Within months of the discovery that Angola’s unique giant sable antelopes managed to survive almost 30 years of civil war, South African wildlife dealers are offering to sell them to overseas zoos.
When Angolan conservationists discovered a small herd of the striking sables by filming them on a trip camera in February, they feared news of their survival could pose the biggest threat to them. This week it emerged that the immediate threat is not from hunters or poachers, but live removal for the lucrative wildlife trade.
Giant sables, which have sweeping curved horns and white facial markings, are a national symbol in Angola and are also known as royal sables. They are used on the national banknotes, are a mascot for the country’s football team and the logo for its national airline.
They were so elusive during the civil war that they were believed to have become extinct. Conservationists now estimate that there may be a couple of hundred left, in Cangandala National Park and Luando reserve in the north-west of the country.
An e-mail circulating among zoo staff in the United States offers ”royal sables” from Angola and claims ”government officials want to export a few, and apparently it’s quite serious”. The communication, from Pretoria-based wildlife capture outfit CatchCo, was passed on to the Mail & Guardian by worried conservationists.
One source, who did not want to be named, said he had been told that six sables were on offer and the asking price for each was between $1-million and $1,5-million.
Pedro Vaz Pinto, a senior conservationist in Angola who rediscovered the sables and is trying to get a project together to protect them, is outraged by the claim that his government would sell them.
”Saying the Angolan government wants to sell a few is ridiculous. Such a claim could only have originated from someone who doesn’t know much about Angola, the Angolans and how they feel about this animal, our national symbol,” he told the M&G.
His concerns include not only that the sable population will be depleted but that breeders may crossbreed them with ordinary sables, losing the uniqueness of the giants.
CatchCo’s Douw Grobler said his company had been asked by South African clients to help raise funding and to sort out the logistics for a sable-breeding project in Angola. He denied that he had sent out the e-mail, or that the plan was to send the antelopes to the US.