Topi

Damaliscus lunatus jimela is a topi subspecies that is commonly referred to as a topi. It is a highly sociable and swift antelope found in Sub-Saharan Africa's savannas, semi-deserts, and floodplains.

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Names Given to the Topi by the Different Scientists

• The Swahili word tope or topi was initially used in the 1880s by German explorer Gustav Fischer from the historic city island of Lamu off the Kenyan coast to describe to the local topi people, which is today known as Damaliscus lunatus topi. 

• The animal was referred to as a Senegal hartebeest by English sportsmen at the time, as it was thought to be the same species as what is now known as D. lunatus korrigum.

• Other names mentioned by German explorers in East Africa include mhili in Kisukuma and jimala in Kinyamwezi. According to Neumann, the Luganda name was simala, and according to Lugard, it was nemira.

• Most people in English named this antelope a topi around the turn of the century. Richard Lydekker, writing in 1908, laments how much easier it would have been if all these new species of korrigan had just been termed East African korrigan, Bahr-el-Ghazal korrigan, and so on, rather than constantly adopting different native names for essentially the same antelope.

• Fenton Cotterill suggested in 2003 that the right English term for jimela topi was nyamera, citing the 1993 Kingdon field guide, which lists it as another Swahili word for topi antelopes.

• Serengeti topi, Ruaha topi, and Uganda topi were new names coined in 2011 for separate populations of this subspecies.

Taxonomical Classification

Damaliscus lunatus jimela was first named in 1892 by German naturalist Paul Matschie, based on the skull of an animal shot by famous German hunter Richard Böhm in what is now Tanzania, and a watercolour drawing of the species supplied to Matschie by Böhm's widow. By the turn of the century, this was the recognised scientific term for topi in East Africa, but Lydekker introduced a new subspecies, D. korrigum selousi, in 1907 to describe topi in Kenya and Uganda, based on a specimen from the Uasin-Gishu plateau. The black face mask did not entirely cover the eyes and muzzle, which were encircled by patches of tan-colored hair, distinguishing it from the other races.

Matschie's description, in which the dark patch on the top foreleg extended as a stripe down the front of the leg towards the hooves, was challenged by Gilbert Blaine in 1914, If extracted from Bohm's painting accurately, and if painted correctly, was not present in any of the specimens known to him in London, and that this was thus a different subspecies from the other East African topi, possibly restricted to a narrow area. He then defined four more subspecies based on minor changes in hair colour and size, resulting in a total of seven in East Africa.

Some recent authors have controversially separated it into three species or classed it as Damaliscus korrigum jimela, but the American Society of Mammalogists' Mammal Diversity Database has rejected this as of 2021. According to some recent studies, this population belongs to D. lunatus korrigum.

The Spanish scholar Angel Cabrera reported a new species, Damaliscus phalius, from the Uasin-Gishu plateau in 1910, based on the fact that the facial mask, which is ordinarily dark, is pale, like a bontebok. This taxon was named based on a skull and a photograph of the deceased animal obtained from hunter Ricardo de la Huerta, who told the professor of a large herd of this species that he had seen in two locations. 

The Indians also assured him that the same herd had been encountered by Teddy Roosevelt's hunting group. If this was the case, when his book on the subject was published in the United States in 1914, he indicated that such a pale face was a rare occurrence amid a herd of otherwise normal topis. He described how a number of them had varied amounts of whitish hairs, albeit not across the entire face, after inspecting a set of thirty specimens from the wider region in the American collection.

Morphological Characteristics of Topi

• Pelage hair colour varies by geographic subgroup, being darker or lighter.

• Topis are medium-sized antelopes that stand between 104 and 126 cm tall in males and 105 to 118 cm tall in females. 

• The topi’s body is covered in a short, shiny coat with purple dots below that is tan in colour. 

• The topi’s markings are either light or black in hue.

• Young calves have pale markings and adult males are darker than females. 

• The muzzle of a topi is long and thin. 

• Their horns are ringed and S-shaped, with a length of 30 cm to 40 cm.

• When viewed from a certain angle, the horns of this subspecies have the appearance of having a lyrate profile, as opposed to lunate, as is visible in the sassaby subspecies found to the south: D. lunatus lunatus and D. lunatus superstes. It is nearly identical to D. lunatus topi, the topi population found along the coastlines to the east. A hartebeest possesses lyrate horns as well, although they are more acutely angled.

• On their face, top forelegs, hips, and thighs, they have distinct black spots. Therefore, known as black topi.

Relationship of Topi (Black Topi) with its Environment

Topis love grassy environments. These regions range from vast, treeless plains to sparsely vegetated savannas. Topis can be found in the uplands, but they are more commonly seen in the lowlands. Topis stay away from short or mature grasses when it rains. During the dry season, they can be found in abundance in any plant community with a lot of grass.Topi enjoys pastures with medium-height green grass with leaf-like swords. Topi are more densely populated near water and in locations where green plants persist during the dry season. When hunting for food, topi prefer to eat in brief, quick bursts.

Group of Topi Animal

The topi has one of the most diversified social structures among the antelopes. Traditional territorial systems or resource defence polygyny herds, as well as gatherings with short-term territories and lek systems, are all examples of reproductive organisation. Topi dwell in sedentary-dispersion mode on patches of grassland surrounded by forests.

The vast majority of births take place between October and December, with October accounting for half of all births. In the Serengeti, a female's faithfulness to a territory can last up to three years. These regions' females are members of the resident male's harem. The herds are usually closed, and the male and his females both protect the region.

Status and Conservation

Rod East estimated a global population of approximately 71,000 topi for the IUCN in 1998.The IUCN classified D. lunatus jimela as 'least concern' in 2008, based on an estimated population of 93,000 individuals, with over 90% in protected areas, and a lack of evidence to show an overall decline of more than 20% over three generations (20 years), which would justify a 'near threatened' or 'vulnerable' status. Despite this, they indicated that they believed the population was declining.

IUCN Data of Topi Animal

In 1998, East estimated a total population of 58,510 people in Tanzania. According to the 2014 A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Tanzania, the country's population ranged from 35,000 to 46,500 people. There are between 27,000 and 38,500 in the Serengeti, 4,000 and 5,000 in the neighbouring Moyowosi and Kigosi Game Reserves, and 1,000 and 2,000 in the Ugalla River Game Reserve.

Based on aerial survey data, there were an average of 126,330 topi in Kenya between 1977 and 1980. In 1998, East estimated a total of 11,120 individuals, despite aerial estimates at the time indicating at least three times that number. Ogutu et al. observed that topi population size has decreased by nearly 70% between the 1977–1979 average population and the 2007–2009 average population in a 2011 assessment of the wild animal population in and around Masai Mara National Park. Ogutu is a scientist, who found an average population of 22,239 for the period 2011–2013 in a 2016 research combining aerial survey information for the entire Kenya. Since the late 1970s, there has been an increase in topi numbers in Narok County, although this has been more than offset by declines in other countries.

East believed that there were less than 500 people in Rwanda in 1998. In 2013, an aerial census in Akagera National Park and the neighbouring Mutara Domaine de Chasse (hunting region) counted 560 people; in 2015, an equivalent census counted 805 people. In the lack of substantial predators, this was thought to be a natural increase.

The first topi population counts in Uganda were calculated from monthly ground count samples from 1963 to 1967 in the Ishasha Flats region of the Rukungiri District, a part of Queen Elizabeth National Park, where the topi appeared to congregate, but these were soon questioned because the methodology used caused an overestimation due to the spatial distribution of the antelopes in aggregations. Using a different calculating method, Jewell estimated a total of 4,000 topi in this area based on three ground-based counts in 1970. Estimates based on aerial surveys conducted in 1971 and 1972 yielded a population of 4,932. Yoaciel had a high of 5,578 in 1975, but the population dropped to half that in 1977, with the last count of 1978 returning to 2,973. At the same time, the population's home range shrank and the number of kobs doubled. An environmentalist claimed in 1981 that the Yoaciel et al. study revealed topi numbers were 20% lower in 1980 than they were in 1973, however this appears to be erroneous. 

Factors Responsible For Declining Number of Topi Animal

Yoaciel attributed the population decline to three factors: 

• Poaching pressure

• Lion predation

• Changes in vegetation structure. 

Poaching had grown, especially after a military border station was established in Ishasha. Lions in Ishasha had a fondness for topi, with topi accounting for over 80% of their prey in certain years, implying that the 32 adult lions killed around 660 topi in those years, despite decreased percentages of topi prey in following years, implying that lions killed 320 topi per year. 

Finally, the vegetation structure of the rangeland was shifting, with the tree species Acacia sieberiana encroaching on the diminishing grassland. This afforestation was thought to be caused by either changing fire regimes or a local drop in the elephant population owing to ivory poaching. In 1998, East reported that 580 people lived in Uganda, with an unknown number in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

All of the topi cluster to the south of the lake shore in the Ishasha Flats, according to aerial surveys of the adjoining Queen Elizabeth National Park, Kigezi Game Reserve, and Kyambura Game Reserve in Uganda, and Parc National des Virunga (Virunga National Park) in the DRC, which together completely encircle Lake Edward. In the 2006 survey, the total minimum population in this region was 2,874, while in the 2010 survey, it was 1,302. Throughout 2014, a combined survey discovered 2,679 topi in the region, the majority of which were in Uganda. Uganda Wildlife Authority executive director Samuel John Mwandha indicated in 2020 that the number of animals in the park had increased over the last five years.

Topi were plentiful in the 1960s in the neighbouring Pian-Upe, Bokora, and Matheniko Game Reserves, as well as the controlled hunting zones surrounding and connecting these areas to Kidepo Valley National Park. Because no topi were seen during a ground-based study in April 2012, it's possible they've gone extinct. As of 2013, the Uganda Wildlife Authority planned to move twenty topi to the region.

A topi population can also be found at Lake Mburo National Park. The number of people counted in annual roadside surveys has fluctuated, with a low of 57 in 1995 and a peak of 362 only two years later. A total of 173 topi were counted in the 2010 study. Topi can also be found in the park's buffered regulated hunting areas. 

Changes in habitat that occur over time are an issue for topi in the park. The invasive native shrubby tree species Acacia hockii has colonised most of the park's formerly grassland regions, transforming them into bushveld or woodland. Other bush and tree species, in turn, are being protected by the acacia, which is growing quicker and thicker. Topi are being regarded as pests as a result of this afforestation, which is forcing them into nearby ranches and private properties. 

Uganda has attempted to organise these regions into controlled hunting areas for sport, but landowners complain that the funds raised are used for communal projects such as schools, health centres, and roads rather than solving individual problems caused by problem animals. The purchase of an excavator for habitat management, different wildfire regimes, translocating excess animals, fencing, wildlife ranching for the hunting industry, community tourism, licencing more sport hunting companies, and increasing quotas may all help to alleviate this; the local community is allowed to uproot acacia for firewood, but this has proven ineffective.

In 2016, the IUCN estimated a population of 50,000-70,000 mature individuals, which was the same as in 1998, and stated that the population was declining. There was no mention of the 2008 estimate, although it was reported that East projected 58,500 in Tanzania in 1998, and the 2014 book estimated 35,000-46,500, Assuming the estimates for Tanzania are true and can be extrapolated to other nations, and assuming East's 1998 numbers for the other countries are valid, this might suggest the world population has plummeted by a mean of 36 percent over three generations (18 years), This species would be classified as 'vulnerable,' yet if the population in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda had not declined below 1998 estimates, the species would be classified as 'near threatened.'

Did You Know

• Topis, both male and female, enjoy rubbing their heads on the ground (to disperse smell from their facial glands), rolling in the dirt, and stirring up muck with their horns. With their hooves, they smear muck on their body.

• Topis spend much of their time with other antelopes, such as wildebeest and zebra, as well as zebra and ostrich.