There are lots of different kinds of antelope.
Antelopes eat plants.
They have horns.
Their feet are hooves.
Some kinds of antelope are small and some are very big.
What is an antelope?
The name 'antelope' is given to a large group of hoofed mammals with hollow horns, the same group as cattle, goats and sheep.
The largest antelope is the eland, found in Africa.©Getty
Antelopes come in a variety of shapes and sizes and colours.
Some are very small, such as the dik-dik or the royal antelope in Africa, which is about 25 cm high at the shoulder. The largest is the eland (say ee-land), also found in Africa, standing at about 1.8 m high at the shoulder and weighing over 650 kg.
Habitat and Distribution (where they are found)
Arabian oryx in a reserve in Dubai. Wide hooves help them walk in the desert sand. They do not form large herds because food is hard to find in their habitat. ©Getty
About 72 different species, or kinds, of antelope are found in Africa, and a few kinds are found in Asia. No antelopes are native to Australia or New Zealand. The pronghorn in North America is not actually an antelope, although many think it is.
Antelopes live in a variety of habitats. Most , such as eland and kudu, live on grasslands. Others live:
on mountains, for example, the klipspringer;
in wetlands, for example, the waterbuck;
in deserts, for example, the addax and oryx.
Body and Appearance
Male blackbucks have black fur and longer horns, females are brown. Both have white bellies. ©Getty
Antelopes come in a variety of shades of brown and grey to black. Many have light and dark markings on the face and the body. In some species the males and females are different colours, for example the male sable has black fur with a white belly and the female is a light brown.
The male and female blackbuck, found in India, also have different coloured fur: males, or bucks, are black, which gives the blackbuck its name. Females are a pale brown. They have white fur on their bellies, which helps protect their inside organs from the heat of the ground by reflecting it back.
The coats of addax changes colour: a greyish-brown in winter to a creamy shade in the summer, which helps regulate body temperature.
Some antelopes rely on camouflage to avoid being eaten. For example, the reddish coat of the bongo, the largest forest antelope, hard to see in low light. Its white vertical stripes on its body also helps make them hard for predators to make out clearly.
Horns
All the different kinds of antelope have horns. In some kinds of antelope, only the males have horns. In some kinds of antelope both the males and females have horns.
Antelope horns come in a huge variety of sizes and shapes.
Male greater kudus have the longest horns in the antelope group. Female greater kudus do not have horns ©Getty
They can be spiralled, twisted, curved or straight. The largest belong to the male greater kudu (say koo doo), which has horns that can grow to almost 2 metres in length.
Whatever the size and shape, the horns grow around two bony stumps on the antelope's skull.
Two male elands fighting either for a female or for more dominance in the herd. ©Getty
The horns are hard and hollow.They are made mostly of keratin, which is what human hair and nails are made of. The horns grow all through the antelope's life, and do not fall off. If an antelope horn breaks, generally through fighting, it does not grow back.
Antelopes use their horns for defence against predators. Males also use them when they fight other males to become important in the herd or to court a female antelope. Antelope horns are different from a deer's antlers, which are solid bone and which males shed and re-grow each year.
Hooves
Antelopes' feet are hooves. Each hoof is split so they are like two or four toes. The size and shape generally depend on habitat.
Sitatungas live in swamps and have very wide hooves so they don't slip in the mud. Some, like the oryx, have wide hooves to stop them sinking in the sand of the deserts where they live. Some antelopes have tiny rounded hooves to help them move in rocky areas.
Diet
Antelopes are herbivores, or plant eaters.
Those sharing a habitat generally eat different plants or different parts of plants so they do not compete with each other for food. Because of the way they digest plants they eat, most antelopes are ruminants.
A herd of wildebeest swirl past a group of zebra as they cross a river during their annual movement called the Great Migration© Getty Images
Social Behaviour
Most kinds of antelope live in herds for safety.
Some herds, like those of wildebeest, are huge.
Some kinds of antelope do not live in herds because where they live food is hard to find, so it is easier to find enough food if they are alone or in small groups.
A springbok fleeing from a predator. Sudden leaps as they run confuse the chaser. These leaps are called pronking. ©Getty
Antelopes have excellent senses and are alert in order to look out for predators.
Most kinds of antelope are fast runners, and escape predators with great leaps. These sudden leaps ( pronking) can confuse a predator chasing them.
The fastest antelopes reach speeds of about 90 km per hour.
However, antelope species living in arid, or desert, areas do not run as fast as others because they have wide feet for easier movement on the desert sand.
Addax live in desert areas in the north of Africa. ©Getty
The addax and oryx antelopes live in arid deserts. They travel many kilometres in their search for food. They have special features to help them survive in this harsh habitat. They drink very little, but eat at night when it is cooler and the plants are wet with dew. They pass little moisture out of their bodies. To cope with extreme heat, their bodies have a system of cooling the blood before it goes to the brain. Their fur is generally paler on their underside to reflect ground heat away from the stomach.
Life Cycle
A newborn Thomsons gazelle hidden in grass
© Getty Images
Antelope females give birth somewhere between 4-9 months after mating, depending on what species of antelope they are. The calves are cleaned, fed and settled in a secret spot after they are born.
The mothers leave the calves, and visit every few hours to feed and clean them. They do this so that they do not lead predators to their calves. The calves stay motionless when they are alone, camouflaged in the undergrowth.
After a few weeks they join the herd. The calves are generally very independent, spending more time together than with their mothers.
A greater kudu calf suckling milk from its mother. Female greater kudus do not have horns. ©Getty
Conservation Status
A male saiga antelope. ©Getty
About 25 kinds of antelope are threatened, including the sable antelope.
The saiga antelope of Mongolia is Critically Endangered. Their habitat is one of climate extremes, and they have a specially adapted nose to help them deal with these extreme temperatures.
The scimitar-horned oryx is extinct in the wild, meaning it is only found in zoos.
The main threats to antelopes are habitat destruction and loss, and hunting.
A male sable antelope is a threatened species ©Getty
Read more about antelopes:
http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/antelope
Read about the sitatunga antelope:
http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_sitatunga.html
