Wildebeest (/ˈwɪldɪbiːst/ WIL-dib-eest,[1][2][3] /ˈvɪl-/ VIL-,[3] /-dəb-/), also called gnu (/njuː/ NEW or /nuː/ NOO),[4][5][6] are antelopes of the genus Connochaetes and native to Eastern and Southern Africa. They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes true antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep, and other even-toed horned ungulates. There are two species of wildebeest: the black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu (C. gnou), and the blue wildebeest or brindled gnu (C. taurinus).
Fossil records suggest these two species diverged about one million years ago, resulting in a northern and a southern species. The blue wildebeest remained in its original range and changed very little from the ancestral species, while the black wildebeest changed more as adaptation to its open grassland habitat in the south. The most obvious way of telling the two species apart are the differences in their colouring and in the way their horns are oriented.[7]
In East Africa, the blue wildebeest is the most abundant big-game species; some populations perform an annual migration to new grazing grounds, but the black wildebeest is merely nomadic. Breeding in both takes place over a short period of time at the end of the rainy season and the calves are soon active and are able to move with the herd, a fact necessary for their survival. Nevertheless, some fall prey to large carnivores, especially the spotted hyena.
Wildebeest often graze in mixed herds with zebra, which gives heightened awareness of potential predators. They are also alert to the warning signals emitted by other animals such as baboons. Wildebeest are a tourist attraction but compete with domesticated livestock for pasture and are sometimes blamed by farmers for transferring diseases and parasites to their cattle. Some illegal hunting goes on but the population trend is fairly stable and some populations are in national parks or on private land. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists both as least-concern species.
Wildebeest is Dutch for "wild beast" or "wild cattle" in Afrikaans (bees "cattle"), while Connochaetes derives from the Ancient Greek words κόννος, kónnos, "beard",[8] and χαίτη, khaítē, "flowing hair", "mane".[9][10] Some sources claim the name "gnu" originates from the Khoekhoe name for these animals, t'gnu[what language is this?].[11] Others contend the name and its pronunciation in English go back to the word !nu:[what language is this?] used for the black wildebeest by the San people.[12]
The wildebeest, genus Connochaetes, is placed under the family Bovidae and subfamily Alcelaphinae, where its closest relatives are the hartebeest (Alcelaphus spp.), the hirola (Beatragus hunteri), and species in the genus Damaliscus, such as the topi, the tsessebe, the blesbok and the bontebok.[13] The name Connochaetes was given by German zoologist Hinrich Lichtenstein in 1812.[13][14]