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Buffon's Kob

Kobus kob (Erxleben, 1777)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Open encyclopedia reference

The kob (Kobus kob) is an antelope found across Central Africa and parts of West Africa and East Africa. Together with the closely related reedbucks, waterbucks, lechwe, Nile lechwe, and puku, it forms the Reduncinae tribe. Found along the northern savanna, it is often seen in Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda; Garamba and Virunga National Park, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as grassy floodplains of South Sudan.

Kob are found in wet areas (such as floodplains), where they eat grasses. Kob are diurnal, but inactive during the heat of the day. They live in groups of either females and calves or just males. These groups generally range from five to forty animals.

Among the kobs of eastern Africa, the Ugandan kob (Kobus kob thomasi) appears on the coat of arms of Uganda, and white-eared kob (Kobus kob leucotis), found in South Sudan, southwest Ethiopia, and extreme northeast Uganda, participate in large-scale migrations.

Wikipedia contributors, Kob; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:19:35.108641+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Kobus kob (Erxleben, 1777)
Name authority
(Erxleben, 1777)
Common name
Buffon's Kob
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Artiodactyla
Family
Bovidae
Genus
Kobus
Extinction status
Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. megaclassTetrapoda
  8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
  9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
  10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
  11. orderArtiodactyla Owen, 1848
  12. familyBovidae Gray, 1821
  13. subfamilyAntilopinae Gray, 1821
  14. tribeReduncini Knottnerus-Meyer, 1907
  15. genusKobus A. Smith, 1840
  16. speciesKobus kob (Erxleben, 1777)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Kobus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Ellipsen WaterbuckKobus ellipsiprymnus (Ogilby, 1833)BovidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant
PukuKobus vardonii (Livingstone, 1857)BovidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant
LechweKobus leche Gray, 1850BovidaeChordataAccepted speciesRecorded extant

Browse 166 records assigned to Bovidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded nameSource status
Kobus kob kob (Erxleben, 1777) (Erxleben, 1777)synonym
Kobus kob pousarguesi (Neumann, 1905) (Neumann, 1905)synonym
Kobus kob riparia (Schwarz, 1914) (Schwarz, 1914)synonym
Kobus kob ubangiensis (Schwarz, 1913) (Schwarz, 1913)synonym
Kobus kob adolfi Lydekker & Blaine, 1914 Lydekker & Blaine, 1914synonym
Kobus kob bahrkeetae (Schwarz, 1913) (Schwarz, 1913)synonym
Antilope kob Erxleben, 1777 Erxleben, 1777synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Africa

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=183857 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3RB5S. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.