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hartebeest[hAr´tibEst´´] Pronunciation Key, large African antelope of the genus Alcelaphus. The hartebeest resembles a horse with horns. It has a very long face and a small hump between the shoulders; its coat is fawn or reddish and its ringed horns curve up and inward in a U shape. Most kinds of hartebeest stand about 4 ft (120 cm) at the shoulder and weigh about 400 lb (180 kg). Swift animals of the plains, hartebeests usually live in herds of around a dozen animals and are often found associated with other herd animals, such as zebras, gnus, and gazelles. The common hartebeest (A. buselaphus) has many races, distributed through most of Africa. Although the races are given different common names (e.g., the kongoni, or Coke's hartebeest, of E Africa), they are quite similar in appearance and behavior and interbreed readily. The N African bulbul and the S African red hartebeest are extinct races of the common hartebeest. The former was known to the Romans and was very numerous until the 19th cent. Swayne's hartebeest, a small Ethiopian race, is in danger of extinction. A second species, Lichtenstein's hartebeest (A. lichtensteini), is found in SE Africa. An antelope related to the hartebeests, Damaliscus hunteri, is known as Hunter's hartebeest but is more properly called a damalisk. The hartebeest is classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Bovidae.
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