Tsessebe

About the Tsessebe

Damaliscus lunatus is a large African antelope of the genus Damaliscus and subfamily Alcelaphinae in the family Bovidae, with a number of recognised geographic subspecies. Some authorities have split the different populations of the species into different species, although this is seen as controversial. Common names include topi, sassaby (formerly also sassayby), tiang and tsessebe.

The word tope or topi is Swahili, and was first recorded by the German explorer Gustav Fischer on the ancient city island of Lamu off the Kenyan coast. Other names recorded in East Africa by various German explorers were mhili in Kisukuma and jimäla in Kinyamwezi. The Luganda name was simäla according to Neumann, or nemira according to Lugard.

The first thing published about this antelope was the afore-mentioned painting of a young male sassayby by Daniell from 1820, but the first scientific description was by William John Burchell in 1824. In 1812 hunters attached to Burchell's expedition shot a female animal in what is now Free State, in what is thought to be the southernmost part of its range. Burchell named it the "crescent-horned antelope", Antilope lunata. Burchell had... Wikipedia →