A wildlife expedition from Pretoria will depart to Angola this week to find out whether the Giant Sable antelope has survived the civil war.
The Centre for Wildlife Management from the University of Pretoria, the Kissama Foundation of Angola, and Luanda’s Augostinho Neto University will work on the project.
The centre’s Professor Wouter van Hoven said on Tuesday that the Giant Sable antelope had not been recorded alive for more than 30 years.
The group will travel to Malange in central Angola on Wednesday to do a survey on the ”most majestic antelope on earth”, he said.
These antelope historically occurred only in the Malange province.
The expedition will drive through Botswana and Namibia and into southern Angola, where the group will be met by a cargo aircraft.
The plane will fly the vehicles and personnel to the Malange province, where the survey will start. Two helicopters will be used for aerial surveys of the area.
On conclusion of the expedition, the vehicles will remain in the Quicama National Park to be used to bring children from Luanda, who have never seen wild animals before, to the park to learn about conservation. – Sapa