bluebuck

English

Hippotragus leucophaeus

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

bluebuck (plural bluebucks)

1. An extinct mammal, †Hippotragus leucophaeus, the first large African mammal to become extinct in historical times (circa 1800).
   • 1989, J. L. Anderson, R. D. Carr, A. J. Hall-Martin, S. C. J. Joubert, M. E. Keep, P. H. Lloyd, S. Vrahimis, “Chapter 10: South Africa”, in Rod East, editor, Antelopes: Southern and South-Central Africa, page 58:

     Almost all of these antelope communities have been reduced to scattered remnants by excessive hunting in the past and loss of habitat to agricultural development, but the bluebuck is the only antelope species which has been exterminated.

   • 1993, Raymond Bonner, At the Hand of Man: Peril and Hope for Africa's Wildlife‎^[1], page 45:

     The blaubok, or bluebuck, was an antelope of the same genus as the roan and the sable; it was eliminated before 1800, primarily because the settlers took over the animal's grazing land for their cattle.

   • 2008, United Nations Environment Programme, Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment‎^[2], page 26:

     The bluebuck, or blue antelope, was the first large African mammal to become extinct in historical times. Bluebuck numbers began dropping about 2000 years ago and the species was already rare by the 1700s. […] The last bluebuck was reportedly killed in 1799.

2. The nilgai.

Synonyms

• (Hippotragus leucophaeus): blaubok, blauwbok, bloubok, blue antelope, bluebok