Wildebeest - Connochaetes taurinus

Wildebeest are sedentary in areas like, Moremi where there is an abuncance of food and water but in arid areas they are forced to migrate seasonally.

Wildebeest are territorial and highly gregarious. Breeding herds are attended by a bull while the other males form bachelor herds. Older bulls leave the bachelor herds.

The Kalahari's wildebeest herds were decimated inthe droughts of the 1980's. Veterenary fences were erected to control the spread of foot and mouth disease among cattle, and some of these fences cut across traditional wildebeest migratory routes preventing them from reaching the water of the Boteti river. Wildebeest have now been removed from the hunting list to allow their population numbers to recover. Their numbers were not as badly affected north of the buffalo fence where they can be commonly sighted in Moremi and Chobe.