Oribi

The oribi is a small antelope we saw in Uganda in July of this year. We saw it in both Murchison Falls NP and Kidepo Valley NP but I quit taking photos of it and so only have photos from Murchison Falls. 

It has a slightly raised back, a long neck and limbs and a glossy yellowish to rufous brown coat with a white chin, throat, underparts and rump. Males have thin straight horns and females do not have horns. There are 8 subspecies and I believe I saw ssp montana which is found from northern Nigeria eastward into Ethiopia and southward into Uganda. 

Range map from Wikipedia.

It is highly sporadic in its distribution. Murchison Falls NP, Kidepo Valley NP and Lake Mburo NP are the three national parks in Uganda that are listed as having them. 

It reminded me of the dik-dik. We saw Kirk's dik-dik (post on August 26, 2014) in Serengeti NP. I wanted to compare the oribi with the dik-dik and in an article titled, "Top 12 smallest antelope species in Africa" the dik-dik was listed as third smallest and the oribi was listed as eleventh. When I compare my photos of the two, the dik-dik clearly looks substantially smaller. The steenbok which we saw (very briefly) in Hwange NP in Zimbabwe (post on June 15, 2018) was listed as ninth. Most of the other small antelope on this list were ones I'd never heard of. The variety of wildlife in Africa is astonishing. 

Lelwel Hartebeest

The lelwel hartebeest, also known as the Jackson's hartebeest, the name it was called by our guide William in Uganda, is the third of eight subspecies of hartebeest we've seen. We've previously seen Coke's hartebeest in Nairobi NP in Kenya and Serengeti NP and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania (July 23, 2014) and the red hartebeest in Etosha NP in Namibia (July 31, 2018).  It is an antelope native to the Central African Republic, Chad, the DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. There has been a drastic population decrease since the 1980s and now most are confined to protected areas. 

These are photos of the lelwel hartebeest in Murchison Falls NP:

These are photos from Kidepo Vallley NP:

I think of them as the sentinel of the plains. It seems like they are always standing on a little hill or knob and surveying the surroundings. 

This is a range map of the hartebeest subspecies from Wikipedia. I've seen caama (the red hartebeest - tan in Namibia); cokii (Coke's hartebeest  - dark green in Kenya and Tanzania); and lelwel (Lelwel hartebeest - pea green in Uganda). 

Red-Tailed Monkey

In July 2025 we stayed at Nkima Forest Lodge on a forest-covered hill overlooking the Mabamba Swamp on Lake Victoria. We stayed in a little cabin surrounded by tall trees. One morning our granddaughter was out at first light with a camera taking photos of a red-tailed monkey that was in the trees around our cabin. She has great photos, the issue with them was the poor lighting, so I've lightened them up as much as I reasonably can. I tried taking photos of my own later and had a little better lighting, but not good cooperation from the monkey. The first two photos are my granddaughter's and the last three are mine. 

The red-tailed monkey is named for the red coloration of the tail's underside, which increases from the base of the tail to the tip. It has a white nose and large elastic cheeks used for storing food. They have dark dray or black body fur. The tail can be as long as 35 inches, twice the length of the body in some monkeys. It helps the monkey to balance. 

It is part of the guenon family and is also known as the red-tailed guenon or Schmidt's guenon. 

Range map from Wikipedia.

Common Patas Monkey

The common patas monkey is also known as the hussar monkey. We saw them in Kidepo Valley NP in northern Uganda. We saw them several times, first relatively near the Apoka Airport, and later on our drive out toward the Kidepo Valley. 

The common patas monkey was originally thought to have subspecies, but it is now considered to be monotypic, meaning there are no subspecies. It is found from western Africa to eastern Africa and those found in the west have black noses and those in the east have white noses, part of the reason for breaking it into subspecies. However, it was discovered that noses could change from black to white in females during pregnancy and that some of the eastern monkeys in Kenya did not have white noses. 

Common patas monkey range from Wikipedia.

A hussar was a member of a class of light cavalry, originally from the Kingdom of Hungary during the 15th and 16th centuries. They had a distinctive dress which included a busby fur hat.

Archduke Stephen of Austria, Palatine of Hungary in hussar style uniform with the busby hat. From Wikipedia "Hussar".

I assume that the reddish brown fur on the top of the patas monkey's head, which looks like it could be a hat, gives it this nickname. See my photo below. 

It is the fastest running primate, reaching speeds of 34 mph, and males have the longest canine teeth of all African long-tailed monkeys. The New England Primate Conservancy notes that they have thick red-brown hair that turns white around the legs and belly and gets darker around the shoulders. They have dark faces, framed by white hair and have white mustaches (the mustaches of males tend to be thicker and longer). The crown of the head is  a darker reddish-brown and they have thick, mane-like hair, around the neck and shoulders. Males have a blue scrotum. Some have white noses, others have black noses. 

Additional photos:

Southern (South African) Giraffe

In June 2018 we visited Kadizora Camp in the Okavanga Delta of Botswana. My last post summarized the new science on giraffe identification and I realized that I'd not dealt with the classification of giraffe's I'd seen in Botswana. This article from Giraffe Conservation Foundation notes that Botswana is home to the newly designated southern giraffe, one of four giraffe species, and that it has both subspecies: the Angolan giraffe ssp in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and western private farms; and the South African giraffe ssp in the northern and eastern regions, including Chobe NP, Moremi Game Reserve and the Okavanga Delta. 

The South African giraffe has "dark, somewhat rounded patches 'with some fine projections' on a tawny background color. The spots extend down the legs and get smaller.  The median lump of males is less developed." 

These are photos I took of giraffes in the Okavanga Delta:

Giraffes have a pair of ossicones on the parietal bones of the skull. Males also have a single median ossicone on the frontal bone that is larger in northern giraffes and smaller in southern giraffes. The lump between the eyes, above, is the median lump or ossicone. 

Closer view of spots.

Northern (Nubian) Giraffe

Classification of giraffes is quite complicated. Traditionally giraffes were considered to be one species with nine subspecies as follows: (1) Kordofan; (2) Nubian; (3) Rothschild's; (4) West African; (5) reticulated; (6) Angolan; (7) South African; (8) Masai; and (9) Thornicroft's. 

In 2021 a whole genome sequencing study suggested that there were four species of giraffe with seven subspecies, which was then supported by a 2024 study of cranial morphology. As of August 2025 the IUCN Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group recognizes the four species. The four species (with their related subspecies) are as follows below. Of the nine original subspecies, two become species (Reticulated and Masai), the Rothschild's ssp was subsumed (absorbed) into the Nubian ssp and the rest continued as subspecies of different species. 

          (1) Northern giraffe with three subspecies: (a) Kordofan; (b) Nubian; and (c) West African. My post on the Rothschild's Giraffe featured giraffes in Nakura NP in Kenya and is now considered the Nubian giraffe (post on August 13, 2014). 

          (2) Reticulated giraffe with no subspecies. My post on the Reticulated Giraffe featured giraffes in Buffalo Springs NR in Kenya (post on August 11, 2014). 

          (3) Masai giraffe with two subspecies: (a) Masai; and (b) Thornicoft's. My post on the Masai Giraffe continues to be the Masai ssp and  featured giraffes in Serengeti NP and just outside Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and Masai Mara NR and Nairobi NP in Kenya (post on August 12, 2014).  

          (4) Southern giraffe with two subspecies: (a) Angolan; and (b) South African. My prior post on the Angolan giraffe featured giraffes in Hwange NP and Zambezi NP in Zimbabwe and continues to be the Angolan ssp but of the Southern Giraffe (post on July 11, 2018). My prior post on the Namibian Giraffe featured giraffes in Etosha NP in Namibia and is the Angolan ssp (post on July 10, 2018). 

In July 2025 we visited Uganda and saw the Nubian giraffe in Murchison Falls NP and Kidepo Valley NP. Photos of these giraffes follow:

This and the next six photos were taken in Murchison Falls NP.

This and the next three photos were taken in Kidepo Valley NP. This and the next two were taken while we were on a walking safari and we got quite close. 

Maneless Zebra

There are three species of zebra: (1) Grevy's zebra, which we saw in Buffalo Springs NR in Kenya (post on August 24, 2014); (2) the mountain zebra, which I have not seen in the wild, which has two subspecies: (i) Cape mountain zebra and (ii) Hartmann's mountain zebra, which we saw at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas (post on March 21, 2015); and (3) plains zebra, which has six subspecies: (i) Grant's zebra which we've seen in Serengeti NP and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and Buffalo Springs NP, Lake Nakuru NP and Nairobi NP in Kenya (post on August 25, 2014); (ii) Crawshay's zebra, which we have not seen; (iii) Chapman's zebra, which we saw in Hwange NP in Zimbabwe (post on August 18, 2018); (iv) Burchell's zebra, which we have seen in the Okavanga Delta of Botswana and Etosha NP in Namibia (post on August 17, 2018); (v) Selous zebra, which we have not seen; and (vi) the maneless zebra in Kidepo Valley NP in Uganda, the subject of this post. 

The maneless zebra, a subspecies of the plains zebra, is found in northwestern Kenya (from Uasin Gishu and Lake Baringo) to the Karamoja district of Uganda. It is also found in eastern South Sudan east of the White Nile (i.e. in Boma NP). It is the northern most subspecies of the plains zebra. The only substantial population is found in Kidepo Valley NP in northern Uganda, which is where we saw them. They are apparently born with a short, stiff main, but shed their manes almost entirely by the age of two to three years. 

The following are photos of the maneless zebra from Kidepo Valley NP. I find it very surprising to see so much brown shadow striping.