Walter's duiker (''Philantomba walteri'') is a species of

duiker A duiker is a small to medium-sized brown antelope native to sub-Saharan Africa, found in heavily wooded areas. The 22 extant species, including three sometimes considered to be subspecies of the other species, form the subfamily Cephalophinae ...

found in

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. It was described in 2010.New species of antelope discovered in West Africa.
WildlifeExtra.com. October 2011. Its name commemorates Professor Walter Verheyen, who was the first to obtain a specimen of this species of duiker from Togo in 1968.
Top 10 New Species of 2011. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Description

It measures under tall at the shoulder, and weighs between . It was described in 2010 following comparison of specimens in museum collections with those from

bushmeat Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are Hunting, hunted for human consumption. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity in poor and rural communities of humid tropical forest regions of the worl ...

markets. It is a small

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

and is characterised by a slightly raised back, short legs, a small head and short, rounded ears. It has a long tail, pedal glands and a distinctive stripe above the eye. It is intermediate in size between the larger Maxwell's duiker (''Philantomba maxwellii'') and the smaller blue duiker (''Philantomba monticola''), but is clearly different in morphology, cranial structure and DNA analysis.

Distribution and habitat

Walter's duiker was first recognised as a new species in 2010 when specimens of this duiker were found on sale at a bushmeat market. The duikers have not been observed by researchers in the wild (until Spring of 2021, via video cameras), but are believed to come from the Dahomey Gap, an area of savannah which is a portion of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic with a relatively dry climate, that extends all the way to the coast in Benin, Togo and Ghana, separating the rainforest zones on either side.

Status

This species is known from only forty-one specimens found in the last few decades and it has not been viewed in the wild. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

considers the species too poorly known for it to be able to evaluate this animal's conservation status, so they have assessed it as being of " data deficient".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1978392 Walter's duiker Mammals of West Africa Walter's duiker