Black wildebeest wildebeest can also affect human beings negatively. Wild individuals can be competitors of commercial livestock, and can transmit fatal diseases such as rinderpest, and cause epidemics among animals, particularly domestic cattle. They can also spread ticks, lungworms, tapeworms, flies, and paramphistome flukes. Black wildebeest The black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu ("Connochaetes gnou") is one of the two closely related wildebeest species. It is a member of the genus "Connochaetes" and family Bovidae. It was first described in 1780 by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann. The black wildebeest is typically in head-and-body length, and the typical weight is . Males stand
Black wildebeest present in game reserves and at zoos, and from these, the population was rescued. More than 18,000 individuals are now believed to remain, 7,000 of which are in Namibia, outside their natural range, and where they are farmed. Around 80% of the wildebeest occurs in private areas, while the other 20% is confined in protected areas. The population is now trending upward (particularly on private land) and for this reason the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in its Red List of Threatened Species, rates the black wildebeest as being of "Least Concern". Its introduction into Namibia has been