Simpala??!!

[Marc Mol]

Seeing as it's unofficially Impala week,...... thoughts of this freak of nature came to mind and you thought Sanjeev's impressive Impala had large horns
We found her, yes I said HER with a small harem seeking shade from the approaching midday sun, sneaking out under the cover of darkness we were on our way out to the far edges of RuahaNP when we found this cross
between an Impala and Sable, well having the horns of a sable anyway, more to our surprise was the fact upon closer inspection you could see that this was in fact female.
I wondered just what the rest of the herd made of this ungulate, as it appeared to co-habitate fairly well.
Most unusual indeed.
I'm posting this not so much for critique, but more of an FYI, as I commence packing before I leave for 25 days to Ndutu & Ruaha- Tanzania on Thurs.
Yes, Morkel the migration has most certainly arrived in numbers @ Ndutu...... thank goodness.

D3s 500f/4 VR 1/1000s f/5.6 ISO200 -0.33EV

Cheers
Marc

[Neil Burton]

That is odd indeed, neck too short, horns too long (horns at all) and the sable face.... great find, this happen often?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Marc,
funny looking animal, maybe they have some strange food source at the location where you took the image.
Have fun in Ruaha and come back safely with loads of images that we can tear apart, sorry making good suggestions for making a good image even better, LOL. .

TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Massive pair of horns for a female, whew, what an interesting find! I bet the females in the harem took her for a male Unusual indeed, and thank you for this post, Marc! I would like to believe she is quite an asset to the herd…

Wishing you a great trip to Ndutu and Ruaha and looking forward to your images when you return

Kind regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Marc - interesting quirk of nature. Enjoy your trip. I'm looking forward to seeing your images upon your return.

TFS,
Rachel

[edwardselfe]

Fascinating - or a Rimpala perhaps if a Roan was the culprit! I'll forward to a few people I know and see if they've seen anything like it before....
Ed

[Martin Dunn]

Enjoy your trip Marc, I thought you'd only just got back from the last one.
It's alright for some.

[Marc Mol]

Enjoy your trip Marc, I thought you'd only just got back from the last one.
It's alright for some.

Thanks Martin

True, recently returned from Selous/Ruaha in OCT, and was fortunate to have 50% of this trip funded by the camp as the photographer, so the pressure is ON.

[Marc Mol]

Fascinating - or a Rimpala perhaps if a Roan was the culprit! I'll forward to a few people I know and see if they've seen anything like it before....
Ed

Thanks Ed, it's certainly something I've never encountered before.
My (unskilled) assessment is it's still an Impala with a specific genetic deformity, I guess what makes this even more unusual is that's it's a female????

[Steve Kaluski]

Well, you could hang quite a few coats on that rack Marc.

[Marc Mol]

Well, you could hang quite a few coats on that rack Marc.

Absolutely, here's a side profile:

[Steve Kaluski]

Marc, based on the above just put a saddle on him and steer him like a bike!

[Marc Mol]

Just as a side note, I haven't applied any USM on this but still appears to have visible halos (in both images)on the chest and nape of the neck, any clues Steve or Andreas?
I had initially thought it was a lumo masking on BG that may have been responsible, but it is there in both RAW files?
Perhaps heat defraction/dissipation??

[Steve Kaluski]

Marc, without seeing the RAW it hard to say, I wonder if it might be light creating a 'sheen' ?????

Morkel may know?

[edwardselfe]

I sent this around and there was a lot of interest from several of my friends who are hunters, or have worked in conservation for a long time. I'm also going to send to Richard Estes who wrote a number of mammal books and see what he says.

Most said that they'd seen a female impala with horns - which I have too in Luangwa - but very rarely with horns so big. No one offered the suggestion of a cross-breed. One guy wrote this and he's probably the most experienced of all those that I emailed:

“Hi Ed, - yes it is quite a typical horn shape for a female, albeit much longer and thicker than I have seen before. I suppose she is just older and had more time to grow. There was one very similar (but smaller horns) near Mfuwe Lodge five or six years ago and I have seen a couple in Luawata over the years. Compared to the number of impala one sees it must be considered very rare. I suppose that they are quite close to gazelles, most of whose females have horns."

[Marc Mol]

Interesting Ed, appreciate the research.

[edwardselfe]

Hi guys - I've been in touch over the last few days with Richard Estes and a few of his colleagues who work at Universities in the US and one who's a leading expert on bovids. Their first impressions are that this impala shows the horn shape of a female (in the few cases that they develop horns) but no one has ever seen anything this large. Seems that Marc might have come across something really unusual. I know that he's in Ruaha again now, so perhaps he'll see her again and get more photos, but confirming that it is a female would excite the science world hugely - Marc if you're reading this, get a photo if you can!!

I'll keep updating this if anyone is interested.

Ed

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ed, this is really great news and informative too, Marc what have you discovered?
Ed, I think Marc maybe away, so response may be late, however please keep us posted on any further developments.

cheers
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

Now this is very interesting. I'd be very keen to get some biological/scientific input on this, as to me it really looks like a crossbreed and not a mere genetic defect.
Jealous about your return to the Rift valley, Marc, and yes got the report a week or so ago that the herds have finally left the Mara...looking forward to more images!