A photograph of Africa’s “forgotten antelope” has been published for the first time as the elusive creature dives towards extinction.
Fewer than 100 Upemba lechwe are thought to remain, with an aerial survey in the Kamalondo depression of the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo having recorded 10 individuals.
Though the herd cantered too quickly out of sight to be recorded, one stopped for an instant, looking up at the scientists recording them. This allowed Manuel Weber, of Upemba national park’s department of research and biomonitoring, to snap a quick picture, thought to be the first photo taken of a living Upemba lechwe since it was identified as a subspecies in 2005.
The antelope stopped for “literally a few seconds”, Weber said.
“The feeling was unbelievable, I barely slept the nights before we found it, very worried that we would not be able to do the survey, that we would not find any (in that case we would be responsible for the extinction of a species), and the need to get that photograph to generate the awareness needed to save them,” Weber said.
Findings published in the African Journal of Ecology provide the first population update in more than 50 years.
“This is a species on the very brink,” Weber, the lead author, added. “The fact that they’re still hanging on at all is extraordinary, but without urgent protection, they’ll vanish.”
The Upemba lechwe is now considered one of the world’s rarest large mammals and is at imminent risk of extinction due to illegal poaching.
The number one threat to its numbers is hunting, Weber said. “Up to 22,000 individuals were counted in the early 1970s, that was before the Upemba lechwe was described as a species. In the early 1990s, the meat of dozens was shipped every week to Bukama, the largest city in the area, along the Lualaba River.
“I don’t see any problem with meat harvesting by the communities in the landscape, but this is only possible when we have viable populations. The question is, how do we get back to those?”
The authors urge rapid intervention to protect the last animals of their kind, and hope that this photograph helps galvanise attention and resources to the forgotten antelope.
“I knew that we needed that photograph – otherwise we would have no way to get any media attention for the cause, and I was devastated after the first day, since we did connect with a few Upemba lechwe, but they were running for their life, so no way to capture them on camera,” Weber explained. “It was in the morning of the second day, that a single individual stopped for just a few seconds – long enough for me to press the trigger – before running off like the other individuals we have seen.
“We hope this image becomes a rallying cry,” Weber adds. “Because this may be our only chance to save this species.”
