• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Critically Endangered Upemba Lechwe Officially Photographed For The First Time

May 27, 2025 by Deborah Bloomfield

For the first time ever, researchers have published a photograph of a living Upemba lechwe (Kobus anselli), a rarely spotted species of antelope that a new survey suggests is on the brink of extinction.

The photo was captured during an aerial survey of the Kamalondo Depression, a large region of sunken land in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the only place on the planet where the Upemba lechwe is thought to live. 

“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 trigger – before running off like the other individuals we have seen,” lead author Manuel Weber, of Upemba National Park’s Department of Research and Biomonitoring, told the Guardian.

What Weber managed to capture is believed to be the first published photographic record of a living member of the species since it was first described back in 2005. Before then, the Upemba lechwe was hiding in plain sight – the museum specimens used to describe it were collected all the way back in the 1920s and 40s.

The survey of the species conducted by Weber and colleagues is also the first carried out in over 50 years – and the results don’t bode well for the future.

“This is a species on the very brink,” said Weber, in a statement. While the IUCN currently estimates that there are somewhere between 600 to 1,000 mature Upemba lechwe, the survey recorded just 10 individuals. Using that figure, the authors estimate that the number of Upemba lechwe remaining in the area is instead likely fewer than 100.

“This species faces imminent extinction,” write the authors. Why? Because of poaching.

Back in the early 1970s, aerial surveys suggested that anywhere between 5,000 to 20,000 lechwe could be found in the Kamalondo Depression. However, in the 1980s, measures designed to protect the antelopes in Upemba National Park, which is found within the depression, declined. The authors report that, as a result, lechwe numbers rapidly declined, while poaching for their meat became prolific.

To stop the species from being wiped out entirely, Weber and colleagues call for protective measures to be reinstated immediately. “The fact that they’re still hanging on at all is extraordinary, but without urgent protection, they’ll vanish,” said Weber. 

It’s hoped that this new photo will bring attention to the plight of the species, and spur on rapid conservation action.

“We hope this image becomes a rallying cry,” Weber added. “Because this may be our only chance to save this species.”

The study is published in the African Journal of Ecology.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. iPad Air 5 might get close competition from Realme’s upcoming Android tablet
  2. Matillion raises $150M at a $1.5B valuation for its low-code approach to integrating disparate data sources
  3. Republican lawmakers accuse White House of pressuring airlines on vaccines
  4. Tales Of A Black Dead Sun Survive Generations After A Total Eclipse

Source Link: Critically Endangered Upemba Lechwe Officially Photographed For The First Time

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Watch Plasma Raindrops Falling Back On The Sun In Incredible New Video
  • Critically Endangered Upemba Lechwe Officially Photographed For The First Time
  • Exceptional 3-Fanged Death Adder Could Be The Most Dangerous Of Its Species Ever Seen
  • These Teeny Flexible Robots Can Literally Walk Out Of The Printer That Created Them
  • The Aftermath Of Supernovae Might Hide The Universe’s Most Powerful Particle Accelerators
  • You’re Born With Nearly 100 More Bones Than You Have Now – Where’d They All Go?
  • How Do You Move Antimatter If It Violently Reacts With Regular Matter?
  • A Neanderthal Left A Fingerprint On This Rock, Possibly While Painting A Face On It
  • Close Binary Stars Can Have “Supersaturated” Magnetic Fields, But We Don’t Know How This Works
  • Grass Is Relatively New On Planet Earth, And That Has Some Wild Implications
  • Fancy Crab Becomes The First Known Animal To Wear “Nature’s Headlamps” On Its Face
  • Tunguska-Like Event May Not Have Inspired Biblical Tale Of Sodom and Gomorrah After All
  • “It Can Suck Down Earthworms Like Spaghetti”: The Mission To Save A Really Big Snail
  • Why Human Remains Are Rarely Found Inside The Pyramids Of Ancient Egypt
  • The Ordovician Mass Extinction Killed 85 Percent Of Life On Earth In A Totally Unique Way
  • IFLScience We Have Questions: Why Don’t Animals Have To Brush Their Teeth?
  • The First American To Fly Into Space Had To Pee In His Space Suit
  • The Biggest Chemical Cover-Up In History Was Kept Hidden For Years
  • Can You Hear Electricity?
  • Newest Member Of The Solar System Just Announced, Capuchins Have Started Stealing Baby Howler Monkeys, And Much More This Week
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version