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Waterbuck

species of African antelope

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ623434
Source-derived summary

The waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is in the genus Kobus of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. Its 13 subspecies are grouped under two varieties: the common or ellipsiprymnus waterbuck and the defassa waterbuck. Their coat colour varies from brown to grey. The long, spiral horns, present only on males, curve backward, then forward, and are 55–99 cm (22–39 in) long.

Waterbucks are rather sedentary in nature. As gregarious animals, they may form herds consisting of six to thirty individuals. These groups are either nursery herds with females and their offspring or bachelor herds. Males start showing territorial behaviour from the age of five years, but are most dominant from six to nine.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Waterbuck” is species of African antelope. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Waterbuck, species and African, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA sound reference starting point where classification, measurement and the date of the underlying evidence remain visible. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1833—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Waterbuck, species and African is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “species of African antelope” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q623434. The Library of Congress control number is sh85072763. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1833.

Critical limits

Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Waterbuck”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Waterbuck primary sources, Waterbuck archive and Waterbuck research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Waterbuck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.