sdzoo: The bontebok was once considered to be the rarest antelope in the world, with only 17 left in

sdzoo:

The bontebok was once considered to be the rarest antelope in the world, with only 17 left in the wild in the early 19th century. They were hunted by the thousands for their meat and skins, and were nearly brought to the brink of extinction.

In 1837, farmer Alexander van der Bijl built a fence to hold his sheep, but it wound up saving the last 17 bontebok on the planet. Almost any other African ungulate like the eland, springbok, or kudu would have gracefully jumped out of this simple sheep enclosure, but the bontebok lack the athleticism to jump. Lucky for them, or they surely would have met their end.

After the tiny population of bontebok were relocated to other parks, they began to reproduce and thrive. Their numbers hovered in the low hundreds for many years. In the 1930s, a national park was declared specifically to conserve them, which helped them flourish. Careful conservation efforts have helped their numbers increase to around 3,500 today.