Basic haematological values in antelopes—II. the hippotraginae and the tragelaphinae

Abstract

1. 1. Basic haematological values in 49 animals of five species of the subfamily Hippotraginae, namely the roan antelope Hippotragus equinus, sable antelope Hippotragus niger, adax antelope Addax nasomaculatus, gemsbok oryx Oryx gazella gazella and scimitar horned oryx Oryx damah and in 51 individuals of five species in the subfamily Tragelaphinae, including the bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus, nyala Tragelaphus angasi, greater kudu Tragelaphus strepsiceros, cape eland Tautotragus oryx and bongo Bocercus euryceros are reported. 2. 2. The erythrocyte counts were in the range of 12.62 × 10 12/1 in the gemsbok oryx to 6.44 × 10 12/l in the bongo, the haematocrit values varied from 0.488 in the nyala to 0.380 in the roan antelope and for the haemoglobin highest levels (164.0 g/l) were noted in the adax antelope, and the lowest (105.5 g/l) in the bongo. 3. 3. Leukocyte counts were found mostly in the normal human range and varied from 7.17 × 10 9/l in the adax antelope to 4.05 × 10 9/l in the nyala, only in the greater kudu decreased values of 3.02 × 10 9 were estimated. 4. 4. These results are compared with findings taken from the literature, and with the normal human range.