Hab. Valleys of Chobe and Zambesi, and northwards through the Barotse country to Lake Mweru.
Our first knowledge of this species is due to the great explorer Livingstone. When in the Barotse country beyond Libonta, in November 1853, he found “the wild animals in enormous herds, and fared sumptuously. It was grievous, however,” he adds, “to shoot the lovely creatures, they were so tame.” While waiting for an answer to a message sent to a native chief he “lay looking at the graceful forms of the beautiful pokus, lechès, and other antelopes.” In a footnote to this passage in his ‘Missionary Travels’ he informs us that the Poku “is a new species which he proposes to name after the African traveller Major Vardon.” We do not believe that Livingstone ever published a description of his species, but in the same work (p. 71) will be found a full-page plate, from the inimitable pencil of Joseph Wolf, illustrating the “New African Antelopes (Poku and Lechè) discovered by Oswell, Murray, and Livingstone.”
In 1864 we have a further contribution to our knowledge of this animal from the pen of Sir John Kirk. In his article on the Mammals of Zambesia read before the Zoological Society of London on December 13th of that year, he tells us that the Poku “is one of the three water-antelopes common to the marshes of the Chobi and Zambesi. With the Lechè it often mixes, the habits of the two being very similar, the Poku being less aquatic and being found more often on dry ground. It is known by its smaller size, its more erect carriage, and its plumper neck. The horns are less turned backwards, and partake more of the aspect of the Reit-bock.”
Mr. Selous’s excellent field-notes on the Poku, contained in the ‘Proceedings’ of the same Society for 1881, and subsequently reprinted in his ‘Hunter’s Wanderings,’ deserve to be quoted at full length:—
“The only place where I ever met with this species was in a small tract of country extending along the southern bank of the Chobe for about seventy miles westward from its junction with the Zambesi. They are never found at more than 200 or 300 yards from the river, and are usually to be seen cropping the short grass along the water’s edge, or lying in the shade of the trees and bushes scattered over the alluvial flats which have been formed here and there by the shifting of the river’s bed. That they exist, however, eastwards along the southern bank of the Zambesi as far as the Victoria Falls (about sixty miles from the mouth of the Chobe) I think probable, as I saw one shot on the very brink; but though I followed the river’s bank all the way, I never met with another till I reached the Chobe. The natives report them common on the eastern bank of the Zambesi, north of Lesheke. From a plate in Dr. Livingstone’s first book I always imagined that the Pookoo was found at the Lake Ngami; but, as he makes no mention of it in the letterpress before reaching the Zambesi, and as neither Andersson nor Baldwin, who both visited the lake, seem to have known of its existence at all, this is perhaps erroneous. In size they stand about the same height at the shoulder as the Impala, but, being much thicker-set and stouter built, must weigh considerably more. The colour is a uniform foxy red, the hair along the back about the loins being often long and curly; the tips of the ears are black. The males alone bear horns, which are ringed to within three inches of the point, and curve forwards like those of the Lechwe, to which animal they are very closely allied. The longest pair I have in my possession measures sixteen inches, which is about the extreme length they ever attain. These Antelopes are usually met with in herds of from three or four to a dozen in number; but on one of the alluvial flats to which I have before referred I have seen as many as fifty in one herd. Sometimes ten or a dozen rams may be seen together, or a solitary old fellow quite alone. I have often seen these Antelopes feeding in company with a herd of Impalas, and then their heavy thick-set forms contrasted strongly with the slim and graceful proportions of the latter animals. The meat of the Waterbuck is usually considered to be more unpalatable than that of any other South-African Antelope; but, if it will give anyone satisfaction to know it, I can conscientiously say that that of the Pookoo is several shades worse. In conclusion, I have found that they and their congener the Lechwe are wonderfully tenacious of life, and will run long distances after receiving wounds that one would think ought to be immediately fatal.”
Fig. 35.
Horns of Cobus vardoni.—a. Side view; b. Front view.
(P. Z. S. 1881, p. 760.)
Mr. Selous’s field-notes on this Antelope are accompanied by an excellent coloured figure of the whole animal, and by some drawings of the horns, which, by the kind permission of the Zoological Society, we are enabled to reproduce here (see fig. 35, p. 143).