Roan
QUICK FACTS
Scientific Name
Hippotragus equinus
Species Survival Plan
Yes
Habitat
Lightly wooded country and grasslands
Predators
Lion, leopard, spotted hyena and Cape hunting dog
Food
Medium-high grasses and rarely leaves
Originally Native To
Central and southern Africa
Height
54 - 64 inches at shoulders
Weight
495 - 660 lb.
Characteristics
Upper parts are roan colored, lower parts are white, facial mask; horns found in both sexes
Gestation Period
9 - 9.5 months
Offspring
1 calf
Birth Season
Any month
Lifespan
Wild ?
Captivity 17 years
Social Behavior
Harem groups, single dominant male, 6 - 15 animals
About Roan
Roan, one of the largest antelope species in Africa, are usually active in the morning and evening. The roan is associated with woodland savannas, but is less of a woodland dweller and more of a grassland species.
In the wild, roan do not like variety in their diet. Roan antelope prefer to graze on grass but will occasionally also feed on shrubs, herbs, and Acacia tree pods. They must drink regularly and inhabit areas where water is easily accessible.
Like most horse antelope, they are gregarious and territorial. Females occupy a home range encompassing the territories of several males.
Immature males associate in bachelor herds. Herd sizes are smaller for roan than similar antelope, and they maintain a greater individual distance apart.
A female dominance hierarchy, with the oldest cows holding the highest ranks, is maintained by frequent, low-intensity aggression. Occasionally, young animals will form groups that can stay separated from groups of older animals, including their mothers, for hours or even days at a time.
Like most Fossil Rim antelope species, roan mothers will hide their calves in the first few weeks after birth. According to staff, roan calves are some of the most difficult to find. Usually, a staff member must watch the mother go to her calf in order to know where it is. Then, after she returns to the herd, the staff can go over to quickly check on it during a neonate exam.
This suggests that bonds between calves may be stronger than the mother/offspring bond. Immature males are tolerated by the females until they are 2-2.5 years old.
Roan can have violent tempers. While they do not have fixed territories, a dominant male will exclude others from a 500-mile radius around its herd, consisting of 6-20 females and young.
When two adult males encounter each other, it is common for them to fight for dominance of their herd. They brandish their horns, run forward, and drop to their knees while clashing their large horns together. Renowned for their strength and aggressive defense of their herds and calves, roan in the wild will even take on lions.
A male roan has a darker black-and-white facemask than a female. Both sexes have backward-curving horns, although they are shorter in the females.
Roan have a very high-pitched vocalization, even as adults.
There is a genus of antelope, Hippotragus, which includes three species – roan, sable, and bluebuck. Sable also live at Fossil Rim, but in a different pasture. Believed to have gone extinct in 1800, the bluebuck is the first historically recorded large African mammal to become extinct.
At Fossil Rim, roan live in the Front Pasture - the first pasture that guests enter. In 2021, a second roan herd began in the Game Preserve - the fourth pasture that guests enter.
MEET THE NEIGHBORS
Common Waterbuck
Waterbuck are found in southeastern, central and western Africa. When exposed to a high level of human activity, they will become almost completely nocturnal, only...
Read More
Southern White Rhinoceros
Poaching remains the greatest threat to the white rhinoceros. Its horn is used in Asia for traditional medicines and, more recently, as a status symbol...
Read More
Southern Black Rhinoceros
Fossil Rim participates in the International Rhino Foundation’s Southern Black Rhino Sustainability Program, which is a coordinated international effort to establish and maintain a viable...
Read More
Scimitar-Horned Oryx
The scimitar-horned oryx once again roams the grasslands of Chad. Extinct in the wild in the late 1980s, 23 animals were released to native habitat...
Read More
Sable
The sable antelope gets its name from the Russian word for “black.” Its coat is short and glossy for females and young sable. Their coloration...
Read More
Ostrich
The ostrich is the world’s largest living bird. Its weight, small wings and weak wing muscles combine to make it flightless. Ostriches use their wings...
Read More
Nigerian Dwarf Goat
The Nigerian dwarf goat is a miniature dairy goat that comes in wide variety of colors and markings. Both males and females of this species...
Read More
Mountain Bongo
The bongo, a striking coppery red antelope with white stripes, is shy and elusive. Most active at dusk and dawn, they will emerge at night...
Read More
Aoudad
Aoudads, also known as Barbary sheep, are the only wild sheep in Africa. They were brought to the U.S. in the early 1900s for exhibition...
Read More
Grevy’s Zebra
This zebra is named for Jules Grevy, a French president who received one from the king of Ethiopia as a gift in the 1880s. It...
Read More
Greater Kudu
Very large antelopes, the male kudu have thick, spiraled horns that can reach six feet in length. Sexually dimorphic, only the males have horns and...
Read More
Giraffe
Giraffes are the tallest living land mammals, and although it looks like their hind legs are shorter, all four legs are almost the same length....
Read More
Gemsbok
The gemsbok is the largest and best known of the four species of oryx, or straight-horned antelope. It is one of the best desert-adapted large...
Read More
Common Wildebeest
Because these silvery gray antelopes with cow-like horns can sometimes, in the right light, look blue, they are referred to as the blue wildebeest....
Read More
Cheetah
The sleek cheetah is built for speed and can accelerate from 0-60 mph in seconds. However, it can run only 600 yards before it is...
Read More
Black-Footed Cat
The black-footed cat, or small-spotted cat, is one of the smallest cat species in the world. Weighing in at 2-5 pounds and measuring 14-20 inches...
Read More
African Spurred Tortoise
Very little is known about African Spurred Tortoises in the wild due to lack of field research. They are solitary creatures that live in some...
Read More
Dama Gazelle
Formerly one of the most prevalent Saharan gazelles, this antelope is the largest gazelle species....
Read More
Addax
There are less than 100 addax in the wild. Formerly ranging over the entire Sahara Desert of Africa, four-wheel drive access to the desert and...
Read More
Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra
One of the most significant differences between mountain zebras and the plains species is that plains zebras have 44 chromosomes and the mountain zebras have...
Read More
ANYTHING YOU GIVE HELPS THE ANIMALS
As a private nonprofit corporation, Fossil Rim does not receive national or state government support. Every cent spent or donated here goes in some way, directly or indirectly, toward the care of our animals.
