Is the 'golden' springbok a semi-domestic sport or a throwback to an extinct species?

The springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/42283-Antidorcas-marsupialis) is the sole survivor of a genus that formerly contained two common species in southern Africa.

The other species was Antidorcas bondi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidorcas_bondi), which lacks a common name. Let us call it the 'lawn springbok', because the form of its fossil teeth suggests that it was a more specialised grazer than its surviving relative.

Antidorcas bondi died out possibly as recently as seven thousand years ago.

As populations wane towards extinction, the normal behavioural mechanisms of sexual discrimination may partly break down, leading to eleventh-hour hybridisation between species (see https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.6774).

This is the process behind the Neanderthal genetic contribution to Homo sapiens.

With the quasi-domestication of the springbok on game farms, there has been much selective breeding to 'add value' in the hunting industry (see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1616504719301314 and https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1095643308011999 and https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11660/4211/OlivierPA.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y).

This has produced at least three new phenotypes/morphs. The whitish one (see http://www.dzomboranching.co.za/index.php/white-springbok/) is of limited interest, because whitish (non-albino) individuals have appeared occasionally in many other species of ungulates, domestic and wild.

The blackish one is more interesting, because in adulthood it regains a starkly-defined whitish face (see http://www.dzomboranching.co.za/index.php/springbok/ and https://www.alamy.com/springbuck-springbok-antidorcas-marsupialis-dark-morph-next-to-a-normal-coloured-one-morocco-mokala-national-park-image255403847.html and https://www.alamy.com/springbuck-springbok-antidorcas-marsupialis-dark-morph-walking-morocco-mokala-national-park-image255403848.html).

However, the 'golden' phenotype/morph has the most intriguing colouration, because it shows none of the patterns associated with a gradual process of domestication.

Instead, had this been just another wild species, nobody would have found its colouration incongruous relative to the known patterns among the eight genera of gazelles.

So could this appearance possibly be atavistic, i.e. 'throwback', rather than novel?

The following show the colouration of the 'golden' phenotype/morph of the springbok, which I suggest may possibly be similar to the extinct lawn springbok:
https://www.facebook.com/devillespringbuck/photos/copper-springbuck/549280975254073/ and https://www.freeart.com/artwork/art-print/bronze-springbok-antelope_fa1233908.html and http://www.arconmedia.co.za/photography-albums/images/springbok/IMG_5652_g19i3.jpg and https://www.arconmedia.co.za/photography-albums/images/springbok/IMG_5627_g19i14.jpg and https://www.arconmedia.co.za/photography-albums/images/springbok/6B3A0010_g19i8.jpg and https://somethingovertea.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/morph2.jpg and https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/89579480074261681/?d=t&mt=login.

Also see https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/milewski/51308-a-realistic-approach-to-subspecies-identification-in-the-springbok#.

Posted on June 27, 2021 05:52 AM by