Mountain Nyalas
Discovered by Major Ivor Buxton in the high mountains of southern Ethiopia in the summer of 1910, the mountain nyalas (Tragelaphus buxtoni) are a relatively unknown species. They are a specific type of bovid related to the bongos and kudus. The male, which has gently twisting horns almost four feet long, can weigh up to 450 pounds. The mountain nyala’s shaggy coat is a majestic grayish brown. Nyalas have a white chevron between the eyes, two white spots on the cheek, poorly defined white vertical stripes on the back and upper flanks, and a short brown mane on the neck.
After the mountain nyala was first described by Richard Lydekker, the eminent British naturalist, it was ruthlessly hunted by field biologists and trophy seekers through some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth. The mountain nyala fives at heights above nine thousand feet, where the sun burns harshly in the day and the night temperatures fall to freezing. Illegal hunting and habitat destruction now threatens its existence. From eight thousand in the 1960s, their number declined to three thousand in the 1980s. None are in captivity. According to zoologist Karl Shuker, the animal remains one of Africa’s least studied antelopes.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters,Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
Written by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark – Copyright 1999 Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark
