Bubalis tora, Ward, Horn Meas. p. 59, fig. (head) (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 198 (1893).
Vernacular Names:—Tora in Amhar, Abyssinia; Tori in Tigre; Guragua or Quaraqua in Belen; Tétel of Arabs in Sennaar (Heuglin).
Size large, height at withers about 48 inches; hairs of face directed as in B. buselaphus. Colour uniform pale fulvous, decidedly paler than in other species, and, with the exception of the usual black chin and tail-tuft, entirely without black markings. Lower part of rump behind decidedly lighter than the dorsal surface.
Skull slenderer and more lightly built than usual; frontal narrow; its elongation medium.
Basal length 15·7 inches, greatest breadth 5·3, muzzle to orbit 12·5, facial length 16·5, breadth of forehead 3·4.
Horns shaped somewhat like an inverted bracket, a comparison that is, however, better borne out by the two following species, as in the Tora the diverging parts of the two horns start up at a slight angle with each other, instead of being in the same straight line. The horns themselves are unusually slender, and attain a length of about 19 inches.
Hab. Upper Nubia, Northern Abyssinia, and Kordofan.
The Tora or Tétel was confounded by von Heuglin and Sir Samuel Baker, its first discoverers, with the Bubal. But these two Antelopes, though alike of uniform colour, are easily distinguishable on comparison by the larger size and higher gait of the Tora and by the different shape of its horns. The Tora would also seem to inhabit more wooded and broken country than the open deserts that are the home of the allied species.
Heuglin tells us that this Antelope is found in families and herds in the valleys at the foot of Mount Takah, in the district of the Beni-Ammer Arabs, in Upper Barca, on the Anseba and Atbara and their confluents, and in the lower districts of Northern Abyssinia. He found it likewise plentiful on the sources of the Dender and Rahad, and in Galabat. It inhabits the sheltered country where there is high grass and underwood, is not particularly timid, and sometimes even stupidly bold, resorting regularly in the morning and evening to the usual pastures and drinking-places.
In his volume on ‘The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia’ Sir Samuel Baker frequently mentions the “Tétel,” as he calls this Antelope.