Crossword clues for hartebeest
The Collaborative International Dictionary
hartebeest \hartebeest\ n. 1. large African antelope with lyre-shaped horns that curve backward.
Hartbeest \Hart"beest`\, Hartebeest \Har"te*beest`\(-b[=e]st`), n. [D. hertebeest. See Hart, and Beast.]
(Zo["o]l.) A large South African antelope ( Alcelaphus caama), formerly much more abundant than it is now. The face and legs are marked with black, the rump with white.
Any anteleope of the genus Alcelaphus and certain species of Darnaliscus.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. A type of grassland antelope, (taxlink Alcelaphus buselaphus species noshow=1), native to parts of Africa
WordNet
n. a large African antelope with lyre-shaped horns that curve backward
Wikipedia
The hartebeest , also known as kongoni, is an African antelope, first described by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1766. Eight subspecies have been described, including two sometimes considered to be independent species. A large antelope, the hartebeest stands just over at the shoulder, and has a typical head-and-body length of . The weight ranges from . It has a particularly elongated forehead and oddly shaped horns, short neck, and pointed ears. Its legs, which often have black markings, are unusually long. The coat is generally short and shiny. Coat colour varies by the subspecies, from the sandy brown of the western hartebeest to the chocolate brown of the Swayne's hartebeest. Both sexes of all subspecies have horns, with those of females being more slender. Horns can reach lengths of . Apart from its long face, the large chest and the sharply sloping back differentiate the hartebeest from other antelopes.
Gregarious animals, hartebeest form herds of 20 to 300 individuals. They are very alert and non-aggressive. They are primarily grazers, with their diets consisting mainly of grasses. Mating in hartebeest takes place throughout the year with one or two peaks, and depends upon the subspecies and local factors. Both males and females reach sexual maturity at one to two years of age. Gestation is eight to nine months long, after which a single calf is born. Births usually peak in the dry season. The lifespan is 11 to 20 years in the wild and up to 19 years in captivity.
Inhabiting dry savannas and wooded grasslands, hartebeest often move to more arid places after rainfall. They have been reported from altitudes on Mount Kenya up to . The hartebeest was formerly widespread in Africa, but populations have undergone drastic decline due to habitat destruction, hunting, human settlement, and competition with livestock for food. Each of the eight subspecies of the hartebeest has a different conservation status. The Bubal hartebeest was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1994. While the populations of the red hartebeest are on the rise, those of the Tora hartebeest, already Critically Endangered, are falling. The hartebeest is extinct in Algeria, Egypt, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, and Tunisia; but has been introduced into Swaziland and Zimbabwe. It is a popular game animal due to its highly regarded meat.
Usage examples of "hartebeest".
The great springbok herds deserted the land, the kudu and the hartebeest, too, they all died or moved away.
Their bellies were stuffed with the meat of the hartebeest, the first time in over a month that they had eaten their fill.
Mixed with them were herds of brilliant yellow and red hartebeest, purple sassaby, and the great bovine eland, striped and maned and majestic.
I used to sit out on that lodge veranda with the sun rising, hartebeest, zebra and wildebeest grazing within yards of me.
Paintings made by ancient Egyptians show that they further tamed (not surprisingly) hoofed mammals such as gazelles and hartebeests, birds such as cranes, more surprisingly giraffes (which can be dangerous), and most astonishingly hyenas.
It consisted of game--blauwbok, springbok, steinbok, klipspringer, hartebeest, wildebeest, the black and the blue--no lobster at all, and it took even longer to eat.