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Sunday 31 March 2024

22-3-2024 BIOPARC, VALENCIA - FOREST SITATUNGA (Tragelaphus spekii ssp. gratus)


 Larger in body than the Zambezi Sitatunga found in Zambia and Botswana, the forest Sitatunga has a darker coat with distinct white stripes and a white dorsal ridge.

The species is still present in several countries in Central Africa ; it is discontinuously distributed in West Africa

The sitatunga is semi aquatic, and so specialized that it occurs only in swamps or permanent marshes. Partial to papyrus and phragmites within swamps, it may also occur in wetlands dominated by bullrushes, reeds, and sedges. They frequent the deepest parts of the swamp. (Estes, 1991; Nowak, 1991)


The Sitatunga, a swamp-dwelling antelope, exhibits great elongation of the hooves, which have a wide splay and naked padlike pattern. They possess unique flexibility of the joints at the feet, representing structural adaptations for walking on boggy and marshy ground.

Coloration varies geographically and individually. Males are gray-brown to chocolate-brown, females are brown to bright chestnut, and calves are bright rufous-red, woolly coated, spotted, and striped. Adults are long coated and have characteristic whiteish marks on the face, ears, cheeks, body, legs, and feet.

Males are considerably larger than females (100 cm tall vs. 75-90 cm tall). Males possess horns ranging in length from 508-924 mm. Horns are characterized by two twists and are ivory tipped. 

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