hartebeest

plural hartebeests · plural rare hartebeesten

1. A species of grassland antelope, Alcelaphus buselaphus, native to parts of Africa.

   Besides these, there are bles bucks, quaggas, ostriches, steen bucks, ree bucks, and a few hartebeesten.

   1842 February 16, O. P. Q., “New Zealand and the Cape”, in The New Zealand Journal, volume III, London: […] Henry Hobbs Chambers, […], page 46, column 1

   2 more examples

   Immense troops of elephants roamed the coastlands and the thorns; lions and panthers lurked in the kloofs and among broken ground; elands, hartebeesten, and other antelopes swarmed in the veld; and hippopotami and crocodiles abounded in the rivers.

   1891, Robert Russell, “Natal in 1800”, in “Sailors and Natives”, in Natal: The Land and Its Story: A Geography and History for the Use of Schools (with Map), Pietermaritzburg: P. Davis and Sons, page 113

   Here all kinds of animals are found, viz., lions, rhinoceroses, horses (zebras), ostriches and hartebeesten in multitudes, there being always good water and grass here. […] We also saw 13 horses (zebras), 5 rhinoceroses, some ostriches and thousands of hartebeesten. […] A little further on I encountered a herd of hartebeesten, four of which I wounded, though I only secured one, which I laid on one of the oxen.

   1897, H[endrik] C[arel] V[os] Leibbrandt, Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope, January, 1659–May, 1662. [Abraham van] Riebeeck’s Journal, &c., part III, Cape Town: W[illiam] A[ttwell] Richards & Sons, […], pages 230–231

   Synonyms: kaama