The Hartebeest was well known to Sparrmann and other travellers in the Cape Colony at the close of the last century. It was figured by Buffon in one of the supplementary volumes to his ‘Histoire Naturelle’ as the “Caama ou Bubale,” but was generally confounded by systematists with the Bubal of North Africa, until Georges Cuvier, in 1816, gave it the name of Antilope caama—“Caama” or “Khama” being the term applied to it by the Bechuanas. In the days of Sparrmann the Hartebeest was very abundant all over the Cape Colony, and was found in large troops even in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town.
In 1811, when Burchell visited South Africa, the Hartebeest appears to have become already much less abundant; but Burchell speaks of having met with it on the Gariep or Orange River and in other localities.
Twenty-five years later, when Harris made his celebrated sporting excursions into South Africa, the Hartebeest had retreated still further into the interior. But Harris speaks of it as being at that date still met with on the plains beyond the Orange River “in immense herds.” Sir Andrew Smith, who visited the Cape Colonies at about the same epoch, and who has figured the male of this Antelope in his well-known ‘Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa,’ speaks of the occurrence of the Hartebeest far in the interior. He killed specimens himself close to the Tropic of Capricorn, and had heard of its occurrence much further northwards. But, according to his observations, Bubalis caama begins to get rare as soon as the Sassaby (Damaliscus lunatus) commences to occur. His experience justified him in pronouncing that the former took the place of the latter in all the territory northward of 25° south latitude. Sir Andrew Smith gives the following account of the habits of the Hartebeest:—
“The Hartebeest, by preference, inhabits an open country, and hence is generally observed upon the plains in small herds consisting of from six to ten individuals, and often, where the plains are extensive, many of such groups are to be seen within the range of the eye. It is a very wary animal, and views with strong suspicion the advance of man, so that, unless favoured by special circumstances, he finds it an animal difficult to procure. When disturbed, the herd generally scampers off in the train of some acknowledged leader, and they are rarely seen when flying, except in a string, one animal upon the heels of another. Their pace is a sort of heavy gallop, and though they do not appear to move with rapidity, yet the ground over which they go in a given time shows that their progressive motion is far from slow. When first they start, they appear extremely awkward, and generate in the observer an impression that to overtake them must be no very difficult task. After they have advanced a little, however, the apparent stiffness in the joints of the hinder extremities disappears, and even the indications of weakness of the hinder limbs become so indistinct, that the pursuer is soon satisfied of the inaccuracy of his first conclusion. This and the Sassaby are the only antelopes of South Africa which exhibit the peculiarity alluded to, and have led many to remark their resemblance in this respect to the Hyænas and Aard Wolf (Proteles lalandii). In all these animals there is a disproportion between the development of the anterior and posterior parts of the body, and each of them appears when in motion as if its hinder extremities were too weak for the duties they are destined to perform.”
We now come to the distribution of the Hartebeest in South Africa in more modern days. Mr. T. E. Buckley, who published some interesting notes on the range of the large Mammals in South Africa in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1876 and 1877, tells us that from being one of the commonest animals throughout the Cape Colony it had then become one of the rarest. He observed it only on three or four occasions during his journey into the interior—once just before reaching the Crocodile River, and once or twice in the Colony of Natal. In the south-east he says a few then still remained in the Zulu country, but he could not hear of its occurrence in Swaziland, where its place seemed to be taken by the Sassaby.
In 1881 the renowned hunter, Mr. F. C. Selous, in his “Field Notes on the Antelopes of Central South Africa,” read before the Zoological Society, described the present abode of the Hartebeest as follows:—“The range of this Antelope is very similar to that of the Gemsbuck. It is still found in Griqualand West, in some parts being fairly plentiful. All along the eastern border of the Kalahari desert it is also to be found, and extends as far east as the river Serule on the road from Bamangwato to Tati. In the neighbourhood of the salt-pans lying between the Botletlie river and the road from Bamangwato to the Zambesi it is very plentiful and may be met with in large herds. It does not, however, extend its range to the north of these salt-pans, and is unknown in all the country between the Chobe and Mababe rivers, as it is also in the Matabele and Mashuna countries. It is very fleet and enduring, and only second in these particulars to the Tsessebe.”
Our figure of this species was lithographed on the stone by Mr. J. Smit from a sketch made by Joseph Wolf, but we have been unable to ascertain from what exact specimen the sketch was taken.
There is a stuffed example of the Cape Hartebeest in the British Museum, obtained by the late Sir Andrew Smith during his journey to the Cape, probably the individual from which his figure in the ‘Illustrations’ was taken. There are also other specimens in the same collection, including the head of the curious hybrid between this species and the Sassaby (Damaliscus lunatus) described by Mr. Selous in 1893.
The Cape Hartebeest, though occasionally seen in zoological gardens, has never been a common animal in captivity. The Zoological Society of London received a single example in 1851, and a fine male in 1861, presented by Sir George Grey, then Governor of the Cape Colony. In 1869 a pair were obtained by purchase.
In May 1890 the Society acquired a good pair of Hartebeests imported from the Transvaal by the well-known dealer, Mr. C. Reiche, of Alfeld, in Hanover. These are still living in the Regent’s Park Gardens.