Bluebuck Hippotragus leucophaeus. Original artwork from A Gap in Nature.

2000.
Acrylic on canvas, 1750 x 2000mm, framed, signed and dated by artist.

Last Record: 1799-1800. Distribution: South-western South Africa.

The bluebuck or blue antelope was a relative of the roan and sable antelopes, but was a little smaller than both. It was probably a selective feeder, preferring high-quality grasses. Fossils indicate that it was more widespread during the last ice age than when first encountered by Europeans in the seventeenth century. It was then restricted to the extreme southern coastal portion of South Africa, and even very early observers report that it was uncommon. It may have been affected by competition from domestic sheep, which reached South Africa around AD 400 after being traded with tribes from the north. Following European settlement its decline became terminal, for despite the fact that its flesh was distasteful it was hunted avidly, and eventually much of its habitat was con-verted to agriculture. By around 1800 there were none left.

Today just four mounted specimens survive in museums in Vienna, Stockholm, Paris and Leiden, along with some bones and horn sets in other places. All of these museum specimens are now more than two hundred years old, and none shows any trace of the blue colour the creature was reported to possess, and that its common name suggests. Truly blue fur does not occur in mammals, and the bluebuck may have derived its bluish tinge from a mixture of black and yellow hairs. These are the tones Peter Schouten has used in this painting to give a sense of our understanding of the original colouration of this noble animal.