Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus): Facts and Migration

What does a blue wildebeest look like?

A blue wildebeest looks like several animals put together: the heavy front and curved horns of a buffalo, the long face of a horse and a flowing black tail. The shoulders are high and muscular and the hindquarters slope down, giving it a front-heavy outline.

Adults are slate gray to bluish gray, sometimes tinged brown, with a silvery sheen in sunlight that gives the species its name. Dark vertical stripes, or brindles, run down the neck and shoulders. The face, mane and long tail are black. East African subspecies have a creamy white beard, while southern ones have a black beard. Newborn calves are tawny brown and start to take on adult colors at about two months.

Both sexes have horns. They grow outward and then curve up and in, like a pair of brackets, and are larger and heavier in males. Wildebeest belong to the same family as cattle, goats and other antelopes; Is a wildebeest an antelope? explains where they fit.

How big is a blue wildebeest?

Males are larger and usually darker than females. The blue wildebeest is clearly bigger than its only close relative, the black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) of South Africa, which has a white tail and forward-hooking horns.

Wildebeest can gallop at up to about 80 km/h (50 mph). Their muscles are also unusually efficient, which helps them walk long distances on little water.

Where do blue wildebeest live?

Blue wildebeest live in eastern and southern Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini and Angola. They have been reintroduced to Namibia and died out in Malawi. Many now also live on private game reserves and ranches in southern Africa.

Their ideal habitat is short-grass plains next to bushy acacia savanna, in areas that are neither too wet nor too dry. They avoid dense woodland and high mountains and are rarely found above about 1,800–2,100 m (5,900–6,900 ft). Because they need to drink regularly, they usually stay within about 15–25 km (9–16 mi) of water.

Subspecies

Five subspecies are usually recognized: the common or brindled wildebeest of southern Africa, the Nyassaland wildebeest, Cookson’s wildebeest of Zambia’s Luangwa Valley, and the eastern and western white-bearded wildebeest of Kenya and Tanzania. The Great Migration is made up of western white-bearded wildebeest.

What do wildebeest eat?

Blue wildebeest are grazers that feed mainly on short, green, nutritious grasses. Their broad, square muzzle lets them crop large mouthfuls of low grass, and they feed by day and night. When grass is scarce they also eat some leaves from shrubs.

They often graze alongside plains zebras. Zebras eat the taller, tougher grass stems, uncovering the short, fresh growth that wildebeest prefer, and the mixed herds also share the job of spotting predators. Wildebeest like to drink once or twice a day and need about 9–12 liters (2.4–3.2 US gal) of water every one to two days.

Herds and migration

Wildebeest are social animals that live in herds ranging from a few animals to many thousands. Females and young form the core herds, young males gather in bachelor groups, and adult bulls set up small territories that they defend with bellowing, pawing, horn displays and dung piles. In migratory populations, bulls hold temporary territories wherever the herds stop.

Not all wildebeest migrate. Many populations stay in the same area all year. Where there is enough space, however, they follow the rains to find fresh grass. Only a few long-distance migrations survive. By far the largest is the Serengeti-Mara cycle in Tanzania and Kenya, where about 1.3 million wildebeest, together with hundreds of thousands of zebras and gazelles, travel a loop of roughly 800 km (500 mi) each year. Read more in What is the Great Migration?.

A day in the life

Wildebeest are most active in the cooler morning and late afternoon and rest through the hottest hours. A study in Serengeti National Park found that they spent more than half of their time resting, about a third grazing and around a tenth walking. At night, herds lie down close together, with individuals usually a meter or two apart.

They are noisy animals. Territorial bulls make a deep, nasal “ga-noo” call, especially during the rut, and a large herd on the move fills the plains with grunts and snorts. When alarmed, wildebeest snort, toss their heads and run off in a tight group, often stopping after a short distance to look back.

Why wildebeest matter to the ecosystem

In the Serengeti, wildebeest are a keystone species, meaning their numbers shape the whole ecosystem. By grazing the grass short, the huge herds reduce the fuel for dry-season fires. After the population grew in the 1960s and 1970s, fires became less intense, and young acacia trees were able to grow back in places where they had been burned for decades.

Their dung returns nutrients to the soil and feeds dung beetles, and the calves and weakened adults support some of Africa’s densest populations of lions and hyenas. Even their deaths feed the system. A 2017 study estimated that more than 6,000 wildebeest drown in the Mara River in an average year, adding over 1,000 tonnes of carcasses that feed crocodiles, vultures, fish and the river itself for years.

Reproduction and calves

The mating season, or rut, lasts about three weeks at the end of the rainy season. Territorial bulls compete for females with loud calls, chases and horn clashes. Females can breed from about 16 months old if well fed, but most first give birth at about three years.

After a pregnancy of about 8.5 months, each female has a single calf weighing around 19 kg (42 lb). Calving is strongly synchronized: in the Serengeti, roughly 80–90% of calves are born within the same two to three weeks, usually in February. Calves can stand within minutes and run with the herd soon afterward. See When do wildebeest give birth? for the full story.

Calves stay close to their mothers for about eight months to a year. Young males then leave to join bachelor groups, while females usually stay with the herd.

Predators and threats

Wildebeest are a staple prey for lions and spotted hyenas, and cheetahs, leopards and African wild dogs hunt calves and smaller adults. At river crossings, Nile crocodiles ambush them, and many more animals drown in the crush.

The biggest long-term threats come from changes to the land:

• Fences and roads that cut migration routes. In Botswana, veterinary fences in the 1980s blocked access to water during droughts, and many thousands of wildebeest died.
• Farming and settlements that take over wet-season grazing and calving grounds. Kenya’s migratory Loita Plains population fell by about 80% between the late 1970s and late 1990s.
• Illegal hunting for meat, and loss of water sources.

Conservation status

The blue wildebeest is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessed 2016). The total population is roughly 1.5 million, but it is very unevenly spread: the Serengeti-Mara population makes up most of it, while many other populations are small or declining. The eastern white-bearded wildebeest, for example, has fallen to only several thousand animals.

The Serengeti population itself is a conservation success. It grew from roughly 250,000 in the early 1960s to well over a million by the late 1970s, after the cattle disease rinderpest, which had killed many wildebeest, was eliminated from the ecosystem through vaccination of cattle.

Wildebeest and people

Wildebeest are one of the main attractions of safari tourism in East Africa, and the river crossings of the Great Migration draw visitors from around the world. In southern Africa, wildebeest also live on many private reserves.

Relations with herders are more complicated. Wildebeest compete with cattle for grass and water, and newborn calves carry a virus that causes a fatal disease called malignant catarrhal fever in cattle, though it does not harm the wildebeest themselves. Maasai herders traditionally move their cattle away from the calving grounds during the birthing season.

Myths and facts

Myth: Wildebeest are a kind of buffalo or cow. They are antelopes. They share the family Bovidae with cattle and buffalo, but their closest relatives are hartebeests and topi.

Myth: All wildebeest migrate. Most populations outside the Serengeti-Mara and a few other areas stay in the same region all year.

Fact: The name means “wild beast”. It comes from Afrikaans and Dutch, given by settlers who thought the animals looked like wild cattle.