analogous to the subsection of society some would refer to as the ‘Toff”. 

These pick and choose their food wisely, selecting only the best, most nutritious and tender leaves and flowers to support their diet. 

At the other end of the spectrum are the grazers, the Dave Lister types, who aren’t too fussy as long as it’s covered in vindaloo sauce. They have wider mouths and vacuum up anything within range. Their feeding style usually goes for quantity over quality and is made up more of grasses.  

Most herbivores are one or the other, or a mix of both, depending on what’s available. 

Hartebeests are firmly in the corner of the grazers and are not remotely worried about picking the best bits. They’ll happily eat large quantities of low-quality roughage, which in this case is almost entirely grass. ²

3. They form enormous groups

There’s a lot of grass in Africa, and this has led to quite several grazers. Hartebeests alone take on the plains grasses in teams of hundreds at a time, and in some cases, these herds will come together to form congregations numbering the thousands. 

One such congregation in Botswana in 1963 was estimated to contain over 10,000 hartebeests, though they would have been made up of multiple groups and eventually dispersed. 

The four main members of a herd are the angy males, the not-so-angry males, the young females and the females with young. Females form groups containing up to four generations and compete to establish dominance. 

Angry males are responsible for guarding the herd and marking their territory, which they do with poop. ³

4. They have good fluid retention

Hartebeests have a low-quality diet, but their metabolisms have slowed down to adjust to it. This has the added benefit of less body heat, meaning less sweat, and less water loss. 

Despite being a large animal, the hartebeest only needs to drink as little as 9 litres per day, compared with the almost 13 litres of the eland. 

This is an excellent trait to have when you’re living in an area with little water! ⁴

5. They were once exceptionally widespread

Their generalist feeding strategy puts them directly into competition with domestic cattle, and as a result, their numbers have dropped significantly. 

Hartebeests have been known to climb to 4,000 meters up Mount Kenya and were just as widespread laterally across the continent before their habitats were fragmented and destroyed. 

Of the eight subspecies, most are in decline, one went extinct in 1994, and some like the Tora Hartebeest are now critically endangered. 

One subspecies, a popular game animal, is the only subspecies making a comeback. ⁵

6. Some subspecies are in serious trouble

Unfortunately for the Hartebeest, it’s a very tasty animal, and human hunting has decreased its population drastically. 

The expansion of livestock and human settlements has also encroached on its range, and despite its adaptations, increasing drought has damaged once vast herds, contributing to declines of well over 60% in some areas. 

The Coke’s Hartebeest, despite being listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN has been reduced from almost 300,000 to fewer than 70,000 individuals due to habitat destruction. 

On the other end, the Tora subspecies now numbers fewer than 250 mature individuals in Ethiopia and Eritrea and is facing persecution by Oromo pastoralists. 

7. Smarter ranching can help

In Kenya’s Laikipia county, Jackson’s hartebeests have been reduced by over 80% in just 15 years. 

The solution appears to be simple: by herding cattle away from antelope gatherings, their numbers can increase. Abandoned corrals turn into fertile glades which draw in zebras, a much more appealing snack for lions, which further protects the antelope.  

Since lions have been reintroduced to the area, this may also solve the issue of human-wildlife conflict by drawing lions away from livestock. 

Hartebeest Fact-File Summary

Scientific Classification

1. P Arctander (1999), “Phylogeography of three closely related African bovids (tribe Alcelaphini)”, Oxford Academic.
2. “Hartebeest”, African Wildlife Foundation.
3. “Alcelaphus buselaphus hartebeest”, Animal Diversity Web.
4. M. R. Stanley Price (1978), “The Nutritional Ecology of Coke’s Hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus cokei) in Kenya”, JSTOR.
5. “Alcelaphus buselaphus”, GBIF.