The Tora hartebeest has a pale brown coat and a black tuft at the end of its tail. Described from Eritrean specimens in 1873, it was observed in herds of males, females and calves at Settit River watering places in 1911.
Gray’s 1873 original description calls the coat bright pale bay, with whitish-brown coloring on the rump, inside of the ears and backs of the hind legs. The tail ends in a tuft of black bristles; the horns are slender and divergent, with tips that curve backwards. Adult males have a conspicuous round, dark tuft of hair in front of each eye. Gippoliti’s review reports variable leg markings among five Setit skins (two males, three females): markings were slight or absent in the two males, while the females ranged from hazel to black-brown.
In February 1911, a herd of one male, three females and three calves visited a watering place on the Settit River. Cotton observed a drinking herd at the same place again two days later. At this river, the animals stood for a long time a short distance behind the high river bank before drinking, then moved far away from the river afterwards.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.