he had shot to British taxidermist Rowland Ward, who later on notified Lydekker about the discovery. It was the last large antelope to be discovered in Africa. The spiral horns and white markings on the face and across the flanks established it as a species of Tragelaphus. Lydekker believed that the species was related more closely to the nyala (T. angasii) than to the two kudu species (then placed under the genus Strepsiceros). In fact, mountain nyala's similarity to both Tragelaphus and Strepsiceros led to the merger of the latter into the former genus. In 2005, Sandi Willows-Munro of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban) carried out a mitochondrial analysis of the nine Tragelaphus species. mtDNA and nDNA data were compared. The results showed that the mountain nyala is sister taxon to bushbuck (T. scriptus), sitatunga (T. spekii) and bongo (T. eurycerus) in the mitochondrial tree (phylogenetic relationships obtained using mitochondrial data). However, in the nuclear tree, bushbuck, mountain nyala and sitatunga plus the bongo are three equal branches. Hence the mountain nyala forms a monophyletic clade with these three species. The greater kudu clade split from the clade formed by mountain nyala, bongo, sitatunga and bushbuck approximately 8.6 million years ago. Description The mountain nyala is a large sexually dimorphic bovid. The head-and-body length is approximately in males and in females. The males are typically tall while females stand at the shoulder. Males weigh and females weigh . The bushy tail reaches the heel, and is long. The sensitive ears are large and lined with white hair. The coat is grey to brown, marked with two to five poorly defined white strips extending from the back to the underside, and a row of six to ten white spots. White markings are present on the face, throat and legs as well. The white chevron between the eyes and the white patch on the throat are among the most conspicuous markings. The chest and the rump are white. The lower part of the legs are pale on the inside and clear white spots are present just above the hooves. The coat is fawn brown in male juveniles, and grows darker with age, eventually becoming charcoal in old bulls. Males have a short dark erect crest, about high, running along the middle of the back, from the neck to the tail. Coat texture may vary from smooth to rough, probably by season. Females