[6][7][8] According to a document produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature "the loss of the hirola would be the first extinction of a mammalian genus on mainland Africa in modern human history".

[6] Authorities agree that the hirola belongs in the subfamily Alcelaphinae within the family Bovidae but there has been debate about the genus in which it should be placed.

[19][20][21][22] Recent genetic analyses on karyotypic and mitochondrial DNA support the theory that the hirola is distinct from the topi and should be placed in its own genus.

[24][25] The genus Beatragus originated around 3.1 million years ago and was once widespread with fossils found in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Tanzania and South Africa.

Their habitats range from open grassland with light bush to wooded savannahs with low shrubs and scattered trees, most often on sandy soils.

[31] They favour grasses with a high leaf to stem ratio and Chloris and Digitaria species are believed to be important in their diet.

[13] A vet who examined the digestive tract of several hirola concluded that they were well adapted to eating dry region grasses and roughage.

[32] They feed on the dominant grasses of the region and Kingdon (1982) believes that quantity is more important than quality in the hirola's diet.

These territories are up to 7 square kilometres (2.7 sq mi) and are marked with dung, secretions from the sub-orbital glands and by stamping grounds where males scrape the soil with their hooves and slash the vegetation with their horns.

[31] It has been suggested that at low population densities adult males abandon territory defence and will instead follow a nursery herd.

In the 1970s hirola were observed forming aggregations of up to 300 individuals to take advantage of scarce, but spatially clumped, resources during the dry season (Bunderson, 1985).

[6] The reasons for the historic decline of the hirola are not known but is likely a combination of factors including disease (particularly rinderpest), hunting, severe drought, predation, competition for food and water from domestic livestock and habitat loss caused by woody plant encroachment as a result of the extirpation of elephants within its range.

[38] It might be vulnerable to poaching, and is also subject to the natural phenomena of predation and competition with other wild herbivores, particularly topi and Coke's hartebeest, which the IUCN also calls 'threats'.

[39] The hirola's natural range is an area of no more than 1,500 km2 on the Kenyan-Somali border, but there is also a translocated population in Tsavo East National Park.

These collaring events served as a purpose to understand the basic ecology, the natural history, movements patterns and population demographics of the species.

In 2005, four local communities in the Ijara District, in collaboration with Terra Nuova, established the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy.