The Nyala belongs toge­ther with Sita­tunga and Kudu to the ante­lope group of the “Forest bucks”. They like to live in the bus­hes and near water. Nyalas are com­mon in the wild in Mozam­bi­que, Zim­b­abwe and nor­theas­tern South Africa. In addi­tion, they were intro­du­ced to natio­nal parks in Bots­wana and South Africa, where they were ori­gi­nally not native. The Nyala was long con­s­i­de­red one of the rarest ante­lope spe­cies, which remains to be furt­her exp­lo­red. Strict pro­tec­tive mea­su­res have hel­ped to res­tore stocks.

The Patas mon­key, or Hus­sar mon­key, is wide­s­p­read in Africa. You can find it in the Sahel zone from Sene­gal to Ethio­pia. These ani­mals have a spe­cial coat dra­wing that give them their name: their fur is red at the top of the head, white below with dark arms and legs, remi­nis­cent of the jacket of the for­mer body­guards. Patas mon­keys live in large groups and are usually led by a female ani­mal and a male ani­mal.

The Père David’s deer, also known as David­s­hirsch or Milu, used to live in nort­hern China and sou­thern Mon­go­lia. In the wild, they are now com­p­le­tely extinct. In 1865 there was a last herd with 120 ani­mals in the Impe­rial game park near Bei­jing. There, they were dis­co­ve­red by French mis­sionary David and named after him. Some ani­mals were brought to Paris and Lon­don, where they suc­cess­fully repro­du­ced. Thirty years later, the Impe­rial game park near Bei­jing was com­p­le­tely floo­ded by storms, wiping out the ent­ire herd.

Red river hogs live in the forests, deserts and sav­an­nas of wes­tern and cen­tral Africa, as well as near rivers or swamps. They can swim and even dive very well. For this rea­son, they are also refer­red to as river pigs. They have a red­dish-brown fur with a white line stripe along the spine, white mar­kings around their eyes, cheeks and jaws; while their legs, parts of their face and muzzle are a con­tras­ting black.

Ring-tai­led lemurs or Kat­tas is a pri­mate spe­cies from the group of lemurs. They live on the island of Mada­gas­car and are clas­si­fied as end­an­ge­red. They have a con­spi­cuous, rin­ged tail, with which they can balance well. The anci­ent Romans cal­led the evil spi­rits of the decea­sed “Lemu­res”. Of all lemurs, the Katta spends most of its time on the ground, which is an adapta­tion to the par­tially dry habi­tat.

The Roan ante­lope lives south of the Sahara in several sub­s­pe­cies. It rea­ches a length of up to 220 centi­me­ters and a shoul­der height of up to 160 centi­me­ters. Their horns are cur­ved back­wards and cur­led to the top. The Roan ante­lope has dra­wings on its face, which are cal­led facial mask in ani­mals. Com­pa­red to other ante­lope spe­cies, they have very large ears.

The Sable ante­lope belongs to the genus Hip­po­tra­gus with the extinct blu­e­buck and the roan ante­lope. You can find them from Kenya across the step­pes of East Africa to Sou­thern Africa. The sable ante­lope is one of the most impres­sive ante­lope spe­cies ever. Howe­ver, when irri­ta­ted, they can become quite aggres­sive and dan­ge­rous.

You will imme­dia­tely recog­nize why the sci­mi­tar-hor­ned oryx has this name: Anyone who sees this power­ful ani­mal, mar­vels at the very long horns bent back­wards. In the males, these can be up to 150 inches long!

In the family of gib­bons, the little apes, the Sia­mang is the lar­gest and most voci­fe­rous spe­cies. In the wild, you will find it on Suma­tra and the sur­roun­ding islands. Sia­mangs have a black, bushy coat, long swin­ging arms with a span of about 1.5 meters and rela­ti­vely short hind legs with grip feet. They move in high tree­tops of the Sou­theast Asian rain­fo­rest and rarely come to the ground.

The Sita­tunga live in the swamp and in the water in wes­tern and sou­thern Africa. For food they choose aquatic plants, reed and fresh gras­ses. Sita­tunga have wide hoo­ves that carry them well over muddy ground. On hard ground, howe­ver, they are cum­ber­some. They swim excel­lently and the­re­fore like to escape into the water.