Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Orig­i­nally, black wilde­beest, or white-tailed gnus, ranged the high­veld tem­per­ate grass­lands dur­ing the dry win­ter and the arid kar­roo dur­ing the rains. How­ever, due to hide-hunt­ing in the 19th cen­tury, they were re­duced to liv­ing on pro­tected game farms in south­ern Africa. (Estes, 1991)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Con­nochaetes gnou lived in grass­lands sim­i­lar to the habi­tat of the com­mon wilde­beest, Con­nochaetes tau­r­i­nus, when it ranged free. How­ever, with its thicker, darker coat, black wilde­beest are able to range far­ther south than the Or­ange River, past the edge of the aca­cia sa­van­nah, into colder cli­mates. They rarely seek shade, and need lit­tle win­ter shel­ter. (Estes, 1991)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Black wilde­beest are dark brown to black in color, males being darker in color than fe­males. Both sexes be­come lighter in coat color in the sum­mer, and de­velop shag­gier coats in the win­ter. Like com­mon wilde­beest, C. gnou pos­sesses a bushy beard and mane. How­ever, C. gnou has a mane that stands up from its neck, rather than drap­ing across the neck, like that of C. tau­r­i­nus. This bristly mane is cream to white in color and black at the tips. The beard is black in color and stretches only along the lower jaw, not the length of the neck, as in C. tau­r­i­nus. Ad­di­tion­ally, black wilde­beest have an area of longer, dark hair be­tween the forelegs, cov­er­ing the chest, and an­other patch of bristly black hair along the bridge of the nose. Male C. gnou stand 111 to 121 cm high and can be up to 2m in length, fe­males are slightly smaller. Paired horns curve down, for­ward, and then up, like hooks, and are up to 78 cm in length (slightly thin­ner and shorter in fe­males). The base of the horns is widened and flat­tened to form a pro­tec­tive shield. These dif­fer from C. tau­r­i­nus in that they pro­ject an­te­ri­orly, rather than lat­er­ally. Scent glands are pre­sent pre­or­bitally, under the hair tuft, and on the forefeet.

Den­tal for­mula: 0/3, 0/1, 3/2, 3/3 (Tal­bot 1963) (Estes, 1991; Tal­bot and Tal­bot, 1963; Walker, 1968)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• ornamentation

• Range mass

  110 to 157 kg

  242.29 to 345.81 lb

• Range length

  2 (high) m

  6.56 (high) ft

Re­pro­duc­tion

Dom­i­nant males de­fend ac­cess to a harem of fe­males with which they mate. These ter­ri­to­r­ial bulls are able to mate at any time, will call at twice the nor­mal tempo, and may even froth at the mouth. There is sug­ges­tion that this call­ing helps to stim­u­late and syn­chro­nize fe­male es­trus, al­though there is also ev­i­dence that the lunar cycle trig­gers the mat­ing peak. A rut­ting bull will never eat nor rest, as long as there are fe­males within his ter­ri­tory. There are few court­ing rit­u­als, be­sides males herd­ing fe­males with neck out­stretched and chin in-line, uri­na­tion on de­mand and flehmen (urine scent­ing). If a re­cep­tive fe­male is un­co­op­er­a­tive, a bull may rear in front of her with a full erec­tion in a cop­u­la­tory dis­play. A re­cep­tive fe­male will raise her tail when ap­proached by a bull, swish­ing it across his face. Her tail re­mains up, some­times, ver­ti­cal, dur­ing mat­ing, as the cow stands with her legs bowed, back arched. Fe­males mate dozens of times with a male, often 2 or more times in a minute. (Estes, 1991)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Off­spring ges­tate for 8 to 8.5 months, only 1 ex­tremely pre­co­cial calf is born. Calv­ing peaks in No­vem­ber-De­cem­ber (semi-de­pen­dent on tim­ing and lo­ca­tion of rains). Like C. tau­r­i­nus, 80-90% of all calves are dropped within the three week birth peak. Calves can stand at 9 min­utes post-par­tu­ri­tion, and are graz­ing at least part time within one month. Calves are weaned after 4 months. Fe­males ma­ture at 1.5 to 2.5 years of age, males don't ma­ture until 3 years of age.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Females breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  The breeding season coincides with the end of the rainy season, February to April.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 2

• Average number of offspring

  1.02

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  8 to 8.5 months

• Range weaning age

  6 to 9 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1.5 to 2.5 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  3 years

Like most mam­mals, fe­male black wilde­beests nour­ish their young in utero, and then nurse them for sev­eral months after birth. Males pro­vide no care for their young. Calves stay with their moth­ers until the next calf is born. Black wilde­beest calves are ca­pa­ble of stand­ing and run­ning within hours of birth.

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • protecting
    • female
• post-independence association with parents

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Black wilde­beest can live for 20 years.

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  20 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  20 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  20.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Like C. tau­r­i­nus, wild C. gnou were mi­gra­tory in large herds. Black wilde­beest were never stud­ied in their nat­ural habi­tat, in­ter­act­ing with nat­ural preda­tors, how­ever they seem to be more ag­gres­sive than their wild cousins, and have at­tacked and killed keep­ers while in cap­tiv­ity. The largest ex­ist­ing herd num­bers 330 head at Willem Pre­to­rius Game Re­serve, Or­ange Free State. Herd size in­creases with for­age den­sity, fe­male herds rang­ing from 14 to 32 and main­tain a so­cial dom­i­nance hi­er­ar­chy. Un­like com­mon wilde­beest, black wilde­beest do not groom each other or rub their fore­heads on other wilde­beest's croups be­cause of the pro­jec­tion of their horns. How­ever, they oc­ca­sion­ally rub their cheeks on com­pan­ions' necks.

Calves stay with their moth­ers until the next calf is born. These year­lings are dri­ven out by the adult males. Dur­ing this process, calves are often sep­a­rated from their moth­ers, re­sult­ing in what may be the main cause of cap­tive calf mor­tal­ity. The year­lings form peace­ful bach­e­lor herds that may be tol­er­ated by fe­male groups late in the dry sea­son. (Estes, 1991; Huff­man, 2004; Walker, 1968)

• Key Behaviors
• cursorial
• terricolous
• diurnal
• motile
• migratory
• social
• dominance hierarchies

Home Range

Black wilde­beest herds main­tain a range of ap­prox­i­mately 100 ha, de­pen­dend­ing on the avail­abil­ity of space and qual­ity of veg­e­ta­tion.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Male wilde­beest de­ter­mine dom­i­nance through clas­sic head-ram­ming and front-press­ing be­hav­iors ex­hib­ited in most bovids, how­ever the fe­males main­tain their rank pri­mar­ily through head-nods and head-shakes. The white tail is lashed or waved in most C. gnou in­ter­ac­tions, sig­nalling any­thing from dom­i­nance to sub­mis­sion, and pos­si­bly serv­ing as an au­di­tory sig­nal, as it can be heard up to half a kilo­me­ter away.

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Black wilde­beest eat the fo­liage of kar­roid bushes and shrubs. They live in some­what arid re­gions and can sub­sist with­out drink­ing every day. (Estes, 1991)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• wood, bark, or stems
• flowers

Ecosys­tem Roles

Black wilde­beest were once im­por­tant her­bi­vores in the ecosys­tems in which they live and served as an im­por­tant prey base for large preda­tors, es­pe­cially in calv­ing sea­sons.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Black wilde­beest are part of the di­verse wildlife that at­tracts tourists for sa­fari.

• Positive Impacts
• food
• ecotourism

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Wild gnu are seen as com­peti­tors of com­mer­cial live­stock. As well, many bovine dis­eases, such as rinder­pest, travel from wilde­beest to cat­tle. Wilde­beest also carry par­a­sites, in­clud­ing sev­eral kinds of ticks, flies, lung­worms, tape­worms, and paramphis­tome flukes. (Tal­bot and Tal­bot, 1963)

• Negative Impacts
• causes or carries domestic animal disease

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

In­dis­crim­i­nate hunt­ing and re­stric­tion of the best fer­tile land for farm­ing has re­duced the pop­u­la­tion sizes of many African an­te­lope, in­clud­ing this species. Con­nochaetes gnou now ex­ists only in con­tained pop­u­la­tions on game farms and in zoos (Mac­don­ald 1995). The IUCN rates it a species of Least Con­cern be­cause of the large num­ber of cap­tive in­di­vid­u­als. (Mac­don­ald, 1995)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

George Ham­mond (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Bar­bara Lun­dri­gan (au­thor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity, Jen­nifer Bidling­meyer (au­thor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

Estes, R. 1991. The Be­hav­ior Guide to African Mam­mals. Berke­ley, Los An­ge­les, Lon­don: Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Press.

Huff­man, B. 2004. "Con­nochaetes gnou" (On-line). The Ul­ti­mate Un­gu­late Home­page. Ac­cessed 09/09/04 at http://​www.​ultimateungulate.​com/​Artiodactyla/​Connochaetes_​gnou.​html.

Mac­don­ald, D. 1995. En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals. Lon­don, Syd­ney: George Allen and Unwin.

Tal­bot, L., M. Tal­bot. 1963. The Wilde­beest in West­ern Ma­sai­land. Wildlife Mono­graphs, 12: 8-88.

Walker, E. 1968. Mam­mals of the World. Bal­ti­more: Johns Hop­kins Press.