Newsletter / Blog
2012-09-08 Roving roan breeds with sexy sable
In the area north
of Satara, a roan bull joined up with a sable herd in 1987. The offspring of
the love affair was a female hybrid. Ian Whyte, Kruger’s former large herbivore
expert, dubbed her a “roble”.
Nobody knew where
the roan bull came from, since there were no roan herds in this area. He spent
many years with the sable herd and sired the female roble under completely
natural circumstances. She was first captured as a yearling in July 1988 and
genetic samples were collected.
The conditions
that lead to cross-breeding usually involve a male of the larger, dominant
species, lacking access to females of his own kind, substituting a female of a
different, but closely related species. In this case Hippotragus equinus mated with Hippotragus
niger.
According to
Whyte, the recommendation was that the animal should be removed from Kruger.
She was put in a large enclosure (1km x 1km) in the Pretoriuskop area of the
park, where no other sable or roan were present. This was to prevent her from
breeding and contaminating the sable stock, although she was most likely
sterile, as she had not yet conceived when moved.
What a pity that
she had to spend practically her whole life apart from a herd. The life of
Kruger’s unique roble ended when she died from old age in 2006, aged 19. Old
photos show that she looked more like a roan than a sable. |