Recommendation to iNaturalist to elevate the bontebok and the blesbok to separate species (Damaliscus pygargus vs Damaliscus phillipsi), for both scientific and practical reasons

By Antoni V Milewski and Anthony J Mills · Originally published 23 June 2026

About this edition. This is Antoni Milewski’s post, republished with his permission. Only the photographs he chose are used. None of them is on iNaturalist under a Creative Commons licence, so all are hosted externally and are given as links. No images have been substituted. Read the original on iNaturalist.

INTRODUCTION

iNaturalist currently classifies the bontebok and the blesbok as merely subspecies of a single species, viz. Damaliscus pygargus.

Furstenburg and Currie (2019), on Damaliscus pygargus pygargus:

Citedhrpub.org

This is unfortunate, for two main reasons, viz.

the two taxa are easily different enough to warrant species-distinction, and

reducing them to mere subspecies tends to abet an increasing risk of hybridisation, which might be catastrophic for conservation.

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Posted on June 23, 2026 03:48 AM by
milewski

Addenda from the thread of comments

The author added the following in comments beneath the original post.

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