Damaliscus korrigum
Silhouette: [unknown] · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
Damaliscus lunatus jimela is a subspecies of topi, and is usually just called a topi. It is a highly social and fast type of antelope found in the savannas, semi-deserts, and floodplains of sub-Saharan Africa. The word tope or topi is Swahili, and was first recorded in the 1880s by the German explorer Gustav Fischer to refer to the local topi population in the Lamu County region of Kenya; this population is now designated as Damaliscus lunatus topi. Contemporaneously, in English, sportsmen referred to the animal as a Senegal hartebeest, as it was considered the same species as what is now recognised as D. lunatus korrigum.
Other names recorded in East Africa by various German explorers were mhili in Kisukuma and jimäla in Kinyamwezi. The Luganda name was simäla according to Neumann, or nemira according to Lugard. By the turn of the 19th century this antelope was called a topi by most in English. Writing in 1908, Richard Lydekker complains that it would have so much simpler if all these new forms of korrigum had simply been called East African korrigum, Bahr-el-Ghazal korrigum, etc., than constantly adopting different native names for different geographic forms of essentially... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Akagera National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 2 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 7 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Topi sighting in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 37th most-seen of the 37 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Topi in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, against under 5% in April–May, September–October and December–February, the lowest months. That is one of Ngorongoro Conservation Area's wettest months, with about 180 mm of rain against almost none in July.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Topi sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Topi sightings, Ngorongoro Conservation Area ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Akagera National Park (Rwanda, about 80%), Lake Mburo National Park (Uganda, about 70%) and Masai Mara National Reserve (Kenya, about 70%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Bovidae
The closest relatives of the Topi that you can see in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (family Bovidae, Bovids) are Blue Wildebeest (about 70%), African Buffalo (about 70%) and Thomson's Gazelle (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Topi is recorded against all the mammals logged in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (5 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
