29-05-2025
Increasingly rare antelope — one of less than 100 — photographed at park in DRC
For two days, a team of scientists flew back and forth across a patch of grassland in central Africa searching for flashes of a tannish brown animal: the Upemba lechwe, an increasingly rare and incredibly skittish antelope.
Their efforts resulted in an encouraging photo — but also led them to a heart-wrenching conclusion.
The Upemba lechwe is 'one of Africa's most endangered and least-known antelopes,' found only in the Upemba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, park officials said in a May 26 news release. Scientists have known about this antelope for decades and, although they debate its exact species classification, agree that it is critically endangered.
'This is a species on the very brink,' Manuel Weber, a ranger with the park, said in the release.
Weber and a team of researchers set out to survey the Upemba lechwe's population in March, flying a four-seater airplane systematically across the antelope's preferred range in the national park, according to a study published May 25 in the African Journal of Ecology.
'I was devastated after the first day, since we did connect with a few Upemba lechwe, but they were running for their life, so no way to capture them on camera,' Weber told The Guardian. 'It was in the morning of the second day, that a single individual stopped for just a few seconds — long enough for me to press the (camera) trigger — before running off like the other individuals we have seen.'
The image, which researchers said is the 'first published photograph' of an Upemba lechwe, shows the tan and white antelope looking up toward the camera.
'We hope this image becomes a rallying cry,' Weber said in the park's release. 'Because this may be our only chance to save this species.'
During their survey, the team only saw 10 Upemba lechwe and estimated that fewer than 100 of these antelope remain, making them 'one of the rarest large mammals on Earth.'
'The fact that only 10 individuals were found — compared to up to 22,000 recorded half a century ago — indicates an alarming risk of extinction,' the study said. The antelopes are threatened by poaching, hunting and human encroachment.
'The fact that they're still hanging on at all is extraordinary,' Weber said in the release, 'but without urgent protection, they'll vanish.'
Researchers concluded that 'without immediate intervention, the Upemba Lechwe faces imminent risk of extinction.'
The research team included Weber, Ruffin Mpanga, Julien Mbulanga and Cameron Dobbie.
