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 Persecution and HuntingTrophy and Sport Hunting: Page 4 Poachers have caused the extinction in Somalia of the endangered Hunter's Hartebeest or Hirola (Damaliscus hunteri), which now survives only in a restricted portion of scrubby desert of south-eastern Kenya. Looking somewhat like an Impala, this delicate, dryland antelope can live for weeks on very little water. This species is considered an evolutionary relic, having lived on earth for 15 million years, and is a progenitor of other hartebeests and the Topi; fossil evidence indicates that the Hirola's range once extended to South Africa (McKinley 1996). Kenyan populations totaled 14,000 in 1976, living along the Tana River and in the arid Garissa region to the east (McKinley 1996). In the 1980s, poachers killed off the region's African Elephants, who had kept the land clear of thorn bushes for grazers, such as the Hirola (McKinley 1996). A rinderpest epidemic brought in by cattle herders wiped out half the region's antelope between 1983 and 1985.
In the early 1990s, Somali refugees and troops fleeing from civil war in Somalia crossed into Kenya and began slaughtering the Hirola (McKinley 1996). By 1993, only 2,000 Hirola survived, and with unregulated hunting, a 1995 census found a total of 306 animals scattered in small groups over 45,000 square miles (McKinley 1996). Rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service decided to capture and move as many as possible of the remaining animals to Tsavo National Park, where they could be guarded against illegal hunting. One hundred animals were moved to the park in 1995, and a year later, about 57 survived. In 1996, more were chased by helicopter into nets, sedated, blindfolded, and then taken by truck to a small plane which airlifted them to Tsavo. The habitat in Tsavo is lusher and greener than their native desert shrub, and the Hirola may not thrive there. Only time will tell. The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the species as Critical.
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