Ugandan Kob

Fascinating facts about the Ugandan Kob

• Males carve out tiny arenas no larger than 200 m across, the smallest plots packed in the heart of bustling leks where 20 to 200 rivals jostle for space. Holding a prime central spot boosts a male's chances of mating, while peripheral territories are less coveted.
• Nearly all living Ugandan kobs, 98 % of the global count, are tucked inside national parks or other protected zones, shielding them from poachers who target their open-grassland habit. This heavy reliance on reserves means that any loss of protected land could instantly expose the majority of the species to illegal hunting, underscoring the critical role of park management for their survival.
• Conservationists recently moved Ugandan kobs into Kidepo Valley National Park, a region where they never lived before. This translocation risks blending them with the neighboring white-eared kob, potentially spawning hybrid offspring and eroding the genetic purity of both subspecies. Such unintended mixing could weaken adaptations each line has honed for its native environment, illustrating the hidden genetic costs of well-meaning introductions.
• Males standing 90 to 100 cm tall and weighing an average 94 kg, while females measure 82 to 92 cm and tip the scales at about 63 kg.
• A single herd in South Sudan trekked an astonishing 150 to 200 km (93 to 124 mi) across the dry season, following watercourses to fresh grazing. Such marathon migrations can swell local densities to as many as 1,000 individuals per square kilometre.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia
• Mongabay

At a glance

Ugandan Kob photographed on Feravox

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