Taurotragus derbianus (Gray 1847)

[Boselaphus] derbianus Gray 1847, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 1, 20: 286.

Type Locality: "Western Africa, Gambia ".

Vernacular Names: Derby Eland.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Taurotragus derbianus subsp. derbianus Gray 1847

Subspecies Taurotragus derbianus subsp. gigas Heuglin 1863

Distribution: Savanna of W Africa in Gambia (extinct), Guinea (extinct?), Guinea Bissau, SW Mali (extinct?), S Senegal, and Sierra Leone (formerly a vagrant); purported records from Ghana and Togo not accepted (Grubb et al., 1998). C Africa in N Cameroon, Central African Republic, S Chad (extinct), N Dem. Rep. Congo, E Nigeria (extinct), SW Sudan, and NW Uganda (extinct).

Conservation: U.S. ESA – Endangered as T. d. derbianus; IUCN – Endangered as Tragelaphus d. derbianus (but also listed, from the same evaluation date, as Lower Risk (nt) for Taurotragus derbianus), Lower Risk (nt) as Tragelaphus d. gigas.

Discussion: Regarded as conspecific with T. oryx by Haltenorth (1963:86), but usually treated as a full species; see Ansell (1972:26), whose synonymy is followed here. "Giant eland" refers only to the subspecies gigas.