The large antelope is so rare that the Kenyan species is found only in the protected 192-square-kilometre reserve near the famed beaches of Tiwi and Diani.
We’re in Shimba Hills National Reserve in search of the rare sable antelope. It has long backward curved horns and is so rare that the Kenyan species known as Hippotragus niger roosevelti is found only in the protected 192-square-kilometre reserve.
It’s late evening when we drive into the reserve on the high ridges of the Shimba Hills near the famed beaches of Tiwi and Diani at Kenya's Coast.
In the late afternoon, we make our way to the bandas for the night, passing a troop of colobus monkeys in the high canopy.
We’re just in time to watch the forested slopes of Shimba being decked in white mist by the ocean breeze — and then it’s dark with the stars above and the lights of Mombasa island glittering 30 kilometres away.
By the bonfire, luminous eyes of the bush babies flash through the trees, their ear-shattering calls ranting the air.
"It’s better to do the falls in the morning when it’s cool and then we can look for the sable," says Ali Mohammed Mwayogwe, the naturalist and caretaker of the Sable bandas.
It’s a 20-minute drive to the falls, with Mwayogwe pointing to a tree with the leopard orchid that’s only found in the coastal forest He and ranger Bwanakheri Abdalla Said lead the way, 365 steps down a 2.5 km slope, with Said keeping a lookout for elephants and buffalo.
After the heat of the day, it’s a relief to stand under the falls and get drenched.
The sable
On a hunting trip in 1909, US president Theodore Roosevelt called it the most "magnificent and stately of the antelopes".
Mwayogwe and Said are spot on to find the antelopes. "I saw them yesterday, they can’t have moved very far," states Ali.
Then we see them in the thickets — that head with the huge backward sweeping horns.
The sables stare at us and we stare back — awed to be in their presence. "The black one is the male," states Ali. The female are fawn. After a while the herd moves deeper into the scrub.
Critically endangered
The range of the sable extended between Taveta and Dakatcha woodlands north of Malindi until the 1980s. In 1994, the last sable was seen outside the reserve. In less than a century, only 54 survive and are listed as "critically endangered" on the IUCN global watchdog.
We’re staring at one of the three big antelopes that could go extinct within our lifetime if we don’t create more safe spaces for them. The other two are the roan in Ruma National Park and the Eastern white-bearded wildebeest in and around Nairobi National Park.
